Chapter 18 #2
Telok glanced at Lacey, and his eyes narrowed.
There was far too much space separating them.
Slipping his lower arm around her, he drew her against his side, tucking her close.
She looked up at him and searched his gaze for a moment, but she said nothing before settling her hand upon his foreleg and returning her attention to the winddancers.
The winddancers remained in place, still uncertain. It was Nes’Kahn Shir who acted first. She walked to the wall with an effortless grace, set her spear against it, and faced her companions.
Tas’s tension vanished instantly. He joined her, followed closely by the other three winddancers, all of them leaving their weapons there before returning to the center of camp.
Shir and Tas sat side by side in front of Garahk and held their palms skyward. The other winddancers lowered themselves to the ground behind them.
“We thank you, Garahk ki’Tuun, and offer peace in return,” Tas said, bowing his head.
Garahk settled his hands on his forelegs. “I would learn your khahal.”
Tas canted his head. “Khahal?”
“It’s like…your truth,” Cole said in English. “The truth of your hearts.”
“Your character and kunvikshun,” Lacey added.
“Ah. I understand.” Nodding, Tas switched back to vrix. “You would hear my story, and from it learn my khahal.”
“I would,” Garahk replied. “How did you find your human? I am much curious, and Lacey and Cole must be eightfold so.”
Wen’Xal Tas dropped his gaze as though seeking the words. “It was by chance.”
“It was fate,” Shir said gently.
“Fate, then,” he chittered, taking his mate’s hand and twining their fingers.
Tilting his head, Telok looked down at his own hand. Lacey had grasped it that same way, as though weaving them into one. His gaze flicked to her hand, which rested on his foreleg, and his fingers twitched with the urge to take hold of it.
“Shir was preparing to lay our first brood,” Tas continued, “and she was in discomfort. I wanted to soothe her body and spirit. So I strode into the Tangle to gather Hunter’s eyes for the pain and bluevine fruit because she likes it most. I knew where to find both. I would be swift.
“But as I sought the largest, sweetest fruit for my mate, I was not fully aware. I did not hear the unac stalking me. Did not know it was there until it was upon me. Its claws sank deep”—he raised his arms, gesturing at pale scars on his sides—“but I broke free and fled.”
The thornskulls muttered amongst themselves in respect. Unacs were large, vicious beasts with long claws and powerful bites. Even a lone shadowstalker or thornskull would be fortunate to survive an attack from one. That Wen’Xal Tas was alive to tell this tale was impressive on its own.
“I heard it following,” Tas said. “Heard it crashing through the brush, frenzied by my blood scent.
I did not know where I was going, only that I could not allow it to catch me.
I was faster…but for how long? That was when I found an opening on a strange rock overgrown with vines and moss.
I thought it a cave. Perhaps there would be a place I could hide within, or a passage narrow enough that the unac could not follow.
“It was stranger still on the inside, but I had no time to study the cave, and there was nowhere else to go, nowhere to hide. So I readied my spear. The beast charged in, fangs gnashing, claws tearing. My spear bit into its hide again and again, but the wounds were not deep enough to give it pause.”
Shir’s mandibles sagged as her mate told his story, and she stroked his hand with her thumb.
A dull ache throbbed in Telok’s chest. He knew that feeling of fear and helplessness, knew the crushing weight of what might have been.
Lacey brushed her fingers over his leg. He glanced down to find her focused on the winddancer, seemingly unaware of what she was doing, like she’d sensed Telok’s troubled thoughts and was instinctively driven to soothe him. But that simple action was a balm to his spirit.
Tas raised his hands before his face, claws hooked.
“It pinned me against what I thought was a rock, ready to tear at my throat.
I sent a final prayer to the gods and asked them to watch over my mate and our broodlings.
And then…the unac snarled in pain. Its rear legs buckled, and it twisted to lash at something behind it.
“Someone was attacking it. I saw a spear and assumed it was another vrix who had come to my aid. I did not waste time wondering who it could be. I shoved myself up and joined the attack, throwing myself at the beast. Our spears plunged into it again and again, pouring blood onto the cave floor, until finally the unac collapsed and moved no more.”
“Your shar’thai burns bright,” Garahk said. The thornskulls behind him thumped their chests in agreement.
“An unac is no easy beast to slay,” Ayali added. “You fought well.”
Tas shook his head. “I cannot say whether I fought well. I know only that I wanted to live. With the beast slain, I felt my wounds all the more. I lifted my head to thank the one who had saved me, and I could not believe any of my eight eyes. It was no vrix looking at me. It was unlike anything I had ever seen.”
“What was it?” Elharat asked.
Okkor elbowed his friend’s arm. “Have you not listened? The human.”
Tas nodded. “It was. And she held her spear to my throat.”
Garahk grunted, slapping his forelegs. “Humans are small creatures, but their shar’thai is bright as the sun. The Blooddrinker Queen was slain by a human.”
“The Blooddrinker?” asked Ayn’Drost Zesh, the male winddancer with golden eyes.
Telok curled his hands into fists. “Zurvashi. The former queen of Takarahl, who made war with Kaldarak.”
“The bitch queen,” Lacey added.
The winddancers exchanged startled whispers and gasps, regarding Lacey and Cole with wide eyes.
“I once beheld her with my own eight eyes,” Tas said. “She was as big as a yatin and fiercer than any beast.”
Jira’Kai Ess, a male with black hide and vivid purple eyes, gestured toward the two humans. “Which of you killed her?”
Cole snickered and answered in English, “Badass as that would’ve been, it wasn’t either of us.”
“Did…did the other human die to claim victory?” Shir asked in the same language, her mandibles hanging low.
“No,” Lacey said. “She’s alive and well in Kaldarak, with her mate and youngling.”
“How many of you are there?”
“Seven.”
Excited trills sounded from the winddancers.
“So many!” exclaimed Dei’Shel Ohn, the other female. She had red eyes, a dark gray hide, and white fur.
Zesh nodded. “Sophia will be happy to hear this.”
“Sophia is the human’s name?” Lacey asked.
“Yes,” Tas replied. “Sophia Moreno.”
Cole crossed his legs and leaned forward. “So that cave was the ship, right? And there was no one else?”
“Only Sophia. And yes, it was the ship. Or…part of it. She has explained many times, but I still do not quite understand it all.”
“How long was she there?” Lacey asked.
“Two moon cycles before I came,” Tas said, switching back to vrix. “And it was three more before she became part of our Nedrayas.”
“You must tell more,” Garahk said. “How did you go from her spear at your throat to her becoming one of yours?”
“I spoke to her. Thanked her. And she spoke back.
I did not understand her words, but I knew they were words all the same.
She backed away, ready to fight, when I tried to rise.
But when I fell again, she seemed…distressed.
I set aside my spear, leaned against the rock, and bound my wounds with silk while she watched from a distance.
I was too weary to leave, so I closed my eyes and sank into sleep.
“I was awoken by something poking my leg.
I opened my eyes to find her kneeling beside me with an offering.
It was a pouch of some sort, sloshing with liquid, but it was crafted from no material I knew.
Its skin was thin and smooth, white but for the strange symbols painted onto it.
I took it hesitantly and sniffed. It smelled like water.
She gestured for me to drink, and that was the first time I understood her.
“Then she gave me food. It was a small, hard block, but it crumbled into thick dust when I bit it. The water had been pure and sweet, but that food…” Tas shuddered. “It was the foulest thing I have ever tasted.”
Cole and Lacey laughed.
“Yeah, those things are fucking disgusting,” the human male said.
Tas chittered. “I shared bluevine fruit with her. She was hesitant. After she ate a tiny bite, she bared her teeth at me, and I worried I had angered her. But she went back to eating. The next day, I was strong enough to return to our Nedrayas. Shir found me long before I arrived. She had been scouring the jungle in search of me.”
“I was angry he had vanished without a word, terrified that I had lost him forever.” Shir emitted a soft buzz as her gaze dipped to the scars Tas had displayed earlier.
“And I was making sure he was aware of my anger when he stopped me and began speaking of what he’d found.
Then I feared he had gone mad. He said he would have to go back, and that he could not yet show me.
He did not want to frighten the strange creature.
And he did go back, nearly every day. I scolded him for it, especially after he had been attacked.
But…he worried for the creature that had saved his life.
Each day, he would come back and tell me of what he had learned, and I could not help but be fascinated. ”