by Lori Holmes
“Baarias? What do you mean?”
He lifted his head, eyes burning. “I mean I trusted a Wove once and I very nearly paid for it with my life.” He brushed the scar that ran along his jaw. “Fortunately for me, I was young and quick in those days. His blade missed my throat. I did not pay with my life that day but I have been paying the price for that mistake every moment since. You cannot trust a Wove!”
Nyri began to shake. The pieces were falling into place faster than she could comprehend. She stared at the scar on Baarias’ face as if seeing it for the first time. How could she have been so blind? “It was you. You healed that Wove chief’s son. You brought them down on our heads. You.”
Kyaati stepped back from him. “Baarias, what is she talking about?”
Baarias did not answer. He had eyes only for Nyri. “Yes.” His voice was a whisper. “My greatest secret. My greatest pain. Sometimes I feel as if it would have been a kinder fate to have let that blade find its mark.” He reached a trembling hand towards her. “Nyri, don’t you see that you are running recklessly down the same path? I cannot let you fall. You have no idea of the guilt you will have to bear.”
“My mistakes are not yours!” Nyri spat mercilessly. She hated him so much in that moment. For all that he had done, for all that he was doing. She had to get away. That dreadful sense of time running out gripped her heart. “This is all your fault, Baarias. You are responsible for what happened to your sister, you are responsible for Juaan’s very existence. Help him!”
“No.”
“Then I will.”
He sighed. “I did not come here expecting I could change your mind,” Baarias spoke. “You have forced my hand. I am sorry. I hope you will forgive me in time.”
Nyri froze. “Forgive you for what?”
He did not answer.
Nyri stumbled over to him and grabbed him by the leather on his chest. The sense of foreboding was now pounding on her skull. “Forgive you for what, Baarias? What have you done?”
“You are too late.” His hands tried to steady her. “I already told Daajir where to find him. He has gone to the Pits. He will kill the Wove and you will finally be free.”
“No!” Nyri pushed away from Baarias and ran. She thought her heart would explode from the pain of betrayal. “You don’t know what you’ve done!”
“You are too late, Nyri!” Baarias shouted after her. “You can’t save him. I had to save you. I promised to look after you. Please forgive me!”
Nyri had stopped listening. She didn’t care if they were following or not. Nothing else mattered but reaching those Pits. If Juaan was already stabbed, pierced by that awful poison… Nyri could not imagine it. Not if she wanted to remain on her feet.
The forest ripped by. Nyri was heedless of the cuts and the whips. Twice she fell but she rolled to her feet and ran on. Please, please no.
“Daajir!” She was beyond reason. “Don’t do it! Daajir! Hear me!”
Silence.
Nyri carried on, screaming into the night.
At last she saw him. She saw everything as if in slow motion even as she rushed up to greet it.
Daajir stood poised on the edge of the Pit, the inscribed bone knife raised high. Nyri could see that it dripped with the bruised sheen of his terrible poison. He was about to throw.
“Daajir! No! Leave him alone!” She threw herself forward.
He did not heed her. He did not even look. He was focused only on Juaan who stared defiantly back at him from the bottom of the Pit. “I promised I would see you dead one day, Forbidden.” Nyri heard him speak. “Now I finally get the opportunity I thought robbed from me all those Furies ago.” He drew back his arm with slow relish.
The rock was in Nyri’s hand before she knew it.
“Nyri! Stop!” She heard Kyaati’s warning distantly. They had followed her but Nyri was as heedless to Kyaati’s call as Daajir was to her. He didn’t suspect. He would never suspect. The rock cracked into his head before the knife left his fingers. Nyri hit him again. Limp, he dropped to her feet. She stood over him, gasping and sobbing. Juaan was staring up at her with unreadable eyes.
“I’m sorry,” she whispered to him. “I am so sorry.”
“Nyri.” Baarias was suddenly there on his knees beside Daajir’s crumpled form. “What have you done?”
There was stickiness on the hand that still clutched the rock. Nyri dropped it and wiped the blood hastily on her clothes. She could not think on what she had done, only on what she had come here to do. She had to save him. Nyri rushed to the Pit and threw the well-worn root into the dark depths.
“Come on,” she rasped to him. She did not recognise her own voice. She was bodiless.
He did not need telling twice. Juaan grabbed the root and pulled himself up, up and finally out. He stood before Nyri. Free. In all the times she had imagined letting him out, she had never imagined this.
Throwing all caution to the wind, Nyri threw her arms around him and held him tight, trying to take in all that she could before he was lost to her forever, his scent, his warmth, then she tore herself away. “Go!” She was sobbing. “Go, get away from here! Leave!”
He did not move. He stood still as a stone before her, towering above.
“What are you waiting for? Go!”
Slowly he reached out and brushed his fingers tenderly against Nyri’s cheek. She closed her eyes and leaned into his touch.
“I can’t,” he whispered and withdrew his hand.
“Why not?” she demanded. “Leave me! They’ll kill you! You need to go. I have given you your freedom!”
The green eyes stared down into hers. “You have… but I said nothing about being able to give you yours.” For the barest of moments he looked infinitely sad but then the eyes turned flat. “I told you you should have left me to die. It would have been better for the both of us.”
“W-what,” Nyri choked. “What do you mean? L-leave now, while you still can. I can’t see you hurt.”
“Nyri! Get away from him,” Baarias shouted, voice wild.
“I am so very sorry.”
And then Nyri knew. She stared up into the green eyes she had so loved. She could look at nothing else even as the five dark skull-faced shapes detached themselves from the shadows to surround them. Nyri kept her eyes locked on those green points. She wished Daajir had stabbed her with that knife. It would have been a kinder blow to the killing betrayal she was now feeling.
When one of the dark shapes took a rough hold on her arm, she did not feel a thing.
“You!” Nyri heard Baarias snarl. He made to rush Juaan. “You will not take her!”
There was a shout and something was thrown. A spear caught Baarias high in the chest. He went down in a heap.
A wordless scream ripped from Kyaati’s throat, drowning out Juaan’s sharp command. She threw herself to the healer’s side, hands quickly growing bloody as she wrapped them around the spear.
The strength went out of Nyri. She dangled helplessly from the Wove’s fist. Baarias…
One of the other Woves muttered to the man before her.
“Yes,” he answered in Nyri’s own tongue so she could understand. “Yes they are all in the settlement. It is a full moon. They will not venture far.” He made a hand gesture.
The beasts in black started forward, weapons in hand. The one holding Nyri dropped her arm to follow. She did not have the strength to hold herself up and she collapsed to the ground.
“No.” She crawled on her hands and knees to their leader. “No please. Take me. Just me. Leave my people. I’m a healer. I am everything your people want. Please. Grant me this one thing. Leave my people be. I’ll do whatever you ask.” Nyri clutched at his furs, beseeching, pleading with every fibre of her being.
The green eyes held hers. “You will die out there,” he told her.
“Please. Please.”
He closed his eyes and shook his head. “What is it about you?” he murmured, then louder for all to hear. “Leav
e her people.”
The other Woves looked to their leader. One started towards the tall man angrily, ripping off the skull mask to reveal his true face beneath. It was twisted with anger. The leader moved and quite suddenly the protester was on the ground, blood oozing from his nose. Nyri watched, detached.
“I said, leave her people.” And they did. No one else dared to challenge him. “This one is valuable enough, take her and the other girl. Leave the old man. He won’t make it.”
Two of the beasts grabbed a struggling Kyaati, dragging her from Baarias’ side even as she tried to cling on.
“No!” Nyri rasped. “Please. Just me.”
The leader with the green eyes leaned close, now there was anger there. “I have done all I can for you. Be silent and ask no more. Accept if you are to live.” He turned his back on her and walked away without another glance.
Rough arms caught Nyri from behind and bore her, unresisting, after Juaan. No. Not Juaan. The final knowledge of that sank in to Nyri’s bones. Khalvir. There had only ever been Khalvir.
As she was borne into the darkness by her enemy, Nyri knew little of the terrible fate that awaited. She did not care. She knew only one thing. Juaan, the boy she had known and loved with all her heart, was truly dead. In his place stood a monster, a monster forbidden by the very fabric of nature and she had unleashed him.
The night closed around Nyri’s soul and did not let go.
About the Author
Lori Holmes was born in the West Midlands region of England. Having had a misspent youth devouring everything science fiction and fantasy, Lori enjoys reading and writing books that draw a reader into new and undiscovered worlds with characters that are hard to part with long after the journey comes to end.
Lori’s debut novel, The Forbidden, begins the epic journey into the Ancestors Saga, combining history, mystery and legend to retell a lost chapter in humanity’s dark and distant past.
You can connect with me on:
https://www.loriholmes.com
https://www.facebook.com/loriholmesauthor
https://www.amazon.com/-/e/B06XBFF5RR
https://www.bookbub.com/profile/lori-holmes
Also by Lori Holmes
The Forbidden: getbook.at/forbidden-bm
Daughter of Ninmah: getbook.at/daughter-of-ninmah-bm
Captive: getbook.at/captive-bm
Enemy Tribe (Launching December 2020)
Survival (Launching 2021)
Raknari (Launching 2021)
