Jalen took her by the shoulders and pressed his forehead to hers, their enrli joining and sending warmth through his body. “I love you.”
This time her smile was radiant. “And I love you.”
When he stepped away, sparkles flashed in the air and Ranelle changed into her nordai form. She flapped her wings and alighted on his shoulder where he had instructed her to remain—unless they encountered the qinok.
The moment Jalen stepped from Wilding Wood onto Xardu Moors, the very atmosphere changed. An electric tension filled the air, along with a stench like rotting flesh and urine. A dismal cloud of gases hung over the gloomy moors, blocking the warmth of the sun.
Jalen’s body hummed with the need to reach his own lands, the D’euan Forest, and his people—but most of all, to take his heartmate and their unborn child to safety. He scanned the moors one final time, his senses high, and began to sprint as fast as he could through the treacherous land.
Hold tight, he told Ranelle in thought as his feet found what firm ground there was in the swampland. Her bird’s talons dug into his tunic, a comforting feeling as he dodged through stubby bushes and spindly trees, leapt over hidden quagmires and treacherous quicksand, and bypassed the poisonous waters.
On and on Jalen ran, his muscles fluid, his feet silent. The journey would take an ordinary man two days—however it was most unlikely a mere man would even survive the first. Running at his full speed, Jalen would be able to make the D’euan Forest by nightfall, if all went well.
He sensed Ranelle’s fear, along with her courage. Throughout the journey he read her mind that she kept open to him, and they spoke to one another only in thought. The slightest of sounds could alert the qinok, and it was a dangerous beast to confront. He knew of only one man who had survived a confrontation with the multi-legged and dagger-toothed qinok, and Renn still bore the scars of that encounter.
Always present in Jalen’s consciousness was the concern that Zanden could more easily track them now that they had left the safety of Wilding Wood. If the Sorcerer chose to attack while Ranelle and Jalen were in Xardu Moors…
Thorns scraped his arms and snagged at his clothing as he dodged through the brush. The moor was silent save for the occasional slosh of water or eerie howl of the nofsta, mysterious and clannish wolves that hunted the swamplands for prey. Thank the goddess their appetites did not extend to faire folk, Nordain or humans.
Jalen’s worries remained intense, but stride by stride, he put the hateful moors behind them.
By the time Jalen and Ranelle neared the end of Anistana’s parting trial it was early evening. Not much further and they would reach the D’euan Forest and safety within its confines.
But even as relief added fuel to his tiring muscles, Jalen’s senses rose and he came to a halt.
Something was wrong.
Jalen. Ranelle tensed on his shoulder, as though preparing for flight. She knew it, too.
By the goddess! The qinok has found us!
Chapter Thirteen
Flee to safety! Jalen told Ranelle at the same time he swung his bow from his shoulder. The qinok!
A screech shattered the silence of the moor as the eight-armed qinok thrust up from the swamp and bounded into their path. The bluish gray creature roared and tossed its head, flinging putrid water across the moor as it bared dagger-like teeth. It charged toward Ranelle and Jalen, claws slashing through the air like countless scythes. The scaly beast’s rotten meat stench was nearly overpowering.
While Jalen nocked an arrow to his bow, Ranelle hesitated. I do not wish to leave you to battle the qinok alone.
The Nordain battle call, he reminded her as he released an arrow at the beast’s single giant eye. You must reach the D’euan Forest or you will never be heard by my brothers-at-arms.
I love you! Ranelle cried in his mind as she took flight and flew over the qinok, toward the Elvin forest.
The beast slashed at her, one of its claws barely missing her tail feathers. Her raven cry echoed throughout the moor as she escaped, her shriek a haunting and lonely sound. Even as he released another arrow at the beast, Jalen felt her fear for his safety straight to his lifeforce.
The qinok bellowed as the first arrow struck its scaled head, missing its eye. It flung up one of its arms in time to block the second attack and screeched again.
Arrow after arrow Jalen nocked to his bow as the qinok drove him farther back into the moor. For such an unwieldy creature, the beast was fleet and its eight arms reacted swiftly, its single eye seeing everything that came at it.
Darkness was falling across the moor, the swamp’s gloom deepening.
And soon Jalen would be out of arrows.
He had no fear for himself. No fear of death. But he did fear for his heartmate and his unborn babe, and prayed that Ranelle had reached safety.
Heart pounding with the force of a thousand drums, Ranelle bolted toward the D’euan Forest. Her very soul flamed with terror for Jalen. She had wanted to stay at his side, to help him fight the beast, but she knew he was right. They stood a better chance against the qinok if she was able to summon the Nordain.
She pumped her wings, pushing herself forward and trying to concentrate on her mission, rather than on the horrible screeching sounds the qinok made as it battled Jalen. The beast’s shrieks raked along Ranelle’s spine, causing her to shiver even as she tore through the sky.
Ahead, through the gray gloom of the darkening moors, Ranelle’s keen raven sight spied the green of a forest on the horizon. Hope and fear combined to give her the fuel to fly at a dizzying pace above the swamplands. The moor’s noxious fumes made breathing difficult, but she would make it.
She could not lose Jalen. Could not let anything happen to him.
Like she had allowed her mother to die.
The moment Ranelle entered the D’euan Forest, fresh air filled her senses. She sucked in her breath as she alighted on a bush, and then shrieked with all the power she could muster. Again and again she cried out to her kinfolk, calling them to arms, telling them that one of their own was in peril. Phoenicia was too far to the north for any man to travel quickly enough by horse or foot, but as the raven flew, it should not be long before Nordain help arrived.
A flutter and a rustle alerted Ranelle to a presence behind her, and her senses flared. She had been so consumed with crying out for help that she had failed to maintain her guard.
Ranelle started to turn when large hands clasped around her raven’s body and fingers pinched her beak shut.
The man’s hands had a horribly familiar feel to them. As his sickening smell washed over her, Ranelle’s heart dropped to her belly. She did not even have to look to know that Zanden had captured her. Again.
Ranelle is in danger. The knowledge sliced through Jalen’s heart and chilled his blood. At his forehead and cock, the enrli burned with intensity as he shot the last of his arrows at the beast. He had to find some way to defeat the qinok and rescue his heartmate—before it was too late for either of them.
With the speed of lightning in a storm, as he nocked his last arrow, Jalen considered plan after plan. He finally settled on the one that would give the qinok confidence enough to underestimate its prey.
Jalen allowed the beast to back him into a pocket of land—where he was almost completely surrounded by the swamp. The only escape was through the qinok, for no man or other being could survive the poisonous waters of the moor.
Shrieking its bone-chilling cry, the beast advanced on Jalen and swiped at him, ripping one dagger-claw through the flesh of Jalen’s thigh.
Ignoring the pain searing his leg, Jalen trained the last arrow on the beast’s eye, then dropped and rolled across the small inlet. As the qinok looked down and raised six of its eight arms and prepared to pounce and finish its prey, Jalen released the arrow.
His bow sung and the arrow shot forward. The beast flung up his arms, but the arrow moved so fast the qinok never had a chance to block it. A shriek rent the air as the ar
row pierced the beast’s eye, the shaft buried in the qinok’s brain.
With one last scream, the beast staggered, then toppled into the swamp with a tremendous splash, and Jalen barely escaped the fluid landing on his bared skin. Bubbles rose and broke the surface of the murky waters as the qinok disappeared into its depths.
Silence, immediate and deafening, weighed heavy on Jalen’s ears. His leg throbbed, blood gushing down his thigh from the artery that had been sliced. But he had no time to waste. He had to get to Ranelle, and he did not have long before the qinok’s mate would sense its companion’s demise and seek revenge.
Quickly he jerked the krstn from his pouch and tied it around his thigh. The magic in the blanket would stem the flow of blood, and help him make it through the moor.
Holding out his hand, Jalen summoned all his spent arrows with his magic, retrieving the gifts of the goddess. Even the arrow that had been lodged in the qinok’s eye and those buried in its flesh rose from the swamp and returned to his hand, each magically cleansed of filth before coming in contact with his skin. In only moments every arrow was replaced in his quiver and he was on his way to his heartmate.
Jalen sprinted toward the D’euan Forest, his speed hampered by his wound, but he pressed himself to run beyond his body’s ability.
And prayed to the goddess that he was not too late to save Ranelle.
* * * * *
“Never again will you leave me, my little magpie.” The Sorcerer turned Ranelle, his hand clenched around her raven form, and raised her so that her eyes met his enraged black gaze. “For you are mine.”
Faster than an urli butterfly could change from white to red, Ranelle’s fear turned to fury.
Fury that Zanden had killed her mother and father.
Fury that he had taken her from her family.
Fury that he had held threat over hers and her heart-sisters’ entire lives.
And fury that even now, Jalen might lose his life if Zanden kept her from returning to her love and aiding him in his battle against the qinok.
Let me go! she screamed at him in her mind, unleashing all of the anger, all of the pain from her very lifeforce. She pushed it through her being and straight to the Sorcerer.
Shock changed his angered expression to momentary confusion, and he lost his hold on her.
Sparkles glittered in the air as she shifted back to her human form, landing mere feet from him.
His face flushed, turning almost purple in his rage.
Even as he recovered and began to reach for her, Ranelle summoned her magic—magic enhanced by the countless hours of training with Jalen in Astral. Magic amplified by her anger for her losses, and her fear of losing any more loved ones.
Holding her hand to her chest, palm facing Zanden, she shoved her hand toward him. The Sorcerer flew back, his face twisted in surprise as he landed in the brush.
At the same moment, Ranelle transformed back into a nordai and shot toward the tree above to hide amongst the pine needles. But only for a moment, only ’til she was ready to take the next step.
“You have no idea what this is going to cost you,” the Sorcerer said as he stood, and she saw that he favored one leg—a recent wound. Ranelle’s senses told her at once that her heart-sister, Liana, had been responsible. Liana had recently fought Zanden. But had she won? Or was Liana now a prisoner in the Sorcerer’s fortress?
The thoughts flashed through Ranelle’s mind, even as he raised his hands to her hiding place, and as she put her plan into motion.
She thrust herself into the air and shifted back to her human form at the same time she projected her own image. As she landed, she and four copies of herself surrounded the Sorcerer.
“You did inherit Mother’s powers.” Slowly Zanden lowered his hands and turned in a circle, studying each likeness of Ranelle, an amused look upon his face. “I had hoped as much.”
The concentration it took to maintain the images made her head spin, and she had to struggle to keep them strong and clear. To not be distracted by the flapping of many wings that told her that her Nordain kinsmen had arrived. As they landed, her senses were acutely aware of them as they shifted into their male and female human forms. Each bore a dagger and surrounded Ranelle, her images, and Zanden.
“I remember everything.” Ranelle projected her voice, each image speaking and her voice reverberating through the forest. “You murdered our mother and father.”
“I should have been King.” Zanden cocked his head his eyes shifting from one image of her to another and ignoring the Nordain surrounding them. She knew the Sorcerer was waiting for her strength to fail. Waiting for her to reveal which likeness of herself was the real one. “But they chose to give the throne to Aric,” he continued. “They deserved death.”
“My sword shall dice your treacherous heart and feed it to you while you still live,” boomed a powerful voice. From the midst of the Nordain came an imposing warrior, and Ranelle’s concentration almost failed her.
The scarred man she had seen in her dreams. The one who had been with Tierra.
“Renn,” Zanden murmured. “Mother’s other favorite.”
My brother? The shock caused her images to flicker, but the Sorcerer’s eyes were focused on the Nordain warrior.
“All along it was you, our brother, yet we never realized the extent of your treachery.” Renn raised his sword, his icy silver eyes glittering in the waning light. He clenched his jaw and his features hardened. The scar across his rugged face whitening as the fury in his expression increased beyond measure. “From your very own lips the truth is revealed—you murdered our parents and kidnapped our fair sister.”
Instead of responding, Zanden flung out his hands. His powerful magic wrapped around Ranelle’s body, shattering her concentration. The images failed and vanished, and Ranelle flew through the air and landed at the Sorcerer’s feet.
Before she could move, he placed his heavy boot on her head, its weight pressing into her skull and forcing her head into the pine needles. She had to escape him. Had to get to Jalen!
Nordain warriors pressed closer, but stopped when Zanden said, “I can crush her skull with my boot or my magic, it matters not. Retreat or she dies.”
* * * * *
Blood seeped through the krstn despite its magical properties, and the wound throbbed with poison from the qinok’s claw. Jalen’s flesh was weakening, but he would not stop ’til his heartmate was safe.
As he drew near the end of the moors, almost to the D’euan Forest, Jalen sensed the incredible danger that Ranelle was in—and the Sorcerer’s presence.
With renewed energy and determination, Jalen forced himself forward, slipping silently from the moors into the life-giving land of his home. Even as he passed into his home, the gifts of the goddess filled his lifeforce, giving him needed strength.
Before his eyes could see them, Jalen’s senses informed him he had reached the small clearing where his heartmate was, along with many Nordain and the Sorcerer. Jalen slowed, keeping himself hidden as he nocked an arrow to his bow in a fluid movement.
When he saw Ranelle’s head pinned beneath Zanden’s boot, rage filled Jalen. Fury unlike anything he had experienced in his long life. In a swift movement, he trained the arrow on the Sorcerer’s heart, and released it.
Ranelle sensed Jalen as soon as he arrived, her heart and soul filling with both love and fear for him.
Zanden’s attention snapped toward Jalen as the arrow sailed toward him. Although she could not see him from her position on the ground, she sensed the Sorcerer deflecting the arrow with his magic.
His attention was now focused on Jalen. Taking advantage of Zanden’s distraction, Ranelle fisted one hand. With all her strength she brought it up and slammed it onto the Sorcerer’s wounded thigh. To the very location Liana had wounded him in another battle.
Zanden stumbled back, shrieking in apparent rage and pain, as his boot slipped from her head. Ranelle rolled away from the Sorcerer and scrambled to her fee
t in time to see one of Jalen’s arrows stray to the left, missing Zanden’s hate-filled heart, instead lodging in the bastard’s bicep.
The Sorcerer wrenched the arrow from his arm. “I will have you,” he shouted with one last look of rage at Ranelle. And then, like a bit of smoke on a strong wind, he vanished.
Ranelle did not waste time wondering where Zanden had gone to. She only knew that she had to be in Jalen’s arms now. Ignoring the Nordain still surrounding her, Ranelle ran toward Jalen as he stumbled from the cover of trees.
“Jalen!” Relief at seeing him changed into terror when she realized he was injured, and he slid to the ground. Her very being screamed as she dropped beside him and cradled his head in her lap. “Help him. Please!”
“Brother,” Renn said as he knelt beside Jalen. “What ails you?”
Ranelle’s gaze cut to the scarred man who tenderly began removing the blood-soaked krstn from Jalen’s thigh.
“Qinok.” Jalen’s voice sounded harsh, as though he could barely breathe.
“Damnation.” Renn ripped his own tunic off, revealing his massive chest, then wrapped the garment around Jalen’s thigh. “Nothing will truly stem the flow of blood, save Yanea’s magic.”
“Aye.” As soon as the word passed through Jalen’s lips, his eyes closed and his body went slack.
“Oh, my gods.” Ranelle pressed her lips to Jalen’s forehead and then turned her tear-filled gaze to Renn. “Will he die?”
“Not as long as I have breath to carry him,” Renn growled. As though Jalen weighed naught more than a babe, Renn raised and flung Jalen over his shoulder, and began to run.
Chapter Fourteen
From the moment they had arrived in Seraphine, Ranelle refused to leave Jalen’s side and threatened to use her magic on anyone who tried to take her from her heartmate. The Elves only smiled, as though amused at her words, but let her be.
“Of course,” Queen Yanea had said when Ranelle asked if he would recover. “He is Elvin, and he is my son.”
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