Bihter registered something with his superior hearing that made him suck in air with such violence it whistled. He snapped straight, eyes flashing dangerously. ‘Traitors.’
Bhyr stiffened, then relaxed a fraction, looking irritated rather than alarmed. ‘Things become clearer.’
‘What’s happening?’ asked Cristina. She edged closer to her bristling mate.
‘If I’m following along correctly, the Horde we hear loitering outside are not supposed to be here. More importantly, they weren’t told we would be here.’ Ashleigh sounded worried. ‘But then, I’m just guessing….’ She shot an inquiring look at Ohx, who nodded at her guesswork.
‘Well, shit,’ I said.
Cristina looked lost. ‘Um, but we were all looking for Grace and Indie–’
‘No, the First’s trusted were looking. All of a sudden, this seems premeditated. Wyrm brought Grace and Indie here–to the wilderness–where they wouldn’t be found before he was done with them.’ Ashleigh chewed her bottom lip raw. ‘Our warriors had to track Indira’s trail to this place, yet the warriors outside found it. How? How did they find this place when even we didn’t know where it was?’
‘They could have tracked us,’ Cristina pointed out.
Shaking his head, Bihter tapped his ear, face pinched. ‘We heard them arrive, my bright one. They came with the moon at their back. We came with it at our front.’
‘So, it begs the question,’ Ashleigh continued. ‘How did they know to be here? Here. This random hovel in the middle of nowhere.’
Cristina’s thoughts were loud on her face. ‘Busted.’
I looked at Bhyr and managed a tired smirk. ‘See? Not asking you to come riding to my rescue was the right thing to do. This coup would have worked.’
‘Perhaps,’ he replied looking all kinds of pissed off.
‘You would’ve come.’ I insisted. ‘Thinking you were going to save me. They would’ve ambushed you.’
The Horde stirred, restless.
‘It does not work that way,’ Ohx said. ‘There must be legal Challenge. It must be witnessed by the Horde.’
‘Right.’ I gave him side eye. ‘If the Horde discovered Bhyr’s protected female had been bred by another warrior, that he had been outwitted by an Exile, would Challenge be so important then? Would they consider him fit to be First?’ I faced him. ‘Would you?’
Ohx stared at me then averted his gaze, mouth tight.
There was nothing to be said against the truth.
‘Yes,’ Bhyr shouted into the silence making me twitch. His head cocked as he listened to movement beyond what we could see. ‘I hunted a traitor here. You will join me. Now.’
It was silent as the second group of Horde warriors entered the cave. Had we been a wolf pack our hackles would have risen and our muzzles pulled back in snarls.
The newcomers were wary. Shifty eyes drifted over the tableau in confusion.
A male with a cruel face led the procession. I recognised him from the spaceship. He was the one who’d abducted Grace as a plaything.
His face blanked as he studied the mauled lump of flesh hanging in the corner.
He approached Bhyr, face squinched as he forced the barest show obeisance. ‘First.’
Bhyr looked the male dead in the eye but stared straight through him, as if the sight of the warrior was so unimportant it rendered him invisible.
‘What are you doing here?’ he asked at length.
Face twisting into a grimace, Sah Rahm glanced about his surroundings, interested in the cave decor. ‘We heard of your troubles and sought to return the wayward breeders to their rightful masters.’
‘Why?’ Bihter asked.
Rahm’s neck cricked as he shot a disbelieving look at him. He spun toward the First. He waited for him to slap down the unranked male for questioning the Second.
Bhyr said nothing.
‘What happened?’ Rahm gritted the question through clenched teeth. He jerked his chin towards Wyrm’s corpse.
‘Answer!’ Bhyr roared.
Ashleigh jumped. Cristina loosed a startled whine that was lost amidst the din of the Horde’s exoskeletons clacking while they shuddered.
I failed to grasp what the big deal was then I caught a glimpse of Bhyr’s face. I’d forgotten. He was a monster.
My monster.
‘Why did you follow Wyrm here?’ Before Rahm could speak, Bhyr carried on with silken menace. ‘Do I stand on ground where you planned to meet with my enemy in secret.’ His voice lowered to a deeper register. ‘A place to lure me after violating my nest to steal my breeder.’ His voice rose to a thunderous timbre. ‘My female.’ He thumped his chest. ‘Mine!’
‘This warrior did not take that breeder.’ Rahm spat the words and pointed at me. His body was stiff with alarm. ‘Whatever it told you, it lies.’
‘Ha ha, good one,’ I said.
Two dozen alien eyes speared me with murderous looks, but for wildly different reasons. Manic laughter bubbled again. This time, I managed to swallow it back.
I lied?
He was absurd.
‘You may not have taken her yourself, but I sense your hand in this,’ Bihter said.
Ohx growled. ‘We all do.’
When Rahm’s hand twitched towards the hatchet sheathed at his waist, Kov Drayg sidestepped the warrior standing in front of him to stand beside Ohx. ‘You have been vocal in your condemnation of the First and resentful at our contentment with our human mates.’
‘Mates.’ Rahm spat. ‘Blasphemy against God.’
‘Destruction is a force of endings, not only of death,’ Drayg said, eyes burning. ‘Our old way of life is ending. We do not believe as you do, and embrace change. That does not make us deserving of scorn.’
Watching his Horde divide before his eyes, Bhyr’s hands balled into fists. He turned to me. ‘Tell me.’
Once I finished my accounting, the trusted Horde wore incredulous expressions that inched towards awe. They looked me over then peered at what was left of Arj Wyrm.
A handful of the warriors sidled backwards until a circle of space surrounded me. It resembled how they orbited around Bhyr to show their respect for his dominance.
Ashleigh and Cristina wore dual expressions of horrified shock at what I’d been through, which morphed into pleased smirks as they watched the reactions around them.
Cristina caught my eye.
She gave me a thumbs up, growing teary-eyed when I offered a skewed smile that was so obviously forced.
Aside from sharing love with my bestie, my reaction to the vibes pervading the cave was to open my mouth and emphasise the outcome of my confrontation with Arj Wyrm was down to dumbass luck.
Seeing how Cristina and Ashleigh already stood taller, I shut it with a click of teeth.
It wasn’t a bad thing for the Horde to know we’d go down swinging.
The warriors who’d come with Sah Rahm vibrated with mounting fury. The stink of it thickened the air about them.
Bhyr eyed me without speaking or moving. I thought perhaps he smiled, a flicker that vanished before it took true form. When he stirred, it was turn to his Horde.
‘It was just,’ he declared.
‘Just?’ Rahm snarled the word. ‘There lies a warrior. A Horde warrior.’ He spun towards me, aggression in every line of his body. ‘It is dangerous. It is female and an abomination.’ He looked around for support. ‘This is not just.’
‘I am First. My word is Law.’ Bhyr flexed and appeared to grow larger, or maybe the world shrank to accommodate him. He leaned forward. The action caused the whole of the Horde to rear back, as if he’d moved to cut them down. ‘Do you offer me Challenge, then?’
Rahm stared, nostril slits flared wide. Unmarred, the dull appearance of his exoskeleton was a stark contrast to the scarred iridescence of his leader. ‘No.’ He jerkily bent his neck, nose closing tight in submission. ‘This warrior seeks justice for a fallen brother.’
‘Arj Wyrm was exiled.’ Drayg sal
lied into the breach. His open palms rose in a bid for calmer heads to prevail. ‘He was no brother of ours.’
Rahm straightened, nose slits blowing open again. ‘The human murdered him.’
Bhyr made a dismissive gesture. ‘Wyrm attacked her.’
‘Not a crime under Law. Xoi Pythen’s Law.’
‘I declared a change to my father’s Law. Humans are equal to the Azteka, and now, to demand a charge of murder, I say the burden of proof falls on you–the accuser.’ Bhyr cocked his head. ‘Provide it or recant.’
‘It cannot be… this is not….’ Rahm shook his head, glancing at me with flat eyes. ‘It is a vessel for god-blessed seed. Nothing more.’ His voice took on a more forceful tone. ‘Do not set these lesser beings above us.’
‘First already has,’ said the gnarled warrior at Rahm’s back, a sunken hole where an eye used to be. His gaze travelled across the faces around him, contempt stamped across his ursine features. ‘They all have.’
‘Leave.’ Bhyr spoke with dangerous calm. ‘I will not forget the reason for your presence here, but if you go, now, I will forgive it.’
Bellowing, Rahm stomped across the cave then hauled Wyrm’s corpse off the antlers. He slammed it down in front of Bhyr, a grotesque offering to the Avatar of his death god.
Frozen solid, it shattered, chunks tumbling over ground like macabre diamonds.
‘And this?’ he howled. ‘See it in its fullness. It is murder.’
Bhyr studied him coolly.
‘A warrior lies dead at its hand. Our First does nothing.’
‘And how many of us have you and yours killed?’ I shouted.
‘Triple digits,’ Ashleigh spat. ‘That’s how many.’
Cristina clapped. ‘Indie, you tell his ass.’
Rahm’s eyes bulged.
Bhyr stepped in front of me. ‘Take him,’ he commanded the warriors clustered at Rahm’s back. ‘Take him now. Before I send him to meet the god he claims to champion.’
Bristling at the threat, they dragged the disgraced male from the cave. Bihter and Ohx tracked them with hard eyes.
Goodbeast groaned, reins jingled and irate males shouted as the Horde males rode away, but none of us felt at ease.
Drayg went so far as to check they were gone and not stalling for an ambush.
‘I made things worse.’ I slouched and scrubbed a hand over my face. ‘I shouldn’t have killed him but he would have….’ I’d traded one threat for countless others. ‘They’ll come after me, won’t they?’
Bhyr turned his head from where he glared after Rahm and looked down at me. The back of his hand brushed mine, then his pointer finger hooked around my thumb. For a moment, I glimpsed fear in his eyes before he hid it. ‘They are afraid of you.’ I heard the amusement beneath his level tone. ‘They will come for us, but first, they will build their courage to face you.’
I narrowed my eyes. ‘You’re so funny,’ I told him.
‘Fierce female,’ he murmured with no small measure of pride. He turned to the Horde who hadn’t flaunted his rule and waited for instruction.
‘Grace’s body?’ Ashleigh asked and covered it with a hide Ohx proffered.
‘Burn it,’ I said.
‘Do you think that’s what she would have wanted?’ Cristina asked.
Ashleigh’s low laugh cut through me. ‘I think she would have wanted to grow old and die on Earth.’
I stared at Grace’s shroud.
I’d done everything I could for that woman. Sacrificed pieces of my sanity and self respect. She’d been brave in her final moment, and it hurt to see her end this way.
‘Get it done,’ I said. ‘I need this day to be over.’
As we walked out, the fire behind us growing to consume our dead, I put my hand in Bhyr’s. He peered at our joined appendages.
‘What,’ I asked.
My face on fire, I held on.
I’d learnt I was many things. A coward wasn’t one of them.
Part IV
Wilderness
34
Bhyr
Bhyr waited.
When Bihter, Drayg and Ohx came, their faces were tight with dread.
Bhyr signalled them to follow, leading them from the main chamber of the nest, not wanting to disturb his female.
After her battle with Arj Wyrm, she needed sleep.
He was so proud of her it took his breath away.
It enraged him he had not been there to fight for her, but the pain of that knowledge was soothed by the evidence his female was fierce enough to save herself if needs be.
Indira had spoken to him of the human spirit. He’d thought it a quaint notion. He now knew it was a force to be reckoned with, and more importantly, so did his Horde.
Stopping at the goodbeast pen, he gave the warriors his back, not sure he would be able to mask his reaction to what came next. ‘Tell me.’
Bihter spoke first. ‘Whatever happens now, I wish you to know, you are not alone.’
The band of fear suffocating his insides eased. Not by much, but enough that he turned to face them. ‘Tell me.’
‘The collective vault was raided at dawn. What wasn’t taken was destroyed or tampered with. I am optimistic we can salvage a fair amount, and if not repurpose the rest. I have the chiefs and the warriors who live on the outskirts incoming as we speak, but at first tally, it appears almost all of Erd and Sah defected. Their trail heads through the Gathering Grotto, over the lagoon and vanishes into the Northern Pass. We suspect they have gone to ground. An old cavern somewhere forgotten.’
Bhyr exhaled. He moved past the pain. ‘The Arj?’
Drayg cleared his throat. ‘Twenty of the human females have been found in their nests. Their deaths were quick. Two of the Arj decided to stay.’
Bhyr felt numb. ‘Who?’
‘Vyper and Grhym.’
‘They are shaken.’ Ohx sounded unsteady himself. ‘They had to fight to protect Vyper’s breeder.’
More death.
‘Puk and Juy?’ he asked, then held his breath.
The middle generations had forgone human breeders to observe the success of the younger generations before deciding one way or another.
Erd and Sah made up half of the Horde. Puk and Juy another quarter. Hel, Arj and Kov were the last quater, but fell short by a substantial number.
If Puk and Juy generations had defected to follow Sah Rahm, he needed to get the humans off planet before the rotation ended.
Drayg grimaced. ‘They refused to leave with the traitors, but are resistant to reaffirm their loyalty to you.’
‘Cowards,’ Ohx spat.
Bhyr couldn’t believe what he was hearing. ‘I am First.’
Drayg looked ill. ‘Technically as is Sah Rahm. He now leads a faction of the Horde. Those who are undecided have a choice to make.’
‘We are split in three,’ Ohx said.
Bhyr considered the paths before him. It galled him not to meet those with wavering loyalty head on. To respond to their lack of faith with crushing violence. His craftier side recognised their hesitation was something he could work with.
Rahm was vainglorious.
Convincing the Undecided to join his rebellion would distract and scatter his attention. Bhyr would focus on annihilating the threat to his mate with a single-mindedness the male would fail to comprehend before it was too late. Rahm had no idea how he’d erred. The Trusted wouldn’t stop until their females were safe. They would show no mercy.
As for the Undecided, if they remained neutral throughout the conflict, he would bring them into line once the rebellion was disbanded.
‘During this conflict, will we keep our mates confined to the nest?’ Bihter asked.
Bhyr felt his chest tighten.
There was only one way to ensure no more females died a needless death. ‘No. We will send them off world.’
Bihter stilled, stricken.
Ohx made a harsh noise. ‘I agree. It is not safe for them here. We will be figh
ting a war we will be hard pressed to win.’ He nodded his head. ‘We cannot protect our mates, guard our own backs and those of our brothers. They will distract us, and that will lead to disaster.’
‘If we die, they will be left vulnerable,’ Drayg said, swallowing. ‘The traitors will not treat them kindly. The dead Arj females are proof of fact.’
‘We will send them away and spare them such a fate.’ Bhyr was glad they had come to the same conclusion he had.
‘Where can we send them?’ Bihter asked his skull ridges pale. ‘Who can we trust? Other species will take them for fear of our wrath, but I would be loathe to leave my Cristina somewhere so hostile.’
‘The Verak.’ Bhyr nodded at their surprise. ‘ThunderClaw is strong enough to keep them safe and will treat them well.’
‘Your alliance with the Great Alpha has broken,’ Ohx reminded.
‘I will negotiate a new one.’ Bhyr glanced around. ‘Until I am sure of what comes next, you will keep this to yourselves. Do not tell your mates.’ He thought of what Indira’s face would look like if he told her she was leaving. She might even refuse to do so. ‘Perhaps it would be better to keep them in the dark until they are gone.’
They stared at him.
‘You want me to lie to Ashleigh,’ Ohx said slowly.
Bhyr clicked, testy after the news he’d received. The male didn’t question his orders. He was reluctant to deceive his breeder. ‘Will she leave you if you tell her you fear for her safety? That you might die and never see her again?’
A strange expression crossed Ohx’s face. He snorted. ‘She will insist on staying to protect me.’
Though reluctant, Drayg and Bihter nodded, conceding their mates would act in a similar manner.
‘It is decided. Bihter you will spread the word to my Trusted. Drayg, see to our provisions and erecting our encampment. Ohx, arrange for the colony ship to be refuelled. I will send a message with further instruction once I have heard back from ThunderClaw and secured our mates refuge.’
Back at his nest, Bhyr sent a message to Beowyn, praying the male did not ignore his request for parley, then checked on Indira.
She tossed and turned in her sleep.
Bhyr Page 31
