by Erin Raegan
“My gratitude,” Ignyt grunted, turning from me.
Dyrn looked at me. “My lady, my deepest apologies we had nothing warmer for your travel. We have not had the honor of a human guest.”
I smiled softly. “Thank you for your hospitality.”
“It was my pleasure.” He smiled back. “You will visit us under more pleasant circumstances?”
“I’d like that.”
Dyrn beamed at me.
We had visited with his entire House for breakfast. He had three mates, all of whom were sweet and attentive and curious about me. He had two sons not currently with him. One happened to be a palace guard. I remembered Zybyl from his time guarding Mona. The other was off space exploring. It terrified his mothers, but Dyrn found it exciting and bold. He spoke of his sons with obvious affection and pride.
The rest of his House members were relatives and friends of his. The youngest Dahk was fully grown and more than one pair of eyes latched onto the misshapen bundle of towels I clutched so tightly with curiosity. I didn’t think a single one of them really thought I was carrying a baby. Though they were all nice and excited by our presence, I was grilled all about Earth and humans, and I asked them all about their city and home.
Dyrn said Tybyn was a quiet city, inhabited by family Houses, but nowhere near as vast a population as Ilynda. They had a small market with a few traders who procured otherworldly goods. Tybyn was also the home of the domestics training center. It was where their females and some males came to learn the arts of becoming House servants. The castle had servants, but they weren’t treated in any way that was disrespectful. They were highly valued. Being a House servant was an honorable profession on Home World.
Dyrn’s younger brother, Bolyl, had injured his wings in a battle with the Juldo hundreds of years ago. Right around the time the now-dead—thanks to Chyn—Juldo Master had killed his predecessor and turned on the old Dahk King and their alliance. Bolyl couldn’t fly and did not have a mate. I hated to think that may be because of his injury, but he was charming and funny and I was pleased to learn he was why Dyrn had a home in the base of the mountain rather than one that needed to be flown to. It said a lot about Dyrn that he would accommodate his brother.
I really liked Dyrn and his family and hoped I would see them again soon. I couldn’t wait to tell Mona about them. She loved Zybyl, and I knew she would be excited to learn about his family.
Dyrn and two other males of his House followed us—at a distance—to the market, watching the sky as Ignyt landed in the center of the city.
The dark morning was a busy time for the city, and Ignyt pulled off one of my ponchos and draped it over my head to hide me. But the Dahk still noticed the fur-covered bundle in his arms that was me.
We weaved in and out through the crowd. Hylg stopped at a vendor and spoke quickly and quietly to him. The male Dahk looked at me with shock and waved us into a wide hut behind his tented booth. Inside the hut were racks of colorful clothing of all shapes and sizes.
I squirmed in Ignyt’s hold, and he let me down. I ran my fingers over silky dresses and thick wraps, my eyes large. Ilynda had a lot of the same dresses, but not nearly as many furs. It was so much warmer there.
The male rummaged through the store, nervously eyeing Ohta as he watched the storekeeper’s every move. “I do not procure many Xixin coverings, but I have a few older pieces packed away.”
He pulled a heavy chest to the center of the room and stepped away. Ohta lifted the lid and raised his brow at me. I kneeled beside the chest and found several heavy coats. There were also thick pants and long tunics. I held them up to myself and was pleased to find them nearly in my size. The pants were very long—Xixin females must be very tall— but that was an easy fix.
Ignyt pulled my finds from my arms and ushered me back behind a hanging curtain. “Quickly, little song.”
I nodded and, after he left, stripped down. I had to fold up the pant legs, and the long-sleeved tunic was a little tight on my chest and bottom and too loose in the neck line, but they would be infinitely warmer than my gold silk dress. The coat went on next. It nearly flowed to the floor.
When I stepped back out of the curtain, Ignyt nodded and pulled me back to the male vendor. “Foot coverings.”
The male scratched his head. “I’m sorry, I do not carry anything of the sort.”
“That’s okay,” I assured him.
I gently fingered the blade at Ignyt’s waist, and he handed it to me. Dropping to the floor, I took one of the fur ponchos and sliced it in half. Using the leather wraps that had kept them tight to my waist, I folded the fur around my foot and wound the leather wraps at the ankles and up my calves. They weren’t the best but they were better than the strips Ignyt had wrapped my feet with at Dyrn’s. While I was down there, I cut smaller squares of fur for my hands. I looked at Ignyt expectantly and held them out to him.
His lips quirked and he crouched, wrapping my hands. My coat had a hood that went over my head and hung down to my mouth. I was officially ready to go.
Hylg gave the vendor a leather satchel that had his eyes bugging out, and he bowed, thanking us profusely. Trade was the form of currency on Home World. A Dahk learned a trade then served a House or Leader, and in return they were given food and shelter. But there were also valuable stones and gems that could be used if you had nothing to trade. Hylg had handed the male vendor a thick satchel of those valuable stones.
I had a feeling it was for more than a few pieces of clothing. Hylg had bought his silence.
We walked back out into the icy market, and Ignyt lifted me in his arms again.
“I sense many tracking us,” Ohta said quietly, staring off into the distance.
“They must have comm’d for aid in the night.” Hylg stiffened and his eyes roamed the gawking crowd.
“We head to Frydun and lose them in the ruins,” Ignyt growled.
Ohta nodded and took to the sky, Hylg and Ignyt following. I kept one arm on my linen bundle and the other around Ignyt’s neck. I watched over his shoulder as, a few miles outside the city, nearly a dozen Dahk took flight and followed us. Dyrn and his House members were already gone.
“Are you still ignoring me?” Ignyt asked in my ear.
I jumped and looked at him, away from our stalkers. “I’m not ignoring you.”
Ignyt chuckled and shook his head. “You keep your eyes hidden from me. You do not speak to me.”
I frowned. That wasn’t exactly a new development. I had been mostly avoiding him since the day I met him. I looked back at the Dahk flying at a distance.
“Pay them no heed,” Ignyt muttered. “They are doing what we need them to do.”
“You’d think they would notice I’m not with Tahk and cotton on,” I muttered back.
A Pythen wouldn’t be able to stay away from his mate. Were they really that dumb? Don’t get me wrong, we needed them to be dumb and fall for our deception, but I hadn’t really thought it would work for this long.
Ignyt snorted. “I’m sure they have their suspicions, but you are human and worth pursuing.”
I looked down at the bundle of towels in my arms. Did I even need to carry it anymore? My arms tightened around it. They had to know by now that I wasn’t Peyton. No way would the commander be traveling this far out with her and Sym and only two other guards. At the very least they knew Ignyt wasn’t Tahk by now and that was evidence enough that I wasn’t Peyton.
I squinted at the flying specks. “If Tahk and Uthyf figure out who was behind the attack, what will they do?”
Ignyt looked ahead. “They will find the coward and slay him.”
A fitting punishment. Still, I squirmed uncomfortably.
Ignyt looked at me. “This bothers you.” He studied me a moment. “Does my nature trouble you?”
I cleared my throat, looking at his chest. “You mean violence?”
Ignyt just stared at me.
I licked my lips nervously. “It should.” I sighed. “My fathe
r was a peaceful man. He never raised his voice. Never shouted, never argued. When he was angry, he mowed the lawn.” I chuckled. “We had very dead grass during football season.”
Ignyt tilted his head, studying my smile. “You miss him.”
Tears pricked my eyes, but the icy wind swept them away. “I do. I didn’t have a lot of experience with angry men. He was the sweetest man in the world, and when I got older, I looked for men like him.”
Ignyt’s scarred mouth pressed tightly.
“But I never did find one like him. He may have been a quiet man, but he was brave and he kept us safe.” I sniffled. “He would have thrown himself in front of any danger for me and my mother.”
The man I’d found myself with was quiet like Dad was. Dignified and kind. I had thought Tim was a lot like my father. But he hadn’t thrown himself in front of danger for me. He’d ran away.
“The night the Juldo came, I was asleep.” Ignyt curled me closer to him. “I woke up to a strange noise. I didn’t really think anything was wrong at first. But then there were footsteps on the stairs.” I shivered violently, remembering looking down the foot of my bed at the top stair in the hall. “I thought maybe I was dreaming. Having a nightmare. Two strange-looking shadowed forms slowly climbed the stairs. I saw their heads first. They were wearing hoods, but the horns coming out of their foreheads were obvious, as was the deep red tone of their skin.” Still, I’d just laid there, unable to believe what I was seeing. “It wasn’t until they were walking into my bedroom that I felt fear. I shook my fiancé awake.”
Ignyt’s eyes jumped to mine in confusion.
“Tim. He was going to be my mate.”
Ignyt bared his fangs and looked away from me.
I quickly moved on. “Tim stared at the Juldo in shock. He didn’t move from the bed as they came to me.” I blinked away tears. “I fought them. I kicked and screamed. Somehow, I managed to get away and drag Tim down the stairs behind me.”
It had been so scary. I could still remember how fast my heart had been beating, as though it would pound right out of my chest.
“They were so fast,” I whispered. “They caught us before we could get to the front door. Tim panicked. He screamed and pushed me right back into their arms, distracting them so he could get away.” I laid my head on Ignyt’s shoulders, hiding my face. “My dad never would have left me there. He was old, and he was sick. But my dad would have done anything he could to get me away from them. Tim just said he was sorry and then abandoned me. He didn’t even try.”
Ignyt snarled a curse, pulling me closer.
“Tim was quiet like my dad. Never raised his voice. We never argued. But he was too afraid to help me. Your nature doesn’t scare me. Violence scares me, but not when it’s used to defend someone. I wish I were stronger, like you. Tougher. Braver.” Maybe if I had been, I could have saved myself.
Ignyt was silent then. His hand moved up and down my back. Every once in a while, he would press a kiss to my head or my neck. We flew for hours and I rested against him, watching the little specks in the distance get larger and larger.
Sometime near the afternoon, those specks were joined by others. They came from the east, from behind a tall mountain.
“There’s more,” I whispered worriedly in Ignyt’s ear. There were dozens of Dahk following us. Gaining on us.
He nodded, probably already aware.
Ohta banked right, behind another tall mountain. As Ignyt followed, I gasped when I caught sight of the icy ruins lying in the flat sea of ice below. The glowing structures were covered in powdered ice, diluting their glow. They were crumbled and old, so different from the stone buildings on the world now. Carvings ran down the sides of the structures. The ruins were dozens of tall towers with enormous archways connecting them. Not a single soul inhabited them.
“The old Frydun ruins,” Ignyt murmured.
“What happened to them?”
He looked down as we flew closer. “Long ago, before our star perished, when the Dahk still bathed under its light, we inhabited such places. But as our star failed us, we fled to the mountains and the shelter they provided. We adapted, evolved into what we are now. The ruins are all we have left of that time.”
Ohta led us to the ruins, circling them and spiraling down. “We meet them here.”
“We’re stopping?” I gaped at Ignyt.
He ran his clawed thumb across my bottom lip. “We cannot lead this many into New Frydun. It is a peaceful city and they are not prepared for battle.” I looked past the ruins and to the small city in the distance.
Ignyt landed in the center of the ruin’s courtyard. My feet slipped on the thick ice and he had to hold me up by my waist. Ohta and Hylg walked through an archway and pulled their swords before hacking at a frozen doorway, carving into the doors outline. The ice sealing the door shut must have been over half a foot thick. There was no way they were going to free it with swords. But they didn’t stop.
I looked up as Ignyt joined them. The specks weren’t specks any longer. They were larger than the Dia birds.
I slowly backed toward Ignyt. “Guys?”
Hylg cursed and grunted, hacking away.
“Ignyt?”
Hack. Hack. Grunt.
I could make out features on our stalkers. And weapons. Lots and lots of weapons.
I tripped, my back pushing into the ice wall beside the doorway. Ignyt grunted, tossing his knives onto the ground. He threw his body against the door, ramming it with his shoulder. Hylg and Ohta dropped theirs and kicked the door.
Meanwhile, dozens of Dahk dipped down to the ruins.
Ignyt roared and slammed into the door again. The wall behind me shook and cracked. I looked over as he rammed it one last time, cracking the door.
“Lydya!” He grabbed me and pushed me toward the small opening. He grabbed a blade from the ice and folded my mitted hand around it. “Hide inside.”
“What?”
“Hide inside and do not come out until I come for you.”
I gaped at him, stunned and terrified out of my mind. It was the castle attack all over again. “You’re leaving me?”
Ignyt crouched, squeezing my hips. “No, love. I’ll be right here.”
“What if they come inside?” I asked, my voice catching and breaking.
“Ignyt,” Hylg warned.
“I will be between you and them, but if I fail, it will not be because I abandoned you. It will be because you are mine and I have thrown myself in front of danger to protect you.” He smiled softly. “But my Pythen is brave. She is strong. And I have every faith that she will keep herself safe until I can come and unleash my rage upon all who dare harm her.”
I nodded, clutching the dagger to my chest.
“Ignyt,” Hylg said again, more urgently.
“Go, little song. I will come for you.”
I nodded again, impulsively pecked him on the lips—missing the stunned hungry look that filled his face— then spun around and wiggled through the hole in the icy wall.
15
Ignyt
My mate disappeared beyond the door, into the darkness. I sighed, hanging my head. Terror had filled her eyes. Her hand had shook around my dagger. But I could not follow her.
Hylg and Ohta stepped up beside me, retrieving their weapons. My brothers had vowed to protect my Lydya long before I realized she was my Pythe.
“Keep them from the doorway,” I growled.
I had been drawn to her the moment I had seen her, broken and battered. The moment she stepped off the ship from Juldoris she had scented so strongly of terror. Gryo had worked to heal her and the other human females for days. At times, I wondered if she would survive her injuries. She was so small. So helpless. So beautiful. It had sickened me to stay away, though I had never spoken to her.
For sunrings, I watched from afar as she slowly healed, silently encouraging her. Admiring her perseverance. I stalked the halls of the castle, watching her from the shadows. Captivated by her. T
hough I did not understand my actions, I was helpless to stop myself.
It was in the halls one eve that I spotted her walking to her rooms. Two guards followed her at a distance, their foolish eyes covetous and full of longing. She was ignorant of their inner struggles. Lost in song.
I had walked behind them, aware her guards were tracking me with nervous twitches. But I was the king’s interrogator and they would not dare address me. I watched her with bated breath as her pink mouth moved, bathing the halls with her beautiful voice.
From that eve on, I could not stay away. I looked for her beauty every morn, listened for her song every eve.
I had no intention of approaching her. She was so small and delicate. A beautiful sprite in a world of warriors. My scars and violent inclinations were not deserving of someone so light and lovely.
It wasn’t until her eyes met mine for the first time that I realized I could no longer stay away. But still I was hesitant to pursue her.
When that male, Uryn, dared call on her, rage had taken over my mind like never before. I dreamt of severing his hands for touching her. Gouging his eyes for daring to look upon her. Removing his tongue for speaking to her. It was only my brothers that kept me from acting on my desires—saving the male’s life.
My Lydya would never know the depth of my violence. She would never know how steadfastly I would hold onto her.
That thoughtless human male, Tym, had let her go. Had thrown away a precious gift, and in turn granted me the honor of looking upon her. Touching her. Holding her.
Tym’s actions wounded her, but had he not betrayed her, she would not be mine.
Vyr had sealed her fate the day of the halfling’s birth. He’d trusted me to protect his daughter, and that allowed me closer to my Lydya after I’d forced myself to keep away. The moment her eyes met mine, her fate was sealed. It did not matter that there was no sign of a Pythen bond. It did not matter she had never spoken a word to me. Destiny had led her to me and I would not ignore it any longer. And when I caught her as she fell from the skies, and she held onto me and her delicate hand rested on the hide of my neck— destiny knocked once more. She was to be my Pythen and there was nothing and no one who could take her from me.
