by Davis Ashura
Finally, there came a lull when the hellish din of Her hurricane wind and rage was gone.
The Sorrow Bringer had left, or at least Jessira hoped so. She couldn’t tell for sure. The world was a soupy fog of dust and debris. The stars themselves were blacked out and the moon lay hidden behind a cloud of dirt. Jessira could hardly see her hand in front of her face. A torrential, muddy rain fell upon them.
Jessira wrapped a protective cloth over her nose and mouth. She was happy to see Rukh do the same for both himself and the packhorse.
“We have to get clear of this dirt-cloud,” Rukh said with a cough.
“In a moment,” Jessira said, trying to get her emotions under control. She held in a retch as she trembled, a mix of adrenaline and fear as her heart raced as if she’d run ten miles with a full rucksack. Jessira reached for Rukh’s hand, clutching it. She needed the warmth of Human contact after what they had just witnessed. Rukh held her hand, gripping it firmly and seeming to need to feel another person’s touch as much as she. After a few moments, her breathing steadied, and she nodded. “I’m ready.”
Rukh gave her hand a final, reassuring squeeze before he climbed to his feet, helping her rise as well. “Let’s go.”
They trudged through a mile wide fog of dust, eventually reaching a point where the air grew clean enough to breathe without the filter of a rag over their mouths and noses. By then, the rumbling sound of a mountain of mud raining to the ground had grown distant, but it wasn’t forgotten.
*****
With the coming of dawn, Rukh levered himself to his feet and yawned. Jessira threw off the blanket she’d wrapped around herself and stood as well. She looked as tired as Rukh felt. After the Sorrow Bringer’s wrath, neither of them had been able to get much rest. They had stayed up all night, holding to a hard, tight Blend in case the Queen returned.
Rukh looked back the way they’d come where a plume of dust and debris still hung in the air from last night’s assault. How had the Sorrow Bringer found them? They’d been Blended. And yet, She’d honed in on their position as if following a compass point.
Jessira spoke. “I think it was The Book,” she said, answering his unvoiced question as she so often could. “The Chims say the Queen is Daughter to the First Father. Maybe She can sense Her Father’s presence. Maybe when you read The Book of First Movement and experienced His memories, She could somehow feel a part of Him re-enter the world.”
Rukh considered her words as he stared back in the direction from which they’d come. Jessira’s explanation made sense. “I guess neither of us should ever open it again,” he said.
“Is it even safe to keep?”
Rukh was wondering that exact same question. It might be the safest course to throw it aside, but it wasn’t the one he wanted to follow. Rukh didn’t want to give up The Book, not after working so hard to obtain it. Just as importantly, The Book had been lost to Humanity for three hundred years, and if it held the final thoughts of the First Father, it had to be important. They had to find a way to hold onto it.
“For now, I think we should keep it,” Rukh replied. “If the Queen found us through it, then She would have chased after us when we left the pond. The fact She didn’t suggests She can’t track The Book unless it’s being read.”
“I hope you’re right,” Jessira said, worry tingeing her voice.
Rukh hoped he was right, too.
“We need to get home as fast as possible,” Jessira said a moment later.
“We should Blend hard all the way there,” he replied.
Jessira nodded. “One of us will have to maintain focus at all times. Even when we’re camped for the night”
Rukh blew out an exhalation. “It’ll be hard work.”
“We’ve done harder,” she said, smiling wanly a moment later. “Our timing certainly is terrible. Looks like we’ll have to wait until we reach the city.”
“Wait for what?” Rukh asked. A moment later, the answer came to him. “Oh.” He sighed in disappointment.
Jessira laughed. “Can you wait?”
“I don’t really have a choice, do I?” he asked, smiling half-heartedly. The smile left him. For weeks now, he had wanted to ask Jessira a question. Events had conspired against him, and there had never been a time to bring it up. But after last night, the question had taken on greater urgency. Jessira held his heart in her hands. She could lift him to the clouds if she said ‘yes’, but how awful if she said ‘no.’ He had to know one way or the other. “What are we to one another?” Rukh asked, his heart suddenly pounding.
Jessira sobered, sensing the serious nature of his question. “What do you want us to be?” she asked, a fearful, yet hopeful expression on her face.
Jessira deserved wine, music, romantic poetry, and a serenade but Rukh didn’t have any of that. All he had was the love in his soul. Nevertheless, he had to do this as properly as possible, as a Kumma should. She stared into his eyes as he took both her hands in his. He kissed her palms and knelt before. He touched her feet. Jessira trembled, and he looked up. “There are many truths in this world, Jessira Viola Grey, but for me, the greatest is this: my love for you. I love you with everything I know. Will you marry me?”
He might have said more, but Jessira pulled him to his feet and kissed him, silencing him. He kissed her back, holding her tight in the circle of his arms.
“Yes,” Jessira said with a breathless laugh. “Yes. Now and forever.” Her face was wet with tears.
*****
Rukh came to an unexpected stop. He held up a hand for silence and motioned ahead. Jessira read his gestures. Chimeras up the trail. Heading toward them. Three nests of Ur-Fels and a Bael.
Jessira heart thumped. She had long since learned to trust his more acute senses. In the two weeks since Suwraith had annihilated the area around which she and Rukh had been camping, they’d come across a number of Chims scouting the western foothills of the Privation Mountains. Another group of them approached.
Jessira carefully made her way off the narrow trail they were following. The horse plodded behind her. There was no help for the gelding’s heavy steps. Meanwhile, Rukh had already disappeared. Jessira figured he had probably backtracked, wiping out their trail as best he could.
Jessira waited for him to return even as her ears strained for the harsh barking of the Ur-Fels. She sensed movement to the right. With it came the feel of a Blend.
Rukh.
She exhaled in relief and Linked with him. He popped into view.
“We should keep moving,” she said the moment he was close enough to hear her whisper. Blended hard as they were, there was little chance their words would carry, but there was no need to take unnecessary risks.
Rukh nodded, and they glanced about, searching their surroundings for a path leading away from the Chims.
They stood along the floor of a deep gully. A stream, heavy with the morning’s rain, raced south, carrying a flotsam of wet leaves and small branches. Basalt cliffs with green and orange streaks loomed in sharp relief, merging with the heavy presence of the nearby Privations. The animal track they had been following had seemed like the easiest path up and out of here, but apparently, it was also the easiest way down. They needed another way out of the gap.
A barking sound came to them. An Ur-Fel. Another bark. More. All of them coming from the animal track. The Chims seemed to be gathering, calling loudly as if they had discovered something.
Their trail maybe?
Jessira didn’t bother cursing. She uncased her bow, set a string to it, and readied an arrow. Rukh’s hands glowed, and a green-hued bubble surrounded him. A Shield.
“It is an unshod horse,” a booming bass voice said. Given the depth and clarity of the speech, it had to be the Bael in charge of the nests. “Nothing to it. Leave it be.” A moment later. “A boot print you say?” The Bael sounded excited. “There’s another. Look.”
Jessira and Rukh held still. A fight was best avoided, and perhaps these nests would still
somehow overlook them.
The Bael continued. “They likely heard us and cut through the forest to escape our righteous wrath,” he said, his voice filled with surety. Jessira tensed, waiting for the moment when flight or fight would become inevitable. “See the scuff marks on the roots of that oak over there. They’re making their way south even as we speak. Go! I’ll be with you in a moment.”
Upon the Bael’s shouted order, the Ur-Fels barked with excitement and took off in pursuit of their quarry — in the direction opposite of where Jessira and Rukh stood. They shared wondering looks at their good fortune.
A second later, Jessira tensed.
A crunching sound came from where the Chims had been clustered. A Bael stepped through the clinging branches of a tall lilac bush. He was big, even for one of his kind. White feathers drooped from his horns, dripping wetness. A young commander of the Fan Lor Kum. Despite the cold of the mountain spring, the Bael wore nothing more than a breechcloth and a leather harness. His chained whip was coiled at his hip, and his trident was carelessly held as he seemed to search around.
Jessira swallowed. The Baels claimed to be friends of Humanity, and maybe they were. Li-Choke certainly was, but what about the rest of them? How could they really trust that every Bael believed as Choke did? She readied her bow.
“If you’re still here, Li-Choke sends his regards,” the Bael said, speaking softly. “I don’t have much time. Mother has us hunting for … ” he snorted in derision “ … a man named Linder and a woman named Cienna. The First Father and the First Mother. Choke thinks She might mean the two of you. We’ve left a gap in our lines. Make your way north out of this ravine and across the valley on the other side of the cliffs, then head due east. After that, the way is clear. Good luck brothers.” With that the Bael disappeared back into the foliage. He raised a ruckus as he burst through the heavy brush, moving south of their position.
“I think that’s more than enough excitement for one day,” Rukh murmured.
“I’m surprised you didn’t want to try and take them all by yourself?” Jessira teased, speaking softly.
“I might have,” Rukh said with a grin, “but you’d have just gotten mad at me for stealing all the glory.”
Jessira smiled and punched him gently on the arm. “If you had tried to fight them alone, I might have killed you just for being stupid.”
“Then lucky for me I was wise enough not to go after them.”
“You’re learning,” Jessira said. “Now, let’s look for a way out of here.”
She scanned north. The trees and undergrowth quickly thinned as the hills soared upward, exposing the heavy, black rock. There appeared to be a thready trail in that direction. The horse might have trouble with it, though.
Jessira pointed out her find. “Look.”
Rukh followed the line of her finger and nodded. “Good eyes,” he said. His gaze flickered over her. “amongst other things.”
She made sure he saw her eye roll.
*****
Aia had a hold of Rukh’s scent, and this time, she would not release it. Well, not exactly his scent. It was more a flavor of his mind. She liked the aroma of his thoughts, and she almost shivered with excitement at the notion that she would soon experience them again.
Aia only wished she was traveling alone to meet her Human, but it wasn’t to be. After hearing her tales all winter long about the wonders of Rukh’s fingers and hands, several of her younger brothers had decided to accompany her north. Younger brothers were pests at the best of times, but these two could teach a gnat how to be annoying. Shon and Thrum. Idiots. However, since they wished to learn the truth about her tales for themselves — and truth in storytelling was a key facet of in the lives the Kesarins — Aia couldn’t turn them away.
But if they thought she would share her Human with them, they had better be prepared for bloody noses.
*Do not touch anything,* Aia warned her brothers as they entered the firelight. *Rukh is very sentimental about his things and creatures. Follow me into the camp and be calm. No growls or snarls or your noses will be bled.*
Shon, a tawny, lean Kesarin, the youngest amongst the three of them, thought himself clever. He yawned.
Aia growled at the disrespect. She unsheathed her claws and Shon’s tail curled between his hind legs. His ears drooped.
Better.
Thrum, a rare russet Kesarin, was thicker than Shon and taller. He was only two seasons younger than Aia and still filling out. With his build and intelligence, Nanna thought he might one day challenge for leadership of the Hungrove. That is, if he ever learned wisdom. The fool sat there cross-eyed, staring at a butterfly that had alit on his nose.
Aia watched for a moment before turning aside with a shake of her head. She paid them no more attention. She had more important things to attend to. Such as Rukh. She wanted her Human back.
She stepped into the small clearing where he and his not-mate had stopped for the night. She nervously skirted the fire before stopping before him. She sat down, tail demurely curled before her feet and waited for him to approach.
He grinned, displaying his unfortunate flat teeth. They looked like they belonged in the mouth of a wildebeest. *Aia,* he called out, happiness in his voice. *What are you doing here?*
*I missed the flavor of your thoughts.*
*I missed you, too,* he said, *but how did you find me?*
*I listened,* Aia said with a cock of her head. *How else?* Sometimes her Human could be so obtuse, overlooking that which was obvious.
*My mind?*
*Of course.* Aia glanced at the female, who was staring at them with a sense of wonderment. *Your not-mate looks healthy.* She lifted her head and sniffed at Jessira, immediately reconsidering her words. *Or is she your mate now?*
Rukh smiled. *Jessira isn’t my mate.*
Aia sniffed. *She smells like your mate.*
*Thank you for saving me,* the female, Jessira, said approaching slowly. *When I was sick, Rukh told me what you did for me.* Jessira had a pleasant voice, soft but firm. Plus, she had good manners. Aia decided she liked her.
*You are welcome.*
Rukh smiled, and without being told, he scratched her chin.
Aia’s eyes hooded, she stretched out her head, and the line of her mouth became flat. She purred. So good.
He stopped, and she glanced at him, wondering why. She hadn’t instructed him to cease. His gaze was focused on the far side of his camp where her brothers were nosing around his packs. Shon, the bottomless pit of hunger, stared at the horse and licked his lips. Aia’s tail swished in annoyance. *The small, ugly one is Shon, and the tall, ugly one is Thrum.*
*Who are they?*
*My brothers,* Aia said.
*They can’t eat the horse. The horse is a friend.*
Aia blinked and her ears twitched. Laughter bubbled up from her throat. *Your horse dreams of rolling in a field of grass. He thinks you’re a devil to keep him from his dream.*
Rukh laughed with her. *You’re making that up.*
Aia rubbed her head against Rukh’s chest and purred. *How do you know?*
*It was a guess,* he said, scratching behind her ears.
Aia froze, and her eyes widened. How marvelous. She turned her head to the side so he could more easily reach her ears.
By now, Shon and Thrum had wandered over. Aia straightened to see what they would do. Thrum sniffed at the top of Rukh’s head while Shon stood before Jessira, tail tucked before his feet as he stared at her expectantly.
*My chin itches,* Shon said, pushing his head against Jessira’s chest.
The Human female nearly fell over, but she caught herself. She stepped back, but Shon followed. *What does he want?* Jessira asked sounding panicked.
*He just told you. He wants you to scratch his chin,* Aia said, speaking patiently as if to a kitten. She turns to Rukh. *Did your mate injure her mind when she was ill?*
Jessira squawked. *My mind is fine. I’m just not used to giant cats w
anting a chin rub.*
*I thought you said only a few of your kind could speak to those who aren’t Kesarin,* Rukh said.
*Yes,* Aia said. *And Shon and Thrum are two of them.* She licked her paw in thoughtful consideration. *Recently, more have been born who are like me.*
Shon thrust his head more insistently into Jessira’s chest, eliciting a ‘woof’. *Aia says your hands are like magic.* Another thrust. *And my chin itches.*
*Fine!* Jessira rubbed hard at Shon’s chin, a look of annoyed concentration on her face. Soon the tawny cat was lying on his side, head tilted up. His eyes closed as he purred his pleasure. Louder and louder he rumbled. One of his rear legs pawed the air.
Thrum watched all this, his eyes wide with fascination. With a swish of his tail, he shoved his head between Aia and Rukh. *My chin itches, too.*
Rukh knew what Thrum wanted, and he rubbed at the sensitive area directly below the point of Thrum’s chin. Soon Thrum was lying on his belly, pushing his head against Rukh’s hand, purring like distant thunder.
After a few minutes, Shon stood to his full height. *Truly wondrous,* he said. *Everything Aia claimed. Thrum thought she was lying.* Shon rubbed the corner of his mouth against the top of Jessira’s head. She kept her balance with a slight stumble and avoided Shon’s attempt to rub the opposite corner of his mouth against her head.
*My ears itch, too,* Thrum said to Rukh.
*I’m not your servant,* Rukh informed him.
*You’re not?* Thrum stared at him intently. *My ears are very itchy.* His tail switched. *I think you should rub them.*
*He is my Human,* Aia said, nosing between the two of them. *Find your own.*
*This one is mine,* Shon proclaimed.
*I think not,* Jessira said with a smile.
*Quiet, Human,* Shon said.
*Quiet yourself if you ever want me to rub your chin again.*
