“No worries, brother,” I said, curling up on a soft bed of pine needles. “Just tell me how you came to be here. Your presence here, while welcome, worries me. Is everyone all right?”
Darkhan yawned, his ear flattening. “They were when I left four days ago.”
“So what’s wrong?”
Darkhan’s yawn stretched into a grimace. “I couldn’t handle it anymore. Him and her. You know.”
I feared I did. “Rygel and Arianne.”
“Yes. When I saw them together, so happy, I wanted to die. I tried, I tried so hard to make her see, to win her love. But she had eyes only for him.”
“Rygel.”
“But he,” Darkhan’s voice dropped in a snarl, “kept Arianne close to him, never let her near me. I wanted to kill him. He wanted to kill me. We both drove your sister mad.”
“I can see it,” Tashira murmured, his dark eyes dancing. “Both vying for her attention.”
“Indeed,” Darkhan admitted. “I wanted to set my teeth on his throat–But he’s your brother and her love. I dared not. Nor did he dare kill me, for then she’d be set against him.”
“And then?”
“Fire Vixen commanded he go to the desert below and obtain disguises for them all, in order to travel the lands of the enemy soldiers with safety.”
I said. “Who?”
Darkhan glanced up. “Your mate. Fire Vixen.”
“Her wolf name,” Darius said, his tone amused.
“Ah,” I said. “Of course. Carry on.”
“He advised Fire Vixen to travel northwest, to find someone to tell her what god is trying to kill her. She agreed, and thus we travelled that way.”
“So I surmised,” I murmured. “And?”
“She commanded I go with him,” Darkhan growled, his head low. “With Little Bull, to protect him. I wanted to kill him.”
I exchanged a wry glance with Tashira. “Obviously you didn’t.”
“Of course not,” Darkhan said. “You and she would both hate me for it. I couldn’t. I’d never risk that. Never.”
“He brought the disguises?”
“And gifts,” Darkhan snarled. “For her. I lost her then. To him and his gifts.”
“Darkhan,” I said, needing for him to understand, even a little. “Listen to me. It could never have worked. You’re a wolf and she’s–”
“Your sister,” Darkhan exclaimed, his muzzle rising in desperate hope. “You’re wolf and human, both. So is she. If she were–”
“She’s not gai-tan,” I said softly.
“But she–”
“No.”
I spoke softly, yet firmly. “I would never permit it, though you’re my brother. She must rule Connacht when I die. She must be human, with a human mate. You will, you must, find another.”
Despondent, Darkhan rested his muzzle on his paws. “Fire Vixen said the same thing.”
“When?” I asked. “How?”
“She commanded we, us wolves, split apart and trail her from afar,” Darkhan said, his ears down, his voice miserable. “The human enemies must not see us, she’d said. She played the role of a slave, to deceive those who sought to kill her. Even Bar was sent to fly high, unseen. Arianne was her royal mistress, him and Kel’Ratan and the others were her guards.”
“So when did she say this to you?”
“Well,” Darkhan admitted. “It wasn’t to me, exactly. But she said it.”
“Um,” I began.
“He tried to kill Fire Vixen,” Darkhan snarled. “He kicked her. He hit her.”
“I know.”
Darkhan’s ears drooped in bafflement, but he plowed on. “Silverruff screamed and would’ve run to slay him, to gut him like a deer. But he heard her command Bar to stay away. So he stood down, and ordered us to stand down, too. We all, every one of us, wanted to run him down and drink his blood. For he hurt her, he hurt our Fire Vixen.”
“She knew,” I murmured, the pieces clicking together in my head.
“She knew what?” Tashira asked.
I glanced up. “Arianne was forced to play the role of a royal lady. Ly’Tana was her slave. Should she defend a slave–well, that might be suspicious. And should a griffin and a pack of wolves descend to rescue her–”
“That could mean disaster,” Tashira admitted.
“Many of them might not have survived,” I said. “That girl–”
“She’s worthy of you,” Darkhan said, his fangs gleaming under the late sun. “She took hurt so many others would live.”
“I know.”
“Her people wanted to kill him, after,” Darkhan went on. “She stayed their hands. They talked and decided that the god who hated her must have tricked his mind.”
“That would be my guess,” I murmured, knowing how much Rygel adored Ly’Tana. While I knew what I saw in my dreams, and had Darkhan’s version to prove it, I knew Rygel. In his own mind, under his own control, Rygel would never lift a finger to harm Ly’Tana. Ever. Our shared blood told me so.
“We all hovered close, after that,” Darkhan went on. “We hid behind the sand dunes, crept in close after dark. Bar slept within a few feet of her that night. He was furious.”
“I can imagine.”
I did. Bar helpless and watching, unable to protect her when someone close to her came within a hair of killing her. I bet his tail lashed quite a while over that.
“Somehow, she knew.” Darkhan’s voice dropped in wonder. “I was far away in despair, wishing I was dead when she spoke to me.”
“She,” I began, “she spoke to you?”
“She has the sight,” Darkhan said. “Like you and Arianne. She told me one who waits for me with an enduring heart. One who has love enough for us both and patience, for patience is love in disguise. This one will give me sons and daughters and everything I ever wanted in this life.”
“Um,” I asked slowly, exchanging eye contact with Tashira. “She doesn’t speak wolf. Exactly how did she tell you this, when you’re so far away?”
“She spoke through your son,” Darkhan answered. “Tuatha.”
I need serious help with this.
“No, you don’t,” said Darius.
“Ly’Tana doesn’t have the sight,” I argued.
“You don’t know that.”
“She knows things.”
“So?”
“What do I do?”
“Go with the flow, boy.”
I sighed. “Let me understand,” I said slowly. “Ly–er, Fire Vixen told Tuatha to tell you all this?”
“She did,” Darkhan replied. “It helped for a while, then I grew miserable again.”
“Were the soldiers still bothering them?”
“No. After that they travelled in peace. They got more horses from the tent town–”
“Tent town?” I asked doubtfully.
“At the edge of the desert is an open market,” Tashira said. “I don’t know what it’s called, but many merchants buy and sell everything under the sun.”
“Why do they need more horses?”
“To pack all their gear,” Darkhan said earnestly. “Food and tents for travelling. Fire Vixen sent some of her warriors in there to buy things they needed, and load their horses down. The warriors were to meet them in the desert later.”
“Makes sense, I suppose.” Yet his words troubled me and I didn’t know why. Darkhan told the truth, but he held something back.
“We trailed them by a few miles, some flanking, some behind. Bar flew above, quite high I think. But when they were attacked by the Cursed Ones, Fire Vixen didn’t have many to guard her.”
I jumped up, my lips skinned back. “Attacked?”
Darkhan cowered at my rage, his head lowered, and his tail flicking from side to side. “The Cursed Ones with the nasty mongrels and the marks on their skin.”
“Tongu,” I grated. My hackles refused to lie flat.
“The very same,” Darkhan said. “We were miles away, but ran as fast as we could the
instant we heard Arianne scream for us. Even Bar was almost too late.”
“Is she alive? Did they take her?”
While I knew Rygel lived and my gut told me Ly’Tana did as well, Darkhan’s tale brought out the fear, the panic that she had indeed been taken down. That even now Ly’Tana, married to that bastard Brutal, lay chained to his bed and abused by him.
“Yes and no,” Darkhan replied, his surprise showing, “to both questions. She is a true wolf, Big Dog. She and her people and even their horses fought them to standstill. By then Bar had joined the fight and we reached them. We killed many humans and mongrel dogs that day.”
I didn’t know I had been holding my breath until I let it out in a gusty sigh.
“Their daemon egged them on,” Darkhan continued. “From behind his shadow, more, er, Tongu kept coming. I thought there might be one way to stop them, stop them all. So I did it.”
At last I relaxed and sat down in my needle nest. “Did what?”
Darkhan’s tail wagged sheepishly. “I wanted to die so badly,” he said, his lips curled back from white teeth in an ashamed grimace. “I knew that I wouldn’t survive what I planned to do. I jumped down the daemon’s throat.”
Flabbergasted, I stared at him. Even Tashira ambled over to gaze down at him with respect in his dark eyes. Darkhan wriggled and wagged under my scrutiny, clearly worried he’d angered me.
“You–” I halted and started again. “You jumped down its throat?”
“Biting and ripping all the way. It tore me up something awful, but I kept at it. It screamed in agony and when Fire Vixen led a new attack on it; it panicked and vanished.”
“That might be how the Tongu keep finding you,” Tashira commented, after an affectionate nuzzle to Darkhan’s ear. “If those idiots worship a daemon and that daemon is as angry as the Tongu for what Rygel had done–”
“Nothing can stop them,” I finished for him. “Forgive for asking what may be a silly question, Darkhan. If you wanted to die so badly, why are you still alive?”
“When your blood brother came to heal me,” Darkhan said, still refusing to use Rygel’s name. “I bit him.”
I grinned, my tongue lolling. “I’ve no doubt he deserved it.”
“I told them he’s not to touch me,” Darkhan went on, his tone sad. “He wouldn’t heal me without my permission and I knew my death was close. So very close.”
“That sounds familiar,” I muttered, my humor rising.
“And?” I prompted when he fell silent.
He glanced up. “Fire Vixen.”
“What did she do?”
“She convinced me to want to live. She told me I had much to live for, and asked me to remember her prophecy. Despite all, Arianne did love me.”
“You agreed?”
“I did.” His expression brightened and his tail fanned the air. “Your mate talks a good one.”
I laughed. “That she does. What happened after that?”
“I don’t remember anything until I woke up in a tent city the next day.”
“The market?” I asked, puzzled, glancing at Tashira.
“No,” he answered, his tone puzzled. “It was a place in the midst of the desert with a river running along the valley and good grass for their horses. They had camels, flocks of sheep and goats. They lived in the tents.”
“Can you describe the people?”
“They had brown skin, dark eyes, cloth over their faces and on their heads. Long skirts. Capes.”
“Desert tribesmen,” I said.
“Probably the Jha’fhar,” Tashira commented, wandering back to his grass. “They travel to Soudan across our lands from time to time. As they don’t stay, we leave them alone.”
“I knew then I couldn’t stay any longer,” Darkhan said. “I found Fire Vixen while most everyone else slept. I told her I had to go, to leave, to join you.”
“She understood you?”
“She’s very intelligent. I asked her to tell Arianne I’d always love her. She agreed, and let me go.”
“Incredible,” I murmured.
“I couldn’t see her again,” Darkhan said, a faint whine in his voice. “Arianne. She’d ask me to stay and I would and–”
“Your heart would never heal,” I said softly. “You did right. Despite the fact you disobeyed my command. You know you can’t stay with me.”
Darkhan’s expression fell. “But you let him stay,” he growled, his muzzle jerking toward Tashira.
“Only because I haven’t gotten rid of him yet.”
“Nor will you,” Tashira said, not raising his head from his grass.
“I’ve nowhere else to go,” Darkhan said, near panic. “Don’t send me away, Big Dog. Please. I can help you, I swear I won’t be a problem, I already helped, right? I sneaked up on the human holding Tashira hostage, and took him down, it was easy, really, but I can do it again if I had to, I’m not afraid–”
“I’m sorry–”
“You didn’t ask for my opinion,” Tashira said, finally raising his head, ears perked.
“I certainly didn’t and don’t want it.”
“You have it anyhow. He should stay. He’s already saved our skins.”
“Tashira–”
“Get over yourself already,” he snapped. “You need him and you need me. Deal with it.”
“He’s right.”
“Who asked you?” I snarled. “You stay out of this.”
“Just as he said, deal with it.”
“I had to send Feria away for this same reason. They’ll all die just as she would have.”
“That was different.”
“It’s bloody not.”
Darkhan’s golden eyes, round with awe, stared at me as though I’d lost my mind.
“He’s just arguing with that troublemaker in his head,” Tashira said casually. “You can tell when his eyes glaze over.”
“They do not–”
“Uh, yes they do,” Darkhan said diffidently. “But aren’t you going to get into trouble talking to him like that? He is our god after all.”
“He’s a bloody nuisance,” I grumbled, resting my head on my paws.
“Now, now. Don’t be petulant.”
“You’re staying,” Tashira told Darkhan. “He’s been outflanked.”
“Who’s Feria?”
“His girlfriend.”
“Whoa,” Darkhan murmured. “You have a mate and a girlfriend? You go, dog.”
I sighed.
“Ly’Tana won’t like it though,” Tashira went on. “She doesn’t like competition.”
“Females are like that.”
I shut my eyes.
North
Chapter 6
“Someone shoot me,” Kel’Ratan moaned. “Please. Anyone.”
I staggered out of my tent, blinded by the bright sunlight, nauseous. My head spun and ached so hard I thought it might tear asunder at any moment. The foul taste in my mouth, reminiscent of dried camel dung, gagged me. Taking a step, I tripped over something, hearing a distant yelp, and fell flat on my face. Desert sand filled my eyes, nose and mouth, but that was the least of my worries. Like Kel’Ratan, if I could speak, I’d beg for someone, anyone, to split my head with an axe. End my misery once and for all.
Lying still helped. Maybe if I didn’t move for the next year or so, my various aches might get bored and wander off. I could but hope, anyway.
The bright sunlight suddenly vanished, its heat disappearing from my exposed body. If I could breathe, I might gust a satisfactory sigh of relief.
“Aren’t you a sight,” Bar commented, his tone as dry as the sand in my face.
Raising my head an inch or so, I inhaled the dust into my mouth and nose. Coughing and snorting, I tried to look around. With the dirt in my eyes and my hair over my face, I couldn’t see a damn thing. Between the nausea, pain and dizziness, it wasn’t worth the effort. I dropped back to the sand, while, this time at least, I kept my face out of most of it. After all, I did need
to breathe. A little.
“Like some help?” Bar inquired.
“Shut up,” I moaned.
Tuatha’s busy tongue cleaned some of the grit from my eyes, his anxious whines sharp in my ear. I winced at the horrid sound. “Not so loud, dammit.”
Bar’s talon under my belly whipped me onto my back. “You’re pathetic.”
“Ugh.”
“How eloquent. How’d your eyes turn that particular shade of red? Inquiring minds must know.”
I covered my face with my arm.
“Are you going to lie there all day?”
“Um, let me think on it. Yes.”
“You aren’t.”
This time his talon slid under my shoulder and lifted straight up. I came with it, dangling from his right front foot like a hooked trout. I’d no energy to flop, however, though I groaned as my belly threatened to hurl anything it contained onto Bar’s pristine mane. I’m certain some yet undigested talela sloshed around in there, ready to reverse itself at record speed.
Bar peered deep into my swollen eyes. His talon shook me gently, as though pushing the limits my belly set once the talela took hold. Much more of that, and I’d be yakking up my stomach, intestines, bowels and yesterday’s limited nutrition intake. I half-wondered how Bar’s feathers might withstand a barf mixture of talela and whatever I don’t remember consuming the night before. I hurled it all last night, and its odor threatened to create a repeat performance.
“Don’t do that,” I yelped.
“What a baby. It appears humans can’t hold their talela.”
I swiped some of my hair from my face and peered woozily up into his laughing eagle’s eyes. “Did you have any?”
“Do I look stupid?”
“Then shut your bloody trap. And shut him up.”
Kel’Ratan’s agonized groans and suicidal comments continued unceasing, jarring my head.
“He’s not my problem. You are.”
His talon supported me as I regained my feet. Strength returned slowly, leaching into my bones in a trickle. Some of the nausea relented, my belly settling a little. Wiping dirt and grit from my face, I coughed and sneezed the dust out of my nose and mouth.
When I could at last look around, I discovered Tuatha sat at my feet, gazing upward with his blue eyes wide. Hooked as I was and far too sick, I couldn’t lean over to pick him up. I did manage a lopsided grin to ease his worry. He yapped sharply, making me wince again, but I’d no idea what he said.
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