“What was that?”
I looked up. “‘It’s not your time’.”
Raine pulled me into his hard embrace, holding me tight to him. His jacket vibrated under my ear as he spoke. “Darius told me you’re protected. Now I can believe him. You are under the protection of many divine folks, you’re their Beloved. They won’t permit Usa’a’mah to harm you.”
“I just hope I can stay ahead of him, for a while.”
“Then what?”
I tossed my head back to gaze up into his eyes. “Then I die beside you,” I replied simply, “in hell.”
No wonder Raine didn’t want to tell his story twice. Once was more than enough.
After forcing more food on him than he wanted, I listened with growing wonder as he told his story. Fires lit, wolves, mules, and horses fed and watered, the rest of us gathered in the cold winter dark under the pale swath of moon and clusters of stars with our dinner in our hands. Behind us, the thick, hide tents were lit from within by burning charcoal braziers to keep us warm throughout the seemingly endless winter night.
Of his tales, only Darkhan and Tashira knew some of it. The rest of us were held in thrall as his mild voice spoke of meeting the Arcadians and freeing them from slavery, his attempts to cross the Great Caravan Route, and his grief at the torture and death of Wind Spirit. No wolf, including shy, timid Ghost, refrained from ugly growls that rose as Raine’s haunted voice spoke of her, of how he killed her to spare her further agony.
A passing thought almost convinced me that Wind Spirit was the cause of his despair, but my instinct rose and prodded me in the gut. While he did indeed grieve over the young, tortured wolf, something else yet haunted his laughter, his eyes. That was his other love, the girlfriend Tashira told me not to worry about.
Rygel, unable to question Raine much despite his many attempts, heard how Raine healed himself of the arrow in his belly. With the many voices shouting him down, Rygel relented, furious, his hands twitching as he craved the healing knowledge Raine apparently discovered on his own.
Raine paused in his tale to grin at his blood brother. “I promise,” he said. “I’ll tell you all, in detail. Just let me get through this, all right?”
Blowing out his breath in a gust that lifted his wild mane from his brow, Rygel nodded. Arianne took his hand as Darkhan lay next to her, his head on her knee. Ghost, curled into a pale ball with dark eyes and a black nose, huddled next to him, her gaze on Raine. My warriors, seated in a loose circle about the fires, ran their hands over the heavy ruffs of their wolves. Many muzzles rested on laps or knees, eyes glowing a deep garnet in the dancing light of the fires. Silverruff, after deserting me, sagged against Raine and sprawled across his lap. I didn’t mind, really, as Silverruff belonged heart and soul to Raine. Within Raine’s crossed legs, a drowsy Tuatha chewed absently on Silverruff’s ear.
My own loyal boys, Thunder and Digger, huddled close. I leaned against Thunder’s massive bulk as Digger wrapped himself around me, his head in my lap. In such fashion, he could nuzzle Raine and receive some strokes over his soft ears from his Chosen One and still remain with me.
“My hunting skills came rather late,” Raine said with a half-smile and a shrug. “I almost starved to death. I found a town with an inn–”
“Uh, oh,” I said, exchanging a concerned glance with Rygel. “You might have been recognized.”
“Oh, I was,” Raine replied agreeably. “The bastards hit me with a shovel. I woke before they got me very far, though. I tried very hard to convince them they really should leave me alone, but Brutal’s reward spurred them on. I bounced all over the town square–”
“That could have attracted Ja’Teel,” Rygel said, his brows furrowed over his tawny eyes.
“It did.”
My own words shocked me. I ignored the eyes, the stares, as I gripped Raine’s hand with both of mine. “In the tavern,” I said, my voice low, hurried. “You confronted him. He killed innocents. You hid in the smoke–”
“And I ran like a craven,” Raine admitted, flipping strands of hair from my brow. “I made him chase me, so he’d not exact his vengeance on those who’d nothing to do with our quarrel.”
Rygel’s curses blistered the night’s frigid air. “I sincerely will kill that evil little shit.”
“I’ll help,” gritted Kel’Ratan. “Only cowards slay the helpless.”
“He searched in vain,” Raine went on, his tone lighter. “He then returned to his black master and I still hadn’t learned to hunt. But others managed what I couldn’t.”
“Hunters found you.”
He gripped my hand, smiling down at me. “You saw them. You screamed a warning.”
I grinned back. “I knew they hadn’t a chance against you. Who were they?”
“The Farouk.”
“What happened, m’lord?” Witraz asked. “Did you kill them?”
Raine chuckled. “I wish I had. They now think I’m their god.”
Smiling, Raine went on after the laughter died. “I finally learned how to hunt and staved off starvation.”
As his quirky voice told of how he travelled across the mountains, yips and growls accompanied his story of how he finally learned to hunt. Yet, his voice faltered for a moment, his eyes shunted away from the fires and his audience to glance off into the darkness. The bleakness I’d seen returned to his already haunted eyes, hardening his smiling lips and casting his face into shadow.
“He’s hiding something,” Bar said.
I didn’t reply, though I knew Bar was right. Raine told his story, but he skipped a chapter.
“Ja’Teel got ahead of me,” he said, his amused eyes now on Rygel. “With a dart, he drugged me senseless.”
“What kind of drug?” Rygel asked, his eyes flat. “What did it do?”
“I could see and hear,” Raine answered slowly, stroking Tuatha. “But I’d no will, no emotion, no reason to fight. Any power I called to my fist vanished like sand through my fingers.”
“I think I’ll flay him alive,” Kel’Ratan said slowly, thoughtfully, his eyes on the fire.
“You’ll have to wait in line,” said Alun, his left arm around his faithful Black Tongue, his right hand tickling his sword hilt.
“With Darius’ help,” Raine continued, “I fought off the drug.”
“How?” Rygel asked, puzzled. “You can’t fight what’s already in your blood. Believe me, I’ve tried.”
A blush heated Raine’s cheeks, yet his quick glance dropped to me for a brief instant. A strange smile haunted his lips. “If one has enough motivation, one can move mountains.”
“Then get on with it, dammit,” Kel’Ratan snapped, his hand on Nahar’s ruff. “How’d you get loose?”
Raine’s blush deepened. “Darius knew only my rage could free me. He sent a vision–”
He choked and coughed, his cheeks bright red and his eyes anxious, “–a vision of her, of Ly’Tana, er, you know–”
My heart filled, thickening my throat. Everyone present knew the one thing, the one violation, that single sin that sent Raine over the edge. Rape. Captive, bound for torture and death, yet his love for me, his concern for my welfare, overrode his own need for survival.
“In my rage, I burned away the poison–”
“Wait a minute,” Rygel demanded, leaning close. “You burned away the poison? In your blood?”
“I said so, didn’t I?”
“You burned away poison? In your blood? How, dammit? How?”
Raine sat back. “I, er, sent fire into my blood to burn the, you know, drug out.”
“Fire.”
“Well, rather small bits of flame, but, yes with fire. I’m rather good with it, remember.”
Rygel sagged. “Bloody hell.”
“I did do it,” Raine said, his grey eyes laughing. “After I got it all, I killed the trooper who tried to drug me again. He shouldn’t have had to die, but Ja’Teel rode off and left these idiot soldiers and dumb Tongu to mind me and, well, yo
u know, my rage and all–it sort of took hold and I killed the sergeant.”
“I crested the hill above him,” Tashira said, his dark eyes shining. “There he lay on a bier, dragged by horses, rising like a furry black daemon for vengeance. He killed two and frightened the others into pissing themselves.”
Raine scowled slightly. “That’s sort of true. I did kill the pair, and when I changed forms the others lost all their sand. A Tongu tried to shoot me, so I set him on fire.”
“Crispy Tongu.” Kel’Ratan snickered.
“What about the soldiers?”
“Did you kill them as well, m’lord?” Witraz asked eagerly.
“Lay open their throats?” Rannon added. “Bathe in their blood?”
“Er, no, well, not exactly.”
Kel’Ratan leaned forward, his laughter stilled and his eyes burning. “What did you do, exactly?”
“I sent them home.”
Kel’Ratan choked. “You–sent them home?”
“They were just boys,” Raine said. “No sense in killing them. After they told me they wanted to desert and join the Arcadian army, I suggested they take the Tongu’s hounds with them.”
“I suppose they just snapped their fingers and the dogs went with them,” Rygel said with a swift eye roll.
Raine smiled faintly at the subtle jeer. “How’d you know?”
“They wouldn’t just abandon their masters,” I said. “Why ever would they?”
“After I burned the Tongu,” Raine went on. “I offered the others clemency, but they refused. Once Tenzin and Brutal found them, well, we all know what happens to those who fail. The dogs wanted no part of their masters’ fate.”
“I never thought those mutts were that smart,” Kel’Ratan snorted.
“They are.”
“So then what?” I asked.
Raine half-shrugged. “I sent the boys and their new pets on the road, left the Tongu wrapped up like a package and continued. Tashira joined me, later, in a cave, during the blizzard.”
“After that, Darkhan caught up to us,” Tashira added. “He saved both of us from Ja’Teel.”
“What!” I exclaimed as Rygel started to rise. Raine nodded, flapping his hand to settle Rygel down.
“Ja’Teel tracked us, despite my net hiding us,” Raine said. “He had a companion, an aika’ru’braud wizard. The stranger took Tashira hostage–”
“I am sooo going to kill that boy.”
“–with a net of fire while Ja’Teel bandied words with me. I thought to fight them both, but Darkhan took down the stranger.”
Darkhan growled something and Tashira nodded. “He said ‘Tell them you killed him.’”
Raine half smiled. “Tashira was a little irritated, I’ll admit. He stomped that bad boy into mush.”
“And Ja’Teel,” Witraz asked eagerly. “You killed him, right, m’lord?”
Raine’s smile died. “I tried. We fought a duel of powers, and I’d have won. But he fled.”
“Always the coward,” Kel’Ratan sighed.
Tashira once more picked up the story, his tone eager. “A few days later, we found Ghost. All we could see of her were eyes, you should have seen it–”
“I think we did,” I said, smiling as Ghost’s tail twitched when her name entered the conversation.
Tashira went on. “Ghost showed us a pass through the mountains and a bridge across the river.”
“This is where Tashira got stupid,” Shardon added.
Tashira pinned his ears. “It’s my tale now, so shut your mouth.”
“I thought it was Raine’s tale.”
“His and mine, we can both tell it.”
Raine grinned at the exchange. “Ghost did show us a tree that fell across the rapids,” he said. “I’ll admit I didn’t like Tashira crossing it–”
“He flat told me not to,” Tashira declared. “I thought I could.”
“Tashira isn’t too bright,” Shardon commented. His tone dropped into a hushed whisper that explained everything. “After all, he’s adopted.”
“I am not!”
“The only black one in the family, you know. A band of gypsies left him in the night.”
“I’m going to bloody kill you–”
Before Tashira exploded, Raine’s voice calmed the brotherly quarrel as smothered grins abounded around the fire. “As you all can probably guess, he didn’t make it.”
Raine’s soft voice told the story of Tashira crashing into the cliff wall rather than clearing it, the broken log sliding into the deep chasm. Tashira flattened his ears as Raine spoke of Tashira’s request for Raine to kill him, save him from his agony as he had Wind Spirit. Raine’s refusal had his audience on edge, me included. A glance over my shoulder showed even Bar waited anxiously for him to continue, his raptor’s beak open.
“As much as I hate giving credit where credit is due,” Raine said, his eyes sliding around to our surrounding faces. “Darius nudged me in the right direction. I transported Tashira off the ledge.”
Rygel’s jaw dropped. “You didn’t.”
“I sent Ghost and Darkhan for wood,” Raine went on, his eyes on the conflagrations. “Without fire I couldn’t long stand the freeze. I had to be human, but it almost wasn’t enough. I couldn’t set his leg. I wasn’t strong enough. Until Darius, again, goaded me into a rage.”
Tashira’s ears rose as murmurs from around the fire filled the silent cold. Apparently, this part was new to him. I squeezed Raine’s hand, offering him silent encouragement.
“Furious,” Raine went on, his gaze in the fire, “I snapped the bone into place. Then I healed him.”
“Just like that?” Rygel snapped, his fingers twitching.
“Er, um,” Raine replied slowly. His grin slowly widened as his eyes danced in the firelight. “Yes. Just like that.”
He glanced up at the expressions of awe, the wolves licking concerned muzzles, the fingers making the sign against strong enchantment. His eyes finally rested on Rygel. “However I learned it, it doesn’t matter now,” he said. “I’m stuck with that braying braggart.”
“Dammit,” Tashira muttered, his ears pinned. “I liked us being even.”
“Tell us about the unicorn.”
Surprised as anyone, I glanced at Arianne. With her mien that of a princess, not a slave, she leaned forward slightly, frowning, her magnificent eyes on her brother. “You left that part out.”
“She doesn’t miss a trick,” Tashira commented.
As I hadn’t much believed in the unicorn to start with, her demand startled me. With a swift glance at my boys, they hadn’t my skepticism and whole heartedly believed Tashira’s wild comment about a unicorn being pissed at Raine. Of course, they wanted more.
“It’s Darkhan’s tale, more than mine,” Raine said, suddenly evasive.
“I can’t understand Darkhan,” I all but snapped. “Neither can they.” I jerked my chin toward my avid boys. “I for one don’t want the story lost in the translation.”
With a heavy shrug, Raine merely said, “He’d tell it better than I would. He’s the hero, after all. Twice over.”
Darkhan yawned, flattening his ears. He sighed and dropped his muzzle to his paws, clearly not interested in talking. At the word ‘hero’, Ghost lifted hers and nuzzled his ear. In the firelight, her brown eyes glowed with pride and adoration.
“Stop teasing us,” Kel’Ratan demanded sharply. “Just tell the bleeding tale, for gods’ sake.”
“Oh, very well.”
As Raine spoke of finding a unicorn mother in desperate need of aid and threatening the trio with her spiral horn, my skepticism vanished like smoke up a chimney. I’d never believed much in fairy tales, and unicorns definitely fitted into that genre. Yet, with Darkhan and Tashira as witnesses, Raine encountered not just one unicorn but two.
“Her tears fell on the ground,” Raine said softly, his eyes on the fire. “From them sprang two shoots.”
“Crikey,” muttered Witraz.
; “Winter’s too cold for them to bloom; they sank back into the soil to await spring.”
“What? We living in a bloody fairy tale now?” Yuri asked.
“Believe what you will,” Raine said, his gaze never leaving the flickering flames. “It happened. Darkhan jumped at the chance to dive below and bring the youngling up. With the foal in his teeth, he leaped up–”
“Raine had to bite Darkhan’s ruff and drag him out,” Tashira interrupted. “If he hadn’t, Darkhan and the baby might not have made it.”
Raine dropped his head in a nod in Tashira’s direction. “Perhaps. I did pull him, as he was slipping, and dragged him to safety. After he opened his mouth, the unicorn baby dropped out free and unharmed. The mother wept as she sought her baby and her tears dropped onto my paws.”
Rygel, as if on strings, jumped up. “Her tears touched you?”
Raine glanced up surprised. “Didn’t you hear me?”
“What happened then?”
“What does it matter?”
Rygel all but stepped through the coals and flickering flames to loom over Raine, his wild wheaten mane backlit by the fire and his eyes sparking anger. I half expected Raine to drawn his blade and defend himself, as I did when I seized my swordhilt. Digger’s lips drew back in a silent snarl.
“Tell me now,” Rygel snapped. “What did you feel?”
His hands leaving mine and Tuatha’s small body, Raine ran his hands through his black, oily hair. His eyes, never still, flicked back and forth, his handsome lips thinning into a thin white line. “Bugs,” he said simply.
“Bugs?”
Raine tried a shrug, which didn’t fit at all, and a smile which fit even less. “Tiny bugs running along every inch of me, under my skin. Like my hide grew feet and tried to crawl away. It felt really weird, creepy even.”
Rygel sagged back, onto his butt and into the same spot he rose from. “She marked you.”
“That’s what she said,” Tashira responded brightly, his ears up. “She marked him and can follow him anywhere. She didn’t seem to like him at all.”
“How the bloody hell do you know anything about unicorns?” Kel’Ratan asked, his tone sharp.
“Unicorns are very powerful creatures,” Rygel said slowly. “‘Tis said in some places they’re more powerful than the gods themselves.”
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