They watched Tythahn run down the side of the hill, but it was more than a run. Glywyn and Faeswyn had told her about Trikyia’s battle with the fairies. How Trikyia said the fairies had moved with lightning speed, seeming to be bolts of lightning themselves. That was Tythahn. In an instant, he’d made his way to the valley without being detected. He seemed animalistic, yet human, and very much a man. As baenthahndorse, his image would have frightened many, but she was quickly becoming accustomed to him in what she called, his feral form.
They were only a short distance from the encampment from where they were perched on the hill. Eielawyn scanned the camp, looking out on the guards walking around the perimeter, and those within the camp. Her breath caught in her throat when she saw Raenos. He was lying still in a small cell. It was more of a cage than any cell used to hold humans. They were treating him like an animal.
Kinsbithu grabbed hold of her arm, as she instinctively began to head down the hill to him. “What the hell do you think you’re going to do down there?” Kinsbithu asked her. “Tythahn told us to wait here. He can handle it. And he said he had aid. There are too many down there for you to try and suggest on, Eielawyn.”
“He’s just lying there,” she whispered. “What if…? What if he’s—”
“He’s not,” Kinsbithu said with an intense stare. “He’s not.”
She took a deep breath to calm herself and turned her attention back to Tythahn and the guard encampment. “You’re right,” she said. It was then that she sighed in relief at seeing Raenos move his legs in the cell. “He’s alive!” That fact was enough to calm her, and let Tythahn do as he said he would. And as Eielawyn and Kinsbithu looked on, he did.
Guards came running toward him, as he stormed into the camp as if he were a one-man stampede. He swiped at the guards with his claws. The claws that she knew were attached to a man but were now the claws of a beast. But as he swiped at them, they screamed out and then lay still on the ground, dead or dying in his wake. Another guard came at him from the right, and he did something she hadn’t been prepared to see. Tythahn’s mouth opened wide, showing the ragged teeth of his other, and he closed on the throat of the guard, ripping the flesh from the body. Blood began to spurt from the torn wound, as the guard garbled a scream and tried to staunch the steady flow with his hands. But Tythahn didn’t stop, as guard after guard came at him. Eielawyn saw several guards draw their weapons, aiming them steadily at Tythahn. At first she thought he was surely going to die then and there. But even as the guards fired the tracers—the free lasers seemed to bounce off of Tythahn, as if he were impenetrable.
She couldn’t understand how he would be able to fight all of the guards. There were at least a hundred in the encampment. But he suddenly stopped fighting, standing in the middle of the camp, and released a roar that reverberated throughout the valley. It was so primal, so feral, the hairs on the back of her neck stood straight up, and a fear that she’d never known to exist within her threatened to escape as a scream from her mouth.
Kinsbithu had shut her eyes when Tythahn had begun his assault on the guards. But Eielawyn couldn’t look away. She needed to see Tythahn rip through the guards like a rogue wave moving through the sea. She wouldn’t look away until she knew Raenos was safe. But what she hadn’t expected to see was what happened next.
The mountains around the encampment began to move and shift. The ground trembled slightly under them, and as she looked below them toward the guard camp, she knew why. Her eyes widened in horror as creatures began to come out from the wall of the mountains. They appeared to be the mountains themselves. Unlike any creature or animal she’d seen before. They were incredibly tall, towering at least ten feet for some, twelve feet or more for others. Moss seemed to cover their bodies, yet she knew it was part of them. Their gaping mouths were where nightmares dwelled and death visited. She saw some of the creatures stare at the guards, and the men became transfixed where they stood, as if entranced. She heard some of the guards yelling out, “Yaorg! Yaorg!” as the creatures grabbed stunned guards into their three clawed hands, crushing some but eating others.
Tythahn had made it to the cell that held Raenos. Eielawyn looked to the right, and in the distance she could see a tall, blond guard running toward the cell. Tythahn didn’t bother with trying to pick the lock, or some obscure gesture she’d often seen in a movie on Tru-View. He put his hands on the bars—bars she knew were made from the most impenetrable metal in Ai—and simply pulled them apart. Raenos didn’t seem afraid of Tythahn, but he also didn’t run with him up the mountain to her. Tythahn grabbed hold of his arm, but Raenos shook it free, as Tythahn turned to deal with two guards attacking him from behind. She knew what Raenos wanted. It was what she wanted. The debt had to be paid. He’d killed Filkothinor, and Zhoardaeash had to die.
Raenos ran toward Zhoardaeash, who raised his tracer, intent to kill Raenos. But as she looked on, no one including her could have known just how Zhoardaeash would meet his end. A towering yaorg stood behind Zhoardaeash. Raenos immediately knelt in front of the beast, bowing his head in respect. Yes, she thought. She remembered what Glywyn had told her to do if ever she were to come upon the yaorg. Take to your knees, and live. Raenos did. But the yaorg grabbed Zhoardaeash in its claw, and simply and effectively bit him in two. The yaorg crunched on Zhoardaeash’s body as if he were snacking on a carrot and walked away with a piece of Zhoardaeash in each of its three-clawed hands, as his blood drenched the soil below and the claws of the yaorg.
She let out a collective breath of relief. It was over, she thought to herself. At least she thought it was. But as the yaorg bit down on the last of Zhoardaeash, the tracer still grasped in his hand fired. The rogue tracer found Raenos, as he yelled aloud, and fell to the side.
“No! No!” Eielawyn tried to run down the hill once again, but Kinsbithu all but sat on top of her. “Raenos!”
Kinsbithu turned Eielawyn’s face to her own. “I won’t let you go down there, Eielawyn. Let Tythahn handle it. He’ll get Raenos, but you can’t help him right now!”
Tears blinded her, as Kinsbithu lay on top of her. “Okay,” she said, nodding. “I won’t, now get off me!”
Almost reluctantly, Kinsbithu got off of her. They both looked up to the sky, hearing something unfamiliar. An air transport appeared over the opposite hilltop, even as Tythahn continued to battle the guards. Unfortunately, the yaorg had grabbed a quick snack and left the party. She instinctively knew who was in the transport. And as she stared down at the melee still in progress, she also knew without any doubt that Raenos was still in danger. Not from the guards, or from the retreating yaorg, but from who was in the transport. Four guards were walking toward Raenos to retrieve him. She couldn’t let that happen.
She glanced beside her at Kinsbithu, who was transfixed on what was happening below, and took her chance then. She immediately stood and ran a fast as she could down to the camp. She could hear Kinsbithu yelling to her to stop, but nothing but her own death would keep her from preventing Balaedras from getting Raenos.
Glywyn told her that she had to sharpen her skills. She told her that they all needed to learn how to use their vaedra gifts in order to strengthen them. She’d never had to use them much in the past. It had been fun to read the thoughts of some of those in Yaesdrah. But she never put much thought in strengthening her powers. And they were powers. Powers that could be so very useful at times that were sure to come.
Kinsbithu continued to yell to her, as she made her way into the camp. The dead and dying bodies of the guards lay in macabre repose around her, but she ignored it all. She needed to get to Raenos. She knew that Balaedras would take him. Maybe she would use him as her personal dildo, or perhaps she would torture him in some vile way until he submitted to her. Because she knew that Raenos would never willingly go to her bed. But even as she thought of it, she didn’t care as long as he was alive.
She heard fighting and the whizzing of fired tracers to her right. Tythahn roared aloud, and s
creams came from that direction. She didn’t stop to see what the screams were for. Tythahn could defend himself. But Raenos’ body was still lying unmoving on the ground. That was her focus. Three guards rushed toward her, and without thinking—without concentrating on the thought as she had before—she motioned her head to them, telling them to shoot each other, and they did. Five guards ran at her with tracers drawn. Without thinking twice, she ordered the first guard to shoot the others and then himself. The first guard shot the other four in quick succession, and then put the tracer into his mouth and pulled the trigger. The guards didn’t stop and dance with each other, as what often happened when she suggested on more than three at a time. They didn’t sing nursery rhymes and perform cartwheels. Her suggestions were on the mark. At any other time, she would have stopped to revel in the success she had, but this wasn’t one of those times. She didn’t stop long enough to watch the guard’s head explode in a shower of crimson pulp, but continued toward Raenos. The air transport was only sixty or so feet away. Raenos lay ten feet ahead of her, and she ran over to him.
“Raenos? Baby?” she said, falling to the ground and taking his limp head into her lap.
His eyes fluttered open, and that was all she needed to see. Her hand went to his side where the tracer had hit him. But as she pulled it away, she saw only blood. So much blood. His shirt was completely wet with the life that was slowly seeping out of him.
Tythahn ran up to her, looking down at Raenos. “I have to pull you into me, Eielawyn. Now! Now, or Raenos will die.”
She looked up at the transport ahead of her, and for the first time she saw the woman that had caused so much pain to so many people. Balaedras was poised at the entrance of the transport as if she were about to walk out. She stopped short, and Eielawyn saw the look on her face. Balaedras glared straight at her, and then a malicious smile spread across her face as she nodded and went back inside of the transport. The door closed, and the transport rose quickly into the sky, disappearing in seconds over the hills.
“Fairies!” Tythahn yelled.
Eielawyn had only a second to glance up to the hill and see the brightly colored lightning bolts streaking across the hills. In the next instant, Tythahn’s arms surrounded her and Raenos, as her world went dark. The last thing she thought was for the goddesses to save Raenos’ essence. That and how she wanted to end the life of Queen Balaedras.
Chapter Sixteen
As baenthahndorse, Tythahn’s speed equaled that of the fairies. But he held Eielawyn, Raenos, and Kinsbithu inside him. He’d tried to explain to Eielawyn and Kinsbithu what he was, but truth be told, it could never be fully explained. It had to be explained to him when he was younger. The first time he’d known he was different.
He was from the north. A place where most people of Ai never traveled or heard of before. Ochothahstrahn was a small village on the shores of the Mornashmahl Sea. Not all of those that lived there were baenthahndorse. There were humans also. But they all lived and worked together to carve out a living in the rugged environment they called home.
He’d had friends when he was younger—human friends—that always remarked on his size, his appearance, and how many of the girls in school were attracted to him. He couldn’t explain it to them, because he didn’t understand it himself. His father tried, but speaking about a young baenthahndorse’s oncoming manhood made him uncomfortable. But his mother wasn’t uncomfortable with her sexuality as most female baenthahndorse were, or the sexuality that her son was about to experience as baenthahndorse. It was his mother that told him what it meant to have the other. She taught him how to control his transformation, and when to use it. At first, he shunned that part of himself. He dealt with his difference with anger and violence, believing that because he was baenthahndorse he had to be angry, mean, and uncontrollable. He believed he was less than human, but his mother quickly showed him otherwise. He was human. A human with a gift, and an extra being inside of him that made him special.
It was only after puberty that he noticed the effect being baenthahndorse had on women. He oozed sensuality that made women take notice of him. The first time he made love to a woman, she begged him to let his baenthahndorse out. He hadn’t released his full other, but he did let out enough to make sex more carnal, erotic, and intensely arousing. He had to admit that after that, he used his other to entice women into his bed. He was young and horny, and being baenthahndorse turned from being something he wanted to hide from when he was younger, to something he wanted to outwardly show. But there were costs.
Baenthahndorse existed for thousands of years living inconspicuously. Not many knew they existed, and that was the way baenthahndorse preferred to live. Because once they were known to exist, many wanted them for war. They were chained with shackles made with a unique metal—metal that not even baenthahndorse could break—and taken prisoner. They were used as weapons in war because of their abilities. Some were taken as prisoners to be used as a human’s personal security guard for the wealthy. Yet others were taken as a sexual instrument. When Tythahn was younger, he didn’t feel that the last was such a bad situation.
They were taken because of the special abilities of the baenthahndorse. They could pull people into their bodies to travel. Their speed was similar to fairies. Their strength was superior to many in Ai. They had a heightened sense of smell, hearing, and sight, especially at night. But perhaps the most unique ability of baenthahndorse was their body’s resistance to harm. Tracers bounced off them, and knives broke against their skin. The only being known to injure a baenthahndorse was the bite of a fairy. Luckily, fairies weren’t found in the north. But more than being impervious to harm, baenthahndorse lived for more than five hundred years, entering puberty when they were forty in human years. That long life span had its pros and cons. Baenthahndorse never married anyone but other baenthahndorse. Falling in love with a human who would only live on average eighty years would be painful and lonely.
They’d outlawed the capture and imprisonment of baenthahndorse as slaves hundreds of years ago in the north. But there were those that had never seen or known of them in the rest of Ai that when they encountered them, quickly wanted to kill them on sight, or take them as some kind of trophy. Humans often wanted to covet what they found curious and different.
He ran. He knew the clock was ticking down for Raenos. He could feel all their essence inside of him, so he ran. He could still remember the image of Kinsbithu’s shocked face, as he streaked by her, absorbing her quickly and continued to run. The trees whizzed by him, a blur of distorted images. His speed was so fast that he barely felt the ground beneath him. But he did sense something else. Something that frightened him. Not for himself. There was not much that frightened him, but he was frightened for Eielawyn, Kinsbithu, and Raenos. He felt fairy aura. It was all around him. So he ran as fast as he could, trying to make it to the other side of the mountain into Yaeltaran. He had to make it into Yaeltaran. Fairies wouldn’t travel into Yaeltaran because of the proliferation of moon mint.
He started to feel hopeful that he would make it to the other side. Even though the fairy aura was suffocating around him, he wasn’t concerned about being entranced. Baenthahndorse were immune to fairy aura. They couldn’t be entranced by them. But a fairy’s bite…one fairy was no match for one baenthahndorse. But several fairies—a fairy horde—could rip a baenthahndorse apart whether in human or other form. He ran.
But even as that feeling built inside of him that he would make it to the safety of Yaeltaran, where moon mint proliferated among the green hills, he saw the streaks of colors among the trees and knew he was no longer alone. Within seconds, he was stopped in his tracks by five fairies that appeared in front of him. He roared in response but turned to head right, only to be stopped again by three more fairies. They had corralled him. He knew if he headed back to the left, more fairies would await him. The only thing he could do was try and figure out a way out of the woods with Eielawyn, Raenos, and Kinsbithu still alive within him.<
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“Beast,” a fairy whispered. “Who are you, beast?”
All around him, he heard the fairy whispers. Some whispered that he should be killed. Others whispered the word “beast,” as if it would offend or anger him. In his other form, he was a beast.
A fairy lighted on the ground in front of him. She was dressed in a yellow-and-gold gown with light, shimmering, yellow-blonde hair. Her eyes were transfixed on him. Yellow eyes that seemed to bore into him. She slowly walked around him, as the other fairies crouched or flitted in fairy pace near him.
“You are different, beast,” the yellow fairy said to him. “Who are you? I am Queen Thalutharoch. I am ruler of all that is fairy in Ai,” she whispered. “I have seen all in Ai, but I have never seen one like you.”
Tythahn saw three fairies flank him on the left. He glanced to the right and saw four others doing the same. He had to stay as his other while holding Eielawyn, Kinsbithu, and Raenos inside of him. But he also had to get them to Yaeltaran before Raenos bled out. He knew of someone in Yaelvoch that could heal him. But the fairies seemed intent to either postpone his plans, or maybe they wanted to kill him outright.
“I am baenthahndorse,” he said with the rough, hoarse, voice of his other.
“Baenthahndorse,” Thalutharoch repeated. The other fairies repeated the word around him.
Thalutharoch speared him with a seductive gave, and then seemed to recoil in shock. She began to laugh, and the sound of jingling bells and rocks scraped along glass echoed into the woods. The other fairies joined her laughter without knowing why. But Thalutharoch closed the distance between her and Tythahn, smiling knowingly at him.
“Why are you not lured into my trance, beast?” she asked, as she stared him up and down like a specimen pinned to a board.
“Kill him, my queen,” a fairy said behind him.
“Yes, kill him,” said another.
Eielawyn [The Maidens of Mocmoran 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 16
