More whispers began to fill the still silence of the woods. “Kill him.”
“Make him bleed.”
“Kill him, now.”
“You can try to kill me,” said Tythahn. “But I will make sure I take several of you with me in the process. Try,” he said, glaring at Thalutharoch.
“There is a difference about you,” Thalutharoch said. “Why?”
He smelled it then on the slight breeze that blew through the trees. The subtle scent of moon mint. He could be close to the border of Yaeltaran, or he could be ten miles away. His sense of smell was so heightened in his other form that he could detect the minty smell others couldn’t. But the scent was intense. He had to be close. So close that the scent of moon mint could drift along in the slight breeze. He flared his nostrils, detecting the scent from the right. It had to be the reason that the fairies had surrounded him then. They wouldn’t go any farther into Yaeltaran because of the moon mint. But if he could use that fact, he had a chance.
“Yes, you do have a chance. And I will help you,” a voice said in his head.
He glanced around at the other fairies moving slowly in front of him as if they were in some type of sensual fairy dance. None of them looked in his direction. None but Thalutharoch. Whoever it was, was speaking to him but he only heard the voice in his head.
“Look at her, but listen to me,” said the voice. He did as he was instructed. “My name is Nuashinah. You can respond to me with your thoughts. They won’t know a thing.”
“How is that possible?” he asked her.
“Only know that it is. Thalutharoch senses your human side. She also senses those within you. We must hurry. There is one inside you in need of healing. I am fairy, but I am also more. I wish to be free of fairy. I will aid you. Will you aid me?”
“You will aid me? How?”
“It can be done, but it must be done quickly. The fairies hunger for flesh, and you are very delectable to them. You need to get to the moon mint. When I come to you, strike me and run. The moon mint is only a short distance to the right. No more than five hundred feet, perhaps. You will know when to run.”
“I understand. And you? How will you escape?”
“In a way, I already have. I will join you when it is safe.”
“How?” he asked. “The moon mint?”
“I will join you,” Nuashinah said.
“Is your cock as large as you are, beast?” a bright pink fairy asked, sauntering over to him.
“I want to eat his cock, Thalutharoch,” said a green fairy.
“I want to feel his blood flowing down my throat,” another fairy said excitedly.
“And you shall, Throsthrahmera,” Thalutharoch said, even as she continued to pin Tythahn with an icy gaze. “We all shall.”
Tythahn winced suddenly and knew that Raenos’ condition was worsening. He thought to just run, but knew with certainty that the fairies would catch him before he could find the moon mint on the Yaeltaran side.
A fairy walked out from the thicket of brush in front of him. She didn’t look like any of the fairies around him. He knew, as most everyone did, that fairies were of different hues of color. Red, green, purple, yellow, blue, orange, and white. The fairy walking out from the woods had dark features. Dark brown hair that almost appeared to be the color of rich soil and dark, coal-black eyes. She was beautiful, as most fairies were in human form. Her skin was the color of the clay found in Drisa, a light reddish brown. He knew who she was. He’d spoken with her in his mind. She moved purposefully toward him, stopping short of a distance close enough for him to hit her like she’d told him to do.
“You’re different,” she said to him in a voice unlike the whisper of fairies. Her voice was deep-toned, but very much human. “I’ve never seen a man like you. You look very feral. Have you been told that before? That you look feral?”
“Touch his mind, Nuashinah,” Thalutharoch said. “Read him, and tell me why he is different.”
“One that is different should know one that is different,” a red fairy whispered, scowling at Nuashinah. “Perhaps after we feast on the beast, we will rid ourselves of you, Nuashinah!”
“Perhaps if you are that thirsty for blood, Throsthrahmera,” Nuashinah said, turning her gaze to the other fairy, “you should grovel on the ground for Morgny. You did say one that is different should know one that is different. Perhaps one that is like should eat one that is like.”
The beauty of Throsthrahmera quickly disappeared, replaced with a graying hag with wild red hair, glowing red eyes, and rows upon rows of sharp teeth in an unusually wide and macabre mouth. She hissed at Nuashinah, like a dialon viper, as a long, black, forked tongue protruded through her teeth.
Tythahn thought he would be a witness to a fairy brawl, but Nuashinah ignored Throsthrahmera, as she closed the distance between her and Tythahn. “There will be blood, but not mine, Throsthrahmera.”
Tythahn stared at Nuashinah standing in front of him. She met his gaze with her own, and slightly lifted her chin. It was then that Tythahn landed her with a hard right hook and ran. He ran faster and harder than he ever thought baenthahndorse could run. He heard the fairies shrieking behind him, and somewhere to the side in the woods blazes of fairy fire missed their target of him, hitting and felling trees and lighting fire to the brush, but he didn’t stop. The trees and brush whizzed past him at a frightening blur, and he continued to run. He ran until the scent of moon mint filled his nostrils. He ran until the sounds of the fairies began to fade with the wind. He ran for Raenos and prayed to the goddesses that he made it to Yaelvoch with all of their essence intact. And he wouldn’t stop running until he knew safety was within his grasp.
Chapter Seventeen
Eielawyn felt as though she were waking up from a short nap. She blinked her eyes, looking around at where they were. She could not only feel the crisp, cool air coming from somewhere, but she could smell it. It was the scent of pines, and grasses, and she could also smell something minty. She looked around her, seeing the large door to the outside smashed in as if some large animal had gone wild and wanted escape from the wilderness beyond. In a sense, an animal had. Tythahn. She noticed Kinsbithu’s eyes wide and staring around her also. It was then that she noticed the guards, dressed in black uniforms, strange-looking helmets over their heads, and holding weapons that reminded her of the large fishing knives the men in Yaesdrah used on their catch.
But she couldn’t concentrate on the menacing men in their uniforms. In the seconds it took her to observe her surroundings, it also took her to realize where they were, as she rushed over to Raenos lying still on the floor.
“Raenos!” She fell to the ground, putting his head into her lap.
Tythahn began to walk over to her, but the guards began to yell out orders for him to stop. “Please,” he said to them with his hands held high in the air. “I mean you no harm. We need the girl. I am Tythahn. Please tell lady Glywyn that I’m here, and we need the girl.”
The guards seemed to think about what he said, but one of the guards left, and for that Eielawyn was thankful. The moments that passed seemed like hours, as she gently rocked Raenos in her lap. Kinsbithu sat beside her on the floor, talking calmly to her, as the guards continued to hold their weapons out at Tythahn. More than likely the largest man they’d ever seen before.
The doors to the room were suddenly thrown open, and several people ran in. Two of them Eielawyn knew as Glywyn and Draedon. At any other time, she would have been overjoyed to see her friends. But Raenos was still unconscious in her lap. If he died, there would be no reason for her essence to continue.
“Put your weapons down!” Glywyn ordered the men. She ran over to where Eielawyn was sitting on the floor. “Don’t worry. We have someone to help him.”
Eielawyn was expecting some old man, or an old woman to come into the room then. What she hadn’t expected to see was a teenage girl rush into the room. She stood looking around at them all as if she were absorbing the situ
ation. When her eyes came to rest on Eielawyn, she ran over to them.
“Hey, can you like…move over or something?” asked the girl. “Or put him on the floor so I can taste his essence?”
“What? Taste his essence? Who are you?” Eielawyn yelled to the girl.
Glywyn put her hand on her arm reassuringly. “It’s all right, Eielawyn. This is Trikyia. She’s a healer.”
Eielawyn stared at the young girl. She was pretty, with long, curly, auburn-like brown hair to her shoulders, and light brown eyes. She didn’t look Yaeltaranian, and her first thought was that she was Mocmoran from her full, curvy, figure. She definitely didn’t have the pale, earthy look of those in Yaelvoch. She reached out to her with her aura, but only got emptiness. The girl couldn’t be read, which raised her doubts as to just who she was.
“I can either try to heal your friend here,” Trikyia said, with an exasperated stare at her, “or you can keep wasting time by trying to read my thoughts with your aura. Yeah,” she said, looking at Eielawyn incredulously. “I felt that. Now can I try to save this man, or not?”
“Trikyia,” a voice said by the door. Eielawyn looked up to see Faeswyn, Naihr, and Draeis in the doorway. “Watch your attitude,” said Faeswyn.
Trikyia nodded. “Sorry,” she said, looking at Eielawyn. “I might not be able to do anything. You need to prepare yourself for that.”
“What? No! No, you have to heal him! Please! I love him!” Eielawyn began to scream, and Glywyn gently pulled her away so Trikyia could use her gift.
“I just mean that he might have lost too much blood,” said Trikyia. She looked around where Raenos lay on the floor. “Where is all of the blood?” Tythahn walked closer to where they were clustered around Raenos. Trikyia looked up at him with her mouth opened in wonder.
“I held him inside my other,” Tythahn said.
“Balsthemar,” Trikyia whispered. “You’re really…um…you’re like…huge.” Trikyia stared at him for a few seconds, but then turned her attention back to Raenos. “I-I-I need to see his wound,” she said, lifting his shirt.
The tracer’s laser had torn through his left side, leaving a mangled bloody mass of flesh. Eielawyn looked on, as Trikyia gingerly touched the wound, but she screamed in protest when Trikyia put her hand inside of his body, and Raenos moaned out loud.
“What the hell is she doing?” Eielawyn yelled. “She’s going to kill him!”
“I’m not going to kill him,” Trikyia said. “I’m trying to see what kind of internal injuries he has, and healing him from the inside out. If I feel that his injuries are too far gone, I’m not even going to try to heal him. You won’t want me to. Bringing him back when he’s too far gone is going to give you something that’s not—” Trikyia looked up at Eielawyn. “—what’s his name again?”
“His name is Raenos. Raenos, son of Xiaxion,” she said, as tears trailed down her cheeks.
“Well, if I heal Raenos when he’s too close to death,” Trikyia said, as she closed her eyes, “you won’t get Raenos back. You’ll get a walking dead man. He’ll want to be dead, and he’ll try to take those he loves with him. Got it?”
Eielawyn only nodded and watched Trikyia’s hand move within Raenos’ body. She prayed to the goddesses that he could be healed. But she also knew that none of them would be there without Tythahn’s help.
Within moments, Raenos’ eyes began to flutter open. “Oh!” Eielawyn exclaimed, running over to him.
“He’s going to feel like he drank a tank of onan liquor, but he’s good,” Trikyia said. “I didn’t have to put too much energy into healing him, so he wasn’t that close to dying. I don’t know why, though. His wound should have killed him. I mean, just getting him here should have killed him. Where did you come from?”
“Yaesdrah,” said Kinsbithu. “We were helping Filkothinor—”
“Filkothinor’s here?” Draedon said. “He’s the man that started the rebellion. He’s been instrumental in helping secure weapons and food to those in the rebellion. Especially those in Drisa.”
Kinsbithu started to cry. “We were trying to get him here to Yaelvoch. We were so close.” She said the last in a whisper.
“The guards found us,” Raenos said in a hoarse whisper.
Eielawyn looked down at him with his head once again cradled on her lap. “Don’t talk, baby. You have no idea what you’ve been through.”
“I feel good, Eielawyn.” Raenos looked over to Tythahn. “Thank you, brother.”
“The guards found us,” Kinsbithu continued. “They killed Filkothinor. That’s when they took Raenos. That sonofabitch.” She glanced at Eielawyn. “The one that hit you.”
“Zhoardaeash,” Eielawyn said. “He told his men to kill us after they raped us. I didn’t let any of that happen. They’re dead.”
“Prince Laeros and Theoch told me the women needed my help to rescue Eielawyn’s man,” Tythahn said. “Theoch misted to the location, and told me where to find him. He also told me that if I was in need of help or healing, to come here to Yaelvoch and ask for Glywyn and the girl, Trikyia.”
“Why does he still call me a girl?” Trikyia protested. “I’m almost eighteen.”
“Trikyia,” Faeswyn said to her with a motherly warning. “To him, you will always be the girl. Take it as a term of endearment.” Faeswyn stared at Tythahn. “How did Raenos get shot?”
“In the encampment, there were many guards,” said Tythahn. “I don’t know why they wanted him so badly. There must have been eighty or more guards in the camp.”
“It was Balaedras,” Raenos said, as he sat up more without so much as a wince of pain. “She believes she’s in love with me. I was one of her personal guards when Gaeldos was ruler of Teveoch. I have to admit, I flirted with her. Having a connection to the queen gave me access to prime duties. She confided in me about how she loathed Gaeldos, and I thought I could use my relationship with her against him. I didn’t think she would become so enamored with me. She asked me to be her lover. I’m not sure if you’re aware of this, but when she becomes focused on something, she becomes blind to the truth.”
“Okay, but why would she want you so badly?” Eielawyn asked. She looked at the others. Draedon, Glywyn, Naihr, Faeswyn, Draeis, Kinsbithu, Tythahn, Trikyia, and then down into Raenos’ face.
She looked above her noticing the mist gathering there. In the next instant, Theoch appeared, as Glywyn ran over to him. He took her into his arms, kissing her deeply, before walking over to Draedon and grasping hold of his forearm in greeting.
Theoch turned to stare at Tythahn. “You did good, brother. You got them here safe.”
“I tried,” Tythahn said, as Theoch walked over to him to grip his forearm as he did Draedon’s. “Raenos was shot in the process. I knew to get him here, as you said. The girl healed him.”
“Trikyia,” Trikyia said loudly. “The girl that’s almost eighteen, is named Trikyia.”
Theoch held his arms open for Trikyia, and she ran into them. “I told you, you will always be the girl to me.” He smiled sweetly at her and kissed the top of her head. “Thank you.”
“Yes, thank you, Trikyia,” Eielawyn said. “You’re remarkable.”
“I was stopped by fairies, though,” said Tythahn, which made all of them turn their attention to him. “I had to pull you all into my other to get you here. I ran faster than I thought I ever could, but fairies are very fast. Faster than I am. They tried to surround me in the woods, but there was one that helped me to escape them.”
“No, no, no, no,” Draeis spoke for the first time. “Fairies don’t help men to escape. They eat men. They devour their penises and eat them.” Faeswyn put a comforting hand on his arm.
“This fairy spoke to me in my head. Telepathically,” Tythahn said.
Faeswyn stared at the rest of them. “We all know that fairies are telepathic, but they can’t speak to humans that way. Can they?”
“You mean that she was reading your thoughts like I can do?” Eielawyn asked
.
Tythahn shook his head. “No. Not like a vaedra uses her gift. She was communicating with me in my head. She told me that she wanted to escape the fairies. She said that she was fairy, and more. Her name was Nuashinah, and she was not like any fairy I’d ever seen before.”
“Hold up for a second,” Trikyia said. “Can I just make an observation here? One, all of you,” she said, pointing to Glywyn, Faeswyn, and Eielawyn, “are vaedra. You have vaedra powers.”
“Gifts,” Faeswyn said. Trikyia gave Faeswyn an exasperated glare.
“She’s right, Faeswyn,” said Eielawyn. “We have powers. Let’s just call them what they are. Because at the guard camp, for the first time in ever, I was able to suggest on more than three people at a time without them doing something odd or stupid instead of what I suggested to them.”
“My dreams are becoming clearer and more pronounced,” Glywyn said. “It’s not like I dream in a fog anymore. And I know what Trikyia is saying. For some odd reason three vaedra have met, and are now here in Yaelvoch. Why? I dreamt that Theoch was to be placed in a high seat of the Yaeltaran government the night we came here. He’s a fuckin’ ambassador now. I dreamt that Faeswyn, Naihr, Draeis, and Trikyia would come here, and they are. And Eielawyn, I told you about the dream I had about you coming here. There has to be a reason.”
“Except him,” Trikyia said, pointing to Tythahn. “As far as I can see, he’s just a large, gorgeously muscled, big, sexy-looking—”
“Trikyia!” Faeswyn said to her.
“Sorry,” Trikyia said, with a small smile on her lips. Eielawyn couldn’t help smiling at the young woman, as she saw the same smile on Tythahn’s lips.
“But why is he here?” Trikyia asked. “And what did you mean you had to pull them into your other? What other?”
Raenos stood up from the floor he’d been lying on, holding his hand out to help Eielawyn up also. He enfolded her into his arms, as she tucked her head into his chest. He was alive. She felt his heart beating in his chest, and he was alive. It was then that she looked at Tythahn, and left the comfort of Raenos’ arms, as she walked to him.
Eielawyn [The Maidens of Mocmoran 3] (Siren Publishing Classic) Page 17
