Yorik must have known he put his honor on the line when he flew up to the ceiling, and he didn’t wait around for anyone to question him again. He rocketed at Rahni and slashed with his sword, but Rahni blocked him and returned the stroke with full force.
They fought back and forth across the floor with neither man gaining the upper hand. They backed into the crowd one way and then the other, but people pushed them into the center where they had enough room.
Sweat and blood flew in all directions. Both men grunted with the effort every time one of them swung his sword and came up against his opponent blocking his swing. Their noises rose to whining little cries, and each stroke demanded more strength the men couldn’t bring themselves to summon.
Yorik bared his teeth in Rahni’s face, and Rahni gasped for breath, but neither fell to the other until Yorik found the strength to make one last assault. His sword clanged against Rahni’s but he didn’t drop back for another strike. He spun his sword around to disengage it. Rahni tried to catch it, but Yorik jerked it sideways and knocked the sword out of Rahni’s hand.
The sword skidded across the floor, and Rahni faced Yorik barehanded. Yorik followed up his advantage and raised his sword to cleave Rahni’s head in two. Moira screamed, but at the last second, Rahni dodged forward and caught Yorik’s hands in mid-air. He held Yorik’s arms upraised against Yorik’s efforts to bring them down.
The two men grappled in matched hostility. Yorik yanked Rahni’s hands one way and then the other to free himself. Rahni growled in his face through bared teeth, but neither could best the other.
Yorik kicked out with one foot and hooked Rahni around the ankle. Rahni’s legs buckled under him, and he went down on one knee. Yorik tugged at his sword hilt, but Rahni hung on. His knuckles turned white around Yorik’s wrists to hold that sword above his head.
Yorik took matters into his own hands. He shoved Rahni over backwards and knocked him onto his back. He dove on top of his cousin with their hands still locked around the sword hilt above their heads.
Yorik pinned Rahni to the floor with his superior weight and hammered his fists against the floor to free the sword from his grasp. Rahni yelped in pain at every blow, but he kept hold of that sword. If Yorik got his sword free, the fight was finished and so was Rahni.
Blood darkened Rahni’s knuckles. He couldn’t hold out much longer, and when Yorik heaved himself up and impaled his knee into Rahni’s sternum, Rahni coughed and groaned, and his fingers loosened.
Yorik got the sword out of his hands with one jerk. He launched himself upward and came down with all his weight with his knee across Rahni’s neck. Rahni choked and gagged and doubled over on his side.
Yorik rose to his feet with his sword lifted over his head. He took one step to position himself at Rahni’s neck, but Rahni didn’t see him. He writhed in agony on the floor in a desperate struggle to catch his breath.
Yorik raised his sword for the final blow. He would sever Rahni’s head from his body, and the challenge would be over. Moira covered her eyes. Yorik let out a triumphant roar, and the sword whistled through the air.
A deafening clang knocked Moira backward. Her eyes flew open, and she beheld Yorik on one knee with his sword between the floor stones. She didn’t see Rahni anywhere.
She blinked, and Rahni dropped out of the air. His knee struck Yorik behind the neck and pounded him to the ground. Yorik slammed his face into the floor, and Rahni collapsed on top of him.
Before Yorik could pry his sword out of the crack it made in the floor, Rahni hooked his elbow around Yorik’s neck and tumbled backward with him. Rahni fell onto his back on the floor and pulled Yorik down on top of him. He clamped his elbow around Yorik’s neck and choked the breath from his body. With his free hand, he held the sword out sideways where it could do no damage.
Yorik kicked and struggled, but he couldn’t breathe. The harder he struggled, the tighter Rahni cut off his throat. Yorik’s face turned pale. Then it turned black. His neck stretched, and the black scales broke out along its length. The spikes poked up along his dragon head, and he whipped it back and forth through the air, but he couldn’t get away. Nothing could break Rahni’s grip around his neck.
Yorik’s arms and legs went into a death spasm, but that terrible thrashing diminished to uncontrollable twitching and Yorik lay still. Rahni held him in place until his head changed back and his neck shrank to its normal size. Yorik slumped against him and lay still.
Rahni didn’t move for a long moment. The crowd stood in hushed amazement. Moira’s heart flipped in her chest. Rahni had won! The challenge was over. She could breathe again.
Rahni rolled Yorik to one side and got to his feet. His hair hung limp and damp around his head, and he fought for breath through gritted teeth. He kicked Yorik’s sword away and walked in a complete circle around him. From across the Hall, Moira saw Yorik’s ribs move. He wasn’t dead.
Rahni studied his fallen opponent. Then he paced across the Hall and picked up his own sword. He slid it into its scabbard and came back to his friends. He nodded to Connal, and he caught Moira’s eye over his shoulder. His eyes shone with the old light of recognition.
Moira could laugh and cry at the same time. Rahni was back! He was restored to his old self. They could go home and put this whole sordid affair behind them. She started forward to throw her arms around him when a feral shriek split the silence.
Behind Rahni’s back, a black shape hurtled across the room. Moira just had time to recognize Yorik’s contorted face before his outstretched hands closed around Rahni’s neck from behind. A gasp went up from the crowd. Moira’s glad shout died on her lips. Yorik would kill Rahni after all.
Rahni stiffened against the threat. Faster than the eye could see, he put out his hand to Connal. Before anyone knew what was happening, Rahni pulled a dagger from Connal’s belt, flipped it around, and drove its point under his arm into Yorik’s chest. He gave it one twist, and the crunch of bone echoed around the room.
Yorik flew back just as fast as he flew forward, but Rahni moved faster. He yanked the dagger from Yorik’s chest and slashed it once across Yorik’s neck. He severed the carotid artery, and blood spurted across Rahni’s face.
Yorik clutched his neck in horror, but he couldn’t stop that fountain of life’s blood flowing out of him. He reacted in an instant and attacked Rahni with wild animal ferocity. He put out his hands to grab, but Rahni planted a well-aimed kick on Yorik’s chest.
Yorik stumbled backward and hit the floor. His arms flew out to his sides, but it was too late. He kicked and flailed to get to his feet, but the blood welled up in his neck and strangled him. A horrible gurgle drowned out the ringing of his heels on the stones.
Rahni stood back and watched the pool of blood growing around his cousin’s body, but no one moved to help Yorik. He clawed at his neck in blind fury, but his arms moved less and less with every passing moment until they made only the feeblest motion toward his head.
His legs kicked once, twice, and lay still. He lifted his hand to his neck, but it never got there. A moment later, it fell, and a convulsion rocked the prostrate form. Yorik lay still, never to rise again.
Rahni didn’t turn his back on Yorik again. He remained standing in the same place with his eyes fixed on his enemy until Royce stepped forward. Sorrow and care weighed down the patriarch’s shoulders when he looked on his dead son. He turned to Rahni, and everyone present hung on his word.
Would Royce give the word for Tam and Yorik’s faction to wipe out Rahni and his supporters after Rahni won the challenge fair and square? They could do it easily with their numbers. That would be the perfect ending to this disaster.
If he gave the word to attack, another Clan war would erupt. That’s the last thing Kratak needed right now with the Allies moving in. If all the Clans didn’t stand together, they would fall together before the Allies’ might.
The crowd waited in shocked silence to hear what Royce would say. He glared at Rahni. Then his shoulders sagged and
he let out a shaky breath. He nodded at Rahni and called out in a voice loud enough to be heard at the far end of the Hall. “Rahni Harkniss wins.”
Royce cast a flashing glance over Yorik’s faction. He caught Tam’s eye and surveyed the young men standing with him. Pariri put her arm around Carila’s shoulder, and Carila buried her sobbing face in Pariri’s chest.
Royce repeated the words louder than ever. “Rahni Harkniss wins.” He faced Rahni, but his voice shook when he murmured for only Rahni and his friends to hear. “No one will bother you. You won in a fair fight. We all saw how you left him alive, and he attacked you from behind. You had to kill him to save your own life.”
Rahni bowed his head. “Thank you, sir.”
Royce didn’t smile. “We can send out the fliers now.”
Rohn spoke up. “It’s about time.”
Royce nodded, but he hung his head. “You better go now before anybody gets any funny ideas about paying you back for killing Yorik. We all know you won, but some of these hotheads don’t know when to quit. You aren’t safe here. Go home before someone starts a battle. I’ll stand behind your victory, and I give you my word of honor I’ll keep everyone in line until the bad feelings blow over.”
Chapter 16
Moira took one last look around the room she shared with Rahni. She wouldn’t see it again any time soon, if ever. She took one last loving look through the window. A few young fliers swooped across her view. She trailed one hand over the embroidered coverlet on the bed before she let herself out of the room and shut the door behind her.
No one talked to her on the way down the passage. Everyone returned to their own business, and Rarik took most of the young men down to the armory immediately after the challenge.
Yorik’s family took his body away and never showed their faces again. Whatever funeral rites they performed over their dead, they did it in private. Moira stopped short in surprise when she found Pariri and Carila in the passage.
They sat on a bench outside the observation platform overlooking the Great Hall. No one had cleaned up the blood stains yet. An enormous pool of black darkened the stone floor. Pariri held Carila in her arms, and Carila’s shoulders shook with sobs.
Moira started to walk away without saying anything, but she couldn’t leave Prowiss Keep with this tragedy hanging over her head. She stood in front of the two women who used to be her friends. “I’m so sorry about all this, Carila. I really am. I know there’s nothing I can do to fix it. I just want to say I’m sorry. I hope we can be friends again someday.”
Pariri straightened up. She compressed her lips in a hard line, and Moira feared the worst until Pariri said, “You have nothing to be sorry for. Yorik got exactly what he deserved, and our Clan will be better off without him. You’re not the only person he tried to hurt to get his way, and he hurt Carila more than anybody. If anyone tries to blame Rahni for killing him, Royce and Rarik will straighten them out.”
Carila lifted her head and wiped the tears off her cheeks. “Have a nice journey home, Moira. Don’t worry about us. We don’t hold any hard feelings against you and Rahni or anyone else. I’m only sorry our Clan started this conflict when we should be working together against the Allies. I hope you can forgive me for treating you so coldly, and I hope we can still be friends.”
Moira blinked back tears. “Of course, we can. I would love to.”
They three friends embraced, and Moira went on her way to the landing bay where Rohn and Rahni waited for her. She drew back around a corner when she found Royce and Connal there first.
Royce shook hands with Rahni. “I’m sorry you have to leave so soon. I wish things could have turned out differently.”
“I would leave anyway. I don’t feel safe here anymore, and my mate isn’t safe around Yorik’s friends. I’ve been away from my own family too long, and I want to introduce Moira to my parents—I mean, really introduce her to them this time.”
Royce nodded. “Give Fay my regards. Tell her I miss her more than she probably realizes. I miss the little girl she used to be.”
Rahni smiled. “She’s not a little girl anymore. She’s a grandmother.”
“Aren’t we all?”
Royce walked away, and Connal came forward to embrace the brothers. “Have a good flight. I almost wish I was going with you.”
“So do I. Thank you for your support. I couldn’t have done it without you. You’re welcome at our Keep anytime.”
Rohn spoke up. “Why don’t you come? Mother would love to see you.”
“I can’t leave now. We have all the armaments to prepare, and everyone is upset because Yorik spoiled generations of good relations between our Clans. I wouldn’t be surprised if Royce bypasses Tam for his part in this mess.”
“That wouldn’t be the worst thing that could happen. Joon or one of your grandsons would make a better patriarch.”
Connal gave the brothers one last hug and left them alone. Moira came forward, and Rahni gave her his old warm smile. He kissed her. “Are you ready to go?”
“Ready when you are.”
Rahni clasped his arm around his brother’s shoulder. “Let’s go. I can’t wait to get home.”
Rohn pulled back. “I’m not going with you.”
Rahni gasped. “You’re not? Why?”
“I’m flying on to Rapsiss Keep. We’ve lost two days with this ridiculous challenge, and I stayed longer than I should have to support you. We have to alert the other Clans as soon as possible.” He turned to Moira. “You’ll have to give the news to your friends yourself that you’re still alive.”
Moira laughed. “I don’t mind doing that. I’ll surprise them out of their boots.”
“You certainly will do that.” He gave her a hug.
Rohn turned around to face the bright mountains stretched out before him. He took two steps and hurled himself off the ledge into space. In the blink of an eye, his wings extended from his back and his neck and tail unraveled from his body. He flapped his wings, and a great green dragon soared over the Keep and away to the south.
Rahni watched him out of sight. “There he goes. I almost wish I was going with him.”
“You just said you couldn’t wait to get home.”
“I’m just thinking what it’s going to be like when we get back to the Keep.”
“What’s it going to be like?”
“Oh, you know how it is. My mother will cry, and my father will want to put on a big feast. They’ll celebrate my return to the world of men and women. They won’t have to worry about their strange son living alone on a mountaintop for the rest of his life.”
Moira groaned. “I see.”
“I understand you really want to see your friends again. Otherwise I would try to convince you to put it off for a little while longer.”
“I don’t have to see my friends right away. They already think I’m dead. It won’t hurt them to think it a few more days. What did you have in mind?”
“I don’t know. I’m looking forward to seeing my family and relieving my mother’s anxiety, but I’m not really looking forward to living inside walls again. I much prefer the mountains.”
“I feel the same way, now that you mention it. We had a nice time in your nest before we came here. I’m sorry to lose that time we had together. We’ll probably never have anything like that again.”
He cocked his head to one side. “Would you like to go back there first, before we go back to the Keep?”
“That would be nice.”
“Just for a little while, you understand. Eventually we’ll have to go back.”
“Of course, but we don’t have to stay in the Keep all the time. We don’t have to get trapped there.”
He passed his hand over his forehead. “I’m glad you feel that way, because I couldn’t face living in the Keep all the time. I’m used to the freedom of the open mountains.”
She put her arms around him. “I feel the same way.”
He closed her in his embrace, and their
lips met for a long time. His kiss ignited the passion in her soul, and his arms tensed around her. His hands started to range over her body and down to her supple ass, and his crotch tightened against her hips when he tore himself away. “Let’s go.”
He moved to the ledge, and his wings unfurled. Before she could follow him, the red dragon stood before her. He bent his head to lift her onto his back, and his great wings carried him into the air.
Rahni made a few circuits of Prowiss Keep. He soared past Moira’s old window. She could almost imagine herself in it. She looked back on herself in that window where she dreamed of flying over the ice mountains the way she did now.
The young fliers noticed Rahni and came to flutter around him. He dive-bombed them and swooped all around them. They tried to keep up, and a friendly contest of follow-the-leader broke out.
Rahni dove straight down toward the ground and banked at the last minute. The others screeched upwards to follow him, and he cut into the mountainside at top speed. Moira clung to his neck and lay down low out of the wind prickling with ice crystals.
Rahni made one last rocketing sweep over the Keep’s high towers and launched himself high into the violet sky. The others trailed him all the way, but he didn’t bank and come back. He kept going, far over the mountain range.
The young ones called good-bye, and Rahni flapped away out of sight. Moira rested her cheek against his neck for the long trip back, but she cast more than a wistful glance back at Prowiss Keep growing smaller and smaller in the distance over her shoulder.
What would visiting that Keep be like without all the unpleasant muddle of danger and confusion? Maybe someday she would return and see her friends again. They could all sit around in peace and comfort and enjoy long-ago memories of times past.
Rahni passed through the snow fields into the wide grasslands beyond. The sun sloped below the horizon before they crossed those trackless territories, and Moira fell asleep against his warm skin.
In her dreams, she flew by herself over the planet. She flapped her wings and soared with the other Ingasores around their Keep. She carried messages from one Keep to another and hunted morlocks in the forests. She rested on mountain peaks steaming with volcanic heat.
Rhani (Dragons of Kratak Book 3) Page 11
