Eversworn: Daughters of Askara, Book 3 (15 page)

Imagination supplied her with details of her unborn child while memory amplified mine.

“How far along are you?” Almost term if I had to guess.

“I’m not sure.” She seemed to consider the question. “I was a month along when they captured me. As large as I’ve grown, as strong as she is, I must be near the end. Eight months?”

Hope tightened my chest. “So the program Tobin mentioned, your child isn’t a part of it?”

“She will be.” Adina’s voice hardened. “Phineas is right that I’m familiar with their program. Tobin has hammered the message of duty to our people into my skull since my arrival. They have outlined my duty, my potential donors, every detail given, nothing spared. My nightmares are as well-rounded as my stomach, and I know the position they have readied for me.”

“If you weren’t…” I asked because it mattered. “Who is the father?”

“His name is Boaz.” Her voice thrummed with pain. “He’s a prime from the commune at Daeza.” I heard her swallow. “He’s my mate, and if he thinks I’m lost, that our child is lost, it will break him.” She lapsed into silence a moment before adding, “You can’t protect your mate by not claiming him. They know he’s yours. I heard them talking before you woke. They saw him without his glamour, as they told you, but their spy knew what proof was required for a confirmation and he found it. I’m sorry, I am, but they have noticed the first signs of his change.”

Her words hung in my ears. “What change?”

Her harsh laugh surprised me. “You mean you don’t know? Has he not told you?”

“I’m a healer. Dillon was a patient of mine. He’s the friend of my employer’s mate. He was sent to capture me because I stole salt from the Feriana colony, not because I’m of value to him.”

“They aren’t wrong about his change, but I suppose they could be wrong about the trigger.”

I decided I didn’t like what she implied. “Do you mean another female could be the cause?”

“Another prima,” she said, “yes.”

“A prima,” I murmured, but she must have heard the question buried in my tone.

Her pitch changed to one of incredulity. “How is it you know so little of your own people?”

Your people aren’t mine
. “I don’t know where Daeza is, or what the commune is. I see now I don’t know what a prima is, either. So please, feel free to enlighten me, not mock my ignorance.”

“I apologize.” She sounded genuine. “Until they brought me here, I had no idea lowlanders considered Daeza a myth. I thought…I don’t know what I thought, but the mountain is very real.”

I wondered what she meant, but she continued before I could ask.

“Daeza is a land far from here, to the north, where the last primes and primas reside. It’s a valley surrounded by mountains and guarded by the best warriors our commune has to offer.”

If that was true, then they were… “Evanti who escaped Askaran enslavement.”

She nodded. “Our numbers are modest, our resources limited, but there are several primas, like you and me, many more primes, like your Dillon and my Boaz. Then there are children…”

I didn’t bother correcting her misconception. I doubted she’d believe Dillon wasn’t mine.

“When Askarans arrived in our lands, some Evanti said they should be killed, because they were different, and their ways were different. Others argued the Askarans had done no wrong. They were curious explorers who would see this new land as untamable and they would leave.” She paused. “It caused a rift between those who voiced tolerance and those who warned against complacency. The end result was a divide. Half the families left the area when the first Askarans built homes. It was a sign they intended to stay, and some heeded it. The remaining families were convinced cohabitation was possible. That there was enough land for everyone to live in peace.”

I rocked on my heels to relieve pressure on my wrists. “I take it your family left.”

“They did. They founded Daeza, and all were welcomed there. Then rumors of slavery arrived on the mountain. At first, no one believed it. The Evanti were—we
are
—fierce warriors. It made no sense these weak creatures could shackle our brethren.” Anger tempered her tone. “It was then we learned the reason Askarans had crossed the sea. Their females were dying. Their queen was desperate to save herself, and her people. They lacked a hormone required during—”

“—pregnancy,” I finished for her. “They came here searching for progesaline.”

I sensed her agreement. “They did, and once they found it, they began digging mines.”

I pieced together the larger picture. “Then they realized they needed workers to fill them.”

“Yes.” She growled, “They took advantage of our ignorance. We were content with our simple ways and failed to understand our females required the same supplement because we had been using surface salt deposits to cure meats, which meant we had been consuming it all along.”

While she caught her breath, I admired her sense of history. How she took pride in her heritage. If it were possible, I would have thought she’d lived through the Askaran incursion. Perhaps she was her own worst argument against Tobin’s vision. She was a product of the sort of community he wanted for every Evanti. If some mothers, some children, were sacrificed for his vision to see fruition, as long as his supporters shored him up, then it was a worthwhile endeavor.

Though I admired his vision of utopia, I still saw bodies littering the path to enlightenment.

Unnerved by the sounds outside our door, I prompted her. “They withheld salt, didn’t they?”

Fury roughened her voice, but it was softer now, as if she were tiring. “It was a poor incentive to work until the first females died, most during late pregnancy or during childbirth. If a female survived, the chances were good the infant was stillborn. The Askarans knew what would happen because it had happened to them. By the time the Evanti from down the mountain were properly cowed, it was too late. Primas died. Their primes followed them. Their children were torn from their families and given to Askarans who raised them ignorant of their heritage.

“That first generation of enslaved males, having never seen primas, mated other demon breeds and diluted their bloodlines until they were shadows of their former selves. Askarans had systematically culled the Evanti and continued to do so until the new queen freed them. Since their mates were demonesses born in this region, most assumed they were progesaline dependent also.” She paused. “Whether they are or not mattered less than the fact they believed they were.”

“How did you end up here?” Captured in a place such as she described would be difficult.

“I’d gone with a friend to gather berries as we’d done a hundred times. Once we reached the forest, past the guards, we were captured. I don’t remember much after that, but when I woke, I was here and she was gone. I haven’t seen Tamara since.” I heard her yawn. “In Daeza, only our guards maintained contact with the outside world, the better to protect us from it, but there were those who chafed against the rules keeping us safe. Those few elected to go down the mountain, and we wished them well. We let them go and trusted they would keep our secrets.” She laughed softly. “As you can see, one of our more mercenary brethren exchanged our location for wealth.”

Indecision warred within me. I wasn’t much better. I was a traitor as well. “Was it Tobin?”

“If Tobin gained entrance to Daeza, which is impossible because of his diluted bloodline, he would never leave. No. I mean Phineas. He purchased the information from a former resident. He spied on Daeza, on me, learning our culture, learning about us. That’s why he was placed at the colony. Tobin wanted a male who recognized primes and females. His job was to search for fresh breeding stock among the new colonists. They suspected Dillon, but had no proof until…”

“Until his glamour failed.” My chest ached. Had I been the cause? Was it worse if I was, and he was mine, or if I wasn’t, and he belonged to another? “What did you mean about his change?”

“When a prime finds his prima, his body undergoes physical changes.” She sounded wistful now, a dreamy quality slipping into her voice. I wondered if Phineas had given her a sedative while I had been focused on Tobin’s speech. “There is no higher calling than guarding a mate.”

I had to ask, not for myself, but for Dillon. “Can it be reversed?”

Her response drifted to me on a hushed sigh. “Primes mate for life.”

“Adina?” As I struggled for a better look at her, cursing the weakness of the candle’s flame, it dawned on me our captors hadn’t been cruel. Courteous wasn’t the right word, either, but this situation was much worse for me than Adina. The absence of light hadn’t bothered her because she could see me. In my panic, I had forgotten Evanti had flawless night vision because I didn’t.

Careful not to rouse Adina, I settled in to wait on Dillon’s arrival, making myself as comfortable as possible. I was safe for now, until Tobin realized what I was and what I was not.

Chapter Ten

Dillon stared at Tobin’s outstretched hand until the male got the hint and lowered his arm.

Smile faltering, he said, “I’m pleased you could make it—”

“Where is Isabeau?” Dillon didn’t see her, didn’t smell her and didn’t waste pleasantries.

“If you’d follow me, I can explain.” Tobin’s gesture encompassed a compact seating area where benches had been carved from the tunnel’s walls. Several males sat stiff, perched on the edges of their seats, waiting for the wrong move Dillon was about to make. This ought to be fun.

“The female you took.” His cool tone made Tobin pause, smile fading fast. “Where is she?”

Clearing his throat, Tobin glanced behind him, at the others. “We know what you are. If—”

Dillon’s arm shot out, his hand encircling Tobin’s throat. His fingers almost met behind the scrawny male’s neck. Squeezing and lifting, Dillon gritted his teeth against the strain on his calf.

Fury and panic mingled in a volatile cocktail that blacked out the reasons why Dillon should proceed with caution. Diplomacy, well, it’d never been his strong suit. Besides, these goons had done nothing to earn even a smidgen of courtesy. They’d taken Isabeau from him and they’d pay.

“I’m not going to ask again. Where is Isabeau?” His chest was pumping, lungs burning, neck prickling. He inhaled. Traces of her pear scent filled his nose, and his rage eased a fraction.

Tobin’s face was three shades past purple, a good trick for a black-skinned demon. He stared at Dillon, lips moving, but no sound escaped. Dillon guessed that had something to do with the way his fingers dug into Tobin’s throat, crushing his windpipe, because nothing he said was what Dillon wanted to hear. He had taken Isabeau. A low growl rose in his throat. Taken what was
his
.

This time Dillon’s instant denial wasn’t so instant.

Isabeau was his prisoner, a wily thief who happened to be female, happened to make him want things he’d never considered, happened to make him want to be hers. Damn it. That did it, snapped reality into sharp relief. He belonged to no female. With that in mind, he gained the ounce of control he’d needed and loosened his grip enough Tobin could breathe and then speak.

“Bring her,” he croaked, trying to break Dillon’s hold.

For a minute, no one moved and Dillon’s fingers flexed in warning.

“I’ll do it,” a familiar voice, thick with disgust, preceded the scrabble of boot on stone.

Dillon broke eye contact long enough to pinpoint the speaker.
Phineas
. His grip tightened as betrayal sparked anger and blackened his vision. “Do you kidnap all the females who deny you?”

Phineas gave him a faint smile that settled like a stone in his gut.

“She’s unharmed,” Tobin said through a tender throat. “I promise you that.”

Slamming Tobin’s head against the wall shut him up. Until Dillon saw Isabeau with his own eyes, he wasn’t buying she was safe. After all, there were only so many reasons to steal females.

“You’d better hope she is.” Dillon popped his jaw and waited. His leg quivered. Holding himself upright was arduous enough, but pinning Tobin to the wall wasn’t his brightest idea yet.

Somewhere down the tunnel, metal hinges groaned. Low words were exchanged, the tone a threat in itself. Dillon’s temper got the best of him. Melting glamour ran down his arms like water poured from the faucet. Twisting his heel on the uneven floor made his vision waver, but he used that pain to rebuild his illusion so these bastards, so that Isabeau, wouldn’t see him bare.

“Dillon?”

Reflex loosened his fingers. Tobin dropped forgotten onto the floor.

Yards dissolved before Dillon registered his first step.
Mine
. His arms opened, and Isabeau stumbled into them, made clumsy by the shackles at her ankles and wrists. When he tucked her close, she was thrown off balance and her weight hit him. Even small as she was, his knees almost buckled. They needed an exit strategy, fast.

He snapped, “You said she was unharmed.”

Phineas peered at her from over his shoulder. “She looks fine to me.”

Dried blood seeped from beneath the metal cuffs. She’d fought them. Good girl. The snap of her teeth must have warned them off until his arrival. How long had they had her? Hours while Dillon covered the distance by horseback rather than by wing. He held her gently. “You okay?”