“How’s
your queen?”
“Chatty.”
He passed me and went to Brie as she shook the tall mage’s hands. I laughed,
jumped off the horse, and followed him. Ian twisted toward Tote and whispered
something in his ear. Tote’s face faltered for a second and then he nodded,
rushed to Ian’s wagon, climbed in, and came back out with a tiny wagon three
feet high with two wheels on the side.
“What’s
in that little wagon?” I raised my eyebrows.
“Just
focus on not pissing off the mages.” He left with Tote pushing the wagon behind
him.
When
I approached Brie, she grabbed my hand and held it. “Samuel, this is Yen and Saykoy.
They said that they’ll be taking us into their territory."
Saykoy
stepped in front of me. Her nostrils flared as she inhaled. “You smell lovely,
even though you’re a child of rape.”
“Excuse
me?”
“They
believe Ambi raped Ressi to make vampires.” Ian held out his hand to her and
they shook. “Just go with it, Samuel.”
“Come
with me, kings.” Saykoy hooked her arms on each of ours, so that Ian was on her
right and I on her left. “Yen will guide your queen. Your servants and warriors
can follow, but make sure they remain several feet behind me.”
“I’ve
already instructed our people to keep a distance of five feet from all the
tribal chiefs and to kneel when spoken to,” Ian said.
Saykoy
paused, forcing us to cease walking with her. “You know our way?”
“Yes.”
Ian nodded.
“I
like you already.”
Something
seeped inside my skin. It was hard like tiny little pebbles. I yanked my arm
away from her. “What was that?”
“I
put a little bit of nature into your body.” Her green eyes twinkled. Just in
case you’re considering sinking your fangs into me.”
“I’m
not interested.”
“Are
you sure?” She slid her hands down her breasts.
“You
disgust me.”
Ian
cleared his throat. “What he means is that his queen is the only woman he’s
interested in now. Any other woman is nothing to him.”
She
flicked her index finger. My arm rose without me commanding it. Tiny pebbles
traveled through my vein. They looked like little bumps sliding under my skin.
Laughing,
I thrust out my claws and ripped into my arm. Pain saturated the area. I forced
myself to continue laughing as if I had no care in the world. I tore through my
arm, searching for those veins. Brie drew in a long breath and looked away. Yen
cringed. Ian shook his head and cursed under his breath. I rummaged within my
arm some more. Wrenching burns rose. Full of stubbornness, I bit through the
ache and didn’t cease until the little pebbles lay under my fingers.
“Take
your rocks.” I slung the bloody things at her.
“It
seems someone has a temper.” She looked at them. They dropped as if she had
mentally ordered them.
“I
don’t appreciate being filled with anything but food and wine.” I glared. “You
want your rocks inside of me then you'd better ask and hope I comply.”
A
loud laugh bubbled out of her mouth.
“I’ll
be sure to remember that in the future.” She walked forward, towing us with
her.
I
glanced over my shoulder to make sure the fat man Yen was behaving himself with
my queen. Yen held her hand and pointed to the stars in the sky as he talked.
Brie noticed me watching and winked. The urge to read her mind hit me. I shoved
it back down in the dark corner of my heart. I had to be happy with the fact
that she would never want the mental bond reformed. I missed her thoughts. They
surged through her brain on a vibrant current of joy and pure bliss. Even her
sad thoughts seemed soothing to me.
Saykoy
nudged me. “Have you ever been in mage territory, Horned King?”
“Although
I’ve assisted many mage in fleeing the Quiet King’s dungeons and guided them
here, I’ve never stepped on mage soil.”
“You
were what vampires called a pathfinder?” she asked.
I
nodded. She dragged her gaze over my body from head to toe. “What is the name
that you were born with?”
“Samuel.”
Gasping,
she ceased with walking. “I’ve heard of this Samuel.”
“You
have?”
“You
freed my father.” She held her hand to her chest. “The Ground Mover. The Quiet
King trapped my father during his travels to elfkin territory. The king caught
him by surprise with hundreds of men, killed my mother who’d come with him,
chained my father in sage chains—ones that stung his skin—and imprisoned him in
the dungeon.”
“Why
did the king want your father?” Ian released her arm and got in front of her.
“Did your father tell you why or what happened to him while he was imprisoned?”
“No.”
She shook her head. “He does not talk about those years. Perhaps, he’ll talk to
you tonight. He’s in his hut resting. I’ll take you there.”
“What
does your father look like?” I still couldn’t picture the man that Saykoy had
said I’d freed.
“He’s
short with skin as dark as mine and green eyes.” She smiled as she described
him. Her eyes gleamed in the moonlight. “He talks of you constantly and honors
you every sun festival. He says that he wished he’d had his riches to give you
at the time, but instead he formed rock into two enchanted keys that would
allow you to open any door that’s not locked by magic.”
“The
Sorcerer.” I’d never learned his name and simply labeled him that. “Well, he
owes me nothing now. Those keys have served me well in freeing others and
getting into places I needed access to.”
After
leaving the Sorcerer, I’d given one key to Leeta. At the time she was the one
woman I trusted in life, the one woman who I dedicated my life to.
How things have changed.
Leeta was no
longer that significant to me, and now I had a new woman to dedicate my life
to. Brie. I’d even used the key for Brie. I took her to her hometown Zumaya in
the middle of the night when all the humans there were asleep. The enchanted
key slipped into the keyhole and unlocked the door with ease. We snuck into the
house and saw that Brie’s husband had replaced her with a new woman, one that
was pregnant at the time. I also used the key to free the Phinova Dominas from
the dungeon.
Wait a minute. The Phinova Dominas.
“Your
father never told me that he was a mage,” I said.
“No.
One doesn’t tell vampires who we are.” Saykoy shrugged. “It is our way.”
I
gestured to the many wagons that the Phinova Dominas stepped from. “Then maybe
some of these women I recently freed from the king’s castle are mages, too.”
She
twisted around. Her beads clanked against each other. “I thought I smelled kin
among you, but thought that smell mainly came from your…Queen. She has great
power running through those veins. Her parents must have been great mages.”
“Tote!”
I yelled. The human arrived next to me in seconds.
Where in Ambi’s name did he come from?
I turned to him. “Gather all
of the Phinova Dominas and inform them that we’re on mage land now and that
they are free to safely go wherever they desire. No Quiet King travels this
land.”
Saykoy’s
smile widened until I spotted her perfect teeth shining back at me. “It seems
like the Horned King is not what we assumed. Yen!”
“Yes,
Saykoy.” Yen strolled our way with Brie.
“There
will be a change of plans. I’ve learned many things in just a few minutes.”
Saykoy raised her hands in the air. “No vampire blood will be shed tonight.”
“Are
you sure?” Yen quirked his eyebrows.
“Yes.
The Horned King is the great pathfinder that my father slaughters wolves for.”
“Fascinating.”
Yen bowed to me. I tensed, unsure of how to respond. Ian tapped my back and so
I bowed back to Yen.
“Don’t
be startled.” Saykoy clapped her hands. “You’re surrounded by our best. We’d
planned to kill you all, but that was a slight mistake. Now we truly welcome
you as friends.”
She
clucked. Yen whistled. The ground quaked. I stumbled back. Cracks formed all
around us and discharged a stifling heat. I drove out my fangs, readying myself
to attack. Green steam shrilled out of the ground at a high-pitched tone. Dirt
and rocks exploded into the air, yet none hit us. Hundreds of short men and
women draped in green beads rushed out of the soil and dropped around us. The
minty fragrance swamped the space. I coughed from the all-consuming smell. My
claws shredded through my skin. They all clucked and whistled back to Yen and
Saykoy.
Brie
placed her soft hand in mine. “Settle down, my king. No one is challenging
you.”
“Please
stay next to me.” I drew in my fangs and claws. “If they hurt you—”
“They
won’t.”
Saykoy
motioned to us. “Hear me now! These are our friends. None shall be harmed
without our order.”
Without their order?
The
king inside me didn’t like that. I tightened my hold on Brie.
Maybe I should rip out the chiefs’ tongues
to guarantee no orders to harm us are made.
“Are
you calm?” Brie asked.
“For
now.”
All
of the hundreds of mage lowered to their knees. For some reason the king within
me sank back down into myself and was soothed. They weren’t bowing to me; they
lowered for their tribal leaders, but still, they lowered, and that was enough.
“We
should head to our feasts.” Yen ambled past us and gestured for us to follow.
His gut wobbled as he moved. “We’d planned on the feast to celebrate our
annihilation of you and your people. But now it seems you shall live tonight
and rejoice with us on our possibility of destroying the Quiet King.”
I
grunted.
They’re too confident. I should
slice their necks open and drink all that confidence away.
As
if Brie sensed my unease, she wrapped one of her arms around my back and hugged
me a little while we walked with them.
Let’s
hope aligning with these mage is worth it.
Chapter Ten
~Ian
A flame mage, rock mage, and a
vampire king stood around a fire out in the woods by themselves.
The flame mage boasted, “I can make
that fire rise to the moons and all will know that I am great.”
The rock mage countered, “With one
enchantment I’ll build a tower of dirt, rocks, and sticks to touch the moons
faster than you raise that flame, and all will know that I am great.”
The vampire king extended his arms
out in a blur, seized the mages’ necks, and ripped their heads off. “I am
great.”
It
was the only mage joke I knew. I decided to keep that one to myself as we
journeyed through a forest rich with fruit and huge leaves that looked like big
fans when the wind blew through them. An herbal perfume flooded the forest and
blocked out the bitter scent of magic emitting off the mages. Trees towered us,
shielding us from the moons’ light and casting shadows on our skin. I was glad
Tote walked several feet behind me as he pushed the wagon. I’d placed Phinova
in there, hoping to find a medicine mage in one of the tribes that could maybe
analyze her. For some reason, the farther I was away from her the less she
could talk to me in my head.
It was never
that way before. Even when I lay in the sewer, she talked to me in my head and
sent soothing thoughts my way.
It was how I knew the night she died. Her
thoughts had been screams. Her last words were
I love you, Nai and Ian.
She’ll be back. There will be a
medicine man here that can help.
White
birds chirped above our heads. They must have been three feet long. Their
feathers shimmered with colorless light.
“What
type of birds are those?” I pointed to them.
“Doons,”
Saykoy replied. “Our sun goddess Ressi gifted all mages with the birds so that
we can see in the night and have light to kill vampires.”
“So
I see mage still believe their religious texts.” Better known as lies.
“It
is the words of the goddess that decorate the ancient tablets at the center of
our prayer area. We will believe those words until the goddess sends another
messenger.” She kept her pace with mine. “My father received a dream two nights
ago that change will come for our tribes. Ressi said that one will come to
speak her news.”
“Then
why give us such a hard time? Clearly Brie is this person. She came to you as a
Returned person with the symbols of the gods embedded in her skin.”
“Well,
understand that after my father had the dream, many came, fleeing from the
Horned King. Lots of humans scared and worried that a war would begin right in
Capitol City. “
It will.
“So
when the Horned King arrived, we did not take his presence lightly. Regardless
of her markings, we need to be careful and make sure this king didn’t come to
bring us harm.” Saykoy glanced at Samuel as he trailed behind Yen and Brie.
Samuel’s gaze remained on Yen’s hand as it gripped Brie’s.