A burst of cackling, thick laughter filled her ears and she was let go.
She barely caught herself and worked her way to the other side of the fire. The trees turned upside-down. His laughter deepened with sinister glee, taking an edge that had her searching for her discarded clothes. Aldora dragged them to her side, and with several failed attempts, eventually redressed herself.
She was no longer in pain but her skin was apple-red from the boiling liquid. She checked the bruise on her arm, finding it no more than a blemish of its former self.
“What?” she asked when he continued to cackle between toothy smiles. Aldora yanked the dagger from her boot, her hand shaking with the effort.
“It has nothing to do with your people’s sadistic need to sacrifice others of your kind.” He rose up on his haunches. “You appear and the rest of us in the mist take advantage. Not all beasts care about your flesh. Some just want your blood, some are just... ravenous.” His eyes narrowed and she tightened her hold on her weapon. The pressure between her legs strengthened as her gaze flickered over his powerful muscles.
Aldora watched him cautiously, feeling her strength begin to return. “The mists don’t encroach into our lands if we make sacrifices. That’s how it’s been for generations, since—”
“Forever?”
“Yes.”
He leaned closer to the fire and she shifted back. He picked up the pile of plants and stuffed them into a pouch then began to string them to the buckles around his waist. “The cursed mist has no mind of its own, it cares nothing for you humans. Why else call it a curse? There’s no fighting it, no bloodthirsty battle to savor.”
“But it doesn’t come into our lands. It stops at the labyrinth wall and stays there,” she argued despite Burlox’s fall coming to mind. “Humanity’s kingdom remains untouched as long as humans are delivered to you. That’s how it has always been, how it still is...” How she’d been raised, being told this every day living in a bordertown. Her entire world was affected by the labyrinth, each nightmare and grim thought was because of it, every morning from the first blink to evening’s last. The mist was always in the back of her mind. “We battle the mist by respecting it.”
So many decisions were borne from it. Everyone in Thetras, in all of Savadon, lived within the shadow of the labyrinth wall.We have celebrations...
Depraved, hedonistic celebrations.
Aldora rubbed her lips on the back of her hand, remembering his touch. “The mist recently overtook a town north of mine, of Thetras,” she added.
“Your people think it’s because of the sacrifices?” he goaded. “There were rumors of a large influx of humans. That very reason affected your life.”
“Why else would the town fall if it wasn’t because it failed? What do you mean, affected my life?”
“Female, it’s all because of your blood. Everything is about human blood here.” He re-sheathed his axes. “Look around and see how the mist does not cling around you like it does the plants, the trees, me. It tries to and it’s gaining ground second by second until it can envelop your soft flesh to conquer, but do not fret, breeder, I won’t let it take away my pet.”
“I’m not your—” His hand snapped out and grabbed her before the words came out, pulling her onto her feet. She pointed the dagger at the wall of his stomach, but before she could thrust it deep, one of his hands closed over hers while the other tangled in her hair. He jerked her head back and wrenched the weapon from her hand.
“Human pet,” he snarled and a blast of steam hit her face. “Your kind is killing itself. The more you throw into the labyrinth, the less you have to repel the curse. One day, there will be no Savadon, no sunlight to stream through the veil, no world left for you and it’s no one’s fault but your own.” She flinched as her hair was pulled and pain shot across her scalp. “One day, you’ll all be ours and everything you’ve built will be gone. You’ll adapt or you’ll die.” He released her hand and she reached back to grab the hand holding her hair, tears springing in her eyes.
“You’re lying,” she breathed, her lips parted. She strained on her toes in an attempt to relieve the pressure of his grip.
“Has your kingdom ever gained back any land?”
Aldora searched her mind already knowing the answer but she couldn’t allow herself to believe it. She’d never heard of Savadon expanding, only shrinking, losing what was left when quotas weren’t met. It didn’t explain the giant, nearly impenetrable wall that connected their worlds, nor the countless ones who miraculously returned from the mists.
“No,” she answered. He released her and she stumbled to her knees. She picked up the dagger between them and looked at it, not wanting to see anything else. “We’ve only ever lost it.”
“As it will always be.”
“Why tell me this? We both know I’m at your mercy, that you’ll never let me go back, that I’ll never even get the chance.”
“Because the sooner you work with me, rather than against me, the stronger you’ll become.”
“The sooner you’ll use me,” she snapped.He’s taking me to his brothers.
His cloven feet moved out of her line of sight and she trailed her finger across the dagger’s primitive design. Aldora blinked again rapidly to clear the wayward tears on her lashes and stood, pushing the blade back into her boot, while reaching out and picking up the bone bowl. Ashes flew up into the air as he stamped out the fire.
“What,” she started, lifting her eyes back to his horns, “are you?” Her gaze drifted down his body to his thick, leather loincloth and the bushy fur that covered him from his hips to his ankles.
“Vedikus.”
Vedikus.His name breathed of ember and ruin, pain and depravity. A single word said in incantation to bring the dead back to life or to enthrall the living. Vedikus. Knowing it burned the back of her throat. Aldora forced herself not to swallow. She wanted nothing of him inside of her, she realized, but she didn’t have a choice.
