She trailed off, the pain pulling her under again. Released of her gaze, with a grim expression, I washed as much of the wounds as possible, but without theuudun, I knew the risk for infection was high. We needed to reach the rest of the horde soon.
“Why are you doing this?” Vodan asked me quietly, releasing her limp arms, watching as I bound her back in clean cloth. “You are aVorakkar. She is avekkiri. You punished her for her crime, yet now you seem driven to save her.”
I didn’t answer him.
“What did she say to you?” he asked quietly. “When you ended her punishment, she spoke to you.”
It wasn’t about what she said. It was about what Isaw, what Ifelt.
Again, I didn’t answer him.
Instead, I told him, “Vir drak drukkia.”
We ride at midday.
Chapter Four
Time blurred and I was in and out of consciousness in flashes and waves. Every time, I woke to pain. The searing pain of my back and then the new pain between my thighs. That pain frightened me at first, until I realized it was due to riding the Dakkari’s black-scaled creatures, the hard flesh chafing my own, a new soreness taking root.
My eyes stung and my lids felt heavy as I looked over land I didn’t recognize. It was dark. Endless black plains that would be frozen over soon met my gaze, though I spied the shadows of mountains and heavily shrouded forests in the distance.
Every thump from the creature’s gait jostled my fresh wounds but I bit the sides of my cheeks to keep from wincing.
“You wake,” camehisvoice behind me. I felt his hand tighten at my hip, where he kept me steady, and when I glanced down, the golden cuff around his wrist flashed in the low moonlight.
There was something thick on my back, covering the wounds. When I tried to reach around to investigate, he squeezed my hip in warning and I stiffened.
“Nik,” he said. “Leave them,kalles.”
I couldn’t look over my shoulder to meet his eyes. It twisted my back when I tried, but I did crane my neck as far as I dared and in my peripheral vision, saw his golden hair in the darkness.
A wave of dizziness hit me and I clutched at the creature’s neck as I steadied myself. I kept my head forward from that moment, feeling nausea rise, thick saliva coating my mouth. To distract myself from it, I stroked the creature’s scales, tracing the edge of one. It was as hard as metal, yet warm like flesh. I felt its power, its unbridled strength, as palpable as its master’s behind me.
My breath hitched, eyes widening, realizing what was missing.
“Blue’s feathers,” I rasped, looking down at my lap, as if I’d find them there. “Where are they?”
His hand moved from my hip. I didn’t care about the pain from my back as I dove my fists into my pockets, searching, fearing that I’d lost them—her—forever.
Relief sagged my shoulders when the feathers appeared in my line of sight, held out by his clawed fingers. I snagged them quickly and clutched them to my chest, swallowing.
“You took me from my village,” I whispered, another wave of dizziness hitting me from my sudden physical effort. I looked down at the feathers before placing them safely in the pocket of my torn tunic.
“Lysi.”
I remembered that moment, before my whipping. I’d felt like I was out of my own body, floating feet above the ground. I felt that way now, like none of this was real. My mind was fuzzy, my head felt heavy. I felt warm and chilled.
Was this real? Was he real?
The throbbing in my wounds told me it was. The nausea, the dizziness, the tiredness told me it was. Surely if I was dead, I wouldn’t feel this much pain.
Reaching down with one hand, I curled my stinging palm around the black-scaled creature’s nape, right where its long neck met its back. Perhaps this was what shock felt like.
Cold wind slapped against my face, but tendrils of it slid over the heat radiating from my back. It felt nice, but also terrible.
“Where are you taking me?” I asked.
“To my horde.”
