My lips parted when I saw his bared back.
He’d been whipped too. Only, instead of three lashes, it looked like he’d received a hundred.
“Rest,” he growled out, a sudden anger in his voice. “I will return with the healer later.”
Then he left. And I was left with the quiet and the crackling fire and the shadows.
Chapter Five
“Her fever grows,Vorakkar,” the healer said. “She will burn up before the dawn.”
I stared down at the wreckage of her flesh. The human female was slick with sweat and she trembled every so often in sleep. Despite the healer’s attempts, infection had already taken root. It had been three days since I’d brought thekallesto my camp. She had not woken up on the second day.
“What will you do?” I growled. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw the healer still at my tone.
“I recommend an ice bath,” she replied, her voice hesitant. “Have your warriors bring in the water from the river. They will need to break the ice to retrieve it.”
“Very well,” I said, rising.
“Vorakkar,” the healer called out softly. I turned back to her, but her gaze remained averted. “I—I have never treated avekkiribefore. They are different from us, weaker. I do not wish for you to be angry with me if I cannot heal her. I—I cannot go back toDothik.”
My brows drew together. She thought her place in the horde balanced on thekalles’ life. Had I given her that impression?
“Your home is always here,kerisa,” I told her, trying to soften my tone. “But do not let her die.”
Vodan found me when I exited my tent. His eyes strayed to the entrance but I caught the flash of disapproval in his gaze.
Beyond him, I saw a small group of horde warriors standing around a barrel fire, laughing and eating.
“Darukkar,” I called out. The group immediately turned and straightened when they saw me standing there.
While I relayed my orders to the horde warriors and watched as they filed out of the camp, heading west towards the river, I sensed mypujerakclose in.
“What is it?” I asked him, breathing in the crisp air through my nostrils and looking out over my horde.
“There are already whisperings around the camp,” he told me. “You will need to address her presence soon. Many wonder why avekkirikallesstays in yourvoliki.”
“Tell them what you must,” I said.
“That she is your war prize? That she is your whore?”
I huffed out an impatient breath, my eyes seeking the moon hanging above our camp. It was only a crescent moon, but once it was full, whether the cold season descended or not, I had to be inDothik.
“Should I tell them everything but the truth?”
“And what is it?” I rasped, locking my gaze with his. “Tell me,pujerak, what you believe the truth is.”
He said nothing, but I could see the knowledge of it in his eyes.
I shook my head, my eyes returning to the moon. Then, I said, “You are not my blood brother, Vodan, but you are my family. You always have been, since we were young.”
Vodan sighed. I remembered him right then as when I’d first seen him. Dirty and small and hungry. Just like I’d been.
“We built something inDothik. Together. We built this horde because I could not have done it without you,” I said. “Now, I need that support. I need you to stop questioning me. Because though you are my brother, I am still yourVorakkarand I need you to remember that.”
He held my gaze but I saw when my request permeated.
“I will not pretend to know what it is like, going through the Trials of theDothikkar,” mypujeraksaid after a brief pause. “I will not pretend to know what it takes, mentally and physically, to become aVorakkar.”
