But I remembered Vodan’s warning and so I did not give her my name. Not then.
“You may continue calling me demon king if you wish, Nelle,” I rasped. Her lips parted at the sound of her name. “Ilikeit.”
Chapter Eight
One,a drum fire sparking into the air.
Two, two Dakkari children running through a hidden maze only they could see between the tents.
Three, a guard at the entrance to the encampment, walking the line of it on patrol.
I closed my eyes, but then paused. I didn’t count silently in my head but let the sounds and the smells and the wind float over me. I heard a collection of deep murmurs among horde warriors that floated up to the horde king’s tent where I was sitting, perched just outside the entrance. I heard children laughing and yelling in merriment as they played. I felt the icy cold night breeze across my cheeks and swore I saw the gentle orange glow that seemed to hover over the camp behind my closed eyelids. I heard my assigned guard shift from one foot to the other behind me. I heard the Dakkari male in the enclosure I visited earlier barking orders, constructing something in the pen. I smelled the delicious scent of cooking meat combined with a crispness that told me the cold season winds were near.
When I opened my eyes, I saw that the moon, almost a half moon now, hung overhead in the night sky. Sighing, I tucked my knees closer to my chest, resting my chin on my bony kneecaps. My seated position pulled at the wounds on my back, but I tried to ignore it. I’d slept the day away on accident and I woke groggy, thirsty, and hungry to an eerily quiet tent. I’d chugged the water I’d found on the table and then taken out my saved meal, chewing it down quickly.
When I appeared outside the entrance, my guard had taken up his post again, though he didn’t protest when I sat in front of him.
I didn’t know how long I’d been sitting there. Long enough for my backside to grow numb from the cold ground and to watch the sky deepen from a soft lavender to a darkened indigo.
The horde camp was vibrant, even on the cusp of the season. My village was nothing like it. In the past, my village had held celebrations if there was a marriage, or if the Uranian Federation had dropped a large ration shipment. But they’d seemed like depressing events to me, where villagers where most concerned with when they would eat and who received the largest cut of the rationed meat.
There had been no children playing together—there were very few children in our village at all. Most villagers kept to their homes after dark. Laughter was rarely heard.
There was life here. And though it was cold, I didn’t want to give up the sounds of the horde for the oppressive quietness of the tent, as luxurious and warm as it was.
A dark figure approached the small incline up to the tent. I studied the way he walked, how his strong legs ate up the distance quickly, and marveled that someone so large could seem so graceful. I hadn’t seen him since that morning, at the enclosure, and I wondered what a horde king of Dakkar did with his day, what tasks he had to oversee.
“Why are you sitting out here,kalles?” he asked, frowning when he reached me.
“I don’t like to be inside much,” I told him. He towered above me, but I kept my eyes on the camp below.
Out of the corner of my eye, I saw him turn to the guard. He said something in Dakkari, no doubt dismissing him for the night, and I watched the guard leave down the slope, disappearing behind a tent towards the middle of the camp.
Nerves began to creep up on me now that we were alone and away from the others. It made me wary, being alone with any male, especially after what Kier attempted with me.
I looked up at him from my seated position. “I was wondering where I go.”
“Go?” he murmured.
“Where I should sleep,” I corrected.
He exhaled a sharp breath. “You will sleep here tonight.”
“But…I’m not sick anymore,” I explained to him slowly, as if he didn’t understand what I was trying to tell him. When I’d slept in his bed with him—though unknowingly on my end—I’d been sick with infection and fever. That was different.
“My warriors have been busy preparing for the cold season,” he told me. “You will have your ownvolikisoon, but not tonight. Unless you wish to sleep out here…”
Frowning, I looked back to the camp. “Surely, there is a spare tent.”
“Nik,” he said. “Newvolikisare only built when a warrior takes a mate or when members join the horde.”
My shoulders sagged. Another figure approached the incline. It was a Dakkari female carrying a covered tray. Of food?
“Come inside,kalles. Come eat,” he told me before entering through the flaps himself, ducking low to maneuver his large body inside.
The female reached me just as I stood, but she brushed past me. When I caught her eyes, they narrowed on me and there was a very decided chill emanating from her stare that had nothing to do with the crispness in the air.
She ducked inside after calling out in Dakkari at the tent’s entrance, announcing her arrival. Though Dakkari had certainty stared at me that day, none had seemed hostile or angry…simply curious, as if they’d never seen a human before.
