They call me the Mad Horde King?I thought derisively.They have seen nothing yet.
“Where are you?” I asked. “Please.”
“Drokka,” Hedna said and I felt his hand on my arm. “Come, my friend, you need—”
I shook him off, wrenching my arm from his grip. Devina’s shadowed face flickered, her eyes glowing before they settled into the familiar red.
“How do I help her?” I asked my sister. The vision of her had to bereal. How else would I have ever found Vienne? All this time, I had believed the shadows to be a fragment of my fractured mind. The descending madness that had plagued me my entire life.
But now…perhaps it wasn’t madness at all.
“I do not know,” Devina replied, those sad eyes seeming to cut right through my soul. “But your pain brought me here. I can feel it.”
“Tell me how to save her.”
“I do not know everything, Davik,” Devina replied. The blood began to bloom over her abdomen and her features drew together, as if she couldfeelit.
“You are dead,” I yelled, the ragged words torn from my throat, leaving cuts like blades, as my chest heaved. “You should knoweverything.”
“Drokka,” Hedna growled, stepping between Devina and myself. I knew he couldn’t see her. Only I could. Only I could see what lurked and haunted the shadows.
My eyes never left Devina but once again her words dropped away. Her mouth moved but I could no longer hear her.
“Nik, stay here!”
When she vanished again, I clutched my head in my hands, feeling my claws prick into my scalp.
“Vorakkar,” came Betrika’s voice. When I swung around to face him, I saw all eyes on me. Rath Kitala, Hedna, the healer, and Vienne’s. At the entrance of thevoliki, the Killup leader had slipped inside. He was regarding me as well, his hands clasped tight behind his back, his face still stoic and impassive. Unreadable.
I went to Vienne, dropping on my knees beside the healer. Tears pooled in her gaze. “She left again,leikavi,” I told Vienne.
“I-I know,” she whispered. She flinched when I touched her skin and I snatched my hand back.
“Vorakkar,” Betrika said quietly, drawing my attention to him. “I do not know what this is.”
“Nik,” I said. “You must.”
Betrika swallowed, the sound audible. His eyes flickered to Rath Kitala, looming just behind me, and then to Hedna.
“I have never seen this before,” the healer told me carefully. “Perhaps it is avekkiridisease, one—”
“It isvovic.”
The Killup’s quiet but stern voice cut through whatever the healer was going to say and then all eyes turned to him, standing alone at the entrance.
I rose as he approached. His gills flared when he saw Vienne. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Rath Kitala tense, his hand straying to his sword at his side. The Killup had the ability to emit poison through their gills. No doubt that was what Rath Kitala feared.
“What is it?” I asked. When I looked over my shoulder, I saw Vienne’s eyes had closed again, her back bowing. Cursing, I dropped beside her again, my hands hovering because I knew that it pained her when I touched her. “Vok!”
“It is a plant the Ghertun use to control their slaves,” the Killup said.
“A plant?” Rath Kitala asked, incredulous.
“A poison,” the Killup corrected, eyeing the otherVorakkarcuriously, cocking his head to the side. When he saw theVorakkarstill had a hand on his sword, the Killup’s lips pressed together but he didn’t say anything about it.
“How do you know about this?” I rasped.
“Some time ago, one of our own escaped from the Dead Mountain, one that had been taken by the Ghertun, and returned to us,” the Killup said. “The first two weeks, they were well. Healthy. Relieved to be home, among their own.”
