“We will rest here for the night,” he decided.
“Here?” I asked, my voice going higher. I peered around the tree trunk I was still pressed to. I could still see the plains through the trees. Open space, golden sunlight. “Even after this?”
“We will not find better protection than spilledjrikkiablood,” he informed me, “though I would be surprised if there was another pack here.”
I frowned. “You mean, they don’t live in the Dead Forest?”
“The Dead Forest?” he repeated, raising a brow. He huffed out a sharp exhale. “Nik, they live east. Yet, they seem to come further and further west every year.”
“They do not look like any beasts I’ve seen on Dakkar before,” I commented softly, slowly peeling myself away from the trunk.
“They were brought by the Killup. These are their creatures.”
Understanding dawned. The Killup were another race that lived on Dakkar, that lived even further east than the Dead Lands. I’d seen a few under the Dead Mountain. They’d worn the slave mark of the Ghertun as well.
I stepped around hispyroki.
It embarrassed me but I said, “Thank you. For your protection.”
I’d meant what I said. If I had traveled this way, had a pack found me, I would’ve been torn to pieces before I’d ever even seen them coming.
“Do not thank me for killing,” he said, his tone on the edge of a growl. “I already told you what I am.”
I didn’t know what to make of his words but he stepped up to hispyrokiand hefted off the heavy travel sacks attached to her side. He murmured something to her in Dakkari and slowly, she lay on the forest floor.
“Can I help?” I asked.
“Get the water skin and theuudun,” he said, jerking his head towards the discarded sack.
My own pain was forgotten as I knelt in front of the bag and pulled both from its depths.
Then I came to kneel at hispyroki’s side and watched as he took the golden fire basin from the sack and began to build a fire. When it flared to life, I couldn’t help but look over at a fallenjrikkia, at its open dark eyes. In a way, I felt sorry for it. Beasts and animals weren’t like us. They didn’t kill for the sake of it. They killed to survive, when they were hungry.
Reaching forward, I leaned towards thejrikkiaand closed its open gaze, my fingers drifting to the impossibly soft fur around its pointed ears.
Tears pricked my eyes. Perhaps leftover emotion from the terror, the shock…and sadness that these creatures had to die so that we could live. But I understood the way of this world. It was cruel and unfair. I was simply glad to be breathing.
The horde king was watching me, the fire flickering in his gaze, making his eyes appear like molten embers. Slowly, I pulled my hand away from the beast and turned my attention back to hispyroki.
Out of curiosity, I let my power build between thepyrokiand me. I had never tried my gift on a creature before, only on Dakkari, on humans, and on Ghertun. I imagined cupping the energy between us and I pushed, pushed into the empty space…focusing…
I found nothing.
I dropped the one-sided connection, my shoulders sagging slightly. Perhaps I could have eased her pain. She had helped to protect me, after all.
When I looked back to the horde king, he was heating his sword in the flames and my stomach dropped. I knew this method of healing. My eyes went back to the wounds along thepyroki’sside and saw what her master had seen. The deepest gash along her side hadn’t clotted yet.Allthe wounds were deep.
“You will need to do this,” he rasped. “You are not strong enough to hold her down.”
My first reaction was to protest, but I knew it wouldn’t help. He was right. I could be useful to her if I did this, though she might hate me even more than she already did.
“Lysi?” he rasped.
I swallowed, my gut churning.
“I will.”
He nodded.
