For that alone, ever since Benn had taken over leadership of our group, there was a part of me that was thankful for the way I spoke. I saw a blessing there that I’d never seen before.
And yet, when the horde king touched me, I spoke more clearly than I ever had before, I couldn’t help but recall.
I didn’t know what that meant. Or why, considering my nerves had been jumbled and my fear had been high during those moments with him. At least at first.
Benn turned to leave, back towards the mountain, and I waited briefly before I followed.
When I reached the entrance, my head tilted back. I saw the yawning open mouth of the Dead Mountain with red fog billowing in and out. There was no soul in sight.
As always, a chill raced up my spine when I looked up at the mountain looming before me. It had been at the Dakkari witch’s insistence that we keep the horde king here. She claimed it was where this all began and it was here that it needed to end.
Benn had been worried about the Ghertun when we first entered. But none within the mountain had survived. The fog had roamed the land for many moon cycles now. It had killed Ghertun in the upper levels quickly. The ones who’d gone below, where we all now resided, had been taken by hunger and thirst and darkness.
It might not be long before we suffer the same fate, I thought.
And I didn’t want to die in a place like this.
Not with fear and horror constantly curling in my veins.
Quickly, I rushed inside, drawing the cloak around me tighter and tighter, as if it could make me disappear. The Dead Mountain was a kingdom of mazes. The upper floors were labyrinths of long, tunneled hallways, which all led to a vast throne room, where we’d found piles and piles of decaying Ghertun.
The lower levels were connected by chiseled stairways, some impossibly wide, some so narrow I couldn’t imagine Ghertun squeezing through them. This place was littered with them and it had taken a few days to remember the correct pathways down to where we lived, where the fog did not reach. It was there that we would keep the horde king until the Dakkari witches arrived.
I wound my way down, the darkness overwhelming as I didn’t have a torch with me. When I descended the fifth set of stairs and stopped on the landing, I saw a glow of light at the end of the hallway and I hurried towards it. The medicine room. Now, it would be a prison.
Tess found me first. Her eyes were wide and worried, though relief shone in them when she saw me unharmed. She’d been waiting for me, it seemed.
“You did it. Oh, I’ve been so worried,” she whispered, taking my hands in her own, rubbing warmth into them. She frowned. “You’re shaking, Mina.”
I hadn’t been able to stop.
My eyes didn’t leave the doorway of the medicine room, where a vibrant, golden glow from the torches shone within.
“Is…is h-he all right?” I whispered quietly.
Her brow furrowed.
“The horde king?” she asked carefully, peering at me closely.
In the next moment, Benn strode from the room and Tess stepped back from me quickly. Dangling from his grip was the horde king’s sword, though I didn’t linger on it. I didn’t meet Benn’s eyes either. Instead, I directed my gaze to the floor, at the smooth, softened edges of the stone.
“Is he secure?” Tess asked, stepping towards Benn. I didn’t know how she did it. I didn’t know how she smiled as she touched him, how she sighed as he kissed her.
I rubbed my lips with trembling fingers, remembering the horde king’s heat there, remembering my gasp meeting his deep groan. Then I clenched my fist, lowering it back to my side as I shivered.
Foolish girl, I thought, my jaw tightening.
“Yes,” Benn grunted, just as the other men trickled from the room, Kyl sagging against the wall, trying to reclaim his breath. “Kyl, go inform the others we have the horde king. Emmi, take the first watch.”
“Now comes the hard part,” Emmi grumbled, crossing his arms over his chest, leaning against the wall.
“You,” Benn growled and I knew that his eyes were on me. When I lifted my chin, he said, with a slight tone of delight in his voice, “When he wakes, you will tend to him.”
I froze, remembering the hatred I spied in the horde king’s eyes, just before Taylor knocked him unconscious.
Jacques shifted in the hallway, straightening, and I sensed Emmi exchanging a look with Taylor.
Jacques said quietly, “Perhaps another of the women, Benn. You heard him. It sounded like he wanted to kill her where she stood. Once he wakes, he will remember her.”
