REDVYR
After the meal,Walgar and I had turned our chairs to face the celebration while his wife had gone to socialize with the other wives. Behrvyne had also joined us. The other clan lords had kept to the table, drinking and carrying on about their hunting exploits and trying to impress one another.
It was good to see our clans enjoying the feast, but my mind was elsewhere. On Jessamine. It had taken everything in me not to follow her back to our tent, to make sure she was alright. While those rude fuckers at the table had made me want to crack a few jaws, she had smiled like it was nothing. Unbothered. Or so it seemed. I wanted to be certain, wanted to hold her close and assure her she was meant to be by my side no matter what others said.
I’d expected some unwelcome comments, but I hadn’t been prepared for how it would burn me up inside.
“Do you believe the golems are gone for good?” asked Behrvyne.
This was why I hadn’t left the feast so soon. I knew he and Walgar, the most insightful clan lords, would want more information. And they deserved it.
“No,” I answered honestly. “One of them got away.”
I wasn’t going to recount the horror of that fucking grimlock Selestos opening up a chasm of water in the earth with a word in Godjin and vanishing into the watery pit with Jessamine and the babe.
“And I believe,” I continued, “that his master, whoever he is, will make more of his grimlock minions.”
“Who is this master?” asked Walgar, violence in his voice.
“We don’t know. The grimlock who got away called him a god.”
“Fucking hells.” Behrvyne drank a gulp of ale. “If a god has sent these creatures to kill us then we will all die.”
“Don’t be so dramatic, beastling.”
He growled at me, for the insult. But he was talking like a child.
“If our enemy was a god, then we wouldn’t have been able to kill his minions. Gods have divine familiars and helpers. I can promise you these creatures were made of flesh and blood. Even if their blood was black.”
“Black,” muttered Walgar. “Then black magick is at play.”
“Aye,” I agreed. “I believe this master of golems lives deep in the Solgavia Mountains.” At Mount Gudrun, was what the naiad sisters had said. But I wouldn’t share all of my information, lest Behrvyne decided to take a war party and head up there himself.
“Shadow fae territory,” said Behryvne. “What are they doing about it?”
“They’re hunting them just as we are. I’ve been in contact with them.”
“And does their king know they’ve got a monster living in their midst, using black magick to kill our innocents?” growled Walgar.
“Prince Torvyn knows. I’ve spoken to him myself.”
Walgar grunted with satisfaction. “They’d better hunt faster.”
“What we need to worry about right now is protecting our own,” I told them both. “I’ve sent word using our sprite, Hallizel, that the prince and his priests need to come to me as soon as possible. Hallizel left a message with the wife of their chief priest, Vallon. Bezaliel’s mate is her sister. I can promise you they will come as soon as they get the message.”
“Good.” Behrvyne emptied his ale down his throat. “If you need warriors to go after more of them, let me know.”
We were quiet for a while, watching our people dance and make merry. There was laughter and dancing, some of the couples venturing off to their tents. Again, I longed to return to my tent and crawl into the furs with Jessamine. But my duty to my clan came first tonight, so I remained. There was more that I felt compelled to tell.
“Tell your people to be careful of other fae creatures as well.”
Walgar turned to look at me. “What do you mean?”
“Wolf brought Jessamine to me at my hunting camp near Vanglosa. She was freezing to death in the woods.”
“Why was she there?” asked Behrvyne, interjecting before I could explain the point of the story.
“She was running from her own kind. Moon fae males, sent by the man her father betrothed her to, were hunting her.”
