I ignored the absurd remark.
“Your jewelry is pretty.” Tatiana said.
“Thank you.” I didn’t mention that it was a gift from Arrazyl. Kyvar didn’t need any more ammunition to tease than he had.
“You like jewelry?” Kyvar was suddenly very intent on Tatiana.
“Oh.” She laughed nervously. “I think all ladies like jewelry to some extent.”
He trilled, his sound much deeper than Junyv’s, and I wondered if Tatiana realized it was their version of a head nod or “mmhmm.” She seemed to.
It turned out I wasn’t prepared for the intensity of vorpyr “games.” Thyra, who’d appeared with Jaron and a guard—who presumably flew Jaron up to the top of the cliff and wasn’t hanging around because they thought Jaron was dangerous—told me that there were five stages of the competition. They would race through the canyon, navigating past booby traps as they flew, then they would drop from the top of the canyon all the way to the ground, where they had to run and navigate more traps, including hand to hand combat with other vorpyr attacking them, and then they had to part fly part run throughan obstacle course with a low ceiling thanks to an energy net that would zap them if they got too high.
“Then—” she continued as I stared at her, aghast that there was more. “—they have to take down a tactile hologram created hykh. Then they race back.” She finished quickly, as though it was nothing. I gaped at her. She blinked. “What?”
“Where do I even start? Aren’t there a lot of injuries?”
“Oh yes, that’s almost guaranteed.” She smiled at my expression. “Remember, vorpyr are very tactile. We enjoy fighting, we enjoy the scars we get—well, culturally we do. I’m not big on hunting or fighting myself.”
“Has Arrazyl gotten hurt before?”
She gave me a speculative look at the question but I couldn’t regret it, I was worried he’d be injured.
“He has been injured, but nothing terrible. As the Vorazyr, he has to be at the top of his game, always.”
We were given space, but vorpyr crowded every other area along the clifftop edge to see the competition. The rustle of wings and growls and trills of conversation filled the space until the contestants flew down to the start line on the canyon floor. Arrazyl stood a little taller than most of the vorpyr in the line, his powerful muscles on display thanks to no shirt and those signature dark pants. He looked like exactly what he was, a predator made for war.
“These guys are intense.” Jaron said as soon as the competition started.
I winced as both ancient looking spears—I imagined they were a nod to their ancestors—and laser fire shot out from the sides of the canyon in multiple places. At least a dozen vorpyr had tears in their wings and went down, some spiraling and landinghard. Physicians I hadn’t noticed before rushed in from the sides. Thank goodness for advanced, cell-level healing devices.
“If we ever get to go home, we should take one of those healing devices with us and try to get it replicated.” Jaron said.
“Shh, you’re going to get us into trouble.” Tatiana gripped his arm and shook it playfully. Kyvar’s sharp eyes tracked the movement, and he gave my brother a look that made my hackles rise. What was that about? Did he have a crush on Tatiana?
“They can’t understand what we’re saying.”
“I’ve been teaching our language to some children.” I commented distractedly, my gaze locked back on Arrazyl. The speed at which he dodged and zipped through the dangerous area made it difficult for me to track him. Suddenly, he tucked his wings and hurtled toward the ground. I gasped. At the last moment his wings came out and he landed in a run, taking on the next round. He was so far away I had to lean close to the cliff edge and strain to see what he was doing. It was a good thing, because he took down two vorpyr who’d launched themselves at him with brutal efficiency. Others were not so lucky, but a shocking amount made it through the warriors. Jaron and Thyra were quietly speaking about it.
“…no, we fight up close. Despite the advanced weapons anymore, we stick to our roots. I mean, we have laser rifles and plas grenades, but we rarely use them.” Thyra said.
“We shouldn’t discuss our fighting capabilities.” Kyvar scolded. Thyra blew out a heavy breath at him, accompanied by a little growl, to express her displeasure.
“He’s in first place. There are two who are close behind.” Tatiana directed our attention back to the competition.
The hykh appeared out of nowhere and crashed into a few of the competitors, thanks to the tech that created physical holograms. They were terrifying creatures. They had thick-looking grey skin like the extinct Earth rhinoceros, but they were lithe, with muscle instead of bulk, and they had talons on their six legs and teeth that jutted out like a sabertooth tiger’son a head and neck like a horse. One snaked its long neck out and snapped sharp teeth at Arrazyl from behind while he dove for the throat of another. At the last second he turned his body sideways and avoided the teeth while taking his target down—as in, the hologram winked out as he raked his claws across its throat.
I straightened as he started the last part of the course, stepping away from the edge, but a hard jostle from behind knocked me forward. I lurched over the cliff edge with a hollow gasp as I lost my breath and my stomach bottomed out.
Chapter 23
Wind whistled in my ears as I plummeted, seized with fear, unable to even scream as I somersaulted head over feet. Then I hit. But not the ground. I was still dozens of feet from the canyon floor.
“I leave you alone for an hour and you go and fall off a cliff.”
I almost sobbed as Arrazyl’s voice threaded through me. I shifted in his grip to wrap my arms around his neck and bury my face against him. “I’m really sick of nearly dying.”
He landed, but I refused to let go. I still felt like I was falling.
