Page 141 of Shadowborne: Reckoning

‘Ruin flees,’ Kgosi spat, his tone leaving no question what he thought of that. ‘Ruin flees… and Carnage calls the wild ones to follow. And they do.’

‘Wait, what?! Where are they going?’

‘I do not know,’ Kgosi rumbled. ‘But I would gamble he returns to Vosgaarde, to overrun my herd and take them from me.’

I frowned. ‘He can’t. You’re alive, and still dominant. He can’t… can he?’

Kgosi turned his head and met my eye over his shoulder. ‘We must follow. Now.’

46. The Heavy Cost of Pursuit

SOUNDTRACK: The Oath by Glum Aleks

~ BREN ~

When the sun rose for the third time after our midnight launch from Fyrehold, I sat on Akhane’s back, gripping the neckstrap, but slumped. My body dragged with fatigue—Akhane and I had only stopped for minutes at a time to eat and drink, and three hours in the hottest part of each day to sleep.

Weariness had reached my bones. My muscles quivered with it, and my stomach gnawed.

But it was the separation that threatened to undo me. Flying away from Donavyn had been even harder than I’d expected—and as the awareness of the bond faded until I was left with only a hollow sense of him, a whisper of a memory of the connection—I panicked.

Akhane, too, was struggling. We’d expected to have to fight the bond. But neither of us anticipated pain. And the shrieking ache of loneliness.

If I hadn’t had her, I wouldn’t have made it.

‘The same is true for me, Bren,’ Akhane breathed in my head wearily. I wanted to weep, listening to her. She’d had it even worse than me—at times, screaming with pain when muscles tied up in protest of our solitude.

“I never thought it would hurt like this,” I said breathlessly.

Akhane shook her head like a dog. ‘I was aware it would hurt, but… I understood it would ease as we drew further away.’

I lay down on her neck and hugged her as best I could. ‘You are so strong,’ I told her with sincere admiration. ‘I'm proud of you.’

Akhane crooned, and I felt the rush of love from her in the bond. ‘Little Flame, you honor me.’

‘I wish I could do more.’

We flew on without words for a time, but though we were high, at some point, the sun’s rising light twinkled on water below and I looked down and frowned.

‘Akhane… is that the gorge near where we found the army?’

‘Yes.’

‘Let’s take our rest there. Just to check. I know they gathered up the men, but you need a break, and I want to see if there’s any clue of this plot that we missed at the time.’

Akhane didn’t like the idea, but we were due for a break—she’d been flying to the point of exhaustion for three days—and she descended slowly, wheeling and spiraling down.

She landed much closer to the campsite than we had the first time, but we’d seen no sign of men or activity out here. It was unlikely I’d find anything, but I wanted to check.

I was still bothered by the fact that the king had sent me out here to discover these men, and obviously obscured where they were from. Were they Vosgaardians? Fyrehold men? There’d been no sign of dragons, and Akhane hadn’t scented any nearby. But it was possible, just like Fyrehold, that they sent their furies into the hills…

When I dismounted—stumbling and almost falling when I dropped the last few feet to the ground and my knees and ankles didn’t want to brace—I patted Akhane’s leg.

‘Go find something to eat. I feel so bad about how this is wearing you out.’

‘It suits our purpose, does it not?’ she sighed, turning her head so her incredible eye fixed on me from the side. ‘I must appear finished. As I would be if I’d truly lost my mate.’ Her voice tightened on the words and her gaze shifted north—as mine did.

We couldn’t see them. Couldn’t pinpoint their locations or even their feelings anymore. But we could sense the vague direction in which they lay. I caught myself looking north and slightly east whenever I stopped thinking. My mate’s presence called to me.