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“Brynya was a good choice for Atara. Uncontested for what? Four hundred years?” I smiled at the memory of our passed Lady.
“Nearly half a millennium,” he corrected. “People stopped challenging her after she was powerful enough to create a vortex that could level entire cities. The Atarans had finally accepted that she was the best choice as a protector with no Worthy.” His smile faltered. “But she still wasn’t powerful enough to save them…”
We fell into silence. Nikan and I rarely talked about Atara. Even after twenty years, it was painful to remember. His sister by blood, Tsirra, was also an air wielder, and aspired to be just likeBrynya when she was older. Every time Brynya was brought up, he thought of her. I had never met her, but I wondered what her life would have been like if it weren’t cut so short.
Nikan got up and walked away, erected two tents, and went into one—where he remained. I tended to the horses and waited.
Once darkness fell, I went out into the trees to forage for the Onyx flower, finding one just as it was unfurling in the moonslight at the base of a bur oak. While I still had a surplus of the lethal liquid back at Morah, I made it a point to always gather more whenever I was traveling. Pulling on gloves, I carefully extracted the delicate petals and placed them in a glass container.
Returning to my tent, I put the filled container back in the pack with the rest of the materials in my Onyx Kiss kit. Not bothering to reach out to Odarum again, I settled in for the night, sleeping with my head sticking out of the stone tent so I could see the stars as I fell asleep.
The following morning, we trekked through the Nahale Forest along the top of the cliff over the Ahwey Lake. I rode atop a sound gelding. He was calm, responsive, and had a nice gait. Yet, I kind of missed that old mare, Quilla, and her stubbornness. I had grown rather fond of her.
Nikan and I only spoke to each other when needed and in hushed tones, not wanting to be heard from by creatures that lurked in the dense canopy and remaining on alert. But perhaps we weren’t quiet enough.
There was a reason people took passage over the lake rather than around it, and it wasn’t just for the convenience of getting to their destination faster. Predators lived in these woods. Territorial bears that could match a horse in speed. Wolves that hunted in packs, always hungry for their next meal. There had also been stories about large cats with fangs, too large to fit within their mouths. While nothing about them had ever been confirmed, it was said that they remained perched in the trees, stalking their prey from above.
It was confirmed now as a nightmarish, carnivorous feline dropped down between our horses.
My horse reared up on its hind legs, and Nikan’s bucked and ran off into the distance. But that was a poor choice. The fanged cat became intrigued by the retreat and engaged in a chase, leaving the one who had shown a hint of defense. It snarled as it ran after them.
I kicked my horse into a sprint after Nikan. The fanged cat was incredibly fast and quickly caught up to Nikan and his horse. He drew his sword and leapt off his horse to swing at the cat when it neared, trying to pass around him to go for his horse. The horse continued to gallop through the trees away from the predator. Nikan missed the cat and compensated by quickly shifting the ground beneath it to turn it away from his horse and direct it at himself.
The fanged cat hadn’t seemed interested in Nikan and attempted to pursue the larger prey of the horse, but once Nikan was between them, it switched its focus. My horse halted as we approached, and I jumped off, pulling out my daggers as I landed. My horse trotted away, but surprisingly didn’t go far.
At the sound of my steps toward Nikan, the cat whipped around and turned sideways, allowing it to look at the both of us as I came up on Nikan’s side, caging it in with the cliff at itsback. The cat crouched down and curled its lips back, revealing a mouth full of sharp teeth. My mind flashed back to the Trial.
Just another fucking beast waiting to devour me.
Nikan stomped the ground to raise a large boulder in front of him before he thrust out his free hand in a fist. The boulder flew through the air toward the cat but it jumped, avoiding the rock and latching onto the trunk of a tree, then pushing off down on us.
Nikan and I lurched in opposite directions, rolling to a stop as the cat landed right where we were standing. I leapt to my feet and realized that I hadn’t rolled far, while I could feel that Nikan had stumbled over the cliff’s edge and into the lake below.
The cat was stalking toward me. Its body came up to my chest. I pulled my arm back to throw my dagger but before I could release it, Odarum appeared in front of me. Wings splayed out, Odarum looked colossal and far more intimidating than myself.
Of courseit took a life-threatening situation for him to return. He was my guardian and vowed to protect me.
The cat growled and lunged for Odarum, but he didn’t move. Not a single muscle twitched. My heart stopped and my breath caught. Before I could even blink, roots from the surrounding trees burst from the soil and wrapped around the cat, catching it in mid-air and suspending it above the ground in front of Odarum.
“Gods…” I breathed. My eyes bulged at the powerful magic displayed. It had to be one of Odarum’s abilities. I had never seen anything like it before.
The cat yowled and thrashed against the roots, but was unable to free itself as they tightened around it. Odarum lowered his wings, the threat neutralized. He turned around to face me.
“You have not been harmed?”Odarum asked.
I shook my head, still marveling and unable to speak. I felt Nikan manipulating back up the cliff to get back to me.
“Are you going to kill it, or should I?”I asked.
“This being has done nothing to deserve death. You will not kill it,”Odarum ordered.
“If you let it go, it’ll just come after us again.”
“It will continue to be restrained until you have safely left the forest,”Odarum said.
“Thanks,”I replied.
“I cannot stay. But I will return.”
