Page 135 of Rule of Wolves

“Reyem!” she cried. “Please.”

“Dje janin ess! Scön der top!”

Reyem froze.

“Scön der top!” Bergin repeated, his fragile body shaking.

Mayu had no idea what it meant. She didn’t speak Fjerdan, and as far as she knew, Reyem didn’t either.

“What are you waiting for?” Queen Makhi shouted. “I’ll wake all my monsters if I have to. There will be no mercy. There will be no escape.” She pressed a sequence of buttons and the lids of the sarcophagi opened. “Who will save you now?”

Reyem’s head snapped up, as if he had at last woken from a long, terrible dream.

“I will,” he growled. He dropped Mayu with a thud and retracted his pincers, freeing Tamar. She grabbed a pellet of powder from her pocket and shoved it in her mouth, her body convulsing.

Reyem leapt up and seized the doctor, slamming him against the wall, smashing the controls as if the metal were driftwood. He whirled on Makhi’s two remaining Tavgharad. They strode forward to meet him, their blades flashing, but they were no match for the weapon Reyem had become.

He didn’t bother deflecting the attacks. It was as if he didn’t even feel the slash of their blades. He seized each guard by the throat and hurled them against the wall beside their queen. They slumped to the ground, and Mayu knew they would not rise again. Reyem grabbed the queen around the neck.

“Who will save you now?” he bit out.

“Locust!” shouted the doctor.

But he wasn’t Locust anymore.

“Set her down,” Tamar said, coughing, her face damp with sweat. “We can’t kill her, much as I might like to in this moment.”

“Reyem?” Mayu asked, not certain if he would hear or obey her.

He dropped the queen in an unceremonious heap, then smashed the controls that would have allowed her to close the other sleeping chambers.

Makhi lay on the floor, gasping for breath.

Reyem turned. “Mayu.” His face was haunted. He was her brother and yet he wasn’t. There was a stillness in him, a coldness that hadn’t existed before. “I knew you would come.”

A sob shook Mayu and she ran to him. Her broken hand throbbed as she threw her arms around her brother. His body felt strange, the hard lines of his wings folded against his back. Her mind couldn’t quite make sense of it. Her twin. Kebben.

“Bergin,” Reyem said to the Fjerdan Grisha. “Are you all right?”

“No.” Bergin was shaking badly. “I need … please.”

“He needs another dose of parem,” said Reyem.

Tamar rose, limping slightly. “Try this instead.” She handed him a pellet of antidote.

“What is it?”

“Freedom.”

Bergin placed the pellet in his mouth and chewed slowly. His body started to spasm.

Reyem went to him, bracing Bergin’s emaciated body against his massive frame. “What’s happening to him? What did you give him?” His voice was hard as iron.

“Antidote,” said Tamar. “Whatever is in the parem he was dosed with is strong. I felt it too, but I didn’t get a full dose, and his body is weakened. He’ll be okay.”

Shouts sounded from below, the sound of the Tavgharad returning, no doubt with Ehri in tow.

Tamar grabbed Makhi by the front of her gown and propped her against the wall. “Call back your falcons. Tell them to bring Ehri.” Despite everything it troubled Mayu to see a Taban queen treated so roughly.