Page 13 of Family Found

I turned away from those things. Inkiri. I wanted my mate.

He was close to me, alternating between looking at the window Kinnek had appeared in and glancing back every few seconds. Everyone’s attention was on that window now, framed by Lissir and the larger protector who’d followed him.

As I watched, the window opened, two bagua inside pulling the two wings of it wide. A bagu I didn’t know climbed out.

Relief sang in my bones. This was one of the people the Koa Esher had taken, and he was finally going to be free now.

But there was something wrong with him. He looked normal, at first glance, but he moved stiffly, like he’d forgotten how. He was also very thin. The protector with Lissir held out his arms, and the thin bagu shrank away as if he’d been struck.

It was then that I saw his horns. Someone had drilled holes through his light blue horns, one through each. I knew Inkiri’s horns were sensitive. When Kinnek cuddled with Charles, he’d often rub his horns over Charles’s face or neck. What the Koa Esher had done to this bagu must’ve caused him terrible pain. I shuddered.

The involuntary move made Inkiri draw closer to me and rub my back. Him doing so pulled my attention to him. Vergis glanced at me, then at the window, then he was back to keeping an eye out, just like Charles. They both had their guns at the ready.

“Where’s Dad?” Vergis whispered, his tone urgent.

“He’ll be right out.” Charles’s voice was steady. He trusted Kinnek.

I pushed my attention out again. Back in the courtyard, the larger group of Koa Esher started moving toward the gate. Two others emerged from a side door and crossed the courtyard from one end to the other, calling to the group that was leaving. Not all were mages, but one of them was, his left horn almost normal while his right one looked like a corkscrew.

I wished I understood their guttural language, but all I had to go on was what I could see.

Another minute shift in attention showed me those beasts; yellow, ugly, and hungry. They were coming for me.

They devoured a family of deer, the land told me. They hunt as a group. The deer never stood a chance.

Oh, so they didn’t just eat cats and dogs, they also killed Bambi and Bambi’s family. Just great. I was not made for this kind of thing. I didn’t want to know all this stuff and see all these things.

I focused on the window again. Lissir gently helped the thin bagu out of the window, and from inside the room, Kinnek helped another bagu, this one not well-fed by any means, but visibly pregnant.

Okay, I wasn’t made for this, but I would do whatever I could to help every single bagu who was being held and hurt in that building.

My training had made it so I wasn’t totally lost to the vertigo and the speechlessness spreading my awareness usually brought, so I said, “We have to help them all. Get everyone out of there. Please, Ink.”

My mate frowned and looked over at the window. I kept an inner eye on the Koa Esher who were rounding the outer wall at the opposite end of the castle, and while I had no idea what their setup here was, I could imagine where they were going. The building where they kept their slaves, the building where they abused them.

“Please. We have to hurry. They’re coming.”

That was true in more ways than one. The yellow beasts didn’t show any signs of tiring. The hunt seemed to energize them, if anything.

Back where we were, Luëris said something in Lugarra to Tador, then beckoned the others and headed toward the window. Kinnek had already organized an orderly escape, it seemed, but he was pivoting. Instead of climbing out the window, he held out his hand, and Lissir handed him two of his daggers.

They exchanged whispered words. I understood one: marsen. It meant protect.

Kinnek, not even slightly cowed after having been kidnapped, jerked his hand for the hangu-na protector to climb inside the building. Luëris and the other two got there and climbed in too. Charles cursed under his breath. Lissir sheathed his curved sword and took the hand of the bagu Kinnek had sent out, then walked them back to our group as quickly as they were able to move.

The Koa Esher out front were greeting each other now; the group that had been walking to the house and the two who’d been shooting the shit out front.

Remember, on bare feet, you can run fast, and you can run for hours, the presence said. Clearly, it liked being an ominous little drama queen who lived rent-free in my mind. Your mind is a nice place, it added.

I wasn’t too sure I agreed, not since the apocalypse, but then, I wasn’t the disembodied voice of the land. Apparently, not only did I have a humorous mate, I also had a humorous magical presence in my head. Lucky me.

The Koa Esher were chatting, but the larger group that was approaching from the courtyard wanted to go into the building where they kept their prisoners.

Oh, those absolute fuckers. They wanted to go into the fucking building, did they? Wanted to make themselves feel good by inflicting untold pain on others, did they?

About that thunderstorm…

It felt as if the presence were quirking an eyebrow. You are not joking.