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I bolt toward the end of Madmaz village, focusing on the East Vexello Mountains. The army that lies just beyond their glorious peaks. I’ve been through too much to be captured now.
Sprinting past an execution stage with a guillotine and rope for hangings, the void adds pressure to the back of my mind, begging me to stop, to see, to witness all that has happened here. Something horrible. Something that will likely kill me, too.
But I let DaiSzek’s face fill my mind with sloppy kisses and belly scratches. This is my one step, my one goal to achieve, and the enemy is doomed to fail.
Leaving the borders of this village, alarms sound off behind me. Loud bells clanking together. And the ground rumbles with stomping feet. It isn’t just the sound of soldiers running about. It’s the heavy, ogre footsteps that shake the earth. The clumsy, erratic race of Blood Mammoths. Blood thirsty. Crazed.
And I am their target.
Sweat drizzles down my temples. Fire weakens my legs with each stride. I’m probably not even running as fast as I think I am. My stomach has been empty for days, and I’m running on nothing but determination.
I make the mistake of twisting my neck to see a cluster of ugly, barbaric Blood Mammoths galloping wildly through the confines of the village, gaining on me with ease. Their raven hair flies around their face cages like stringy flags, and their bodies are even more terrifying in the daylight. The waxy chests are covered in boils, blisters, and sores. And their faces…crooked. Distorted. Slobber and drool spills down their chins.
Fuck.
I wish Dessin was by my side. He would know what to do.
The East Vexello Mountains grow in size as I race closer to them, hiking up sandy hills, tripping into dunes and ditches. Tears swell over my eyes as I realize my body is unable to keep going. Unable to take any more exertion. I taste coppery blood coming from bursting vessels in my lungs. I feel like a bag of bones, a chunk of meat ready to collapse, to drop dead. When the Blood Mammoths catch me, and they will, I won’t be able to fight back. I’m not even certain I’ll be able to access the void to hurt them the way I did last time I was chased.
There’s a bond between you two that goes beyond logic. It’s in your blood, linking your souls, and giving you a language no one else other than Dessin can understand.
A divot of sand and rock catches my boot mid stride, and I go flying, slamming to the ground on my hands and knees. I cough and hack, accidentally inhaling the sand.
There’s a bond between you two that goes beyond logic.
Every time I’ve ever screamed in terror, DaiSzek has been there to defend me. But I have no energy to scream. I have no air left in my lungs to give.
…giving you a language no one else other than Dessin can understand.
Soaked from head to toe in sweat and blood and drain water, I close my eyes in that dune of sand. I ignore the stampede of Blood Mammoths growing so close I can practically smell their oily skin and meaty breath. I give myself over to the angelic nature that my father spoke of. To the divine magic that clearly links me to my supreme protector.
I open my arms to the sky.
I feel the tingling sensation of my love for my guardian, stronger than a mountain, faster than a storm, and filled to the brim with the fire of a dragon. Fear slips from my grasp as the breeze picks up, blasting against my sodden skin. It’s telepathic as it soars through the void, through a bond that can’t be explained with words.
And with a single pulse of my mind, I need no words, no thoughts, not a single scream.
Because I can feel him racing through heaven and hell.
I can sense the wave of terror he brings, the will of the Almighty God himself.
And as I open my eyes to the daylight and backdrop of the obsidian mountains, all I see is the venomous glow of crimson eyes and midnight fur hurtling toward me like a lion on the hunt. DaiSzek leaps over as the Blood Mammoths dive into the dune of sand, following the scent of my blood, only to be led into the jaws of the greatest beast there ever was and ever will be.
DaiSzek devours them in a savage wrath of fangs and claws and puddles of blood.
The sand is soaked in red, littered with heads and fingers and arms, all separated from their bodies. My boy stands there above the carnage, looking back at me with those cinnamon eyes, and I can’t help but choke on a sob of relief. Because I know he feels it, too. Being apart from him for this long was like missing an arm or leg. Missing my heart from my chest cavity.
And as I bawl in a fit of gratitude and love for my boy, he jumps over the massacre, leaping into my arms like a puppy that’s come home to his mama.
61. Through The Valley
Skylenna
“Oh, my baby boy! Oh, I love you, DaiSzek!” I cry into his thick coat of fur. “I missed you so much! I’m so sorry we left you behind.”
Adding to the painful throb in my heart, DaiSzek whimpers against my chest, pushing his head so hard against my sternum, I collapse on my butt.
“I know, buddy,” I whimper with him. “I know.”
