Life was simple, if miserable, with Otaso. There were rules for her to follow and this wealth of feelings and emotions were a long-ago memory that she remembered little of. Defiance, anger, sadness. She’d never felt anything close to this aching need though. While in recent months the scent of Otaso’s guards on the rare occasions they came to her tower affected her, it was not half of what she felt with Er’it. If it was because of her being an Omega, why had she not felt it with Otaso? What was so different between the two men that her body alone could discern the difference?
Huffing a sigh, Aida shoved the furs from her lap and kicked her legs out. Stretching her back with a wince. They’d been traveling for hours with no end in sight. She wasn’t even sure Er’it would try to stop for the evening as the sun drifted towards the horizon, the darkness beneath the canopy becoming fuller.
More trees appeared, their red and gold leaves fluttering down as the wind rushed through the limbs. Their tired groans and sighs made Aida smirk in sympathy. There was a tale in one book Otaso had given her as a child about a hunter going into a forest and finding a woman who lived within the heart of a tree. The hunter hit her upon the head with the hilt of his knife and dragged her from the forest. Unable to find her tree in the cold of night, the woman had died. Perhaps these trees were the same, each of them containing a female terrified of these warriors doing the same to them. Spending their long lives hidden away, just as Aida had been, kept safe and hating every moment.
Aida sighed at her melancholy thoughts and tipped her head back to look at the sky stained with brilliant purples and blues tinged with vicious red. Cheery gold limned the low-hanging clouds with stars beginning to peek out from their hiding. Night would fall fast here in the mountain’s shadow, though less so than when they traveled at its feet. Squinting up at the vast expanse, she tried to pick out the stars she might recognize. Uncertain if they had names as so many things seemed to in this frightening world, she looked only for the brightest among them. Three in a crooked line, a red one, and one that was blue.
The wind picked up, riffling through her hair and sending it into a tangled banner behind her as she continued to look up at the sky. Smiling as a break in the trees gave her an unimpeded view of the deep indigo scattered with diamonds. A few hours yet, and it would look just like her eyes. Midnight black with twinkling blue. The only of their kind that she knew of. Something that forever set her apart, made her feel more alone than anything else.
Finding a tuneless song on her lips, she hummed it at the night sky that swelled before her. Not recognizing it, Aida wondered if she’d heard it somewhere among the caravan, the lilting tune unlike anything she’d learned under Otaso’s roof. Free and wild, it hinted at something wicked and perhaps a little dangerous. Sure that it was not something anyone would approve of, she chanced a look at Maruk and found him staring. Slack jawed with wide eyes full of misty tears, his hand trembled where it hung outstretched towards her.
“Maruk, are you well,” Aida asked with a furrowed brow.
Maruk sighed, a salty droplet overflowing sparse lashes to trickle down his cheek. Saying nothing, he continued to watch Aida. Tracking her every movement as the cart caused her to sway back and forth. Forehead puckered with her concern, she took the hand he held out to her. Wrapping it in her far smaller palms with what she hoped was a comforting smile though his actions were worrying her. Their guards showed little interest in them, leading Aida to believe it at least wasn’t whatever had happened before.
“Beautiful,” Maruk said. Sigh so sad it brought tears to Aida’s eyes, her clutched at her hands. “More, please.”
“I… I don’t know the tune.”
“Please,” Maruk demanded in a low moan, gripping Aida’s hand tight enough to turn his knuckles pale ochre.
Though he hurt her, Aida tilted her head and found the song just there. Waiting with patience at the tip of her tongue for her to begin humming again. Once she breathed the tune into the night air, others took notice. Their guards glanced at her once, twice, shifting in their saddles so they might stare at her in the same rapt wonder as Maruk. Zaec crouched on the footboard of his narrow seat, arms slung over the bench to give Aida a wistful smile full of youth and simple happiness.
Finding words inside of the harmony, Aida whispered them into the shadows. Finding a smile upon her lips as they all edged closer still. No longer frightened of their nearness, she was unsure of when that had happened. Their swords and rattling armor a soft symphony all their own that harmonized with the words she spoke. Words she didn’t know, didn’t understand, but found her lips and tongue forming all the same.
Moon full and hanging low, the subtle blue-white light bathed them all in its comforting glow. Not the glaring heat of the sun, the painful rays that turned her skin red and made it peel and itch. This calming illumination held one close against its breast, crooning sweet lullabies.
As if by that thought alone, Maruk’s eyes drifted shut. Lids heavy, lashes weighted as they slipped closed to shutter the rapt attention still burning in the blue gleam reflected in his dark gaze. Looking to Zaec, he was fast asleep, leaving Lir to snort and huff on her own through the darkling path. She would stay her course, Aida was sure of that if nothing else. To prove it, Lir stalled only a moment before ignoring the ripe green grass swaying into her path to trundle forward after the horses disappearing into the shadows ahead of them.
No need to rush. Not in the uncertain light where anything could hide to harm the poor creature. Unfair for her to carry such a burden besides. Unspoken words leaving her in a sigh that twisted back into the melody, she found the guards slumped over their horses’ necks. Listing from side to side as their beasts plodded on at an easy walk so as not to dislodge their riders.
Stifling a yawn with the back of a hand, Aida wondered if Er’it intended to march through the night. It would explain her nest of furs, the crate full of simple foods that would survive the trail well enough. It would never be the same as the hot foods she’d experienced with the caravan, with their thick spices and saucy dripping, but he was intent on murdering her. What did he care of her comforts?
“Where is it coming from, Er’it,” Ath’asho asked in a low murmur.
Aida startled, looking to the back of the cart where Er’it and Ath’asho now rode with the remaining warriors. Their wary gazes swept the trees, searching for an adversary. Perhaps they felt the watchful eyes the same as she had and came to investigate. Odd that she remained so calm, almost languid as she stretched her legs out and wrapped a heavy black fur around her shoulders though she still felt too warm.
“I can’t tell,” Er’it said, the gleaming topaz of his eyes coming back to Aida each time he tried to look away.
“Could they be here for her?”
“How would they know?”
Kal snorted and pranced forward, nudging Aida’s shoulder with his soft muzzle. Garnering a giggle from her and a quick scratch to his cheek before Er’it tugged Kal’s head back. Not to be refused, Kal did it again, his low whicker coarse as sand and yet thrilling to Aida. Somehow knowing it a sound of friendship before he rubbed his downy cheek against hers to prove it.
“Mercy of the Hat’or, look, Er’it,” Ath’asho hissed, pulling his horse back hard. Making the poor thing sidestep and whinny as it flew into an alter it didn’t understand.
Though Aida scowled at Ath’asho for frightening his horse, she looked around as well. Searching for what he alone seemed to be able to see. Except when she looked back, Er’it was staring at her with a mixture of rage and horror.
Before she could so much as suck in a breath, he was on her. Vaulting off of Kal’s back to tackle her to the cart’s bed amid her pile of softness. Hissing as their bodies connected, he went rigid above her. Hands clamping over her arms to shove her flat when Aida struggled against his hold.
Scream splitting the night open, she saw what had frightened Ath’asho, what made Er’it attack her. Pure as starlight and twice as cold, it limned her body in its soft glow. It wasn’t the moon she’d witnessed before, but herself. As the vivid reds and burnt oranges of Er’it’s magic twisted up his arms, it reacted. A roar of sound that sang in her ears with a muted whisper as the pallid azure fought against molten red. Licking over Er’it’s hands and arms, gaining ground as his power turned indigo and purple.
“It’s coming from you,” Er’it yelled in her face, teeth bared while he straddled Aida to keep her flat. The keening wails surrounding them only then making themselves known as he tried to be heard through them.
“No!” No matter her wail of denial, she couldn’t deny the similarities. The way the whisper wormed its way through her, the crackling blue light snapping through the air. So much like the night with Otaso, horror swamped her thoughts. She’d done it. All of his accusations were true. She’d ruined him. Her.
It wasn’t enough to snuff out the light. Though dampened and receding under Er’it’s onslaught, it refused to die. Aida shrieked and tried to claw at her flesh, to peel away the vicious starlight that oozed from her skin in wispy fragments to coalesce into the dense light. He captured her wrists, pinning them above her head. Sitting on her thighs with his heavy boots tucked tight around her ankles to stop Aida’s writhing. Panting against her shoulder, he lowered his weight. Covering her body with his, a pained yell grating from his throat. Free hand working between them, he tugged at the tunic Aida wore.
