AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh, thank fuck, because I’m absolutely starved,” Fiona said.
“Thank you, Warrek. We never directly spoke, but I remember you from when I was last here,” Valeria called over. “I’m sure you remember my mate, Grim, as well as Tok. This is Taylor, Tok’s mate. And you probably remember Vaxilkai and Bariok, too.”
Warrek stiffened slightly at the mention of those last two. Tension crackled in the air between the two men who’d been held prisoner here last time and the men who’d held them.
But Valeria forged forward, ignoring Bariok and Vaxilkai seething behind her.
“This is Zoren, whom none of you have met. He’s from the neighbouring Death Plains. And then there are...”
She stepped aside and gestured to us.
“Fiona. Nasrin. Tilly. Stephanie,” she rattled off, efficient and business-like.
Warrek strode towards us. He kept his hands loose at his sides, which was probably the only thing that kept the men from getting all antsy about his approach.
Scratch that, they were definitely itching to grab their own weapons, especially Bariok and Vaxilkai who hissed beside us.
“Which one of these women is mated to Gahn Errok?” asked Warrek as he came to a stop in front of our group.
My cheeks heated. What the hell? Why did he care about that?
None of us answered, and Valeria’s eyes narrowed suspiciously.
“Why do you need to know that?”
Warrek didn’t react to Valeria’s challenging tone.
“It is simply good sense to know whom we welcome here. There is some risk in inviting the Gahnala of a Gahn as... spirited... as Gahn Errok without his permission. We merely wish to know whom we are dealing with.”
“I am not a Gahnala, and I do not need his permission to be here,” I responded fiercely.
Warrek’s eyes flashed to me. So did Valeria’s a moment later.
I shrugged at her pointed glance.
“They were going to find out soon anyway. Might as well just get it out in the open now,” I said with a sigh.
“True. We are allies after all,” Valeria said with a tight nod. She turned back to Warrek. “But I expect Stephanie will be given the same courtesies and protection as any other person here.”
“She will be, of course,” Warrek said, silvery sight stars buzzing as they tracked down my face. “The fact that she clearly has not accepted Gahn Errok speaks to her wisdom – a good ally indeed.”
Fiona snorted loudly and then clapped a hand over her mouth. I pursed my lips, not sure if I should laugh or groan at Warrek’s comment. Obviously, I wasn’t the only one unimpressed by Gahn Errok’s... Errokness.
“Let us not count dust out here. Come inside and feast with us. With our expanded territory, hunting has been bountiful,” Warrek said. He gestured with his tail towards a dark crack in the large mountain straight ahead of us, across the round clearing.
I shivered. That entrance looked so ominously dark I almost wanted to stumble back to the shuttle. But I sucked it up. We were here for this alliance.We’ll have to go in there sometime. And I’m not alone. I have my friends with me, and the other warriors.
Valeria nodded in agreement. The four warriors ahead of us fanned out to watch us enter while Warrek led our group. The Bitter Sea men followed Warrek directly, and the three Sea Sand men hemmed us humans in at the back and sides so we were protected in a little muscly alien bubble.
We crossed the stone clearing quickly, our party’s boots and claws scuffing and clacking on the glassy ground. Still following Warrek, we pressed into the darkness of the crack.
But after one swift turn, the darkness dissipated, melted by flickering light.
“Holy smokes,” I whispered. We stood in a cavernous, glittering space. The mountain’s insides were just as gem-like and blue as the outside, making light glance off of every wall in an effusive clatter. To the right was a tunnel that appeared to go up on an incline, snaking up into the height of the mountains. That tunnel, too, was lit.
All the light in the space was shocking and exquisite. I turned slowly, taking in the unexpected sources.
Much of the stone inside the mountain was completely opaque, but there were small pockets and natural shelves of translucent crystal that had what looked to be lit torches of some kind burning inside.
