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The king had cocked his head, watching me as I spoke, and nodded. “Perhaps I have served Kaelum ill, keeping him here in the palace and not letting him prove himself properly.” He stood. “Let us go find where this battle has landed, and how they proceed. Perhaps it will be a true test of warrior skills after all.”
He stood and motioned to one of the guards, who pulled out a device like Jax’s clear cell phone from before, and summoned down a giant stone disk. The king climbed on, carrying his still sobbing wife, then turned to me. “Would you join us, mate of my son?”
And okay, I wasn’t too thrilled with him allowing this bullshit fight at all, but I wasn’t gonna lie, that was nice to hear. Nice and, you know, terrifying. According to Thorzi society, Kaelum and I were basically married, just like that.
The warrior who’d agreed to second Kaelum stepped onto the disk and held out a hand to steady me as I joined them, and the disk followed in the direction Kaelum and Vorian had gone, leaving Crux shouting behind us.
Given how the interpreter implant was spouting gobbledegook about sex and goats, I thought he was probably saying something like “this was not how I intended this to go.”
We sped off into the jungle after Kaelum and Vorian, the disk moving so fast that I had a moment of vertigo, and clung to the warrior who’d been helping me. “Does it have to go this fast?” I muttered.
He chuckled into my ear. “If it does not go this fast, Your Highness, we will never catch up.”
Fair point, I supposed, but still not what I wanted to hear. Also, being called “Your Highness” was fucking weird.
It didn’t take long to find the two of them, in a clearing surrounded by flora I recognized all too well, and filled with... Holy cheese, three bright red cats the size of ponies, with giant fucking teeth like ancient sabertooth tigers. After our meeting in the jungle, I now recognized their skins from some of the furs in Kaelum’s rooms at the palace.
And there—yeah, there was Fang himself.
Just like I’d thought, though, the cats were working in concert with Kaelum. It was his third tattoo, his gift from Lyr, and I knew it wouldn’t lead him wrong. The giant cats were terrifying, and given how Vorian was bleeding from a set of gashes in his arm, at least one of them had managed to get a swipe of a giant, clawed paw in on him.
Apparently unlike broken legs, tears in Vorian’s skin didn’t heal instantly. Instead they bled, sluggish and red, dripping onto the ground around him.
A nearby aleri flower trembled and leaned forward, as though taking a breath and smelling the blood in the air.
I hated to hope for the thing to get him, but somehow, Kaelum had to defeat him. Hehadto. I’d moved my life halfway across the galaxy for him—I sure as hell wasn’t going to lose him now. Not if I had to jump out there and shove Vorian into the aleri myself.
No, I didn’t want any part of violence, and I was starting to think maybe Vorian wasn’t what I’d initially believed, but that didn’t matter in this. If I had to choose between them, then I chose Kaelum.
I would always choose Kaelum.
The terrifying space-tiger-things surrounded Vorian on all sides, Kaelum keeping in front of him, and they circled, staring at each other.
Vorian, for his part, looked more engaged than he’d looked during any fight in the tournament, including the awful battle royale where the others had ganged up on him. If I wasn’t mistaken, the look in his eye was something like respect.
Kaelum would love that, if he had a moment to stop and consider it, but he was still fighting for his life.
Nearby, two more disks came down to rest beside us, one carrying the still bitching and whining Crux.
I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Someone stuff a sock in him, will they?”
The warrior at my side gave a bark of laughter and didn’t even try to hide it. He inclined his head to me. “You are not the first, nor will you be the last, to wish for something to shut that loudmouth up.”
And that? Well, that was reassuring in a way even Kaelum’s crew hadn’t been. Not all Thorzi, not even all full-blooded Thorzi, thought Crux was the bee’s knees.
That meant we had a chance to defeat him politically, if only Kaelum could survive this fight.
CHAPTER32
KAELUM
The terrapad I clung to swept toward the ground and as soon as I could make the fall, I let go and tumbled to the soft grass, rolling to my feet as soon as I hit. Already, my mark pulsed, calling out to the beasts in the trees, dragging them inward.
I couldn’t hope to contend with Vorian’s time dilation, but if I could distract him with the zintari, the enormous red-and-black cats that stalked through the trees, venom dripping from their fangs, perhaps I could get the upper hand.
The sword my mark provided was larger than his palm spikes. I might not have many advantages, but I had some. Deadliest Fang crashed through the brush first, followed by two of his brothers. That was heartening.
As soon as Vorian landed, the three zintari prowled around him, circling each other like my own soldiers. They gave me a chance to catch my breath, to watch Vorian for an opening.
