“You’re going to leave us after all we’ve done for you?” Hëki sneers. “We’ve given you priority on all hunts for years and now you’re just going to leave? We had a deal.”
“Our deal never incorporated leaving my people defenceless. I’m not about to abandon them.”
Hëki lets out a short sharp laugh. “Your people already abandoned you. They didn’t care when they cast you out, so why do you?”
A rush of amber light spreads through Imiha’s markings and a swarm of stone spikes rise out of the ground, surrounding the two opposing Beiths. I’m reminded of the dahu’s abilities, but these spikes are thinner. The spikes surround the two but don’t attack. While I watch, the recognisable silvery-grey of iron seeps out of the rock and coats each spike.
“You know not what you speak!” The glowing amber light swirls around her body. “They were fooled by Listis. He killed mother, I’m sure of it!”
Hëki uncurls the limb holding his war-hammers and holds them out to his sides. His own single-layered markings come to life in a deep purple glow, lighting a spiralling pattern down the limbs toward the weapons. Nothing obvious changes about the hammers, but I don’t doubt it’ll be dangerous.
“I don’t care what you think happened back in Meja. We have a deal and you have a duty to fulfil your end.”
“The only duty I have is to my people. I’ll finish the deal once I know they’re safe.”
“I’m not falling behind again.”
Before I realise what’s happening, I’m stumbling back from the sudden wave of his presence. It explodes over Imiha’s and hits me almost like a physical wall. An unnatural panic runs through my body, only suppressed because of my familiarity with the feeling.
Hëki’s hammer shatters through a wall of stone in front of Imiha. I hadn’t seen him move, nor the rock that rose from the ground to block his attack.
Despite his hammer moving at incredible speeds into the stone, only a few of the shrapnel shards come our way. Most of the stone flies toward where he came from. The khirig behind him almost lazily dodges the speeding projectiles.
Hëki must have come in at an intense speed, but something strange happens. For a brief second, he hangs suspended in the air before he falls backward. He tumbles through the air, accelerating until he is thrown back as fast as he came in.
Hëki slams his hammers into the ground, halting his momentum immediately. The surrounding spikes all angle toward him and shoot out of the ground. Each does not differ from a heavy iron spear. Hëki jumps to avoid the flying javelins, but I watch each of them slow in mid-air before accelerating toward him, where he has nowhere to dodge.
I thought it was supposed to be impossible for mages to control their element when they weren’t connected to it. So how is this possible? Is it the double layered markings?
A slight disturbance in the air is my only hint that something odd is happening. Imiha sends many more stone spears up into the air around Hëki, but instead of trying to pierce the dohrni immediately, they spin around him. The longer they move through the air, the faster they become. I can’t see any individual projectile any more, only the blurry haze where hundreds of them pass.
Hëki isn’t falling. I take far too long to realise, but he’s suspended in the air. He spins around, fending off the many spears shooting at him while the ring continues to grow. The same odd disturbance holds both him and the javelins aloft.
I’m prepared to ignite the dohrni, as I’m sure both Grímr and Bunny are tensed to jump forward, but Remus signals us to hold back.
Ivory and amber markings illuminate across Imiha’s body and I almost miss the sudden pattern that lights up beneath the others. All the stones spinning at an unbelievable speed immediately snap toward the centre, toward Hëki.
His own markings flare. Hëki blurs, moving too fast for me to follow, but the stone projectiles that miss fly off to the horizons in every direction. Each javelin is out of sight before they can crash to the earth.
Somehow, Hëki is unharmed. He stands on the earth below where he was suspended and glowers at Imiha. She takes a step back, apparently unnerved that he’s without a scratch.
He lifts his hammers, ready to fly forward in an attack, but Cairin appears at his side and whispers something in his ear. I don’t know what she says, but it stops him from attacking. His glare switches from Imiha to Cairin, but relaxes his stance.
Hëki tsks. “Fine. Do what you will, but I expect you back in six months. That should be more than generous to wipe out those uncivilised creatures. Not a day late. I don’t think you’d like the consequences if I have to come looking.”
“Thank you,” Imiha says, the glow receding from her markings.
Hëki huffs and returns his glare to Cairin before walking away. His own markings continue their deep purple glow as he storms off.
Cairin doesn’t follow immediately. She smirks at Imiha. “Like mother, like daughter. No wonder the Meja matriarchy doesn’t want to be a matriarchy.”
Amber markings light up along Imiha once more and stone spears pierce the ground around Cairin, ready to pincushion her. Before any of us can react, the khirig appears in front of Imiha, too fast for the stone spikes to touch. She slams the flat of her blade antlers into Imiha and sends her crashing along the ground.
Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
“Don’t forget you only reached where you are because of our pity. Without us, you’d still be a powerless child with aspirations greater than you deserve.” Cairin looks down on Imiha with a calm expression. “It still shocks me you think you have a chance, princess,” she sneers.
A flash of her markings and the khirig is besides Hëki, walking away without a glance back.
Imiha stands with many shallow cuts and a large bruise across her head bleeding through the tattoos. She watches the two other Beith mercenaries moving away with fury in her eyes, but doesn’t give chase. A marking with a dark green hue illuminates across her body and before my eyes, the cuts close and the purple bruise returns to unblemished skin.
I’ve never seen mage healing before, but this must be it. Remus’ eyes widen at the sight, so it must be an impressive feat.
“Thank you, Imiha,” Remus says only for her to turn her glare to him.
“I’m not doing this for you,” she snaps and walks past him to Bunny. “It’s a pleasure to meet the daughter of the former Grand Champion of the Vanguard. I hope your father’s recovery is coming along well?” her tone is completely different talking to Bunny. What did Remus do to gain her ire?
Bunny bows her head. “Unfortunately not. The last I saw him, there was no improvement.”
“Well, that’s too bad.” She glances over Bunny’s shoulder to the rest of us. “You have quite the interesting team here,” she says, pointedly ignoring Remus. “A wingless volan, an unadjusted portian, and… an albanic child?”
Imiha steps past Bunny and approaches me. She is strong, so I don’t want to anger her, but my flames churn beneath the surface in case she tries anything. We need her help, so I don’t step away even as she gets close to my face.
“Did you bring your niece with you? Isn’t that rather reckless? This isn’t a playground, you know.” She reaches a tentacle and brushes my cheek. Her eyes widen at the touch. “Oh! No wonder. She has so much energy for one her age. She’s no albanic, she’s an áinfean.”
I open my mouth to correct her, but she pushes the tip of her limb over my lips to stop me. “No, no. I haven’t had a puzzle like this in ages. Let me have this,” she says and can’t do anything but stare at her, perplexed. “You’re not an áinfean either, your hyle is similar, but it’s not the same. Oh! You’re an áed, right?”
I hesitantly nod to her and she lets out a cheer, apparently forgetting her anger at Remus and the two Beiths. She wraps her tentacles around me and pulls me into a hug.
“Oh, it’s so great to meet you. For such an interesting race, it’s a shame how isolated you keep yourselves. And for such a cute kid to be the first áed I meet.” She squeezes me tight and I struggle in her grasp.
Jav has already abandoned me to this torture. I cast a pleading gaze to Remus, Bunny, and Grímr, but the best I get is a look of pity from Bunny. Remus looks amused, and I still don’t know how to parse the expressions of Grímr’s bird body.
It is uncomfortable, but I’m glad I don’t panic anymore. “Can you let me go?” I ask as calmly as I can.
“Oh sorry. It’s been such a long time since I’ve seen a child, I couldn’t help myself. My teacher’s enthusiasm for áed and áinfean has rubbed off on me,” she says with grinning eyes, but as she looks at me, her smile withers into a grimace. “I heard it’s rare, but some áinfean can change their shape. You wouldn’t happen to just be pretending to be a kid, right?”
She’s loosened her grip enough that I can break out and put a few paces between us. I hear a laugh from Remus, but I don’t get it. “Why would anyone pretend to be young?”
“To make people underestimate them,” she says almost too quickly, her eyes smiling as if her expression never changed.
“Does that work?” I ask.
“Not really. Those on an equal standing with someone who can morph aren’t likely to care about appearances.”
“You don’t need to worry about Solvei. While she can morph, I’m quite certain she’s the age she says she is.”
The sour look returns to her face as she turns to Remus. “Don’t think I’ve forgotten how you walked away. I’ll work with you to stop the invasion of Meja, but don’t try that buddy-buddy act with me.”
Remus sighs. “There was a vote. The people decided what they wanted.”
“The vote was sabotaged from the start. Listis would never have succeeded if the Mercenary Order didn’t take his side.”
“It’s been ten years. Don’t you think it’s time to accept that the people wanted something more than the old monarchy?”
“If that were all, then I would. But that bastard killed my mother. I can’t leave Meja in his bloody hands.”
“Let’s not worry about that for now,” Bunny interrupts. “Do you know where any of the other Beith teams are?”
“No. We came across one a while back, but these plains are immense. I haven’t the faintest where they might be,” Imiha says.
“That’s not ideal. We need to close off the path soon or the pact nations will be overwhelmed.”
“It’s not all bad just yet,” Remus says. “We have at least a month to search before we need to make our move. But before we get ahead of ourselves, we should introduce you to the mermineae we’ll be working with, Imiha.”
“That’s ‘your highness’ to you or at the very least address me as princess Imiha.”
“Oh come now, don’t be so stiff,” Remus complains.
Imiha wraps a limb around my shoulders again. I hadn’t been paying attention to her creeping close to me. “Only you. The rest of your team can call me by my name. Only you I want addressing me properly.”
“It’s hardly proper, you’re not a princess anymore,” Remus says, but at her intense glare, he quickly backtracks. “Of course, that’ll be no issue, Princess.”
Remus waves for the mermineae to come, but they don’t approach immediately. They creep toward us, remaining wary and hidden.
“I’m curious, Princess Imiha. How did you convince the Lu-lum family to teach you?” Remus asks.
“That’s private.” She eyes him up and down before laughing. “Oh, I see why you’re asking,” she says, but doesn’t move.
Remus lets out a disappointed sigh. “Yeah, I thought that might be too much to hope.” His eyes linger on the stump of a limb.
Aana and Muuro come out of hiding. The two older mermineae remain a distance away.
“Everything is settled now, yes? No more fighting?” Aana asks, keeping her distance from Imiha. That show of power must have concerned her.
“Yes, everything is sorted. This is Imi… Princess Imiha.” Remus corrects himself at the slight presence she lets out. “She’ll be helping us out for the next while.”
“Uh, just her?” Aana asks.
“Yes, just me.” Imiha approaches Aana, seeming to tower over the mermineae despite not being all that much taller. “Am I not good enough for you?” she asks while leaking her presence.
“N-no, you’re good,” she squeaks.
“The other two that were with you are gone, where?” Muuro steps forward, expressing far more confidence in Imiha’s presence.
“They’ve gone to hunt. They won’t be helping.”
“Do you know the location of any others?” Remus asks.
“Yes, there are two within a month’s travel, but we had been hoping this one would be enough.” Muuro glances at Imiha. “Going after the other outsiders would be cutting it rather close. Most should reach the path in just under two months.”
“Unless your plan doesn’t involve us fighting at all, I think it’s best we go in as prepared as possible.”
Muuro glances between the two dohrni before looking over his shoulder where I can still feel the elderly mermineae. “Let us talk it over,” he says and disappears back into the fields behind us.
Now that everyone’s attention is on the fleeing mermineae, I back away from the dohrni that seems far too comfortable grabbing me.
“Hey, where are you going? I’ve never worked with an áed, I have some experiments I want to try.”
Damn, she’s just like Leal. What’s with mages’ obsession over áed?