Chapter 52 - Moments

Rhuthain walked toward Jesse, his eyes quickly darting to the dissipating blackness then back to the silent valkyrie. She stood, taking deep breaths, her eyes on the place where Ja’Sessh had disappeared into the mists. He stopped and waited for her to turn, seeing the cold trickle of perspiration run down her neck and the raised hair on her arm.

He shook his head, “What are you up to like that, Jesse? Any looking at you would think you’re in heat an that cat is your plaything.”

She slowly turned, her eyes sweeping down to meet the dwarf’s. The sharp ruby glow shining through the dark steel threateningly. Looking at him, her lips curled into a soft smile as the glow in her eyes started to dance. Rhuthain’s brows raised.

“He is my plaything.” she whispered.

“He is your ‘what’? I couldn’t quite hear you, Jesse?”

Her smile twisted further, “I marked him, Thain. I can’t do that without him being receptive. He is confused, weak and just like me and my sisters were, he is not who he should be. That will soon be remedied, and he will seek me out.”

“So, you preyed on the weak?” Rhuthain remarked, “Thought you were better than that, Jesse. Could have given him a fighting chance.”

Her smiled widened further as a small indulgent chuckle escaped her, “I did.” she said, lifting a hand and sniffing at her fingertips.

He looked at her with a mixture of amusement and concern playing out on his face, “Aye, he’s yours then, he looked more terrified than anything else, even I could see that, looked like a cornered mouse.”

A predatory edge came to her smile.

“Have you thought that maybe, he might have someone back at…” he suggested.

She stared at him, “He does not, Thain. There was no scent on him. And if there is, they do not mean enough for him to miss them.” she said, the ruby in her eyes growing stronger, “That will change.”

“An here I was, thinking you’re a nice girl an all.”

“I am, Thain. But I know what I want, and I am prepared to stake my claim before anyone else does. He might seem like an easily aimed kitten now, in fear of my sisters and I.” she glanced at Rhuthain, “You saw it, Thain. He allowed himself to be led despite his fear, he trusted my word and accepted me as his mistress. At heart, the Rakshasa are instinctual.”

“You speak like he is a wild animal to be tamed, Jesse.”

She smiled and bent, bringing her face close to Rhuthain’s ear, “He is.” she said quietly, breathing her words out and making him shiver.

“Gods… Your other side is showing, Jesse.” he grumbled, “Never thought you’d be into ones like him.”

“Would you prefer I were interested in dwarves?” she whispered.

“Damn it, Jesse. Get off me!” he said with a dark chuckle, “I don’t care what you’re into, just surprised is all.”

She stood up and smiled, “He is my kind.” she caught Rhuthain’s eye, “In every way. You will understand, once Ja’Ekavira takes her place at my Master’s side.”

“Aye, another one.” Rhuthain said under his breath.

Jesse’s eyes narrowed as she frowned, “You disagree with my Master?”

“Each to their own, girl, each to their own. Not like he has much of a say in the matter anyway.” he said, “Just part of his nature to take in strays.”

Jesse nodded, her eyes roving the uncovered sanctum and the newly built fortifications.

“Those walls, they will be perfect.” she said in an appreciative tone.

“Will be? Thought they already were.” he grumbled.

Jesse closed her eyes and concentrated, “Will be. Once the Ke’Shasan have returned and this place is restored, these walls will be a jewel in the darkness.”

Rhuthain raised a brow, “Aye, as expected, speaking in riddles again. How come when anything important comes about, you lot go all prophetic-like?”

He noticed her enigmatic smile, “Just part of your nature?”

Jesse nodded.

“Aye.” he said with a shake of his head, his eyes glinting in the darkness, “What’s the plans for you and the girls?”

“We are the guardians of Escorath, four spears to protect and watch over the halls.”

“But Jesse, after we leave it will only be the four of you.”

She nodded, smiling quietly, “Escorath has been entrusted into my care. It is an honour.”

He glanced up at her, seeing the gentle, satisfied glow in her eye, “Carrying out his and Winter’s will is that rewarding?”

“It is part of who I am, what I am, Thain. I will not deny it. Just the fact that we were asked, not ordered transforms an objective to a…” she stopped, her eyes dancing.

“Aye, I can see that.” he said, his eyes wandering to the ruined temple.

He could just make out Silvast’s form, sitting on a part of the ruined wall alone and with a pensive pose. A sharp silver gleam of light the only warning he needed to stay at a distance. He continued to watch her for a moment, his eyes lingering, distracted.

“You’ll be watching from these walls?” he asked of Jesse.

“Yes, once we have cleaned up below. Our Master’s veil will keep this place concealed from prying eyes. But, soon there will be changes.”

He nodded, finally looking away from Silvast’s brooding form, “That I am sure of, Jesse. Did you see which way the kids have gone?”

Jesse smiled, slowly raising her arm and pointing, her finger aimed at a section of the glass wall of the fortress, “They also seem to be in deep thought.” she said.

“Aye, Jesse. So it seems.”

Kitaraiya leaned against the wall of the parapet, looking out through the valley of a crenel and at the distant dunes. The vantage was dizzying to a lesser mortal, high over the desert and the Sanctum of Escorath below.

“Rhy?”

“Hmmm?” Rhyker responded from a short distance off as he ran a hand over the smooth surface of the battlement.

“Those low mountains beyond the dunes.” she said, narrowing her eyes, picking out the deeper shadow, sweep and dips that imprinted the horizon.

She felt him walk up beside her, heat still rolling off him in waves after directly handling Silvast’s flames earlier.

“That silver pin in the map room, those are the mountains?” she asked, drawing the chill from the night air around her almost subconsciously and cooling him.

He looked over her shoulder, “Yes, those are the mountains.” he said before leaning against the clouded glass wall of the battlement beside her.

Kitariaya frowned and glanced at him, noticing the fiery glow in his eyes that was still burning.

“It is so much easier, calling on the thread.” she said, facing him and leaning, her left shoulder against his, “I can’t believe you are still standing, Rhy. Normally you’d be, well, you’d be…”

He chuckled and opened a hand, the dragon’s silver fire sparking to life in his palm. Kitariaya stared at the flickering heat in a mixture of exhilarated fear and wonder.

“Silvast’s breath?” she whispered, leaning closer, “Did you keep an ember? Or are you controlling it like you did with…?” she stopped, glancing at him, her eyes slipping to his chest then back to the flame.

Her eyes narrowed as the small flame writhed and grew, becoming thin like a string over his hand. Snake-like, it slithered through the air, growing small legs and a webbed spine that ran down its back. A mane of webbed frills grew from the base of its small head, and thin tendrils trailed from either side of its teeth filled mouth. A wingless serpentine dragon shaped of Silvast’s fiery breath, slipped and coiled, flying around them.

Kiaraiya chuckled, “It is like the statues in the baths at Scarosant.” she said, watching as it wound itself around her arm, its flames strangely cold and rippling through her fur, tangible.

Her eyes widened, “Rhy?!”

His eyes smouldered, watching the silver mystical dragon of fire and gesturing to it. It unwound itself and curled up on his hand, waiting. He quickly cast his gaze below, to the ruined temple. Immediately it took off, its small body slithering through the air as it descended.

“How did you?” she asked, grabbing his arms and looking into his eyes.

Rhyker smiled slightly and shook his head, “I could ask the same, how did you influence the weather?” he said, looking to the thin clouds dissipating far over the dunes, “There were masses of thick clouds and snow falling like the first of the season.”

Kit stared at him, at a loss for words.

“As I thought, sister.” he remarked with a knowing smile, turning back to look at the distant mountains.

“We are not what we were, in time we might know what we have become.” he said quietly, “We need to be careful.”

He took a deep breath, feeling Kitariaya wrap her arms around him from behind, her lupine face pressed against his shoulder.

“Tell me.” she said quietly, her voice a low growl, “What is going through your mind, what did Mother suspect?”

Ryker nodded slowly, taking her hand and turning to face her. Guiding her to lean against the battlement across from him. He winced slightly, looking at her hand, the elongated fingers dusted with fur interlaced with his own.

“Tell me.” she whispered.

He frowned, “It is not just dragon’s blood that is in our veins.”

Kitaraiya’s ears pricked, she tilted her head.

“Nowhere does it mention the Rakshasa, Kit. I have read everything on our people. Everything in Scarosant and in the vaults or Meliandra. It was not just any dragon either, it was the Copper.”

“Rhy, what are you saying?” she said.

“I only suspect, Kit. I am only piecing together what I know. Most of it is coincidence.”

“Tell me.” she said again, watching the play of conflict on his face.

“I believe that both Dragon and Demon blood made our people. Not just dragon alone.”

Kitaraiya stared at him, “Rakshasa?”

“They were the Conservators of Escorath. The domain of the Copper. You look just like Ja’Sessh…”

“But, a wolf.” she finished, “And that black veil you… Is it the edges of the Shadow Realm?”

He met her eyes, the fiery embers growing more intense.

“No, when he revealed himself to Thain when we fought. Gods, Rhy.” she growled.

He nodded, “Their leader, the Empress of DeKalanstaad, she would have the answers. She was there, she would have the memories of the creation of our people.” he looked at her,

Kitaraiya tightened her grasp on his hand, “Earlier you said that Mother spoke with you, what did she…?”

“Mother said that you have a better chance.”

“A better chance at what, Rhy?” she whispered.

He sighed deeply, “Did you feel it?”

“Rhy, I fed off you only hours ago.”

Rhyker nodded slowly and reached for the blade at his belt.

Kitaraiya’s eyes widened, “Please, don’t. And don’t use your voice on me either.”

He shook his head, “Kit, humour me.” he said as he brought the exposed razor edge to the inside of his forearm and rested it.

She looked at him hard, before letting her eyes drop to the blade and the dark bead of blood welling at its edge. Immediately her eyes dilated, the alluring scent teasing her, beckoning with its coppery tang. Her breath came in short bursts as he offered it to her. A faint whine came from deep within her, her thoughts flooding with the red haze of bloodlust.

“No…” she glanced up and into his eyes, “Please…” she whimpered, “Just – Just a taste.”

He reached out with his other hand and ran it along the side of her face, her eye partially closing, “Is it different?”

She nodded quickly, her eyes straying back to the bead of blood as it started to roll off the edge of the cut. She took in deep breaths of air, the thunderous sound of her heart in her ears. The murmur of the monster no longer just under the surface and ready to tear free with the simplicity of a loose thought. She blinked slowly, gripping at his arm before lowering her maw to the bright trail in her eyes. Without thought, Kitaraiya licked at the thin cut, her legs growing weak as she inhaled in the brief moment before tasting the strength in his veins with the edge of her tongue. Pulling him down until they knelt, she lapped at the clean wound, feeling the edge knit close.

Finally she looked up, her eyes unseeing as a shudder ran through her form. She could barely feel his hands guiding her to a seated position, her back against his chest and her head resting on his upper arm and shoulder. Faint quakes shook her body as she closed her eyes, feeling his heat around her, enveloping her as she experienced the bliss.

“Gods, Rhy… I could get addicted to this.” she said softly as her senses slowly returned, “It is not the same. It is there, but.” a shiver ran up her spine, “There is something more.”

She felt the deep rumble in his chest as he hummed in response, “I am getting glimpses. Things I have never seen before.” she said quietly.

A gleaming tear beaded in her eye, wetting her fur, “I see a girl, a child laid on the stone before me, black under her torn flesh and ichor seeping between my fingers as I desperately try to hold the edges of the wound together. Blue flames burn from my hands and fall as tears from my eyes...”

She stopped, taking a shuddering breath as the memory clawed at her, “Gods, Ven.” she breathed out, feeling his thick arm encircle her waist and draw her closer, “It was me, wasn’t it? Ven? It was me?”

She turned in his grip, her eyes meeting the deep embers and the look of distant, hollow despair, “Ven?”

He smiled gently, “What else have you seen?” he asked with a soft voice.

Kitaraiya stared at him, suddenly feeling self-conscious and bare, “I-I saw…” she stammered, her eyes straying.

He nodded slowly, “When you are ready, another time. The monster, how close?”

She met his eyes again in relief, “It is there, in the dark.” she said, frowning deeply with her ears tucking back as she thought.

“Is it riding your shoulder?”

Kitaraiya slowly smiled, “No, it seems…Different, somehow. Respectful but impatient.”

Her lips pulled back until nearly all of her teeth were showing. The twitch of her tail tapping against his leg. He reached out and ran his hand through the fur on the side of her face, chuckling as she responded instinctively.

“You are not my pet, Kit.”

The rapid thud of her tail slowed, one of her eyes opened and fixed him with a stare, “I trust you, Rhy. Let me be free and uninhibited while I still can.” she tapped his chest with a claw, “At least until I am not allowed to.”

“We might not be able to cure this, Kit.” he said.

She looked at him, their matching sky blue eyes on each other, “Rhy, I am not sure I want to be cured anymore.”

He frowned, “You are giving up?”

She shook her head, “No.” she said, her eyes glimmering quietly, “I like it.”

Rhyker watched her, recognising the look in her eyes as she nuzzled his hand. He took a deep breath, looking aside for a moment as he thought.

“We can reach those mountains before sunrise.”

She nodded, “Please.”

Silvast stared into the distance, her sight fixated blankly on a point well beyond the monstrous smoky glass fortifications. She did not even blink as the arm-length, silvery mystical dragon of fire snaked its way to her. Coiling and twisting back upon itself before her until its form burned itself out, flickering to a fiery death in the black of night. Her silver eyes glowed menacingly as she sat on the ruined wall of the temple.

A slight frown started to form. Her tapered silver eyebrows slowly dipping at their centre. The feeling of remembered fear in the pit of her stomach when she realised that Snowshadow would be Snowshadow no longer. The realisation that the snow leopard familiar that Antrandis had bound himself to many millennia earlier was not just any animal, but an ancient elven soul trapped and wandering the wilderness. Her own adopted and elder sister.

Despite her words to Winter, she remembered that fear all too well. The fear she had felt again as she lay on the pallet in the tent eighteen years ago, unable to sit, speaking to Sian not long after Winter’s restoration while the twins slept only a tent or two away, two lost children who had arrived from another world. Despite those words, she once again felt that prickle of anticipation. An exhilaration, a nervous excitement that lit the dark recesses of her mind. She slowly raised a hand to her chest, absently tracing the edge of a collar bone until a fingertip rested where they met.

Another had been before them the whole time, hidden in Winter’s shadow. One she had coveted the moment she had first met her, a stunning specimen that she had once welcomed as a guest into her home. Ja’Ekavira, the Empress of the Ke’Shasan, a Rakshasa, a Demon. Another to add to her collection. Treasure.