Chapter 34

Chapter

Thirty-Four

TAMAS

It didn't take long for the shape to take form. I'd never seen something so large able to take to the sky. Another beast with a lethal tail, which it dragged behind it like an enormous snake. Beating its massive wings with a lethargic rhythm, it closed the distance with good speed. I couldn't make out the color of its eyes yet, but hoped they were dull. The last thing we needed was to face both the manifestation and the source.

Tressya tugged on my hand. "We could use the cave as a barrier. It looks large enough not to fit."

I dragged her toward the path. "The cave will trap us. It'll struggle to get beneath the canopy. And if it did, it won't be able to maneuver amongst the trees."

"We'll risk getting lost in the Ashenlands."

"Never. I'll get through and find our way." I increased our pace, sparing one more glance skyward. It was coming fast.

"Will we make it?" Tressya said.

"We have to." My legs felt weighed by rocks. The remnants of my near death lingered.

In my haste, I wasn't watching where I trod. The sound of rocks hitting the exposed roots in the pit as they crumbled from the edge tightened my throat. One glance to the sky and I stopped worrying about the path, instead tightened my hold on Tressya's hand as if she was about to be ripped from me at any moment, then increased my pace.

This time it wasn't just a few rocks tumbling that tightened my throat. The ground under my left boot fell away completely, and I lurched sideways, pulling Tressya with me and into a jutting root. Tressya's hand slipped from mine with the impact. I fumbled for her, feeling her name well in my throat as I staggered forward, tripping over a lower root laid as a trap at my feet. If I wasn't still recovering from death, I would've been agile enough to stay on my feet.

"Bloodwyn." Tressya wrenched my arm. "We'll never make it in time climbing over all these exposed roots, and you're not strong enough. You'll exhaust yourself climbing out and have nothing left for the fight."

"You're wasting time." My back ached, my head spun me in circles.

She helped me straighten, then shoved me in the chest. "And you're being stubborn."

Rather than fight her and waste more time, I relented and allowed her to pull me back down toward the cave.

She moved too fast.

"Watch the edging. It's loose."

My warning came too late. The path gave way under her feet, taking her with it, leaving her shriek behind. This time, I was too slow to reach for her. Seeing her disappear, I didn't think. I leaped through the gaping hole and plummeted.

The heat of the liquid fire burned my skin as I released my hold on Bloodwyn's form and became the Huungardred beast. Moments were all it took before the thick pelt of the beast smothered the fire's burn. The smell from below became overwhelming, searing my now sensitive nostrils, but in this form, I felt my vitality and strength return.

Large and heavy, I overtook Tressya's fall. Spying a small ledge protruding from the pit wall, I swiped out and hooked Tressya on my large claw, then flipped, changing the path of our fall to line up with the ledge as I pulled her in and cradled her to my belly.

I'd maneuvered myself around onto my back, sparing Tressya the brunt of the fall, so when we hit, it felt as though every bone in my body broke. Not only that, my size was too large for the ledge. My big rump hung over the edge. This close to the pit, not even my thick pelt could keep the scorch of the fire from reaching my skin.

I growled, wanting to ask if Tressya was all right, but as a Huungardred, I couldn't form the words.

"Bloodwyn," she sobbed as she slid from me.

I growled the question in my mind, but more useless beast noises came out. It had to result from my pain, but hearing her use his name, I wanted to shout my own. And that should be the last thing worrying me right now.

The weight of her leaving me wasn't a relief. When she lay on me, I knew she was safe. Now she was moving around on this tiny ledge. What if she fell off again? My panic eased when her small hands soothed through my fur. Stay close, Tressya . Feeling her was the only thing that corralled the wild rampage of my thoughts and made the pain bearable.

"Bloodwyn," she cried, running her hands down my snout and tangling them with my chest fur.

The fear in her voice triggered my beast's instincts. Before I could stop myself, I released a roar. She needed me on my haunches, ready to fight, not on my back, belly exposed like a coward.

No, dammit. I wasn't thinking straight. The ledge was too small for a Huungardred beast, and Tressya needed a man, not the beast. Just a few more breaths as I was, then I would loosen my hold on this form and transition back into a man. For now, I needed the Huungardred's fast healing ability to strengthen me again.

"I wish there was something I could do."

I wanted to tell her she was doing just fine, running her hands through my fur. It felt luxurious, harmonizing my body like nothing had ever done before. I took deep beast breaths and moaned them out slowly, tilting my head back to encourage her hands to glide up my throat. I couldn't fathom the pleasure I would feel with them soothing over my bare skin once I was a man. But I'd wallowed enough in this desirous dream. A fight was coming. We had to be prepared.

If only I could warn her of the change, so she wouldn't jerk away and risk falling off the ledge. I placed my paw over her hand, still tangled in the thick pelt at my chest, to keep her close to me, and let go of the beast. Both forms were as natural to me as breathing, so I could take one or the other with little thought.

Tressya gasped and slid her hand from mine, but I squeezed her hand to stop her. "Don't." My voice croaked, which wasn't unusual. It usually took a while for the voice to return to normal after a transformation.

I cracked an eyelid when Tressya stayed silent, to see her beautiful blue eyes wide in disbelief.

"Witnessing a shift can be a shock for anyone. I didn't let your hand go because I was afraid you'd pitch yourself over again in horror."

She shook her head, denying her shock.

"It's all right. You don't have to pretend even if it repulsed you. It will take more than that to shame me." I pulled at my open shirt, feeling the heat this close to the pit.

"No," she whispered. "Look." She lifted my hand, the one holding hers tight, and held it up in front of my face, and I realized why she was staring at me like she'd never seen me before.

"Oh." I sighed.

The olive complexion of my skin was a testament to my mess-up. Worried about Tressya, I wasn't thinking straight and shifted back into my true self. Tamas.

"Curses," I hissed when I tried to sit up.

Tressya did her best to help me, but I tried my damnedest to do it on my own, unwilling to accept how feeble I still felt because I'd not given myself long enough as a Huungardred to heal all my aches.

"We'll have to climb," I mumbled, scouring my face with my hands, not willing to accept the fact I'd screwed up and revealed what I really looked like.

"And into the jaws of whatever is waiting for us up there?"

"We'll cook if we stay here any longer."

"Then we lure it down, and it can cook as well."

"We may cook first. I don't know about you, but I'm ready to peel off my clothes."

Her eyes widened a fraction, her lips parted, and damn my weak-willed male blood for staring at her lips and forgetting for one precious moment we were in a life and death situation. There my eyes stayed, and this time, I felt my own lips part, my pulse thump through my veins. The touch of her lips… The feeling, I knew from experience was as good as the touch of her hands.

"What's your name?"

I rubbed at the scratchy bristle of an early beard. "I guess there's no point hiding now." I met her gaze. "Tamas Savant."

She smiled, and it was like someone had brought the sun down and aimed its radiant beams into my eyes. Then she held out her hand. "Please to meet you, Tamas Savant."

I didn't shake her hand. I held it and continued to hold it long after it was natural or polite to hold a woman's hand.

She blinked, then her lips twitched. "We have a problem to deal with. Remember?"

I scrunched my eyes closed. "Lethal creatures that want us dead. Right." My mind played tricks when I tried to stand, dizzying my head, almost pitching me over the ledge. It was thanks to Tressya, hauling me backward, that I was saved from that disaster, only to trap me in another. I tumbled back and into her, pinning her against the wall with my body. And while this was not a disaster right now, it could soon turn into one because my weak-willed male blood betrayed me again. My mind faulted. Flush against me, her wild heart beat with mine.

I saw her blue eyes first, before my eyes trailed down to her small slim nose, down to the slight indents in her cheeks, then settling on those lips. Her head craned back as she looked up at me, as if she was asking for…which she wasn't. Dammit. Yet I savored the length of her body against mine, craved the feeling of her skin, salivated with the need to taste her.

Curses, Tamas. I was crushing her small body against the root strewn wall.

The screech from the creature above sent me stumbling backward and almost over the edge again.

"Tamas," Tressya shrieked.

I stilled as my eyes fluttered closed, feeling my name spoken from her lips feather over me, a wondrous and captivating treat.

Another shriek from above was the punch in the face I needed. I wrapped an arm around Tressya's waist, hauling her against me while I pressed myself back against the wall and looked up.

A large beaked head peered over the rim of the pit.

"Stars above, it's massive," Tressya breathed.

"That beak looks a weapon all on its own." Perhaps the length of my body, if not longer, and pointed as any blade. It had an enormous scaly head, to lift its enormous sharp beak. Our only consolation was its eyes. It was the source. "As much as I hate to say it. You were right. We should've stayed in the cave, narrowing the breadth of its attack."

"Apology accepted. Now, how're we going to get ourselves out of this?"

I shifted Tressya behind me and leaned out to look back up the face of the wall. "We could climb back up to the cave. The creature seems hesitant to enter the pit. I don't think it likes the heat."

"I'm calling this one nightmare," she mumbled.

"More a challenge than a nightmare. There's so many exposed roots, the climb should be relatively easy."

"I was meaning the creature."

"You're naming them now?"

She shrugged. "It's a recent thing."

"Okay, but before the nightmare decides it will brave the heat, we should start climbing. You go first."

She narrowed her eyes for a moment, then quirked a brief smile. "So you can look at my ass."

"Weirdly, that didn't cross my mind, but now you've mentioned it…"

She rolled her eyes.

"I'm stronger. I'm better able to support you if you fall." I spun her around and gave her a light tap on the ass. "Up, princess."

Without another word, she gripped hold of a fat root and hauled herself up to mid-waist with a little help from my hand on her ass, pushing her upward. She didn't need my help, but I couldn't resist. I anchored her boot on another root. "Keep going," I encouraged her.

She needed no encouragement from me, and I should shut up before I broke her concentration. I leaned out for a better view of the monster above us.

"Damn." I gripped hold of Tressya's foot and yanked her down.

She shrieked as I peeled her off the wall, a small root coming away in her hand as she tumbled down on top of me. I caught her fall and fell backward against the wall.

"Change of plans," I said, setting her down and drawing my sword.

"Curses," she hissed.

We both watched as the beast clambered its way over the rim and down into the pit. The thick leathery hide of its wings formed a web from its body to its powerful forearms, adapted for gripping. Large claws pulled chumps of dirt and root as it scaled its way down.

"We can't defend ourselves here." She glanced around us.

"We can." Because we had to. I leaped, pressing her against the pit wall, covering her body with mine as a large clod of earth and rock sailed past us.

"Close." I looked over my shoulder to ensure nothing else was coming down, then released Tressya.

"What's our plan?" she asked, pulling her sword from her belt.

"I'm going to get on its back."

"What? That's ludicrous."

"If I can make it fly out of here?—"

"No." She yanked me around to face her. "You're not invincible, Tamas. You'll be killed."

I loved how easily she swapped my name for Bloodwyn's. It was like he never existed. "You're only saying that because you don't know what I'm capable of."

I pushed her backward again, using my body as a shield as the nightmare dislodged more debris.

"Bullheaded, egotistical stupidity, it would seem," she snapped, picking up where our conversation had been cut short.

"How about a powerful instinct to survive and determination to win?"

She harrumphed. By now, the nightmare had clambered halfway down into the pit. Soon it would be upon us. "Fighting while it's directly overhead will be awkward. At some point, I'll need you to distract it."

"We're standing side by side. You won't be able to take it by surprise."

"Then we'll blind it in one eye."

"Good idea." She announced with false gaiety. "That's easy enough." She glared at me as she drew her dagger.

I swiped a scattering of rocks away from the ledge with my blade, then caught Tressya in my periphery, wave her arm. When I turned to her, I noticed she had lost her dagger and was only holding her sword. The deafening screech of the nightmare's fury filled my ears as it rebounded off the pit walls. Wings now spread, I saw the large hooked barbs growing from the end of the veining in each wing as they blotted out the sky above.

The nightmare took flight, scraping its barbs down the walls on either side of the pit as it tried to maneuver in the confined space. The heat from below was no doubt the reason it seemed hesitant to drop lower and remained hovering above us. The ledge shielded us from the worst of the heat, but even I was feeling like my insides slowly cooked.

It wavered, then tilted left, allowing the sun above to glint off the small protrusion on its chest. Tressya's dagger.

"As always, your accuracy astounds me."

"An insignificant threat," she growled.

The nightmare reached the wall on the opposite side of the pit, then scrambled down, safe from anymore weapons for now.

"Are you still set on that plan of yours?" Tressya kept her eyes on the nightmare.

"Trust me. It's a good plan."

Tressya pulled her second dagger from its sheath, then closed her eyes for a breath as she nodded, as if she couldn't believe what she was agreeing to. "I'm crazy, but I trust you. I'll blind it, you get yourself onboard. And if either of us fail, it was…interesting knowing you."

Taking my eyes off the nightmare, I glanced at her. "Interesting?"

She shrugged.

"Fuck that." I wrapped an arm around her waist and hauled her into me, smashing my lips against hers with no restraint and slipping my tongue inside her mouth. Seconds it took for her to overcome her shock and soften against me. But Tressya didn't just soften, she opened, she surrendered, thankfully, avoiding stabbing me with her weapons as she locked her arms around my neck and devoured me as hungrily as I did her. I groaned into her mouth, my control slipping with our desperate kiss. The feel of her, the taste of her, filled my head, pushing the nightmare away.

Too soon, Tressya left my head spinning, my hunger bereft, when she released her hold and pushed me away.

"Get ready," she snapped.

How did she do that? My mind remained hazy, unwilling to leave the kiss behind. I shook my head. Survive . I breathed the thought deep inside, then drew my second sword and turned to face the nightmare.

Tressya jumped up and down, waving her arms about, and yelling, being careful to avoid slashing me as she did so.

"I figured I could tease it over," she said as if she needed to explain.

Thanks to Tressya, my attention was on task now. I stared ahead to the creature, which had lowered itself to the height of our ledge but remained on the other side of the pit wall. If it stretched its head and body out, it could attempt to spear us on the tip of its sharp beak.

"Once it's halfway across, I'll throw."

"And I'll leap. I trust you not to miss. Climb underneath the ledge if you can handle the heat."

"It's going to do it," I said, noting the way it shook its head, eyed us, lifted a forelimb from the wall. It was as though it was judging the distance, the heat it would be exposed to as it leaped across and where it would grip once here.

I tightened my hold on the hilts of my swords, waiting.

"Any moment now," I said.

"Come on," Tressya muttered, then wiped her brow with the back of her hand.

Sweat dripped into my eyes, but I dared not move a muscle.

When it launched, my heart tightened, my breath stalled. In a blink, it covered half the distance across the pit to our side. In my periphery, I saw Tressya release her weapons. Less than a heartbeat later, the nightmare's head jerked left, which was my signal.

I leaped, loosening my hold on my form so I could tap into the Huungardred's might to power my leap. I crossed the distance, aiming for the thick hide on the nightmare's neck. We collided mid-air, but I was so insignificant, the nightmare reached our side of the pit wall, digging its claws in tight. I stabbed my swords into its neck and used them as pickaxes to help me climb up onto the back of its neck. From here, I could see the black blood seeping from its eye.

The irritant Tressya's blades created caused the beast to thrash its head from side to side, before it bashed its eye against the wall of the pit, intent on ridding the blades. Rubble tumbled loose and rained down onto the ledge below, but Tressya was already gone, taking my advice and climbing off the ledge.

Now it was up to me. I speared my blades into its neck as I climbed up to its head. The nightmare thrashed, screeching in fury, and I lost my footing, hanging by my grip on my blades.

I curled my legs up, hitching one over its neck again, then pressed myself flat to its body and stabbed repeatedly high on its neck with one blade, using the other as my anchor. The nightmare screeched, releasing one forearm from the side of the wall and attempted to swipe at its head, missing me with each swipe. I continued to stab, hoping I would make it mad with desperation to dislodge me.

It worked. The nightmare pushed off from the pit wall, beating its massive wings to lift it up and out of the pit. Once out, it climbed up ever higher into the sky. The ice wind raced over its body and over me. In seconds, I felt chilled in place. I pressed myself as close as I could to stay on and avoid the worst of the wind. If it continued to climb, I would freeze to death. Already I could feel my fingers aching in their grip.

Teeth clenched, I pulled one blade after the other, stabbing them in one at a time as I worked my way up its body. In the distance, a mountain range loomed into view, its peak hidden in clouds. Was there no end to the Salmun's magic? No mountain range was visible outside the Ashenlands. How far did the illusion extend? Could one be stuck inside forever and never cover the same ground?

Whatever the answers were, I didn't want to end up on that mountain. Tressya needed me.

As I continued working my way to the top of the nightmare's head, a black blur to the side of me caught my eye. I turned to see a manifestation keeping speed with us. Every so often it darted its beak toward us, swiping across the top of the source's head and forcing me to flatten myself once again or risk being knocked off. It was as I suspected. The source created and controlled the manifestations as and when it needed them.

I climbed downed from the nightmare's head, easing my way, using my blades to prevent me from sliding off. Sheltering close to its ear from the harsh, bitter wind, I devised a new deadly plan. Then blew a heavy breath at the thought of what I had to do. Tressya would strip my hide if she knew.

It wasn't easy climbing downward, skirting the side of its beak, especially when a second manifestation appeared on the other side. The new manifestation speared its beak toward me, skimming close to the source's face. I almost laughed at the possibility. Maybe my plan would work.

I kept going down with the added challenge of avoiding being plucked from the source's body by the beak of one of its protectors. Once I'd reached as low as I dared, I stilled, steadying my breath.

Come on, Tamas. Now or never.

I released one sword from the nightmare's leathery skin and hung on with one arm. One more deep breath, and I again tapped into my ancestral strength, this time growing claws. With the Huungardred's might, I pulled out the other weapon and fell. Swords raised, I gave myself the seconds I needed to fall as far as I dared before I stabbed out, weapons and claws piercing deep into the underneath of its throat.

Legs dangling in mid-air, I clung on for my life fueled by the Huungardred in my veins. A manifestation appeared beneath me, the other keeping pace at my side. Neither made a move, so I pulled the blade and released my claws, then stabbed it in again, driving it so deep with my added strength, the hilt disappeared into its flesh. Then I repeated my vicious stab using the other weapon, again, puncturing holes in its throat, as insignificant as they may be. This was not the way to kill the beast, but the way to drive it insane with fury.

When the manifestation veered toward us, screeching in fury, I was ready, curling my legs up out of reach. Its beak jabbed at me, shaving close to my ass. When it swerved away, I lowered my legs and continued to irritate the source with my unrelenting stabs, until another manifestation appeared. Now four of them shadowed us.

Again I made ready, curling my legs up at the last to evade another ferocious beak stab. As it missed, the manifestation screeched so loud it felt as though my ears blew. I released another blade and stabbed again and watched as the manifestation shook its head, responding to my attack.

One last stab sent the source into the raging fury I needed. The manifestation beside me dived in, rearing its head back and stabbing blind, straight through the neck of the source. Black blood poured over me as the manifestations disappeared. I growled, my hands growing wet and slipping from the hilt.

As the source's wings collapsed, the enormous beast plunged out of the sky.

Huungardred strength was not endless, but I called on more as I crawled one hand up the hilt of one sword to touch the source's leathery skin. On contact, I shifted my focus and plummet inside the source's body, searching for its soul.

Tressya was right in saying this was a terrible risk, but I figured we were dead if I didn't try. In learning of the difference between the manifestation and the source, I figured the latter was an animal whose soul I could plunder. I knew my father had tried this trick once before and failed when he'd traveled the Ashenlands, as well as a few ancestors before him. But no one knew of the distinction between the two back then.

The beast's inner life was a complicated labyrinth, like nothing I'd searched within before. And the forest's canopy was fast approaching.

You can do it. My slick hands ached from their savage grip, forever threatening to slip from my hold on the hilt.

A messy twist of confusion stretched before my mind's eye. So many paths for me to follow, so many dark and endless places with no end. The source would bust through the canopy before I found what I was looking for. I roared my fury and tunneled all I had, feeling myself fall into the abyss, searching for my salvation. What spread before me was blinding, confusing, and utterly consuming.

I won't end like this. No way would I give in now when Tressya waited for me to return, when I was possibly her only hope out of the Ashenlands. I remembered her blue eyes, the first thing I saw when I woke in the cave. I wanted that as my first sight every time I woke.

I roared, then slammed into the nightmare's essence.

You won't defeat me.

Its animalistic mindset burrowed its way through my consciences, fighting for supremacy, but as a shape-shifter, my mind had greater mastery.

It took no time to bend the creature to my will as I assumed its form. When done, I punched out my wings and soared upward into the sky.