26. Chapter 26

I ran all through the night and most of the next day. Driven by images of Gwyn bleeding out in the wildlands. Gwyn unconscious and hurt. Gwyn being attacked by another xythrax or trampled by a group of gronks.

Why hadn't I searched more for her yesterday morning when I couldn't find her ? I berated myself. I didn't have any excuse other than ignorance when it came to gallies. Never would I have thought them capable of harming each other. I had been too busy protecting them from the wildlands.

I kept running whenever I could, only stopping to relieve myself and to drink more water. The night, however, was dark, and despite my urgency to get to Gwyn, I was forced to slow down to avoid a broken a leg on the treacherous terrain .

The moment I saw Dzur-Khan and his warriors, my heart dropped. Dzur-Khan was one of the first khadahrs I had approached with my plan, and he was adamantly against it. He cursed the humans and swore he would never take one as his mate.

He and I had been friends for a long time. Born in the same year, we had both fought together in the trials and later in the contest, hoping to find a mate. He never told me, but I knew he would have chosen Tilliah, my sister, which would have made us brothers. Grief had united us for ten years, after his mother and several sisters perished in the cave together with mine.

Contrary to me, though, he didn't see a future for our species, at least not with human gallies. He had always been a staunch believer in the gods, but unlike me, he had never questioned our priests. He wasn't exactly a fan of Bzun-Lhan's, but once my brother became High Priest, Dzur-Khan had always shown him the utmost respect. I doubted he would ever go against the temple. Still, I had hoped to win him over to accept human gallies as our only way to save our species.

Seeing Gwyn, if not well but alive, spread unbelievable joy and relief through me. Seeing Dzur-Khan that close to her—about to touch her—ignited a flaming fire of rage inside me. I made my presence known with a loud roar before I tackled him to the ground. "Don't touch her!"

Dzur-Khan recovered quickly. His fist slammed into the side of my skull before we even hit the ground. He twisted in my arms and followed up with a headbutt .

We grappled on the ground, fists hitting flesh, kicking and cursing like we had done when we were young. But this wasn't a fight like we had in our youth—it was a fight for Gwyn.

I kicked him in the kidney, and he groaned. But he blocked my fist aimed for his chin and instead landed a blow to my stomach.

"Stop it; stop it," I heard Gwyn's voice from far away while dodging a kick from Dzur-Khan.

My fist connected with Dzur-Khan's jaw, giving me time to get to my feet. I could have kicked him then, but I waited until he was up too, observing the code of honor between khadahrs.

"Tzar-Than," he greeted me, spitting blood.

"Dzur-Khan," I greeted back, watching him carefully.

"You lay claim to this… gallis?" Dzur-Khan asked.

"Sa, I lay claim to Gwyn," I informed him.

His eyes narrowed. "So you went ahead and did it? You not only invited human gallies to Vandruk, you also took one for your own."

"Sa." I saw no reason to elaborate; we had discussed this before. He knew my stance on this, and I, his.

I watched mutely as several emotions rushed over his features, waiting for him to decide how our meeting would go from here. If he wanted hostility, then so be it, but I would rather have him and his lands, Svengard, on my side than against me.

"You would think you would take better care of the gallis you claim," Dzur-Khan finally said, still leaving all options open on how this would go.

"We got separated due to treachery," I grudgingly filled him in .

He held out his arm. "It's good to see you, brother."

I grabbed it, and we clasped elbows before he pulled me into his embrace. I allowed a sigh of relief to escape me. Dzur-Khan and I had always been more like brothers, and I had hated that our opinions had differed on this experiment.

"So this is a human gallis?" he asked, eyeing Gwyn and raising my ire back up again. Ignoring him, I hurried to her side. "Gwyn, are you alright?"

Bruises covered her beautiful face, and one of her eyes was bloodshot. She held her side as if she was hurting and favored one leg.

"What happened?"

"They jumped me," she said in a small voice.

"You understand their language?" Dzur-Khan asked surprised.

"Sa," I threw over my shoulder to him, noticing something clinging to her neck. A small hand came out of her thick hair, and my eyes widened in disbelief.

"A velviph," I breathed reverently.

"Oh, that's Fuzzles." Gwyn smiled warmly through her split lip. "Say hello, Fuzzles."

"Gwyn, do you have any idea what this is?" I asked, staring at the large black eyes poking through her hair.

"Fuzzles? He showed me the water. I think I might have died had he not shown it to me."

Guilt crashed through my stomach, constricted my heart. "Gwyn, I'm sorry. I had no idea you were missing. Kenley told me you were out with Dawn." I reached forward, carefully touched her bruised cheek. M y fault, my fault , my mind screamed.

"Yeah, she's a crafty one," Gwyn acknowledged with a wince.

"Let me see." I gently moved her hand from the side she was holding and moved mine underneath her shirt to examine her ribs. "Can you take a breath for me?"

"It hurts."

"I know." I watched her steel herself and inhale, wincing. "I don't feel any breaks." My concern was for her ribs, but at the same time, I couldn't stop thinking about my hand on her flesh and how soft it felt.

"They don't hurt as much as they did yesterday." She stood still, breathing shallowly.

"Did you do this?" I asked the velviph in Vandruk, and he chirped.

"He lay on me all night. I swear he's healing me." Gwyn tried to chuckle.

"Velviphs are very rare. Many Vandruks go without ever seeing one, let alone touching it," I explained. "It is said Vorag sends them to his chosen in their hour of need."

Gwyn stared at me open-mouthed, then turned her gaze to the velviph. "Are you an angel, little Fuzzles?"

"Something like that." I nodded, mesmerized at how much I saw Vorag's hand in this.

There were other pressing matters that had to be taken care of other than explaining Vorag's workings to her now. "You need rest, food, and water. "

I checked on Dzur-Khan's warriors' progress and asked him in Vandruk, "Can we use one of your tents?"

"Be my guest," he replied dryly. "You owe me a story."

"You'll get it. Just give me some time to take care of her."

I pulled out the red bag Dawn gave me before I left and held it out to Gwyn. "Do you know what to do with this?"

Her smile lit up her face. "Oh, yes!"

She ripped open the bag and dug inside to pull out small pouches. "These are painkillers," she explained, counting the little white capsules and fishing four out. "I need some water, please."

I handed her my half-empty waterskin and watched her place the capsules into her mouth and wash them down.

I had experienced broken and bruised ribs before and was all too familiar with the pain they caused. Vandruks had healers who brewed potions to ease pain, but they usually tasted pretty vile, and it took a lot more of it to swallow than the little capsules she took.

I creased my brow deep in thought. Maybe females weren't the only thing I should bargain for the next time we met with the humans. I needed to talk with Matt to find out more about their medical advancements.

Or Gwyn , my mind reminded me. She was going to be my khadahrshi, my mate, my confidante, closest friend, and so much more. A thrill of happiness rushed through me at that thought. MINE, echoed in my head, followed by a quick prayer of thanks to Vorag for keeping her safe when I had failed her.

"What happened?" I asked after a few moments of silence.

Gwyn sighed. "I was stupid. "

"I don't doubt that," I allowed, ignoring the sharp look she gave me. "You still have much to learn about Vandruk."

"This wasn't about Vandruk," she corrected so vigorously that she hissed in pain. "This was me thinking somebody my friend who wasn't."

"Kenley?" I wagered.

She nodded and lowered her head. "Yeah, Kenley. She said she needed to talk to me, and I followed her out into the darkness like a lamb to be slaughtered," she scoffed. "All the queen bees were there, and one of them hit me over the head. After that"—she looked up at me—"I don't remember much other than pain."

"Queen bees?" I never heard that expression before.

"Sandra and her cohorts—Erika, Lexi, and, I suppose, Kenley."

Understanding bloomed and I added, "And Michaela. She lied to me too."

"Michaela too?" Her posture deflated, and she stared into nothing for a moment. After a while she asked, "How did you find out?"

I still held myself responsible for this part. "I should have checked on you sooner, but Kenley said you were out with Dawn, gathering plants. It was only in the evening when I talked to Dawn that we realized Kenley had lied to both of us." I gave her a brief rundown of the following events.

"They will be punished," I assured Gwyn. "And I apologize for my failure to keep you safe in my camp."

"This isn't on you, Tzar-Than. I should have known better than trying to make friends. "

She looked so forlorn that I took her hand. "It's never wrong to try to make friends, and you have good friends. Dawn and Sophia fought to bring the others' lies to the surface."

"What will happen to them?" She didn't have to elaborate. I knew she was referring to the q ueen bees .

"Once we return to our group, I will have them and the guards escorted back to the portal. They will return to their homes and live with the shame of having been banished." I filled her in on my plan.

A weary smile played along her lips. "They'll still be hailed as celebrities when they return."

"If you would rather have them beheaded or lashed, I can arrange that," I promised, not reveling in the idea of having gallies lashed, but if any had ever deserved this kind of punishment, it was them.

She looked at me in horror and shook her head. "Oh no. Please don't. Sending them back will be punishment enough."

"Are you sure?"

She nodded. "Yes."

Dzur-Khan decided then that he had given us enough space. "A tent is ready for your gallis."

"Gwyn," I introduced, "This is Dz—"

"Khadahr Dzur-Khan." She sent an indecipherable smile at Dzur-Khan, souring my stomach.

"You two have become quite familiar," I observed, not willing to analyze the strange sensation in my gut .

"Just enough to make it clear that he likes to be called by his title." Gwyn smirked.

"I'm glad he found you. I worried I wouldn't make it in time," I confessed, realizing I owed Dzur-Khan a debt.

"After Fuzzles showed me where the water was, I was actually doing alright on my own," Gwyn asserted. "I would have followed the tracks when the other Vandruks showed up. You didn't arrive much later."

"You were here for two nights and nearly two days," I reminded her, doubting very highly that she had been fine when Dzur-Khan ran into her.

"I was unconscious most of the time," she admitted, and my heart fell for what she had endured because I hadn't assured her safety when I should have, an oversight that would never happen again.

I helped her walk to the tent, amazed by the velviph still perched on her shoulder, watching me with his black, soulful eyes. I had never seen a velviph before, only heard about them. But I had never heard about a velviph attaching himself to a person like… Fuzzy? Fuzzers?... had to Gwyn. He had even stayed in the presence of Dzur-Khan and his warriors and through Dzur-Khan's and my scuffle. It was as if… as if the gods themselves wanted to show us how these human gallies were the answer to our prayers.

The tent was roomy and cozy enough to make me suspect it was Dzur-Khan's, and I appreciated his efforts on behalf of Gwyn.

"Will you be alright?" I asked after tucking her into the bed of furs. "I won't be long. "

"I will be fine, thank you." Her eyes were already closing, and I took a second to take in her pale, bruised body. My fists balled and unclenched. I would have loved nothing more than to get my hands on the people who had done this to her, but since they, too, were gallies, I would never be able to act on my desire for revenge. Nek, banishment was the best course of action and would have to do.

Fuzzles, now I remembered, smiling slightly at Gwyn's silly name for him, snuggled right into her, and I prayed his magical healing powers would work their way through Gwyn's body. The gods knew she needed a break. A purring sound, growing louder as I left, assured me that it would.

"Make it quick," I told Dzur-Khan, who was already waiting for me outside by the fire.

He offered me a smaller skin, which I suspected was not filled with water, but I wasn't averse to taking in something stronger right then. It might help the burning in my stomach. I took a long swallow and coughed. "That is vile!"

He chuckled. "Ghar-Dhan sends his greetings."

"Ah, Ghar-Dhan. I haven't seen him in months." Ghar-Dhan was another khadahr born a couple of years earlier than us. He, too, had lost his chosen mate during the cave-in. His tribe brewed the most potent alcohol known to Vandruk.

"I don't want to talk about Ghar-Dhan," Dzur-Khan replied.

"You brought him up," I reminded him .

"You contacted this other species, the one responsible for our great tragedy after we advised you not to," Dzur-Kahn came straight to the point.

"The humans, sa," I allowed carefully. We had had that argument before, and I wasn't about to repeat it.

"And she is one of them?" His chin jerked in the direction of the tent.

I tilted my head and didn't answer. His question didn't need one.

"You're going to make her your khadahrshi?" he continued.

"Sa."

"Are they compatible with us? Will they breed our children?"

I shrugged. "I don't have an answer yet."

"The others will be livid that you went against their will," Dzur-Khan pointed out.

"What I do in my lands is my decision, no one else's," I reminded him.

"We've been like brothers, Tzar-Than. I hate watching you make a mistake."

"I appreciate it, Dzur-Khan. But I cannot stand by and watch our species die, not when there might be a way around it," I argued the same argument I had used before, but something was different about Dzur-Khan. He seemed more open to listening.

"I prayed to the gods for guidance, Dzur-Khan," I added, hoping to get him on my side. The more khadahrs did, the easier it would be to stand against the priests. "Vorag appeared to me in my dreams. He told me I needed to go through the red fog. When I went through, it was Gwyn who waited for me and guided me to the other side."

"What was it like? The other side?"

I shrugged, glad he was engaged and asking questions. "Disorienting. The humans are much more advanced than us. They are dangerous."

Dzur-Khan took another sip, and I appreciated him not nodding and saying, I told you so .

"A few nights ago, I had another dream. I dreamt Gwyn was in danger by a xythrax and that I would slay it."

My friend's attention was now fully on me. His eyes glistened, and every one of us lusted after another chance to kill a xythrax to prove his prowess.

"And, did you?"

"Sa, but not alone." I grinned at him.

"What do you mean? Did your warriors interfere?" Outrage echoed in his voice. No male had the right to interfere in a khadahr's battle with a xythrax.

"Nek." A small, dry laugh escaped me. "They didn't."

"Then who…" His eyes grew large. "Don't tell me that gallis of yours…" I waited for him to come to his own conclusions.

In disbelief, he sat back. "How?" There was a note of pity in his expression that made me chuckle. Sa, I had been humiliated at first, angry for Gwyn's interference, but now I knew it had been Vorag's will to show me how brave the gallis was.

"She threw a spear at the xythrax," I said, pointing at the stitched wound still visible on my shoulder .

"She hit you?"

"Me and the xythrax." I couldn't keep the note of pride from my voice. "It was her spear in the beast that I used to finish him off."

Silence followed that statement. I pulled out the necklace I had given Gwyn, the one that had solidified Sandra's guilt in the attack.

Reverently, Dzur-Khan looked at it, glancing at mine and fingering his. "Well, I'll be damned."

More silence followed, and I let him work it out in his own time while taking another careful drink from the vile brew Ghar-Dhan and his people brewed.

Then, Dzur-Khan voiced his other objection, one he had also told me before. "Even if Vorag is on your side, I told you before that even if your plan succeeds, even if those human gallies give us sons and daughters, they won't be Vandruks."

"Nek, not fully, but we can teach them to be," I admitted.

He nodded, then changed the subject. "It's my turn at the red fog to stand watch. Guess who waited for me there?" Dzur-Khan crossed his arms over his chest.

"Bzun-Lhan, our esteemed High Priest," I guessed.

"And your brother," Dzur-Khan added.

"A fact I cannot forget no matter how hard I try to."

At that, Dzur-Khan laughed and pounded on my shoulder before he turned serious again. "He's going to rile up the temple and the other khadahrs against you."

"Let him." I waved my hand. "Farruk is well protected."

"You cannot fight all of Vandruk," Dzur-Khan reminded me .

"Not alone, nek," I admitted. Still, they would have a hard time trying.

"It will take them months to even agree if they want to fight me, let alone put a war party together," I laid out my plan. "In the meantime, with some luck, we might have our first younglings. Do you think the other khadahrs would still attack if I showed them my son?"

"You're counting on luck, which we haven't had much of late." Dzur-Khan homed in on my plan's weak spot.

"You noticed the velviph?" I asked, and even though I knew he had, it was impossible not to. The little critter had made every effort to be noticed.

I leaned forward and handed the skin back to Dzur-Khan. "The gods are on our side."

When he still frowned, I inhaled deeply. "Look, we either give up and die without heirs in what, another thirty to forty years, or we do something about it.?"

"Suit yourself. I'm planning on living another fifty." Dzur-Khan pushed his chin forward, begging me to contradict him. Usually, I would have risen to the challenge, but not today. I was tired, worried about Gwyn, and just wanted to get this conversation over with.

"Fine, we'll die in another fifty years, alone, without heirs, while our entire species slowly withers away as well. There are what, maybe a thousand females left? A few hundred of fertile age or about to become fertile? Even if they bear ten living children each, our species won't survive unless these females all have children by different fathers, giving birth to mostly females."

"That would never happen. That is why the temple is deciding now who gets mated," Dzur-Khan asserted.

"Sa," I agreed dryly, taking back the skin from him and drinking another sip. The brew was getting better after the third swallow; that was Ghar-Dhan's clan's magic. "And you do realize how much power that puts into my brother's hands?" I couldn't stop there; I had thought about it for too long, seethed about it for too long on my own. "It's Bzun-Lhan who decides which clan grows and which one withers."

For the first time, Dzur-Khan looked stricken. His tone lost some of the assuredness it had held before. "Vorag divulges to the High Priest…"

He trailed off as I arched my eyebrow at him, putting all my doubts and skepticism into the motion. "Have you never heard Vorag's voice?"

"It's blasphemy, only the High Priest…" He remembered then who he was talking about and deflated.

"Sa, it has been irking me. More so when Bzun-Lhan offered me a gallis before I left the red fog to find you."

It was my turn to be astonished. "He did?"

He nodded. "Sa, after I told him that I was going to catch up with you, leaving most of my warriors at the red fog."

"You were coming after me?"

"I wanted to see. I wanted to see the humans, our archenemies." I was about to say something, but he raised his hand. "I've always respected you, Tzar-Than. We're already on the verge of extinction. I needed to see what would make you risk a war between the temple and the khadahrs and decimate our species even further. You don't even know yet if the humans will give us children."

His points were valid and nothing I hadn't contemplated before. "My point is it doesn't matter how we die. It matters how we live. If we give our species a chance. How can you look in the eyes of the last Vandruk, maybe ten years old, maybe fifteen, and tell him or her that, sa, there was a small chance to ensure his or her generation's survival, but we didn't risk it because of a possible war."

Again, silence reigned for a little while. The wood in the fire crackled, and hushed voices from Dzur-Khan's two warriors drifted over. I was just about to rise and go see how Gwyn was faring when Dzur-Khan spoke again. "She looks fragile."

"She isn't in the greatest shape. There was an incident," I filled him in, even though I hated admitting how part of my plan had failed.

"Sounds like Gisetta," Dzur-Khan laughed when I finished.

"Gisetta?" I asked before I remembered the name of his sister, the one who had died alongside mine.

"I haven't thought about Gisetta in a long time," I admitted. Memories returned full force of Gisetta getting us into trouble just because she could, Gisetta following us, even blackmailing us to be part of our group.

"She would have never tried to kill another person," I said, now seeing the troublemaker in my mind's eye .

"Not herself, nek," Dzur-Khan allowed.

"Sandra is not like her," I warned him, wanting to eliminate the idea of her being like Dzur-Khan's sister right away. "Besides, she and her cohorts will return to their world."

"I loved my sister, but I didn't like her very much." Dzur-Khan summarized my feelings for her. "I would never want someone like her as a mate, but I just wanted to remind you that our females used to be vicious, too. Maybe our two species have more in common than I thought."

"The group I requested has shrunk, but you're welcome to travel with us to get to know them," I offered.

"What kind of deal did you make?"

"I told them I would give this a year, and we would talk again."