Lies That Bleed (The Ember War Book 1), page 8
Bastard! Was he saying I didn’t know how to survive hard things? Or that I’d never had to? Did he have any idea what being the emperor’s daughter entailed? If we climbed The Wall we’d be killed by the guards up top. The only way over was in the river and around.
With a growl I took off after him, letting the cool water lap at my ankles as I held the pack over my head like he did.
He gave me a backward glance but said nothing. I should turn back. I could literally be killed if the Luskins found us in their territory. Or worse, kidnapped and tortured for days on end. But I did wonder, why did Kohen’s map show the Talanagi on the Luska side? It kind of made sense… because over twenty percent of the creatures the Luskins bonded to were Talanagi. That’s what made them such a formidable foe. Was it because the creatures bred there on the other side of the wall and we’d unknowingly blocked them out when we erected it? That would be very stupid if that was the case. My father would rip the wall down if he found it to be true.
I peered up at the top of the wall, looking for soldiers, but found none. Kohen reached the shore on the Luska side and scrambled up the steep embankment. Next it was my turn. I got one boot into the mud and slipped, swallowing a yelp as I sank into the river, drenching myself and my pack. When my head bobbed back up, Kohen was there, reaching down to haul me up out of the water as if I were made of air.
He steadied me, setting me on my feet, and I stared at him a little breathlessly as water rolled down my face and clothing. “Thanks,” I muttered.
He just nodded and continued walking, consulting his map, and I followed because I was a curious idiot.
There was no turning back now. I was either following Kohen into a trap where he killed me, or we really did find the Talanagi and we both died. Either way I didn’t see many options where we both made it out of enemy territory alive.
Suddenly his arm shot out and grasped my stomach, holding me back.
I’d been looking out into the tree line, but at his stopping me, I peered down to follow his gaze.
“What the hell is that?” I whisper-screamed.
The giant golden egg that lay at my feet was bigger than a small child.
Kohen’s head snapped up, and then in one swift move he yanked me closer to him and tucked me behind him, shielding me from something.
I growled against his back. “I don’t need you to protect m—”
The words died in my throat as I peered over his shoulder at the giant black, scaled… dragon.
Talanagi.
An ancient magical creature. It was… real.
Kohen and the dragon were in an epic stare down, and my heart hammered in my chest like a fragile bird. Kohen released the hand he’d been using to keep me behind him and pulled his broadsword.
“If I die, tell Anika to take care of my little brothers,” he said calmly.
Holy crap. He was going for it.
I was no fool. I took three slow but large steps backward. I wasn’t about to get in the middle of a fight with a Talanagi.
Part of me wanted to run back to the camp. Another part wanted to stay and watch even if it meant seeing Kohen die. This was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and I wasn’t about to miss it.
I was wondering who would strike first when the dragon’s tail flicked so fast and hard it sent Kohen flying into a nearby tree. He hit the trunk with a thud and slid to the ground. The second he hit the mossy forest floor, he popped up as if nothing had happened and he wasn’t hurt. Then he ran right at the creature.
I barely blinked. I couldn’t look away. Kohen had balls of steel and no fear. He leapt into the air, sword arm raised, and the dragon shot a stream of fire right in Kohen’s direction. The Imbrian rolled midair and barely missed it, falling to the ground with a yelp.
He popped up a mere second later, his shirt bleeding from where I was guessing his staples had just opened up. Watching him fight was a thing of beauty. Technically, they hadn’t started the bonding process yet; no one had drawn blood from the other. The blood from Kohen’s old injury wouldn’t count. If Kohen wasn’t strong enough to make the beast bleed, the dragon would kill him.
Kohen needed a distraction. I didn’t know why I did it, or why I wanted to help him, but I stepped out into the clearing.
“Is this your egg?” I yelled really loudly, pointing to the golden oblong sphere.
The dragon’s gaze snapped to mine, and Kohen ran faster than my eyes could track, slashing out with his sword and dragging it clear across the dragon’s chest.
Blue blood dripped onto the blade and the bonding began.
Yes!
‘No, It’s mine,’ a female voice called into my mind, and I froze.
I slowly pivoted on my heel, turning around. When my gaze fell on the creature behind me, my heart stopped beating. I was sure I was going to drop dead right there as I stared into the eyes of the most magnificent creature I’d ever seen.
She stood over ten feet tall, with feathers that looked like they danced with fire. They started gold at the base and moved to purple and even burnt orange. She stood erect on two large, taloned feet, and stared at me with glowing purple eyes.
A firebird.
They were real. All Talanagi were special, but firebirds were said to be immortal, escaping even death itself.
I wanted to run, get the hell out of this place so fast and forget I’d ever found the Talanagi hideout, but I couldn’t look away from those purple eyes. They peered right through me, challenging me to prove my worth.
Ignoring the sounds of Kohen fighting behind me, I thought of what Elaine said. That she’d specifically told me not to go for a Talanagi, that at times I was too cocky.
I held the beautiful bird’s gaze, my fingers twitching over my sword, and then my father flashed into my mind.
If I bonded a firebird, there was no telling what he would do. I knew he loved me and was proud of me, but… he was also very career-driven. He took threats to his leadership seriously. I knew he would never hurt me, but the thought of doing something that he disapproved of made me… uncomfortable. He might very likely make Valor his heir instead. I relaxed my hand, and even though I hadn’t felt the urge to look away, I did, and gave her my back, intending to leave this place and never think on it again.
A whoosh of air rushed over me, and a second later her talon ripped through my back. I screamed, falling to the ground, as panic washed over me.
Blood was drawn. That meant I had to fight.
Shit. Shit. Shit.
With a growl, I rolled on my back and lashed out just as the creature tried to bite a chunk out of my arm. My sword slashed across her face and she shrieked, reeling backward. I used the space between us to pop up onto my feet.
This was really happening. After all my years of training, I was now in a bonding fight with a freaking Talanagi!
If I survived this, which wasn’t likely, Elaine was going to kill me.
The creature’s nostrils flared and her beak opened to reveal a mouth full of sharp, serrated teeth.
Awesome.
Some candidates survived their bonding fight but were missing an arm or leg. I was really hoping this wasn’t the case here. But I had to show her that I was strong enough to be her equal; otherwise she would continue to try to kill me.
She opened her mouth and a stream of fire shot from it. I yelped, ducking and rolling to the side. The blast of heat hit my back and was gone as I moved out of the way. By the time I popped back up, she was on me again, relentless. She flew up into the air, trying to dig her talons into my shoulders. I managed to nick her leg with my dagger and draw blood as I rolled out of the way, but it barely stopped her.
An explosion of colored lights pulled my attention about twenty feet to the right, and shock ripped through me.
Kohen? Was he actually alive and bonding the dragon?
Before I had time to focus on the thought, the firebird smacked me in the face with her wing and I went down, ears ringing.
My vision went double, and that’s when something inside of me snapped. That feral need to survive bloomed in my chest like it did with every candidate when you reached a certain point in your fight that you thought you might be losing.
I needed to stop thinking so much. I needed to react on instinct.
With a warrior’s cry, I charged forward, slashing out with my sword left and right as the firebird deftly flew zigzags out of the way, breathing fire at me once more.
I tucked into a ball and rolled at the last second, but felt the burn of singed skin along my back. The fresh cuts she’d made with her talons were raw, but I was running on adrenaline. She was fast, too fast, and at this rate I knew this fight wasn’t going to last long.
I sheathed my dagger, keeping my broadsword out, and reached down to get a fistful of dirt. The next time she snapped her beak at me, I tossed the dirt into her face. She blinked, turning away, and I used the distraction to drag my blade along her wing, ripping some of those beautiful feathers out. It felt criminal to try to destroy an animal as stunning as she was, but I knew I had to get her to submit in order to start the bond or I was dead. The creatures of The Wilds lived in a kill-or-be-killed mentality. Their resources here were limited, and they were constantly fighting each other over them.
Her right leg shot out and swept my feet out from under me, knocking me flat on my back. Then her talon locked on to my leg with an iron grip. The razor-sharp claws cut into the meat of my calf, and before I even knew what was happening, I was being hauled into the air, upside-down.
My first thought was to tighten the grip on my broadsword.
I did, and even though she was flying up with my body hanging upside-down fifty feet over the jungle of The Wilds of Luska, I knew I had her. She had no idea that I’d done a hundred sit-ups a day hanging from a device that forced me to be upside-down in my father’s gym.
I pulled myself up so that I could kiss my knees if I wanted, and pressed the tip of my sword against her throat.
She peered down at me with surprise, the intelligence in her gaze very apparent.
“I’ll do it,” I warned. If I killed her, it would kill me too. A drop from this height wasn’t survivable, but I’d do it just to prove I won the fight.
I felt something knock against my chest, an invisible force boring its way into my heart.
The bond?
Then the colors burst from her back, raining down and curling under me. I had a wild thought that we must look like fireworks to anyone peering upward at that moment.
Everything they told you about the bonding in school, about the instant closeness you would feel for your creature in that moment, it paled against reality.
In a single second I knew almost everything there was to know about Liana. And she knew nearly everything about me. I knew her name, I knew that she’d had many children who were now gone, either passed on or… not here. It was hard to explain. I knew she was over a thousand years old and that she didn’t like snow but longed to see it. I knew that her mate died a decade ago and she’d been empty ever since, a hollow shell waiting for her own end, but her end would never come. I knew she was immortal, the only type of Talanagi to achieve such a thing, and only because she was female. Male firebirds like her mate did not have such magic. I knew she longed to leave this place, that this enclosure called The Wilds was a prison for her and every other creature, but they could not survive outside without the bond of a human. Even her. Even an immortal. She needed me. She wanted me. She’d been biding her time, craving an end, and now I was her way out.
In that same instant, she knew I was the emperor of Amersea’s daughter, an impossible role to fill. That Jace was the first guy I ever loved and trusted and he betrayed me. She knew that I hated broccoli and loved the rain. That Tetra was my best friend and I would do anything to protect her. It was hard to explain such a detailed sharing of instant information, telepathic in a way, but I felt when it started to fade and the bond began to seal itself.
Her name was Liana and she had found her equal, someone she would die for, protect with her life. And I felt the same.
I was so excited to have actually survived this that laughter bubbled in my chest as she began her descent and the colors around us began to fade.
We were about ten feet from the ground when she peered down at me with compassion. ‘Be strong, Aisling. For the both of us.’ She spoke into my mind and I frowned just as she exploded into a ball of fire, encompassing my entire body in the flames. Pain like I’d never felt before consumed me, and then everything went black as I greeted death with surprise.
Chapter
Nine
Iwas dead. Just a ball of awareness floating in the void. There was no pain, no light, no long-lost relatives to greet me. I was floating in a black sky with no stars and only the voices to keep me company.
“What happened to her hair?” It was my father’s voice.
“We think she partially bonded before she died,” a stranger said.
“Bless you, child. May you have your place among the stars with your mother.” It was Elaine.
“I can’t announce this yet. The city is still reeling about Kohen bonding with a Talanagi,” my father said.
Shock laced through Elaine’s voice: “What will you tell the people? They’ll wonder where she is.”
“That she’s healing from extreme wounds. We can announce her death next week. I don’t want to start a panic,” my father said.
“What creature did this? Do we know?” Elaine asked.
“She was burned alive. And considering Kohen Badshah just bonded a dragon…” the stranger mused.
Elaine gasped. “You think Kohen killed her?”
They had it all wrong, but I was helpless to comment, floating in my black void.
“Or they fought for the same creature and he won,” the stranger said.
My father sighed. “Dammit, Aisling.” The words were angry, but his tone was not. His voice was broken. Like maybe the words I love you were burning a hole in his tongue just as they had on mine so many times. “Zip her up. I can’t look at her like this anymore.”
Zip.
Silence.
I floated in the darkness for hours, maybe even days, my mind subdued. I didn’t have any entertainment yet I wasn’t bored. It was like I was frozen in this moment and fully content with it. Only when a golden glowing sun appeared on the horizon did I feel my mind become fully alert. I began to get memories and thoughts. I remembered being in The Wilds and watching Kohen fight a dragon, I remembered the firebird.
Liana.
My heart hammered in my chest as if I were suddenly thawing from a long winter’s sleep, like a bear about to leave hibernation. Panic rushed through me as my mental faculties became sharper.
Where was I?
I… died. My father and Elaine, I heard their voices but… the sun lifted higher in the sky and I began to grow warmer.
Be strong, Aisling. For the both of us. Liana’s words came back to me as the sun suddenly wasn’t a sun but a ball of fire. And I was no longer floating in darkness but on top of Liana’s back. Her wings flapped madly as she turned in the opposite direction of the fire and tried to get us away from its flames. Was she there the whole time? Carrying me on her back?
The flames licked across the sky like lightning and I instinctively pulled my sword with one hand and gripped the feathers on her back with my other. Standing atop her shoulders, I turned around, rocking to keep my balance, and held the sword out to fight off any danger.
“What’s happening?” I asked her. There were no mountains below us, only clouds, as if we were above the world I knew and loved, in a different place I couldn’t explain.
‘You have to be strong. I will survive but you might not. Others haven’t. Fight, Aisling. Fight!’ Liana said.
“Fight what?” I yelled, terrified as the now wall of fire rushed towards us.
Then, like magic, Liana disappeared, beneath me one second and gone the next, and instead of falling I was consumed by the wall of fire.
With her wisdom in my head, I slashed out like mad as the fire tried to consume me. It was like a living beast with arms and tails of flame and eyes of smoke. It tried to suffocate me, but I hacked and cut as its fiery appendages were separated from it and then disappeared. I was sweating, burning; everything hurt and yet this bastard didn’t know that I was too stubborn to die.
“Come on!” I screamed, continuing my slashing, blindingly fast and repetitive. My arms strained from the action, but each time I cut into the fire, it grew smaller. I wanted to give up, I wanted to drop this sword that weighed a thousand pounds and go back to floating in the darkness, but somehow I knew it would not be like that again, that if I died this time it was real. Every time I cut off one of its eyes, or tails, another popped up.
My arms were so heavy, so battle weary, and yet I dug deep down inside of myself for that place that every warrior has, that small pocket of reserve energy.
“You can’t have me!” I screamed to the fire beast, spinning in a full circle with my blade, cutting more and more of it until the heat ceased, and I was suddenly staring at a four-foot ball of fire perched above a cloud.
It had only one eye left, and a few fiery feathers, and I slashed through it with ease. “Just die already!” I commanded.
The fire monster dissolved to nothing then, and I collapsed backward onto the cloud, which somehow supported my weight.
I panted, looking up at the crystal-clear blue sky, and that’s when the cloud ceased to exist and I fell.
I screamed, and the sudden weightlessness caused fresh hot fear to seize me.
Then everything went black.
My eyes flicked open and I gasped, panicked to find that I was still in darkness. I thrashed around, and then heard a strange male voice scream.
“Help me!” I shouted, and then rolled to my side. Bad idea. I was on top of something and fell down, hitting the floor and my right shoulder hard.
I was trapped inside of something, like a sleeping bag…
The sound of an opening zipper pulled my attention to the top of the bag as light splintered into the space and I stared into the horrified expression of an older man with wide eyes and shaky fingers.
