THIS TIME THE VISION FELT DIFFERENT as if she were no longer part of a dream. Her surroundings were blurry, and she couldn't make out exactly where she was. All he could see was yellow, orange, and red as if she were in the middle of the sun itself.
"Who are you, and why do you come here?" said a grave, raspy voice. It came from nowhere and everywhere at the same time.
Somehow, she knew the voice was speaking to her.
"I am Scarlett of the Karai," she replied. Her voice came out stronger than she thought it would.
"No, you are not," said the voice.
"Why do you come here?
"I wish to be a Karaina," replied Scarlett, unsure of what she was supposed to answer.
"No, you do not."
"Yes I do," said Scarlett, without thinking.
Who was this voice who told her everything she was saying was a lie?
"The path you seek is not the one you must tread. But for now, you must pave your own way. We will meet again," said the voice.
Last year, two trainees who had succeeded in completing all the trials had been rejected by the rheas. Scarlett had never seen the girls again, but Mimbi told her that one of them became a starwatcher. Everyone said there was no shame in being rejected by a rhea, that they had their ways and they knew best. But it said something of you if the birds didn’t want you. That there was something soft or weak in you that the rheas couldn’t ignore, and made them silently tell you that you were not enough to become a warrior.The High Chieftess appeared on her black and grey rhea, which looked battle-worn and tough like its rider. A thick scar fell from its forehead to its beak. The bird moved with long and elegant strides, and behind it, at least twenty rheas followed. They moved in unison, like a small cloud of black, grey, and white feathers.Scarlett had read of ancient times where men and women would be introduced to each other in formal, structured gathe
Dawn was not far away by the time Scarlett and Mimbi were done. A dull headache was settling into Scarlett’s head, but the room around her kept spinning. Mimbi, on the other hand, was fast asleep beside her. How had they ended up like this? After the last trial, the rheas were all taken to be fitted for mounts. Scarlett hadn’t wanted to say goodbye to Sunu so soon after she had picker her, but everyone was anxious to get the celebrations started, even the rhea breeders. She had no words to describe the gratitude she felt towards the bird. Sunu had picker her, and not the other way around. After saying goodbye to Sunu, Scarlett had quickly taken a bath in the pools and then went to join the fun. Then she vaguely remembered talking to Pakuri after drinking too much ale, Mimbi showing up and interrupting them, and then… Somehow it started with a kiss, which later led them to run to the barracks and lock the door behind them. None of them
It was a scream for help.Scarlett struggled to get up, almost forgetting to put on the dress she had tossed at the side of the stream. While the slope had been easy to descend, the way up wasn't nearly as smooth. When she reached the top, she realized that something was very, very wrong.There was smoke coming from the general direction of the plaza, and more and more screams filled the air.Scarlett ran towards the barracks, bursting into the room where she and Mimbi had been just an hour or so ago. It was empty. The weapons rack was also empty, which meant Mimbi had gone off with them, just moments before Scarlett arrived.Was the village under attack?She realized that she had no idea where she had left her sword and that her armor was probably still being cleaned near the pools where she had undressed to bathe last night. Navigating the village's corridors, she ran as fast as her tired body could carry her. All traces of her hangover had vanis
By the time Scarlett made her way out of the village and across the stream, Pakuri and Voty had rescued over forty girls and one boy who had been visiting his mother. She had searched for other kids as she rode through the village, but it seemed that most of them had run away with their mothers or sisters.Voty was desperately trying to calm the infants, who were terrified, sleepy, and hungry. Pakuri looked like she wanted to murder them all."Do you know where we're regrouping?" Voty said, holding a fat blonde baby in her arms. She kept thrashing and hitting her."We have to go find help. I don't think we can resist the Hova for much longer. There… were a lot of casualties in the meadow near the arena," Scarlett said, trying to hold it together. She feared that if she started crying, the scared-looking kids would all start wailing. Luckily, a few of them seemed to have no idea what was going on, and they were just excited to be taking a trip to the
Not a man.A Hova.Several things happened at the same time. Pakuri hurled a fireball at the Hova before he started coming down the slopes, and Voty and Scarlett tried to usher the kids into the forest. But it was impossible to move them as a single group, and the little girls ran in all directions.Voty called out to them, grabbing some while at mid-run, yelling at them to follow the group.Scarlett left Voty to deal with the children and went back to see what was going on with Pakuri and the Hova. Pakuri wasn’t the only one fighting him. A group of human soldiers was after him, and instead of fighting back, the Hova ran down the shallow stream and its winding path. The soldiers, clad in gold and silver heavy armor, had trouble following him down the slope, but they continued after the Hova down until Scarlett could no longer see them.Pakuri was seething, looking just as hos
"Then we have to leave now,” Scarlett said. "It won’t take them more than two or three days to get there, and once they cross, we will never be able to find them again.”As she turned to leave, Luca grabbed her by the arm.“Wait. You can’t go alone. Wait until the women have mourned their dead and regroup. Talk to your friends. Maybe we can help you, too,” he said.“I think you’ve done enough for us. Under normal circumstances, we can take care of our own,” Scarlett said, analyzing Luca’s face.She could tell he was being sincere about wanting to help. And there was truth to his words. Tomorrow they’d figure out how to get the girls back. If she went alone, she'd probably get captured along with the rest of the girls.Voty returned with the kids who had run out into the forest about an hour later. Their mothers and family members were so grateful to see the young ones return, that th
THE MEETING OF THE SURVIVING KARAINAS WAS NOT GOING WELL. At all. At first, Scarlett thought everyone was in an even worse mood because they still hadn’t eaten anything. That, besides the fact that everyone had lost someone they loved the day before, would be reason enough for the women to be at each other’s throats.However, a few minutes into the meeting, Scarlett was beginning to understand that not everything had been running smoothly even before the attack.A group of about fifteen Karainas was saying that they had been unhappy with Grina’s decision to keep them away from the fighting going on in the nearby kingdoms. That their influence had waned over the years because the High Chieftess refused to let them intervene until it was inevitable. And that that had given the Hova the confidence to strike the way they did the night before.The other women defended the High Chieftess’ decision, saying that she made that decision in our best
“He’s probably saying that just to save his life. I say we burn his head off and be done with it,” a Karaina said, taking a step towards the prince. Her hands were glowing as if she were getting ready to strike.Scarlett stood immobile near the door. There was no credible way that the prince of the Hova himself was here, captured by the Karainas, was it?“What was your great grandfather’s second name?” Wenna said all of sudden.The two men from the golden company looked at each other in disbelief. They were clearly perplexed as to what Matron Wenna was doing.“Ah, you’re a smart one,” said the Hova. “No one but a member of my family would know that. My father tried to erase it from most history books, but alas, I see some of them slipped through his sneaky fingers.”“Speak, Hova. Or you burn,” Wenna said, raising her hand.“Ok, ok! His second name was Assbot,
Mimbi woke up from the best sleep she had had in a while. She had lain down on the bed after eating the food Lord Galax had gotten her and pretty much passed out, waking up freezing in the middle of the night and crawling under the covers in a daze.It had been such a long time since she had slept on a real bed, with sheets and a soft and fluffy pillow. Somehow, feeling so good made her miss Scarlett and her mother even more. It reminded her of the times when she'd wake up to the smell of food downstairs, and Scarlett and Grina would be arguing about something silly.The sun was barely peeking out from behind the mountains, and she really wished she could go back to sleep. She couldn't remember what she had been dreaming about, but it had been a good dream. And anything was better than her reality now.On the other hand, she was really curious as to why Lord Galax wanted her here. Something was off, not only about the fact that he whisked her a
"We have to stop them," Scarlett said, more to herself than to anyone. She turned, looking at the ground she had stepped on. Every step she took had left a solid piece of glass on the dirt."See, now maybe you'll be good for something," Pakuri said to her in a mocking voice, walking up to her.Voty soon joined them, still holding out her wounded hand. The two kept their distance from Scarlett, but at least they weren't looking at her with fear or hatred. Marcellus stopped next to her, looking out towards the hills."Voty, I'm so sorry. I didn't know... I have no idea what is going on to my body," Scarlett pleaded. "I...""We'll worry about this later. Right now we have to help Luca." Voty smiled at her in her customary sweetly manner."Where are my swords?" Scarlett said."Here's one," Marcellus said picking the Hova sword up from the ground and handing it to Scarlett. It was stained with blood."Whose...""Yo
Scarlett didn't know where she was, but she felt the freezing air swirling around her. She tried to remember what had happened to her, but her mind was blank. Had she fallen asleep? Would she be late for training? No, this couldn't be Karai. It was never this cold here. She tried to move but her limbs didn't respond. Was she dead? She felt her mind begin to recede as if lulling her to sleep, and sleep sounded like a good idea right now. It would be easy, letting go. But just as her mind began to shut down, her field of vision was flooded by a white, blinding light. And she felt... something. As if someone had placed a warm fire next to her or taken her body out to the sun. She smelled something delicious, like sweet nectar. Then she tasted it, and the warm liquid passed through her throat, filling her stomach. One by one the feeling came back to her body. There was solid ground beneath her, and she moved her tongue. The nectar flowed from whatever her lips were holdi
"The inn! It was the inn!" someone cried out as Marcellus grabbed his head. The explosion had sent him flying towards a lamp post. He stood and turned to see where Scarlett had landed, only to see that she wasn't close by. She wasn't anywhere in the street. "Scarlett!" he cried out, lifting a wooden sign to search under the pile on which it stood. This girl was going to drive him insane. They hadn't even left Arandana, and she was already missing. His eyes widened when he saw the house she had thrown up in. There used to be a two-story building next to it, and now there was only one enormous pile of steaming debris in that same place. No, no, no. She couldn't go dying on him yet. He ran to the pile and began to climb, searching for the general spot where he had left her. "Scarlett!" he yelled. "Can you hear me?" "Hova!" someone cried out, and Marcellus ducked just in time to dodge an arrow coming his way. A middle-a
Luca couldn't help but think of Scarlett as the procession slowly advanced towards Hovern's field. The place wasn't a field, really, but rather a garden, where Queen Edda had opened up a conservatory and a museum. That was one of the first things she had done when she took the crown, turning the place into a beautiful place where people could gather to learn about plants and Arandana's history. She was fond of saying that she'd live there if she could, but one of the agreements the council put in place ages ago was that the monarch of Arandana had to reside in the castle. At least, now in dead, that was where she was going to be laid to rest. Most of the Arandanians stood silently at the side of the road, but some were shedding tears and not holding back their sadness. Most of them had arun lillies in their hands. Yes, Queen Edda had been good to them. Luca knew of so many kings and queens who used their citizens as cash cows, taking more
"What... what is that?" Voty said, stammering and sneezing almost at the same time.No one felt the need to answer her question because just as she asked it, hundreds of horses ran out of the smoking ruins in line, heading east. The black and silver flags they carried told them who they were.The Hova."We have to go back and evacuate the city," Xander said, already turning back his horse."What about the people there?" Scarlett made Sunu step in front of him. "Send Frank or the other soldiers. We have to go see if there are any survivors."Prince Marcellus only watched the scene below them with a frown."Why don't you make your prince go stop them? Get out of the way," Xander said to Scarlett.Without saying a word, Marcellus made his horse gallop straight towards the village on fire. Pakuri followed him in her rhea, and so did Voty.The soldiers all began to turn their horses back, and Scarlett wished she could hu
Scarlett met with Voty, Pakuri, and Marcellus in the stables, where Sunu and the other rheas had been staying. The birds looked ecstatic to see the girls again, pecking at their human companions affectionately. Luca hadn't been in the room when she woke up, and she didn't think there was more they could say to each other, so she hadn't gone looking for him either. It was a dismal day; grey and foggy as if the sky itself was mourning Queen Edda. When she met up with the girls, they informed her that the funeral procession was already underway, so it would have been impossible to find Luca, anyway. "I missed you," Scarlett said to Sunu, brushing her white feathers with her palm, and the bird dug her beak into Scarlett's stomach. "They're not a very talkative bunch," Marcellus said all of a sudden, joining the girls on a black horse. He cocked his head to the right, where four of Luca's soldiers sat on their mounts. One of them mo
The previous interruption from the other day seemed to have incited Luca to not take any chances this time. A split second after kissing Scarlett, he was already taking off her clothes as she backed up towards the bed, fumbling with his buckles.He sat her down on the bed and kept kissing her as his fingers moved towards her thighs and then inside of her, caressing her softly and then with more intensity.Scarlett couldn't think of anything but the pleasure he was giving her. Then he abruptly stood and finished the job she had started, taking off his clothes and tossing them behind him.A long while later, they fell asleep in each other's arms, exhausted and sweaty.Scarlett woke up when the sun was beginning to come out, only to feel his hardness close to her back. She turned and climbed on top of him, waking him up."You're insatiable, Karaina," he said to her teasingly, slowly opening his eyes."Well, something told
The second Lord Galax had left, Mimbi's legs buckled under her, sending waves of pain through her body. She accidentally knocked the table she was holding onto, sending a white vase rolling across the room. It was sheer luck that it happened to roll over the think patterned carpet, or else it would have shattered.She heard quick footsteps running over."Oh, dear! Are you all right, miss?" Lorna stopped when she saw Mimbi on the floor and then ran to her, immediately grabbing her under her arms and helping her stand."Yes, thank you," Mimbi said, but she wouldn't be able to stand for much longer, let alone climb the stairs without feeling excruciating pain."You're freezing," Lorna said once she pulled away from Mimbi.A second later, Mimbi's legs began to shake again, threatening to drop her again."Oh dear, something is really wrong. Can you stand at all?" Lorna said, putting one of Mimbi's arms over her shoulder. "Let me help