Madness of the Horde King - Zoey Draven Page 0,124

would buy me more time.”

I wanted that time. To see him again. To see my family.

“Neffar? Time?”

“Nothing,” I whispered. My belly began to churn but I knew I had nothing to throw up. I closed my eyes, though even the darkness swam behind my lids. “Sorry, I didn’t mean that. Of course I hope they do not come.”

“Nik, what did you mean?”

There was an edge in his tone, one that made me open my eyes to look at him.

“Ghertun sometimes have vovic on them,” I told him. “If not the extracted poison, then the herb that they use to make it.”

The pujerak stilled and I could see the way his eyes flickered, as if he was deep in thought.

“Why would they carry that on them?” he rasped.

“The Ghertun smoke it. It’s a drug to them. It relaxes them. But when it is crushed, and heated, and the oil is pressed from it, that is vovic. Some Ghertun carry a vial, if they have slaves.”

The pujerak stood from the edge of the bed suddenly. “Vok.”

My lips parted. I whispered, “What?”

“The…the scouting party. The ones we hunted down and killed. Not far from here. There were five of them. One of them might’ve had it.”

I blew out a breath, shaking my head. “Yes, but the Vorakkar said he burned their bodies. It wouldn’t have survived fire.”

The pujerak’s breaths came fast.

“He ordered me to burn them, kalles.”

I frowned at his tone, something about it making me try to push up from the furs. “What are you saying?”

“The Vorakkar was angry when he ordered me to do that. I—I did not burn them. Kakkari would’ve been angered if we had,” he told me, his gaze finding mine.

“Then what did you do with the bodies?” I gasped out, hope beginning to rise in my breast.

“I buried them.”

I swallowed, feeling a wave of pain rise steadily with my increased heartbeat. I needed to calm down.

“They might’ve had a dose on them,” I hissed, realization striking me.

The pujerak looked at me with a widened gaze.

“Vok.”

“Where are they buried?”

Davik’s pujerak returned to the hushed quiet of the voliki not an hour later.

A thin sheen of sweat dotted his face and his exposed arms. Streaks of dirt and earth covered his chest and hands. His breathing was rough and rapid, as if he hadn’t had a moment of rest since he’d sprinted from the voliki.

My jaw was gritted with pain when he arrived, my abdomen burning, my belly churning with acid. I swore that I felt Devina’s presence in the room but when I tried to use my power to seek her out, I found that I couldn’t focus enough to gather the energy.

The hope I felt when the pujerak strode to my side had the ability to break me. It was a sharp prick in my chest that could turn into a blade sinking deep if he hadn’t found a drop of vovic.

He held something up in front of me.

It was a vial, covered in dirt and dried Ghertun blood...and other things I didn’t want to identify.

The sob that tore from my throat filled the voliki. The pujerak’s lips pressed tight, he inclined his head, and then unstoppered the vial.

All this time, I thought, incredulous, scarcely able to believe it.

It was a tiny amount but it was all I would need to buy time. The pujerak helped lift my head though his touch on my flesh made me want to scream.

I felt the cool touch of the vial on my lips. I smelled that bitter, familiar liquid, pungent and stinging in my nostrils.

The vovic coated my tongue, making me want to gag, but I swallowed it all, knowing that the more I consumed, the faster it would work.

I felt the poison slide down my throat and into my belly where it burned. I held my breath and saw the pujerak step away from the furs, watching me almost warily.

It took almost another hour but slowly, I felt the pain begin to leak away. Something was unknotting within me, loosening and unraveling. I felt it leave my limbs, that aching tightness. I felt a pressure ease off my lungs and I gasped, inhaling a deep, full breath for the first time in days. Even my bones seemed to strengthen, no longer feeling like they were on the verge of snapping at the slightest touch.

“Is it working?” the pujerak asked quietly.

“Yes,” I murmured.

I held my breath, a part of me fearing that it was too late. That the pain would