From the other side of the voliki, Lokkaru sighed, “Finally, he has been conquered. Now you must nourish him.”
Before I could question her words, she turned around, her movement slow, shaky, but determined.
“Now, shall we go steal those kuveri?”
Chapter Twenty-Two
Hedna’s stare was discomforting. The set of my pujerak’s jaw told me he was deep in thought.
It was just us on the training grounds. I sat with my back to the fence, cleaning his blood off my sword where it had cut him during sparring. The night was growing darker and darker. When I tipped my face back, I saw the moon, filling more each night.
Nothing had come from Dothik, no word from the Vorakkar of Rath Tuviri about his research into the heartstone at the archives. I had sent word through the sole thesper I kept among my horde. The winged creature had set off towards the city early this morning and would arrive soon, I imagined. If the winds were in their favor, thesper could travel at incredible speeds.
“And the kalles?” Hedna asked me. I had told him everything that had transpired in Dothik, our first moment alone after our sparring session, one I’d desperately needed. Well, I hadn’t told him everything. “Do you think she can be trusted?”
I thought back to last night.
Davik!
My name rang like an echo in my mind. I hadn’t heard it since…
I growled, turning my mind immediately away from that memory. Not even Hedna knew my given name. No one alive did…except for her.
“I intend to find out,” I told him.
“How?”
All I did was give him a grin that flashed my teeth in the moonlight.
He sighed, shaking his head. “I suppose I should be gladdened that you have finally taken an interest in a female.”
My hand paused in the cleaning of my sword.
“I have taken interest in females before.”
“For mating, lysi. This…this is different.”
His words made me uncomfortable. I stood from the ground, sheathing my sword.
“You seem calmer,” he noted. I braced myself for his next question. “Have you had any...occurrences?”
Not since before Dothik. Not since her. I wondered if her power had anything to do with that.
“Tell me, pujerak,” I said, changing the subject, “what you think of war with the Ghertun? Now that I have told you all that happened in Dothik?”
He let his question slide. Crossing his arms over his chest, his eyes raked over the encampment. Our horde had grown since the cold season. Three more children had been born and I’d granted the requests of four new families to join us out on the wild lands, two families from Dothik and two families from an outpost who had grown tired of settled life. The urge to roam would always be in a Dakkari’s blood.
“I think the Ghertun will keep pushing their boundaries until we give them reason not to,” Hedna said quietly. “They have terrorized the Killup, the Nrunteng, and the vekkiri. And last year, there were reports of missing Dakkari in the outposts. Given that we now know they keep slaves under the Dead Mountain, I wonder if they were responsible for that.”
Entirely possible.
“The kalles is our best plan. Forget the heartstone, Drokka. You might never find it.”
And yet, even Hedna did not know that Lokkaru had been born because of that heartstone. I had kept her secret these long years because it was not mine to tell.
“We need to use her,” my pujerak murmured, keeping his voice low.
I thought of the warmth in her gaze last night as she sat in my lap by the fire. I thought of the way her breath shuddered from her when I kissed her, the way her hands clutched me close, though she perhaps didn’t realize it.
Unease coiled in my belly.
“She needs to believe that she will get the heartstone,” I told him. “That is the only way she will ever trust us.”
“And in the meantime?”
I had been thinking about that. The Vorakkar in me told Hedna, “We learn everything we can about the Dead Mountain and its king. Then we send her back. Use her as a distraction, make Lozza think he will get everything he wants, and use that to our advantage.”
“Then we go to battle,” Hedna finished. “A quick attack when they are unprepared.”
Lysi.
So why did the thought of sending the leikavi back to the Dead Mountain fill me with apprehension when it would soon be under siege?
“Then what are you doing out here with me?” Hedna asked, thumping my back as he passed.