Blood of the King - Khirro's Journey Book 1 Page 0,58
the sword belt Khirro offered and buckled it around his waist. He stretched his back and wiped dirt from the seat of his pants. “I’m also swift. I’ll be back sooner than you think.”
“You saved me once. We’re even now.” Khirro offered his hand and Shyn shook it. “I’ll understand if you don’t come back, you have no reason to. But don’t return with soldiers or without horses. I can’t stop Ghaul from fulfilling his promise.”
“I’ll return as promised. I don’t know why, but I feel like I’m meant to join your journey.” He shook his head minutely. “Gods know why.”
Shyn bent at the waist, tucked his fingers into the top of his boot and retrieved a thin-bladed stiletto from some secret compartment within.
“Take this,” he said offering it to Khirro. “Hide it somewhere near the vial. Just in case.”
Khirro took the small knife and slid it into his breast pocket beside the vial, the steel clinking quietly against the glass, then Shyn went into the forest, picking his way deftly through the underbrush. After a minute, he disappeared into the dense brush.
“Fear not, Khirro.” Athryn’s voice was a whisper meant only for them. “Maes says he can be trusted.”
Khirro looked at the magician and the confusion his words caused must have been plain on his face because Athryn answered the question running through his mind before he asked it.
“Maes may not speak, but he knows people. Worry not.”
Athryn left to help his brother pick berries, leaving Khirro staring after Shyn. Behind him, Elyea joined Ghaul in breaking camp. After a minute, he went to help and everything was soon packed.
They walked through the forest, the scrape of boots on ground, the clink of armor and weapons and the rustle of brush the only sound to mark their passing. Maes popped red berries into his mouth as he walked, occasionally offering them to his companions. Khirro accepted and found the berries juicy and sour with an unfamiliar but satisfying flavor. He wiped a line of juice from his chin as his mind wandered. He thought about Athryn and Maes and the nature of their relationship: brothers, but somehow more. Concern for Ghaul’s propensity for violence came to mind. He had been a soldier his entire life, Khirro reasoned, so he supposed it was simply a matter of training, but it went against Khirro’s way.
Perhaps that’s why we’ve been brought together.
They tempered one another—he made Ghaul more humane and Ghaul made him see things from a soldier’s point of view; a good team despite and because of their differences. Without Ghaul, he wouldn’t have made it even this far.
He glanced at Elyea walking ahead, hips swaying pleasingly. So beautiful, so confident. Embarrassed, Khirro quickly put the encroaching thoughts from his head and thought of Shyn instead, wondering if they should trust him, if he would return as promised. The memory of the dream tyger’s words made him feel only slightly more comfortable.
Am I insane to take comfort from the words of a dream?
He didn’t think so, but wouldn’t tell the others, anyway. As he pondered the most recent dream, the screech of a bird overhead caught his attention. Through the tree branches, he glimpsed a gray falcon soaring high above. It circled over them, giving Khirro an opportunity to marvel at its size. His lips parted to tell the others, but it streaked off north-west at an incredible speed. His mouth remained open as he watched it disappear in the distance. It was the bird of prey from his dream.
A shiver ran down Khirro’s spine.
Chapter Twenty
Rain began the day after they released Shyn.
When clouds first gathered, they praised the Gods. As the first droplets fell—gentle to start, then gaining in tempo and force—they raised their faces skyward and let the rain wash weeks of sticky heat from their skin. Athryn removed his white cloth mask to feel the refreshing moisture pelt his scarred face. Elyea stole away into the forest on her own. When more than a few minutes passed, Khirro followed, worried for her safety, and came upon her dancing naked in a glade, water streaming from her strawberry hair in rivulets down her back and between her breasts. He watched for a while, enraptured, feeling something more than the embarrassment he’d felt when he first saw her unclothed. This time, when their eyes met, he didn’t avert his gaze and she didn’t attempt to hide herself. He enjoyed her beauty a moment before he left. She emerged from the