Forn looks at me with sadness, then takes my left, empty hand and places it against his jugular.
“This is a kill,” he says softly.
Then he pulls my hand down to his heart. I feel it beating and I hope desperately that it will still beat by sundown. “This is a kill.”
Next he pulls my hand down to his armpit. From my nursing studies, I know that he’s touching my fingers to the axillary artery, deep in the armpit. The Orb Blade can cut through any tough muscular tissue without needing any force, and even I will be able to take down an Aurelian with it.
“This is a kill,” he repeats, staring in my eyes so he knows that I understand.
I shudder as he brings my hand down to his femoral artery. I’m now touching such an intimate part of him, and I hate the idea of his blood being spilled. My eyes grow wet, but I know that he’s not seducing me, but teaching me exactly where to strike the huge Aurelian fish-eaters if they “win” me in combat.
“This is a kill – a quick kill. Do you understand?” Forn’s voice is a low, pained rumble. I know that he’s filled with grief at the thought of losing the battle and forcing me into such a dangerous situation.
“I understand,” I answer in a whisper.
I can already picture the evil triad trying to force themselves on me, and what I’d have to do to defend myself. There are two directions this day could go in: Tragedy or victory. If even one of my triad is slain, there’ll be a hole in my heart for the rest of my days.
“Where? Where will you fight?”
Forn clenches his teeth. There’s something inhuman about him when he thinks of battle. I can see in his green eyes that some part of him is actually eager for the bloodshed.
“In the ancestral battle grounds,” he growls, and turns away from me. I’m left clutching the Orb-Dagger as he returns to his sparring.
19
Darok We are going to die today.
I dodge Forn’s punch, and give him a light strike to punish his mistake.
Yet we can practice all we want, but there’ll be no hope without weapons. The three fish-eating Aurelians are each a hundred years older than us, and they have specialized in grappling and unarmed combat for decades. There’s little chance that any of us will survive the battle.
And yet, we must fight. There’s no other way to keep Tammy for ourselves. If we refuse the challenge, she’ll be taken from us. There’s no fated bond between us – at least not officially. There’s no seal of approval from our Orb-God. We didn’t earn our mate by the rules of our tribe, even though we faced near certain death in our escape from that burnt city.
These last hours of training will not make the difference in the battle.
“I must spend my hours with her,” I telepath to my triad. They focus on fighting each other as I walk to Tammy.
She looks at me with those big, beautiful eyes, filled with pride for me. She has no idea what we’re up against. She has no idea how little chance we have to survive.
“Tammy, come with me. I want to show you a place from my childhood.”
She smiles, and it breaks my heart to know that I might never see her lips turned up into a smile again after today. I hold out my hand, and she deactivates Forn’s dagger and tucks it into her belt before she wraps her fingers around mine.
We walk back to the jungle. I’m always on alert for predatory jungle cats that might try to ambush me. Most know better than to test an Aurelian, but you never know when one of the giant cats might be so hungry that it will risk anything for a meal. I never knew hunger like that until I met Tammy. I’d do anything for a taste of her. She is in my thoughts constantly. When before, I’d thought that life was a war – now I understand that it can be beautiful.
I walk with her to a nearby stream and waterfall. I feel a deep connection to this place. My lineage traces back to our greatest warriors, the triad that defeated a huge demonic beast that hunted my species for millennium. Legend says that they lived in this place.
I climb up the small cliffside and help Tammy up, and we sit at the top of the waterfall. The heat of the day is increasing and as my heart beats I can feel time flowing away from me. These might be my last moments alone with her.
There is a sadness to this moment, and yet I’d not spend it any other way. I wrap my arm around Tammy, wordlessly holding her close. Even before we could understand each other’s words, I felt as though she understood me in a way that even my triad, who share my mind and know my aura, did not.
I look over at her. Her sun-kissed hair sparkles in the morning sunlight. Her eyes are an even more brilliant blue than the waters below, and I swear that I thirst for them more than I need water.
20
Tammy
Darok looks in my eyes with such deep sorrow that I finally understand what’s going to happen. I can see in his eyes what I couldn’t in the eyes of the other two. He does expect to survive this day. While Forn and Hadone are confident – bordering on foolhardy – I know that Darok is the most realistic of the three Aurelians.
It is he who has always had the most sober understanding of what the future will bring. I see myself reflected in his eyes, and I know that the girl that I see in them is not the same as the one he sees. He has some strange, primal love for me – a connection with me
