“You’re hiding a wonderful secret, aren’t you?” she continued, petting Jaysen as if he were a creature kept in her pocket. He wormed away from her, reaching out to find Tanis. Were she in the room with him, Madhavi would not have been allowed to get so close. Tanis was very protective of her audaen. “Who is that beautiful boy with the wings, my lamb?”
Jaysen’s stomach clenched tight. Kaleo was his secret, his friend, his brother. They’d grown together, learned together. He never questioned much and simply accepted Jaysen for who - and what - he was. He would not put Kaleo at risk.
“How should I know?” Jaysen answered, crawling away from Madhavi to a different part of the room. It was not his room. None of the furnishings were in the right place and there were too many rugs on the ground. “You’re the one snatching random people out of the Fields. You should train your monsters to hunt more carefully. I don’t like being a chew toy.”
Madhavi chortled. Jaysen heard the sound of her boots again as she moved around the room, though she maintained her distance from him this time.
“He’s Powerful,” she continued as if Jaysen had not said a word. “And he seems to care a great deal about what happens to you, my lamb.”
Jaysen’s mouth went dry. He had no answer this time, no witty retort that would keep Kaleo safe. Instead, he was saved by the opening of a door. Or, rather, the slam of a door against the wall.
“Gods, why are you here?” Xandrix said with so much disgust in his voice it was nearly tangible. He did not like Madhavi, though the reasoning for it was not known to Jaysen. Given how he felt about her, it was not hard to imagine why the Corrupted hunter would hate the dragon-born woman.
“Checking on my protégé,” she cooed. Xandrix sniffed. “Why are you here, hunter? Don’t you have a job to do?”
“Yes,” he replied, walking over to where Jaysen crouched. “Collecting him before you put him in more peril.”
He said nothing more, grabbing Jaysen by the upper arm until the young olve could stand upright without being dragged. Jaysen did not argue or fight, not this time. Any excuse to be away from Madhavi was an excuse he would take. He waited, maintaining silence as he was guided through the manse to his own quarters.
Tanis was there. He knew it as soon as they walked in. She whimpered at him, eking her way to his bare feet and licking his toes. Only then did Xandrix let Jaysen go, shutting the door so they could speak in private.
“What happened?” the hunter asked. “Daemodan is in a mood over you.”
“Ask Madhavi,” Jaysen replied. He felt weak, tired, and ravenous. “She’s the one hunting the dream world. Her pets don’t know their heads from their tails. They hunt anything with Power. What are you doing here? Don’t you have Vessels to hunt down?”
“No,” he said. Jaysen heard him moving about, things opening and closing. “We do. The Corruption worked - mostly. He won’t speak, but he lived and so did his creature. Daemodan wants the Kormandi king.”
“Good luck with that,” Jaysen replied, making his way over to the bed. Tanis followed, settling beside him so he could pet the top of her head.
“You’re coming with me,” Xandrix said firmly. He grabbed Jaysen again, pulling him up to a sitting position. This time, Jaysen growled at the man,
wrenching away from the Corrupted hunter. He did not like being manhandled. An armful of cloth was shoved into Jaysen’s arms by way of response, making him grunt and narrow his sightless eyes in annoyance. He did not like hunting. He needed to get back to Yira’s Realm anyway, to leave a warning for Kaleo to stay away lest Madhavi find him. Xandrix persisted, however. “Don’t make me dress you. I’ll hand you back to the bitch if you’d rather.”
“Pass,” Jaysen grumbled. “I can’t Travel. I’m useless to you.”
He did not have the energy to traverse the nation by magical means. Even if he was not the one casting the spell, Travel was hard on the mind and body for anyone. The Corruption weakened him more than he cared to admit. He did not understand why that happened yet - no one did. It had happened when Roth was created as well, though he was not nearly as ill now as he was then. He thought he might die then.
“Then we’ll ride. I want to be gone before Daemodan gets into another mood. I’ve already been saddled with two of you, I don’t need to add a third.”
“Two of us?”
“Roth is going with us,” Xandrix said just before the door burst open again. Jaysen was almost glad he was blind, groaning loudly and falling face first into his pillow.
“ROAD TRIP!” the Corrupted Speaker squealed in giddy delight. “May we stop for infants on the way? I fear I may need a snack. Oh! Jaysen’s awake! Hello, Moppet! Did you miss me?”
Jaysen wanted to hang himself.
Chapter Eight
The sounds that echoed around the confused bard were not the sounds he expected to hear. Rather than the lapping waves or squawking gulls, he heard the muted murmurs of conversation and a distinct ting-ting- ting of a hammer striking anvil. He dared to open his eyes, rolling onto his side with a groan from a sore back. He’d been abed too long, though how long that might be was beyond him. Reven felt the stiffness of his muscles, the creak of joints protesting against movement.
