Barbarian King’s Mate by Ivy Sparks
Chapter Twenty-One
Daphne
A sick feelingsank into my guts when I watched Garath leave through the tunnel. I didn’t like him leaving, but this went beyond anything I had ever experienced before. I felt like I might almost rather die myself than be separated from him.
Sure, I heard my share of fairy tales about the prince and the princess living happily ever after. I listened to enough love songs in my young life to know all about undying devotion and aching for the one you love.
This wasn’t like that at all. It was a primal, visceral response that infected my blood. It drained me of the will to live the moment I lost sight of him. No wonder the King went out of his mind when his mate died. This must’ve been what Garath meant when he said he’d be a shell if I went back to the Quest.
I turned back to the healer’s tent. Twenty women worked inside to synthesize the anti-venom cure that I had isolated. I should’ve been happy that something I created gave the Kavians their one chance against their enemies, but I wasn’t. I didn’t think I could ever be happy about anything again until Garath came back… if he came back.
I cast one last look toward the tunnel. It was deserted now. He and all the other hunters were outside. They were on their way to fight the Vorlax, which meant Garath might not come back at all. Maybe none of them would, and the rest of us would be left alone. Then what?
Thinking about that made me want to puke. Everything the clan King did and said, everything he put me through in the last few weeks finally made sense. He must have been living in torment all this time. I didn’t understand then, but I sure did now. I had to experience it for myself to fully comprehend the depth of his agony.
The women chatted and laughed while they worked. None of them noticed me walking between them. I returned to my pile of gear in the corner and sat down on the cushion where I’d been watching over Garath.
With nothing else in the world to do, I rummaged through the collection of stuff, but I couldn’t get interested in any of it. I used to think these things were so important. Now they were relics of a life that meant nothing to me.
I picked up the radio. It might be fixable, but it would probably never get a signal inside Caverncall. I tossed it back on the heap. I didn’t care anymore if I got it going or not. Weeks had passed anyway, so I was sure that the Quest had considered me as good as dead. Friends and colleagues back on Earth might wonder what happened to me, but no one’s world would end if they never found out.
I took out my scanner to check the readings on the Vorlax brain, but not even that could spark my interest. I set it aside and left the tent. I wandered at loose ends. Only women, children, and the elders remained in the village. How did they keep going about their business without their mates? How did they stand it?
I didn’t really know or care where I was going. I didn’t care about anything. What was the point of anything?
All at once, a strange sound snapped me alert. I looked around and found myself outside the tunnel I last saw Garath in. That sound was coming from the exit tunnel. I knew the sound, and I didn’t like it at all.
I flattened my body against the stone wall and peeked around the corner. A faint clicking sound came from the far end. It was barely loud enough to hear, but I could never mistake that sound. I would hear that sound in my nightmares until my dying day.
I couldn’t see the other end of the tunnel in the shadows. I ducked for cover and dared to steal another glimpse, but there was nothing to see. Not in the darkness.
My heart pounded in my chest and I struggled to breathe. The Vorlax couldn’t be here—not here. They couldn’t be. Caverncall remained hidden from them for years. Narrock wouldn’t have taken all the hunters away if he thought for a second the cavern was in danger.
Was it possible the Vorlax found out the hunters were gone? What other conclusion could they draw if they saw so many burly Kavians charging down the mountain? Maybe the Vorlax knew the Kavians were hiding somewhere in this part of the forest? Maybe the Vorlax laid in wait for a situation just like this to find out where the Kavians were hiding.
No. It couldn’t be, but that sound didn’t lie. I passed through that tunnel myself. I wouldn’t be hearing that sound if the Vorlax weren’t right there… right there beyond sight. They might be in the tunnel right now.
I shot away in fright. I shot down the gangway making a beeline for Narrock’s house, but a second later, I collided with Solara, the mate of one of Tennar’s older brothers who I had met a few days ago. She laughed at me. “Watch where you’re going, clumsy!”
I grabbed her with both hands. “Solara! You have to help me. The Vorlax—they’re right outside the tunnel. They’ll be here any second. We have to evacuate the village right now!”
Her jaw dropped. Then she laughed again. “Very funny. You better not let anybody else hear you joking about that or you could…”
“I’m not joking!” I bellowed. “I just heard them! They’re clicking right up there in the tunnel. They might be inside it right now for all I know. We have to get everyone out. We have to round them up and…” I looked around frantically. “We have to get everyone somewhere safe. We have to work fast.”
She hesitated for a second. Then her face went white as a sheet. “You mean it! What are we gonna do? We’re all alone. We don’t even have any weapons.”
“There have to be some weapons in this village somewhere. The hunters couldn’t have taken everything.” I scrambled to come up with a plan. “Get to the healer’s hut. Get any able-bodied person out rounding up the children and elderly. Do you know of a safe place where we can take them?”
Solara looked around without seeing anything. Her eyes darted right and left in panic. Then she stiffened and grimaced. “The river. We can take everyone to the bathing pools. There are caves in the cliffs down there that we can hide in. They’ll have to search the entire village before they get there.”
I nodded. “Do it. Get everyone down there.”
I started away, but she held me back. “What are you going to do, Daphne? Come with us.”
“I’m going to get something to protect us. Now go. I’m counting on you to spread the word. Don’t worry about me. I’ll be right behind you.”
She sprang in the other direction and stopped a group of women walking toward her, saying softly, “Send everybody down to the river. The Vorlax are attacking! Spread the word quietly and tell those you tell to spread the word. We need to do this quickly and quietly. We have no time to waste!”
Immediately I saw the women fan out and find people to tell. Within a couple of minutes, villagers everywhere moved quickly and silently down the catwalks and toward the river below. Children raced away and old people clung to younger adults who helped them down the steps. I had to stand aside and let them through before I could continue on my own mission.
When the gangway was clear, I leaped up the stairs to Narrock’s house. Garath kept a stash of weapons in a chest under his bed. I suspected every other Kavian hunter did the same thing. I was counting on it.
I charged to the bedroom and strained my spine dragging the chest onto the floor. I flung the lid back. Garath had removed some of the topmost weapons that I’d seen there previously, but the rest of it was full to bursting with blades, swords, lances, and arrows.
I selected a bunch of light daggers and blades. Whatever I took had to be small enough for myself and the others to handle easily. I packed them in a nearby sack and bolted for the healer’s tent.
The healer’s assistants had synthesized another five anti-venom bottles. I still didn’t know for certain that it would work as a poison against the Vorlax, but it sure looked like I was about to conduct one whopper of a lab experiment to find out.
I snatched the rope holding the bottles together and ran after telling the assistants to hide in the lower caves. I had to climb down two ladders before I came to the winding stairs that led down to the river. I vaulted down them as quickly as I dared. I couldn’t risk dropping the weapons or the cure.
I made it halfway down the slippery path when I heard it. A high-pitched scream echoed through the cavern. It set my hair on end and I glanced up. I almost lost my lunch right there as hundreds of Vorlax swarmed into the cavern. They scuttled over the walls and streamed onto the scaffold holding up the village. The light from above reflected off their shiny armored exoskeletons.
Stark horror robbed me of all will to go on, but while I stood there staring petrified at the sight, a deafening roar thundered over the Vorlax’s squeals. Another wave of black bodies hurtled from the tunnel. The Vorlax catapulted into the cavern, with an army of Kavian warriors right behind them.
I couldn’t see Garath in the mayhem, but the sight electrified me as never before. I was his mate. I was the mate of a warrior king, and I needed to act like it. I plummeted down the steep path to the bathing pool. I didn’t see anyone around, but I saw hundreds of footprints in the moist soil.
Around a corner, out of sight, I found most of the Kavian villagers huddled in a cave behind the waterfall. The old people and children cowered in the back, with Solara and a dozen women at the front forming a shield.
“Daphne!” Solara squeaked. “That sound…”
“The Vorlax are in the cavern, but our warriors are up there fighting them. We have to stand fast.” I shoved the weapons into their hands. “Take these. We have to stand our ground. If the Vorlax make it this far, we’re the only ones who will be able to stop them.” I handed the bottles around. “Pour this on your blades. If we get lucky, it will poison the Vorlax, but we’ll have to stab it into them. Understand?”
The women blinked at me in terror. Only Solara nodded. I took a short blade for myself and slathered the cure on its tip. Then I turned to the entrance and braced myself for what might come.
