Barbarian King’s Mate by Ivy Sparks

Chapter Twenty-Two

Garath

I chargedout of the tunnel to see thousands of Vorlax flooding the cavern. The sight sent me into a blood rage unlike anything I ever experienced. Daphne. Daphne was somewhere in there. These vermin were putting her in danger. I would kill them for that. I would kill them all.

I took a running leap off the ledge and launched into the swarm. I landed astride one of them and stabbed my blade into its thorax. The Vorlax collapsed under me and instantly started to smoke. Some kind of acid ate through its exoskeleton and dissolved the creature with me still on it.

The caustic reaction almost burned me too, but I sprang off and hit another Vorlax. Without thinking, I plunged my dagger into it, but I was nowhere near any vital organs. A strike like that shouldn’t have caused any damage at all, but the same thing happened. The armor melted, and the thing collapsed.

The first one I stabbed imploded as the reaction dissolved the whole Vorlax in seconds. All over the cavern, the other Kavian hunters were coming to the same conclusion. The cure—it worked! It poisoned the Vorlax. It killed them instantly.

High on the ledge, Nissaya and the other archers showered poison-tipped arrows on the enemy. They mowed them down by the hundreds, but more Vorlax were already inside. They scurried through the village, entered houses, and poured through the windows and doors, searching for anyone left behind.

Daphne. Where was she? I had to find her. I had to protect her at all costs. If anything happened to her…

I barreled into the village, stabbing any Vorlax that got in my way. I left them fizzing and bubbling in puddles of melted exoskeleton, but I still didn’t see Daphne. In fact, I didn’t see anyone. Was everyone already dead? Not again. It couldn’t happen again. I couldn’t bear that.

I ran from one platform to the next walkway, down stairs, and around corners. Nothing. Not a single person remained in the village, but I didn’t see any bodies, either. Where was everyone?

I veered around the deep freeze and ran into Tennar standing side by side with the skilled hunter, Kovo. “Where are they?” Kovo roared. “I can’t find Solara anywhere”

“There! Look!” Tennar’s arm shot out and he pointed down the cavern toward the river.

Through clouds of spray and rainbows, we could clearly make out a cluster of Vorlax all going in that direction. They circled the bathing pools and vanished behind the falls.

“The caves!” Kovo yelled.

All three of us rocketed forward, but climbing all that way down would take too long. Without a moment’s hesitation, I sprang over the nearest railing and dropped a hundred feet to the next platform. The wood cracked beneath my feet, but softened my landing.

My next jump carried me to the grass. Tennar and Kovo landed next to me, and we raced behind the falls. So many Vorlax blocked the cave entrance that I couldn’t see beyond their black bodies. They climbed on top of each other in their scramble to get inside.

A piercing shriek came from the depths—no, wait, it was more than one. It spiked to a howling scream, but it didn’t sound like anyone dying or in pain. It sounded like some wild animal flying into a murderous fury. Daphne. Daphne was in there.

I lunged into the mix, stabbing, slashing, and hacking the Vorlax limb from limb. I cleaved them in pieces and left them sprawling on either side. Tennar and Kovo attacked at the same time.

One body at a time, we carved our way to the cave entrance to find a stack of dissolving Vorlax bodies almost reaching the roof. So many Vorlax lay dead that their bodies didn’t have time to melt.

Through the gap, I beheld Daphne, Solara, and five other women arrayed in a line. They brandished their weapons at the Vorlax, and that spine-chilling howl came from them as they cut their enemies down with extreme prejudice. They stabbed and sliced and parried as expertly as any warrior.

My heart filled with love and admiration. Daphne was alive, but I didn’t have time to celebrate now. Other Vorlax crawled over their fallen comrades and tried to force their way inside. They would block the cave completely in a second.

My friends and I plowed in and attacked from behind. Between us and the women, we reduced the Vorlax numbers until only a few remained. They still clawed over sizzling bodies to get to the villagers inside the cave, but they couldn’t make it past those women.

I grabbed one of them and yanked it toward me. I stabbed down into its head and pitched the body aside when a scream startled me from my right. I whipped around to see Tennar on his knees at my side.

A gleaming black Vorlax towered over him, stabbing its stinger into his back. The venom sack on its tip pulsated, pumping its toxic liquid into his body. He groaned in agony and buckled to the ground.

“Tennar!” I roared. I leaped to destroy the attacker, but at that moment, I saw another group of Vorlax advancing from behind.

I spun around to defend the cave and my own life, but there were too many of them. How many more Vorlax had invaded Caverncall while my back was turned? They flooded down the catwalks and dropped onto the grass. I couldn’t fight them all.

They enveloped me in their blackness. I wielded my blade in all directions. Kovo and I closed around Tennar, but the two of us together didn’t make a dent in them. The faster I stabbed, the more Vorlax appeared from all sides.

That screaming noise coming from the cave gave me further strength. I had to defend the cave no matter what, but when I wheeled to cut down my next assailant, a Vorlax streaked out of the mob. It was coming too fast for me to get out of the way, and it crashed full speed into my chest.

It hurtled me backward and I landed hard. The creature straddled me with its stinger arched over its back to stab. I grabbed it in one hand, but it overpowered me with little effort. In my last act of desperation, I dropped my dagger to throw my other hand around the stinger.

The needle point quivered inches from my eyes. If it stung me in the head, no cure in the galaxy could save me. The venom sack shivered and trembled as a droplet of venom dripped from the tip.

The creature flexed its powerful muscles, and I felt my arms weakening. “Garath!” Daphne screamed behind me. She couldn’t help me either. She was trapped behind more Vorlax trying to get to her. No one could help me.

All at once, the Vorlax jerked its tail aside, yanking my arms with it. In slow motion, I saw its head diving for me. Its mandibles widened to bite. If I let go of the tail, I would die from the stinger. I couldn’t win.

In some surreal dimension, I heard Kavians roaring their battle cry. They were nearby, but they couldn’t help me, not with so many Vorlax around. I was finished.

I nearly gave myself up to my fate when, out of nowhere, a hurtling missile smashed into me. I almost didn’t realize what it was when a massive Kavian body hit the Vorlax and landed on top of me. My father dove between me and the Vorlax’s head, and the creature’s mandibles chomped around his throat instead of mine.

A horrible crunch vibrated through me as his bones shattered. At the same instant, a poison-tipped arrow soared out of the sky and plunged into the Vorlax’s head. The creature toppled and the deadly tail slackened.

The Vorlax collapsed sideways, but I didn’t care about that. I grabbed my father and rolled him onto the ground. “Father! Father, answer me!”

He didn’t answer. I twisted him over, and the minute I saw his face, I knew he would never answer again. The Vorlax had crushed his windpipe and severed both great blood vessels on either side of his neck.

The rest of him looked exactly the way I remembered from before we left Kavius. A warm, compassionate smile played on his lips, and the look in his unseeing eyes made me think he recognized me.

“Father!” I heard my voice rising.

The noise of battle faded in the background, but I had to keep calling him. I had to wake him up. I had to bring him back. “Father, stay with me.”

I stared deep into his eyes. He recognized me. For the first time in years, he could finally see me. He gave his life to save mine.

Someone put their hand on my shoulder. Daphne. I didn’t need to turn around to see it was her. She was here. She was alive. She survived, but she did more than that. She was the architect of this victory. As I looked up, I saw that not one Vorlax stood. They were all dead, and none of us would have survived if it hadn’t been for her.

At her touch, the noise died completely and I could hear. Kavians gathered around me, all bowing over the King. They pressed their weapons to their chests, and a few murmured the funeral rites underneath their breath.

I looked to him for answers again, but he wasn’t offering any. He could never help me again. The days of me looking to him for answers were over. He was reunited with his mate, at long last, and no longer suffered. Now I had to move forward. I had to lead.

I got to my feet, and all the Kavians present sank onto their knees. They bowed over the dead King, leaving me standing alone. So that was the way it would be from now on—them bowing and me standing. That was as it should be.

Now it was up to me to lead my people. We had to track down the rest of the Vorlax, but we had a way to deal with them now, thanks to Daphne. We could use her technology and her knowledge against any other enemy the Ranxi sent to attack us.

Daphne slipped her hand into mine. She was here, and she was mine. That was the one thing I would never doubt again.

One by one, the assembled Kavians got to their feet. Then the real recovery began. Kovo and Solara moved in. They covered the King with a blanket, and seven warriors carried him away. They would put him in the gathering hall until we could arrange his burial.

I would be the one to arrange his burial. I was in charge now. Just like that, I was in charge of everything.

Daphne let go of my hand and vanished into the crowd. She went to Tennar and poured the anti-venom into his wound. She supported his head while she tipped the mixture down his throat. Then she supervised while more hunters carried him to the healer’s tent.

I lost sight of her in the swirl of people assessing the damage. I moved through the people, working to clean up the mess. The Vorlax in front of the cave finished disintegrating so the villagers hiding inside could come out. They blinked in the sunshine, trying to make sense of the fact that they had all survived.

“Daphne saved our lives,” Solara murmured to Kovo behind Garath’s back. “She alerted us that the Vorlax were coming, so we had time to escape. Then she brought the poison and the weapons so we could defend ourselves. We owe her our lives.”

I turned around to see Daphne hurrying toward me from the path leading up to the village. She didn’t hear what Solara said. The same whispers flew from mouth to mouth around the area as she approached, but she didn’t hear them. She was focused solely on me.

She rushed to my side. “Tennar is resting in the healer’s tent. He’ll be out of action for a while, but he’ll make a full recovery.” She looked up at me studying her. “You’re hurt.”

“I am?” I looked down to see blood on my arm. I didn’t feel the cut until now.

She took my hand. “Come with me.”

Daphne drew me around the corner to where the falls plunged into the couples’ pool. She took hold of my clothes and started peeling them off. Her eyes sparkled with unspoken meaning. She took the dagger out of my hand. I forgot about that until now too.

She slipped out of her own clothes and pulled me into the pool. She scooped the water over my shoulders and bathed the blood off my arm, along with the Vorlax slime, and the blood spilled from my father’s neck. She washed it all away and left me clean.

Then, as if it were written in the stars, she wrapped her arms around my neck. She laid her beautiful body against mine and erased everything that happened today. Father. The Vorlax. The stinger jabbing at my face. Nothing remained.

Only she remained. Her curvy belly, her majestic hips, her voluptuous breasts in my hands, her legs slipping around my waist… Her lips closed over my mouth, and I let myself slip away. Nothing separated us anymore. That sick feeling in my gut when I thought of her leaving—it no longer bothered me because it wasn’t there anymore. Only pure, unbroken love connected our hearts.

Her lips moved off mine as she leaned back to look up into my eyes. Just from her look, I saw it as plainly as if she had told me herself. She loved me with all her heart. She was here in everything that mattered. She belonged here—with me.