Madness of the Horde by Zoey Draven

Chapter Eight

“You are mad,” Rath Kitala hissed, “if you thought you could take her without us knowing.”

I regarded him, my arms crossed over my chest. We were all huddled in Rath Tuviri’s quarters, just down the hall from my own. With the exception of Rath Dulia, who was currently entertaining a female or two despite the fact that he had a Morakkari, a wife and queen, back at his horde, we were all meeting.

In secret, it seemed, judging from our hushed voices.

“I have met her before,” I decided to tell them.

“Neffar?” Rath Rowin asked, frowning. “When?”

“Last night,” I said, my skin itching with the proximity of the other Vorakkars. There were six of us, crammed into the small space. And we were not small males. “I discovered her in the city.”

“It was you who took her to the dungeons?” Rath Rowin asked.

“Nik,” I rasped, cutting him a glare. “I distracted the Dothikkar’s guards to help her escape. I told her to leave the city. She told me she needed to meet with the Dothikkar but vok, I did not know why she wanted to speak with him. Who would think she was a messenger for the Ghertun?”

“She was frightened when I came into your quarters,” Rath Kitala said, his tone sharp. “Or could you not see that? You may have helped her last night but she does not trust you now.”

“And even when I had her in my lap and my lips at her throat,” I grinned, cutting my gaze to him, “she asked me for my help.”

Rath Kitala’s nostrils flared. I’d seen more of the other Vorakkars in the past few moon cycles than I cared to…and tensions always ran high between us. We were kings in our right. We were used to making decisions on our own and we didn’t like to be challenged.

Rath Tuviri cut in, his golden hair shimmering with the flickering of the fire light. He said, “Try not to frighten the girl. I think we can use this to our advantage.”

All the Vorakkars’ eyes came to him.

“You have a plan?” Rath Okkili asked, raising a sardonic brow. “She says she needs a heartstone. How do you think to get one without collapsing our power system and enraging Kakkari in the process?”

There were five heartstones spread across Dakkar. One was here, in Dothik, protected in the Dothikkar’s favored temple. Two of the remaining four were in select outposts. The most successful hordes in our history became outposts once the Vorakkars decided to settle down. One heartstone was with Rath Okkili’s own father, who had been a great Vorakkar in his time and who still lived in his respective outpost, far to the south, nearest Drukkar’s Sea.

The fourth heartstone had been placed in an ancient temple, protected by priestesses of Kakkari. It was an isolated place, a bitterly cold place, to the north. Whenever a horde passed by, we were expected to give the priestesses ample supplies to last for the remainder of the year, but mostly, they survived on their own crops, which they were rumored to grow deep in the earth.

And the fifth heartstone…

It had been lost.

Or so many believed.

Over a hundred years ago, a darukkar, a horde warrior, had stolen it from under his Vorakkar’s protection when the horde had been assigned to deliver it to an outpost to the east. Even then, the Ghertun had lived in the Dead Lands. The Dothikkar at the time had believed the heartstone would help protect that area of land from the increases in attacks, that Kakkari would protect them.

The heartstones were powerful. They were fed from the sun and birthed from the earth, just as gold was. And while the hordes had no use for them, Dothik and the outposts were powered by heartstones. Lights and technology, specifically, but also faith.

The Dakkari revered them.

What Vienne asked, what the Ghertun demanded, was an impossible task.

Except…the fifth heartstone was not being used.

And I was one of two beings on Dakkar that knew where it was.

“You think to seek out the fifth heartstone?” I asked Rath Tuviri. “How would that be to our advantage?”

“It is the only one unaccounted for,” he replied. “The only one not in use. I will go to the archives in the morning and learn more about the darukkar who stole it, where it was last seen. But that is not the point. The heartstone is a tool, nothing more. A tool to gain this girl’s trust. We will never give it to the Ghertun.”

“We give her what she wants,” Rath Rowin said, “then she will give us what we want.”

Rath Kitala said, “She has been under the Dead Mountain.”

“Exactly,” Rath Tuviri said quietly. “For all our efforts, we have never been able to breach their land, much less the Dead Mountain. Yet, she has lived there. This kalles could tell us so much about them, how they live, how they eat, how large their army is and whether they are well-trained. Their weapons, if they have any, their technology. Their culture. The Ghertun have been our enemy for centuries and yet, they know more about us than we do about them. Why is that? Because they watch us, they study us, without us realizing it. We need to start doing the same in order to bring them under our control again.”

“We gain her trust and then use her for information about our enemy,” I murmured, “but then what? The Dothikkar will never give into Lozza’s demands. We all know this. He would sooner watch the outposts fall and this city burn.”

Rath Loppar, the eldest of us all, said, “We attack them before they attack us. This vekkiri will tell us how much of a threat the army is. She should want to, especially if she is a slave. We can help her.”

“Lozza has something over her,” I told them. “A loved one, perhaps. She is not loyal to him but she fears him enough to keep quiet.”

I could not even blame her for it.

“She told you this?” Rath Kitala asked, his eyes narrowed on me. He didn’t trust me. Not one bit.

I gave him a chilly smirk. “She didn’t need to.”

I decided against telling them about the strange energy I felt around her. That was a secret I needed to uncover myself.

“So we plan for a war?” Rath Okkili asked, his eyes shining. The Vorakkar loved bloodshed perhaps more than I, even though his father had been one of the more peaceful Vorakkars in his time.

“We need to find the heartstone to gain her trust, deliver the girl back to the Dead Mountain as a distraction, and lysi, plan for a war if we cannot prevent one,” Rath Tuviri said.

Vok. I did not need the others looking into the disappearance of the fifth heartstone. I had kept it a secret for a long time, since it was not my secret to tell.

“The kalles comes with me,” I decided.

“Nik,” Rath Kitala cut in immediately. “Absolutely not.”

“I was not asking,” I growled. “My horde is closest to the Dead Lands and closest to the ancient groves.”

The ancient groves…where it was rumored the darukkar had brought the heartstone along with his dying mate. It was common knowledge. It was true knowledge, actually, since that was where the heartstone rested. But the groves were so vast that it could take hundreds of years to search them before finding the heartstone.

“I will find the heartstone,” I lied to the circle of Vorakkars, “I will get information out of the kalles and then I will take her back to the Dead Mountain before the black moon.”

Rath Tuviri frowned. “The black moon?”

“Oh, I didn’t mention that?” I rasped, my tone rough. “She told me that was how long Lozza had given her to return.”

I remembered the haunted look on her face, the desperation she probably didn’t even realize had been shining in her gaze, when she’d told me that.

“Anything else she told you that you have failed to mention?” Rath Kitala growled.

He really did not like me.

Good.

My teeth flashed when I grinned. “Not that I can think of.”

Rath Tuviri looked at me closely and said, “You must not mistreat her if you expect to earn her trust.”

I snarled, the rage uncurling from me quickly, as I grated, “I have never harmed a female in my life. Dakkari or otherwise.”

Rath Rowin, who I knew best of all the Vorakkars, clasped a hand on my shoulder, though I stiffened at his touch. He told the group, “Rath Drokka will do as he says. I believe that. We will communicate by the thesper as needed. Rath Tuviri will research the lost heartstone at the archives and I will assist him. Rath Loppar, you will work with the Dothikkar. Convince him as much as you can that this is the best course of action for now.”

Rath Loppar inclined his head. He was the eldest Vorakkar, appointed by the Dothikkar’s father, the last great king. As such, the Dothikkar respected him the most and might listen to what he had to say.

“Rath Kitala and Rath Okkili, you should journey to the outposts and prepare them. If it comes to war, we need every darukkar they can spare,” Rath Rowin finished.

Rath Tuviri nodded, his eyes flitting around the group, lingering on me. “We are in agreement?”

“Lysi,” I said. “I will leave in the morning with the kalles. Send me anything you find in the archives by the thesper.”

Thesperwere intelligent creatures, trained to carry messages over long distances. They were extremely useful, especially during the cold season, when Dakkari messengers could not be spared.

There was nothing more to be said. We would have to meet one last time before the black moon undoubtedly, to share what we learned, to reassess, but for now, we had our tasks.

Rath Kitala caught my arm before I left the room and murmured lowly, so the others could not hear, “The others might not see it, but I know the hearts of males like you. And they are as black and tainted as Drukkar’s wrath. Harm her and you will have Kakkari to answer to.”

I leaned closer, hissing, “If you knew me, Rath Kitala, then you would know my heart is the darkest of them all.”

His jaw clenched. His eyes flashed. I pulled my arm out of his grip and strode from the room. Only once I was alone in the hallway did I take in a deep, shuddering breath.

Rath Kitala’s words had hit something inside of me I thought long gone.

Regret.

Because he was right. I was a monster. And I had a feeling that the beast inside me demanded to be fed…and only she would sate that appetite. I wanted to gorge myself on her. I wanted to taint her. I wanted her to take away some of the darkness that had been festering in my soul for a long while.

I almost felt sorry for the little white-haired creature named Vienne.