Schism: The Battle for Darracia (Book 1) (6 page)

“
What are you—” he yelled.

“
Tulani.” Her mouth was close to his ear.

“
What?”

“
My name. It’s ‘Tulani.’ Say it.”

“
Tulani…” It rolled off his tongue, as sweat dotted his forehead. V’sair was finding it difficult to think.

“
I like the way you say it.” She paused then whispered, “V’sair.”

The last was said in a puff of air that caressed his earlobe.
Could that be her tongue?
V’sair thought wildly, as he felt it touch the outer shell of his ear. He shifted and realized it was indeed, and a smile graced his handsome face. He flexed his arms and pulled his mount with newfound urgency, heading south into the Deep Fells. In the distance the great shadow of Aqin blocked the night sky, its belly ominously belching a swirling dark mist.

Chapter 8

Pacuto
, flanked by his guards, impatiently walked the stable yard, looking for V’sair’s grooms. Slapping his quirt against his powerful leg, he looked for the Quyroos who worked exclusively for the prince. He found them cleaning a large stall.

“
Where did the prince go?” he demanded.

Known for their closemouthed sullenness,
they gave him a disrespectful shrug. His own guards bristled at this breach of etiquette. Pacuto swiftly lashed out with his quirt, slicing the red cheek of the groom. All action stopped, and the stable became so quiet that the only sounds were Pacuto’s voice and the harsh breathing of the injured Quyroo.

“
Do you know who I am?” he shouted, his teeth bared.

“
I may know who you are, but that doesn’t mean I can give you information I don’t have, my lord Pacuto,” the Quyroo said disrespectfully.

“
Insolence!” Pacuto shouted, his face flushed with anger.

The quirt slashed again, this time the other cheek. Red droplets sprayed across the immaculate tiles. This time the Quyroo
was hurt; he huddled in the corner.

“
I know not, my lord,” he said with a quiver.

“
Prince V’sair does not think a servant important enough to give him his itinerary,” the second Quyroo sneered from behind Pacuto.

Pacuto bunched his bulky shoulder
s and swung his short but powerfully muscled tail mightily, impaling the startled Quyroo. Shaking him, he roared with laughter at the shocked look in the servant’s dying eyes. He felt his tail slicing organs, as the Quyroo slid into a bloody heap to the floor. He took out his tryath and neatly severed the quaking Quyroo’s head, while saying, “If you are so unimportant to the prince, then you are equally useless to me.” He tossed the head into a corner, laughing as it rolled to stop in a pile of excrement. He turned to his guards. “Saddle Winata. Now!” He stomped out, leaving a trail of bloody footprints.

The stable
, usually a hub of activity, became as still as a tomb, the Quyroo who worked there ducking behind the stall walls.

***

V’sair and Tulani glided over the landscape in hushed silence, breathless with anticipation. The wind ruffled Tulani’s braids, and she released them, letting her tresses tangle with V’sair’s white locks. They skirted the rocky crags of Aqin and felt the rumble from its deep recesses.

“
Aqin is angry,” Tulani whispered.

“
Nonsense. It’s a volcano that may or may not erupt. It has no personality,” V’sair retorted smugly.

“
Did the Elements tell you that?” she challenged him.

“
I base my answers on science. What proof do we have that the Elements exist?”

“
That’s blasphemy.” Tulani’s voice was hushed, the wind buffering all other sound.

“
I cannot accept everything my tutor tells me,” V’sair said impatiently. “If the Elements truly exist, tell me why we have war and inequality.” He turned his face to see her for a moment then returned to watching the skyscape. “How can I accept something I can’t see?”

“
We don’t see air, yet we know it is there,” Tulani responded. “The Elements are the Trivium. They make up the substance of life. Without them we are nothing!”

“
Words. Merely words.” V’sair closed his mouth, at a loss to explain his feelings. “I don’t know what I believe in anymore.”

Tulani
’s hair tickled his nose, and V’sair brushed her curls from his face.

“
I can’t see. Tie your hair back,” he said.

“
It feels good when it touches you, no?” Tulani asked seductively, her clasped hands resting intimately against his lower belly.

Gracefully they descended to the forest floor, coming to rest on a bed of red clover and lichen
-covered rocks. They heard the call of wild birds and the keewalla monkeys that roamed the glades. A waterfall cascaded over the high rocks, and the gentle creatures of the night called to them.

“
Deep Fells,” V’sair said with wonder. His skin prickled, and he was acutely aware of the female behind him. His urges made his fingers tingle; his lips ached to touch hers.

“
Part of them. It is my family’s home.”

In the distance the castle floated,
its many turrets outlined by the gleam of its white lights. The other buildings used different-colored lighting, so the city in the sky looked like a brightly colored constellation. V’sair rarely had seen his home from a distance. Once, Zayden had stolen him away without his parents knowing to see the city from the ground. It was as exhilarating then as it was now.

“
Waaw!” V’sair’s eyes took in the lush gardens, bathed in the moonlight of the four moons. Overhead he heard the leathery wings of the herns, along with their screeching call for the mates they chose for life. He looked up to see a flock of them flying in a cross-shaped formation. He never had been so close to one, except in the museum of course. He couldn’t believe his mother had let him fly here without a detail and in the evening. He knew he should return by daybreak, and that was a good thirty-four hours away. He glanced at the herns and followed their flight. They were predatory, he knew, but never attacked in the evenings.

V
’sair demounted then lifted his arms to help Tulani as she slid off Hother. His heard her breath catch in her throat as his hands spanned her tiny waist. She rested her hands lightly on his shoulders, and the world narrowed to just the two of them. She was light as a feather, her legs sliding down his body, her full lips finding his own. He was acutely aware that nearly every part of his body touched hers, and his skin burned through his clothes.

V
’sair slanted down, taking her mouth, kissing her tentatively, then opening his mouth and letting their tongues touch. Sparks flared between them, and Tulani felt V’sair’s chest expand with the same excitement she felt. She reached behind him to pull his tunic free, and his hands skimmed down her body, coming to rest on a firm breast. She sighed with pleasure into his mouth, and V’sair deepened his kiss.

A burst of fireworks exploded in the night
sky, and for a scant minute, V’sair thought their kiss had caused it. A great cackle split the silence.

“
What do they do here?” It was a gravelly voice, as if from a rusty barrel.

“
Bobbien…” Tulani closed her eyes. She thought they would have some time before her grandmother showed herself. “You are far from home.”

“
I am a wanderer, always wandering, don’t you know?” She paused and pursed her wrinkled lips. “A maid, a man…” The voice continued. “What mischief is this?”

“
No mischief, Greanam. It is Tulani…and Prince V’sair.”

The prince bowed deeply, his face blushing blue with embarrassment as he tucked in the errant tails of his tunic.

“The prince…Prince V’sair…son of Queen Reminda, my good friend?”

The old Quyroo stomped out of the shadows. Her breast
s hung flat and long; her belly was big, covered loosely with a brown loincloth. Her red braids reached the forest floor, dragging all kinds of feathers, leaves, and twigs in the knotted mess. She held a tall stick with a length of hemp attached to it.

V
’sair bowed deeply, “At your service, my lady.”

“
My lady,” the Quyroo cackled back, revealing broken yellow teeth before curtsying. “My good prince, you call a Quyroo ‘my lady’?”

“
Be she Quyroo or Darracian, any friend of my mother, the queen, is my lady.”

“
Oh, oh, oh. You are a good’un.” She laughed. “Tulani, he is a good’un.”

Tulani smiled at her grandmother.
“He is the prince, Greanam. Prince V’sair, this is my grandmother, Bobbien, who should never travel this deep into the Fells.” Tulani frowned; she had thought she would be alone with the prince here.

V
’sair moved forward, taking the old woman’s hand and kissing her wrist gallantly.

“
Does the young meat taste as good as the old ‘un?” the woman asked coyly.

“
Greanam,” Tulani hissed, to which her grandmother laughed heartily, her great belly shaking up and down.

V
’sair watched in silent fascination. He had many Quyroo servants and had met both male and female Quyroos but never had seen one as old or heavy as Tulani’s grandmother.

“
Tulani, what brings you to out to this part of the Fells in the darkness?” She turned a gimlet eye on her granddaughter. “You are too close to the eastern provinces. Fly at night, the wysbies do. Danger for you young’uns!”

“
I could say the same to you, Greanam,” Tulani retorted, wondering what the old besom was up to. She was a canny old thing, with roots and plants dangling from her belt, her bright eyes missing nothing.

“
My mother, the queen, has need of more ointment—Glacien ointment. Do you have any?” V’sair volunteered.

Bobbien looked at her granddaughter
’s full lips and the boy’s flushed face. Oh, she had interrupted something here, for sure, but what could her good friend be about? Tulani was not to be used like a slattern woman. Though their fortunes had changed, she was in the line of the Nost women, the women of the sun. Tulani was a treasure and had been hidden by both the queen and Bobbien many years ago; she could not be thrown away as a pawn. The girl was as royal as the prince. She narrowed her gaze at her defiant granddaughter, who boldly stared back.

“
Yes, she has need of your salve. She sent me on a mission.” Tulani thrust out her bottom lip, just on the edge of disrespect.

She has been away too long
, the older Quyroo thought.
She is forgetting herself and behaving without Quyroo dignity.

“
A mission?” Bobbien raised her eyebrow.

“
Yes, Greanam.” She paused then continued, “a mission with the prince.”

The air was thick, and V
’sair felt as though he had missed a part of the conversation. He watched the power struggle and felt the tension between the two women.

“
A mission with the prince,” Bobbien repeated slowly, absorbing the idea. “I must think on this a bit. Beware the eastern provinces and the wysbies,” she warned, as she scratched her matted head and, with a speed that belied her age, threw the hemp from her staff toward a branch and swung out of their view instantly.

“
That was strange,” V’sair stated, looking at the empty spot. “What are the wysbies she spoke of?”

“
You know not of wysbies?” Tulani asked suspiciously.

“
I rarely come to the Desa. Who are they?”

“D
emons disguised as insects. They can be annoying. They sting, nothing more.”

“
She left because she’s afraid of them?”

“
Bobbien is afraid of nothing. She left to contact your lady mother. She doesn’t believe us.”

“
What. Believe me? I am the prince,” V’sair replied incredulously.

Tulani laughed, her face shining in the light of the many moons.
“I think here you are just V’sair. Are you hungry?”

V
’sair thought about that. He hungered. He had hungered to test the Fireblade for so long; now he felt the stirrings of a new hunger. He took her hand and whispered, “Yes, Tulani. I hunger.”

Chapter 9

Bobbien moved with agility through the branches despite her advanced age. She came to a stop where her hut rested in the cradle of two trees. Inside, her worthless son-in-law lay swinging in his hammock, while her daughter Losa, pounded epocks, sweet roots, for their dinner.

             
Losa was a platter-faced Quyroo, her nose flattened by Mori’s abuse over the years. She had one eyelid that was permanently pulled downward, due to an accident at her birth. Never a pretty female, she had settled for Mori who was equally unattractive.  His red skin was blotchy from years of abusing krayum, a potent homebrew liquor, that seemed to settle around his bulging midsection. He used the excuse of his one lame foot for all the indignities in life they suffered, when in fact, he was known for both his laziness and thievery. This had earned them a place on the bottom of the forest in a tiny, circular, one-roomed hut made from the red branches of the Desa that barely kept them dry. They had room for a simple fire to cook and keep warm, three swinging hammocks and not much else. They had to be content with the leavings thrown from the top tree dwellers to satisfy their primal needs.

“
Tulani has come,” she stated coldly, and turned to her communication device. “Mori, leave. I have need of privacy,” she told her son-in-law.

“
I am comfortable, Bobbien. Go outside. My head aches,” Mori whined back.

“
I said Tulani has come. Don’t you want to see her?”

“
She behaved disrespectfully the last time she was here. I have nothing to say.”

“
Eeeehai,” she scoffed. “She only asked for you to help me.” She turned to her daughter, who was pounding the root, ignoring the conversation, a sullen look on her face.

“
He won’t leave, Mo’mo. Take your business outside,” her daughter told her, and went back to the monotonous pounding.

The older Quyroo eyed the younger one
, wondering what kept him glued to his hammock. Oh, he was lazy, but he knew the value of the queen to their small clan. They needed the funds and supplies she gave them in exchange for Tulani’s service as well as Bobbien’s spells. He was hiding something; that was for sure. Mori, with a smug look in his puffy face, looked excited. Bobbien gazed again at her daughter, who turned her back, lest she give something away, but a furtive glance at a sack near the firepit caught her eye.

“
What have you there?” the old woman demanded, stomping over it.

Mori jumped out of the hammock with a speed she had never seen. Her daughter dropped the epock root on the dirt floo
r, and stood before the bulging sack.

Though she was old, Bobbien had continued to swing from the treetops and had a powerful upper torso
. She shoved her daughter and Mori away with muscled arms, snarling at their Bottom-Dweller weakness.

“
Crystals!” she cried. After sticking a hand into the bag to find it filled with sticky newly formed randam, she pulled a handful out. “Fools! You want to get caught?”

The
randam crystals were controlled by the Quyroo League for trade. It was illegal for Bottom Dwellers to even be near them. “They will send you to the caves,” she said, as she stared at her daughter with horror.

“
You are a high priestess, a daughter of Nost. I will get a slap on the wrist,” Mori said nonchalantly.

“
They will condemn us all to the caves. I will never see Tulani again. Even the queen will not be able to save us.”

“
Who cares about that one?” Mori responded hotly. “What has she ever brought us? The trees are here for all of us. Their bounty belongs to everyone, not a chosen few, Bobbien!” Mori’s yellow eyes narrowed. “I’ve had enough of grubbing on the forest floor for a few tasteless roots.” He kicked the epock root so that it hit the hut wall with a thud. “Like it or not, I refuse to live on the leavings of the royal family. We will go to join the settlement on Aqin.”

“You will die there.”
Bobbien stood tall, her expression somber. “Think, daughter, of what you are doing.”

Her daughter shrugged indifferently, bent down
, and pulled another epock from under the table to pound into a paste for dinner. Mori chuckled and slid back into his hammock.

Bobbien grabbed her communication instrument, the forbidden nevi, to contact the queen. Mori
narrowed his gaze and pointed at it. “I am not the only one hiding things from the League.”

Bobbien turned
her eyes on her son-in-law, who laughed, his mouth wide, his grin evil. He rose and moved toward her.

“
What know you?” she demanded.

“
Enough,” he said defensively. “I know you use a nevi to speak with the cloud people. I know you go where you are not allowed.” His voice dripped with sweet nectar now. “Yes, Bobbien, I know where you disappear for days at a time, and I think you should share your secrets. The Elements do not—”

Bobbien stamped her staff
, demanding silence. She leaned in close to his face, her eyes inches from his. “You will get us all killed with your recklessness, Mori. You know nothing. Say it! Say it!” She rattled her medicine bag, and for once her feckless son-in-law was frightened.

“
Oh, have it your way, old woman. I know nothing.” He sneered and flung himself back into the hammock, placing a straw hat over his face.

Bobbien
stalked off from the hut to find a private spot, where she gingerly held the shell-like device to her ear. The Quyroos were not allowed to have communication tools. This one had been given to her by the queen. Only her family knew she had it, and her discussions with Reminda kept them all from starving. In exchange she had helped the queen with some spells and given her special herbs when she had fallen ill from the hot climate; Bobbien’s potions had saved her. Lastly she had given her Tulani for protection for both of their houses.

Static burst in her ear, and the queen
’s familiar voice came to life. “Bobbien, has my son arrived?”

“
Indeed he has, Your Highness. And may I add, he was sampling some of the delights of the Desa.”

“
So fast!” The queen chuckled. “I knew I could trust Tulani.”

“
Of that I am certain, Highness, but I need to know what you are about. Tulani is worth more than a slattern. She is royal born as well.”

“
Bobbien! There is a big difference between Quyroo and Darracian royalty. Tulani knows what she is doing. I suggest you leave her to my business.”

“
Tulani shall not be a pawn,” the older woman persisted.

“
Do not defy me, Bobbien. There is much you don’t understand,” the queen said as the line went dead.