Aday lay in the grass next to Odval, her hands folded casually behind her head. “I think you should find a human even bigger than him to rape him every night. I think he would like that.”
“No…” Saraal whispered, her mind suddenly clear. Aday was right.
She could kill them all.
“I don’t want to drag him with me. He’s so big and ugly.” She sat cross legged in the grass and cocked her head at Odval, who watched her with silent, panicked eyes. “What will happen when I cut off his head?”
Aday sat across from her and shrugged. “I don’t know. He’ll die. You’ve seen how Kuluun does it. Just leave his body somewhere the others won’t find it. Won’t it burn up in the sun?”
“Of course.”
Saraal rolled Odval to his stomach and began cutting the hair at his neck and tearing his clothes to expose his skin. “Do you remember?” she asked the silent monster. “Do you remember how you liked to take me this way when you kept me in the ground? I wouldn’t even be awake from my day rest when you’d dig me out, Odval. Then you’d shove my face in the dirt and fuck me like this, so I woke with dirt in my mouth and dirt in my cunt.” She leaned forward, shoving his face in the rocks and dust. “Have some dirt before you die, Odval. You do not deserve a warrior’s death.”
His skin was pale and bloodless from her feast. It didn’t even bleed when she began to cut. His body spasmed for a few moments, then he was still as she finished, hacking at his head until it rolled from his body. Saraal sat back and smiled.
Aday sat next to her and held her hand.
“You need a better sword. How do you feel?”
Saraal felt her body float slightly off the ground. Her smile grew wider.
“Strong,” she said. “I feel strong.”
Chapter Four: The Fire
No one ever asked about Odval.
After his death, Kuluun eyed her with suspicion, but Saraal knew he didn’t mind that one of his brothers—who were really his rivals—had disappeared.
Suk, however, wasn’t pleased. He treated her more harshly than he had before, and he never allowed her to spend the day in his tent.
The brothers had moved north again, following the warm weather to more heavily populated areas along the hunting routes. They moved at night, and their ferocity did not cease.
Villages were emptied, then burned. It was a waste, she thought, to destroy the hard work of the humans. Stupid. But then, Kuluun was never all that bright, and now he had a cheering group of sons who all praised him, no matter what he did. Odval’s children had given their loyalty to Kuluun, as well. And Suk had never sired as many children as the others. More and more frequently, Saraal would see him keeping his own company with his dozen or so sons and the humans they had collected.
Saraal also kept to herself, with Aday’s more silent presence keeping watch. She tended her own meager belongings. She serviced whichever brother shoved her into a tent. She didn’t speak to anyone except Aday anymore.
She had also started drinking human blood.
“You can make them forget,” Aday whispered to her one night, months ago.
“What?”
“Do you remember the human you killed? So long ago, before Kuluun put you in the earth. Do you remember?”
How did Aday know about that? Saraal had never told her. She avoided the memory, instinctively shying away from something that had felt so good, then gone so wrong.
“I don’t—”
“You can force your will on them. The humans.” Aday slid closer as they sat beside the cooking fire. “You’ve seen Kuluun do it. Suk does it all the time. You have only to touch them, and you can control them, my girl.”
She remembered. She remembered the human falling silent. She’d thought it, then he had done it. She’d felt the trickle of energy leave her and go into him. The same pricking heat that ran over her skin now when the wind stroked her.
It had woken after Odval, like a long-forgotten friend. After she’d taken his blood, the wind came to her more. It wrapped around her and held her. She had only to stand in its bracing power to feel her body strengthen. At one point, she’d even experimented with hovering off the ground. But as time passed, her new friend grew quieter. She could no longer hover.
Saraal was not surprised by this. She had become accustomed to disappointment.
“You must drink from the humans to be strong. Then the wind will be at your command, as it is for Kuluun.”
“How do you know?” Saraal asked.
“I know.” Aday’s grey eyes were lit with mischief. “And you do, too.”
She did.
Saraal tilted her head and listened to the camp. It was a relatively quiet night. A few women were busy around the cooking fire, and the others were entertaining the Sida.
“That one,” Aday whispered, nudging Saraal’s side. “Drink from that one.”
‘That one’ was a fat old human Kuluun had decided to spoil. She must have been someone important in her village because she had immediately began ordering the other women around once she’d been captured. Kuluun doted on her as if she was one of the wild dog puppies that followed their wandering tribe. She slapped and intimidated the other women into doing what she wanted. She ignored Saraal.
“I don’t think she would taste very good,” Saraal said with a shrug. “She has to taste dirty since she fucks Kuluun and seems to like it.”
Aday rolled on the ground with laughter, but still managed to say, “Just look at her, though. So fat. He gives her the best meat. She has plenty of blood to spare.”