Chapter 39

When I woke, it was late afternoon and Liam was nowhere to be seen. I sat up and stretched, my muscles aching much like they had whenever Shubert had given me too many tasks to do in a day.

As I reached my hands up to the sky, I suddenly detected a whiff of something foreign. I'ikki growled, her hackles rising. I leapt up and spun around looking for whatever had frightened I'ikki and there was someone standing deep in the shade of the bent pines, their face hidden within a hooded cloak. I scented the air and could smell blood, lots of blood, fresh as well as old.

The figure took a single step forward and I called out. “Who are you? What do you want?”

In a placating gesture, the figure raised both hands toward me and slowly pushed back the hood of the cloak, revealing a handsome man with hair the color of sunshine, a gold so light that it was nearly as pale as my own hair.

With twinkling eyes an arresting greenish yellow color and a friendly smile, he said, “I seek Tae Han. I come bearing news.”

I squinted my eyes at him in suspicion. “How did you know he was here?”

The man’s smile broadened in a way that was likely meant to be reassuring and he said, “He sent me a message asking me to meet him here if I had the chance.” He shrugged. “I found myself free of any pressing matters so made my way here.”

I thought for a moment, not sure whether to trust this stranger or not. I didn’t smell a lie on him, but his odor was strange, unlike any Kin or human I’d ever smelled before, and it might be confusing my senses. Besides, he’d somehow known where to find Liam when the only person who knew our whereabouts was the Major, so perhaps Liam had indeed sent him a message.

“Stay where you are. If you move an inch, I’ll tear out your throat.”

His smile wilted a bit, but he nodded his understanding.

I shifted to wolf and let out a long, searching howl. Liam-Dax’s response came immediately and we could tell that they weren’t too far away; it should only take them a few minutes to arrive.

We remained in wolf form, fixing our stare on the stranger as we awaited Liam-Dax’s return. I had to ask I'ikki not to growl out loud, though she continued to do so inside my mind.

Peace, little sister. Let’s see what happens when they get here.

This is a Blood Eater, packmate. Be wary.

Her words rocked me. Astmenai elders had told tales of Blood Eaters, but while I hadn’t necessarily disbelieved in their existence, no one I knew had ever actually seen one, so they were just tales told around the fire at night to scare everyone.

As we waited for Liam-Dax, a frisson went through us as we noticed that the stranger didn’t move. We don’t mean that he stood still, we mean that he literally didn’t move. Aside from his hair and cloak moving in the breeze, he stood as still as a statue, which we would have said was impossible. Every living creature moves; the rise and fall of a chest as breath moves in and out of the lungs, twitching muscles, blinking eyelids, the pulsing of veins under the skin.

But the stranger before us did not move at all. We looked harder and it didn’t appear that the stranger’s chest was moving. Did he not need to breathe? Were Blood Eaters undead as some of the stories claimed? I found that one hard to believe after seeing the glow of good health on his skin and the glistening chartreuse of his eyes.

We cocked our ears, straining to hear the stranger’s heartbeat. After a few seconds, we caught a single thud of his heart. After another few seconds, another thud. After doing this for almost a full minute, we calculated that his heart beat once every five seconds; significantly slower than that of humans or Kin or just about any other animal we’d ever encountered.

We noted too that despite the cloak he wore in the heat of summer, he didn’t appear to be sweating at all. We wondered if the slow heart rate kept him cooler than normal.

Curiouser and curiouser. We would have many questions later.

The stranger called out to us. “That is an interesting aura you have, lovely wolf. From your white fur, I see that you are not of Zanska. Are all the people from your land so extraordinarily powerful?”

Even had we been in human form, we wouldn’t have answered his question since we didn’t know him, but we were curious as to what he meant about our aura. And this was the first time we’d ever heard of a Kinless being able to gauge Kin power. We wondered if all supernatural beings could do that or if it was something particular to Blood Eaters.

After just a couple of minutes, Liam-Dax appeared, the great black wolf appearing from between two trees at a run. As they neared us, they began to morph and finished the last couple of steps in human form. I'ikki woofed in approval; this was great progress for he’d not been able to shift on the move previously.

We jerked our chin toward the stranger. We weren’t sure what we’d been expecting, but Liam’s shout of greeting took us by surprise.

“Mikah, it’s good to see you!” Liam grabbed the smaller man in a bear hug and they pounded each other’s backs as men do.

“I wasn’t sure you would be able to make it. Apologies for the short notice.”

Mikah grinned. “As I was telling the lovely wolf here, I found myself with some free time, so when I received your message, I made my way here as quickly as I could.” The Blood Eater’s voice had an accent that wasn’t Zanskan, but I couldn’t identify it.

Liam beckoned to me. “Xia Wind Song, this is Mikah Korbyn, a friend of mine. Please come say hello.”

Liam was friends with a Blood Eater? Now I was dying of curiosity.

I shifted back to human and went to stand beside the two men. “It’s a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Korbyn. Your name is so unusual. It’s not Zanskan, is it?”

He gave me an extravagant bow, bending deeply at the waist and holding out one hand in a dramatic gesture. “The pleasure is all mine, lovely wolf. And to answer your question, no, indeed it isn’t. My ancestors settled in Zanska after the War of the Gods but the House of Korbyn prefers the old names.” He sounded annoyed by this fact.

“House?”

“Yes, similar to Zanskan clans, though we have nowhere near their numbers.”

“Does your name mean something in the old tongue?”

He smiled. “Indeed it does. It means ‘wise one’.”

I returned his smile. “And are you wise?”

Putting on a mock sad face, he said, “Alas, not even a little bit, lovely wolf.”

Despite my earlier concerns, I found myself liking this man. “Then you are wiser than you know. Only fools claim to be wise, as my aunt used to say.”

He smiled and clapped his hands, delighted. “And what of you, Lady Xia? What does your name mean?”

I grinned. “It means stubborn and I am most definitely guilty of that trait.”

Mikah threw his head back and laughed. Looking at Liam, his chartreuse eyes sparkling with humor, he said, “I like her, Liam.”

Then, bowing from the waist toward me, he said, “At your service, Xia Wind Song. My deepest apologies if I frightened you.”

I gave Liam a sour look. “It would have been fine had I known you were coming.”

Liam scratched at his jaw awkwardly. “I did forget to tell you that, didn’t I?”

I arched an eyebrow at him and he gave me a charmingly boyish grin that made it impossible to stay irked. I swatted at him playfully and he grabbed me about the waist and planted a kiss on my forehead.

Mikah looked amused at this interaction. “I can’t recall ever seeing you this… carefree before.”

Liam looked down at me and something a little more serious drifted through his eyes behind the humor. “You know what they say about the love of a good woman, Mikah.”

Mikah snorted. “I’ve had the love of many good women, as well as men, and I never once looked as happy as you do right now.”

Liam gave Mikah a dry look. “I said love, Mikah, not fucking.”

My eyebrows shot up and I laughed before I could stop myself. “Liam!”

Mikah laughed uproariously. “I stand corrected.”

Liam gestured, pointing to the fire pit. “Come. Why don’t we sit and catch up for a bit.”

We each took a seat around the fire pit and Mikah’s expression sobered as he settled his cloak about himself. “I actually came with news, Liam. I didn’t want to say in front of the lovely wolf for I wasn’t aware that she is your lover-”

“Wife. Xia Wind Song is my wife and we’ve been blessed by Selene.” Liam pulled his collar aside to show the bite scar to his friend.

The Blood Eater’s eyes widened in surprise. Liam flapped a hand at him. “I’ll catch you up on it later. What were you saying about news?”

Mikah cleared his throat as if to compose himself. “Ah, well, it has come to my ears that there was a sighting of Vander on the Isle of Felaine.”

A look of utter astonishment came over Liam’s face. “What? Are you certain?”

Mikah shook his head. “No, I’m not certain. The news is several months old and came from an agent who only had a drawing of Vander’s likeness and never laid eyes on your brother in person. He claims the resemblance is remarkable, but cannot be entirely positive that it was Vander that he saw.”

Liam scrubbed a hand down his face, his shock still evident. “Where? I mean, where on the Isle of Felaine? Tell me everything.”

Mikah leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “It was pure happenstance. The agent was traveling from the main port to a village further inland. He crossed paths with a man going in the opposite direction. They exchanged a greeting, you know the kind; “Nice weather we’re having today,” or something general like that. The agent had walked another hundred yards before he realized where he’d seen the man’s face before. He raced back down the path, but there was no trace of the man.

“The agent was so sure of it that he returned to the port to go through his records on your brother and he says the resemblance was so strong that he got on the first available ship to bring me the news.”

I fretted at my lip as I thought on Mikah’s story. “If your agent turned around so quickly, why didn’t he find this man?”

Mikah shrugged. “Who knows? It could be the man went into the forest to hunt, or perhaps he recognized the agent as a fellow Zanskan and fled.”

Liam’s voice was distressed as he asked, “What was he wearing? Did he appear to be in good health?”

“The agent says there was nothing remarkable about the clothing, that it was basic Felaine garb, something a moderately wealthy merchant might wear; not very fine, but not shabby either. And the man seemed fit; he had a large rucksack on his back that didn’t seem to be giving him any trouble and moved well, according to the agent.”

Liam’s shoulders were tight with tension. I laid a hand on one of his as I directed a question at Mikah. “What was it that caught your agent’s attention then?”

Mikah gave me a considering look and then met Liam’s eyes. “The man supposedly had grey eyes.”

Liam drew in a sharp breath.

I looked back and forth between the two men. “Forgive me if this sounds ignorant, but I take it that means the Felaine people don’t have grey eyes?”

Mikah gave me an approving look. “No, they don’t. The Felaine only have black eyes. Even when they mix with other people, the children are always born with black eyes.”

Something I’d read long ago in one of my aunt’s dreaded tomes returned to me. “But you said it was near a port city? Ports often contain people from all over, don’t they? Due to the ships coming and going from all over?”

“That is correct, lovely wolf, which is why the grey eyes didn’t catch the agent’s attention at first.”

“Then how do we know it wasn’t just some foreign sailor out for a stroll?”

“That is possible, but given the agent’s remarks about the similarity to the picture he has of Vander, the man’s size and build which is of much consequence since Liam and his brother are very like their father and not many people are built like bears. Add in the grey eyes and…” He made a “there you have it” gesture.

He made interesting points. I looked at Liam. “What should we do with this information, my love?”

He sighed in frustration. “As much as I would like to rush off to the Isle to see if I can find my brother, we have other matters to attend to that can’t wait for the months it would take to get there and back.”

Liam looked at Mikah. “I have a request - would you be able to send a message to your agent and ask him to search for Vander?”

Mikah clicked his tongue against his teeth. “It is already done, Liam. I sent the agent back with instructions to do an extensive search for your brother to the exclusion of all else. He should be arriving on the Isle in the next few weeks and will be sending weekly reports thereafter.”

Some of the tension drained out of Liam’s face. “Thank you, old friend.”

Mikah waved an airy hand. “Think nothing of it.” He straightened his cloak and smiled. “I’d love to stay and chat more but my king is lost without me and we are expecting ambassadors from a rival House.”

He took my hand in his and brushed a kiss against my knuckles. “It was a pleasure to meet you, lovely wolf.”

I blushed, I couldn’t help it. No one had ever kissed my hand aside from Emik and Liam.

“Mm, thank you, Mister Korbyn. And thank you for bringing news of Vander.”

“Please, call me Mikah. I’ve known Liam and Vander since we were boys. We are like family.” And with a little flourish of his cloak, he bowed grandly.

He and Liam clasped each other’s forearms and Liam made Mikah promise that he would visit us at the citadel soon.

As Mikah stepped into the woods, he turned back for a second to look at Liam, all his joviality gone. “If he’s alive, I will find him, Liam. I need answers, too.”

He spun on his heel and disappeared into the trees.

“What did he mean by that?”

Liam gave me a sad smile. “Mikah and Vander were lovers.”

The way he said it made me pause. “Why do you say it like that?”

“It is forbidden for Kin and Blood Eaters to consort with one another. And as a crown prince, Vander would have been expected to marry a woman and provide heirs to continue the Dal lineage.”

I blew out a breath in disgust. “Why do the Zanskan have so many silly rules? Who cares if they are Kin or human or Blood Eater? So long as they love each other, what does it matter?”

Liam held up his hands in a placating manner. “I agree with you, Xia Wind Song. But the Blood Eaters are one of the rare predators of Kin, so there are taboos that go back millenia.”

My eyebrows shot up in surprise. “I didn’t know we had any predators at all.”

“Long ago, before the Triumvirate was formed, Blood Eaters hunted Kin because our blood is particularly delicious compared to humans.”

“Why is that?”

“Mikah says it is because we are steeped in magic and it affects the taste of our blood.”

“Ah, I see.” I nibbled at my lip. “So I take it that your brother and Mikah had to keep their love secret?”

Liam looked at me with sad eyes. “Yes. I was the only person besides them who knew about it. I think it’s one of the reasons Vander wanted to go see the world. I think he wanted to get away from Zanska and get away from Tae Beun and see what the world was like beyond our borders.”

A thought struck me. “Do you think your brother may have faked his death so that he could be free?”

The sadness in Liam’s eyes deepened. “Yesterday, I would have said no. Vander had a deep sense of duty, but now…” His voice trailed off like he no longer had the energy to form words.

I had so many questions. If it was forbidden for Kin and Blood Eaters to have contact with one another, how was it that Liam, Mikah and Vander knew each other as children? And for that matter, how did Mikah and Vander develop a romantic relationship? And how would Mikah visit us at the citadel if it was taboo to have relationships with Blood Eaters?”

But the look on Liam’s face stopped my mouth. Instead, I wrapped my arms around him and hugged him close, now understanding one more reason why he was so different from other nobles.