Escaping Astren

Chapter Twenty

The midday air was hot and sticky on my skin. Pants left my lips, but I couldn't stop now. Stopping to rest meant letting the Cearte capture me, and I couldn't get caught.

"How much longer?" I tried to ask Eldrazi, but the words were scratchy, my throat so dry, the constant Dust in the air anything but a help. "When can I finally stop?"

"I... I don't know, Gav," he answered, speaking from my mouth. "I don't know."

It had been so long since that day– almost a year– but it might as well have been yesterday from how fresh it all still felt. I could still hear the echo of Cynwrig's words, see the torn, bloodied mess that had once been my mother, and I'd never, never been able to stop since.

Somehow, I missed the sight of a raised root, and my boot caught, my body launching forward until my face was ground into the dirt, pebbles and sand scratching at my cheeks. Tears welled in my eyes, and I hardly had the will to push myself up to take off again. Not that I wanted to be caught here, but with how long I'd travelled the countryside, looking for Cynwrig... It seemed so pointless. I was never going to find him. I'd be killed first.

Movement sounded on my right, and I flinched, panic laced through me. I shouldn't have stopped, shouldn't have even wasted time thinking. Now Eldrazi and I would die. As the sight of white robes drew closer, I scrambled to my feet, prepping to run once more.

"Don't run, Serpent."

Perhaps it was because I'd merely been a child then, no more than ten and one. Perhaps it was because stopping was all my body had longed to do, but I'd stayed at the man's words, back turned. "Why shouldn't I?"

"Because I've been tracking you for quite a while now, and I've an offer you can't refuse."

It was then that I turned to look over my shoulder to find not a Cearte, but an Eunsi dressed in all white, with feathery wings and ears to match. A mask was fixed to the lower half of his face to keep out the Dust that was so common in Tercia, blocking most of his features from sight, save for his brown eyes. In fact, it was the only pigment to him save for the arrangement of golden buttons and medallions down his long burka. A noble, Eldrazi was quick to inform me. They always ranked in wing colours.

Still, Cearte or not, I reached to pull my bow off my back, even though the man surely had plenty of magik at his disposal. It made me feel safer though as I lifted it with my chin, facing him. "What do you want?"

"I think the better question-" The man held up his hands to show no weapons as he continued to approach me. "-is what do you want from me? You see, I've heard about you, Serpent. Your face is plastered even so far as Tercia for your crimes."

"They aren't my crimes," I spat through grit teeth, not even bothering to keep the venom out of my voice. I didn't anger Tachir'. I didn't make him take my brother from me and slaughter hundreds on his violent question to end both me and my Demon. The only thing I'd ever done was be born a Dávoln, although maybe that was enough for the man to warrant my death. Offer or not, I doubted he was different from the others.

"Actually, I was hoping that they were. After all,  we both can help each other." He chuckled, spreading taloned fingers confidently. "I have a way to conceal your... curse. You wouldn't be hurt by constantly maintaining a Human form, because underneath you could always look like– well– this." He lazily waved to the whole of me, up and down, his voice anything but pleasant. "Magik sensing, basic detection, you could be immune to all of it."

I narrowed my eyes. "I know all about Eunsis and your illusions. In case you haven't heard, Dávolns always keep one thing Demon and Human about them. I personally cannot use magik. Your deal is useless."