Grudgebearer Read Online Free

answered. “Was I unclear?”
    â€œFor how long?”
    â€œAs long as we feel like making you wait,” Kholster growled. “Full-grown Aern are immune to your plagues and diseases, but these animals were to be fed to newborns.”
    â€œNewborns?” several of the humans mouthed to themselves, but none was brave enough to give voice to the question.
    â€œUntil such time as you make reparation, our borders will remain closed to Khalvad. If a Khalvadian so much as sets foot on Bridge 43 or the lands beyond, and an Aern learns of it, the Khalvadians will be arvashed, all of them.”
    *
    All of them, Rae’en played the phrase over in her head. All Khalvadians present or merely each Khalvadian who crossed into Aernese territory? The former felt right, felt like what Kholster meant when he’d made the oath, although there might be some wiggle-room there.
    Are the Overwatches agreed , she thought, on the interpretation of the oath?
    They were.
    Blinking as the memory left her, Rae’en cursed. The remembering had taken little time, but the Khalvadians were closing on the bridge. And they showed no sign of stopping to make camp.
    Stop them! Rae’en ordered. Do not let them set foot on the bridge. They mean to make peace with Kholster, but they obviously either didn’t get the whole message, or they’re just stupid.
    Thirty young Aern broke into a run, but Rae’en saw the problem all in one glance. She’d positioned her troops to surround the patrol and attack them from all sides, hoping to trap them on the bridge and limit their range of movement.
    We aren’t going to make it, ma’am , Arbokk thought.
    I am , Rae’en thought back, with the Arvash’ae, I’m fast enough.
    Yeah , Joose thought back, and you’ll arvash them when you get there.
    Not if I force myself back out of it.
    Can you? M’jynn asked. I know the adults can, but I haven’t ever managed it. Have you?
    I’ll let you know.
    Running at full speed, the grass under her feet, Rae’en had no trouble surrendering to the Arvash’ae. Her mouth drew into an unconscious grin as she bared her doubled canines, ready to bite and tear and chew. The black sclera of her eyes vanished as her amber pupils and jade irises expanded, each taking up equal shares of the visible portion of her eyes. With the Arvash’ae came increased strength and speed. Her visual radius expanded to an arc of almost two hundred degrees.
    Best of all was the feeling of quiet purpose, to kill and eat one’s fill of one’s opponents, the simple knowledge that she was a weapon, made for killing and free to do that for which she and all her people had been forged. An exultant roar tore free of her throat, and she laughed as her feet touched the wooden slats of the bridge.
    She could beat the humans—arrive at the far side of the bridge before they did. She knew it. And if she couldn’t, she would tear open their throats and rip them apart, and her troops would feed and . . .
    and . . .
    and something . . .
    Some . . . reason, deep down in the thinking part tried to force its way back up to the forefront of her mind. Words, words, and more words. She shook her head as if to banish the words, to throw them off of her brain, but they clung like little jagged hooks. Her grin faltered. She was kholster of this mission, the voice cried, she had best act like it or did she want to tell her father she had failed him?
    Not that , she thought. Never that .
    The pain of abandoning the Arvash’ae without eating her fill shot through her skull as if it had been cracked open. Strength bled away, leaving Rae’en weaker than before the Arvash’ae. Her vision narrowed to a tunnel of perception. Colors faded to black and white as her pupils narrowed to pinpoints and her irises to little more than a jade tint rimming her pupils.
    Stumbling forward, half blind,