Page 2 of Unleashed

She touched his temple. “I saw him here.”

“You saw into my head?”

Frowning, the girl lowered her hand, dipped her chin, and stepped back. “I’m sorry. I don’t mean to. I can’t help it.”

The deepest, most primal part of him was distrustful of such abilities — abilities Kelsharn had possessed — clutching the old superstitions he’d been raised with, but that life was long behind him. The world was peopled by valos, some of whom had been formed of the elements — air, fire,shadowwrought into thinking, moving beings — and Orishok himself was no longer a thing of nature. Quinn was a human whose wounds healed almost instantly, and she’d recovered from injuries that had seemed, at first, to kill her. Many of the other human crash survivors demonstrated abilities far beyond what Quinn said was normal for their kind. The way his people had viewed Sonhadra before the Creators arrived had been too narrow to account for the wonders of the wider universe.

There had been times when Kelsharn’s voice had spoken inside Orishok’s head, commanding him, compelling him; mind-to-mind communication was nothing new, but it was a thing to be feared. It had been amongst the ways Kelsharn had exercised control over hiscreations.

Yet this situation was different, wasn’t it? He was not dealing with an all-powerful being determined to control the world. This was a child — innocent, gentle, and alone.

“You do not need to apologize,” he said softly. “Where are your people?”

She looked up at him again. “They all left when the shriekers came.”

“They abandoned you?”

“I was hiding. I did not want them to find me.”

“The shriekers?”

“No…the other people.”

Something in her tone — a hint of fear — made Orishok uneasy. “Why did you not want them to find you?”

“There were bad men, and they had bad thoughts. I didn’t like the way they touched me.” She crossed her arms over her chest. Her thin frame was clad only in tattered rags. “Miss Dana died and couldn’t protect me anymore.”

“She is one of these?” he asked, gesturing to the rock-covered mounds behind him.

The child nodded, pointing at the center grave before swinging her arm to indicate the mound on Orishok’s left. “And mama is there.”

Orishok looked over his shoulder and frowned. Death was an inevitability, but to face it so young, so alone, couldn’t be easy.

“How long have you been here by yourself?” he asked.

She raised her hand, showing all five fingers.

“You have held their vigil well. Though they were not born of this world, I think that Sonhadra will embrace them.”

She tilted her head and furrowed her brow again. “Do you really have to stay with them until they are all gone?”

The thought of this little girl standing here in the woods for weeks and weeks as Sonhadra accepted the dead deepened Orishok’s frown; vigil over the dead was the duty of adults, of hunters and warriors. “What is your name, little one?”

“Nina.”

“I am called—”

“Orishok.”

“Yes.” Her knowledge was unnerving. His mind held centuries of memories that no one, child or adult, should have seen. He could only hope she wouldn’t delve too deep. “Your vigil is done, Nina. Would you like to accompany me to my home? It is safe and warm, and we have ample food.”

Her face brightened, and she displayed her little white teeth in a wide, hopeful smile. “Can I meet Quinn?”

“Yes. I think Quinn would very much like to meet you, too.” Orishok rose and extended a hand.

Instead of taking it, she held both her arms up, reaching to him.

For an instant, his mind returned to the simple days he’d spent amongst his tribesmen, so many years ago. Before he was made into death, before Kelsharn and his kind had made themselves known. The trust in Nina’s eyes undid him.

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