Page 82 of The Gilded Ones

He nods. “Let’s move out.”

Follow me, Ixa, I command as I slip into the mists.

Around me, the jungle is silent, on edge. The bird monkeys have stopped their chattering, and all the leopardans that frequent this area have long disappeared, their horned, blue-spotted feline forms nowhere to be seen. This is the one good thing about hunting deathshrieks: their presence scares off all the other predators that could hunt you.

As I sneak towards the temple, Keita and Britta doing the same before me, I keep alert for any leapers. We passed a couple on our way here, but I easily avoided them. I can anticipate their presence by simply listening for their heartbeats. All I have to do is open my mind and concentrate, and I can feel them in the distance – a tingling I can almost touch.

We’re coming closer and closer to the temple, and now I can feel the deathshriek rumbles in my chest. There are two of them standing before the temple steps, chattering. I will my footsteps to be quieter and slowly, cautiously creep towards them. As I do so, I notice something unusual.

Words.

“…the Nuru will come?” a strange voice says.

I stop, confused. Who just spoke?

When I look up, Ixa is perched on the temple’s roof, watching me. I know he’s not the one talking. Ixa may be able to say my name, but that’s all he can say. I doubt he’ll ever have full conversations.

Another voice joins the first. “Let’s hope not. She’ll destroy us if she does.”

“How can the Nuru be so traitorous? Does she not care about us?” the first one asks. Its voice is stranger than anything I’ve ever heard. It’s deep and sibilant, and even more alarmingly, it’s not speaking Oteran. And yet I seem to understand it.

How can I understand it?

As I search for the source, my eyes fall on the two deathshrieks. The larger one almost seems to be…shrugging…

“Perhaps she does not know.”

The other deathshriek shakes its head mournfully in reply, and the world tilts. No, it’s not possible, I think, shocked. It can’t be possible. Yes, I’ve seen deathshrieks speaking to each other before – making grunts, clicks and deep thrumming signs – and yes, they always understand me when I command them, but I never thought I’d actually be able to understand them.

And there they are – talking. Making sounds I can understand, even though I don’t know how I can do so.

My chest is so tight now, I can barely breathe.

All I can think is how? How could I have never noticed them speaking before? How could I not have known?

I’m so stunned by what I’m witnessing, I don’t notice the dark figures slipping around me until Keita shouts. “Deka, use your voice!”

I turn to find a deathshriek arching towards him, claws at the ready.

Power surges through me, hot and blistering. “STOP!” I command, raising my arms. The air vibrates with my energy. “Do not move until I will it.”

They freeze, caught by the power rumbling from me in waves. But I know time is already running away from me. The rest of the raiding party is thundering towards the temple, and it won’t be long now before they get here.

I walk towards the two deathshrieks, still frozen mid-stride, energy arcing from me in waves. When I approach the smaller one, the one that spoke first, it looks down at me, eyes wide with terror and something else – something that looks almost like betrayal… It reminds me so much of that expression I can never identify on Rattle’s face, my heart clenches.

By now, the others have entered the temple grounds, and I distantly hear the telltale sound of swords being unsheathed, the soft grunts of the deathshrieks as they’re slaughtered. I hurriedly focus my attention on the deathshriek before me, keeping threads of energy tied around it as I begin my questions.

“Did you speak?” I ask it, fighting the exhaustion edging at my mind. I’ve never had to hold a deathshriek still while speaking to it at the same time.

“Deka, what are you doing? Kill them!” Belcalis’s voice emerges as if from afar, an awful reminder that I often participate in deathshriek massacres, immobilizing the creatures, then slaying them as they’re incapacitated.

I push the thought back as I turn to the deathshriek. “Answer me,” I command, power reinforcing my words. I’m vibrating now, my entire body rumbling so deeply, the deathshriek struggles to remain standing. “Did you speak?”

The deathshriek’s eyes widen. It looks down at me and opens its mouth. “I—”

Bluish-black blood sprays my face.

As I jerk back, startled and horrified, Belcalis casually retracts the sword now protruding from the deathshriek’s chest. “I told you to kill it,” she says as the creature falls sideways with a heavy thump.

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