Serpent's Touch (Serpent's Touch 1)

He expected this answer. Yet the pain of loss seized his heart nevertheless. He genuinely loved his mother and respected his father. He dreamed of living up to their legacy and hoped to make them proud one day. Now, that day would never come.

He still had to consider himself lucky to land close enough in time to catch someone from his family alive, someone who still remembered his name.

Emotions overwhelmed him, and he reached for his brother.

“Udren.” He took the old man in an embrace.

“Brother.” The frail arms wrapped around him in return. “Welcome back.”

When the High Lord released him, Bherlon, the nephew, gave him a brief nod in greeting. Udren slid his gaze down Kyllen’s frame, undoubtedly taking in the sorry state of his clothes.

“I can’t wait to hear where you’ve been, brother.” He then turned to his entourage, raising his voice, “A big celebration is in order. My brother came back from the faraway land of humans.”

Kyllen arched a brow ridge. “How did you know it was the human world they took me to?”

Udren faced him again. “I saw the men who trapped you, Kyllen. Bald, with Ghata’s tattoos on their arms. They were her monks, the werewolves she converted to bracks to serve her. She’d escaped this world long ago, as you know, but her bracks show up in Nerifir now and then, trading for her. We knew where they took you, but we never hoped to see you again. This is a glorious day.” He waved his hands at the guards. “Let us go. Let the palace know Lord Kyllen has returned.”

“Wait!” Kyllen stopped them. “I’m not alone.”

“Who are you with?” Bherlon cast a guarded glance along the shore, as if expecting an ambush.

“A human woman helped me escape. She came with me.”

“A human?” Udren and Bherlon exclaimed at once.

Udren shook his head. “But why? She won’t last here long.”

“I’m intending for her to last as long as her natural lifespan will allow, which is about a hundred years,” Kyllen said loud and clear for everyone to hear. He wasn’t going to let them treat Amira’s life as something less precious than that of a gorgonian.

Udren turned towards the shore, squinting his eyes. “Where is she?”

“I’ll go get her.” Kyllen jumped onto the board of the closest guard.

“May I?” He took the paddle from the hands of the man, who looked somewhat stunned by his audacity.

“Let him.” Udren waved his hand, then heavily lowered himself back into the chair. “I know my brother. If you don’t give him the board, he’ll swim for it. And there are purple leeches in this part of the river.”

Judging by the look in Bherlon’s pale yellow eyes, his nephew wouldn’t mind for the purple leeches to suck his uncle dry. Kyllen made a mental note to keep an eye on his nephew as he dipped the paddle into the stream. The guard jumped into the High Lord’s boat, leaving the board in Kyllen’s full control.

Shifting all the way to the back end of the board, he raised the front out of the water, then turned the entire thing sharply with one powerful stroke of the paddle.

The High Lord chuckled from the boat approvingly. “He taught me how to do that.”

With long strokes, Kyllen easily overpowered the lazy current, steering back to the place where he’d left Amira. Slowing down, he plowed through the tall grass and beached the nose of the board on the wet ground.

“Amira,” he called, propping the paddle into the river bottom to steady the board.

“Kyllen?” Her quiet voice came from behind the tree where he’d told her to wait for him.

“Come here, my sweet pea,” he coaxed. “It’s safe to come out, but keep your blindfold on.”

She felt her way around the tree trunk.

“Just follow my voice,” he guided. “I’m in the water on a paddle board. You’ll have to go through the patch of tall grass. It’s wet here. Your shoes may take in some water. Don’t be scared.”

“I’m not.” Keeping her hands in front of her, she walked toward him in small, hesitant steps.

She trusted him, fully and literally blindly. It would never cease to amaze him, her endless capacity of trust. The ease with which she could be fooled made him feel like doing the opposite—protect her at all costs.

“That’s a good girl,” he murmured as the toe of her shoe nudged the edge of the board.

He could extend the paddle for her to grab on to. But he didn’t want to startle her with the unfamiliar object. Instead, he shifted closer along the board and offered her his hand.

She found it by touch and clung to his fingers like to a lifeline.

“There you are.” He led her onto the board. “Now sit down right here. No, there’s no chair here. You’ll have to get all the way down and sit on your pretty bottom. Right. Just like that. And try not to make any sudden movements. I’m a bit rusty on the board after all those long months in the crate. You don’t want us to tip over.”

“Where are we going?” She asked, sitting down.

“To the palace of the High Lord of Ellohi. Udren, my younger brother, has taken the throne.”

She gasped softly, but said nothing more.