Warrior of the World by Jeffe Kennedy

Author:Jeffe Kennedy
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2018-10-03T16:59:24+00:00

~ 14 ~

“Ivariel.”

I knew that voice. A good sound. I stood in a river of blood, eyes watering from choking smoke, screams in my ears. No. Oh no.

“Ivariel. Please, I need your help.”

I blinked away the moisture, then went to wipe a hand over my face. A grip on my wrist and I spun, lashing out with the blade I hadn’t known was in my hand. The man ducked, matched my spin, and came up behind me, arm wrapped around my waist, body cupping around mine—and my wrist in his fierce grip out to the side.

“Ivariel!” His voice came harsh and panting in my ear. “I need you. Come back to me.”

My hand hurt from gripping the dagger so hard, my wrist straining as I fought to free myself.

“La, Ivariel, steady now,” Ochieng crooned. Ochieng. My Ochieng.

I let go of the knife.

He let out a long breath, laying his cheek against mine. “Are you all right?”

I nodded.

“Words, please.”

“I am here,” I said.

“And in a language I know?”

I might have laughed at the absurdity, but blood swirled around me, a river of it. Concentrating, I reached for the words. “I’m fine, but what about Femi?”

With a gust of relief, Ochieng let me go, turning me to look into my eyes. Then nodded crisply at whatever he saw. “Stay with me, all right? Femi is lost to us. I need your help with Capa.”

I looked around, able to see beyond the screaming images in my head, and took in the scene. Bodies of the foreign warriors floated in the water, or half-draped across the sand. Femi’s little body lay where I’d last seen it, when I told Ayela to run. Capa… the big elephant lay on her side in the water, blood flowing out and mixing with the attackers’ turning the river red where I stood in it calf-deep.

“What do you need me to do?”

“Here.” He pulled me to her, and I only then noticed the barely concealed desperation in him, how carefully he’d cloaked his panic with calm in order to deal with me. “Press down to staunch the bleeding.” He arranged my hands around an arrow in Capa’s upper leg, where blood pulsed out. “This is the worst. Can you stay with her while I get help?”

I nodded, an automatic response, though I wondered at the way she lay, with her head partly in the water. “Won’t she drown?”

“She’s all right lying down, she can breathe.”

I noticed she held the tip of her trunk above water, like Efe did in her mud baths. Efe—had the attackers gotten to her? “Ochieng, there were more boats. The house—”

“Shh. I know. It hasn’t been that long. I’m going to see and for help.” He set the dagger on Capa’s flank, handy to me. “In case you need it,” he said.

“You take it.”

“I have this.” He held up the hatchet he’d been using, the handle streaked with blood, and for the first time I noticed he also was spattered with gore. “I’ll be right back.

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