A Talon's Wrath: An Urban Fantasy Noir (Riftborn Book 3) by Steve McHugh

Author:Steve McHugh [McHugh, Steve]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Podium Publishing
Published: 2023-06-12T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SIXTEEN

Valmore the primordial was the closest thing I’d ever had to becoming friends with one of his kind. I’d been ignored by many of them and attacked by a few, but Valmore was different. I’d met him on my first trek through the Tempest over fifteen hundred years ago, when I’d come across him, injured by another primordial. Like all primordials, he could change his size at will, so he’d shrunk down and I’d helped clean his wound. Since then, we’d been friends.

“Any chance you can shrink?” I asked. “I’m not sure that looking up your nostril is the best view for this conversation.”

Valmore chuckled and quickly shrank down to a more normal stag size. “Better?” he asked.

“Appreciated,” I said.

“Why are you here?” Valmore asked. There was no unkindness in his tone, just a question between friends.

I told Valmore about the last few days, leaving nothing out. If there was anyone who might be able to tell me what these science huts were for, it was the person who was living nearby.

“Callie Mitchell,” Valmore said. “I have not heard that name before.”

“How about Valentina Ermilova?” I asked. “It’s a name we know that Callie used in the past.”

Valmore shook his head. “Sorry.”

“It was worth a try,” I said.

“So, you were looking to use the tear stone to get home, saw Callie in the Tempest, and decided to investigate,” Valmore said. “I have been watching these people come and go for the last few months. Been watching the people from the Gate spy on them, too. We primordials always pay attention to newcomers. You were spotted the second you arrived. Nice hiding in the grass, by the way.”

“Why haven’t any of them been attacked?” I asked.

“Very few of us venture this close to the fog,” Valmore said. “And those who do are unlikely to attack without provocation. I know that you believe that primordials are to be feared and that we devour everyone who comes here, but you must know we’re not monsters. We can be monsters, but no more than humans can be. Most of us live here, under the lightning-burned sky, and do so in peace. You don’t really believe that a village, a gate, and two garrisons are going to stop us should we decide to mobilise en masse, do you?”

He had a good point. “Never thought of it like that.”

“Of course not,” Valmore said with a smile. “Those in power have cultivated a narrative, and people are all too eager to believe that we primor-dials want nothing more than to squish you all into paste. It keeps you out of the Tempest, which is fine with us.”

“To be fair,” I said, “there has been some paste-squishing.”

“Ah, Prilias,” Valmore said. “He does not speak for us all. Those who follow him don’t either. You removed his eye the last time you met. He wasn’t happy about that.”

“I wasn’t exactly in the mood to get eaten,” I said.

“Well, whatever the reason, it gave the old bastard time to think about his choices.

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