Spear of Destiny James Baldwin (free romance novels .TXT) 📖

recognized those scars! You’re alive! I can’t believe it!” Temu ran forward and caught Vash’s metal-clad hand in his own, squeezing it, then pulled him into a stiff hug.

Vash seemed to not know how to react or what to do. “Temu, what has happened here? Why are the Laanzin and Jorgo clans living here, of all places?”

“Well... why not?” Temu hadn’t let go of Vash’s hand. “I never thought I’d see you again. But who are these people?”

Vash shook his head, and twisted to free his fingers from the other man’s grip. “You didn’t answer me, Temu. This land was stricken by plague. My family died here. Mother, father, all my uncles. My sister. The herders.”

“Died? What are you talking about?” Temu let out a nervous laugh, obviously confused. “No one died. After they sent you away-”

“No one sent me away.” Vash took a wary step back from him. “And you... you do not look even half as old as me. How many summers are you now?”

“Summers?” Temu’s lips parted as he looked back and forth between us, then back to Vash. “Are these two your caretakers? From the temple?”

“They are not. Answer me, Temu. How old are you now?”

He laughed it off. “Why does it matter? I don’t remember how many summers have passed. I stopped counting years ago, after I completed my first hunt.”

Vash rubbed his eyes and the bridge of his nose. And me? I was starting to get a creepy vibe. We were caught between the three women, the fire, and Temu. Wordlessly, Karalti and I took up defensive positions around our friend.

“Temu,” Vash said slowly. “I turn forty-one this year. You were a boy of thirteen when Saaba and I left the plateau. You stand before me now, in the flesh, but you can’t be more than twenty-five years old.”

The young man’s smile faded to a concerned frown. “Please forgive me, Vash… I know they sent you to the monastery to get you help but… are you still insane?”

“I was never insane, Temu.” Vash went very still, his hands resting loosely by his sides. “There was only one member of my family who was mad, and that was Tsunda.”

I jumped as a sudden wind blew through the circle of yurts, rattling the doors in their frames. The gust knocked a bow off its hook, sending the weapon clattering to the hard ground.

Temu’s expression fell. “Vashnya... don’t say such things. Your sister has struggled with so much since you were sent away, but... if you go to the center of camp, you can see her. Maybe she’ll forgive you, after all this time.”

“Forgive ME?” Vash balled his fists, fingers clicking against the metal surface of his palms.

“Look... a long time has passed, and you seem fragile after everything that happened,” Temu said, as if speaking to an upset child. “Come with me, to my home. We can have some tea, catch up on everything that’s happened. Just like old times.”

He offered Vash his hand again.

“No, Temu.” Vash’s eyes clouded with old pain before he turned his back to face the fire. “No. Not like old times.”

“B-But I’ve been waiting for years to see you again. Here! Please, come back!” The young man came forward, as if to chase him, and nearly ran into my chest as I sidestepped between them. “Vash! Why do you turn your back to me? Is it the temple? What did those loveless religious bastards do to you?”

“You are a shadow of the past.” Vash shook his head, and set off at a purposeful walk. “Come on, Dragozin. Karalti.”

Temu tried to lunge past me, and I shoved him back. He stumbled a step, then sneered. “You dare-”

I fixed him with my best Resting Bouncer Face. “Look at me in the eyes. You will not win this fight, Temu.”

Temu’s handsome face contorted into a bestial mask of fury.

“Curse you all and your bitter, joyless god. Where were you while we were suffering?” he spat, turning and stalking off between the tents, back toward the outside of camp. Once I was sure he was gone, I broke into a jog, catching up to Vash and Karalti. As I passed by the singers, all four of them silently tracked my path, heads turning in unison.

“What the fuck is going on here?” I hissed, once I fell into place beside Vash. “Who was that guy?”

“Temu Laanzin.” Vash looked as unsettled as I’d ever seen him, his shoulders mantled, his fists still balled. “It was an innocent love, boys of the same age as one another learning how to love away from the prying eyes of adults. On the days I shepherded the herd, he would ride from the Laanzin lands out to our pastures to see me. We joked that we would both marry the same woman, so that we could stay together.”

“But that dude wasn’t your age. No way. He was like two decades younger,” I said. “What did he mean about you being sent away?”

Vash pulled a necklace of prayer beads from a pocket of his trousers, and hung the blood-red amber around his neck. “It means the demon wearing Temu’s face is capable of lying.”

Chapter 51

The camp grew darker and more eerie as we headed toward the center. I rapped every barrel and touched every tent as we walked past, but if the environment was an illusion, it was a really solid one.

“Everyone here’s alive, right?” I asked Vash quietly. “Could Tsun-”

“No. Do not speak her name.” Sweat was beading on Vash’s forehead despite the growing chill. He reached down to grip the hilt of the knife that hung on his hip. It was his kamonocha: the sacred bone-bladed dagger carried by baru to euthanize the dying. “You might have been right about the mage. There is some fell magic over