Zott had sat dumbfounded as Rae sprinted away. He had fallen into the water, cold, fast-flowing, and reaching up to his elbows. The cold didn’t register. Nothing had felt quite normal for some time. Zott’s body didn’t feel like quite his own. His senses felt slow, even while his movements remained sharp.

  The only sensation that felt immediate was the warm tingling of his lips. The fingers of his right hand, submerged in the frigid water, shared in this prickly tenderness. The places where he had touched Rae, and been touched in turn. What a relief it was! To feel just a few small inches of his body were his own again.

  He stood. But before he could give chase, someone was beside him, whispering to him.

  “Idiot child, what did you run off for?” His mother said. She had appeared beside him, without causing a single ripple in the water. Her green eyes were gleaming.

  “Does that boy have a hold on you? Even after all I’ve done to sever old ties?”

  Zott didn’t know how to answer. His thoughts and words had both been slurred as of late. But at the sound of that question, something akin to terror had gripped his heart. And he didn’t know why.

  “Worry not, my child. I will allow you this little indulgence.”

  From the moment he’s seen this woman, it had been like a meteor to his skull. Parts of him had been thrown clear by the impact, others crushed beyond recognition. He could hardly tell which parts had always been there, and which had been carried in by the destruction.

  “You were gone for so long, I thought you might never return,” she had cupped his face in her hands and said this to him.

  After his quarrel with the others, Zott had climbed a tree. He sulked there for some time, before spotted a strange figure in a far off clearing. Like a lightning strike, within seconds of being spotted, she had joined him in the branches.

  And she had known him.

  “First the old man and all his whelps have all gathered here at last. And now I have you. My luck only gets better and better,”

  He had known her, too.

  But how? He couldn’t recall.

  Soon, led by some ancient instinct, he began to think of her as “mother.”

  “But if you want that boy, you better go and get him now. Or else he may get caught up in the forthcoming calamity,” she said.

  “Yes, mother,” Zott said, feeling dreamy at the thought of holding Rae.

  But he still had his doubts.

  In his current state, doubts couldn’t be given voice, but they made his actions more sluggish and imprecise. Every step felt like it was through deep snow.

  It was easy to track Rae and his companions down the mountain. But any further action was beyond him. He simply stalked them, all the way to the camp in which he’d been raised.

  The lamps were lit and the people had gathered in the cavern where meetings were held. There was nothing to stop Zott from walking in but he lingered on the outskirts. Out of sight. His eyes followed the Shak and his annoying companions. He saw them being greeting by Duke Ashem. The sight of him sent another jolt through Zott. A pain in his ribs. A confusing sting of hatred. Why did he hate Duke Ashem, again?

  “He’s a thief,” Zott’s mother had said, “every one of them are thieves.”

  What had been stolen? Zott couldn’t remember.

  His gaze wandered to the others of the camp. Thieves, all of them.

  Thieves who would soon get their just desserts.

  The littlest of the thieves were playing with their kitten, teasing it with a cloth ball. Their laughs and squeals reached even Zott at the very edge of the camp. Despite his mother’s words, he still couldn’t bring himself to hate them.

  “Cursed place,” Zott muttered.

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  His mind would be clearer out in the forest. Rae’s would be too.

  That night, Zott slept in a tree. He would have snatched Rae right then and there, but it was as if the camp was never going to sleep. The healer spent barely an hour in his chamber before passing the rest of the night fretfully pacing the courtyard. So dangerously close to where Zott’s prize was sleeping. The rest of the family were just as bad. That wicked Duke and his daughter were swapping shifts by Ven’s bedside. The children were unable to settle for long...

  When Zott awoke, the sun was already high, and he’d lost patience. He crept over the wall and through the gardens. He trampled the flowers and forced his way through the hedgerows to find the window of the room where the Shak was sleeping.

  Oh, what a disappointment! Zott had overslept, and Rae had already left. From the state of the room, a servant had come too. The bed was neatly made, and any sign of the Shak’s habitation— discarded clothing, a comb, fur blankets Rae had kicked off in the night— had all been put away.

  The window had been left on the latch, so it was simple for Zott to climb inside. Should he hide somewhere and wait for Rae to return? There was a dresser that he could fit in, and the space under the bed.

  But boredom got the best of Zott.

  While his senses had been dulled in some ways since encountering his mother, in others his perception had been heightened. The scent of Rae was thick, and through it, a magnetic pull led him to a certain drawer.

  That silk ribbon, the width of two fingers, was bundled in a pile in the corner of the drawer. Oddly cool to the touch.

  Why wasn't Rae wearing it? Zott looked back on the past months. Not a day had gone by that Rae had neglected to wear this ribbon. If Zott was going to carry Rae off today, he’d better take the ribbon too. If he didn’t, Rae would only send him back to retrieve it. He looped it around his wrist for safekeeping.

  There was a sound from the courtyard, and Zott stiffened. The healer was feeble and unguarded. With the element of surprise, Zott could easily overpower him. But, from his hiding place behind the Shak's door, Zott could hear that Sebi wasn’t alone.

  “Master Sebi, we are all healers also. We know when a man is well and when he is not. You need to rest if you want to be of any use.”

  Zott recognised the voice of the Ashem’s master healer. There was a murmur of assent coming from his many apprentices.

  “I can hardly sleep now, when the work is nearly done,” Sebi’s voice came high and haughty.

  “All that’s left is to test the medicine. Please entrust the rest to us.”

  There was a heavy sigh before Sebi asked, “Where has his majesty gone?”

  A few voices piped up.

  “He was visiting master Ven not long ago.”

  “Not anymore, I just caught a glimpse of him in the herb garden.”

  “He’s been wandering all over all day, who knows where he ended up.”

  Another sigh.

  “Well, I have a few words I need to say to him, then I’ll rest.”

  Zott remained motionless for a while longer. Listening to the footsteps of the healers. When they were finally gone, he crept back to the window. There was a pounding in his ears, and a tingling in his feet and fingers. It wouldn’t be long now, he decided.

  “Zott! Put me now, or I’ll make you regret it!” Rae was kicking Zott in the ribs.

  Zott sighed, “Stop that.”

  Picking Rae up, swinging him over his shoulder, and carrying him off had been simple enough. Keeping a firm grip on him, however…

  “Zott, you’re under a curse. Just wait a moment! Take a breath. Listen to me, and things will get clearer.”

  No. Zott was certain they wouldn’t.

  Every time Rae spoke, the sound was like an ice pick to Zott’s brain. His body was moving on its own, ignoring Rae’s squirming, as his brain wrestled with something unseen.

  Something choking him, pricking his skin.

  “You’re not thinking straight.”

  “Stop. Talking.” Something broke in Zott’s voice, and Rae noticed it.

  He didn’t stop talking; his voice came even more agonisingly soft and sweet. It was this honeyed gentleness that Zott had wanted to steal away.

  “What’s wrong? Are you in pain?” Rae asked. He had paused in his struggling.

  Zott placed Rae on the ground, leaning him against a tree, bracketing him in place, and reached into his pocket. Rae’s eyes widened when he saw that strip of silk.

  “How did you—?”

  Zott didn’t grace Rae with an answer. He simply took Rae’s trembling hands and bound Rae’s wrists together with the silk band. When he was done, he pressed a kiss to Rae’s temple, ignoring the wide-eyed expression on his face.

  “If you keep complaining, I’ll find a way to hold your tongue, too.”

  In Rae’s eyes was a look of bewildered rage. But his lips were pressed tightly shut.

  Zott could sense something. A growing unease, calling him deeper into the wilds.

  “No more talking,” he said, not knowing if it was to Rae or to himself. He hauled Rae onto his shoulder. His inhuman mistress was calling him, and he had no choice but to follow her.