Bone and Blood Volume I

14 - The Nest, 1927

Vaeilentha unceremoniously dumped Torani onto a couch. He chose not to take it personally. They were both exhausted from blood loss. She helped Rotero prop up Ander on the couch across from the queen. Drifting back to Torani, she sat on the far end of his couch. She kept her mouth glued shut, but her chest heaved with suppressed panting.

Ander, for his part, looked relatively better. The royal blood coursing through his veins did its job. His wounds would heal quickly. Within a day, the sewn cuts would be scars. His mildest burns would be gone. The deep ones would take a week. His hand would be functional in a month. All and all, he would be fine. Except for the arm. That loss was permanent.

After surveying her audience, Azehralia nodded. "Rotero, you're dismissed."

The shock on the old's knight face was the strongest emotion Torani had ever seen from him. Rotero bowed. "My queen." He wandered up the stairs as if lost. Vaeilentha shot Torani a suspicious glance. He shrugged his shoulders. Whatever that was, he had played no conscious part in it.

Azehralia asked, "Do you feel able to explain everything, Ander? Or should we be content with yes or no questions for now?"

"I can talk through it. Thanks to our next highest family members." He nodded to Torani and Vaeilentha.

"Good. Why are my hunters in the city?"

A weary sigh. "I imagine the knight-prince is already aware of this, but the princess has not heard me. I'll repeat myself for her benefit. There is no food around the nest anymore. The towns dried up. They either melt into endless cities, or the food leaves them to join in a city. Our hunting ground is shrinking. We cannot feed the nest on towns. So, yes, we've gone against your will for the sake of the family. For your sake."

Azehralia opened her mouth to speak, but Ander pressed on. "Everything comes from the city now. It's overflowing with targets that have no connections. No one knows who they are. They're drugged. They're drunk. They hardly struggle. And someone else takes their place the next night.

"Compared to town hunting, it's easier, faster, safer. The food doesn't blame us. They think they're cannibalizing themselves. And they're not wrong! I've found near corpses. Bodies left for dead after being attacked by one of their own. We've dug up shallow graves on the outskirts.

"And, on the rare occasions when none of that works out, we go to the hospital. A whole building for the dead and dying. Some come willingly, looking for an end to their—"

"AND YET—" Azehralia paused, her eyes daring Ander to continue. He carefully reset his jaw. "You return home a wreck. Without Thera. Profuse all you like about your misguided, wonderland view of the city. Perhaps the hunt there is easier, though looking at how little makes it back to the nest, I would argue otherwise. As for safer? Obviously not."

"Things changed."

"Enlighten me."

"We were tracking an easy target. A woman alone at night. While I'm keeping an eye out for bystanders, Thera went for her. By the time I catch up, Thera is swearing about getting bitten on her back. I pulled a dart out of her. As I'm staring at it, trying to figure out why it's there, I get hit in the arm. Obviously, we have something after us, but I'm sure it has no idea what it's dealing with. I plucked the second dart out, thinking nothing of it.

"I start looking for the source of these things. Then, I hear a scream. I turn around and Thera is down. The target is running away. I take off after her but realize I'm not running. I'm trotting. Then I'm walking. Stumbling. It's midnight. I'm in the middle of a hunt. I should be at my peak. Instead, I'm falling asleep.