Nameless (27 page)

The Gate Master pulled her closer still, pressing her body to his. He kissed her again, this time finding her full lips. “You. Are. Mine.” He grabbed her by the waist and threw her several feet into the thick trunk of a tree. Her head cracked against a branch. Blood ran from the corner of her mouth after she bit off a piece of her own tongue.

He charged with all his Ram speed to tackle her to the ground.

“Stop!” called a wild, deep voice.

The Gate Master turned his rage on a dark figure in the road. She didn’t even see him reach for the daggers in his hands. It was as if they just appeared. Zo heard fists connect with flesh as the two men engaged, but didn’t bother to watch the fray. She crawled away as fast as her throbbing head allowed. Several stitches on her stomach were torn open. Blood soaked into Mrs. Drea’s old dress.

Men shouted over the pounding in her head. Zo was too frazzled to understand what they were saying. She found a good tree fifteen yards from the road and climbed until the branches were barely thick enough to support her weight.

“Yield!” said Gryphon, forcing his knee deeper into the Gate Master’s spine while stretching back the man’s arms.

The Gate Master growled something incoherent. That was good enough for Gryphon. He released his superior officer and climbed to his feet.

“I could have your hands chopped off at the wrists,” Master Leon raged.

Gryphon was still too heated to say what he should. “Not for self-defense,
Sir
. You attacked me.” Gryphon couldn’t stop seeing Zo’s body connect with the tree. The fear in her face as Master Leon charged.

The Gate Master stepped closer, his boot inches from Gryphon’s, and thrust a fat finger into his chest. “You were in my business.”

Gryphon leaned into his superior’s finger. His voice could barely be heard over the wind. “The girl
is
my business, Sir. She belongs to me.”

A slow smile spread across the Gate Master’s face. Gryphon felt the hair on his neck raise. “The healer is yours, but the little sister is mine. I’ve come to collect her.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

The Gate Master raised his hand to silence Gryphon. “You’re losing your edge, soldier. When the Seer comes tomorrow, produce the child.” He took several steps away then turned. The same dangerous smile plastered to his face was made worse by the harsh shadows of night. “The healer might live in your household, but she belongs to the Ram.” Gryphon could translate that easy enough. “
She might be yours, but I’ll still have my portion.”

Gryphon shuddered and stepped off the trail in search of Zo. He found her clinging to a high branch in a tree. Her almond eyes were closed. Her breath caught as she tried to calm her nerves. Even though the wind had died down, the leaves on her branch shook as she trembled.

“You can come down now.”

She opened her eyes slowly, like the sun takes its time cresting a horizon. When she recognized Gryphon she didn’t speak, but started to climb down with sticky, choppy movements.

“Slowly,” he said when she almost stumbled. She winced from pain as she moved. The poor creature had endured so much. When she came within reach, he offered his hand. To his surprise, she practically fell into his arms.

He set her on the ground and without thinking, pulled her into an embrace. She hesitated then leaned into his chest. He rested his chin on her head and rubbed warmth back into her arms. She was fragile. Like brittle glass that might break into a hundred pieces and slice him open if he wasn’t careful. What could he say to fix what had just happened? Nothing sounded quite right in his mind. So he held her.

Until she shoved him away. “Why did you do that?” she hissed.

Gryphon felt like he’d swallowed his tongue.

“Why did you stop him?” She covered her face with her hands. “At least it would have been over.”

Gryphon shook his head. Surely he’d misheard her.

“Men like that are in it for the hunt. Every time you get in his way he’ll only try that much harder. It will be worse next time.”

“He hasn’t ever … ” for some reason Gryphon couldn’t finish the question. “Has he?”

Zo stared down the road, holding one hand to her stomach. “Does it really matter?”

A lion roared in Gryphon’s chest. For some reason beyond his understanding it mattered very much. Too much. But there was something in the way she avoided his eyes, something about the shy set of her jaw that made him think she’d escaped Gate Master Leon’s clutches so far.

“That’s why you always caked mud on your face, isn’t it?”

Zo bit her bottom lip and gave a quick nod.

The fabric to cover her silk hair, the oversized clothing that made a mystery of her pleasant figure. It all made sense to Gryphon now. He was blind not to see it sooner. She wouldn’t have lasted long without those simple defenses.

“He can’t touch you now, Zo. I won’t let him.”

Zo stopped walking. She peered at him from the corner of her eyes. Untrusting. “Why, because I belong to you?”

Gryphon winced. The suggestion made his cheeks warm. He looked away, grateful for the cover of night. “Despite what you think, I am not a monster.”

“No.” She picked up her kit from the ground and wiped blood from the corner of her mouth. “You are a Ram.”

Zo had said the hateful words aloud because in her heart she couldn’t quite form them. Gryphon was an unfathomable being. A creature of his own mold. The Ram uniform didn’t fit a man who preferred using his blade to whittle designs into pieces of wood. He’d done so much for her and Tess. His mere presence tonight meant that he had been on his way to check on her.

Zo shook the fog from her thoughts. A wolf dressed in sheep’s clothing was still a wolf.

The irony of the comparison just angered her further. Wasn’t she the Wolf wearing the wool of the Ram? The world didn’t make sense.

“When do you leave again?” she asked, partly because she could pass along that information to Commander Laden, partly because she didn’t want him to go.

Gryphon scowled. “Why do you want to know?”

“Just thinking about Tess. When you leave, what will keep the Gate Master from finding her?”

Gryphon kicked a rock off the dark road. “I have a plan.”

They turned off the road and up a dirt trail. Zo’s head throbbed as she shivered from the night chill. They reached the Nameless’ quarters on Gryphon’s property. The crooked door did little to block the sounds of whispering coming from inside.

Someone’s in the room with Tess!
She tugged on Gryphon’s arm. Both of her hands could hardly fit around the circumference of his bicep.

Gryphon pushed Zo behind him and opened the door.

The floorboards that covered Tess’ underground hiding place sat in a disorderly pile. Joshua and Tess were hunched over an oil lamp while the rest of the room slept. They seemed to be in the middle of a great, whispered debate because Tess had on her “argument” face.

“What’s going on here?” Gryphon and Zo spoke at the exact same time. Zo almost laughed. Almost.

“I came to tell Tess not to wait up for Zo,” Joshua said, looking mostly at Gryphon.

“You left me hours ago,” said Zo.

Joshua shrugged his shoulders.

“It wasn’t his fault!
I
had questions,” said Tess.

“Lots of questions.” Joshua rubbed his eyes.

Tess smacked his arm with the back of her hand. “I wasn’t the only one.”

“Enough.” Gryphon pinched the bridge of his nose. “I have to get you two out of here. The Seer is coming in the morning. She knows when people lie.”

Joshua jumped to his feet. “The Seer? Coming here? Gryph, what about the other W—”

“I know.” Gryphon spoke over him. “Trust me. I know.” Gryphon turned away, as if it were easier to think without them in his line of vision. Something about his posture changed. Perhaps the set of his shoulders or the stiffness in his stance. Zo couldn’t decide. When he turned to face them again he was no longer Gryphon, he was a leader of men. Someone to follow.

“Here’s the plan.” He looked directly at Zo as he spoke. “Joshua will take Tess into the woods for the night. They can hide there until I come looking for them. You need to leave as well, Zo.”

“Why?”

“Because you’re too easy to read. It’s your eyes.” Gryphon swallowed in chagrin. Joshua wore a curious smile.

Zo took Gryphon by the sleeve and led him a few feet away from Tess and Joshua. “I don’t think it’s a good idea to leave them alone in the woods.” She whispered so only he could hear. She looked back to see Joshua wearing the same foolish grin. “Why can’t they leave at first light?”

“That’s no good. They could be seen without the cover of night. Besides, we don’t know when the Seer’s coming.” Gryphon rested his heavy hand on the side of her arm and gently squeezed. “Joshua will take care of your sister. Trust me. This is our only option.”

Zo couldn’t remember the key points to her argument. She watched Gryphon’s hand fall away from her arm then looked up into the warmth of his earthy eyes. “I … I trust you.” Suddenly she felt like she’d fallen off a cliff. There was nothing to hold on to. Nothing to break her fall. Just wind and a rapidly approaching bed of rocks below. She couldn’t seem to catch her breath.

The corner of Gryphon’s lip raised in a subtle smile. “I’ll tell my mother you went to check on the family you helped last night. It shouldn’t raise suspicion. Thankfully, she knows nothing of Tess.”

Zo barely heard him, but nodded anyway.

“Joshua, two bedrolls, rations, water, knife, bow. Take her to my spot. Not too fast, she’s young. If I haven’t come for you by sundown, find Ajax. Tell him I’ll explain later.”

“Got it.” Joshua bounced on his toes like this was all just some grand adventure.

“Go!” Gryphon ordered.

“Oh yeah.” The boy shot out of the building.

“What can I do?” Zo asked.

“Hug your sister and get some rest. I have a feeling tomorrow is going to be a big day.”

She’d said she trusted Gryphon, even as the words came out, she knew it was true. “There’s something else you need to know.”

Gryphon crossed his arms and frowned. She had the impression that he thought he knew what she was about to tell him.

“You are good friends with Sara, right?”

Gryphon obviously hadn’t planned for that response. “She’s like a sister.”

Zo dug her toe into the ground.

“What do you know?” He urged her on.

“It’s about her sister, Eva. She’s in trouble.”

Gryphon sat awake for most of the night whittling down a piece of pine into the shape of a Ram. His attention divided between Joshua and Tess hiding in the forest, Ajax’s small family, the Gate Master, Eva and the unborn Nameless’ child she carried, the Wolf hidden in the barn, and then, of course, Zo.

How did he find himself responsible for so many people? What would happen if he just closed his eyes, and let everything happen? Why did he care so much that Tess be spared from the Gate Master? Or that the Wolf be allowed to live? And Ajax really couldn’t expect him to risk everything he’d worked for to help his child, could he?