The Sylph Hunter (2 page)

CHAPTER ONE

T
he
Racing Dawn
flew above the ocean, rising so high that it was clouds that buffeted her hull instead of waves. The massive air sylph who bore the ship kept the cold air from assaulting her passengers, as well as ensuring that no one was at risk of falling over the side.

Airi hovered right at the tip of the ship’s bow, riding on the edge of the bigger sylph’s nose so that she could feel the wind. She’d never try to do this herself and could never have traveled this fast for so long. She was young still, less than a hundred years old, and small, but she loved the feel of the winds blowing through her pattern. It was almost like music, all the winds of the world singing to her.

Happy, she shimmered farther forward, reaching past the bow of the ship, and felt a limb formed of air wrap around her, pulling her back.

Careful,
the older sylph warned.
You might get sucked away.

Airi settled down, resting against her grip. In a way, it still felt odd. They were both from separate hives, with different queens. Still, they weren’t silly like battlers, to think that anyone alien was an enemy, so she rested there for a while with her friend, just loving the view.

Still, there was another friend she wanted to enjoy this with more. Airi squirmed free and fled back toward the main part of the ship, flickering invisibly past the crew out on the deck. She could take on a form and even become solid, but invisible was easier and the sylphs always knew where she was anyway. So did the only human who really mattered to her.

She went down the stairs to the rooms below deck. In the largest stateroom at the stern, she found her master sitting in a corner with his eyes closed, his hands gripping the arms of his chair. Airi flew over and swirled through his hair, kept just long enough for her to play with. She ruffled it up, bringing it into spikes before smoothing it down again.

Come up and see,
she begged.
It’s so beautiful.

“That’s okay,” he swallowed. “I’m all right.”

Are you afraid of heights?
she giggled.

Devon nodded slowly, his bangs falling forward over his face with each nod. “Absolutely. Definitely.”

She giggled again, whirling his hair into a jagged peak that reminded her of the mountains in the world where she had hatched.
You’re afraid of everything.

“No,” he promised. “I’m only afraid of the things that can kill me.”

Airi erupted into a storm of giggling at that, playing with his hair and his shirt until he looked as though he was in the middle of a wind storm. Devon sat tolerantly through it and finally sighed, reaching over to a dresser bolted to the wall next to him. Opening one drawer, he pulled out a small flute.

Airi immediately stopped teasing him, her breath catching as she settled down, hovering invisible in the air before him. Devon lifted the flute to his lips, tested the sound, and then launched into a merry jig full of eighth notes that had her dancing madly around the cabin.

Like every air sylph she’d ever known, Airi loved music. The world was full of it, from the sound of a breeze through the grass to the staccato hoofbeats of a horse cantering down a road. But the music that humans could make…Her world didn’t have that kind of magic, and it reached through her, making her pattern sing from joy. All of her masters had played music for her, from Devon’s grandfather to his father to Devon himself, and the pleasure of it was more than enough to make her forget the restrictive rules she used to live under, before they traveled to find the freedom of the Valley, where humans and sylphs were equal. Don’t speak, don’t take human form. Obey every command of her master until he handed her down to his son, just like every other sylph outside the Valley. She’d lived that way through two generations of men until she’d been given to Devon. All of them had rewarded her with the music, but Devon had done so much more. He’d allowed her to talk, allowed her to have an opinion, and once they reached the Valley, he’d given her full freedom. Perhaps that inclination was what made his music sweetest of all, and Airi danced to it, not caring about anything that had happened or still awaited them in the days ahead, once they arrived in Meridal to do the duty they’d been sent for, and help the newly risen human queen be the best leader she could to a kingdom she’d never expected to have.

They’d made her a palace that floated in the sky.

Eapha stepped out onto an oval balcony that was twenty feet across, the edges protected by elegant railings. Plants had been brought up from somewhere and sat in stone boxes, their leaves healthy and damp thanks to a water sylph’s attentions.

Dressed in a robe made of pearlescent pink silk, she belted the sash as she walked barefoot across the stone to look over the railing. A light breeze teased her rich black hair, blowing soft strands into her eyes that she brushed away with dark fingers.

Her palace wasn’t nearly the size of the island that used to float over Meridal, now dropped into the ocean and lost, though water sylphs had salvaged many of the furnishings that now adorned her home. She’d been told that this little palace was only twelve thousand square feet in size. The
only
part had made her laugh with delight. The harem where she’d spent the last ten years of her life serving as a concubine with a hundred other women to placate the battlers wasn’t that size. She used to sleep in a room crammed with bunk beds the concubines needed to share. Now her bedroom was fifty feet across and she shared it with only one person.

Eapha looked down. Far below her, the city itself stretched out, tan and brown in the morning light. There was a massive scar where the battle sylph arena used to stand, but otherwise the city looked serene and lovely from this height. She could even see people moving along the streets, tiny as insects from up here.

Easier to see were the sylphs. Water and earth sylphs didn’t fly, of course, but she could see all the other types flying around, many of them swooping past the balcony as they saw she was there, calling their morning greetings to their queen. Eapha smiled and waved back at them. Their voices were so sweet in her mind. For all of them to have their freedom still felt like such a gift to her.

Eapha turned away from the beautiful view, raising her hands through her thick hair as she took a deep breath. The wind teased against her skin and she spun gently, moving her feet and legs into a dance. She’d always loved to dance in the harem, spending hours at a time perfecting the movement of legs, hips, and arms.

Eapha danced on the balcony, throwing her arms up as she swung her hips and belly, lifting up onto her toes and then down again, crossing the stone as though it were her own personal stage.

Only one pair of eyes watched her performance. Unblinking and the color of fire, they regarded her from within the bedroom, half hidden by the mass of sheets piled atop the bed. Unaware, Eapha continued dancing, her eyes closed and her lips wide in a smile as she moved her legs and arms, kicking them high and spinning more. The eyes continued to watch as she raised her arms back over her head, rotating her entire body from the waist.

Finally, the owner of the eyes got up and padded out onto the balcony. Four inches taller than Eapha’s five foot six, his skin was even darker, his hair short with sideburns that reached down to his narrow beard. Lean with muscle, he padded nude to the side of the dancing woman, ducking in around her spin and catching her in his arms, her back against his chest and his hands soft against her breasts.

Eapha gasped as he caught her, her arms coming down as he caressed her breasts, his thumbs rubbing gently against her nipples. “Tooie,” she breathed. The battle sylph who’d made her queen of Meridal mouthed his way down her neck, licking the curve of her shoulder as his hands continued massaging her breasts and then gripped her robe, yanking it open. Eapha leaned back against him, her eyes closed as her breath deepened with desire. Tooie’s lust was flowing through her, making her damp for him, and he pulled the robe away, his body warm and hard against her back and buttocks. His hands left her breasts, moving down her bare skin and between her legs, where his fingers were gentler still.

“Didn’t you get enough last night?” she whispered, turning her head to the side and up toward him. He kept her up late most nights as it was.

“Never,” he breathed and kissed her.

As always since she’d become his master and then his queen, Eapha thought she’d never breathe again. She could feel his pleasure as his mouth covered hers, the touch of her skin against his body, all as clearly as she felt her own joys. More, she could feel how he felt them as well. Their combined pleasure created a cycle, always reinforcing itself, always growing, binding them soul to soul and making her cry out even before he lifted her enough to slide his silky length inside.

Eapha’s back arched, her mouth gasping for breath as she leaned back against him, letting him do as he wished. Tooie lifted her up again, holding her beneath her thighs and against him as he thrust into her. It was perfection. Eapha rode the waves of pleasure, loving him, feeling him love her, and letting the core of that love grow until it overwhelmed them both, exploding through her.

Tooie set her gently down onto the stone, Eapha leaning against him for a moment while her legs trembled. Quickly, she belted her robe closed again and kissed him.

“Do you think any sylphs saw that?” she asked, only a little embarrassed at the possibility. Public sex had been something of an occupational hazard during her years as a concubine.

Tooie shrugged, his whole torso shifting with the motion, his red eyes—made that way since it was her favorite color—crinkling shut. “If they did, the elementals wouldn’t care.” They were all neuter anyway.

“And the battlers?” she teased.

“Ten seconds into that and they probably ran off to find their own masters.”

Eapha laughed and he nuzzled her. It was most likely true. All battle sylphs were sensualists and loved sex, which was why the old emperor had ordered them kept docile by giving them beautiful women, and most of the nearly seven hundred of them in Meridal either had female masters or were looking for one. None of them were staying willingly with the strictly male feeders who’d been caged to provide them with energy, but they had no choice until they found a woman who was willing to take the place of each sylph’s feeders. Of the men who’d once actually commanded the battlers, Eapha didn’t think there were any left. Sylphs were bound to whoever named them when they first crossed the gate into the world. During the emperor’s rule, those masters would then order their sylphs to obey the commands of dozens of other men in a complex hierarchy of control that made Eapha wonder how the sylphs could keep it all straight. The command of a master, however, was inviolate, trumped only by the word of Eapha, once she became queen. She could overrule the hierarchy, but the battlers weren’t willing to take chances. If there were any men left who once gave orders, they wouldn’t last long. The sylphs could track them through the same bond their masters used to make them obey.

Not that it mattered. Meridal was at peace, the emperor was gone, and the sylphs were in charge. Eapha kissed her lover again and preceded him back into the bedroom. He probably wouldn’t let her get out of it for a while longer, but it didn’t really matter.

She had nothing important to do today anyway.

Zalia woke long before the sun rose high enough to take the chill off the desert. Opening her eyes, she looked from her blankets to the other side of the small hovel she shared with her father. Xehm was lying on his own blanket, his mouth hanging lax as he snored. Grimacing, since sand didn’t make a comfortable bed, she checked her blankets to make sure an asp or scorpion hadn’t bedded down with her, and then rose and dressed. Her only dress was old and worn, but still serviceable enough given she would be wearing an apron over it once she got to work. Slipping it on, she put on her sandals and went outside, shivering in the cold air. For all the heat of the desert during the day, it froze at night and even the fires they burned weren’t enough to keep them warm.