Page 19 of Humans Don't Have Horns
“I guess it means I’m not prey.” I try to sound steady, the opposite of the dread I feel. My body vibrates again as I speak. The demichad keeps staring at me as if contemplating my words. “Weren’t you made extinct a hundred years ago?”
“How can prey make the predator extinct? You are so weak and fragile. We were merely asleep in our burrows. We ate, we bred, and we slept. We ate a lot of prey. We were full. We bred and fell asleep. Now it is time to eat again. Soon they all will wake up,” it tells me.
Cold sweat covers my body as the meaning of its words hits me. Aldon didn’t win. It was a lie. They made everyone believe they had saved Amada, but the demichads just had enough to eat. And now they are returning. If no one managed to defeat them, Sun and the Goddess, neither can help us if they are back.
“How many will wake up?” I ask, trying to buy us time. To what end, I can’t say.
“Many. There was a lot of breeding after the last meal.” Many? More than before? But that means more will die this time.
“When will they wake up?” I ask.
“Enough talking. I am hungry.” Its head is not tilted anymore. Its body gains alertness that wasn’t there before.
“You can’t eat us.” I can feel its patience running out. “You said it yourself. Prey doesn’t speak your language, and therefore I am not prey.”
It seems to contemplate my words. Its head is tilted once again. “True.” It vibrates its answer, “But they don’t speak our language,” it says, nodding at Siean and the guards. “They are prey. Now I eat.” And without another word, it leaps at one of the soldiers at an unnatural speed.
I throw myself over Siean and drop her to the ground. I lie on top of her, covering her as best I can. At first, I hear their screams. Splashes of their blood hit me as the demichad punctures their main arteries. Then the screams stop, and there is only the sound of the demichad chewing, of it tearing their flesh.
All the while, the horses are frantically screaming, kicking at the ground as they try to flee. But the guards have secured them to a big tree, and their efforts are fruitless. When the demichad finishes eating the guards, it turns to the horses and preys on all four of them.
I’m too frightened to move. I barely breathe, my face pressed to Siean, and I don’t dare to raise it. I feel Siean trembling under my body in fear. When the demichad finishes its feast, it disappears into the ground. It said it lives in burrows. They were underground all these years. Sleeping. And now they are awake.
Siean and I are alone amid body parts, covered in blood and gore. The silence is so complete I can hear only my heartbeat. All life fled from here. No birds sing. No insects hum. I am drenched in blood. My face, hand, hair, dress. All are red. If I don’t wash it off, I will lose my sanity.
I stand up and watch Siean. She is less bloodied than I am because I sheltered her with my body. She remains in a fetal position on the ground and whimpers quietly. I think she’s in a state of shock. I put my hand on her back. The demichad choosing to spare us is a miracle I can’t understand. But there is no time to dwell on it or let the terror of what happened set in. We are already in Aldon. The demichad can come back, or Aldonian soldiers can find us.
“Look at me, Siean. Look into my eyes, breathe,” I say to her.
She complies, her eyes watery and her face stricken with terror. I take a couple of deep breaths, and she mimics me. Slowly she relaxes and takes several deep breaths.
But then she lets out a piercing scream. Her eyes are focused on something behind me. Did the demichad return?
Chapter Ten
Lian
I turn around to see Daton. I can only gape at him, not finding any words through my shock at the sight of him. He wears a white Aldonian army shirt instead of his old Mongan garment that the direwolves roughly tore up. It’s ridiculously tight on him, and no wonder, since I’ve never seen a man as broad as him. He lays down a big army bag, while his other hand grips an Aldonian sword. It’s obvious these are the belongings of a dead Aldonian. What is he doing here? Where did he come from?
“Are you hurt?” he asks, scanning my body for injuries with his eyes but keeping his distance.
I shake my head and exclaim, “This is King’s Road! It’s not safe for you here.” When he took me to Renya, he was careful to keep us away from the main roads. He has a bounty on his head, so why is he on King’s Road?
“Apparently, it’s not safe for you either,” he answers wryly. His gaze shifts to Siean, who is silent, her eyes wide in astonishment. His eyes darken as he observes her.
He hands me a canteen full of water. I have so many things I want to ask him, but instead, I wash the blood and gore off my face and hands. I must find a place to clean my body and fast. Being covered inthose men’s remains is unbearable. I’m so grateful to Daton for the water.
I should thank him, but Siean speaks to me in a low, frightened voice, “Lian, how do you know his language?”
I stop washing my face and look at her. “I thought Mom must have taught us.”
“Why would Mom know the language of the Cursed Ones? No one knows their language but them,” she replies in admonishment. Daton never believed my mother taught me Mongan. This is all related. I don’t understand why, but it can’t be a coincidence. The language of the Mongans, the direwolves, and now the demichads. What does it all mean?
Daton addresses me again. I know he understood what Siean and I said, since he understands Aldonian, yet he speaks to me in Mongan. “You talked to a demichad. What did it tell you?” he asks, his voice is cold and reserved. My sister’s presence seems to make him agitated. Suddenly, I realize Daton lived during the demichads’ attack. He is a hundred and eighteen years old, which means he was eighteen when it happened. Did he fight them? Did he know they were never truly defeated?
I answer him in Aldonian because Siean needs to hear this as well. “That they are coming back. And that they are in much greater numbers than last time.”
His face darkens. “Shit. How much time until they attack?”
