Page 64 of Lost and Stolen Gods
I joined them. “What are you—" Shadows cut a path across the silver disc.
“Omg!” Remi jumped up and down. “Do you see them?”
The shadows were in the shape of four huge birds.
They flew in a line, each with a rider perched on its back. The thunderbirds?
“Pavan Savar,” Crag said in his sluggish, sonorous voice.
Jasha had mentioned that phrase too. “They’re thunderbirds, right?”
“Yes.”
“Yes. They are mounts for war,” Crag said. “Bred for battle.”
And the figures riding them had to be drohi. Araz and Pashim among them.
The procession vanished into the night, on to battle, to danger.
There was no way I was sleeping tonight.
The next morning was a wet,dreary one with the heavens weeping and thunder shaking the sky. I’d been determined to stay awake and wait for Araz and Pashim to return, but sleep had other ideas and dragged me under, sometime before dawn.
My eyes were gritty as I dragged myself down to the kitchens, hoping for news on the battle. The room was filled with potentials and their drohi. Everyone was already mid-breakfast and talking excitedly.
Remi waved me over when she spotted me. “How did it go? Have you heard? Is Araz back yet?” She fired the questions at me like bullets.
I shook my head, wincing when it throbbed.
“Drink this.” Chaya handed me a cup of herbal tea. “It will help energize you. I doubt that you slept much last night. But I am certain that Araz will return safely to you.”
She smiled kindly, and my stupid eyes burned because I wasn’t even sure why I cared if Araz was safe. He’d been nothing but awful to me. It had to be because of the stupid bond. Honestly, I was more worried about Pashim.
I took a seat at the end of the main table next to Remi and opposite Chaya and Dharma. The rest of the potentials and their drohi had taken up all other available seats.
I sipped my tea, ignoring the bitter tang. “What I don’t understand is how they can send Araz. I mean…doesn’t being bound to me exempt him? At least until I’m trained up?”
“There are exceptions to that rule,” Keyton said. “Araz, Pashim, and Jasha form part of an elite squad. They willalwaysbe on call.”
“I don’t understand any of this,” Eve said from across the table.
Her drohi frowned down at her. “I have explained to you,” he said his tone weary. He wasn’t as bulky as the other drohi, and there was a look of sharp intellect to his features.
Eve rolled her eyes. “Yes, you said the devouring force keeps attacking the same locations. What I don’t understand is why the gods don’t move the mortals living there.”
“She makes a good point,” Dharma said.
Eve looked across at her in surprise, and Dharma shrugged.
“The Asura will not submit to the devouring force,” Chaya said. “They will hold their ground and protect the mortals.”
“And how do the mortals feel about that?” Priti asked.
“Priti.” Keyton put a hand on her shoulder. “You are new to this world, but it is not wise for you to question the will of the gods.”
“I think we have a right to ask questions,” Joe saidfrom somewhere down the table. “Especially when these gods expect us to join them in this war.”
A sense of unease filled the room, and my gut told me that we were skating close to a ledge that none of us understood, not even the drohi.
