The Nameless Warrior

I'm A Monster

The walk back to Gaerlom was silent and slow, and when they returned Timin threw his spear on the ground and glared at his father. "You should have told me what I was."

Kaye sat heavily on the cot, the bowl of balm cradled in her hands. She had cried silently the entire way back, but her eyes were dry now, and that hurt Timin even more. His actions had made her cry until there was nothing left, and he knew how it felt to lose something so precious over a stupid mistake. He left the hut.

The entire way home, all he had been able to think was "I'm a monster." Even now as he climbed down to the cove and sat in the sand it was all he could think. As the water crashed against the rocks in the darkness, he knew he was a monster for causing Kaye's banishment from the only people who could help her.

He kept seeing her face as Bryant said she could never return. It must have been the same face when she found out her chief and High Priestess had betrayed her. She didn't fight back—she accepted it with grace.

"Timin?" It was his father.

Timin didn't turn around. "Why didn't you tell me?"

Gabe stopped next to him. "Because you are Gaerlom, and Gaerloms hate and fear my people. If I told you before you would have gone looking for them, and that is too dangerous."

"But I wouldn't have gone after Kaye." Timin finally looked at his father, but Gabe stared at the ocean. "She wouldn't be banished..."

"It is safer that way."

"Not for her! What if someone finds out?"

Gabe's jaw hardened. "Then we give her time to run."

Timin looked at the waves until his father sat and spoke. "If you have any questions..."

"Was I born with wings?"

"No." Gabe dusted the sand from his hands. "Thank Awena—you have enough Gaerlom blood to be born Tarrin."

"Tarrin?"

"Wingless. It is a Faye word."

Timin didn't want to ask the next question, but he had to know the answer now. "And the baby girl that mom lost? Was she...Tarrin?"

Gabe took a deep breath. "She was Faye. The female child is almost always born Faye."

"Is she alive?"

He nodded. "Alive and well, from what little I hear." Gabe finally turned to his son. "She looks different from the rest of her tribe as well."

Timin had to look away. He had a little sister in Aleda somewhere, flying around on wings and never knowing her real family. "Did mom cut off your wings?"

Gabe laughed, but it held no humor. "No. When she found out I was Faye she tried. She mangled one, but I cut them off myself, to be with her."

Timin looked at him, trying to imagine his father taking a dagger to himself. He had never thought his father was tough compared to all the other men in Gaerlom, but perhaps he was tougher than Timin could ever imagine. "Why? The Faye hate us. I could see it. Why would you turn your back on your tribe?"

Gabe was quiet for a long time. "I was married to a Faye woman before your mother. Things were bad with her. I was depressed and one day I walked too close to the coast. I saw your mother and she was not scared of me. I watched her for moons before I finally got up the nerve to talk to her. She found out what I was the first time we made love and she tried to cut my wings off as I slept. I finished it for her."

He looked at Timin. "I love your mother, and I love you. I would never leave either of you. But the Faye are my tribe, and I could not put them in danger."

Timin closed his eyes—he couldn't put Gaerlom in danger either. "Is there anything else I should know?"

His father sighed. "Do not fall in love with Kaye. She cannot stay here and the closer you become the harder it will be to let her leave."

Timin took a deep breath. It was already too late for that.