The Battle Sylph Read Online Free PDF

stepped out of the hut behind the man, and Heyou’s hate was tempered immediately with interest and his queen’s order to be discreet. This woman had children. She smelled wonderful.
    “I need clothes for my queen,” he told her.
    “You need clothes for you,” she replied.
    “Don’t talk to him!” the man hissed, and Heyou snarled. The man went white and backed up.
    From the rest of the hamlet, more people started coming, the men armed with whatever farming implements they could find, the women standing back and chuckling appreciatively. Heyou delighted in the shape he’d taken and smiled winningly at the mother.
    “Do you have clothes?” he asked.
    She shook her head in amusement, obviously trying not to laugh. “Some old and worn ones. What happened to you? Were you robbed?”
    Heyou thought about it. “Yes,” he decided.
    That seemed to settle it for her. “Your poor lady! She must be devastated.” Then, while her husband stared in amazement, the woman vanished back into her hovel and returned with some folded pieces of rough burlap.
    Heyou took them thankfully but stared at them, not knowing what he was supposed to do. The mother laughed and helped, showing him how to pull an itchy tunic on over his head. The cloth was so worn in places it was barely holding together, but it covered him from his neck to midthigh.
    “You must be used to far finer clothes,” she commented, and he didn’t disagree.
    “Thank you,” he told her.
    She waved the thanks away, blushing. “I’m just sorry I don’t have shoes for you.”
    “He doesn’t need them,” her husband growled.
    Now that he was decent, the women all moved in, chattering and introducing themselves. The men held back, recognizing the danger, but for the women he was too appealing to ignore. He had to fight his instinct to put his protection around them, the same as he fought his hate for the men. A little leaked out anyway, and the women all loved him, while the men were afraid.
    “You’d better go to your lady now,” the mother told him at last, and Heyou nodded.
    “Thank you.” Turning, he strode back into the woods, the women waving good-bye and a few children—all female—running after him. He let them follow, waiting until he had outwalked them all before shimmering back into smoke and returning to his queen.

Chapter Three
    Airi watched the girl and the battler as a drift of sun motes on the wind. The battler was young, barely more than a hatchling. A seasoned battler wouldn’t have let her come so close to his master. This one had left the human girl alone, and without any spoken warning to Airi. It wasn’t as though she would hurt the girl—not even with a direct order from her own master—but battlers were extraordinarily possessive.
    She watched him go and wondered what to do. Devon hadn’t been too detailed in his instructions. Follow them. She had. Should she stop now? She wasn’t an unintelligent creature, but she was a minor sylph. Her duty was to obey, whether in her original hive or with her master here. Independent decision-making skills weren’t something strongly encouraged in her kind. That lack of independence was what the humans used to bind them, but she really didn’t mind. She had one master focused on her alone. No one back in the hive she hatched in had that kind of attention. More, Devon gave her greater freedoms than most sylphs could dream of.
    Unlike battlers, elemental sylphs in Eferem weren’t usually bound into a single shape, though they were limited in what forms they could take. That of a human being was forbidden. Like most air sylphs, Airi preferred to stay incorporeal and invisible, rarely acquiring solid form, since she could use wind to lift whatever she needed. Unlike most others, however, Devon let her speak. That was forbidden to every other sylph, but he’d given her permission, so long as no one else heard. That was a gift and she knew it, forshe’d never been allowed to talk to either