Unless—they weren't native to this part of the Broken Lands.
At which point, it begged the question of how they got here—and whether someone else had a hand in their arrival.
fifteen
"How much longer do you think it'll be before they break?" Van asked, arms behind his head as he lay in the grass, staring at the sky.
Caden didn't pause in his whittling as he carved tiny grooves into the surface of the wood figurine he held. He blew the wood shavings away before smoothing one finger along the marks he'd made.
The present he'd started carving to keep himself from descending into a very dark place, one where violence and chaos existed side by side, was coming along nicely.
The crafty expression of the fire fox was taking shape, his tails curled over his shoulder as he grinned up at Caden.
Eva would like it, Caden thought. If she woke up, that is.
He shot a look at the healer's tent a short distance away, the reason behind his stark state of mind.
After Eva's brief rise to consciousness, Caden had called a halt, wanting Chirron to take a look at her again.
For that reason, the tent was the first to go up.
What Caden hadn't expected was to be barred from its interior, the healer citing that he didn't need testosterone destroying his hard work.
Waiting was difficult.
Impatience and the need for action thrummed just below Caden's skin, calling out to him. Urging him toward an unwise course of action.
Preferably one that involved the spilling of innards and the death of others.
Caden wasn't particularly sure he cared who might be his victim.
Hence, his whittling.
"What's the matter? Bored?" Gawain taunted.
Van ignored the other man, his head turning so he could glance at the door of the tent, his restlessness only a little less marked than Caden's.
Try as he might, Van couldn't hide how antsy Chirron's absence made him.
It was a feeling echoed in many of the Trateri, Caden had noticed. A pall hung over the camp, sucking the enthusiasm out of the warriors and making them tense and on edge.
It was in their voices when they spoke. A level of strain Caden usually only heard on the cusp of a big battle.
Everyone was aware of how dire their situation was. The fact that the cicada swarm was the reason they'd abandoned their valley base.
Unfortunately for them, Caden wasn't in the right state of mind to mediate any conflicts.
A fact Jane and Drake were aware of, moving to head off most at the pass before they could escalate.
Caden's knife slipped as he was adding detail to the fire fox's eye, causing a long, jagged line that looked like a scar.
Caden exhaled noisily. Fuck it.
Van sat up in excitement as Caden stood. "Oh, oh, I think he's finally going to start."
Gawain straightened. "Caden?"
Caden didn't answer, striding toward where Fiona and Roscoe stood keeping watch over their prisoners.
The men looked awful, bruises dotting their faces. Worse even than when the Tenrin dropped them off.
Their fingers no longer looked the way they should, swollen with some digits pointing in the wrong direction.
Their eyes were feverish. Only one of the prisoners was still showing signs of resistance.
"Get them up," Caden ordered.
Fiona and Roscoe looked anticipatory at his words.
"Looks like you boys are about to enjoy a new level of fun," Roscoe observed, reaching down and hauling one to standing.
His prisoner's feet hobbled and his hands tied behind his back, Roscoe's victim had little choice but to obey.
Van grinned at Caden's back, Gawain an observant shadow.
The last prisoner, the one who still had a little fire in him, laughed at Roscoe, the sound like that of dry leaves caught by the wind.
"Just like you'll get to taste the agony of despair when your friend succumbs to the doedea's bite." A giggle left the man as a macabre grin stretched over lips that were cracked and drying.
Fiona gave him a shove. "What would you know about that?"
The man pantomimed locking his lips. He winced involuntarily as Fiona shoved him again. This time hard enough to send him stumbling to the ground.
The prisoner moaned, curling around his ribs.
"I see what game he's playing," Roscoe crooned, never once losing his smile.
He pushed his prisoner toward Drake, who caught him easily. Roscoe crouched next to the troublemaker, grabbing a handful of hair and lifting his face up.
His smile was cruel. "You're trying to make us kill you because you're afraid one of you will break."
"As if we'd let that happen," Van rumbled.
The corner of Caden's lips stretched up in a humorless twist. "Oh well, it was a good attempt. Better luck next time."
Only Caden didn't plan for a next time. This was the end of the line for these two.
"What are you going to do with us?" the first man asked.
"The Trateri have a rule. We only keep those who are useful to us, which neither of you have proven yourselves to be. Since we had to abandon the valley and are currently being hunted through these mountains by your army, our resources are precious."
Caden allowed himself a moment of enjoyment at their flinches, before the numbness that had overtaken his emotions in the last few days since Eva lost consciousness washed away that little bit of emotion as well.
"In short, you're currently nothing more than parasites leeching off our kind intentions. What do we do with parasites?"
Van's grin was nasty. "We cull them."
Gawain made a sound of approval deep in his throat.
"You called them doedea. I'm guessing you know what they do to a person," Caden continued, undeterred by the growing terror in both of their faces, the troublemaker included.
That's what he thought. They knew, or at least had some idea, what they were up against.
Caden wasn't sure if that was because they had a hand in the cicadas' sudden appearance or had run up against them before.
Instinct indicated the former.
Eva had been right all those months ago after the incident with the Kyren. They'd won the battle but not the war. She hadn't been sure back then whether their opponent was mythological, one of the myien, or something else entirely.
Something new and dark, capable of amplifying talents already present in the human and mythological population.
Whatever the entity was, they'd already demonstrated their ability to persuade others to their cause. Particularly, those unhappy with Fallon's rule.
The normal reaction to going against such a powerful entity should have been fear. A Trateri should be no different.
Even if they hadn't felt fear, there should have been a little trepidation.
This wasn't exactly a foe made of flesh and blood, easily slain. It was something so far out of their realm of expertise that it wasn't even funny.
All Caden had to say to that was bring it on.
He bared his teeth in a savage grin at the coming confrontation. Finally, a worthy challenge.
And here he'd thought he'd have to allow others to take the lead in this hunt. It was kind of the entity to bring himself to Caden's territory.
"I wonder how long it'll take the swarm to consume you," Caden mused, still with that deranged smile. "Any guesses?"