Panthers of Brigantia Shifter Box Set

by Lisa Daniels

  Rosaline took a step back, “Why are you saying this? What did I do wrong?”

  Orion shook his head, “I did not say that you did anything wrong.” He closed the distance between them, “But if one of the first things a person says is to ask what they did wrong, it is an indication either of a guilty conscience or they are trying to find out what you already know. I do not know what Darius is hiding, but I am certain that there are things that you are hiding even from him. Whatever you said or did that convinced him to so adamantly believe in you is… strange.”

  Rosaline felt like crawling into the ground as he stared her down. Unable to look at him any longer, she bit her lip and looked away. “I am sorry that you feel so wary of me.”

  “I am not wary of you as a person. I think that you do not understand that you have limits and that you are not infallible. You have created the impression that you are in severe turmoil, and that could have detrimental effects on those around you, especially since no one knows what your full powers are. I simply want you to be careful, and rely on those around you instead of trying to do everything yourself. They are drawing from you as a person, not from your magic pool.”

  She looked up at him again, “I don’t understand.”

  Orion vigorously rubbed the back of his head, “I don’t know if I do either. There are too many gaps, too many variables, and too much is going wrong in the world.” He grabbed her shoulders. “I am worried about Ignacio. Something happened while he was gone, and having you out here, in the open after weeks of being closed off, it seems too risky. I trust Darius, I really do. But I don’t trust you, Rosaline. If you have kept something important from him, then he made decisions without fully having all of the necessary information. All of this hinges on you, so I ask only that you think of those around you, not just what you think is right as a priestess.”

  Rosaline’s head was spinning. The idea that Orion didn’t trust her hurt. She had always thought that they were relatively close, even if they never talked too deeply. He always showed a greater level of concern and care toward her than the other priestesses, but maybe she had misunderstood him. “I’m sorry, Orion. I’m sorry.” Her voice was barely more than a whisper.

  “That is not what I want to hear.” He hands held her shoulders more tightly. “Look at me, Rosaline.” Slowly she brought her face up to meet his penetrating gaze. “I know that you are a good person, but even good people make mistakes.” Suddenly, he pulled her to him. Rosaline felt the soft material of his black coat against her cheek—even though she was tall for a druid, he was nearly a full head taller than her. His hand stroked her head, “I want to trust you, but you are hiding something. Please prove that my fears are unfounded.”

  She gave a small nod of her head, “I will try not to add to your guilt and regret.”

  His body heaved as he sighed, “This isn’t about me, but I don’t know how to get through to you. Damn the priestesses for removing all of a person’s common sense in a foolish bid for enlightenment. All it does is make you more vulnerable and prone to mistakes in the real world.”

  Rosaline wasn’t sure what to do, but she didn’t want to pull away from him. Wrapping her arms around him, she put her face in his chest. “I don’t want to disappoint you. After my father died, you were always so kind to me. Only you seemed to care. I don’t want to lose that, but somehow I have managed to lose your trust.”

  He stroked her head, “I’m sorry Rosaline. There is just something very wrong about all of this, and I know that it centers around you somehow. I care about you and want to see you happy, so please, just be careful. Emotions… can be a weakness, but they can be a strength. Remember that, and don’t try to be strong at the cost of everything else. I realize that goes against your training, that it can be considered a corruption, and that is why you should not be out here.” He kissed the top of her head and released her. “I am just rambling at this point, so I will leave.” Orion stretched out a hand and patted her on the head as he gave her the small bag.

  Rosaline threw her arms around him again, “Please be careful, Orion. You are walking a dangerous path, and I don’t want to contribute to it. I will listen to you and not the teachings. I promise.”

  He rested his cheek on her head and patted her back a few times. “Thank you, Rosaline. I hope to see you and Ignacio again soon.” Giving the top of her head a quick kiss, he pulled away from her and took a few steps back. He nodded to her, then he shifted. Rosaline thought that his eyes looked behind her for a moment after he shifted, but before she could say anything, he was gone.

  Chapter 7

  The Distance between Perception and Purpose

  “Let me take that.” A voice directly behind her startled Rosaline. Turning around, she saw Ignacio smiling at her and pulling the bag from her hand. “Are you alright?”

  Rosaline tried to force a smile, “Fine.”

  He narrowed his eyes, “What happened?”

  “Nothing.” She brushed a strand of hair behind her ear. “I just, you know, said goodbye to Orion.” Her eyes turned back to where the assassin had disappeared. “I’m really worried about him.”

  Ignacio’s laugh echoed around the woods, “I’m sure he would be touched to hear that, but it is unnecessary. The only person who can beat him pretty much sticks to the shadows trying to be as unobtrusive as possible.”

  “Darius? What about Caspian? You don’t think that he would be a more challenging fight?”

  Ignacio was walking just in front of her. “Not at all.” He opened up a little space in front of him and slid her bag inside. “It’s set so you can retrieve it if needed.”

  Rosaline frowned and looked where he had placed the bag, but the space was no longer there. “What did you do?”

  “Here,” he picked up her hand. “Think about your bag. Do you have an image of it in your head?” She gave a little nod of her head. “Good, now just stick out your hand,” he held her hand out at her eye level, “and the space where it is should appear in front of your hand. Just slide it down.” As he moved her hand, she felt something open under her fingers, and she let out a little gasp. He released her hand and stepped by with a smile on his face. “Like that.”

  Rosaline pulled down and saw her bag sitting in a little black space, almost as if it were resting in nonexistence. “It’s sitting in the middle of the air!”

  “Not at all. It’s been pulled out of time so that you can retrieve it whenever you need it.”

  Rosaline got her face close to the opening and peered into it. “I always thought that the area around stars was kind of like this.”

  “You are partly right to think that.”

  She turned to look at him to see if he was joking. Ignacio just looked at her with a gentle smile on his face, the corners of his eyes branched out, and she could imagine how he would look in a few thousand years. She smiled and turned away, a slight heat in her cheeks. Letting go of the space, Rosaline dropped her arm for a moment, then stretched out her hand again. Nothing happened.

  “You have to imagine the bag. Focus on it,” Ignacio prompted nearby.

  Giving her head a little nod, she reached out again. This time the space opened. Rosaline squealed and let go. “That’s so weird! How did you learn that?”

  Ignacio winked at her, “Trade secret.” He put his hands in his pockets and motioned with his head, “Come on. There are people waiting for us, and we would not want to disappoint them.”

  Rosaline fell in step beside him, “Do you know any of them? Besides Draven, of course.”

  Ignacio looked down at her, “Yes. I am fairly well acquainted with all of them. Obviously, I’ve known Draven the longest, though. Did you ever get a chance to meet him while he was in training?”

  Rosaline shook her head, “Oh no. I wasn’t all–um, we had to focus, and watching training would be an unnecessary diversion.”

  “That’s too bad. He is quite impressive when he’s in action.”

  A thought struck Rosaline
, “Did you get to train with him?”

  “Not at all,” Ignacio laughed. “We aren’t the same age.”

  “Oh, you are younger than him, right?”

  “Yes, by a couple of years.” He gave a feeble smile and looked down at the ground.

  “Does it bother you that you are so young compared to everyone else?”

  “Sometimes,” Ignacio admitted. “Sometimes my age makes people forget that I am still an assassin.”

  “I’m sorry. That must be frustrating.” Rosaline looked at him, but he was avoiding looking her way.

  He gave a slight shrug of his shoulders, then looked up at the canopy. “I learned to use that to my advantage.”

  “Really? How so?”

  His face still pointed up, but Ignacio looked at Rosaline from the corner of his eyes, “The same way that Caspian uses his good looks to take down people’s guard. Or the way Darius uses the darkness.” His eyes went back up, but Rosaline thought he looked a little sad.

  “What about Orion?”

  “What about him?” Ignacio tilted his head to the side and shut one of his eyes.

  “How does he pass judgment? I don’t think I’ve ever seen him actually going in for the kill before.” Rosaline frowned. “Then again, I haven’t seen the others, either.”

  Ignacio looked over at her, “You haven’t seen me, either.”

  “Of course I have,” Rosaline waved a hand. “I was asked to monitor you on a couple of occasions. You are very different in the field, but I guess…” she thought about what it had been like to monitor him, “I never did see you before it was time to pass judgment.” She turned to look at him. “That’s weird.”

  Ignacio had an eyebrow raised at he looked at her, his pace getting a little faster. “Why would you monitor me?”

  “We were told that we should understand a bit about the way assassins were trained and how you worked. I guess it was a decade or so ago when a few of us watched you kill, what was his name?” She put a hand against her mouth, “Really rotund guy. Some nobleman who had killed some prince or princess. Something like that. Then there was that time you killed a group of pirates who had been burning the coast of that little country. Oh, I forget its name, but you were amazing! My heart was racing when you were shot three times. But it was like you didn’t even notice! You just kept going until you had killed all of them, and walked off without even looking back. But I think my favorite time was when you killed that trio of wild shifters. My gods, you were just so—”

  “Stop.” His voice was low and threatening. “Those were lives lost. It is not something to revel in.”

  Rosaline’s excitement quickly faded as she looked over at her travel companion. “What?”

  “No one should be reveling in the death of others. From the lowest pirate to the worst of the Unwashed to the most corrupt druid, no life should be snuffed out if it can be helped. When an assassin is called in, that means that someone may be beyond saving. If we decide a person is beyond redemption, that is when we act—and it is nothing to be celebrated or enjoyed later.” The scowl on his face softened as Rosaline drew away from him a little. “I’m sorry. You just sounded like... Never mind. I am very sorry. That was uncalled for.”

  Rosaline bit her lip, “You take your profession very seriously, don’t you?”

  “Of course, just as you do.”

  “Oh, right.” She looked away from him.

  Ignacio wanted to ask her what was wrong but after what he had just said he felt he wasn’t in the best place to try to act as her confidant.

  Instead, he offered her a story, “I’m sorry that you saw me working. If I would have known that the priestesses were using me as an instructional tool, I would have either blocked access to my mind, or would have insisted on choosing when you could watch. It’s a shame that you were asked to watch me on those occasions as it did appear like an easy dichotomy of good and bad. It is almost never like that.”

  He paused to frame his thoughts. “I would have had you watch the judgment that I had to pass on this spoiled rich prince and princess. Siblings, as you will learn. The people hated them so much because those two seemed so cruel. He was 17 and she was 15 when I arrived. I was told that it would be a quick assessment, and was expected back within a couple of weeks. The kingdom was literally on the other side of the world, so they figured I would spend a week traveling, pass judgment, and leave all in the same day. But when I arrived, those two were not tormenting the servants or torturing animals as the rumors had said. Their high council had a couple of spies in the palace who were trying to steal the princess, and her brother was protecting her. Their parents were dead, and he was not old enough to take the throne, so the council was trying to turn the people against him. They used the beatings he gave the spies as evidence of his violent temper. It was the spies who maimed animals, and the princess tried to save the ones she could. Though her blood was weak, she was a seer, not that I ever told her.” He gave a little smile. “That was certainly not my place. But when she could not save the animals, she would kill them. The spies made sure that there were witnesses to this, and then they said it was her and her brother practicing for what they would do to the people.”

  He looked up again, his eyes looking into the past. “The things that they did to those two were unforgiveable. It was a small kingdom, and one that could have been easily ignored if not for how horrific the rumors were. I don’t think that it was ever meant to reach our ears, they just wanted regular assassins since it was taking too long to turn the people against them, and the prince would soon be old enough to take over. I did not expect to find much resistance, or expect to be there long, but when I entered her bedroom window, the princess was crying on her brother’s shoulder. Her dress was torn so that it was hardly covering anything. Blood was everywhere, but I quickly realized it wasn’t just hers. A corpse was on the floor, his pants around his ankles, a rapier in his back. There was a bloody knife on the bed, and it was clear that he had used it to cut her all over the place. Her brother was glaring at the door, it was obvious what he was about to do. Needless to say, when I appeared and wrapped a curtain around her, they were both startled. He tried to pull the rapier out of the body, but it is not as easy as people think. Clearly killing was not something the kid was accustomed to. It took no time at all to judge the girl, broken, but not beyond hope. Her brother was harder. The years of torment had warped him. It was too late to pretend to be someone else, but given how terribly they had been treated, I felt compelled to give them an edge.”

  Ignacio pulled at his collar, and pushed his hair back a little, never once taking his eyes off of the canopy. “I told him that I was there to pass judgment, which of course, he didn’t quite understand. As a human, he thought assassins were just killers, so when I said I was there to judge people, he thought I was something else entirely. Playing along with it, I told them that I would need to monitor the situation for a month or two. Of course, he did not trust me and asked if I was on their side why didn’t I just help them? He pointed toward the corpse and began to rage about what had happened to his sister. It took quite a bit of work to calm him down, but his sister managed it with a little help. Only after I promised to keep her safe did he finally stop talking about revenge. Over the next few weeks, the prince became more reserved and thoughtful, but with a little prodding, he started to think in larger terms. Not just about revenge for himself and his sister, but what he could do as king to help his people. That is the purpose of any ruler, and his sister was able to help him get there. I nudged her a little to share some of her visions, letting her believe that it was a blessing from the gods and a promise of something better if they could make it through the pain.

  “There were times when I wasn’t sure that he could be saved, but his sister’s presence clearly kept his impulses in check. The final test was when I revealed one of the spies, and asked how the prince would deal with him. His sister was not around, and I offered a weapon if he thought a quick
execution was the best solution for treason. It was close. So close. But after a few tense minutes, the boy dropped the weapon and punched the spy in the face. Knocked a tooth out, which was quite surprising given how gangly the prince was.” A smile flitted across Ignacio’s face. “Later he cried on my shoulder and said he was too much of a coward to kill the spy. I’m afraid he wasn’t pleased when I laughed at him for that, but after punching me a couple of times, he seemed to finally understand.”

  Rosaline’s eyes widened, “You let him punch you? Knowing what he had done earlier?”

  “I’m a little hardier than a human,” Ignacio chided her. “I’ve heard that the kingdom is doing well, and that the king has a little brood of children now. His sister doesn’t go out much, spending most of her time with her brother’s family.”

  Rosaline smiled, “So it was a happy ending.”

  “They still fight, and he still has inner demons, but he has learned how to tame them, or at least keep them from taking over his reason. Ultimately, that is what we all have to do.”

  “You didn’t kill anyone?”

  “It was unnecessary. I would say that more than 90% of an assassin’s job is not killing people. If most of our time was spent killing, there wouldn’t be many people left in the world.”

  Rosaline couldn’t help a short laugh, “I can see what you mean. But still, all we ever heard about was how assassins are the death side, and we are life. I think that they wanted to impress that on us by showing us what they did.”