by Cathy Clamp
Her brow furrowed and worry brushed his face. She lifted her hand and he inspected her fingertips and pushed on the skin to see whether they were white or blue. The fingertips were the right color and returned to pink when pressed. It was worth a try, in case she didn’t make it through this. Lagash was well known in Akede for his mastery of poisons. If it was a direct attack, there was no way of knowing what he’d used.
It wasn’t difficult at all to ease into her mind. The surprising part was how normal it felt. Whenever he’d tried it previously, it was like reaching his hand through broken glass. It was sharp and harsh and he had to be careful not to get cut. But this was like sliding his hand into bathwater. No resistance, no bottom, just unending depth and warmth. Anica’s eyes were locked on his. The expression on her face was close to amazement.
Amazed. Yes. It is like when Papa turns me. He speaks to me like this. But it feels very different.
Tristan wasn’t used to having his private thoughts overheard. Normally he could control the mental conversation. You’re hearing what I’m thinking without my actually talking to you? Her eyes confirmed it before she even spoke into his mind. Yes. Of course. Is that wrong?
Well, it wasn’t so much wrong as unusual. The door to the exam room opened just as he was deciding how to respond. Amber strode forward with purpose. “Back up. I need to get this in her.”
He stepped back at the same moment he realized he shouldn’t have. Anica reached for him, grabbed the tail of the plaid shirt he’d been loaned. Don’t leave. Please.
You’ll be able to talk in a minute. No need to stay attached. He slipped out of her head like normal, and began to pull his magic back inside himself. Keeping it tightly bound in a ball in his core was the only way for others around him not to realize how powerful he was. But as easy as it was to sink inside her mind, getting out was proving to be more difficult. He kept swimming to the surface of the magic to break free, but the more he pulled away, the deeper he fell.
When Amber administered the medicine by stabbing a prefilled syringe into her thigh, he felt a rush of … something flood through him. In sheer self-defense, he cut the tie cold. His heart was racing, making his head pound. He fell back against the counter, spilling a tray of plastic containers of cotton balls and swabs. The clatter caused Amber to turn her head. “What the hell is going on with everyone today?” He saw her turn away from the table, saw Anica try to rise up from the table, and was only able to point to Anica to get Amber’s attention. The pounding in his head was making it hard to think straight.
Fortunately, Amber realized what he was trying to say and turned just in time to push Anica back down on the table, like Tristan had just done to her. Her eyes began to glow and Anica’s body went still. Amber then came to his side. “What’s happening to you, Ris? Can you breathe? Talk? Is this contagious?”
Amber held out her hand and helped him to his feet. Her skin was hot, fevered, from the power she was using to heal Anica. “Talk to me, Tupo. Any chance whatever she reacted to is the cause?”
The healer putting Anica in a magical hold was enough to sever the last tie to her. He sat down on the floor heavily and tried to catch his breath. “Stupid of me. I did a mind link to try to find out what happened to her. Couldn’t break free and got feedback from the drug. I guess I’m out of practice doing this sort of thing.”
He paused and then added, “But I would really appreciate, Yvette, if you would watch your tongue.” It was important to remind her that prior identities shouldn’t be used. She’d used both the first and last name of a person he wasn’t anymore. He hoped calling her by the name she’d discarded more than a century ago would work. Every older Sazi in the world had gone through things they’d like to forget, had done things that couldn’t ever be revealed in the current world.
She winced, like he’d hoped, and her face blushed almost to the color of her hair. “Point taken. My apologies.” She held out her hand. “Amber Wingate. A pleasure to meet you. And you are?”
“Tristan Davies. From Kansas.”
She nodded. “You said that earlier. I was just surprised and apparently not listening. I must have mistaken you for someone I used to know.”
“Apparently.” He said it wryly, but it was important to say out loud, just in case anyone had been listening. After all, most everyone in town was Sazi. Some had exceptional hearing. That wasn’t one of his own gifts, but he’d known plenty of wolves who could hear a fish jump in a different lake.
“Where is Anica?! Doctor!” A booming baritone shout rattled the walls. “Dr. Wingate!”
“Oh, lord. It’s Zarko. Anica’s father.” Amber put a hand on his chest on her way to the door. “You stay here with her and keep her held. I’ll calm him down.”
She didn’t wait for him to agree. Tristan looked at Anica, still doing her best to stare at the ceiling and breathe through the tube. He wrapped a light magical hold on her. But her anxiety was obvious. He could feel it press against him like a second skin. He was starting to wonder whether her anxiety was about the medical condition or seeing her father. He couldn’t help but turn his attention to the door, wondering when it was going to burst open. The way Zarko was yelling at Amber in the next room made him wonder what sort of relationship the father and daughter had at home.
Papa worries. But he means well. Do not worry for me.
Tristan’s head turned sharply. Anica was staring at him with those so-patient eyes, her pale pink rosebud lips closed and the breathing tube still in place. “How can you be talking with that tube in your throat?”
She touched her head and her voice appeared like magic in his mind. We talk in our minds, like you say.
He responded in kind. But I disconnected that link. How are you still using it?
Her brow furrowed, causing tiny lines between her eyebrows. Why do you not answer? Are you angry with me?
“I did answer you. You can’t hear me in your head?” She shook her head. Well, that was odd. “But you can speak to me?”
Yes, of course. I can feel you hearing me, like an echo in my ears.
Interesting. And worth talking to Amber about once they had a free moment. The door burst open just then and a large bear of a man filled the doorway, blocking any view of what was behind him. No doubt of his identity when he spoke. “Anica! You are hurt? There is blood. Who has done this to you?” The glowing eyes turned Tristan’s way. The twin emotions of anger and suspicion hit him in the face like a club just before the man pointed a finger at him and began to stalk toward him. “You. You did this.”
CHAPTER 5
Tristan didn’t back up at all as her papa stalked toward him. He was either very confident or very foolish. Even when her father grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him very close, his face remained calm. “What have you done to Anica? Who are you and what are you doing in my town?”
Anica tried again to sit up and this time was able to push away the sensation of a rope around her that felt like one of her brother’s wrestling holds. They had wrestled often as children, before she began to look too much like a woman. She was very good at slipping away from him. The swelling was down in her nose, and if not for the tube in her throat she would be able to breathe normally.
“My name is Tristan Davies. I was helping the doctor so Anica could breathe. See?” He pointed toward her and Papa turned to see her fiddling with the tube in her throat. “She wasn’t getting any air.”
The doctor walked through the door and let out a great sigh, much like Mama would do when Papa would argue with Samit over politics. Amber’s eyes began to glow with golden light, nearly the same color as the ducks on her top. Anica’s father began to slide backward across the tiled floor. Tristan stood still even as Papa’s grip pulled his shirt until it ripped. “Zarko! What did I say? I said, don’t overreact. Anica will be fine. The medicine is working on the allergy. I can heal anything else,” Amber said. She took a few steps and then pulled him by force of magic alone to the edge of the exam t
able. He watched, his eyes glowing bright blue as he fought against the power of the bobcat healer, to no avail. She was a very powerful shifter. He was forced to watch without talking as Amber examined her again. She flicked a gaze toward Tristan. “Okay, the swelling is down. She should be able to breathe on her own again once I get the tube out. Keep her still a few seconds longer, Tristan.”
Did she not realize he wasn’t holding her anymore? Shouldn’t she be able to feel that? But she had to let the doctor do her job, so she remained still. Tristan came to stand beside Zarko and winked one eye at her and curved his lips in a slight smile. His scent was amused, as though he found the fuss over her funny. She struggled not to smile back, because it hurt her throat. Tristan put a hand on her shoulder again as the doctor pulled the tube from her throat. It hurt. A lot. Both Tristan and Papa noticed, but it was Tristan who eased warm magic into her that made the hurt go away.
The warmth flowed deep into her throat and a tingling spread into her chest. She could suddenly breathe again and took her first inhale with her nose and mouth since smelling the soil in the forest. She risked talking. The first words came out as a croak. “It feels … good … to breathe again.”
“I’ll bet it does,” Amber said with a smile. “Let me get you some water. It’ll help with the pain in your throat.”
“That would be good. I would like to get back to the forest very soon to find that spot again.” Already she could picture the spot, knew just how to get back there. It must be soon, before too many other scents covered or mixed with it. She wasn’t very good yet at sorting out layers of smells.
There was sudden silence in the room and Anica found that all three people were staring at her with varying levels of shock on their faces.
The doctor spoke first. “Whatever’s out there nearly killed you, Anica. I don’t want anyone going out there until we can find out if there’s a toxin out there.”
She shrugged, not really understanding the concern. “Dalvin was not sick. Or Rachel. Now that I know the scent, I can avoid breathing too deep.”
Papa added his own concerns, with a low growl that always told her he was worried. He put a hand on her shoulder, tried to push her back to where she was lying down again. “There is no reason. You will stay here, in town, where I can make sure you are safe.”
She pushed his hand away, suddenly annoyed, and swung her legs off the table before standing up, feeling nearly normal from the healing of Tristan and the doctor. “Papa, stop! I am grown. I decide what is good reason. Not you.” She pointed at Tristan, who had furrowed brows but was saying nothing. “This man is a guest, and he is in danger. Someone is following him, stalking. We need to know who. Others could be in danger.”
Her statement made Tristan’s scent change abruptly. Where before he was slightly amused but not concerned, now he was suspicious and alert to her every movement. “Why would you say that? Who would want to follow a simple tourist?”
She didn’t mean to, but when she blew out a frustrated breath it sounded much like a rude noise. She touched her papa’s arm again. “Please, do not lie. There is no reason, you understand? This is my papa. He is Alpha of whole town. The doctor is important person in Council, but you know this already … yes? I have seen your mind, your heart. You are not tourist. Whatever your reason for coming, it is good, honest. If not me, then you can trust them with your reason.” She touched the side of her nose, even now smelling the turmoil of scents that came off everyone in the room, including the overwhelming scent of his lie. “But I can smell, you see? Very good. You have enemies. Someone knows you are here, but not why.”
Papa tapped his finger on the edge of the exam table and then turned slightly and poked it in Tristan’s chest, his scent and face full of suspicion. “You will come with me. Doctor, you as well. And Anica—” He growled again. “You will stay in town. Rest. Do not leave again until I say. If you are grown, and you will not listen to your papa, you will listen to your Alpha. Yes?”
She had to work not to roll her eyes. That would be disrespectful. “Yes, Papa. For a little while. As you say, until I’m rested.”
He turned and stalked out, muttering under his breath in Serbian, “Gospode daj mi snage.” Asking the good Lord for strength to deal with her seemed a little overreaction. The doctor struggled not to smile and followed him out. Tristan made no such attempt and winked at her again as he left.
The air filters quickly cleared out most of the emotional scents. She’d noticed that the buildings in town were very good at that. It was probably a wise thing, since so many different animals lived so close together. She didn’t really care for the scent of the cats. The musk was sharp and unpleasant. But then again, she’d heard the same about bears, which she didn’t understand.
She swallowed, and the pain was much less. Touching her throat, she found there was little left but a tiny ridge of scar and some itching. It was still so amazing to her what the Sazi could do. Even the least of them seemed to be able to do so much more than her. The only benefit she’d received was a strong nose, and what good was that really? Smelling only caused more trouble.
Opening the door to the exam room, she walked down the short hallway without meeting anyone she knew. But out in the main waiting area, Dalvin and Rachel were waiting for her. “Hey!” Rachel said with a smile. “We saw Amber and your dad come out a minute ago and they didn’t smell worried, so we figured you were all healed up. What happened to you?”
“They say it was an allergy. I used to be allergic to berries as a child. So I suppose like that. It did swell my tongue and throat like then. But it wasn’t berries.”
Rachel looked at her oddly. Her scent was a burst of something close to limes. “You were allergic to berries? But you’re a bear. That would suck. Like me being allergic to mice.” She made a little face. “Which I actually wouldn’t mind. My owl wouldn’t like it, but I sort of hate them.”
“But I didn’t eat it. It was just a smell. Can that be?”
Dalvin shrugged and held the door to the clinic for her and Rachel. “Sure. Some people are allergic to perfume or car exhaust.”
That made Anica nod, remembering something. “This is true. I remember my uncle Baku—it was not his real name, but what we called him—he would sneeze whenever it rained. Papa said it was because of the moss at the river, even though we were far away.”
The breeze was blowing in from the mountain as the sun lowered behind the tops of the trees. The smoke was a little less thick in the air now, giving way to the scents of people and cooking food across the town square. “The fire goes the other way tonight. That is good. Maybe we sleep safe.” She could also smell the route that her father and the others had gone. She could nearly see their trail as a shining path with her eyes, but she knew it was her nose that could “see” the three scents. It was easy to sort scents in the air. Even the wind didn’t diminish the scent. It shifted it, but whole, like blowing a leaf from place to place. But with the leaf, she could always find the tree.
“It’s going to be dark soon. Want to get some supper?” Rachel looked almost too tired to chew, and so did Dalvin. Their eyes, so red, and the skin was puffy beneath. She was a little surprised they wanted to stay with her instead of going home to sleep.
Her hand went to her hip with mild annoyance. “Did Papa tell you to keep me in town?”
Dalvin’s face was blank, but Rachel shrugged, admitting it. “Yeah. But I’m hungry too.” And the moment Anica thought about food, her stomach rumbled impatiently. She sighed. The forest and its intriguing scents would have to wait.
“Yes, we should eat. I’ve missed too many meals today. My bear is not happy.” Anica knew there would be hamburgers, ribs, and sausages, along with fruit and salad, at the food station. She swallowed and felt a sharp pain, reaching up to touch her throat instinctively. Not unexpected after the wound, but annoying. “My throat is sore still. Perhaps something cold first?”
Rachel agreed by scent alone, but Dalvin added word
s. “Ooo! Cold sounds good to me too. Dessert first it is. Polar Pops?” Dalvin held out his arm, crooked at the elbow, and Rachel tucked her arm around his. The dark-skinned man held out his other arm. He was so much taller that Anica had to reach up to rest her arm on his.
It was only a few blocks on the dirt roads to the ice cream shop owned by an odd falcon named Skew. It wasn’t her real name, which was Sensabille—a very pretty name. She reminded Anica of a parakeet her grandmother had owned. It was a tiny yellow thing with a spotted chest and always seemed to flit this way and that around her small house. Skew was the same in human form. She flitted. Her attention changed as quickly as her eyes moved. She was nice, and friendly, but it was hard to carry on a conversation with her. Anica hadn’t known any other shifter falcons, but it didn’t seem like they should act that way. Falcons in the wild seemed so intense and intelligent. Yet, sometimes, Sensabille seemed almost normal. It was as though she was two halves of one whole person, with neither half knowing the other existed.
Even before they entered, they could see that the shop was busy, with nearly every table taken, inside and out. Anica had found that even in the cold months some of the people in town liked to sit outside. “I think I see a table in the corner,” Rachel said over the bright ringing bell as they entered, pointing to a small, round table with two chairs. “I’ll go grab it. Order me something simple, like a chocolate sundae. But—”
Dalvin continued with a pat on her shoulder, “No nuts. I know. You never did like peanuts with ice cream. I’ll go brave the line. You two sit down. See if you can find another chair somewhere. What would you like, Anica?”
Rachel made a face, confirming the statement. “Yuck. Peanuts aren’t good for anything other than peanut butter. How about you, Anica? Do you like nuts with ice cream?”
She couldn’t think of anything she didn’t like with ice cream. “I like everything. So many different flavors.” Anica looked up at the menu board posted high on the wall above the front counter where Skew and two helpers were scurrying around, making sodas and shakes and towering sundaes. Everything was bright and happy here. The white walls with bright spots of colors and the painted cartoon polar bear that took up one whole wall, they all seemed to add to the festive feel of the room. She’d been coming to this shop every few days since arriving in Luna Lake and had yet to find anything she didn’t like. So many different kinds of bars and cones, some with nuts and others with sauce or sprinkles or even tiny bears made of soft fruit. It was all wonderful! She’d been trying everything on the menu, each in turn. Today, she would have …