by Lizzy Ford
Aveline had a hard time finding any good in her circumstances. It would take a lot of work to hide her deformity in the city, where she was likely to be burnt at the stakes by Tiana’s father, if discovered. With another look at Tiana’s smile, Aveline kept her concerns quiet and studied her massive paw.
Tiana was right about being able to slash a person into pieces, she admitted. It would help her coerce people into doing or saying what she wanted. People like the man who betrayed her.
Aware of Tiana’s hopeful gaze, Aveline released the breath she held and nodded. The fur crept down her arm, and her bicep returned to its normal size. “This can be useful,” she said. “Once I’m used to it.”
She did not need to look at Tiana to feel the Hanover girl’s excitement.
“Where are my clothes?” she asked and glanced down. She was naked beneath the blankets.
“You have been sleeping for two days. Every time you transformed, you tore apart the clothing you wore,” Tiana explained and twisted to see the healer. “Will you examine her again?”
Aveline gritted her teeth in irritation. She was headachy and groggy from the medication the healer had given her. The skin of her bicep started to stretch again in response to her emotion. Forcing herself to relax, she sat with tried patience as the healer examined her quickly.
With a brisk nod, the Native moved away from her.
Tiana stood waiting, Native clothing in her arms. She appeared comfortable, if not outright cheerful, dressed like one of the Diné who had declared war on her family and Lost Vegas.
“My clothing is shredded?” Aveline asked.
“It is,” Tiana said and rested the Native clothing on the bed. “But you are one of them. You will fit right in.”
Aveline eyed the garb without moving.
“Was your mother not a Native?” Tiana prodded.
Aware both of them were watching her, Aveline nodded. “She died at my birth,” she said. Allegedly.
Leaving the city had been worse than she ever expected it to be. She had begun to doubt the foundation of her life and now, she was deformed. She had always known the devil’s blood ran through her veins. Was this what her father had tried to tell her? Why he taught her to control her anger never to lash out at anyone? Was skinwalking the devil’s curse? If so, why had he not told her directly what would happen, if she did not control her emotions?
Why had he never transformed into a beast form in front of her to show her what form her fate would take?
Rocky’s insistence that Aveline’s mother did not die at birth returned, along with the claim her mother – not her father, as she had been told – had been the one possessed by devil’s blood who massacred a thousand people in three days.
She did not want to believe her father would lie to her.
“The skinwalker tribe is said to come from the far north,” the Native was saying. “Your mother was far from her people.”
Why would her father keep this truth from her, too?
Aveline flung off her blankets. “Yeah, well, maybe she realized skinwalkers are terrible people,” she said. She dressed quickly. “Where are Jose and Rocky?”
“They are safe,” Tiana said. “Everyone is in this village, except for Arthur and Marshall Cruise.”
“Is your brother well?” Aveline asked.
“I believe so,” she replied. “I had a vision of him last night. He is alive.”
“And you?”
“Their chief has been very kind to me,” Tiana replied. “They hate my father, too.”
Aveline snorted. “But are you free to leave? A prisoner?”
“They are being unnecessarily kind, considering whose daughter I am,” Tiana said.
Aveline’s instincts, honed by learning to survive the streets, were nowhere near as assured or calm as Tiana’s. Even if the Hanover patriarch did not want his deformed daughter back, he would use her to get what he wanted, and so would his mortal enemies. Tiana was at ease and smiling, as if she were a guest, but Aveline guessed that was far from the case, especially since Arthur was no longer in this tribe’s possession.
“You even have a feather,” Aveline murmured, uncertain why she was disturbed to see Tiana in the clothing of her enemies. The feather was pinned in Tiana’s hair, a streak of black against the blond.
“I earned it,” Tiana said quietly, solemnly.
Aveline’s eyebrows quirked in amusement. “What you have done?”
“I took a life.”
Aveline knew nothing of the Natives’ traditions and wondered why Tiana had revealed killing Matilda to anyone. Her head ached too much for her to think clearly about everything. “If you want to wear it, then do it,” she said. “If they are forcing you to, then don’t.”
“They have not forced me to do anything.”
“I find it hard to believe you are being treated well by your father’s enemies.”
“You will see. Their chief is very kind,” Tiana added. “He requested to speak to you when you were awake, if you feel well enough?”
“Definitely,” Aveline said, suspecting she was going to have to help Tiana navigate the politics of this place.
“Thank you,” Tiana said to the healer.
Aveline followed her out of the tent into the village. Tiana had no chains, no one watching her at all that Aveline could find. The Hanover girl moved through the village unchallenged and paused outside the largest of the temporary tents located towards the center of the village.
“Sir?” she called. “Aveline is awake.”
After a pause, the entrance was flung open by a Native not much older than Rocky.
For the first time, Aveline saw Tiana wilt, as she often had in the city. Her eyes dropped, shoulders hunched, and she stepped aside.
I hate that, Aveline thought. The fur on her bear arm expanded, and she forced herself to breathe deeply.
“Come,” the Native said curtly to Aveline.
Already disliking him, Aveline nonetheless obeyed and entered the warm tent. Tiana remained outside, and the flap closed behind her. A fire and a single bulb lit the interior enough for Aveline to see the form of an elderly man seated near the fire. He was bundled in blankets despite the overly warm tent.
“It pleases me to see you well,” the older man said and peered up at her.
Aveline started to cross her arms and then stopped when her bear claw interfered. “Am I a prisoner?” she asked.
“You are a guest, until my father decides otherwise,” the younger man said in a hard tone. “He wishes to speak to you about the Hanover girl.”
Here comes the bad news, Aveline thought and braced herself to learn that Tiana had been lied to.
“Please, sit in comfort,” the older man seconded and motioned to a spot near him. “I am Elk Hunter. This is my son, Diving Eagle. We have much to discuss.” He paused and coughed hard enough for his face to turn bright red.
Diving Eagle handed him a wooden goblet of water.
“You are her guardian, are you not?” the elderly man asked when he had recovered.
“I am,” Aveline replied. “Appointed by her brother and father.”
“You entered my village subversively.”
She said nothing.
“I wish to speak to you openly about the circumstances you both find yourselves in. I value your honesty.”
Aveline hesitated then sat opposite him. “My friends? Jose and Rocky? Are they in these same circumstances?” she asked.
“Jose is an ally, and claims Rocky is his protector,” the chief said. “How true this is does not concern me. What concerns me most is the Hanover in our midst. Your friends will remain here, pending your agreement to our terms, and the Hanover carrying out what she has agreed to already.”
“They’re hostages.”
“Yes.”
Aveline swallowed hard. “She is nothing like her father or her brother,” Aveline said. “She will keep whatever promise you forced her into making. Your grievances could n
ot be directed toward a more innocent person.”
“I am aware she is different,” Elk Hunter acknowledged. “And we all saw what she did to the skinwalker.”
Aveline’s brow quirked. In the far reaches of her mind, she saw an image of a Native man and a wolf, a flurry of movement, someone shouting … but none of the pictures formed completely. “I can’t remember anything,” she said.
Elk Hunter glanced at his son, who began to speak.
Aveline listened to his version of events, of Tiana using magic to subdue and then throw the skinwalker into the sky, in quiet. She recalled Matilda’s death at Tiana’s hands, and the magical events Tiana could not control, the telekinesis and mind reading.
“You are not surprised,” Elk Hunter observed, sharp eyes on her.
“No,” Aveline replied.
“Would it surprise you to know only one Hanover heir every generation is born with this power, which allows him to rule and protect his city?”
Aveline frowned. “But Arthur is the Hanover heir, not Tiana.”
“This is clearly what their father used to believe as well,” Elk Hunter said. “Though he must have suspected otherwise to assign you as her guardian and to send the messages I have been receiving lately.”
“Perhaps he hopes otherwise,” Diving Eagle said.
Aveline tensed. “Why would you say that?” she snapped.
“Because her mind is not fit to lead,” he replied.
She rose. Anger flared within her, warming her body from the inside out. Her shirtsleeve ripped as her entire arm transformed into that of a bear. “There is nothing wrong with Tiana!” she growled.
The warrior shifted closer, eyes flashing with challenge.
“My son means no disrespect,” Elk Hunter said with a glance at his edgy Native son. “His anger is derived from a different source.”
The warrior looked at his father and then dipped his head. “My apologies, Father,” he said through gritted teeth. “I did not mean it as an insult. The Hanover views the world through her heart.”
“That’s a good thing!” Aveline retorted.
“I would agree,” Elk Finder said. “It’s a gift to view the world as beautiful when most of us see its faults instead.”
“But you must admit she cannot do so, if she is to lead,” his son said reasserted more quietly.
“Soon, you will see things as I do,” his father replied with a warm smile.
“No, Father. You will live many years yet and lead us through what the Hanover’s bring upon us.”
Aveline half-listened, assessing the elderly chief was too frail to survive the year. Deep inside, she understood Tiana’s chances of survival on her own were not good. The Hanover girl was too gentle to use her power to hurt others, which left Aveline puzzled about Tiana’s motivation for trying to murder a skinwalker.
Aveline scratched her neck with her normal hand and felt the fur that had spread across her shoulder and up her neck. She grimaced. Holding her temper had always been a challenge. She now had an additional reason to work harder at it.
“Please, sit. We are here to discuss her fate, and yours,” the chief said.
The words settled some of Aveline’s fury, as she realized the importance of this casual meeting. If she reacted poorly, she likely condemned them all. Rolling her shoulders back, she sat back down.
“You are aware of the nature of the relationship between my people and the Hanover’s?” Elk Hunter asked her.
Aveline nodded.
“You understand, then, that I cannot release her.” He glanced at his son again. “My behavior towards the daughter of the enemy of my people has been lenient enough for my own people to doubt me. She is being treated as an honored guest and has her freedom, as long as she remains within the village. After witnessing what the skinwalker did to another of our villages, this one filled with families and children, I did not believe it right to confine her after she prevented the skinwalker from doing the same to this village.” He shifted and sipped water before continuing. “Those outside the village, who did not witness her actions, do not understand how I could grant our enemy life, let alone regard her as a guest. The tribal council arrives today to review my decisions, and I have entrusted them with a recommendation, and ultimate decision, of how to handle both of you.”
Aveline listened, startled by his candidness. Her arm returned to normal, until her bear claw was all that remained of her deformity. “Why are you telling me this?” she asked warily.
“I am recommending Tiana’s life be spared, under three conditions.”
Aveline braced herself for the bad news. “What are they?”
“The first, that she helps us trap the skinwalker.”
“I thought you said it was thrown into the sky,” she said.
“It landed five miles away – alive. Barely, if the amount of blood found around its landing place is any indication,” Elk Hunter replied. “However, his body was not there. As long as the creature is loose in our lands, and we hunt it, our focus is elsewhere than on our traditional enemy, who becomes a larger threat each day.”
“You want her to capture it?” Aveline asked.
“We will track it, but only she can contain it,” Diving Eagle said.
“Why not kill it?”
“We intend to use it against our enemy.”
Aveline was not at all opposed to witnessing a skinwalker kill – or try to – the Hanover leader. “That man will not die easily,” she said. “I don’t think even a skinwalker can stop his madness. But I will not stop you from trying. After all he has done to the city and to his own daughter …” She shook her head.
“You will have the ability to speak to it as well,” Diving Eagle said.
“I don’t care to.”
“Don’t you wish to understand more of what you are as well? It can teach you about your mother’s people and your heritage,” he pointed out.
“I don’t want to know more,” Aveline snapped. “I am content knowing what I do and carrying on my father’s legacy. Now, what’s the second condition?”
“That she and her successors will never harm a member of our people.”
“Basically, peace with a Hanover,” Aveline said. “What of her brother?”
“We did not have a chance to discuss this with him before he vanished. But when we have him again, he will agree to similar terms, or they both die,” replied the warrior firmly.
It was not hard for Aveline to believe the siblings would have no problem agreeing to peace, unlike their mad father.
She heard the soft patter of rain begin to fall against the tent and looked upward.
Had Tiana ever been out in the rain? The errant thought distracted her, made the silence stretch uncomfortably. “What’s the third condition?” she asked and refocused.
“She can never return to the city,” Elk Hunter replied.
“I’m sure she didn’t argue with you there, either. She’s always wanted to …” Aveline stopped suddenly, registering the condition. As Tiana’s guardian, if the Hanover girl did not return, neither could she.
“You anticipate a problem?”
“Not with her,” she answered. “Do these conditions apply to me as well?”
“They do,” Elk Hunter confirmed. “You are part skinwalker, a danger as great as either Hanover.”
“You want to banish us.”
“That is the goal,” Diving Eagle said. “In exchange, you and the Hanover live.”
“It is more than I ever thought I would offer a Hanover,” his father said.
“I am not a Hanover,” Aveline retorted. “Tiana does not belong anywhere her father can reach her, but I belong in that city. It’s my home.”
The two were silent.
“You of all people understand what it means to want vengeance,” she continued. “You have not walked away from a war spanning centuries! The man who betrayed my father and me remains in Lost Vegas, and I will find him!”
The warrio
r shifted at last and approached his father. He bent and whispered quietly before straightening once more. Elk Hunter appeared to think on the request before he nodded.
Diving Eagle looked at her hard. “She can never return. You may, if you agree to carry out our business inside the city,” he said.
“Business?” she repeated.
“You are an assassin?”
In training. Though no one seemed to care she was not an official member of the Guild.
Aveline nodded.
“And a skinwalker. You would stand a better chance of surviving an assassination on the Hanover chief than any others we have sent to subvert him.”
Aveline had never heard of any Native challenging Tiana’s father but doubted said Native would have gotten far before he ran into someone who decided to burn him at the stake. Surviving Lost Vegas was an art in and of itself. A stranger to the city would not know that.
“You will be given ten days,” Elk Hunter said solemnly.
“Ten days?” Aveline echoed. “Most assassinations take months to plan!”
“If you fail, Tiana’s life is forfeit,” Diving Eagle said. “As are yours and those of your friends.”
It was a compromise of sorts, one that would allow her to enter the city again, even if she carried the burden of executing vengeance on behalf of complete strangers. Then again, was that not what she had always wanted to do? Become a professional assassin? Why did this feel like more strings were attached than would be in a paid job?
Her life, Rocky’s, Jose’s and Tiana’s were in the hands of the men awaiting her answer, people who, for reasons she did not fully understand, seemed to genuinely wish to spare them. What made the mortal enemies – who were involved in a centuries’ old blood feud with Tiana’s family – risk angering their own people to protect the Hanover girl?
Because she’s special. Aveline had always understood this, but something other than her heavy bear claw felt off about this situation.
“I have no real choice here,” Aveline said. “I’ll do what you ask.”
“You are wise for someone so young.” Elk Hunter smiled. “We cannot take the city while he is in charge.” He exchanged a look with his son. “The Hanover agreed already to the three conditions. Before you leave for the city, you will both have to testify before the council this evening.”