by Jasmine Walt
Finally, on the third day, we emerged from the treacherous mountain range. Rocky terrain gave way to wide, rolling plains covered in tall yellow grass, with the occasional scruffy-looking tree jutting out of the landscape. The air was hot and dry, and we stopped at the top of a small hillock so I could take off my jacket and survey the landscape.
The serapha charm was still pointing us in the previous direction, so Director Chen’s rescue team had not yet found Iannis either. But with every day we lost, Solantha was likely sliding deeper into chaos. Fear for the city and for Annia’s sister kept us pushing to the limits of our endurance, and we struggled through the long days with little sleep.
“You sure we’re going in the right direction?” Annia asked dubiously as she pushed her long, auburn hair out of her face. “I dunno about you, but the way I see it there seems to be a whole lot of nothing out here aside from those buffalo.” She pointed out to a large group of brown clumps in the distance.
“Not quite,” Fenris remarked as he stretched a finger in the opposite direction. “If you look out there, you’ll see we’ve got company.”
“Huh?” Annia squinted her dark eyes as she looked out in Fenris’s direction. “I don’t see anything.”
“It’s okay,” I assured her with a pat on the shoulder. “They’re little grey dots, and they’re hard for even me to see.” Especially with the backdrop of the purplish-grey mountains on the other side of the plains.
“Little grey dots,” Annia repeated. A hot gust of wind blew straight at us, rustling the grasses at our feet and sending Annia’s hair flying. Not for the first time, I was grateful for the decision to tie my hair back. “So, what are those supposed to be? Little tents or something?”
Fenris shrugged. “They could be, though they would have to be rather large for us to see them at this distance. I’m not sure what sort of dwellings the Coazi use – these people may all look the same to us, but from what I understand, they actually differ from tribe to tribe in numerous ways.”
“You seem to understand a lot,” I commented, my eyes still scanning the landscape. Now that I looked more closely, I could see the dwellings in more than one location across the landscape. “It looks like they’ve got several settlements out here. Is that normal?”
“It’s not unusual,” Fenris confirmed. “Tribes have been known to split off into different clans, especially when their territory covers such great distances. Each one will likely have its own chieftain and shaman, and there is probably a central clan as well.”
“Sounds like politics exist even amongst savages,” Annia said, huffing out a breath.
Fenris turned a narrowed gaze in her direction. “Do not make the mistake of thinking these people are simple,” he warned. “They may not speak our language or practice our customs, but their minds are as sharp as yours or mine. It wouldn’t do to treat them like children or idiots and inadvertently insult them if we run across them.”
“What do you think we should do if we do run across them?” I chewed my lower lip, worried about the possibility. “Do we fight first and ask questions later? That reference book Comenius dug up said their shamans can be very powerful, and I’d hate to be at the mercy of one.”
Fenris sighed. “It’s hard to know. Some of them might be friendlier than others, and it would be a shame to make an enemy when we could find an ally instead. We’ll have to reserve judgment until the moment actually arrives.”
“Well, it’s certainly not going to if we stay on this hill,” I decided, squaring my shoulders. “Let’s move on.”
We trekked for another mile or so across the rolling hills, following the tug from the serapha charm’s spell. It seemed to be a little stronger now that we were out of the mountains, and I was hoping that meant we would run across Iannis soon. Was he with one of the Coazi clans, wearing buckskin tunics and making clay pottery with his manicured hands? The idea made my lips twitch in amusement, and was far more appealing than the possibility that the Coazi were holding him hostage. Though admittedly I couldn’t see either one of those things happening – Iannis was both too proud and too powerful.
And what about the other delegates and their flunkies who had been aboard the airship? Were they with the Coazi? Or had they all struck out together, perhaps even building a shelter of their own as they tried to figure out how to alert the Federal authorities to their plight? Were they all still alive? I had no idea how the airship had gone down – for all I knew it had gone up in flames and only Iannis had figured out how to survive, while everyone else had plunged into a fiery death.
A shudder went through my spine at the thought of dying by both air and fire. With the recent storm and crash we’d experienced, I was glad that I had both feet firmly on the ground. I just hoped they stayed that way until we found Iannis.
8
The serapha charm had us cutting across the plains diagonally. Up ahead I could see two large evergreen forests cutting into the plains and narrowing them into a small path that wound between the large swathes of trees. With luck that was where we’d find Iannis, hiding in the cool, dark safety of the pine boughs as he figured out his next move. That’s what I would want to do if I were in his shoes. But then again, I was a panther shifter, and my beast was more comfortable in the mountains and trees than on these wide, open plains where there was very little cover.
The wind shifted direction. Fenris and I stiffened as an amalgamation of scents hit our nostrils. Clay, dried meat, bread, and…humans.
“Get down!” I hissed.
Annia immediately dropped onto her stomach between Fenris and myself, right at the base of a grassy knoll. I cursed inwardly at the tall grass, which would rustle whether we crawled or walked. My nose told me that the humans we’d scented weren’t very far, and if they were trained warriors they would hear us coming. The air current had been shifting their scent away from us until it had changed direction – if not for that, we would have had more warning.
“We can’t just lie here,” Fenris murmured. “Unless you want to wait for who knows how long and risk them finding us, we need to get up that hillock and find out who we’re dealing with.”
I nodded, my lips pressed together. Turning to face Annia, I gave her a pointed look and jerked my head in the direction of the hillock. She nodded, and the three of us crawled up the side of the knoll as quietly as we could. We peered over the top of the crest to see a group of humans sitting cross-legged at the base of the knoll, enjoying a small meal of flatbread and dried meat. They had long, dark hair and brown skin with a reddish tint that I imagined was what chocolate would look like if it were mixed with magma. There were four men and three women, all dressed in beaded buckskin with moccasins on their feet. The women wore their hair in braids on either side of their heads with a part that fell in the middle, and the men either wore their hair loose, or in a topknot at the back of their heads, with bangs. Two of the men had red and white feathers woven into their fine black hair, and by their build and the weapons they had strapped to their persons I gathered they were the two warriors of the bunch, sent along to protect the party from strangers like us. Next to each of the non-warriors was a woven basket with a lid, meant to be carried like a backpack, and the smears of red on the weave drew my attention.
“What’s the red stuff in the baskets?” I whispered to Fenris.
His yellow eyes narrowed as he considered. “I believe its clay.”
Ah. Well that explained what I’d smelled earlier. So they weren’t a scouting or hunting party – they’d come out to collect clay to make pottery or whatever else the Coazi did with the stuff. I started to relax a little, and let out a sigh of relief.
Instantly, two heads swung around in our direction – the two men I’d pegged as warriors earlier. They jumped to their feet, one drawing his bow, the other hefting his spear. I bit back a curse as we dropped back down behind the crest of the knoll, but it was too late – they’d already seen us.
“I don’t suppose you speak C
oazi?” Annia hissed at Fenris.
“Of course not.” Fenris bristled. “Let us hope that one of them speaks our language.”
Rather than waiting for them to find us cowering behind the hillock, we got to our feet slowly, our hands in the air to show that we meant no harm. The two warriors were already halfway up the hill, and they momentarily froze at the sight of us before leveling their weapons in our direction and shouting angrily.
“Please!” Fenris shouted, drawing their attention to him. “We mean no harm!”
“Why you come on our land?” the spear-toting warrior demanded. He wore his hair long and free, and was a taller, leaner version of the man next to him. Their features were similar enough that I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were brothers, and I breathed a sigh of relief that they knew some Northian. “This not white man’s land!”
“We are sorry for trespassing,” Fenris said, lowering his head. He kept his hands in the air, his body language contrite and nonthreatening, and I forced myself to do the same even though the beast inside me growled at the idea of showing submission to a weaker life-form. Just because I was perfectly capable of killing these people didn’t mean I wanted to. “We are looking for a friend of ours. He might be lost somewhere on your lands.”
“Friend?” the other man asked. He was shorter and stockier than the other, and wore his hair in a topknot. His dark eyes were narrowed, and he kept his arrow firmly trained on me. “A white man?”
“Yes. A white man with red hair.” Fenris gestured toward Annia’s flowing locks, though her auburn hair was much lighter than Iannis’s. “Have you seen him?”
“He was flying in an airship,” I added, drawing the taller man’s attention toward me. “It may have crashed somewhere near here. Did you see anything big fall from the sky?”
The two men looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. They immediately started talking to each other in low tones, which was unnecessary since we couldn’t understand a single word they said. The fact that their broad shoulders had relaxed a little ignited a spark of hope in me.
“Do you think they’ve seen Iannis?” I asked Fenris.
“It’s entirely possible.”
“If we’re lucky, he might even be at their camp!”
“Or unlucky, depending on what they’re doing with him,” Fenris warned.
Finally, the two Coazi males turned back to us. The stockier one met my gaze, and for the first time curiosity sparked in his dark eyes. “You are a man-beast, yes?”
“Huh?” My mouth dropped open, taken aback by the strange question.
“Woman-beast, then.” The Coazi male gestured impatiently. “You can turn into an animal. I tell by your strange eyes.”
“Yes.” My lips quirked a little at his description of me – I’d been called a lot of things in my life, but “man-beast” was certainly a new one for me. “I turn into a panther.”
The taller Coazi turned to his group and announced the news to them in their native tongue. The groups eyes widened, and then they broke out into wide smiles and started talking excitedly, jumping up and down on the balls of their feet.
“Er, what’s happening?” I asked Fenris worriedly.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
The tall Coazi male turned back toward us. “We hear of the strange man-beasts the mages who rule this land made, but never seen one. You show us?”
“You want to see me shift?” I asked incredulously. Part of me was stung by the idea – I wasn’t some kind of pony to be paraded around for their amusement.
Fenris touched my elbow. “I know it might seem demeaning, but I see no harm in doing this if it helps create goodwill with the Coazi.”
Swallowing a sigh, I took a step toward the Coazi. “Alright, I will do as you ask. You might want to take a step back.”
They all stepped back hastily, and Fenris shot me a scowl as I fought against the urge to snicker. Of course there was no reason for them to step back, but I enjoyed the idea of screwing with them a little after being asked to put myself on display like this. Closing my eyes, I reached for my inner beast, and let the white light wash over me. I heard the Coazi gasp and murmur as my body stretched and changed, bone and muscle and skin reforming, fur sprouting, teeth and claws elongating. Delighted at the chance to break free, my beast purred loudly – we were the same person, and yet not, two sides of the same coin. It was hard to explain to someone who wasn’t a shifter – a bit like having a split personality, except that my beast and I weren’t really all that different when it came right down to it. My human instincts were simply more dominant in human form than they were when I shifted.
Opening my eyes, I surveyed my spellbound audience, and couldn’t help but chuff in amusement at their wide-eyed stares. Wanting to milk it a little more, I stretched my long body, padding at the reddish dirt beneath my paws and allowing them to see my claws. Affecting lethargy, I gave them a wide yawn, exposing my long fangs, and they gasped.
“Fearsome,” the stockier Coazi said, his dark eyes shining. “The legends we hear…they are true. But man-beasts are no longer slaves of the evil mages?”
“No, we are not,” Fenris said, a little sharply. I slanted my gaze to him, wondering about the defensive tone in his voice. Maybe it was on behalf of Iannis, who wasn’t there to defend the mages. “Shifters have not been bound by slavery for at least five hundred years.”
“But mages and man-beasts not equal, no?” the Coazi male pressed.
Fenris opened his mouth, but he paused as the white light washed over me, and everyone else turned my way to watch as I changed back. A few moments later, I once again stood on the knoll in human form, my arms crossed beneath my breasts as I narrowed my gaze at the persistent Coazi.
“What’s with all these questions?” I asked. “Are you really so interested in the welfare of shifters?”
“Shifters,” the shorter male repeated, testing the word on his tongue.
“Not concerned with…welfare…but your interest in missing white man,” the taller Coazi said. His dark eyes gleamed with something like mischief as he regarded me. “We know mages can fly in these machines, and the machine had mage…symbol painted on outside. Why is a man-beast trying to rescue evil mage?”
“Huh.” I raised my eyebrows in surprise, starting to see the line of logic the Coazi male was following. Despite their strange looks and clothing and the heavy accent, they were quite intelligent. Much more than I had given them credit for, which made me feel guilty. Really, if I looked down on a group of people just because they were of another race and culture, was I any better than the mages who looked down on us shifters for similar reasons?
“So you want to know why a bunch of shifters and a human are out here looking for a mage?”
“Yes.” The two men nodded, seeming pleased that I was finally understanding them.
“Well these two here happen to be friends of the man we’re looking for.” Annia stepped between Fenris and me, clapping a hand on each of our shoulders. “And I’m a friend of Naya here,” she added, squeezing my shoulder to indicate who she was referring to. “But as far as I’m concerned, I’m here to collect a bounty. There’s a reward out for whoever recovers the mage we’re looking for.”
“Ah. So missing mage is important.” The Coazi’s eyes gleamed at that.
My hackles rose at the crafty look in his eyes, and I took a step forward. “If you know anything at all about a missing white man, I suggest you tell us now.” I was tired of whatever mind game they were playing with us, and I also didn’t like the way they were looking at us. “If you are hiding him from us and plan to hurt him in any way, I will make you regret that decision for the rest of eternity.” I bared my fangs at them.
The other Coazi stepped back, clothing rustling as they leveled spears and knives in my direction. But to my surprise, the tall Coazi just laughed. “You do not risk death for reward, no? White man you seek…he is one you love.”
A blush
rose to my cheeks at that, and my spine straightened. “I owe him a great debt, and I intend to see that repaid.”
The man laughed at me again, and by the way his eyes sparkled I could tell he wasn’t buying my explanation. But he finally lowered his spear, and his companion followed suit with the bow and arrow.
“I am Tsu-Wakan,” the tall man said. He clapped his companion on the shoulder. “This my brother, Caranou. You come and spend night with us, speak with shaman. He tell you what you need.”
“Well this is going extremely well,” I remarked to Fenris as we sat together on one of the many logs arranged around a huge bonfire. I’d been hesitant about the idea of spending a night with the Coazi even though the party who’d met us had been generally friendly, but Fenris had insisted. According to him, a refusal would be a slight against the tribe. Apparently it was rare for outsiders to get an invitation, so this was an honor we shouldn’t pass up.
“Indeed,” Fenris remarked dryly, his yellow eyes on Annia. She was dancing around the fire along with the younger Coazi, Caranou, who had welcomed us warmly enough after Tsu-Wakan had introduced us. By the time he’d led us back to their camp, which was several miles away, the sun was dipping beneath the horizon and our stomachs were rumbling with the need for dinner. Thankfully, the Coazi had been more than happy to accommodate us – they’d led us to one of the round grey dwellings I’d seen from a distance that were a cross between a hut and a tent, and had allowed us to rest our feet while they’d set up the bonfire and roasted meat and vegetables.
“Yeah well you can’t exactly blame Annia.” Along with the food, they’d served us some kind of strong, fermented juice and passed a pipe around, which they’d insisted we smoke. Fenris and I remained unaffected because of our shifter metabolisms, but the alcohol and strange herbs had gotten to Annia. I snorted as I watched her stomp around in mini circles as she made her way around the bonfire, waving her hands in the air and shouting along with all the Coazi. Quite a few of them were bare-chested males wearing nothing but buckskin skirts, their bare feet stomping in the reddish brown dirt beneath us and sending up clouds of dust that made my nose itch. From the way their dark eyes lingered on Annia with admiration, I had a feeling she was getting laid tonight.