by Karalynn Lee
Ryuan was still breathing hard, still focused on that mangled body, but it remained unmoved by even the barest breath. The sorcerer was dead. He could go back to Kaen with his mission completed at last—and yet it had been another who had fulfilled it. He felt cheated of his prey.
What mattered was that it was done, and Calanthe was safe. He calmed himself with an effort and started to go to her, then stopped. Iril knelt by Tamel’s body, weeping. But what caught his attention was the tear that fell from another’s eye—Calanthe’s.
The wolf stepped back, and then it was Nerav in man-shape who laughed. “You mourn him, when he threatened to kill you?”
Ryuan waited for her answer.
“We meant something to each other once,” she said softly. “I didn’t think he would be able to bring himself to harm me.”
“Do you truly believe sorcerers can care for others, when our lives are but brief sparks in the span of theirs?”
Iril looked up. “He loved me,” she said. But her face was drawn, and her voice hollow.
“He used you,” Nerav said. “A builder for his city, where he could rule over minor sorcerers with their petty powers. You were but the first among his subjects.” He took a step toward her. “Sorceress.”
“You’ll not have me or this city,” Iril said, and she flung out her arms.
The walls trembled.
“Move!” Ryuan pushed his shoulder into Calanthe’s back, startling her into motion. They ran, all of them save Iril, united in direction by this sudden new threat.
Slowly at first, the stones began to edge out of their places in the walls. Somewhere behind them a building crashed down, and they felt it as much as heard it. Then another building, and another, until it was a continuous rumbling and the ground they ran upon did not stop trembling.
Ryuan saw to his relief that the gate was still standing, but it began to tilt just as they came near. He threw his body across the threshold, only vaguely aware of Calanthe and Nerav doing the same. Then there came a waterfall of rock, tumbling down in a great roar. Ryuan couldn’t see through the thick curtain of dust raised, and he gasped and coughed even as his bruised body ached against any motion. He could still hear the grind of great stones settling, as though the city shared Iril’s death-throes.
“She killed herself,” Ryuan said, stunned.
“She lost what she lived for,” Calanthe said. Her eyes were shadowed with grief, and he gathered her close. But she moved restlessly out of the circle of his arms to approach the other wolf-born.
Nerav stared at the pile of rubble, clearly regretting that the kill was not his to claim. Ryuan knew how he felt.
“Nerav,” Calanthe said. “The one with a gift for animals. You were the one who murdered all those people?”
“They had the old gifts,” Nerav explained patiently. “They always abuse their power, as they did in the days when they created the wolf-born as slaves and heedlessly cast away their lives.”
“And so you kill the ones who weren’t even alive when the Law of Century was formed?”
“I wouldn’t have bothered normally,” Nerav said. “But gathering in a city, under the rule of a sorcerer? They would have turned dangerous. Now they’re scattered and afraid to use their sorcery. This is best. They won’t dare to flock together again.”
“So your task is done.”
He turned not to her, but to Ryuan. “There is a sorceress we must deal with now.”
“Calanthe has no power,” Ryuan said, bristling. “And Iril must be dead under that.”
“I didn’t mean her,” Nerav said. “I speak of the prince’s lady mother.”
His mother. “A sorceress?” he demanded.
“Did you think she found you as a cub and spirited you off to the capital?” The wolf-born laughed. “She created you.”
Ryuan shook his head. His mother, who had cared for his and Kaen’s childhood hurts and dealt with their early squabbles with an even hand? She had treated him no differently than her own son. Not like a creation. And there had never been a breath of sorcery around her. “She can’t be.”
Nerav looked at him searchingly. “I would not lie to you, cousin.”
Neither could Ryuan see any reason for Nerav to construct this accusation. “Whatever the truth is,” he said, “I won’t let you kill her.”
“Your capital is too well-guarded. You must guide me inside.”
“Did you not hear what I said?”
“Yes,” Nerav said, and moved casually, almost lazily, to settle a hand on Calanthe’s shoulder. “So. You value her life as well, no?”
Before Ryuan could reach him Nerav would be able to unsheathe his claws there, so close to her neck. Ryuan choked back the wild-mind rising within him. “You would kill an innocent?”
“You forget. I killed many, men and women and sorcerers all, during the wars. What is one more, if it means I can reach my prey?”
Ryuan tasted defeat. “Let her go. I’ll take you to the capital.”
Nerav released her but took up her hand. “A single drop,” he said, then before Ryuan could say anything, he let his claws emerge and pricked her fingertip. Crimson welled forth, and he delicately licked it away.
Ryuan lunged forward, but Nerav kicked him just hard enough to swing him off-center. When Calanthe tried to slam her elbow into his throat, he moved smoothly to one side, then let her momentum carry her off-balance. He seized her wrist, twisted, and held her in an arm-lock from behind.
Ryuan froze. He could see how Calanthe’s mouth was set against any expression of pain. She was angry, not frightened, but he felt fear, for he knew how easily Nerav could kill her.
“I let you try that,” Nerav said calmly, “so that you can see how futile such attempts are. From here, I could shift to have fangs and tear out your throat, but even if you ran, I would find you. I know the taste of your blood, Calanthe.”
Ryuan said hoarsely, “Do as he says, Calanthe.”
She nodded slowly.
Nerav released her. “I’ll stay as a wolf while we travel,” he said, and Ryuan remembered how he had remained in that shape when they had first met, to hold the advantage.
“You’ll have to take man-shape to enter the capital,” Ryuan said.
Nerav held up a chain. His signet gleamed upon it. “I did promise you this back.” He slipped it over his own head. “But I’ll keep wearing it for now. No one will question the prince’s hunter bringing in two captives. Keep your head down and your face covered. If someone recognizes you, he will die.”
Once, this usurpation would have caused him to launch into an immediate attack. But there was Calanthe to think of.
Ryuan awkwardly reached back with both hands over one shoulder to flip up his hood. The signet was a powerful enough symbol that no one would doubt it, and he had no hope that anyone would actually realize that the wolf did not resemble Ryuan. He rarely showed that shape in the capital, to keep the people from becoming fearful of him.
They left the ruins of the city, silent, dust still filtering down. Ryuan was not so sure there was not more ruin ahead.
Chapter Ten
There was a wet wind rising when they reached the capital. The journey had seemed to pass more swiftly than when Ryuan had first taken this path, the other way. It was because this time he was not counting the days without Calanthe, but instead the days until Nerav confronted his mother.
If Kaen knew, Ryuan thought, he would reach into the skies with his talent and bring down a sword of lightning upon Nerav, even despite the Law of Century. But the rain only began to fall lightly and steadily, undisturbed by thunder.
Calanthe nearly slipped in some mud. Ryuan wanted to draw her close and wrap an arm around her waist to help support her, but he was helpless to do anything but offer her a shoulder that she silently refused to lean on. She had barely spoken since they had left the ruins of the city. Was she still mourning Tamel?
“Calanthe, are you well?” he asked quietly.
; She gave him a wan smile. “As much as I can be. Are all wolf-born as cruel as this one?”
Something must have showed in his face, for she quickly added, “All others, I meant.”
Behind them, Nerav growled, and they fell into silence. Ryuan only knew that the other wolf-born would suffer as soon as he was free. But then would she truly see him as no different as Nerav?
There were few people in the streets, as the capital’s denizens were avoiding the rain. Ryuan led them to a discreet entrance to the palace grounds. The guard raised his spear until his eye fell upon Nerav and caught sight of the signet.
“Lord Ryuan. Prince Kaen should be in his chambers.”
The wolf nodded and padded onward, herding Ryuan and Calanthe forward.
Ryuan turned away from the palace proper. There was a way to his mother’s private garden if they circled around. He didn’t want to risk running into anyone he knew in the halls. He dared not allow Nerav and Kaen to meet.
Once they slipped past the gate and into the garden, though, the wolf halted.
“Go,” Nerav said. “Draw her out. Speak to her. You will learn the truth.”
It went without saying that Calanthe would remain with him.
Ryuan crossed the remaining distance to the door of his mother’s chambers and tapped upon it. “My lady mother…”
After a moment, the door opened. His mother stood there in her mourning gray as always, heedless of the rain. She missed nothing in her first glance, not his state nor the two who had stayed back. She turned to him with her usual composure. “Ryuan, tell me what’s going on.”
He matched her calm through an effort of will. “That is one of the wolf-born. He claims you are a sorceress who created me, and he seeks your death.”
“And the girl?”
He looked at Calanthe in despair, the wolf-born’s body carefully angled where, even if she ran, he would be upon her with a single leap.
“Ah,” she said. “You found her.”
He did not need to be distracted. “Tell me the truth,” he said.
She lifted the veil. Her face was exactly as Ryuan remembered it from his last sight of it when his foster-father died almost a decade ago, her skin still smooth and her eyes still a clear green.
It was not only because she was still mourning, he realized. She hid her face so no one would notice that she did not age.
“I was one of those bound by the Law of Century,” she said. “Afterward, I wandered the world, shaping different lives for myself. I was afraid, sometimes. Happy, others. Then I made the mistake of falling in love with a prince.”
His foster-father. “Who would need an heir,” Ryuan breathed.
“Yes. So I bore him a child. Did you not wonder where Kaen’s gift with the winds came from? It’s buried in the bloodline, sometimes, but in this case it came directly from me. There were no sorcerers among your father’s ancestors.”
“That’s why you wanted Kaen to wed Melea,” he said with sudden realization. He had always wondered why his mother seemed so set on the match, but the shy girl, so fearful of sorcery, had impeccable lineage.
She nodded. “Her family, too, is free of any taint. I hope their children, and theirs, will be safe.”
He gathered it all in. “What of myself?”
“I made you to protect Kaen. The wolf-born were the soldiers in our wars, and I could think of no one better able to keep Kaen safe if someone learned of his heritage and wanted him to pay. I do not blame the people or the wolf-born for their anger, but I wanted Kaen to be free of it, if he never misused any powers he might manifest.”
“And if he did…”
She met his gaze evenly. “Then I made you to kill my own son, if need be. Because from the first time I held him, I knew that I could not. Even if he killed a hundred men.”
“He has killed men,” Ryuan said.
“But not by sorcery. He has ordered them killed by executioner’s blade or your claws. And always according to law. We only followed our own desires during the wars. We did terrible things. I, too.”
He knew, suddenly, that she planned to meet Nerav and accept the fate he dealt her. “You changed,” Ryuan said. “You foreswore sorcery after the wars.”
His mother smiled sadly. “But I didn’t. I made you.”
“I can’t regret it,” he said fiercely.
“I treated you like my own son. The other wolf-born were not so fortunate. They have a right to justice too.”
“You can’t give up your life like that!”
She did not react to his outburst, the same way she hadn’t made much of it the first time he had discovered his wolf shape. She had been through a hundred years of wars that had destroyed men and earth; nothing fazed her. She said only, “I wish I could’ve gotten to know her.”
Calanthe was still held captive by Nerav. It was not a choice anyone should have to make.
His mother saw the agonizing indecision on his face. “You will stay here until I am gone,” she said, and her words had the force of some binding in them, so that Ryuan could not have moved had a gale struck him.
“Mother—” His feet were like stone, caught to the earth, unyielding.
“Don’t tell Kaen what happened to me. It’s better for you to know your full nature, Ryuan. You are wolf-born and you must find your own peace with that. But Kaen is content as he is.”
He closed his eyes and nodded. She was protecting Kaen again, even to the last.
She touched his shackles, and they crumbled away—a useless freedom, while her command bound him. Then she touched his face. “One thing I didn’t expect— I never thought I would love you.”
That wrenched him apart. He opened his eyes, but his last sight of her slim, straight back was blurred with tears.
When she reached them, Nerav touched his nose to Calanthe’s leg, releasing her. His mother touched her arm, said something. Then Calanthe ran to him. He held her tightly against his body and kissed her hair, refusing to look away.
His mother lifted her chin. Nerav tore out her throat.
Ryuan was free so suddenly he staggered. He thrust Calanthe behind him, tore off his clothes, and in mid-leap turned wolf.
They snarled and snapped at each other briefly before withdrawing to defensive crouches. Ryuan felt a dizzying pleasure, knowing here was a worthy challenge, feeling the certainty of death for one of them and thrilling in it. He kept staring at his opponent, fangs bared and tail cocked, and when the other rushed forward, he did as well.
Lunge, snap, withdrawal. But this was no game of dominance. Ryuan wanted blood. On the next exchange he committed his full weight and they wrestled briefly. Ryuan sought purchase on the other’s throat but only managed to catch a bit of fur and something wound about his neck, setting it spinning free. It distracted him for a moment and the other wolf swiped with his paw, gouging his shoulder.
The scent of his own blood filled his nostrils; he needed to drown it with the smell of the other’s. He threw himself onto his opponent, sending them into a roll, and while the world turned over Ryuan’s claws shredded the other’s hide. He felt the ground on his back and knew it meant his end, so he forced the other back and emerged on top, pinning the other down.
The wolf beneath Ryuan struggled. Then he shifted, his shape changing into one even more helpless: frail skin, blunt teeth, no claws, an awkward tangle of limbs. He gasped in pain, then spoke. “It never changes,” he said. “This is what the sorcerers did. They set us upon each other.” His head slumped.
But louder than his words to Ryuan was the pounding of the other’s heart and the splash of blood upon the ground. He moved closer to the soft, pitiful thing that lay before him, savoring the moment before his jaws would close over the remainder of its life.
“Ryu!”
The sound was familiar. He turned, only to see another soft creature there. She held something out to him, round and hard and bright in the light. It held no interest for him. But she herself…
He knew that scent. It thrilled through him, and then the sure grace of her movements became familiar. She was crouched down in front of him on two limbs, and he had once stood like that, he realized suddenly. And the spill of sound from her throat—
His bones twisted—
“—Ryu, Ryu, you have to know this, it’s Kaen’s—”
His howl warped as his throat became human. She threw her arms around him and he pressed her to him, drinking in her human touch. Skin-to-skin, she drew him back the rest of the way from the brink of the wild-mind.
His senses slowly calmed until he felt safe enough to draw the slightest distance from her. Even so he needed some contact, so he entwined his fingers around hers and found her still holding the signet. “Not even Kaen could bring me back,” he said hoarsely, turning it over in his hands. “But you…” The ring dropped to the ground, forgotten as he framed her face with his palms. He said with infinite tenderness, “Beloved.”
Her eyes widened. “I dreamed of this…” Her fingers touched his arms, crept up to keep his hands where they were. “My heart.”
He touched his forehead to hers and breathed in her presence for a long while. Rain streamed down upon them and he didn’t care, even though it hit his bare skin, but there was Nerav to deal with.
The wolf-born was badly injured and unconscious. Ryuan stood over him, and found he couldn’t summon the will to deal the death-blow. Behind him was Calanthe, who had freed him from the wild-mind and its relentless demand to kill. He wanted to be an executioner no longer.
He found the rags that remained of his clothing and bound Nerav’s injuries with cold efficiency. He did not allow Calanthe to help.
“You could take him inside,” she said.
“No. I will not have him under the same roof as my brother. Our kind can heal wounds that men cannot.” He set the wolf-born by the gate. When he recovered, he would know to leave. Ryuan had not lived with other wolf-born, but instinctively he knew that, having won this fight, he needed not fear Nerav. And even if the other wolf-born continued his vendetta against those with sorcery, Ryuan had tasted his blood.