by Aya Walksfar
Edging sideways so she could keep Aife and me in view, she slanted a look to where the cat had stood.
An unclothed Ri grinned at her. “Hey, girl, thanks! For a second there, I thought Ms. Big Game Hunter might come after my fur coat.”
Eyes wide, the wanton slid past Ri. She checked under the beds then stomped over to me. “Not funny, Captain Night Runner. Where did your pet panther go?”
“Not a pet. It was a werepanther.”
Arms crossed, she stuck her chin out belligerently. “There is no such thing as a werepanther.”
Aife sidled up beside me. “She’s being righteous, Suze. I watched the cat change.” She shifted her eyes to Ri. “Awesome sauce.”
Ri’s grin widened. “Thanks.”
“I hope...you know, there’s no hard feelings about...” She waved her hand at the sword I still held.
“Nah, if I was going to blame someone it’d be the captain for the trick she played on all of you. Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to raid Alexis’ clothes for something to wear. I really did come for dinner...” When the two youngsters’ eyes widened, she grinned even wider. “With the witches. I hear they’re serving roast beef tonight; one of my favorites.”
An hour later, Ri and I walked into the spacious, formal dining room. Red crept up my neck. “I apologize for being late, Patrice. I had a...impromptu training session with two of my newbies.”
Sheena threw her head back and let go with a belly laugh. “What she means,” she explained once she stopped laughing, “is that she set up Aife and Suze.” She turned toward me. “I heard about the trick you played on them.”
“You make me sound downright mean,” I grumbled.
“Would you care to elaborate, Captain?” A smile played around the corners of Patrice’s mouth.
Before I could respond, Ri said, “I arrived in my panther form and walked into the barracks. Ms. Prankster,” she jerked a thumb at me, “yelled, 'panther in the barracks' then jumped up on a bed--like that would slow a big cat down. Several of the new arrivals freaked totally out. Two of them bolted for the closet. Aife grabbed a sword and meant to relieve me of my fur coat, but a wanton I haven’t seen before tackled the girl and got ahold of the sword. She was protecting me. A real cat-lover.” She chuckled.
Patrice smiled approval as the serving girls—witch apprentices in their early teens--brought out the appetizers. “Realistic training is the best kind to gauge how untried troops will respond under emergent conditions.”
Dinner proceeded with relaxing, frivolous talk. When the desert dishes had been cleared from the table and more tea served, Patrice stood up. “Shall we retire to the Gathering Room?”
Hearing a living room called a Gathering Room still caught me by surprise. Funny how people--I wryly included myself--got used to certain things and resisted change, even if it was only the name of something.
Patrice asked me to bring Ri up-to-date on my efforts to connect with Serena. When I finished, I grabbed a carafe of tea from a serving cart and refilled everyone’s cup. Since Ri had called for this impromptu meeting, we waited to hear what she had to report.
Ri flipped a lock of ebony hair from her forehead. “General Trueson had sent word that he would like an audience with Werepanther Queen Mayson. I thought the wording strangely formal, but figured he just wanted to emphasize the business aspect of the visit.
“As all of you are aware, we don’t hold meetings in the village. That has always been the policy in order to keep the village safer. I met with him in the clearing that we use. It was probably the strangest meeting I have ever had with anyone.” Ri got that thousand-yard look in her eyes, as if she still couldn’t quite pinpoint what had happened.
After a long moment, Patrice asked, “In what way was it strange? Remember that I have only met General Trueson one time, and that was years ago.”
The werepanther blinked and shifted her gaze to the witch. “First of all, Gregory knows me too well to think I'm all into that queen-and-proper-title gig. But even if he did that for diplomatic reasons, he has always been very blunt, very upfront around me. He spoke his mind and didn’t play sly guessing games.”
Her lips pressed together as if to hold in her words until she’d thought them through carefully. Finally, she said, “When he arrived, he stomped into the clearing acting blustery and muttering like some crazy old man. He muttered loud enough that a deaf panther could have heard. Things like ‘stupid wantons, sneaking off to the woods to have sex and getting lost.’ Then he griped about huvams and how Serena tried to keep them safe and they got homesick and ran away."
Deep furrows appeared between her eyes. “When he stopped in front of me, he kind of slanted a quick look at the Guardian standing next to him then he announced, ‘this is Guardian Adele Royce, appointed personally by First Councilwoman Serena Longer to be at this meeting with Werepanther Queen Mayson.' After that it went downhill fast.”
I leaned forward. “Sounds like it was downhill from the get-go.”
She shook her head. “All that garbage before was nothing, believe me. He started ranting about you being a traitor and that you kidnapped Ariel. Then he went on to make vague threats about what would happen to any human or Supernatural found cooperating with you in any way. He stopped talking for a minute and I thought he might be done, but when I started to speak, he glared at me. And I closed my mouth and waited.”
Ri gulped her tea then stared into her cup. “I’m trying to recall his exact words because I think they may be important. He said…'First Councilwoman Longer is sick with worry about her child. To lose one’s child would be enough to make any vampire drink dirty blood. But, heed what I say…the magic in First Councilwoman grows stronger every day. Any who help Traitor Night Runner risks the wrath of First Councilwoman Longer.' ”
“That was it?”
“That was what he said, and I think I got the wording exactly like he said it.”
“That whole meeting sounds strange. That’s way weird behavior for Gregory.” I turned to Patrice and found a look of horror on her face. I swallowed hard. “Something about what Ri said has you spooked. What was it?”
Tears brimmed in her eyes. “Oh, Goddess, no wonder you couldn’t reach Serena.”
“What do you mean?”
“We’ve assumed that the black coating her Spirit and beginning to attack her Soul has been part of a backlash from the sorcerer’s spell that she broke to free her People under the water in the cove.”
“Yeah, she was fine until that happened.” I gave a little shrug.
Pity filled the elder witch’s gaze. “She isn’t fine, Alexis. Dirty Blood comes from tortured victims. The greater their pain and terror, the stronger the magic in their blood becomes in an effort to fight their assailant. Serena is capturing, torturing and draining magic from Supernaturals.”
I jerked back and held up my hands as if to block her words. “No way. Serena does not do blood magic of any kind. Gregory probably meant something else and Ri just got the words wrong.”
Tabitha timidly cleared her throat. “Captain Night Runner, did you say that the spell the First Councilwoman broke was cast by a sorcerer inside of a cave?”
“Yeah.” With a puzzled nod, I waited to see what the young witch had on her mind.
She tapped a forefinger against her lips. When she dropped her hand to her lap, she said, “As a teen I was fortunate to land an apprenticeship with Elder Witch Moria.”
Hawk Flying changed a laugh to a cough and covered her mouth with her hand.
Tabitha glared at her and then unable to hold any displeasure with her sister witches for very long, she let a grin play at the edges of her lips. “Okay, I admit Elder Witch Moria could be trying at times.”
“Trying? Is that what you call slave-drivers nowadays?”
“She expected me to work as hard as she did to perfect her craft.”
“Ha! She discovered a compatriot workaholic and studyholic in you,” Hawk Flying teased gently.
/>
Tabitha blushed and ducked her head. “As I was saying, Elder Moria was somewhat a renegade. Most elders do not teach apprentices about Blood Magic, not even to teach us how to identify it and how to fight it. It was like some believe if we don’t know much about it, we will never be tempted to use it.”
I wished the witch would get on with it; simply spit out whatever she meant to say that was relevant to Serena’s situation.
Tabitha shook her head about such fallacy then appearing to notice my impatient finger tapping, she hurried on. “If you twist Earth Magic, you can set a spell so that whoever breaks the spell will be infected by the magic the caster used to create the spell. This is especially true if the spell is set inside of Mother Earth.”
A light bulb--like in the cartoons I’d seen as a kid--popped on right over my head. “Like a computer virus, a Trojan Horse. Open it and it infects your system.”
Tabitha blinked. “Yes, that’s true. What a great way to explain that concept.” She beamed a smile across the circle. “What isn’t as well known, is that with such a spell a small piece can get lodged in you. It can lay dormant for a while until something sets it off.”
“Just like computers can get a virus that doesn’t show up until a certain set of circumstances are present then it goes active and that’s when you get a lot of damage.”
“Exactly. With the First Councilwoman, why couldn’t part of the damage be a twisting of the vampire’s natural blood lust into a hunger not only for the blood of Supernaturals, but also for their blood when it is tainted by fear and pain?”
Ariel squirmed in her chair, but refrained from speaking until Patrice tilted her head and asked, “Ariel, you have a question?”
“Alexis,” Ariel’s voice sounded so very young, like a child calling quietly in the dark for an adult to come and comfort her. “We know Mom’s drinking from huvams. Do you think she’s torturing and drinking them dry?”
Refusing to lie to the child, I couldn’t give Ariel the reassurance she craved. I sighed and slumped in my chair. “Yes, I’m afraid she might be doing that.”
“We have to help them,” Ariel’s dark eyes pleaded with me. “Please, we can’t let her kill them. Mom said our people need the powers that the huvams will have when they get older, especially now.” She grabbed the tail of her tee shirt and scrubbed at her eyes. “When she gets well, she’ll...she’ll hate herself.”
I bobbed my head in agreement. “We’ll do the best we can, Ariel; and then when your mom gets better, we can help her get beyond these things that the sickness is making her do.”
Inside I wondered if I should have said--if your mom gets better. No, the child was barely holding it together; she needed to have hope that her mom would recover. I recalled how hard I had held onto the slightest thread of hope for my own mother. It didn’t change her inevitable fate, but at least I hadn’t agonized every moment about the certainty of her coming death.
After the meeting broke up, Ri and I strolled across the peaceful grounds. We arrived at the lake in companionable silence. Under the white moonlight, bats skimmed the water for bugs.
Ri skipped a stone across the dark surface. It skipped five times before it sank from sight. “Do you think Serena will ever recover?” The melancholy of a great loss infused her voice.
The stone I flung sank without once skipping on the mirror of the lake. “I don’t know, but I'm a lot like Ariel--I think I would fall apart if I couldn’t hold onto some bit of hope.” The next stone skipped once then disappeared under the water. “I didn’t see any bodyguards with you. Where’s Sven?”
“Dead,” Ri replied flatly.
“Dead! What happened?”
With a lift of her shoulders, Ri said, “It seems like everyone is acting a bit strange these days.” She flung another stone and it skipped eight times. “A few days before the meeting with Gregory, Sven told me he needed to speak to me privately. He insisted he couldn’t do it at the village. Like any stupid greenhorn, I followed him into the woods without telling anyone where I was going or who I was going with. Waaayy into the woods; all the way to the river several miles outside of the village.”
She kicked another stone loose from the ground and bent to pick it up. “When we got to the river, he yanked out a knife and began stalking me.” She flung the stone with an extra hard heave. It skipped once then sank below the surface.
She turned to face me. “I crouched and got ready for a very short, very bloody fight.” A bitter snort of laughter burst from her. “Let me tell you—I felt pretty sure that most of it would be my blood. When he got within ten paces of me, and I was sure he’d pounce, he suddenly grabbed his head between his hands. His face contorted so much that I thought he might be Shifting. Then he started shouting—I won’t. I can’t.”
She pivoted back around to stare out across the lake. “All of a sudden, he plunged his knife into his own chest.” Her shoulders bowed. “He must have hit really close to his heart. As soon as he fell, I rushed over to stabilize the blade, so it wouldn’t do anymore damage.”
“Did he, or could he, say anything?”
She didn’t seem to hear me as she went on. “There I was, kneeling in the dirt, hanging onto the hilt of the knife and hoping his breathing doesn’t make it move. I’m trying to figure out how to yank it out and staunch the blood until he can heal. He looks up into my eyes and says he’s sorry. That he had believed her lies; but that she never truly loved him, or loved our People. That he was wrong. I would be a powerful and good queen and our People needed me.”
With a sigh, she forced herself up straighter and swiveled around to face me once again. “When I asked who she was, he gave me the most beautiful smile.” Tears flooded her eyes. “In that smile, I saw why Auntie loved Sven. He said…” She swallowed and blinked, but tears slid down her cheeks anyhow. “He said, ‘I did not dishonor myself or my family. I am prepared to Journey to the Great Forest.’ Then he grabbed my hand and jerked. The knife must have torn through his heart. He died immediately.”
“Damn, Ri, I'm sorry. I didn’t like the man, but that’s awful. What are you going to do? Try to find out who he meant or just let it go?”
A determined look hardened her features. “I suspect he meant Amanda Silver. She was always going on about how much she loved our People, and I saw how Sven looked at her when he thought no one was watching.”
Stuffing my hands in my pockets, I tilted my head toward the path back. “Let’s walk.” As she fell into step with me, I asked, “Does that mean you’ve heard something about Amanda?”
The stone she kicked bounced into the leaves beside the trail. “I heard about an oral herstorian--a keeper of werepanther legends and genealogies. She lives pretty far back in the Rockies. I took a quick trip to visit her.”
She grabbed a branchlet from a Douglas fir and stripped the needles off of it one by one. “Fire Riley’s great-great grandmother is Amanda Silver’s great-great-great grandmother. Their family had some kind of dispute around the time of Fire’s birth and they went in two different directions. One branch remained in Colorado and the other branch came up here and joined our Pride. When I got back home, I talked to some of the older women. Soon after Amanda was named Chosen Heir, Fire became one of her instructors.”
“Sweet Mother, I am so sorry, Ri.”
A troubled look entered her eyes. “How could Elder Coahoma not see Amanda’s true nature?”
“As Gregory would say--maybe she was too close to the forest to see the trees. Even a great leader can be wrong at times, Ri. That’s why every leader needs to surround herself, or himself, with honest advisers.”
With a sly smile my way, she tossed the naked branchlet aside. “Wait until you meet my new personal guards. They are real hotties.”
I shot her my best stern look. “Just because a male is a hunk, does not necessarily make him a good personal guard. He needs to have enough brains to be one of your advisors.”
She flung an arm over my shoulder and l
aughed. “I think you’ll approve once you meet them.”
“I assume they’re at camp, so let’s quit lollygaggin’ and get back. Besides, I need a cup of coffee. I love Patrice, but a woman can only drink so much tea; and that’s all she ever serves.”
We were working through our first cups of coffee when the barrack door swung open. I gaped at the two women striding up the aisle between the bunks.
The buxom red head grinned at me. “We meet again, my stubborn mate.”
My mouth gaped open as I rose slowly from the table. I had not seen wanton Doreena since she had pretended to be my lover right after I’d been mind-altered. That felt like ages ago when, in truth, it had been not quite year. “Doreena, what the...”
The other woman stepped from behind Doreena. “Hey, Nerd, whose bank account have you hacked today?”
Eyes wide, I grabbed the other woman in a tight embrace. “I’ll tell you that, Hot Rod, as soon as you tell me what kind of ride you jacked.”
Doreena pouted. “No hug for me?”
One arm around Hot Rod, I twisted sideways and slung my other arm around Doreena. “Shady women from my shady past.” I looked at Ri. “How in the world did they wind up as your body guards? Being a wanton or jacking cars isn’t the best resume for the job.”
Ri waved a hand as if to give the women permission to speak.
“Can a woman get some coffee around here?” Doreena propped a hand on her hip and glanced around. “I'm so parched I can barely speak.”
With a laugh, I released them. “Grab a seat and I’ll serve.”
Doreena blew on the coffee then sipped before daintily placing the cup on the table in front of her. “After you kicked me out, lover, I returned to the estate; but I was pretty bored. There are only so many ways and partners you can have sex with before it all turns vanilla on you.”
She heaved a theatrical sigh. “Anyway, I went to General Trueson and told him I wanted to become one of Artemis’ Warriors. A few weeks later, he finally called me--this was after I’d given up on hearing from the man. He would secretly train me and then send me into situations undercover.” She waggled her brows as she gazed around at the gathered women. Several of them chuckled at the former wanton’s innuendo. “He said I couldn’t confide about what I did to anyone, since even First Councilwoman Longer was unaware of it.”