“Some of us will temporarily be altering our appearance. They know what we look like,” Caidi said, pouring some water into a pan. “Then we need to find some legitimate reason to be on Askara. We can’t risk being too obvious and just go there. Women don’t regularly go to that planet alone.”
“I’ll go scout some of the taverns. See if I can find someone going to Askara and a way for us to go as well,” Brinna volunteered.
“Go, but be careful,” Caidi said. “Make sure your stone is against your skin and stay away from any Zarain or Feiral. You know the stone’s limits. Don’t take any chances.”
Brinna nodded and smiled as she patted the stone that hung on a cord around her neck. “I’ll keep alert.”
Caidi began to prepare the herbs, roots and plants to make the hair colorants. She wanted to be as certain as she could be that she and the other two whom the Zarain had seen were unrecognizable just in case any of the men who knew them chanced to be on Askara. She knew that she did have some limitations. All of the women in her Zarain pack had light-colored hair and skin. Even if she could manage to mix a believable black dye, none of them could wear it convincingly with their colorings.
Brinna came back to the cave just as Dari was finishing applying the red coloring to Caidi’s hair. Brinna look shocked, dazed, and Caidi knew that it wasn’t from the change effected by the hair colorant. With the way things had been going so far, there was yet another complication in this mission. Brinna stopped a few feet away from the group of women who were sitting around the fire, admiring the effects of the colorant on Dari and Viki.
“There is no need to mount a rescue,” Brinna said in a flat tone.
“What do you mean?” Caidi asked, confused by the statement. She didn’t move as Dari applied a light coat of colorant to her eyebrows.
“The Feiral women aren’t on Askara. They are here—at least five of them are here in Herrool. Chey and the others are in the taverns scattered around the city. They aren’t exactly surrounded by guards.” Brinna’s dry condemning voice rolled over those in the cave.
“What do you mean?” Caidi shot Brinna a hard look. She wasn’t in the mood for puzzles.
“I saw and sensed only them and the one man with them. They aren’t carefully watched. I saw the man walk away from each of them several times and not one of them tried to run.” Brinna narrowed her eyes.
Never had she expected a twist such as this. “Are you certain?” Caidi held very still with difficulty. Why were a few of the women here? Where were the others?
“I walked the streets for a while and couldn’t sense any other Feiral or Zarain in the city,” Brinna said. “If they know how to hide themselves like we do, I might have missed a Feiral if I saw him, but I know that I wouldn’t miss one of those Shadatai Zarain. They are just too big to miss.”
“It’s the mate thing,” Caidi said with a sigh, “but I can’t believe that she would be a part of a plan made to trap me.”
“How can you be so calm about it, Acine?” Carisa asked. “I am Feiral and I don’t understand how she could give in so easily to a male Feiral. She probably told him where the Haven is located, giving us in to the rule of the Daclind without a qualm.”
“She has found her mate, her Anail, in your language. The pull is fierce. It was hard for me to leave Raven—that Shadatai—even though I knew that if I stayed with him, the lives of my entire pack would be changed much too abruptly to make it an easy transition. The Shadatai control everything.” Caidi drew in a shaky breath. The possibilities running through her mind stirred primitive needs to defend, to protect what was hers.
“We know that, but…” Carisa frowned.
“Your Natine has been with her man for weeks. It is impossible to keep a part of yourself from your mate for very long in normal circumstances. Instinctively, she will trust him with her life. Trusting him with the fate of her pack wouldn’t be far behind,” Caidi explained with a frown.
“How can she trust him? She doesn’t know him.” Carisa looked at Caidi.
“It isn’t a conscious decision. This is one thing that you have no chance of preventing from happening. Your mind may tell you that you don’t know him, but your instincts tell you that he is part of you.” The feelings, the connection, even after a short meeting, were hard to describe.
“If she told him of the Haven, she probably told him that you live on the same planet, not far from the Haven,” Carisa said.
“That’s why I am going to talk with her tonight. I want to know exactly how talkative she has been with her new mate and how much of it reached Raven’s ears,” Caidi clarified as she waited for Dari to finish with her hair. “I need to know what to expect when we return home.”
Caidi stood when Dari had finished and settled against the wall. She had gathered her weapons, but she tried to calm herself. The thought of Chey—or even her Daclind mate—giving Raven, that Shadatai, the location of the Taivain infuriated her. If that had happened, Chey would have put both the Shadatai and the women of Caidi’s pack at risk. Caidi didn’t fear that the Daclind and Shadatai would become enemies. They were probably already allies or at least knew each other. Her concerns were far more immediate. A strange group of Zarain would arrive at the Taivain and the possibility of a battle was high. The women of the Taivain were accustomed to defending what was theirs.
She chose Brinna and Dari to accompany her on this fact-finding mission. With the intention of getting her answers, she waited until deep into the night to enter the city. They made their way through the silent, deserted streets, blending into the shadows of the sprawling buildings, to the inn where Brinna had seen Chey. Brinna was right. Unless the others were shielding their presence, there were very few shifters in this city.
They entered the quiet, darkened inn unnoticed. The locked door that stood in their way hadn’t slowed them long. Everyone was sleeping. Using their higher senses, they located the one room in the inn that housed two Feiral. They were both asleep, but all three of the Zarain females knew that they wouldn’t sleep past the door’s opening. The three women had their weapons drawn, ready. They held hand darts coated with a powerful sedative which could be thrown with accuracy before either of the room’s sleepy occupants could grab a weapon.
The three women swooped into the room in a silent rush. Their sensitive night eyes were able to see the two people on the bed clearly. The larger figure turned to grab his weapon from the bedside table even as they moved forward.
“Don’t bother,” Caidi said in a hard, warning growl. “I would just have to dart you and if you behave, you can remain quite lucid throughout this little interview. Why don’t you light the lamp? Just don’t be stupid enough to try to pick up your weapon. I am not in a tolerant mood.”
“Is that you, Caidi?” Chey’s voice came from the darkness, filled with disbelief. “But you are supposed to be…”
The light flared. The large red-haired Feiral straightened away from the small table and leaned back against the dark wood of the headboard while Chey clutched the sheet to her chest. She looked a little guilty and a lot embarrassed.
“I am supposed to be walking into a trap that you helped set,” Caidi supplied with narrowed eyes. “By the way, eight of your women would have walked into it with me, had I fallen for it. Your people were concerned enough to send some Feiral with me. While the betrayal doesn’t seem like the Chey I knew, I have to wonder what else you told him.”
The Feiral male laced his hands behind his head. “She has no secrets from me. Why can’t I sense you as a Zarain?”
“It’s a secret passed to the Acine of her clan.” Chey brushed her hand in a soft caress over his chest and gazed up at him with trusting eyes. “Only she knows what to do to achieve it.”
“I don’t care if she told you her secrets, every detail of her life. That is her business.” Caidi’s curt tone cut through the intimacy of the moment. She didn’t have time for their cuddling. “Did you tell him where my pack lives? Is there a grou
p of Shadatai going toward my home, my people? Did you tell the man exactly how to get to the Taivain?”
Chey swallowed in sudden nervousness at the quiet, lethal tone of her friend’s voice. She had heard it before, but never directed toward her. “I told him. He told the Shadatai.”
“Did the Shadatai Raven send or lead a group of his men to my home?” This time Caidi directed her question to the male.
“Yes.” The Feiral’s reply was simple.
“Rioche!” Caidi swung away from the two people in the bed, her hands fisted at her sides. What would Raven do if he was attacked by the women of her pack? She stared hard at a wooden chair, taking deep breaths to calm herself, to regain control of the anger that surged through her.
“You couldn’t have thought to escape him.” Chey looked at Caidi and shrugged as if the futility of the situation mitigated her actions.
The chair slammed into the wall, crushed into splinters and kindling by the force of the psychic shove. Caidi was on the verge of losing complete control and attacking someone she had thought of as friend and ally until very recently.
“Have you lost every bit of the intelligence I once credited you with having?” Caidi spun to face them. She glared at the two people who didn’t grasp the severity of the situation. “It is isn’t about escaping him or even delaying him. I knew that he would find me sooner or later. We travel too much to prevent that. You have endangered my pack and sent the Shadatai men into peril as well. I thought you knew my pack better than that, Chey.”
“What do you mean?” The male’s eyes widened in alarm and he sat up straight.
“Do you think that it will be the first time that someone has come to our Taivain, trying to rob us or take over the pack? Outlaws, rogues and humans have all tried and failed. Tell him what we did to them, Chey. Tell him why it has been a long time since even the stray male has wandered near us.” Caidi’s eyes were narrowed as she gave the order to her friend.
Chey paled as she remembered those other instances. “They fought, killed all of the men who were trying to hurt them. No one ever left to tell of their location or report the loss. But the Shadatai don’t want to hurt you, Caidi. Raven is your mate, the rightful Achan.”
“How are my people supposed to know that they are safe when a group of Shadatai Zarain suddenly appear at the gates? They won’t even know that the men are Shadatai. They will know them merely as Zarain.” Caidi slashed her hand through the air. The sheer helplessness burning through her infuriated her. She couldn’t do a thing to help them.
“Caidi, I didn’t…” Chey’s lips trembled and her mate hugged her closer to him.
“My people will do as we have done to protect our home time after time. They will attack and the Shadatai will respond. If one of my people is hurt because of your stupidity, I will kill you.” Caidi’s eyes narrowed as she made the promise.
Caidi led her two pack-mates out of the room. They left the inn and the city with all haste. They had to get back to the cave and catch a little sleep. The next morning, they began the journey back home. They took the unknown gates to make it difficult for someone to follow them should they try.
Chapter Five
Caidi was still fuming days later when they stepped from the gate onto Carait. Her anger was fueled by anxiety, the fear of what could happen if the Shadatai took the Taivain by force. She wanted to get home, to find out what had happened. The Feiral women split from the group, returning to their home to inform their pack of Chey’s decision and Caidi’s coming return, and the arrival of the Daclind.
Caidi had dumped the lotion days ago, hurling it into a river. The Feiral women had returned the crystals and she had hidden the stones, even the ones she and her pack-mates had worn, under a false lining in her bag. She and the eight hunters that she had taken with her began the journey to the Taivain after the Feiral had left.
She had to make sure that her pack was safe, that they had hadn’t been hurt by the Shadatai when the Shadatai had tried to take over the Taivain. There was wasn’t a doubt in her mind that they had done it by one means or another. The urge to take care of her people went so deep that she wasn’t sure if it was habit or instinct. It was the only thing that mattered right now.
The group of nine women completed half of the journey in less than three days, pushing themselves from sunup until after darkness had fallen. Every night, they wearily made camp amid the trees and slept. It was a routine that they would sustain as long as necessary. The full trek to the Taivain took them five and a half days. They were all anxious to find out what had happened when the Shadatai had arrived.
The Taivain was a large complex of gray stone buildings surrounded by a thick, high wall. It had been considered a gift from the Goddess when Caidi’s mother had found it, because of its size, location and defensibility. There were two living area buildings, one much larger than the other. Also enclosed within the walls were buildings for weaving and making ale and wine, stables and assorted storage buildings.
Boasting over two hundred bedrooms, the smaller living area was the one which the pack used. The larger building dwarfed the small complex. All of the buildings had running water and the two living complexes had hot as well as cold running water, courtesy of reservoirs behind the fireplaces in the main rooms and kitchen. The residence buildings also housed two communal bathing areas, a luxury the women appreciated.
Near midday when they cleared the tree line and stepped onto the grassy field in front of the Taivain, they caught their first sight of the gates and the pale gray walls which surrounded the large complex. At that first glimpse, Caidi knew that something had changed since she had left. The large metal gates were wide open. She had given an order long ago that they were never to be left open. If she had hadn’t noticed that, the dark shapes walking along the wall walk would have made her aware of the change. Those weren’t female guards. The broad shoulders, dark clothing and dark hair were definitely male.
The women’s steps faltered for a single moment and then they continued toward the gate. Caidi had wondered if she would find her home still under siege. She had her answer.
The Shadatai were already inside. Nothing could change that. The question remained as to exactly how they had gotten inside her home and if anyone had been hurt in the attempt to stop them. She had been serious when she had told Chey she would kill her. Her pack was everything to her and she valued every woman who was part of it.
Men appeared at the gates as the women neared it. They all had swords hanging from their belts, but the blades remained in their sheaths, the men unthreatening. The large men didn’t block their path or try to detain them. Caidi allowed her hunters to enter the walls first and then followed as was custom.
Caidi scanned the large open area near the gates. There were a lot of men here, probably over a hundred men within the walls or out hunting. Caidi could see at least fifty. It wasn’t unusual for a male pack that had no home to have a hundred or more members. There was strength in numbers.
She walked toward the imposing mass of the gray stone main buildings. She could already see some changes in the way things were done. There were more women within the walls today than there would normally be. Usually most of the women would be out hunting or exploring.
“Go bathe. Get some rest,” Caidi ordered her travel mates.
They nodded and left without a word. Caidi continued forward toward a group of women clustered near one of the storage buildings, uncomfortably aware that two of the large men were trailing a few steps behind her. She saw Kaela there and knew that Kaela would be able to tell her what had happened when the Shadatai had taken the Taivain. Kaela was one of the women that Caidi trusted to watch over the Taivain in her absence.
“What happened?” Caidi stared at Kaela, watching her face, reading her body language. Kaela wouldn’t need any prompting about the subject of her question. From some of their expressions, the women hadn’t quite gotten accustomed to having males among them.
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��We woke up one morning and they were already inside, the gates thrown wide. There has been a steady flow of men, animals and equipment arriving since then.” Kaela gave an “I-don’t-know-how-it-happened” shrug and blushed.
“The night guards?” Caidi looked toward the watch towers. The women left on watch wouldn’t have simply let the men walk into the Taivain. She wondered why an alarm had hadn’t been sounded.
“Drugged, but unhurt, Acine,” Kaela reported.
“Was anyone hurt the next day, any fights with the men?” Caidi was aware that several of her people wouldn’t have accepted such an easy defeat.
“No, there was nothing that we could do. It was all over before any of us woke. They outnumbered us even then.” Kaela dropped her head as heat rushed up her cheeks.
“How did they outnumber you?” Caidi was unsure of their numbers, but there should have been well over a hundred women here.
“Vena had taken some women with her to guard the trade goods, you know. I don’t know how we didn’t spot or feel them before they came that close to us. We were secure when we went to bed and the next morning, they were there and wondering when we broke the night’s fast.” Kaela rolled her eyes as she said the last part.
“Acine, you have to do something, tell them that they are wrong. They say that we can’t trade with the Bavaok anymore.” Senna rushed over to Caidi.
Caidi frowned in confusion as she turned her head to the petite blonde woman who had stopped just short of running into her. “What?” She was truly incredulous. The Bavaok were some of their best customers. They bought much of the cloth that the women made. It made no sense to stop trading with them.
“I am sure that the Achan will tell her everything.” A male voice smoothly inserted the comment from behind Caidi.
“They have moved everything around and didn’t ask if we wanted to be moved,” Senna grumbled, her hands flinging wide to encompass all of the visible changes. “It’s impossible to find anything and the men are always getting in the way.”
Primal Quest Page 5