It gave a pitiful cry, almost like a baby’s, but before the thing could trap his mind, he grabbed its neck and shook it. The violence he’d sought to quell had vanished and he found the thing’s stunned silence satisfied him. He had no need to rage against it—or kill it.
“You’re safe, Princess,” he said, his words ragged as he stood, careful of the puddles of blood. “I’ve got the demon, and it can’t escape.”
She blinked. “That’s you, isn’t it, splattered with blood and holding that—that thing like it’s a market chicken?”
“It is,” he said, tightening his grip on the demon’s neck.
She paused and said in a less-than-steady voice, “Is that your blood covering you?”
“No.” He stepped away from her, remembering the demon’s words, its plans for the princess. “The blood belongs to the soldier standing by the wall—and to the demon itself.”
“Is it dead? Are you safe?”
The soldiers around him were beginning to stir. Apparently his grip on the creature allowed the other men to break their trances.
“Please, answer me. You’re wearing a terrible amount of blood.”
He looked down at the shitani in his hand, not completely trusting himself, not trusting his ability to control the demon. The demon appeared to be breathing, but its eyes were closed. Perhaps because it was nearly asphyxiated? “The shitani isn’t dead,” he said finally. “And neither am I.”
“Kill it,” said the solider who’d been curled up in a ball. He stretched his legs as he spoke, then he stood, drawing his sword. “Kill it now.”
“Yes,” said the standing soldier, turning to him while he drew his sword. His words were strong, but his eyes were blank. “Kill it now.”
“What’s wrong with those soldiers?” the princess asked, stepping away from the two approaching men and their swords. “There is something odd about them. Look at their faces!”
And she was right. Despite the vehemence of their words, their faces had no expression. They seemed to be in a trace—a demonic thrall.
Tahir tightened his grip around the shitani’s neck, cutting off all but the slightest ability to breathe. Its goat eyes opened as its slanted pupils rolled back in its head, and in his hand, Tahir felt the thing’s muscles relax.
And the soldiers fell back, both collapsing on the floor as if unconscious.
“Interesting,” he said. “It seems our little friend would rather be dead by these soldiers’ swords than captured alive by me.”
“It might be the only idea on which both it and I agree,” Princess Shahrazad said, examining the demon with distaste. “Don’t you think you should kill it?”
“A few heartbeats ago, I would have agreed with you. As I fought the thing, I wanted nothing more than its death.”
“But?”
“But its desire to the contrary makes me think we should keep it alive.”
“Alive or dead makes no difference to me,” the princess said. “But you need to come with me.”
11
Aware of the heat of his body, Shahrazad led Prince Tahir toward the library. And even though she knew now was not the time for this, the memory of his tongue and fingers left her limp with need.
“I found the book—a book,” she said, trying to focus her mind. “The one regarding the demons.”
“What does it say?”
“I haven’t read it yet.” She didn’t want to admit it, but the book unnerved her. And Tahir gave her courage.
Whatever had occurred in that hallway had been life threatening—but he’d saved her. When that demon had crawled up her leg like a rat, she’d thought it was her day to die.
Even coated in blood, partially invisible and holding a gasping demon, Tahir looked more powerful than any of the men she’d seen in her sheltered life. In his own land, he must be an honored ruler.
“It’s in here,” she said, as they approached the door. She was amazed at how simple it was to drop a lifelong aversion to speaking to men. She could certainly lose her aversion to touching them—at least this one.
She led him into a lavish chamber. Leather-bound books filled shelves to the ceiling, and well-crafted ladders set on wheels made accessing the high books easier. Long tables with stuffed chairs invited scholars.
She pointed to a book she’d laid on the table. “That one was hidden—although librarians might have thought it misplaced.” Misplaced behind a huge stack of books regarding ancient treaties on boundaries of lands that no longer existed.
“It’s not small, is it?”
She laughed. It was thicker than her father’s thigh. “Not so small.”
“I meant the book,” he teased.
She felt blood rush to her face, suddenly uncertain of their familiarity. “This book is about demons,” she said quickly, to cover her embarrassment.
He stood next to her, his blood-covered hand resting on the antiquated pages. “Look,” he said, pointing to a paragraph at the bottom of the page.
She read the words aloud. “As described in the Thaumutugicon, only the magician can keep the shitani from overrunning the Land.”
“Is this the Thaumutugicon?” he asked, tapping the book.
“No. This is the Kitabu a Shitani. I looked for the Thaumutugicon first—it isn’t where it belongs. It should be with the ancient history books, where the resident thaumaturge shelved it.”
“You mean you have a magician living in your palace?”
“No. Three generations ago my great-grandfather tossed him into the desert, and we haven’t had one since. But that magician created the current shelving system. No one has changed it in all those years.”
“So maybe the magician is particularly focused on hurting your lineage—since your great-grandfather tossed him out.”
“Maybe. But why she’s interested in me doesn’t concern me as much as what to do about it. What I’d like to know is how to control her. How do we stop her from vanishing every time we find her?”
“Why would she direct you to books that would give you that information?”
“Why does she do anything? Maybe she thought I’d do the opposite of what she suggested.”
Holding the silent demon in one hand, Tahir thumbed the great tome sitting on the table. “So do you want to read this book on demons or look for the one on thaumaturges?”
“You read, please,” she said. “I’ll look. It might be difficult for you to climb one-handed, and I don’t want to hold the shitani.”
He sat in the chair as she climbed the ladder. “How do you know where to look?”
“I don’t.” As she climbed the ladder, she looked at the window, seeing nothing but darkness. But dawn would be coming soon. Her eyes burned with fatigue, and for a moment she wanted nothing more than to crawl back to her bed—preferably with Tahir.
But she couldn’t give up now, she thought, looking behind a row of religious texts. She didn’t have time—a pegaz might not be able to peruse these shelves.
After the religious texts came a collection regarding animal husbandry: camels, goats, zebu, horses. If she remembered correctly, the Thaumutugicon had a glossy cover the color of oasis grass. But the only books she saw in this row were tan and brown.
“God’s eyes,” Tahir said, breaking her reverie. “This is it. This tells us everything we need to know about shitani.” He shook the creature in his grip to make his point.
“Does it tell us how to defeat them without allying my father’s armies and the Raj’s?” she asked. “Can we defeat them without your sister?”
But he ignored her, his fingers pressed so hard against the page she could see his tendons through the sheen of blood. “It says here that the demons wake and attack when the magician needs a replacement.”
“A replacement? What does that mean?”
“Maybe she can no longer control them. Maybe she’s too old.”
She thought about that for a moment. “Do the shitani go to sleep if we find someone for her? Will
they leave our lands alone?”
“The magician talks telepathically with them, it says here.” His voice vibrated with excitement. “And the magician can control them to some extent. She can direct one or two to do particular things—”
“Like attack us outside the library?”
“Exactly.” He paused for a moment and added, “But I think they were acting on their own.”
That stopped her. “Why?”
“She warned me.”
“Maybe to mislead you.”
“True.” She saw his bloody head nod. “But the demon said something while attacking me.” She heard his body shift and felt his eyes on her. “I think the magician wants you to herself.”
“Me?” she asked. “For herself?” Even to her own ears, she sounded afraid.
“I will not leave your side,” he said.
She shoved her fear aside, not so much because of his words but because fear didn’t help, not here. “Maybe she thinks I’ll replace her,” she said, remembering the magician’s words. The magician had said Shahrazad could rule the demons. “Would that stop the shitani?”
She felt his eyes on her as his blood-splattered face turned away from the book. “You wouldn’t actually consider that, would you?”
“If it saved my land, perhaps. If the price wasn’t exorbitant.”
“You’d rule the shitani?”
“To save your land, wouldn’t you?” she asked. He didn’t answer, perhaps considering the question, so she added, “I’d need more information. The Thaumutugicon might permit an educated decision.” Which is what the magician suggested. Which meant she shouldn’t trust it. Didn’t it?
“What if the magician herself wrote it?” he said, echoing her own doubts.
“The book’s been here for years.”
“The magician is by definition magic. Maybe the words in the book have changed over time,” he said, sounding angry. “Besides, if the magician needs a replacement, why doesn’t she just zap someone into her cave?”
She heard protectiveness in his voice, and male rule was something she understood. But perhaps she’d outgrown her need to obey it blindly. “I don’t know,” she said. “She’s old and tired?” Regardless, this wasn’t a discussion for this moment. She shrugged and said, “What else does the book say?”
She saw his head tilt down. “Once the shitani wake in earnest,” he said, “they must be fought, battled to the death. The magician can’t control them any longer.”
“So we have to kill them,” she said.
“Unless we get her to put them back to bed right now.”
“I think we’d have to find her to do that.”
“I can find her.” He looked up. “In fact, I can sense her. She’s meditating…next to a fountain outside.”
“I think we should ignore her for now.”
“We are.”
“We must discover how to keep her from vanishing.” The frustration she’d been feeling since the magician first slithered her finger across her back threatened to explode. “Where is that book?”
“I could ask her,” he suggested, looking startled at the thought.
“Would we trust where she sent us?”
“No.” He paused. “You keep looking. I’ll keep reading.”
Her eyes scanned the next shelf—all red books. She even looked behind them and found nothing. Rubbing her eyes, she climbed the rungs to the next shelf.
“It says here the shitani die by normal means,” he said. “We’ve killed enough of them to know that’s true. If you cut them, they bleed.”
“What else does it say?” Brown books here, and two black editions. Maybe they should ask the magician.
“The saliva can be used to produce invisibility…” he read.
“We knew that.”
“And they can mesmerize you if they touch you, or if you meet their eye.”
“We didn’t know that—at least I didn’t.”
“No, I didn’t either. I mean, I knew they could mesmerize, I just didn’t know how.” But he seemed distracted as he scanned down the page.
“What is it?” she asked.
“I’m just reading here what they do to their victims after they mesmerize them.” She heard him swallow. “It’s gruesome.”
“Tell me.”
“I don’t think you need to know.”
“You know very well that isn’t true. You’ll tell me now, please.”
He sighed. “The demons are only the size of large cats…”
“That doesn’t sound too daunting, but we’ve seen them in action. They’re very fierce cats.”
“And they leap on their victim’s head or shoulders, it says here.”
“While the person is enthralled?”
“Either way.”
“And then what?”
“They have brass hooks they insert into eyebrows or eyelids or lips or nostrils, and the hooks have ropes.”
“So they ride you like a horse?”
“Yes.” She saw his blood-splattered head nod. “I think that’s what they were doing to the soldiers.”
“And to you?”
“They were trying to.” He nodded, then looked back at the book. “They turn people into steeds while they keep control of their minds. And if a person is particularly recalcitrant, the shitani slice off fingers or ears. They might even put the hooks in…more tender places.”
Shahrazad swallowed. She didn’t want to know which more tender places. It sounded like once a person fell under a demon’s thrall, he lost any grip on their personal fate. She went back to scan the book spines.
“God’s eyes,” he said again.
“What is it?” The demon in his grip cackled, making them both jump. “What is it?” she asked again more softly.
“As a group, the shitani won’t stop fighting unless we kill them all—every single one of them—or…” He still hadn’t torn his gaze from the book.
“Or what?”
“Or unless they find their black mother, the human woman who’ll birth their next lord.” The shitani suddenly opened its eyes and caught her gaze in its own. It seemed to Shahrazad that it grinned at her. She could almost imagine it leaping to her shoulder and dropping brass hooks into her lips.
Never, my queen, she heard in her head. We’ll never sink hooks into your soft flesh. We love you.
“God’s eyes.” Her knees felt suddenly wobbly. “God’s eyes. That’s why I hear them in my head.” She started climbing down the ladder, wondering if she’d fall before she reached the ground.
“But that’s only in pegaz form, isn’t it?” he asked. Then he looked at her face and raced toward her. “Here, beloved. Let me help you.”
She took his hand, not caring that it was smeared in demon blood. “Thank you.” He’d called her beloved. Tahir helped her sit in one of the padded chairs. “Thank you,” she said again.
“Wait.” He went to a back table where writing implements and a few flasks stood. He poured water into a short crystal glass and gave it to her. “Drink this.”
She took a deep breath and drank. “What else did the book say?”
“I don’t think—”
“Prince Tahir, you will not hold the truth back from me. I’ve been cosseted my entire life, and it has done me no good at all.”
“Very well.” He nodded. “The voices should get louder and more insistent as more shitani wake.”
That made her consider a different point. “If you heard them, does that mean you can rule them? Can they have a black father?”
He froze, and she could almost hear his mind racing. “I don’t know,” he said finally, walking back toward the book. He scanned the pages for a moment.
“Does it say anything about black fathers?” she asked.
“God’s eyes, it does,” he said. “You’re correct.”
“So, you can sire a hybrid with one of the demon females.”
She watched his blood-splattered head nod. “The human ruler doesn’
t need to be a black mother. A black father will do.”
She thought about this for a moment, loathing the feeling that the fates had chosen her for this hateful task. “They’re deciding between us, then. One of us may rule them.”
He didn’t deny it. Instead he fell to his knees, wiping his eyes with his palms until at least that part of his face was visible.
“Princess Shahrazad,” he said to her. “I make you this promise: I’ll do everything in my power to protect you. I’ll give my life if necessary. I won’t let them hurt you. I won’t let the Raj hurt you. I won’t let your father hurt you. No shitani shall take you in their thrall, not while I live.”
“Tahir.” It was all she could think to say, and even that one simple word came out thick and husky, like she’d just inhaled huqqa smoke. “Thank you. Please stand. I don’t know what to do with you on your knees before me.”
A roguish grin crossed his face as he stood. “That might be a lesson for another day.”
Perhaps seeing the blush cover her cheeks, he quickly changed the subject. “If the choice is between you or me as the next magician, I will serve gladly rather than force you to that fate.”
But was it his decision to make for her? She swallowed the cool water. “Maybe it isn’t such a terrible thing, hearing their voices, being chosen.”
His partially invisible eyes blinked and she heard surprise in his voice. “Why do you say that?”
“We’ll have a warning.” She stood, setting the glass firmly on the table. “We’ll know when the demons are coming. We’ll know what they’re thinking.” She walked toward the shelves.
“What are you doing?”
“I’m looking for the Thaumutugicon. We’re running out of time.” She headed toward the ladder, resolve strengthening her knees. “We must discover what responsibilities come with the magician’s role, and should those prove untenable, we must find a way to thwart the magician.”
“Let me look—you read.”
“Thank you.” She smiled. “But you don’t know what the missing book looks like. I can find it faster.”
Running Wild Page 14