Shifter Planet

by D. B. Reynolds

  The surge of bodies rolled beneath them, flowing around anything it couldn’t crush or eat, chewing a path through anything it could. A few hardy souls made halfhearted attempts to climb the bigger trees, some making it as much as twelve or thirteen feet from the ground before falling back to be crushed beneath the unstoppable swarm.

  And the noise was incredible—a high-pitched squeal so loud that Rhodry buried his sensitive ears beneath his paws and she lay halfway on top of him, adding extra buffering while jamming her own ears with her fingers. The vibration of their passing traveled up the roots and through the tree trunk, and she could feel the tree bracing itself beneath the assault. She tried to concentrate, to listen to the forest song, wondering if the trees viewed this onslaught as an invasion or just a part of nature as they had the punishing storms. The noise was too great, the distraction too much. She just covered her head and waited for it to be over.

  The forest was perfectly silent for some time after the dolans had passed, as if all the creatures in hiding feared making even the smallest noise lest the swarm be drawn back to wreak more destruction. She lifted her head, following the diminishing sounds of the invaders, hearing the awful, high-pitched squeals fade as they moved on to their own inevitable demise. The dolans would run until they met an obstacle they couldn’t conquer—a steep drop off a cliff or a waterway too wide to cross—at which time they would lose tens of thousands of their own before finally grinding to a halt. Or sometimes, the swarm simply lost impetus when some indistinguishable signal known only to dolans called them to a halt. The swarm would then break apart, and the individual groups would move away to begin the formation of new nests, never to return again to their original nesting spot.

  She sat up, one arm still looped around Rhodry’s neck as he rose next to her, ears swiveling from side to side. His jaw opened and he yawned conspicuously. She laughed quietly. “I guess we’re sleeping here today, huh?” she whispered, automatically adopting the silence of the forest around her.

  He didn’t shift, just settled back down on his belly, laid his head on plate-sized paws and closed his eyes. She leaned into his warm weight, grateful for the sunlight just now beginning its rise, washing away even Fodla’s bright glow.

  She didn’t try to sleep. Someone had to take the first watch and she didn’t think she wanted to sleep right now even if she could. She had a feeling her dreams would be filled with gnashing teeth and small furry bodies.

  It was dark when she woke. Pitch black. She couldn’t see anything at all. And the darkness was purring.

  She pushed herself away from Rhodry’s warm flank with an appreciative pat, then sat up and squinted against the weak sunlight. He rotated his head to give her a single appraising look, then resumed his watchful position, sitting perfectly still except for his ears which twitched this way and that in response to noises she couldn’t even hear.

  “Good afternoon to you too, oh inscrutable one.” She leaned back against the central trunk and began rummaging in her backpack for something to eat. She found her canteen first and slugged a drink of tepid water. If she ever got back to the city in one piece, she was going to turn on the hot water in her big, clean and fully accessorized bathtub and soak for a week. And then she was going to drink as much fresh fruit juice over ice as her stomach could handle. No, wait, she was going to put a big tub of ice right by the bath and fill it with containers of fruit juice so she could just reach out a hand and…

  “Amanda!” Rhodry’s voice jarred her out of the daydream.

  “What?” She scanned the forest automatically, searching for some new threat. Finding nothing, she gave him a quizzical look, and registered in passing that he’d shifted to human at some point and she hadn’t even noticed. Could that be why he was scowling at her so?

  “Sorry,” she said. “Daydreaming.”

  He raised his eyebrows inquisitively.

  “A hot bath and fresh fruit juice.” She waved her hand dismissively. “Never mind. What’s up?”

  He gave her a dark look, and she braced herself for a lecture on always being aware. Instead he drew a deep breath and said, “We need to decide where we’re going from here.”

  “That depends on where our enemies will attack next, doesn’t it? We both know dolans don’t swarm at night. Not on their own anyway.”

  “They do, it’s just not their usual pattern.”

  “Or maybe someone set them off.”

  “It’s possible. Whoever did it would have to know that it wouldn’t work, that we’d hear them coming and avoid the—”

  “Maybe they figured I couldn’t climb trees as well as I do. You were certainly surprised.”

  “I checked the swarm’s back trail last night,” he said somewhat irritably. “There wasn’t anything suspicious. I think it was just coincidence. We need to focus on what happens next.”

  She eyed him curiously. He was awfully grumpy, and not being completely honest with her about the dolans, either. Clearly he’d already decided what they were going to do, and was trying to convince her that there wasn’t a problem so she’d go along with his plan. Except there was a problem and that swarm hadn’t been a coincidence. And he was way too clever not to have figured that out for himself. She decided to play along.

  “What’s to talk about?” she asked casually. “We’ll reach the city before sunset. Unless you think someone will be waiting for us. Maybe the swarm was a delaying tactic.”

  “No,” he said quickly, a little too quickly. “It’s too late for them to try anything now. We’re too close to the city, and they’re probably too busy lining up allies and getting their stories straight for the Ardrigh. They know I’ll go straight to the palace, even before the Guild Hall.”

  She tried not to react. The palace wouldn’t be her first stop. Actually the palace wasn’t on her schedule at all. She pretty much had to go to the Guild Hall first in order to verify the completion of her trial. And then, come hell or high water, she was going home to her bathtub. In fact, she’d kind of thought Rhodry would be joining her. It was a big tub. And it would be nice to make love in a bed for a change. She didn’t say any of that.

  “Okay,” she agreed. “So what do you propose we do now?”

  “We’ll cross the perimeter patrols soon.” He gave her a careful look. He was a smart man—most of the time, anyway—and he had to be wondering about her easy compliance. She just smiled and nodded amiably, waiting for his big plan.

  “We should split up before then.” He said it quickly, and immediately sucked in a breath, ready to counter her argument. And then couldn’t conceal his look of surprise when she agreed with him.

  “Good idea,” she said. Although privately she wanted to pummel him until he was nothing more than a wet lump of flesh with two golden eyes.

  He narrowed those eyes at her now, openly suspicious. She wasn’t sure she could fool him, so she buried her face in the backpack, digging out some battered pieces of fruit she’d picked up somewhere over the last couple of days. The days and nights all blurred together after a while. She eyed the fruit sorrowfully and took a bite. It might not look good, but it was tart and still juicy, and definitely better than nothing.

  “You’ve no objection?” he asked.

  “Not if you think it’s best. It makes sense. If we split up, anybody waiting for us has to split up too, right?”

  “Right,” he said, then hurried to add, “not that I think anyone’s waiting. We’re just being careful. So, you should slip around the city and come in from the south, staying outside the perimeter as long as possible. It shouldn’t take long. There are several day trails in that direction.”

  “Yes, I know.” I’ve probably traveled them more than you, you big, tree-climbing oaf. She kept that thought private, too. “And you will be where?”

  “I’ll take to the trees and head straight for the palace.”

  And directly into any ambush, while I, useless female that I am, skip gaily along the path back to safety. We’ll jus
t see about that.

  Chapter Forty-Two

  Amanda shrugged her shoulders to settle the backpack more firmly. The bear pelt was tied below the pack, riding over her hips, since tying it anywhere else would have interfered with her ability to get to her short bow quickly. It was heavy, awkward, and more than a little fragrant, and she absolutely refused to leave it behind.

  “I don’t see why you can’t bury that damn thing and come back for it. Or I could stash it for you up in the canopy in one of the caches.”

  “If it’s way up there, I won’t be able to reach it,” she said reasonably. “Besides, I’m not in that big of a hurry. I’ve got nowhere to go, other than the Guild, and I don’t think they’re holding their breath waiting for me.”

  Rhodry’s jaw tightened as she waited to see if he would try to come up with a reason for her to hurry. After all, there was no longer any danger of an attack, right? According to him, Serna and Daly were waiting politely at the Ardrigh’s palace.

  Clearly frustrated, he scowled at her and tried a different tack. “Your friends are probably worried, though. You’ve been out a long time.”

  Well, that was just pathetic. Couldn’t he do any better? She didn’t have any friends. “You might be right,” she said, smiling sweetly. “I guess I could stop by Tonio’s on my way to the Guild Hall. Just for a minute or two, so he’ll know I’m back.”

  Rhodry scowled predictably at the mention of the other shifter, then eyed her oddly as if he didn’t quite trust what she’d do next.

  Gee. I wonder why?

  She stretched her legs, lifting first one then the other, bending each knee up to her chest as she watched his face, hoping he’d come clean and tell her what was really going on. He wouldn’t, of course. Big, strong shifter—he didn’t need her help, did he? All the nightmares they’d been through together in the past weeks, all the times she’d saved his ass and he’d saved hers, and he still didn’t understand who she was. What she was.

  He waited until she had both feet back on the ground, then tightened his arms around her in what felt like a last, desperate embrace. She returned the hug, fighting the urge to pound her fists into his broad back and scream at him that she knew what he was doing, and she was not going to toddle off like a pliant female. She didn’t bother, because it wouldn’t have worked. He would simply deny everything, and then they’d argue again, and the result would be the same. Far better to let him think he’d fooled her, and prove to him later just how wrong he’d been.

  She lifted her face to his, indulging herself in the touch of his sexy mouth one last time, sighing inwardly as the kiss deepened and became something more, a substitute for words they’d never said. And now maybe never would. Their mouths caressed each other, each of them reluctant to break away.

  “Be careful, acushla,” he whispered urgently.

  She felt tears pressing against the back of her eyes and dug her fingers into the muscles of his back. “See you at the Guild Hall, shifter,” she said with a tremulous smile.

  “I’ll be there before you,” he lied.

  She kissed him again, hard and fast, then stepped back and watched the shift sweep over his body. Those beautiful golden eyes gave her a last, lingering look and then the sleek, black cat launched gracefully into the nearest canopy tree.

  She waited until he was gone, until she could no longer hear even the smallest sound of his passage. And then she stashed her backpack with its roll of heavy fur beneath a convenient deadfall, grabbed her weapons, and headed down the dolan swarm’s back trail at a run.

  Chapter Forty-Three

  While it was never a good idea to run in the Green, sometimes it was necessary, and there was no better time or place than in the aftermath of a dolan swarm. Most of the wildlife had been temporarily displaced, and a dolan trail was like a highway through the forest. A sinuous line of crushed vegetation, it wound in and around the largest trees, even looping back onto itself at one point, and everywhere it touched had been laid utterly flat by the weight of those thousands of tiny feet and gnashing teeth. This trail was only hours old, and already the forest had begun to reclaim the devastated area.

  The very act of destruction had released replacement seeds from their pods, and even now the first tender, green shoots could be seen in the rich loam of the flattened trail. Amanda felt almost guilty as they were knocked back once again beneath her feet. It wouldn’t matter. In a few days, the new growth would thicken and within weeks, it would be several feet tall and fighting for space against the encroachment of older vegetation.

  For now, it was a convenient path to take her to the exact place she needed to go. If she hurried, she could confirm the truth about what had caused the swarm, and still get back in time to save Rhodry from his own chauvinist nobility.

  In spite of the twists and turns, it took her less time than she expected to reach the swarm’s origin not far from where they’d taken refuge last night. That explained why they hadn’t heard it sooner, and, to her mind, also made it even more likely that the dolans had been stirred up on purpose. The originating point was an old, stable nest, familiar to her from the months she’d spent wandering the areas of the Green closest to the city. And if it was familiar to her, it would definitely be known to every shifter in the Guild.

  Staring at the emptied nest, she tried unsuccessfully to shake off her irritation with Rhodry. He only wanted to protect her, to keep his enemies from becoming her enemies, and stop her from getting caught in the crossfire. He didn’t seem to understand that it was too late for that. Serna and Daly had become her enemies the moment they decided to kill the man she loved.

  She froze in mid-stride and nearly fell, stumbling forward. Good gods, she loved him. A part of her had known it was happening all along, and she’d ignored it, thinking, half hoping, that the feelings would go away once they were out of danger. The opposite had happened. The longer they were together, the stronger her feelings for him had become. And wasn’t that a pain in the ass?

  She was in love with a man who didn’t trust her enough to tell her the truth, and who sent her off into safety while he went on to meet his enemies alone, because he was obviously convinced that she would be of no help.

  How dumb was that? She wasn’t sure if that last thought was for her or for Rhodry.

  She took a few minutes to study the dolan nest, even though it was clear what had set it off. Now abandoned, it was situated between a huge grandfather tree and a cluster of several stumps left behind by loggers—maybe even the original builders of the city, judging by the age of the dried husks. Before the dolans had swarmed, the nest would have been no more than a slight up-swell on the forest floor, with most of the activity well underground. Given the panicked nature of their exodus, the tiny creatures had tunneled out every which way, leaving a churned up hollow of dirt and grass behind.

  And tumbled in the middle of the disrupted nest was a dead banshee—or what was left of it after the dolans got finished. Banshees died all the time in the Green—of accident, old age, even mating battles. This particular banshee had an arrow lodged in its spine. It had probably been killed elsewhere, and thrown into the nest to start the stampede.

  And gosh, maybe Rhodry had missed that little detail when he checked this place out. She snorted in disbelief.

  Above her, a jaybird cawed stridently, warning off potential encroachers, marking his territory. Amanda glanced up, then looked back the way she had come. It took only seconds to make up her mind. Honestly, her mind had been made up before she’d kissed Rhodry good-bye. She was not going to stand by meekly while he hurried headlong into danger. She stepped carefully until she was free of the churned up and muddy nest, and then she ran.

  Chapter Forty-Four

  Amanda retraced her steps to the spot where she’d left her backpack, stopping only long enough to re-wrap the bandage on her leg, tightening it almost to the point of pain. It was going to hurt before this day was over. She hoped the bandage would at least keep it from
tearing open, and maybe even give the still-healing muscles a little support. She grabbed her canteen for a quick sip of water, then left her pack hidden beneath the deadfall. It would be safe enough and besides, it would only slow her down. Rhodry would have been pleased by her decision, if not by her destination.

  He was well ahead of her by now, especially with her detour to the nest. This was a big forest, however, and it might take him some time to find the ambush so that he could walk into it. She shook her head in disgust, and tried to reason out where the ambush was most likely to be.

  If Serna and his pals thought she was still with Rhodry, they’d target the ground routes, especially if there were any non-shifters among them, and she thought there might be. Rhodry had mentioned an abundance of non-shifter cousins in the de Mendoza clan, not all of them friendly, so it stood to reason that Serna might have some norm allies. Plus there was far more at stake now than old hatreds. They’d tried to assassinate their clan chief. What wouldn’t they do to keep that from coming to light?

  If she and Rhodry lived to bring their story to the Ardrigh, all of the conspirators would pay, shifter and norm alike.

  Using that logic, she decided to focus on likely ambush spots along the established ground routes. Unfortunately, the closer she drew to the city, the more paths there were, since the norm population tended not to stray very far into the forest. This left her with a frustratingly large number of possibilities, though she still wasn’t worried. Because while she might not know exactly where they were waiting, the trees would.

  She followed a more or less direct line toward the Guild Hall, circling several old-growth giants blocking her path, and at one point giving a wide berth to a couple of breeding zillah lizards who’d posted a zealous guard over their nest of writhing offspring. It made her queasy to look at the slimy tangle of newborn zillahs, knowing that the next step in their development would involve a frenzy of fratricide in order to reduce the nest from several hundred to fewer than ten. She’d witnessed a birth frenzy once. It wasn’t something she wanted to see again.