Sun Warrior

by P. C. Cast

  Every Tribesman and woman turned as one. But Nik didn’t need to turn. Nik had a perfect view, and he would never forget the sight.

  Mari strode into the Tribe with Laru and Rigel pressed against her sides. The big Shepherds had their teeth bared and were growling a warning to every canine in the Tribe: Stay back—stay clear—she is Alpha protected!

  Her feather-dressed hair flew wild around her shoulders. She was bare breasted, covered only by a sun and a moon that were painted on her skin and by the glowing filigreed pattern of fern fronds that glistened as they captured the last rays of the setting sun.

  “Get her! But don’t kill her—yet!” Thaddeus shrieked.

  The Hunter named Andrew was the first to move. He lunged toward Mari. With blinding speed Mari took a rock from the bag strapped around her waist, fitted it in her slingshot, and with a flick of her wrist the rock flew at Andrew, smashing into his nose and sending him staggering backward to fall in a heap to the ground.

  With a feral snarl, Thaddeus raised his crossbow, sighting at Mari. Nik shouted, “No!,” but before Thaddeus could fire he was shoved to the side so that he lost his aim and the arrow twanged harmlessly into the forest well over Mari’s head.

  As the Tribe exploded into shouts and cries, Thaddeus rounded on the Storyteller, who had managed to climb to her feet and tackle the Hunter, foiling his shot.

  “You bitch! What’s wrong with you?”

  “What’s wrong with you, Thaddeus? You’d kill the one person we know can heal us? Really? Even though your sick and dying Tribe is strewn about you, weak and hopeless?”

  “You don’t know she can heal you!”

  “Of course I can.” Mari spoke with a calm authority that silenced the Tribe. “Let Nik go, and I give you my word that I will heal anyone who wishes to be cured.”

  “Your word? What good is the word of a Scratcher whore?” Thaddeus taunted.

  Mari cocked her head to the side, as if considering his question. “Well, Thaddeus, I’d say my word is better than some of your Tribe’s.” She looked from him to his Hunters and the one Warrior who stood with them and then directly at Maeve before she continued. “Don’t you swear to your canines when they choose you that you will honor and love and care for them for their entire lives?” Mari didn’t pause but kept speaking, her voice rich with disdain. “And yet I see canines here, suffering at the hands of their Companions.”

  “You don’t know what you’re talking about!” Thaddeus snapped.

  “See, that’s the problem, Thaddeus. I know exactly what I’m talking about. I know more than these poor, sick men and women you have duped. I know about the Skin Stealer disease that has infested you—and how you have been flaying the flesh from your Companions as a cure.”

  “What is she talking about?” Ralina said, looking wide-eyed from Mari to Thaddeus.

  “She lies,” Thaddeus said.

  Mari turned to Ralina. “If you weren’t so sick you’d have already realized it, but look at his men—those men who seem to be healing. Then look at their canines—their poor, wounded canines—and tell me what you see.”

  “You don’t need to kill her to shut her up,” said the Warrior who moved to Thaddeus’s side.

  “But if she is lying, why shut her up?” Ralina asked, and Mari noticed that several Tribesmen and women had managed to shake themselves out of painful stupors and were struggling to sit.

  “If she can heal us let her!” said a young Warrior whose Shepherd was whining by his side as he pulled himself to his feet.

  “Shut up, Renard!” Thaddeus shouted.

  “I will not.” The Warrior moved slowly, stiffly, to confront Thaddeus. He pointed back at an older man who lay unconscious on a pallet nearby. “Father is dying. I’ve already lost Mother. I’ll do anything to save the rest of my family—even follow you, Thaddeus!”

  Thaddeus’s mean eyes narrowed at the Warrior, but before he could respond several people began clamoring to be heard.

  “If there is even a small chance she can heal us do not harm her!” called another Tribesman.

  “Let the Scratcher heal us!”

  “Give her a chance!”

  “Fine!” Thaddeus shouted over the noise of the crowd, so that they began to quiet. He turned his malicious gaze on Mari. “Then do it. Heal them.”

  “Not until you let Nik go.”

  Thaddeus laughed. “And once I let him go, what then? What if you can’t heal anyone? No, that’s not happening.”

  “I should have been more specific. Untie Nik. Let him join me. Then I will heal any of the Tribe who wish to be Washed free of disease. If I do as I promise I can, only then will I leave with Nik.”

  Thaddeus’s eyes glittered with victory. “Why not? I don’t think you can do it anyway—and then we’ll truss you up beside your lover and get back to target practice. Emma!” he shouted up at the platform where Nik was bound. “Cut Nik free—for now.”

  A young woman who was obviously ill moved slowly, painfully, to Nik. She sawed through the ropes at his wrists first so that Nik was able to loosen and then slide the noose over his head. Then, with a litheness that had Mari feeling much better about his wounds, Nik bent to grab his travel satchel, but Maeve’s spiteful voice cut across the clearing.

  “No! That satchel has stolen Mother Plant pups in it! Don’t let him take them!”

  Mari rounded on the older woman. “If Nik doesn’t take the plants. I don’t heal you. Ever. It’s as simple as that.”

  “Let him take the plants. The Scratcher bitch can’t possible heal everyone, so they won’t be going anywhere.”

  Maeve started to say something, but Thaddeus turned his back to her, ignoring her completely.

  Nik slung his satchel across his bleeding shoulder and hurried to her.

  She wanted to run into his arms and sob her relief. But not yet. They weren’t safe yet.

  He stopped in front of her, bending to greet Laru. When Nik straightened, their eyes met.

  “How badly did they hurt you?” she asked.

  “Scratches,” he said.

  “I’ll make them pay for every one of them.”

  “I love it when you read my mind,” Nik said.

  “That’s enough!” Mari and Nik turned to see that Thaddeus and his men had crossbows trained on them. “Get to healing, or I don’t care what the rest of the Tribe says—I’m more than ready to put you out of my misery.”

  Mari saw Nik’s gaze flick to the sky that still blushed with the colors of sunset.

  “Remember.” She spoke her mama’s words softly to Nik. “Whether you can see it or not, the moon is always present.” Mari raised her voice, saying, “All who wish to be Washed of the sickness that has infested this Tribe, bow your heads and place your hands over your hearts.”

  “Wait! What of people like my father, who aren’t conscious?” asked the young Warrior Renard.

  Mari met his eyes, finding compassion as her answer. “I’ve lost both of my parents,” she told the Warrior, being sure her words carried throughout the clearing. “I will not ignore those who are so gravely ill that they cannot accept the Washing willingly, though I do believe that some of this Tribe are pleased with their sicknesses. It is to those people I speak.”

  “Some of us aren’t sick—we’re better, stronger, faster!” Thaddeus shouted at her defensively.

  “Really?” Mari took a turn at laughing humorlessly. “You seem very sick to me, Thaddeus. But as you and your men don’t want to be free of what you have done to yourselves, I will not heal you. Those of you loyal to Thaddeus, move to stand with him and my moon magick will not touch you.”

  The four men whose canines bore flaying wounds moved quickly to stand behind Thaddeus. Then, more slowly, several Hunters who were still sick—still coughing and weak—shuffled to him as well. Several Warriors, with Shepherds moving slowly, hesitantly, at their sides, joined Thaddeus’s group until by Nik’s count about fifty people and almost as many canines stood with the Hunter
.

  Mari nodded. “So be it. Let what happens to you and your people as a result of choosing anger and hatred be on your conscience, Thaddeus, not mine.”

  Mari took one step away from Nik. She drew a deep breath, grounding herself. Then she reached from within the center of herself and found the moon. Turning to face northeast—the darkest part of the gloaming sky—Mari lifted her arms.

  There was no time for nerves. No time for regret that she didn’t know more—was perhaps not as strong as she could or should be—she focused her entire being on the moon and began the drawing-down invocation.

  “Moon Woman I forever will be

  Greatly gifted, your power fills me!

  Earth Mother, aid me this somber night

  So that those who wish it may feel your healing might!”

  Mari didn’t need to glance at her arms to know her body had begun to glow with the cold, silver power of the moon. The shocked expression of the Tribe and the gasps that surrounded her told her what she already knew—the moon, although still invisible in the dusk sky, had found her.

  “By right of blood and birth channel through me

  The Goddess gift I embrace as my destiny!”

  Within her mind, Mari sketched a simple picture. She drew the clearing, with the meditation platform and the sick, dying Tribe in it and surrounding it. In the sketch, she created an enormous bubble, like the frothy ones formed at the base of a waterfall, around Thaddeus and his loyal followers, including Maeve, who had stood and joined his hateful group. Then Mari painted the sky with a moon, fat and full. From it poured a silver wave of liquid power. The wave cascaded into Mari, and from her open palms it rained all around her, covering the meditation platform and all of the sick and wounded who were not enclosed in Thaddeus’s bubble.

  On and on the silver light flowed into Mari to be dispersed out to the Tribe. Mari gritted her teeth to keep them from chattering. Her knees felt weak, but still she kept the connection open. I am the conduit for the healing—the magick washes through me and into the Tribe. I am the conduit for the healing—the magick washes through me and into the Tribe.…

  The litany played over and over through Mari’s mind until she became aware of Nik’s strong hand on her shoulder and his voice in her ear.

  “Stop now, Mari. You’ve done it. The Tribe is healed!”

  Mari drew a long, shaky breath and then released the image to which she’d held so tightly, and the silver light snuffed like a doused torch. She blinked and gazed around her.

  Members of the Tribe were stirring. Some of them were laughing in relief. Some of them wept. The young Warrior Renard had rushed to his father’s side, and the two men were embracing.

  “It worked.” Mari smiled her relief to Nik.

  “Did you doubt that it would?” Nik asked.

  She moved her shoulders. “Well, Rigel and Laru never doubted it.”

  “Thank you. Thank you so much.”

  Mari looked over Nik’s shoulder to see the woman named Ralina approaching them, an adult Shepherd bouncing around like a puppy at her side. The woman grasped Mari’s hands, saying, “You saved us!”

  “No,” Mari told her softly. “As long as you follow Thaddeus, your Tribe is still infested with disease.”

  “That’s not a very nice thing to say, Scratcher bitch.”

  Thaddeus and the men surrounding him raised their crossbows and took aim—not at Mari but at Nik.

  “What are you doing, Thaddeus?” Ralina asked, moving so that her body shielded Mari’s. “She did exactly what she said she would. Now you need to let Mari and Nik go as you agreed.”

  Thaddeus scoffed, “I didn’t agree to let them go. I agreed to let Nik join her. And now he has.”

  “What do you mean to do, Thaddeus?” Nik asked.

  “I mean to keep your Scratcher whore prisoner and kill you. I was going to kill her, too, but after her little exhibition tonight I realize she could actually be of use to the Tribe.”

  Thaddeus raised his crossbow, aiming at Nik.

  As easily as breathing, Mari released the anger the soothing moon magick had been keeping at bay. She stepped around Ralina, drawing the dying sun’s rays to her, and lifted her hands, opening them so the Tribe could see the sunfire that flared with her righteous indignation dancing in golden flames on her palms.

  “If you hurt Nik, I will kill you with sunfire.”

  Thaddeus paused, his gaze flicking from her palms to her face. Then a slow, sly smile lifted his thin lips. “You won’t do it. You’re a Healer. I know your type. You’re sworn to help and not harm. You won’t kill me, or any of us, because of your Healer oath.”

  Mari let loose of more of her anger, and the flames in her palms grew, leaping hot and hungry, so that Nik and Ralina were forced to step behind her, shielding their eyes with their hands. When Mari spoke she hardly recognized her own voice, as it was filled with the hot might of the Sun.

  “Thaddeus, you’re partially right. The only thing that stops me from killing you and your twisted group of followers is the fact that I am a Moon Woman, gifted to heal, and not to kill. I do not wish to poison my soul with your blood.”

  “You just proved my point, you stupid bitch!”

  “You didn’t let me finish. Right now I don’t want to poison my soul with killing, but if you harm Nik or Laru or Rigel I won’t respond as a Moon Woman. I’ll be an enraged mate, Leader of my Pack, and I’ll respond with my father’s blood—the fiery blood that allows me to call down sunfire—but I won’t be your tame Sun Priestess. I will be a Sun Warrior, and I will fry your ass dead. On that you have my eternal oath. Now, back off or die. The choice is yours!”

  Thaddeus’s eyes narrowed with a spiteful intelligence, and his evil smile spread across his face. “Really? What if I told you I know who killed your father, Galen?”

  Mari felt Nik’s body jerk with shock beside her.

  “I know who killed my father. My mother told me. She saw the whole thing. It was someone from your Tribe—filled with hate like you.”

  “You’re partially right. He was from our Tribe, but he was a lot weaker than me, which is why he’s dead. But ask his son. He’s standing beside you.”

  Mari’s gaze flew to Nik, who was looking sad and pale. “I’m so sorry, Mari,” he said.

  “Sol killed my father?”

  Nik nodded wearily. “And it ate at him for the rest of his life. He would have done anything to make it right—including giving his life for you.”

  “Oh, Goddess! And that’s exactly what he did,” Mari said.

  “Forgive him, if you can,” Nik said. “And forgive me for wishing you’d never found out.”

  Mari didn’t answer Nik. Instead, she faced Thaddeus again. “You actually thought I’d hold Nik to blame for something his father did.” She shook her head, lifting her lip in her own version of a canine’s snarl. “But that doesn’t make any sense at all—at least not to anyone who isn’t lost to rage and hatred it doesn’t. What Sol did all those years ago has nothing to do with Nik, you pathetic, evil little man.”

  “Die, bitch!” With a growl that was more animal than man, Thaddeus shifted his aim to Mari and loosed an arrow.

  Mari heard Nik’s panicked shout. She even felt Ralina begin to move forward, as if she meant to shield Mari from the arrow, but they both would be too late. Neither was near enough to save Mari—so Mari saved herself.

  Instead of lunging away, Mari strode forward to meet the arrow, and with a flick of her fingers the sunfire at her command engulfed it, burning it to ash.

  “Nik, Laru, Rigel! Get behind me!” Mari shouted. She turned her head and met Ralina’s wide-eyed look. “Unless you want to leave with us, and we would gladly accept you, you must get back,” she told the kind woman.

  “I can’t leave my people. They need me,” said the Storyteller.

  “Then move out of my way! Now!”

  Ralina grabbed her Shepherd around the neck and lunged back, away from Mari and Nik and thei
r two canines.

  Using the same vivid imagination and the concentration her mama had made her practice since she’d been old enough to speak, Mari painted a picture all in gold around the four of them. Sunfire flared hot and high, encircling them with heat as the flames licked hungrily, searching to be fed.

  Mari’s concentration slipped. This was nothing at all like Moon Magick! How had she thought she could control such an alien power? Mari smelled her hair beginning to singe as her control began to slide from her. It was going to burn her! Burn all of them!

  Then from behind her Nik’s strong hands were on her shoulders and his calm voice spoke into her ear.

  “It’s okay. You’ve got this. We’ve got this. Don’t imagine it burning. Imagine it shielding.”

  “But it’s so hot! It’s so angry!” Mari panted, struggling not to scream that they needed to run! They all needed to run from the sunfire!

  “It’s not, Mari. You’re angry. And if it’s you then you can control it, right?”

  The logic of Nik’s words penetrated through her panic and Mari blinked in surprise. It is my anger! I let it loose on purpose. I knew that was how I call sunfire.

  Mari forced her shoulders to relax under Nik’s hands. She focused on her breathing—in and out smoothly, deeply. She didn’t need to be blinded by anger. She didn’t need to destroy these people. She simply needed to be free of them.

  And suddenly the dome of flame that had been threatening to devour them calmed. Mari could actually see through it to the Tribe. The people were milling around, crying out in fear and panic. Even Thaddeus and his group had backed away from her, though their weapons were still aimed her way.

  “That’s it!” Nik said, squeezing her shoulders reassuringly. “That’s perfect. Now walk forward. Head into the ruins of the Tribe.”

  Slowly, at first, Mari began walking. The shield of flame stayed with her, surrounding the four of them and making the Tribe cringe away from her as she passed them. And as she walked, Mari’s control grew. Her anger simmered low—easily controlled—and the sunfire, made malleable by the gift that was her father’s blood, protected them.