A Walk After Dark

by Kirra Pierce

  -- The Trader’s Handbook

  Head throbbing, Cassandra came slowly to full consciousness. “Ty, Cyn?”

  “They are not here.”

  Cassandra raised heavy eyelids to find Melisande staring back at her. She was sitting next to Cassandra on a thin pallet of blankets. Cassandra tried to push herself up, only to find her hands and feet bound. “Do you feel able to sit? You may feel a bit bruised, but believe me, between the two of us, you have had the better day. While you, slept, I was awake for every jolt and bump of our travel.”

  “What happened? I remember us sitting and then a sting, and then nothing.” The fog in her brain began to fade, and she fought a growing sense of alarm. They were still outside, but it was dark now. A small fire behind Melisande silhouetted her face. There were rustling noises outside of her view. She needed to get her bearings.

  “Yes, I would like to sit.”

  Melisande looked over Cassandra’s shoulder. “Help her.”

  Large male hands grasped her torso and lifted her to a sitting position. Looking around she saw two men, in addition to Melisande. One small, one of average size, both wore clothes with a patchwork of colors that blended with the forest surroundings. Their tanned skin and sun-streaked hair spoke of much time outdoors. They returned her look with curiosity, but did not offer comment. Melisande must be the host of this party.

  She looked directly at her.

  “Why have you captured me? Your family is already wealthy, and no amount of ransom is worth the trouble you earn with this. They will know I was with you. Ty can follow us on scent alone. You must know that they will hunt you down for this. Even the king won’t be able to protect you.”

  Melisande’s lips pulled into a bitter smile. “Money is not the object of this exercise. It’s too bad Cyn decided not to take me as his bride. Then you would have been spared this. You see, what I want is power, respect of those beneath me. You seem one who has always been comfortable with your place, so I doubt you would understand the position of a bastard at court, even a well-cared-for one. The little cuts, the subtle snubs all carefully done so no one could take offense. So I would only look foolish if I complained.”

  Melisande’s hands twisted tightly in her skirt material as she spoke. Cassandra was suddenly glad she had never been rude to Melisande.

  “You have heard the king is my half brother? Well, he is not the only one I have. My other brother has no royal blood. He has made himself noble by virtue of his actions. He is a true leader, and with him, I will rule a new kingdom. One without the ridiculous pretenses of the present courts.” For a moment Melisande’s eyes filled with the light of a fanatic.

  Confusion and fear wrapped around Cassandra’s heart. “That sounds like a noble goal. Why take an ordinary trader like me? I have no standing in court to help or hurt your cause.”

  “Don’t play stupid!” Melisande snarled. “As the chosen of Ty and Cynbarion’s lover, you would have a certain power anyway, but I saw what happened when you disappeared yesterday. Ty almost lost himself to his beast. Despite bonding with you, he still does not have the stability of a long-time brethren, and Cyn will do anything to protect his bond brother.”

  The depth of Melisande’s knowledge of the brethren stunned Cassandra. This was most uncommon! She could not react quickly enough to stop her quick inhale of surprise. Melisande’s eyes narrowed, but she continued.

  “I expect the keep is in a complete uproar as we speak. I don’t know if Ty will completely lose his mind now you have disappeared a second time, or if he will be able to hold on to begin the search for you. It doesn’t matter. What is important is that Cyn will drop everything else to help him. He will not be available to organize his troops to aid Birne when the request for aid is officially made. That lack of interference is all we need to win a piece of the border and start our new country.”

  Horror at what could very well happen to Ty filled Cassandra’s mind.

  “If I’m not a hostage, why am I still alive?”

  Melisande reached out to pat Cassandra’s cheek. Cassandra barely stilled her instinctive desire to jerk away. Melisande thoughtfully trailed a finger over the side of Cassandra’s face. “You know what a bond a brethren has with his chosen. Ty might very well know if you were dead. This way he will go wild searching for you, not quietly fade away or kill himself with sorrow. His madness will provide a much better distraction than his death.

  “But you don’t need to worry about the scent addiction. Soon enough, we’ll have you attached to another.”

  An idea wrapped itself around Cassandra’s mind. It couldn’t be true and yet… “We? Who are we? Who is your brother, Melisande?”

  Melisande sat up straight and proud. She looked at Cassandra with challenge in her eye. “The brother I speak of is Ammon, the leader of the so-called ravers. He is not brethren, but he is not mad. Some who follow him are…unstable, but not all of them. Most importantly, he controls them. We will build a new country with those who have been discarded, those who, like he and I, are not quite considered fit.”

  “You trust ‑‑ Melisande, they are called ravers for a reason. When their beasts take them, they kill with joy. They must only follow your brother because he allows killing.”

  “No, you are wrong. Ammon is brilliant. He has found a mixture of extracts that quiets the mind. When given to the newly changed, it allows for a merger of man and beast. Not the man ruling the beast as the brethren require, but a union where both are truly accepted.”

  “You mean the killer in each? Killers who murder and devour the bodies of their victims.”

  Bleak faced, Melisande pulled away. “All men are killers, Cassandra. Power, kingdoms, birth of any kind involves blood. How do you think any of the noble families gained power? How did our king, my other brother’s ancestors, take a throne? It always involves killing. That my allies are ruthless just means we are more likely to succeed.”

  Her expression softened slightly, and she looked at Cassandra with a degree of pity. “I respected the way you carried yourself in the keep. I even grew to like you. I will make sure you receive the blood of one of Ammon’s top lieutenants to break your bond with Ty. You will not be treated as one of the common property women that any may take at their whim.”

  No! Time seemed to stop for a moment. Cassandra stared in shock. Melisande looked down briefly. Shame flitted over her face before her features once more transformed to the proud mask she normally wore, but she turned to look at the fire as she spoke.

  “The appetites of the beast must be fed. They have taken women for their needs. It is another way of controlling those who follow Ammon. The women are kept in a constant state of arousal by the scent of the beasts, ready, needful even, of the men. If you would see lives spared, be glad the beasts are fed this way rather than with the kill. Rarely is a woman actually hurt.”

  “Hurt! You mean rarely killed perhaps, but to be enslaved in such a way…how can you not call it hurt?”

  “I call it only necessary. Someday…”

  Abruptly Melisande picked up a bowl that sat by the fire and placed it in Cassandra’s bound hands. “Here is some stew. I advise you to eat quickly. We will be leaving again as soon as our third escort returns. For the sake of speed, they will carry us. Do not resist or struggle. These three are among those who are not mad, but they fully embraced their beast’s darker side. Do not arouse their beasts. If you do, I will not be able to protect you.”

  With that, Melisande rose and walked away from the fire and into the shadows beyond the surrounding trees.

  Cassandra fought to make her stomach accept the food with the knowledge she would need whatever strength it would give her. She took surreptitious peeks around the camp while she ate and tried to absorb all Melisande told her. The two ravers still in camp showed no interest in her. They stayed well away from the small fire and were little more than man-sized shapes hunched by the base of the surrounding pine trees.

  A giant wolf leaped
from between two trees. She froze as she stared at the beast. Blood-smeared fur surrounded the muzzle. This must be their third! His shape seemed to waver briefly in the firelight, and then a man stood in the beast’s place. He was the largest of the three, with shoulder-length hair somewhere between blond and brown. His features might have been handsome if he hadn’t looked at her as if trying to decide how she would taste. She pulled back as far as she could while bound and seated. He gave her a quick smirk, apparently pleased with her reaction, and then strode over to a small pile of clothes.

  His voice was deep and gravelly, “I see you’ve eaten. I’m going to untie your legs and let you go behind that rock to relieve yourself before we leave. Once we start, we will not be stopping until we reach our horses.” Cassandra jerked slightly. The ravers are able to keep horses without killing them?

  “Do not look so surprised. Our people can buy brethren-raised horses that will not panic at our scent as well as the next person.” He dressed as he spoke. A few steps and he stood at her feet.

  She fought not to shrink away from him, to not feel the fear he would be able to smell. Cruel enjoyment contorted his features as he tugged free her ropes. His eyes glittered with suppressed excitement in the firelight. “Oh, and don’t try to run. We can all hear your every movement, and you don’t want to make us chase you.”

  * * * * *

  At the keep, the day had gone much differently. The riders who had arrived with the midmorning bells were Darius and Marcus.

  Guards led them to Cyn’s private office, where an extremely pleased-looking Cyn and Ty awaited them.

  They paused at the doorway and shared a look of suspicion before looking back at Cyn and Ty.

  Darius narrowed his sapphire eyes. “We come bearing serious news from Raphael regarding the raver problem we sent him to investigate. Damn it! Why are you smiling so?”

  Now Ty and Cyn shared a look. Do you want to tell? it seemed to ask. Ty shrugged attempting to look casual. “You share our news, Cyn. It will be good practice for your announcement later.”

  “I don’t know, Ty, perhaps it would not be fair to my loyal people here at the keep to share first with those who do not openly pledge their allegiance to me.”

  Marcus stilled and looked at Cyn with the eerie calm he took on when reading someone deeply. Cyn scowled, clearly recognizing the technique, but Marcus only looked back at him with a partially suppressed grin. “Tell, Cyn, or I’ll tell Cassandra how you have treated her brothers.”

  Cyn barked out, “You are not her brothers!”

  “Will someone please tell me, the acknowledged leader of the brethren, what is going on?”

  His good humor apparently restored by Darius’s frustration, Cyn cleared his throat and then gave Darius a smile that began with a wicked edge, but melted into a look of sheer joy. “Cassandra has agreed to marry me.”

  Ty ceased all attempts to hold back his own joy and beamed at the group. Marcus immediately stepped up to shake first his, then Cyn’s hands in congratulation.

  Darius appeared torn. “Cassandra agreed to tie herself to you, to the restrictions of being a duchess? How did you persuade her?”

  Ty sharply exhaled. He should have known Darius would be reluctant to completely let her go. Although he acknowledged Darius and Cassandra were no more than close friends now, he could never completely forget that they had, briefly, been lovers. A part of Ty, both his human and beast side, didn’t trust that this unattached brethren had no designs on Cassandra for himself. When he spoke, the gravelly sound of the beast was in his voice. “We love her. She is OUR chosen. She loves us and calls us HER chosen in return. What is so difficult to believe?”

  “Well, not that there is something wrong with you two, but dealing with court protocol, restrictions on her personal movements…” Darius trailed off, clearly still trying to digest the news.

  “She sees some advantages to marrying me. As my bride, she cuts off the schemes of all other aristocrats to marry me. I think this thought tipped the balance for me in spite of the problems you mention. She is actually quite possessive.” Cyn grinned and presented a very innocent expression no one who knew him would believe.

  This explanation, at last, appeared to satisfy Darius who now also looked pleased. “You are both very lucky men. Just remember that many brethren, Marcus, Raphael, and especially I, consider Cassandra family. If she should ever need us…”

  Ty found himself still smiling as he shook his head at Darius’s none-too-subtle warning.

  Cyn’s expression was far more pleased. “We will remember and be happy to make use of the added connection anytime there is a need.” He looked amused when Darius frowned at this.

  Darius stroked his one scarred cheek in an apparently thoughtless gesture. “You know I was not pledging you any additional--” he tried to begin, but Cyn cut him off.

  “Now that we’ve shared our news, what is yours? What does Raphael say? It can’t be good for you to have come riding in so hard.”

  Teasing aside, the men settled down to business.

  Darius brushed his long gold and brown hair. “Raphael says what the raver told you is true. There are at least thirty ravers who have somehow controlled themselves sufficiently to organize into a group. They are operating inside Ibsen under the cover of the current border skirmish with Birne. Their kills are hidden by the deaths from those fights. What is more, they are capturing women, and obviously, scent drugging them for their use. Using the women this way, it may be how they partially control their beasts.”

  Ty flinched. Had Cassandra ever seen him in such a way?

  Darius continued. “However, how they came to be organized at all, let alone enough to think through something like that, suggests there is some guiding force behind this, some sort of larger plan.”

  He leaned forward. “I have Pantheros leading a group toward a meeting spot near the border now. The nearest town in this country is one of your holdings, Quwe. I came to see you myself with this news to ask you to not openly make any move against these ravers yet. If you send in regular troops before we are ready, some might escape. We need to be sure that whoever or whatever has caused this sudden organization among the ravers is stopped here. They are dangerous enough in just their random appearances, but a united force of killers who are bloodthirsty in the truest sense of the word could kill such as we’ve never seen before.”

  Ty’s insides churned. With his military past, he had been required to kill often. He knew it would have been easy for him to fully embrace the darker longings of his beast and become raver himself. Silently, he thanked his gods again for putting Cassandra in his path when first affected by the bite of a raver. “To force the need upon women in such a way is sickening! I understand strategy very well, Darius, but we must move quickly, not only for the sake of those being killed, but also for the sake of the women who have been taken and those they will try to take. My gods, how many are already affected? Even if we are able to rescue them, how can we undo the addiction? ”

  Always of few words, Marcus spoke up. “I felt compelled to come with Darius, not just to talk with you both, but the thought that Cassandra might help has tugged at my mind. Can you send someone to fetch her?”

  Cyn shook his head. “Not now, she is off walking with the king’s sister, Melisande. She has decided to ‘befriend’ Cassandra. I don’t know what is truly in Melisande’s mind, but that one is clever, and I don’t want to give her any reason to wonder about your appearance here. Let’s plan the other aspects of this for now. I’ll ask Adeena, my personal aide, to watch for Cassandra and discreetly let her know we would like to see her after she returns.”

  “Are you hungry?” At the men’s nods, Cyn crossed to the door and looked out to the waiting footmen. “Geoff, my guests and I will lunch here. Go to the kitchen and have food brought up now. Randolph, go fetch Adeena. She is probably in her office.” The men, identically clad in tunics of black with red-and-gold trim, hurried off.

  Soo
n a firm knock sounded on the door.

  “Enter.” Although Cyn spoke, all eyes turned toward the heavy door. Adeena entered, eyes sparkling and carrying a leather folder. Unlike Cassandra, she preferred a markedly feminine style of dress when in the keep. She wore a bright green overdress that split at the waist to reveal form-fitting sand-colored pants and a knit top. Her auburn hair was braided like a crown around her head. Her bright green eyes and generous mouth were too similar to Cyn’s own for her to be anything other than a relation.

  She entered talking. “Cousin, dearest, you have barely given me time to plan after the news you shared this morning. Surely you aren’t after an update already?” Her chatter stopped as she caught sight of the two new men in the room.

  “Ah, I gave do not disturb orders and hadn’t heard we have guests.” Her glance and easy smile slid over Marcus and then stopped when she saw Darius, who stared intently at her.

  The men all rose. “Adeena, you have heard me speak of them before, but let me introduce Marcus and Darius of the brethren. Brethren, my cousin and personal aide, Adeena.”

  Marcus took Adeena’s hand and bowed over it like the best of courtiers. A quiet growl startled the group. Marcus quickly dropped Adeena’s hand and stepped back as Darius advanced.

  Ty’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at Darius’s immediate reaction to her. She flushed watching the impossibly handsome creature stalk near her and crowd into her space.

  “I have caught the faint echoes of your scent before, in the capital, at the palace, and even here immediately after a group of courtiers left the keep. It called me, but never could I find who owned it. Never did I imagine you were here.” The usually glib Adeena had no reply. She looked around the room, her eyes connecting with Cyn’s in confusion. Darius took her chin and forced her to look back at him. “When this trouble that calls us now is over, you will see me again.” His hand moved slowly, reluctantly from her chin, and he stepped away.

  While Cyn and Marcus watched the little scene with speculation, Ty found himself clenching his fists. Adeena may have been related to Cyn, but he had great fondness for the frighteningly efficient woman who had welcomed him to the keep and teased without fear when he needed it most. He forced himself to relax. Although he and Darius had disagreements, Ty knew the other man to be honorable. Darius clearly recognized Adeena as a possible chosen for himself and would pursue her aggressively, but he would not harm her.