by Lisa Daniels
Fayina continued to look around. “I know little about the kingdom. My family didn’t pay them any attention since they seem disinterested in fighting and are far enough away not to be worth the effort to start another war.”
“Is your entire world colored by war?”
“Pretty much. My father doesn’t seem interested in doing anything peacefully, and he has raised all of his sons to feel the same. Although, if I’m being honest, my brother Dustin doesn’t seem to believe anything that my father teaches anymore.”
“Are you close with Prince Dustin?”
“I’m closer with him than nearly anyone else in the family. Considering that my father keeps his sons under surveillance to ensure none of them turn on him, it’s difficult to get close to him.”
“You have sisters, don’t you?”
“I do. All of whom are married off. I never got to know them since we have such a large age difference. My parents had the great misfortunate of having three daughters before their first heir. He was followed by three more daughters. From what some of the servants have whispered around the palace, my father accidently killed one of my older sisters, though no one has told me anything about it. Then they had a steady stream of sons. I was their final disappointment. After my birth, my parents decided they were done. To be fair, I still had it easier than my sisters because my parents had no interest in me. They figured if I made it to adulthood, they could marry me off to build their coffers and form another alliance that they will break within a few years.”
“I don’t think that any amount of time that I spend with humans will enlighten me on some of the things that your species does.”
Torn between feeling offended and understanding what he was saying, Fayina didn’t respond. As they walked in silence, she paid attention to the sounds around her, and it wasn’t too long before she heard the stream. “How did you know it was here?”
“We have been here for a while. Even if I didn’t have prior knowledge of where it was, I could hear it.”
“Really?” Fayina found her curiosity beginning to rise again. “Would it be alright to ask some less relevant questions now?”
“You mean questions that are not related to what we are doing?”
“Yes.”
“Sure.” He moved down a bank to the water. “Make sure to get enough to drink, and when you are done, the questions will need to stop.”
“Why?”
“We need to focus on getting further from the bandits. They are still on horses, and some of them are smart enough to figure out how to get through the woods to catch up to us. Judging by the number of questions you have asked so far, I have a feeling that you would take hours to run out of them.”
Fayina squatted beside him and stretched out her hands, her eyes focused on the water. She began to wash the grime away as she spoke. “Unlike Myra’s kingdom, we have only good stories about bear shifters. I grew up wishing I could meet one. I can’t tell you how many times I was beaten for roaming through the woods like a boy, trying to find one. A lot of children have gone out trying to find you.”
“But not the adults?”
“No. Adults in Chervil have to contend with the harsh realities of life. At some point, it is all we can do to survive from day to day. Hoping to be saved by a bear shifter seems counterproductive.”
“Hope is often the first thing that people abandon, but it is what they need most during the dark times.”
“Are you speaking from experience?” Fayina turned to look at him, her eyes trying to detect any emotion in his expression. He had that same gentle smile on his face.
“Perhaps. But not necessarily my own experience,” Adrik replied enigmatically. “So what are the pressing questions you want to ask that can’t wait until we are a little safer?”
A million questions plowed through her mind. As interested as she was in learning about the mythical species, she found herself more interested in the individual. The first question that came to mind managed to escape her lips before she had time to fully process it. “Are you always this nice to everyone?”
Adrik tilted his head to the side. “It really depends on the situation.”
“What would make you treat someone differently from how you are treating me?”
“We just left a few of them behind.”
“Yes, well,” she paused, “you could easily have killed them, but you didn’t. If it had been me and I had a suitable weapon, I would have killed them.”
“Are you an adept fighter, then?”
“I’m not good enough to beat people who fight for a living, like knights and soldiers. But ruffians, drunks, and most bandits are easy. They don’t have much training.”
“Who taught you?”
“After my brother nearly killed me, I felt that I needed to be able to protect myself. I would never kill any of them, of course, but I wanted to dissuade them from further attacks. I knew that what my mother tried to do would not be adequate, so I had some of the squires train me. Over time, I was able to convince a few knights to give me additional help.”
“If you would like, I am willing to continue your training. We can spend time every night before bed training with whatever weapons you feel will be the most helpful.”
Fayina bit her cheek as she considered this strange offer. “Do you need weapons?”
“Not by nature. But since we often prefer to blend in as much as possible, that means being able to use weapons. Few of us stay in a single kingdom for more than a couple of years, so when we are in less-accepting kingdoms—which is most of them—we try to mask what we are.”
“Do you know how to fight with a spear?”
“I can hold my own.”
“What about a sword?”
His smile widened, “That’s the easiest one to master. Though we do need to have swords made a little bigger and heavier than what humans use.”
“You aren’t carrying any weapons, though.” Fayina’s eyes looked over him again as if to verify what she had noticed in passing earlier.
“They would have been in the way of the escape.”
“What did happen with the others?”
“You are mostly concerned with Iliya, aren’t you?”
Fayina wanted to argue, but quickly realized that would not serve any purpose. Lowering her hands into the stream, she brought up a small amount of water. After drinking it, she admitted, “Yes. We didn’t have much time to make the plans because we barely agreed before the fight broke out.”
“That wasn’t an accident.” Adrik took another drink of water out of his large hands. “The guard who Myra noted was argumentative is one of our own.”
Fayina turned to look at him. “He was a bear shifter?”
“Of course. I guess you didn’t get a good look at him, but that was Tolenka. He’s a notorious flirt and an avid pot stirrer. Give him an opportunity, and he will get people riled up.”
“Sounds like a useful skill if this is the kind of thing you do often.”
“Indeed,” Adrik took another drink before continuing. “I believe he took the second princess to emerge.”
“Devora,” Fayina said.
“Lyosha took the first princess, who must have been Iliya.”
“Wait,” Fayina frowned, “how did the second one manage to take Devora? He was fighting with the other guard.”
With a chuckle, Adrik shook his head. “Not at all. Within the first 30 seconds of the fight breaking out, he noticed the stones in the wall disappearing, so he pulled a few of the other guards into the fight literally. Once they were fighting, he was able to easily slip away and run off with the princess.”
“Huh,” Fayina thought this over. “Very clever.”
“Everyone has their strengths and his is—” Adrik cut himself off. Holding a finger to his lips, he made sure Fayina understood not to say anything. When Adrik saw that she understood, he stood up slowly, his head swiveling around, looking for something. When he crouched again, he took Fayi
na’s hand and pulled her up the banks away from something she could neither see nor hear.
Chapter 4
A Distraction and a Long Distance
Panting, Fayina finally stopped trying to run along behind Adrik. “I can’t, Adrik.” He turned in time to see her drop to her knees.
“Alright.” He kneeled down in front of her, his head moving around as if he were certain that something was nearby.
Fayina climbed on his back and felt him stand. Before he shifted, though, a voice rang out in the woods.
“I don’t know which one you are, but you will give us our princess back.”
A tall figure emerged from behind one of the trees, a strange-looking contraption in his hands. A small arrow rested in the middle of it, and Fayina quickly realized that it was some strange kind of bow and arrow. Her grip tightened on Adrik’s neck, but she quickly relaxed it as she realized that she might be making it difficult for him to breathe.
“You will have to forgive me,” Adrik replied, and Fayina believed that she could hear the smile in his voice even as someone was pointing an arrow at him. Instinctively, she held on a little tighter. “I don’t have the pleasure of knowing your name.”
Fayina put her head against his back, having seen something very disconcerting. “Be careful, Adrik. I see something dripping off the tip,” she whispered into his muscular back, keeping her voice low so that the man threatening them could not hear.
The man with the crossbow spoke at the same time, “Jake, the leader of the men you have stolen from.”
“That is a most interesting way of describing it,” Adrik said, almost as if he were having a pleasant conversation with a neighbor instead of a man who looked prepared to kill him. “I would have said that you simply borrowed them, and my friends and I are making sure they return to where they belong.”
The man tsked, “I’m afraid that you are quite wrong. We took them, and that makes them ours.”
“Oh, good. Well, then we took them, so now they are ours. I think I like the way you look at the world.”
Fayina couldn’t help but laugh. Burying her face in his muscles, she tried to stifle it as Jake replied, “That isn’t how it works.”
“According to your description, it is.”
“I am human. You are not. You do not get to come into our kingdoms and steal our women. Why are you even interested in these pathetic creatures? Not a single one of them was important enough for their parents to pay their ransom. Shifters like you really don’t have any business with humans except as pawns.”
“I suppose it is because they don’t have anyone who is willing to save them from their current predicament. We are such suckers for humans who are in need.”
Jake moved his hand, pulling something on the instrument held in the other hand. “I’m not here to argue with you. Give her back.”
Adrik held up his hands, “And what will you do as soon as I let her go?”
“I will allow you to slink back to your people to lick your wounds and remember how you were bested.”
“That does sound tempting, but I think that there is a better solution.”
Jake took aim, but before he could pull the trigger, something large and black came tearing out of the woods. It charged him, knocking the contraption out of his hand.
Fayina had missed most of what had happened because she kept her face buried in Adrik’s back. Then she felt the fur—he had shifted. Tightening her grip, she finally looked up. Several men had entered the area, most of them carrying similar contraptions.
We aren’t going to make it out of here, she thought. They were outnumbered, and no matter how skilled Adrik was, he couldn’t possibly take them on alone. Then her eyes fell on the large, black bear standing over Jake, who was holding his arm.
Adrik was running at top speed toward the black bear. Just as they were about to reach him, Adrik reared up on his feet and turned. Fayina had a hard time holding onto him, though he moved quite gracefully for such a large animal. She got a much better look at the other bear, her eyes noting the strange golden color in them. Adrik’s movements were momentarily rough, not at all the smooth motions that she associated with him.
Without warning, she felt like she was falling. Large, furry arms caught her, then carefully placed her on the ground. This was followed by a deafening roar, and she covered her ears. Seconds passed as she tried to stop the ringing in her ears. When she finally looked up, both of the bears were standing between her and the other men. Jake was scrambling away, but he had left the crossbow. It rested between the two bears, who were now facing four men with similar weapons that she knew were much more dangerous than they looked.
Without thinking, Fayina dove for the tool after seeing that it still had an arrow in it. She hit the ground, then leveled it at one of the men who was taking aim at Adrik. Letting out a loud cry, she pulled the trigger. The weapon pushed back against her, something that she had not anticipated, but she did not let it distract her from watching what happened. The small arrow lodged in the man’s throat, and he dropped his weapon. Clawing at the arrow in his throat, he fell out of sight. The three other men were shocked, one of them so much so that he dropped his arrow. He began to scramble for it as the other men turned, determination on their faces.
Too late.
The couple of seconds that Fayina had bought them gave Adrik and the bear shifter with him time to close the distance between them and the humans. Now very much out in the open on her own, Fayina began to look around for other arrows or anything she could put in the contraption. When she didn’t see one, she turned to look at the last guy. He was nearly done placing the arrow back in the slot.
Fayina grabbed a small branch and yelled again. He looked up. Shocked by the barbaric yell and a woman—a princess, no less—charging him with a branch, the man’s aim was too far off as he took his shot. Desperately trying to retrieve another bolt, he backed away from the rapidly approaching woman. Fayina began swinging when she knew that she would hit him. The branch struck him in the head, and small flecks of blood flew from his mouth as he fell backward. Fayina tossed the branch to the side and picked up the weapon and the small arrow. Fitting the diminutive arrow in place, she didn’t hesitate as she pointed it at his head and pulled the trigger.
Glaring at the corpse of the man who had been ready to shoot her, Fayina felt the anger that had been swelling in her start to subside. The last few minutes had been as much a bursting of years of anger and rising frustration as anything else. She would have been expected to just sit while being attacked at home—unless it was one of the members of the royal family of Glenmore. Away from home, she was able to finally act not only to protect herself, but to work with someone who was clearly trying to help her. It had been a long time since she had been so angry, so the ability to release it through action gave her a sense of release and relief. Her eyes began to scour the area, hoping that Adrik had fared better than she had thought he would.
He was slumped against a tree, and another man stood over him.
“Sit still, Adrik, and I can get this out.”
“It’s fine,” her rescuer replied as he tried to wave away his friend.
“You will be, but you certainly are not at the moment. Now, turn around so that I can remove it before Jake returns with more of his miscreants.” When Adrik showed no signs of doing as he was told, the man said, “I do have a princess of my own to tend to. It’s highly doubtful that she is as fierce as the one you have brought along, so let me take care of this so I can return to her.”
“Just go,” Adrik said.
“Please, Adrik,” Fayina said, finally reaching them. “We need to move, and I know that you were shot.”
His eyes moved up to her. Then his shoulders slumped. “I had hoped you hadn’t noticed.”
“I am struggling not to feel insulted by that.” She looked down at him before crouching. “You were incredibly graceful, then suddenly jerked to the side. I didn’t have to see the arrow s
trike you to know that you had been hit.”
“Bolt,” the other bear shifter said.
“What?” Fayina asked, looking at him and frowning. He was extremely attractive, but something in his demeanor made her feel uncomfortable. Moving away from him, she remained near Adrik’s side.
“They are bolts, not arrows.”
Fayina gave him an incredulous look. “What difference does it make? Adrik has been shot. And I know that Jake’s bolt was poisoned. If any of the others did that, this could be more dire.”
The bear shifter lifted a blond eyebrow at her. That was when it struck her—he looked nothing like he had as a bear. “She does have quite the mouth on her, Adrik.”
“She isn’t like that with me,” Adrik replied, trying to stand.
Fayina pushed him back down. “You stay there.” She looked at his friend. “Please just take care of it. If you can get the… thing out of his side, I can staunch the blood after he shifts.”
“You don’t really think that he can carry you if he has been poisoned, do you?” The bear shifter looked down at her, disappointment on his face.
Fayina wanted to quip back, but he was right. “Please take out the bolt, then we will consider next steps. If I have to walk, I am perfectly capable.”
Before Adrik could protest again, his friend reached down and pulled the bolt out of his side. Her poor rescuer doubled over for a second, his hands clutching his side, yet not a sound escaped him.
“Please take good care of him, human. He will need to move slowly. It would be best if you could find somewhere safe to hole up for a while until the toxins naturally get worked out of his system, then—”
“That isn’t how poisons work,” Fayina interrupted.
The bear shifter nodded, “You are right, it isn’t how poisons work for humans. But he is not human, and that is not a poison in his system. It is a toxin, which means that it has been infused with magical properties to do more damage. Unfortunately for the fools who used it, at its worst, this stuff only makes us feel like we have had a night of heavy drinking. He will feel sick and his thoughts will not be clear, but he will be perfectly fine after a good sleep. Just like a drunk human.”
