by Lexy Timms
Some of that frustration must have shown on her face, because his bushy eyebrows rose in confusion and his head turned to one side as a dog’s does when trying to learn a new trick. He glanced at Taylor. “A town of tigers? I’m sorry, I don’t know this term.”
“I mean...” Angelica explained, hands out, pleading for him to understand her. “Was anyone hurt or... lost?”
He nodded, and she saw for the first time the sadness in the depths of his clear blue eyes. “I’m sorry to say that there was a loss. You father mentioned a Mrs. Petrov. Do you know her?” She could feel the tension in Taylor as he clenched. It would take him time to absorb that news.
“I’m so sorry,” she whispered, squeezing Taylor’s hand, letting him know she was there for him.
“Your father also told me to tell you that she ‘acquitted herself as nobly as her husband had.’ I trust that has a significant meaning. But the journey was too much for her at her age. She was not taken.”
“Thank you, Olaf,” Taylor said thickly.
OLAF. You’d think she’d have remembered that name. Now that she looked at him, she could kind of see the shape of the snowman from that kid’s movie. Even his nose had a somewhat carrot-like shape that, once seen, could not be unseen. Angelica blinked. This really wasn’t the time for that. “How do you know...”
“We are in contact with the colony.” Olaf smiled, seeming glad to be able to at least answer that question easily enough. “Through short wave. I listen to a great amount of radio, that’s how I learn languages.”
Which meant no internet. No way of knowing what the rest of the world was doing. Or whether they were still being pursued. Angelica took a shaky breath. Well, at least they had some information, even if it was a little spotty. “You speak English well,” she said, and actually meant it. “It’s very impressive.”
Olaf nodded, pleased at the compliment. “Thank you. I have been given the honor of being your interpreter for the duration of your stay. There is a woman, Leena, who is learning the language, and who will interpret for you if the two of you are ever apart.”
Apart? Angelica shot a panicked glance at Taylor, who didn’t seem unduly concerned. In fact, he was still back on the trail of figuring out their hosts.
“When can we see the elders?” Taylor asked, eyeing the group that still ranged around them, watching this interchange in a silence that had become eerie.
“Ah!” Olaf held up a finger. “First you eat with the...” he looked to Angelica “...town? And get to know us; that, too, is part of what you seek.”
Taylor took a breath to contradict him, Angelica knew he wanted to get on with whatever the point was in being here, whatever process or magical cure that could help her random shifts and difficult way it was forced into her. But as soon as he inhaled, her stomach let out a loud and long lament that brought smiles to the natives, and a flood of color to her cheeks.
“I’m so sorry,” she murmured, clutching her belly and feeling the heat on her face.
“Don’t be.” He smiled. “COME! We will serve our lost... townies?” He said something to the crowd in another language. The crowd let out a cheer and turned as one to lead the way to another part of the compound.
“Thank you.” Angelica smiled and, reaching for Taylor’s hand, trailed after their host and the horde that led them. Olaf, she reminded herself so she wouldn’t forget again. His name is Olaf.
“We can’t let him think ‘townie’ is correct,” Taylor said out of the corner of his mouth.
“Better than ‘ambushers’,” Angelica replied, and smiled and waved to the man when he looked back to see why they were lagging so far behind.
Apparently, the group dined together at a series of tables under a roof that looked nowhere near substantial enough to stand up to the rains that were typical in jungle areas. Angelica craned her neck to examine the leafy fronts that seemed to grow over a metal frame, making the space below an actual ‘living room.’ The area under the roof held a grouping of tables and chairs, with servers, young people that were maybe in their teens and early 20s moving between the tables, setting out platters of food. They took the seats offered and sat, Olaf sitting with them.
“Olaf. It’s an unusual name for Nepal, isn’t it?” Angelica asked as she settled on her chair. She couldn’t get the image out of her head of the singing snowman and needed something else to tie the name to.
Olaf looked at her for a long moment and then laughed. “Oh, I forgot, you are not of the same town as the pilgrims of Taylor’s.” He turned and spoke in rapid tongue to the woman next to him, who rolled her eyes and clapped him on the back. She turned to Angelica, her eyes merry and bright, and with smile said something she didn’t understand. She looked to be the same age as Olaf, with white hair intricately braided into one long plait that traveled down her back nearly to her waist. She laughed as she spoke, using her hands to emphasize words that Angelica didn’t understand.
“She says, ‘Now you’ve done it, it’s his favorite story,” Olaf translated good-naturedly.
She responded with another long string of words and he looked back at Angelica. “She says now you won’t be able to shut me off.” He shook his head a little. “I think that is the right word for it. And she’s right.”
“I would love to hear it.” Angelica looked skeptically at the plate of mush that was set before her by a dark-haired youth who presented the plate with the grand gesture of a maître d’ at a five-star restaurant. Somewhat mystified and more than a little wary, she watched Taylor break off a piece of what looked like flat bread and scoop some of the yellow on to it and pop it in his mouth.
“The red stuff is very hot,” he said, licking the substance in question off a finger, with the equanimity of one who has been many places and has no problem fitting in wherever he might be.
Olaf broke off a piece of his own bread and used it as a pointer. “Many years ago men from the north traveled all over the globe, exploring and conquering. Sometimes they went home to get their wives and children to live in the lands they took. But many times this was not the case. Some of them were hired by foreign kings as mercs.”
She looked at Taylor to clarify. He finished chewing and swallowed the food in his mouth before answering her unspoken question. “Mercenaries. And try the yellow. It’s good. Tangy.”
Angelica took a cautious bite and her tongue rolled over and begged for more. She loaded up the flatbread and went back to listening to Olaf’s tale.
“Mercenaries,” Olaf said, with a nod at Taylor for supplying the word. “Some of the most powerful of the mercenaries served the greatest kings of Russia and Ukraine. But some of them, maybe the elders know how, some were cursed or blessed with the shifting. They craved the jungle, the green and the open places to run and hunt. They came here, but did not conquer. They came because they were called evil... Magic... uh, makers. And they were hunted. I am Olaf, named for one of the first that came with wives and weapons and fire.”
“You’re a long way from the water for a Viking long ship,” Angelica mused between mouthfuls. “Why here?”
“Because it was defensible,” a strong female voice said.
Angelica looked up into the eyes of a woman whose face reflected many years of hard living, but her eyes held the challenge of youth. Her bearing was straight and slender, her shoulders unbowed, and her smiled revealed bright, white teeth. She came and stood at the empty place opposite Angelica, making no move to sit.
“If you’re done with your repast,” she said, smiling as she pointed to Angelica’s plate.
With a start Angelica realized she’d completely cleaned the plate, including the ‘red stuff’ that was only now registering the promised burn. She gasped and downed the water in a single gulp. It was the best thing she’d ever had to drink, and she found herself blinking at the empty cup and wondering how to get some more.
“It’s from a mountain spring,” the old woman said, laughing. “The earth gives to those who will toil.�
�� It sounded rote, or perhaps more like a prayer.
“If you are done, the elders would like to interview you. If you would come with me?”
Angelica glanced at Taylor, who shrugged.
Well, I’ve come all this way... it would be foolish to not talk to them.
Angelica rose, turning to thank Olaf, but the man had his head down, in deference to this woman. Angelica noticed that the entire collection of men and women and children were bowing or even kneeling to her as she passed. She looked at Taylor, whose face mirrored her own confusion. Cautious, and maybe a little protective, he took Angelica’s hand and led her around the table in the wake of the woman’s strong, straight back.
They left the gathering in an eerie, unnatural silence.
Chapter 16
Angelica’s hands were sweating. It was one thing to be on the yellow brick road for several days, but it was another to see the wizard face to face. Taylor felt his own heart beating quickly. There were questions he wanted to ask Olaf, about the township in Minnesota—his father in particular. About the separation, about so many things.
He would’ve preferred the information before the elders spoke to him, but he was going to have to ask them and try to wing his responses. So far, the impressive woman spoke flawless English. He hoped that would be the case for them all.
They were taken down a long winding pathway that led into a little grotto. The trail they took did not look well-used. Leafy fronds almost hid several of the turns, and had there not been a guide it would have taken some work to not get lost. This was the point, Taylor knew. They took the newcomers on a little-used path, that it might not be easily found again. For all their claims of wanting to help Angelica and Taylor, they were being protective of their own.
Taylor could respect that.
The grotto itself was unexpected. The path angled downhill and ended in what would have been a cave had the top not been open to the sky. Or at least it would have had there not been so many trees along the upper edge that it gave a somewhat leafy roof to the place which allowed for a somewhat filtered light to reach the forest floor. Tall stone walls rose up around them, one end being entirely taken up by a small waterfall that tumbled down from a height of about twelve feet into a pond the size of a small house. Like the rest of the jungle Eden, there truly was more greenery than his eyes could take in comfortably. Even so, his tiger senses adapted to it quickly. Beside him, he heard Angelica gasp.
Two men stood by the little pond, waiting for them. They turned as the group entered. They too wore the white outfits. The heads that lifted to regard them were grey and heavily lined, giving them both the appearance of great age. But they walked as straight as Olaf did, and had sharp eyes. One, at least, appeared to be a bit amused and grinned as the small group entered the grotto between two rocky outcroppings.
“You’ll forgive the slight delay.” Their guide, the woman with the long silver braid down her back, seemed truly apologetic. She indicated the group with one hand. “As you can see, not everyone is here. We’re waiting for the rest of our members.”
It was a statement. Taylor had no way of knowing that this wasn’t the full group. A test of sorts? Or was she simply being polite?
“Here I was kind of expecting a dark chamber with high chairs and an ominous desk. Maybe something more in keeping with the Illuminati,” Angelica whispered.
Taylor stifled a laugh. He hadn’t thought of it, but that would be more in keeping with the solemnity of meeting the elders.
“Too uncomfortable,” one of the men said, smiling, causing Angelica to twitch. She clearly hadn’t expected to be overheard. Taylor watched with narrowed eyes as the man walked over to join them, and wondered what other abilities they held. Despite the wrinkles in his face and the appearance of great age, he moved as briskly and as sure-footedly as a teenager. “At our age, straight-back chairs are a form of punishment.” He held his hand out to Taylor. “I’m Sergei.” He pointed to the other man. “This is Orlan.”
“And I’m Helga,” the woman who had escorted them said, and ducked her head a little. “I should have said something before. I’m unused to strangers and don’t always remember the little, how you say, courtesies.”
“Forgive me,” Sergei laughed. “I assumed you introduced yourself before. Tell me, children, you’ve come a long way to see us. Why?”
“Don’t you think it would be better to wait for Alexa?” Helga asked, putting up a hand to stop him.
“Alexa can catch up,” Sergei said with a shrug. He turned and shot a few words to the other old man, who laughed and replied in the same tongue.
“She does have her reasons,” Helga replied, but without heat.
Taylor took a deep breath but it was Angelica who spoke, cutting right to the chase. “I changed into a shifter. I wasn’t born this way. Someone turned me into one.”
Sergei’s eyebrow lifted and he looked at Helga, who repeated the information for Orlan. He spat out a series of syllables that, even though Taylor didn’t know the language, held enough incredulity that the meaning was obvious to all listeners even without the translation.
Angelica’s back went straight, her jaw set. She clearly was mad as hell. This was the woman who had fought her way through med school and jungles both to get where she needed to go, and she wasn’t used to not being believed. She glanced at Taylor, and added, “And Taylor needs help, too.”
It was his turn to be caught by surprise. He grabbed her arm and opened his mouth to stop her. This was none of her business, and especially none of theirs, but she rushed on all the same.
“He shares consciousness with the inner cat. They communicate openly. And he can partially shift, like not all the way, and not all over.” She paused to look at him then, and there was a certain sadness in her eyes that told him she didn’t like doing what she was doing. But the steel underneath likewise told him she didn’t regret doing it. “I’m worried about you.”
And here he simply wanted to help his mate. To fix what might not be able to be fixed. So much for keeping a few good cards on hand. Why not throw it all out there before there was a chance to make sure they could trust these strangers? Why not dive in head first? Sink or swim was the option today.
The three faces now looked at him with some speculation.
Taylor’s entire body went rigid. She had no right to do this.
“Is this true?” another voice asked, and the group turned to greet the new arrival. Angelica stifled a scream and grabbed Taylor’s arm hard enough to hurt. Taylor was beyond feeling it, though, what he saw... He blinked, shook his head to clear it, but the same sight greeted him no matter what he did.
She might have been something out of an artist’s imagination, a drawing or an anime. His brain didn’t want to accept she was real.
A woman, no doubt at all about the gender, stood unclothed before them. But then she had no use of clothing, as she was covered in a thick, white fur. Her head was almost fully realized as a tiger, but the teeth were still human. Her hands were hands and not paws, but little ivory claw tips protruded from each one. The same held with her feet. Her knees bent back like a human, her pelvic bone was human, but by all appearances she was a two-legged tiger.
“How remarkable for someone so young,” she said, coming forward and staring at Taylor speculatively. “I’m Alexa,” she said, “and I’m caught up. I’m pleased to meet you.” Although her words were directed to both of them, her attention was entirely on Taylor. He shifted uneasily under the scrutiny.
“We have much to discuss,” Helga said, and swept an arm to a series of pillows in a large circle around a cheery fire.
“Tiger, tiger, burning bright,” Taylor said under his breath, not realizing he’d said it out loud until Helga answered.
“Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that, shall we?”
More than a little uneasy and definitely still miffed at Angelica, Taylor settled on one of the cushions, thinking it perhaps more suited to the cat than to hi
m. He wanted to ask Alexa about her appearance, but the desire to understand several other points took precedence. Instead, he started with the obvious. “How did my father contact you?”
“We never actually lost touch with our colonists,” Helga said, meeting his gaze squarely. “We do rely on short-wave radio, though it has to get bounced a bit. Since the skies were filled with satellites, that’s become a lot easier.”
“So you knew all along that they were coming for my family?”
“No. We knew your family was safe. That was the first we’d heard about the attack,” Alexa corrected, her head tilted to the side, still studying him intently.
Sergei broke off translating for Orlan and added, “You must understand, young Taylor, this is not the first intrusion nor is it the last. Here in the jungles, we have carved a sanctuary. We intended that we be forgotten. The locals think of us as unimportant. They leave us alone because they do not know we are here.”
“And in the overall scheme of the world, we’re largely useless,” Helga said, but the words held a note of bitterness.
“That’s not entirely fair, Helga,” Sergei corrected her. “With the internet now, we are designers and programmers. Many options have opened to us.”
Beside him, Angelica started in surprise.
“But we hide and maintain our ineffectiveness to stay safe. No, Sergei, it is the colonists who enter the world and risk so much to have vitality.”
Orlan spat out several words in rapid-fire retort. Sergei looked at the two women and nodded. He addressed Taylor and Angelica both. “I am reminded that it is you two who have set the precedence here today. Our problems will remain, but they are our problems. In answer to your question, your father let us know that they were in Canada and settling in well.”
“All but one,” Taylor mumbled bitterly before he could catch himself.
