“Sacred creature? What sacred creature? I leave for a few hundred years, and look at you all, acting more like a bunch of superstitious half-wits—” Shiva started to yell over Artemis, and the two derailed into a shouting match. Something about barely holding on to power, but I didn’t care about that. Not with “sacred creatures” being thrown around.
I fought against my restraints. “Hey—Queen of Shiva, what the hell did you do with my cat?”
“Your cat? The Mau is not a possession, it is a sacred creature. It is blasphemy to restrain them.”
Well, Captain and blasphemous certainly went hand in hand—oh, shit!
I yelled as the stone floor gave way.
Below me wasn’t a pit of lava or flames but darkness. I heard a pebble strike water, followed by churning—something like a fish. I caught a glimpse of something in the dark water that looked like an elongated fin, followed by matted hair.
Oh no . . . there was no electricity to be seen.
One of the Tiger Thieves hit a gong, and the floor of my cage fell out like a trap door.
Shit. I threw my bound hands at the door and, miracle of miracles, caught them on a twisted piece of metal as a bloated white face broke the water, its pincerlike teeth clicking as it reached for me, then disappeared back under the black surface.
A buzz of excitement coursed through the crowd, followed by shouts. The bastards were probably betting on when the mermaid would eat me—assholes.
“Artemis!” I shouted.
“Your mother would be ashamed!” Artemis shouted at Shiva.
“Consider it a test; if she survives a dip in mermaid-infested water, then the Tiger Thieves favor her and we should all be so blessed.”
My feet dangled inches from the surface. I pulled them up just in time to avoid the mermaid as she reached for me with spindly arms, screeching as her fingers brushed my boot. More shouting coursed through the crowd.
“Fantastic. Why don’t you go take a dip and see how the gods favor you?”
Oh, for— I kicked the mermaid in the face as it launched for me again, but a second one was ready. She sunk her teeth straight through the leather. I screamed and kicked the boot off before they punctured the skin.
I wouldn’t last much longer playing keep-away. Eventually one of them would get ahold of me.
I realized that a silence had settled over the crowd, and I searched around frantically for the new monster they must have thrown at me.
I didn’t see a monster, though, but a ball of white-and-coffee–colored fur racing through the crowd. As opposed to stopping him, the Tiger Thieves scrambled out of his way as he raced towards me. He reached the pit and didn’t stop. Instead, he let out a yowl and launched himself at the cage.
The drum picked up in the crowd once again, though this time it was with underlying fear rather than excitement.
Captain’s claws caught on the metal. Hanging there above the water, he meowed at me.
“Fantastic idea, I’d love to get off the cage too—now grow opposable thumbs, untie me, and open the cage door!”
A mermaid launched at me again, followed by its friend. “Get off the damn cage!” I shouted at my cat. He just meowed at me.
I should have gotten a raccoon for a pet. I started to swing; maybe I could get us over solid ground, preferably before a mermaid ate my cat. Somehow I didn’t think the mermaids knew Captain was a sacred Mau—or cared.
A crowd had pressed in around the pit; Shiva herself pushed her way through. “Throwing your life in with this one’s is beneath you!”
This time, Captain turned and hissed at her. Another murmur ran through the crowd, and more Tiger Thieves were looking at her now—expectantly, critically, even.
Captain chirped.
There was an answering chirp and then another. Heads started to poke out of the stonework. Cats. A dozen or so at first, then more and more until there were at least a hundred cat eyes glaring down at us from nooks and crannies everywhere. It was like an army of Captains, all looking down at me.
Shiva looked furious. “This does not concern any of you!” she said, raising her voice.
Captain gave a louder, more insistent chirp.
The other cats answered with the same piercing chirps.
Captain, please say you’re making friends for once in your furry life . . .
Another murmur washed through the crowd, more rebellious and filled with the tension that had been in the room before while Shiva fumed at me and Captain.
It was Normandy who spoke. “The Maus have spoken, Shiva. Let her out.”
Shiva looked as though she would have liked nothing more than to disagree and leave me where I was.
The cage began to rise, and the next thing I knew, hands were depositing me on the ground near Artemis. Captain followed, and no one dared stop him. With one last glare Shiva turned her back on me.
I scrambled to my feet. “Shiva,” I called out. “You’re still going to help me, right?”
She kept walking.
Like hell—I tried to follow, but Normandy stopped me. He and another guard grabbed me and Artemis and steered us back down the tunnel we’d come through before, though more gently this time.
“Shiva does not like to be outmaneuvered. Especially by her father,” Normandy said.
Goddamn it. I glared at Artemis. He had the good sense to look away.
We reached our cell, and Normandy held the door open.
“Welcome to Muziris,” he said, and slammed the door shut behind us. “Your extended stay promises to be very eventful.”
I didn’t think that was a good thing.
16
EAT, LOVE, AND PRAY A TROLL DOESN’T STEP ON YOU
Friday. Just another early morning in the deserted jungles of the Malabar Coast.
I came to smelling dried fish and kitty kibble. Captain meowed, then licked my face, his rough tongue scratchy. “Okay, I’m up,” I said, and pushed his face away from mine. Note to Owl: If we ever get out of here, we need some serious upgrade to our self-defense. I’m sick and tired of everyone knocking me out when it’s convenient for them.
After checking myself and letting Captain check me, I looked for Artemis and saw him in the corner, still unconscious.
“Artemis?” I whispered. No movement, not even a stir. Whatever the Tiger Thieves had used on me had apparently been more potent on him. I started surveying our cell, checking through the bars to see which, if any, of the Tiger Thieves was guarding us.
“Ask,” Artemis said, not bothering to open his eyes. “About my daughter. Determining the reasons behind people’s emotions is not my forte, but the curiosity dripping off you is just plain obvious.”
It surprised me enough that he would ask that before my brain could catch me, so I asked, “Why does she hate you?”
Artemis inclined his head. “Over a bargain we made a long time ago in very uncertain and violent times. She’s never forgiven me for it.” He glanced up at me. “I wasn’t able to save her mother.”
I couldn’t think of the right thing to say to that, so I didn’t say anything.
Artemis continued, “I never claimed to be a good parent. You humans obsess over it now, in my opinion, but even half-breeds tended to die off at surprising rates before this last century—colds, famines, new and interesting virus and bacteria strains waltzing into town. Whether you were a good parent or not boiled down to whether you could get your children to live past their tenth birthday, not whether they liked you or you spent quality time with them. Shiva isn’t unique in hating me. Most half-breeds end up hating their parents—the supernatural side, that is.”
No one was in the hall guarding us. I could try to escape, but I didn’t favor the chances that I’d be able to sneak by supernaturally inclined assassins. “Why?” I could understand an aversion to Artemis. He was an ass, and I had no doubt that a lot of supernatural parents were jerks, but all of them?
“Mmmm—less to do with the parent, more to do with the ou
tcome.” He glanced over his shoulder at me again. “All of the drawbacks and only a spattering of the perks, and that’s if you’re one of the lucky ones, like Shiva.”
“All the drawbacks?”
“Think of it this way, Alix: imagine you’ve inherited a supernatural lineage; other supernaturals can smell it on you, but you don’t have nearly enough power to defend yourself against them and you’re much, much, easier to kill. You’re a walking target and usually weak—and there are supernaturals who derive pleasure out of exploiting their halfling cousins.”
“Couldn’t their parents protect them—I mean, if they wanted to?”
“They certainly do; we’re not complete monsters. But tell me, how long until you’d tire of depending on a parent to keep you safe? Ten years, twenty years? Shiva lasted fifty before the resentment turned to hate, another ten to leave me.”
“So she’s old?”
Artemis inclined his head. “Yes, very, one of the longest-lived half supernaturals I’ve come across. It’s both her gift and her curse. I rather think she finds it more of a curse. She hates me for that as well, I suppose.”
Son of a bitch. It finally clicked why Artemis had insisted on coming along, on helping me. “You used me to find her,” I said.
“More or less. I couldn’t come on my own, she wouldn’t speak to me, and I wasn’t entirely certain she was here—or where they’d moved the city to—so I suppose I did use you a little. But don’t act like that’s a surprise, you’ve expected it all along.”
Yes, but not for that . . . I shook my head at him. “Do you have any idea how fucked up that sounds?”
Artemis shrugged. I let the silence stretch while I stared into the torch-lit hall.
“I was telling you the truth. I was spying on the other side when I hurt you,” Artemis mused. “And I would probably do it again if the need arose. That’s why I’m such a good liar. I usually mean every word of it.”
That I could believe. “Did Rynn know?” I found myself asking.
The corners of Artemis’s mouth turned up in a terse smile. “Who do you think came up with the idea?”
My momentary sympathy evaporated. “You’re a real asshole, you know that?”
He laughed, and his smile widened. “And you’re more like me than you realize. Oh, you pretend not to be like me, but when push comes to shove, I think you’ll be more than happy to bend your morals to get things done. I’m certain of it. In fact, I think you already have.”
I clenched my fists. I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, but his head rolled forwards once again.
I shook his shoulder, trying to rouse him, but it was no use. He slumped forwards, his eyes closed and his head down, out cold. Captain alerted me with a bleat to something outside the cell, and I turned to see Shiva watching me from the other side of the bars, like a predator emerging from the darkness.
She bared her teeth at me. “I think you are lying,” she said, the candlelight flickering off her face.
No guards flanked her, and Normandy was nowhere to be seen. I glanced at Artemis, but if he’d awakened, he gave no sign of it. “What did you do to him?” I asked, nodding at his unconscious body.
“What you came here for,” Shiva said. “We have ways of dealing with the supernatural. And that is not an answer to my question.”
“Lying about what?”
“When you said you would pay any price to save the incubus trapped in the armor.” She played with the knife, drawing it along her hands, just shy of cutting the skin. She caught me watching it and held it up to the light, arching an eyebrow. “Well?”
I gripped the bars of the cage in my hands. “Death is a stupid price to ask.” I shrugged. “The Dragon has me steal for him; Artemis used me to help me find you since he couldn’t do it himself.” I shook my head at her. “You’re no fool. You just want to see if I’m a coward.”
She smiled at that but didn’t argue. Or open the cage. Captain squeezed through the cage bars and bleated at her feet. She didn’t take her eyes off me but crouched down to pat his head. “Shame I don’t know if I can trust you.”
“Artemis does.” I realized my mistake as soon as the words left my mouth.
“I suggest you stop baiting her, Shiva,” came Artemis’s voice. “Despite first impressions, she isn’t one to suffer fools lightly. Tell us what it is you want so we can stop the charade.”
Shiva leaned against the grate. I wasn’t certain if Artemis had helped or hindered.
“I will agree to help you stop the Electric Samurai,” she said carefully. “But you need to help me.”
I leaned against the grate as well. “I already made an agree—”
“What is it you need?” Artemis asked. He sounded almost bored.
Shiva bared her teeth, pulling her lips back. “From you? I need nothing.”
“Fantastic. Then let us out and give us the powder. We’ll be on our merry way, and you need never deal with us again.”
It was subtle, I barely caught it myself, a slight twitch at the corner of Shiva’s mouth.
Artemis arched an eyebrow. “Unless you can’t?”
Shiva didn’t answer. “Don’t tell me that that’s what this is all about, Shiva. That you can’t help us.” A slow, unfriendly smile spread across Artemis’s face. “Things not so pleasant in paradise? I thought the Thieves had rules, ethics, morals, unlike the rest of us heathens.”
Shiva grasped the bars. “You know it is not so simple!”
“Yes, it is. Tell them to let us out of this cage, give us the powder so we can stop my cousin from dragging all of us into the godforsaken spotlight, and we’ll be on our merry way.”
I decided it might be worthwhile to draw her attention away from Artemis. “Seriously, he’s telling the truth. That’s all we want.”
There was a moment of hesitation on Shiva’s face, as if she were deciding whether to divulge whatever it was that had her unnerved. “A hundred, two hundred years ago I could have helped you, but now it is not so simple. We’ve become isolated, and some of us have forgotten why we used to police the Silk Road—and why we stopped.”
“You’ve let your power slip,” Artemis said. “Funny how ruling a group of altruistic assassins gets you stabbed in the back—an oxymoron if I’ve ever heard one. I wonder who it was who warned you about that?”
Her eyes hardened. “At least I can admit my mistakes.”
“Grow up, Shiva, or hurry up and ask me who it is you wish me to gut for you.”
She let out a breath. “Again, it is not so simple.” Her eyes drifted to me.
I glanced from Artemis to Shiva and back again. “Oh no, I’m staying out of this feud.”
Artemis stood and meandered over to the bars, leaning towards his daughter. No matter how hard I tried to see it, I couldn’t find a family resemblance between the two.
“She means she has so little grip on the others that having me assassinate her rival outright would chip away at what little of her influence and power is left. She’s a shadow of her former self.” To Shiva he said, “You really are leader of the Tiger Thieves in name only. Your mother would be very disappointed, I think.”
Shiva bared her teeth and gripped the bars. “Come out here and say that to my face.”
“No, because you’ll lose and then I’ll have to spend the next hundred years feeling bad about killing you.”
Jesus, and I thought my relationship with my own father was strained at the best of times. “Will you two knock it off?” I turned to Shiva. “Okay, what the hell is it you need us to do, since I’m apparently the only one who doesn’t seem to know what’s going on?”
“She needs me to kill a rival in open combat,” Artemis said. “It’s the only way she knows to solidify her power.” He sneered. “You never showed much artistic inclination. Free advice? Stop before it gets to cold-blooded murder.”
“It’s a troll,” Shiva said. “And I need you to kill him—in open combat.”
I snorted. “Oh
, is that all?”
“Who is it, Shiva? Bramah? Darshan? I’d be surprised if they hadn’t made a play for power by now.”
“Gajaanan,” she replied.
Artemis turned to me. “The Elephant Face. You can imagine whose side of the family he inherited his features from.” To Shiva he said, “If he’s biting at your heels for power, then it’s worse than I imagined. He’s no leader, only a follower. How much power over them have you lost, Shiva?”
She didn’t answer him, her mouth drawn in a tight, terse line.
“I knew it—I knew you were in over your head.” To me he added, “Alix, Gajaanan is one of the stronger half trolls; he might not be a leader, but he can scent weakness. He’s a giant; he stands ten feet tall and is all muscle. What little intelligence he has he uses to find new and interesting ways to squish things—preferably living.”
And he was giving Shiva problems. Ones that couldn’t be handled with a knife to the back. I asked the question that was the drunken pink elephant in the room: “You guys are supposed to be the semisupernaturals. Why haven’t you done it yet?”
Shiva pursed her lips. “The half troll may not have inherited his life span from the trolls, but he makes up for it in size and strength.”
Shit, that didn’t bode well.
“And he has a fixation with stepping on things. Living things.”
Why the hell couldn’t anything ever go smoothly? “And if I defeat him?”
“Then I will consider our arrangement complete.”
I thought about it as long and hard as I could spare from my side of the cell. At the end of the day, that was the crux of the problem. I could do nothing from this side about anything, Rynn included.
I opened my mouth to agree.
“Fine. Piece of cake,” Artemis said, pronouncing each word.
I turned to him, but he was fixated on Shiva.
“Easy?” she said. “You think dealing with rival factions and half trolls is a simple task?”
“I’m used to cleaning up your messes, Shiva.”
I did not like the way she was glaring at him, her jaw tight. Neither did I like the way he glared right back. Some fights you just don’t want to get caught in the middle of. “Artemis—” I began.
Owl and the Tiger Thieves Page 33
