"My Lady," said the Knight. "You have accomplished what no one else could have imagined."
"With your assistance, of course. The Shikar stones proved most effective."
"Had you any doubt?"
She shook her head and with her foot shoved Oreus' body such that it rolled onto its back, revealing a man of countless age. Now dead. Bai Juang could not imagine how this was possible. And why hadn't he transformed?
"Come now," said the Knight. "Let us return...fair Lucretia."
At this she smiled. "I no longer need that vile Sojourner name. And I do so prefer you address me by my own."
"But of course." He inclined his head, took her hand and kissed it. "Shall we take flight then, Lady Volfoncé?"
"As it please thee, My Lord Mooregaard."
Bai Juang hid behind a stone column trying to keep still. He could not permit his shaking breath to give him away. However, his leg cramped and he could not help but shift his weight to the other. That slight motion caused his sword to scrape against the column.
He clenched his teeth.
In the dead silence of the courtyard, the tiniest scrape was loud as a heavy book dropping in a library.
The dark lord and lady both spun around.
Bai Juan swore silently.
If he ran, he would reveal his position. If he remained, they would find him.
Mooregaard murmured to Lady Volfoncé who replied, "The portal remains open, I no longer need him."
"The effects of the Shikar?"
"All but one piece disposed. I shall recover quickly."
Then with a series of heavy beating sounds, followed by the same wooshing wind that preceded his arrival, the sound faded into the night.
A cold bead of sweat rolled torturously down the side of Bai Juang's face. Right into his eye, where it stung wickedly. But he could not lift even a finger to rub it. He clenched his fist around the hilt of his sword, but there was no sound coming from the courtyard.
It was as though Lady Volfoncé and Lord Mooregaard had vanished.
He waited a moment longer.
Until he felt it safe to look.
Slowly, he moved around the column.
Quietly.
Steadily...
A sharp pain seized his neck. Before he could say a word, his throat collapsed in the fierce grip of Lady Volfoncé's claw-like fingers. She smiled in a way that looked more like a snarl. "Did you really think I'd forgotten?"
Still grasping him by the throat, she lifted him off the ground, his legs flailing. His eyesight began to dim. Unable to turn his head, he tried to search for Ahndien. His eyes swept the left-then right, left-then right.
But it was no good.
Wide as his eye were, he could only see blackness coming over him.
With his last bit of strength, as the air stopped flowing, he lifted his sword. No sooner had he raised it, than Lady Volfoncé plucked it out of his hand, as though it were a mere toy.
With her left hand, she reached into her cloak and pulled out a star shaped stone, its points sharp enough to cut through leather. "Behold, the bane of all Sojourners."
His sword fell into the dirt soundlessly.
The last thing he felt was a small cut in the side of his neck.
CHAPTER FORTY-EIGHT
Day broke with the shrill cry of a hawk flying over head. Render awoke with a jolt. His clothes stuck damply to his back. The sweet scent of morning dew clung to the air, belying the horrific events of the night before. Above him, small song birds warbled. Before him flowed a prattling stream.
It took a moment to regain his bearings. He sat up, shook the slumber out of his head and squinted as a sharp golden ray of sunlight cut through the tree branches and into his eyes.
"Where am I?"
The sudden realization that he was out of doors left him feeling vulnerable. Frightened. His dreams had been haunted by faces. Dead faces. Edwyn, Folen, Stewan. Kaine. It hadn't been a nightmare after all.
// ARE YOU AWAKE? //
"Greifer?" He wanted to turn in the direction of her voice, but her words rang not in his ears, but within his thoughts. Turning around, searching in every direction, he could not find that tall, slender figure enshrouded in black.
What he did find, however, was the black cat approaching with silent steps. With the agility of an acrobat, she leapt over a fallen tree trunk. She seemed larger than he'd remembered.
// YOU MUST EAT //
Within in her jaws, she carried an enormous fish, fresh as the morning itself. Her tail high and proud, she ambled past him and stopped by a fire which she must have started while he was asleep. While in her human state, no doubt.
"Why are you...? That is to say, why do you not...?"
// MY JAWS GROW WEARY FROM THE WEIGHT OF THIS LEVIATHAN. IF IT IS A QUESTION YOU HAVE, PRAY ASK IT QUICKLY //
"But I have so many." Render stood up and followed her to the fire ring.
As soon as Greifer set the fish down, it flapped violently and began to bounce towards the edge of a hill.
// CATCH IT, LEST IT FALL BACK INTO THE STREAM! //
Render grabbed a long stick. With three long steps, he overtook the fish and speared it just before it could roll down the hill.
// WELL DONE. SURELY YOU CAN PREPARE IT, AS YOU HAVE SO OFTEN //
"Just how long have you been watching me?" He took out his knife, held the blade over the fire.
// LONGER THAN you CAN REMEMBER //
After scaling and gutting the fish, which was surely as large as his thigh, Render hefted it over the fire, the ends of the stick suspended by two other tree branches driven into the soil. The salty aroma made his mouth water in anticipation.
Before partaking, Render cut the fish into small pieces. With respectful care, he placed a few onto a large leaf, and rested it on the flat surface of a rock. Greifer nodded her appreciation.
If Render had ever eaten a sweeter, more succulent fish, he was hard pressed to recall when. He shut his eyes and savored each bite. Perhaps this was no more than a renewed appreciation for life, this unexpected enjoyment of a simple meal.
"First question." Render wiped his mouth with his sleeve. Griefer lifted her head and began to wash her paws and face. "Mind you, it's not the most important one, but it's the one that comes to mind most presently."
// PRAY ASK //
"Why have you chosen this feline form, when it seems you can easily become a woman, as you were last night?"
// EASILY?//
She sat with regal dignity and gazed directly into his eyes.
// ON THIS SIDE OF THE VEIL, THE FORM IN WHICH I NOW APPEAR, IS THE ONE WHICH REQUIRES THE LEAST EXERTION. I RESERVE MY STRENGTH IN OTHER FORMS, A PANTHER, A HUMAN, FOR WHEN IT IS MOST NEEDED //
Render took another bite and forgot his manners as he spoke and chewed concurrently. She was, after all, a cat. "I suppose what I'm asking is, what is your natural form? Human, a cat, a panther?"
// A SPIRIT //
"A spirit!" He almost choked on his food. When he stopped coughing he said, "You mean, you're a ghost?"
// NAY, FAIR RENDER. A SPIRIT IS NOT SOMETHING WHICH CAN be TOUCHed WITH THY HANDS. NOR IS IT SOMETHING you CAN ONLY SENSE, SUCH AS A FOREBODING FEELING, OR A COLD BREEZE. AS A SPIRIT, I AM EVERY BIT AS REAL AS YOU, IN YOUR CORPOREAL FORM. I DARESAY, MORE REAL //
It took a while for Render to ponder this. Meanwhile, he continued with his meal until it was finished. He did not wish to trumpet his ignorance by saying anything else until he'd figured out what she meant. But he couldn't quite grasp her explanation.
"Greifer, would you favor me by taking your human form? I still find it difficult to believe I am speaking... or thinking to a cat."
// TO DO SO WILL EXHAUST ME, AND I SHALL BE LESS ABLE TO PROTECT you //
"Thank you, but I can take care of myself."
She gave off something that seemed like an ironic laugh.
// AS you wish. TURN your EYES AWAY, THEN //
He did so,
wondering if perhaps in the daylight the transformation would compromise her modesty in anyway. From the corner of his eye he looked and noticed soft white arms and legs.
"I did ask thee to turn thine eyes, did I not?" Greifer said aloud.
Embarrassed, Render spun his entire body so that his back faced her. "I... I'm sorry."
"You may turn around now."
In the morning light, Greifer looked many times more beautiful than he could have imagined. She wore a flowing black cloak over a mail shirt and black pants. Her verdant eyes shone every bit as bright and sharp and enigmatic as when she prowled as a cat. Long ebony hair rested over her shoulders. She smiled. "Does this form afford thee better comfort?"
Render's mouth hung slightly open. He meant to answer yes, but ended up nodding dumbly.
"Very well, then. If thou hast had thy fill, let us continue our journey as we converse." Her voice soothed him in a way that he could not explain. "I have as many things to tell thee, as thou must have to ask."
"How long will it take by foot?" Render gathered the remaining fish and wrapped it in leaves.
"To the Sojourner's Assembly? Five and thirty days, by my estimation."
"We'll be dead by then! If not by the hands of Torians, then the Tianese for sure. And who's to say that the Sojourners won't kill us?"
Already on her way ahead of him, Greifer laughed. "Verily I say unto thee, the Sojourners shall not harm even a hair upon thine anointed head."
"Oh? They didn't spare children like Folen, Stewan nor anyone else murdered in that cowardly seige."
At that, she stopped and turned to face him. "What of thy brother, Kaine? Will he join you soon?"
"He can't."
"Surely thou hast not left him amongst the Torians? Not after everything he—"
"He's dead."
Immediately her countenance filled with pain. Her lips quivered. "How did this come to pass?"
Though it should not have mattered to this creature, Render somehow felt the sting of guilt and was too ashamed to tell her. "I keep trying to tell you, the perpetrators of all these cowardly acts are the Sojourners."
"Perhaps indeed I was too late." She said, her words echoing into a sad emptiness. "Perhaps thou hast been so indoctrinated that....Nay, Shamis foretold of even this."
"What are you talking about?"
"In due time, unto thee all shall be explained. But suffice it to say, what the Torians hath taught thee regarding the Sojourners, is not truth."
CHAPTER FORTY-NINE
Render's questions seemed endless even to himself. By late afternoon he decided that he had asked enough about the discrepancy between what he'd been taught about the Sojourners and what Greifer called truth. But thinking of the Sojourners as oppressed and persecuted twisted his understanding of the world. It was more than he could stand.
For the rest of the afternoon well until dusk, Render and Greifer exchanged few words. Once again, she transformed back into a cat because, as she had explained, her human form tired her exceedingly and would have left her too weak to help, should someone attack.
"And as I said before," Render said, rolling his eyes. "I can take care of myself, thank you."
Greifer simply regarded him with one of those cold stares only a cat can give.
"Thirty-five days on foot!" Render sat on a rock just before a ledge at the top of the hill on which they stopped. "I don't know why I'm even going along with you."
Greifer continued and peered down to the bottom of the hill.
// BE STILL //
"What is it?"
She shushed him with what sounded like a hiss. Render joined her, knelt behind a log and stole a look. Down at the foot of the hill, two roughshod men sat on the ground sharing a drink from a wine flask while their horses stood tied to a tree. They were laughing, belching and speaking with such coarseness it reminded Render of Bobbington.
Something odd caught his eye. Resting against a tree was a brown sack, its top tied with a dark brown rope. The oddest thing about this sack wasn't so much that its contents looked so strange, but that it moved. And it made quite a bit of noise, albeit it muffled.
"I'll bet he fetches a pretty price on the market," the larger of the two men said.
"If you ask me, he's a bit scrawny."
"But he seems sharp, for his age, anyway."
The smaller man shrugged. "He's a whole lot of talk, he is. Ah, he's not worth the trouble. Cut your losses, I say."
"Give him one more day, if he bothers you too much before we get him to the market, we'll slit his throat and dump him. How's that sound?"
"Fine. But you'll see. You're going to have to do it, not me. I don't like that part of this business, the blood and all that."
"And you think I do?"
"Don't seem to have no problem doing it when it needs doing. Serves you right. I told you he was going to be trouble from the first insult out of his mouth."
"We'll see if he's learned his lesson by tomorrow morning. How's that? If he gives us any cheek, we'll cut our losses."
"And his throat."
They burst out laughing.
Render touched his neck and swallowed a lump. "Whoever's in that sack is doomed."
// TRAIN your THOUGHTS UPON THE HORSES //
"The horses?" With an angry glare, Render hissed, "A person is about to be sold as a slave or murdered, and you're concerned with the horses?"
// THERE SHALL BE OPPORTUNITIES ENOUGH TO SAVE LIVES, RENDER. MANY LIVES. BUT IF WE DO NOT ARRIVE AT THE SOJOURNERS COUNCIL IN A TIMELY FASHION, COUNTLESS MORE SHALL PERISH //
"So, you mean to say that it's acceptable to sacrifice the lives of some to save others?"
// PRAY KEEP your VOICE—//
"And how exactly do you judge whose lives are worth more, and whose are suitable to sacrifice?" Render hissed. "Would a slave be more suitable?" He tried to stand up and walk away, for this very discourse revolted him. But sooner than he could lift his head, Greifer placed a paw upon his shoulder. It surprised him that he could not stand up. The weight and force of her paw prevented it. He blinked and before his eyes, the slender black cat changed into that formidable panther, baring frightful fangs and emitting a low-pitched growl which Render could feel reverberating in his chest. Or perhaps it was his own heart, pitter-pattering in apprehension.
// you cannot YET GRASP ALL THAT IS REQUIRED. I IMPLORE THEE, TRUST ME //
One would imagine that a panther, as formidable as this, would make a great sound when it bounded over the log, over Render, and down the hill. But the only sound that Render heard was the whoosh of air as she flew over his head and bounded for the slave traders.
As soon as her feet hit the ground, twigs snapped. Leaves crackled. The traders started from their inebriated stupor.
"What? Who's there?" With surprising speed, one drew a sword, the other, the shorter, drew a crossbow.
"Greifer!" Render whispered.
// ASSIST ME OR STAND CLEAR //
CHAPTER FIFTY
“By the stars!" cried the larger sword-wielding slave trader. The shorter one screamed like a woman and fumbled with his cross bow. All the while, muffled cries emanated from the writhing cloth sack as the prisoner struggled in vain to pull free from the ropes that bound it to the tree.
Greifer roared and flashed fangs which bore a resemblance to curved daggers. Both horses reared up and screamed. Bewildered, Render gripped the edge of a branch so hard his fingers grew numb.
Down below, he could see Greifer, her sleek panther coat glistening in the amber light of the setting sun, her angry tail sweeping from side to side. Slowly, she approached both men and betrayed not even the slightest hesitation, armed though they were.
They backed away, stammering unintelligibly.
"I'm going to try to get on me horse and—" Greifer leapt over him. "Oh!" Now she blocked the path to the horses, leaving open the trail that led out of the wood and into the open road.
The taller man glanced over his should
er, dropped his sword and flew down the trail.
"Wait!" called the other. "You cowardly worm! Don't leave me here alone!"
With great caution, Greifer approached him, even as he gritted his teeth, took a deep breath and aimed his crossbow. Unexpected pluck, Render thought. But the thought of Greifer getting killed gave him pause. She was the only person that could answer the many questions that plagued him. He could not allow her to perish. Moreover, if she was who she claimed, he owed her his life many times over.
"All right, you beast!" said the merchant. "It's just me and you then." He lifted the weapon.
Without a second thought, Render pulled out the dagger he'd lifted from the dead soldier. He concentrated his aim at the merchant's hand. In one swift motion, he threw the knife, sending it whistling through the air.
If he had not witnessed it with his own eyes, Render would not have believed what happened. The merchant let out a startled grunt. His crossbow clattered onto the rocks at his feet.
Now panting and wheezing, the wide-eyed merchant whined like a frightened child as Greifer stood upon her hind legs and planted her forepaws upon his shoulders. She glared down and growled at him, jaws ready to rip this throat out.
"No, please, no!" he cried, chest heaving with rapid gasps. His right arm dangled from the sleeve which Render had pinned to a tree with his dagger. Render climbed down and retrieved the fallen crossbow and pointed it at the pathetic little flesh merchant.
"I see you've met my friend," Render said.
"Your—?"
Greifer clamped her massive jaws around the merchant's right arm and pulled. This tore the fabric from his sleeve leaving a swatch fastened to the tree and fluttering in the breeze like a tattered sail. From the dagger which Render had thrown, smoke arose with tiny flames smoldering at the center.
Instantly, the man fell on his back, pinned by the mighty paws of the black panther. By the rumble of her growl, by the fire in her eyes, and by the same cool tingling sensation that traversed his spine, Render remembered how she had scared off Bobbington, that night at the cave, how she’d chased him from the pool with the dead soldiers.
Once We Were Kings (Young Adult Fantasy) (The Sojourner Saga) Page 17
