by Rosie Scott
Vallen explained to me as we traveled that many of the beastmen chose the animals of the rain forest as their blood-kin, which was the term they used to describe their other forms. Alchemists were responsible for creating tranquilizers, which were then coated on weapons. Hunting parties were then sent out from Silvi and the other cities alike to find these animals and bring them back to the settlements, where they could be harvested for their blood. Depending on the type of animal, just one could give enough blood to test with multiple aspiring shapeshifters, but sometimes the opposite was needed. In Vallen's case, his chosen blood-kin was a bear, and the animal originally hunted for its blood had given enough to allow dozens to transform. In Troy's case, however, many crabs were needed to harvest enough blood for both the testing and his injection.
Most of the animals which were chosen as blood-kin, then, came from the wildlands, whether they were creatures of the sea, swamps, or forests. It was not unheard of for beasts of other lands to be thrown into the mix, however. The major reason Silvi had a port at all was to accept mercenary ships which transported desired captured beasts from all over Arrayis to the shores of the wildlands. Though the beastmen did not deal much with gold given their isolation, the wildlands were ripe with herbs not only used for recreation, but also for cooking and alchemy, and many could not be found anywhere else in the world. Ocean-bound mercenaries dealt often with the beastmen because they could net a great profit from selling their trades from the wildlands in the other countries. Even better for the gold-seekers was the fact that the rest of the world effectively ignored the wildlands and avoided them entirely, which pulled all of the other major countries out of the competition equation.
I found myself grateful for the people I'd met on my journey, both in the wildlands and otherwise. Since Sirius had always kept me out of diplomatic conversations, anything I'd learned of the world had either come from books or through the people who knew better than I. If and when the time came to take over Sera and Chairel by association, I would need as much knowledge of the world and its workings as I could get. I no longer had access to Sera's huge libraries of texts, so I desperately sought knowledge from those I traveled with.
The 69th of Dark Star started off as a boring day. Silvi was less than a fortnight away, and everyone was tired of the travel and impatient to reach civilization. Even so, our food supplies needed to be replenished, so a hunting party had been sent out in the early morning even before we'd awakened. Usually, the hunters were back to camp by dawn, and their kills and foraged plants were sorted and prepared for the army. We all ate one large meal in the mornings, and another one at night before camp. Other foods were prepared for snacking during the time between. It wasn't ideal, of course, but when traveling with an army of hundreds through a dense forest, I found little was.
My friends and I were waiting for the hunting party's return around a small campfire. Across from Cerin and I, Jakan was telling Nyx an old Vhiri riddle, and the Alderi was getting frustrated in being unable to solve it. I held the captain's dagger Anto had made for Calder long ago in my right hand, the same weapon Judai had used to try to kill me on the ship. It felt slick and weighty despite its size. The weapon was all one piece, shining a dark grayish-silver from blade to handle. On the handle, Anto had carved a number of twirling designs reminiscent of Naharan art. The etched steel made the handle rough enough to give it a grip. Though Calder had given the blade to Koby before he'd known better, he had taken it as his own since. For the most part, the trouble we'd had in the wildlands was not enough to require the beastmen to transform, so he'd wanted something as a back-up.
Now, Calder watched as I slowly cut Cerin's hair with the blade. The necromancer's pitch black hair had grown unruly during our trip, making it to the mid-point between his shoulder and elbow before he'd finally asked me to cut it. Cerin had taught himself to cut it long ago when living alone, but it was easier for me to do it, and I loved messing with his hair and didn't need a reason to. I was constantly trying to get him to put it up in a ponytail during downtime, which he didn't like to do.
“I wouldn't even have to cut it if you'd just use one of Anto's hair ties,” I finally told him, holding a lock of the black hair back toward me to where it pulled his head back a bit, before swiftly slicing across the strands with the blade. A few inches of the hair fell to the forest floor amongst leaves and dirt.
“That's not going to happen,” Cerin replied simply, to which I laughed since I expected it.
“Don't like putting it up, huh?” Calder asked him, leaning back against a nearby tree. It stretched to the skies above him, even though the trunk was only a few feet in width. I wondered how tall plants like this stayed standing with such little support.
“No,” Cerin responded. “Having a ponytail beneath a hood is uncomfortable, and then my hair gets all tangled around the tie. Besides, I don't really like the way it looks. On me,” he clarified, when Anto raised his eyebrows teasingly from across the fire.
“Cerin is blind,” I told Calder, taking off another few inches from a different section of hair. “He's beautiful with and without the ponytail, but putting his hair up brings attention to those cheekbones.”
Calder laughed at my flustered voice, and Nyx glanced over from her conversation to intervene. “And the neck, Kai!”
“Oh, gods, yes,” I agreed, enthusiastically. “His neck is ripe for biting.”
“As I have noticed,” Calder mused, grinning over at the necromancer. “His Icilic skin bruises quite easily.”
“I don't like to keep my love a secret,” I jested.
Cerin flipped a hand toward Calder. “Perhaps you can see why I don't put it up. We would never get anything done.”
Calder tilted his head. “Be grateful this woman still loves and wants you like you are forbidden, friend. How long have you two been together, now?”
“Romantically?” Cerin asked for clarification. When Calder nodded, he answered, “A year and a half.”
Calder's red eyes traveled from Cerin to me. “I envy your relationship. I don't just say that because Kai is attractive, I say it because it is true. I know much about the art of seduction, but little of romance. Sometimes I feel as if my blood keeps me from things which might be enjoyable.”
I found his opinion interesting, if only because I had never heard an Alderi express a desire for it. Nyx loved men, but knew nothing of romance. Thankfully for her, she'd never wanted it or felt she was missing out.
Sure enough, Nyx was staring over at Calder with a look of perplexity. “Calder—trust me, you're not missing a thing. For a year and a half—a year and a half—Kai has been with the same person. The same face, the same everything. In the same time period, I have had dozens more, and each was different than the last.”
“Hundreds more,” I teased low.
“Thousands,” Cerin muttered beneath his breath. I chuckled and ducked forward to kiss his cheek.
“I know,” Calder insisted, putting out a hand to stop Nyx's ramble. “I get it. I feel the same way. I have never felt like I needed something more than sex. Even so,” he waved toward Cerin and I, and then again toward Jakan and Anto. “This interests me. How strong a bond must be to keep two people together over years and hardships. I envy that. I cannot have it, but I wish I could.”
I was mostly quiet as I finished cutting Cerin's hair. Calder's longing stemmed from his history with Koby, I was sure. Friendships were only somewhat different from romantic partnerships, after all. After so many decades of always having someone there, Calder was lonely. He had been trying to recover by throwing himself into building our army and starting a war, and by rekindling his friendships with Vallen and Jayce. He had become a great friend to me and the others. Even so, that would all come to an end. Unlike Koby, who had been by his side for decades, the rest of us would move on once our parts in his life were through. He clearly knew this. He had no intentions of coming with us to Eteri whenever that time would come, and I could not divert from m
y own goals long enough to help him conquer the entire underground.
I think my friends had also connected the dots between Calder's desires and the loss of Koby, because everyone was suddenly quiet. We didn't bring up Koby unless Calder did, since it was still such a sore subject for him that often accompanied his rages.
Finally, Calder laughed softly, bringing the conversation back to safer ground. “I wish I could grow my hair out even half as long as you can, Cerin,” he mused, eyeing the necromancer's freshly cut style.
Cerin motioned toward Calder's bald head. “Why don't you?”
“I can't, friend,” Calder replied, rubbing one blue hand swiftly past his scalp. “I once had hair half as long as yours. Fell out during my first transformation and never came back.”
“Is that normal?” I asked him, looking over the crowds of beastmen nearby and noticing for the first time that an abnormal amount of them had bald heads.
“For those who are blood-kin with fish, insects, and reptiles, yes,” he replied, pointing off to where Jayce was in the midst of annoying her brother. “Jayce used to have a head full of hair, but she chose a reptile. Vallen still has his hair, because he is a bear. It's something to take into consideration when choosing your animal, but if a person is going to risk their life to transform in the first place, it's unlikely they care about such vain things.”
I certainly found that interesting. It seemed the transformations permanently affected the bodies of the beastmen in more ways than one.
A loud, violent stirring in the brush to the east yanked our attention from the conversation. Many of us started to stand, prepared to face an enemy. Between two broad tree trunks, a Vhiri man leapt out from behind a thick shrub, before he skidded to a stop along the rain forest floor, his boots kicking small twigs and leaves toward the camp.
I recognized him. Though I didn't know his name, I knew he was part of our army. I stood, my heart starting to race.
“What is it, man?” Vallen demanded.
“Our...our hunting party came across a woman in the forest,” the beastman started, his eyes coming to find me. “She was looking for Kai. Demanded her location.”
“Did you give it?” Calder inquired, his gravelly voice hiding any panic he might have felt.
“No. I—I mean, I ran from the fight,” the other man admitted, glancing back nervously behind him. “She may have followed me, but she attacked us first. We could not transform in time. The—the trees.” His eyes tore from one of us to the next, as if to beg us to believe his next words. “The trees were attacking us.”
Cerin and I exchanged glances. Neither of us had heard of such a thing, but we'd seen too many outlandish things to be surprised by it.
Calder sighed heavily. “Fickle and golden-eyed, Kai,” he muttered, standing and beginning to undress. “Would you like to make a bet with me on that, so I may get more out of this next godly encounter than annoyance?”
“There is nothing to bet on, Calder,” I replied, my ears picking up on the beastmen starting their transformations. “Two people cannot bet on something when they both agree.”
Calder shrugged carelessly as if to begrudgingly agree, before whispering his spell of transformation.
“She wants me,” I murmured to Cerin, taking a step forward as the hunter who had been our messenger started to morph into a wolf.
I was jerked to a stop when Cerin's hand grabbed my arm. “Yes, Kai, which is why we need to fight her together. She will have to get through us to get to you.”
I turned back to glare at him. “She will fight through all of these men who have nothing to do with this vendetta just to get to me, and if she is a god, she will not care how many she kills. How many would you allow to die just so I have a chance at being safe?”
Cerin decided not to reply, allowing me to see the answer in his silver eyes. He knew his answer would not please me. His hand stayed firm on my arm until some of the beastmen finished with their shifting and rushed through the thicket ahead, following the messenger. I tugged at my arm, but he didn't relent.
“Do not try to control me, Cerin,” I breathed, as more beastmen rushed by us.
“You won't ever listen to me once your mind is made up,” he retorted. “I'm not going to let you sacrifice yourself to the gods. I'm just not. If you want to be angry with me for that, so be it. I would rather you be angry than dead.”
I exhaled in a frustrated rush. If I were in his situation, I would have done the same. With a flick of my eyes toward the east, I called his attention to Nyx and Anto, who were pushing through the brush to battle. “Your point is proven, but half of the army is before us.”
Cerin let go of my arm. “Be careful, Kai.”
“I didn't come here just to die, Cerin,” I retorted, turning to run after the others. “Even if I offer myself up, I have my reasons.”
Cerin did not respond. I knew he didn't agree with that given the way his mother had died, but it didn't matter. If isolating myself would save lives, I would do it in a heartbeat.
We hurried east behind a group of rampaging creatures of all types. Our army certainly wasn't quiet. As the beasts tore through the forest, howls and animalistic grunts were carried through the air via serrated vibrations. Branches were ripped from bushes and trees as hulking bodies of mammal, bird, and reptile alike tore through the coppice.
Other than the beastmen, the wildlife of the forest was quiet, which was eerie given we'd heard wildlife constantly during our trek of the rain forest thus far. I took it as an omen; the animals of the forest had run and hid, because even they knew something was not right.
I found myself confused after we'd run until the oxygen was torching our lungs, because we had come across nothing. The tall trees of the forest competed with one another to reach the sky, blocking out our view of the distance. I nearly came to the conclusion that we could avoid a fight when I saw it.
Tendrils of a dark green energy flew through the air above our heads, hissing as they sought out the trees surrounding us. Like the death energy that sought out corpses, these cirri searched for trees, before the energy sunk through thick bark, absorbing into the plants. I skidded to a stop, panicking as I watched the energy take control of dozens of trees around us.
“We've walked right into it!” I exclaimed, to no one in particular.
“Kai, move!” Cerin's voice reached my ears just before his hand hit my back, knocking me to the rain forest floor. I hit the ground with a jolt that forced the air from my lungs, and a solid swish passed over me in a rush of wind. I glanced up, my eyes finding a low branch of a nearby tree, creaking as it swept across the forest floor, finally finding a victim. A shapeshifter in the form of a jaguar was hit from behind. The cat spun to face its foe as it started to be swept across the ground, hissing so hard its spittle flew through the air. The branch curled round the jaguar with the snapping of breaking bark, grasping the cat and pulling it up in the air.
I scurried to stand, frightened out of my mind. Trees on their own weren't scary at all, but I had little to combat them with. I couldn't burn the plants without killing us all, and my icicles would not work here, because internal trauma couldn't work on trees. They might damage the plants, but then what? That wouldn't free anyone.
The jaguar growled and roared at its kidnapper, clawing at the bark with two thick paws as it was carried into the air. Pieces of wood flecked off and fluttered to the ground, but it was getting nowhere. The branch was too thick, and now it was tightening. The jaguar's cries of anger turned to pain. Both ahead and behind me, beasts were being grabbed and pulled into the sky. Even their advanced strength was not helping them get free.
I rose my hands to the sky. “Generat la—”
No. You'll kill him. My eyes traveled along the length of the tree, where the bark was moist from recent rainfall. If I summoned lightning, it would only travel along the moisture and kill him quicker.
My mind racked through all the spells I knew. Any of them which could fell tre
es would only hurt our soldiers.
I'm helpless. The thought was so new to me that I barely recognized it, and my jaw went slack as the branch curled ever tighter around the jaguar, pulverizing its center. The cat went slack within the branch, its body cut in half in all ways but its hide, red blood pouring from the branch into puddles.
Screaming. Screaming from all directions rattled my head, filling it with terror from so many voices of man and beast. I caught a glimpse of Cerin and Anto hacking at the branches of two separate trees, their blades barely nicking the wood. There was no way we could afford wasting time chopping wood. Each branch which was broken through would only be replaced by many more. Unless we found the goddess behind all of this, our entire army would be demolished in a single afternoon.
I ran. I ran in the direction the energy had come from, because I had nothing else. A falcon in the air just meters before me was knocked from its place in the sky by a possessed branch, flinging the body as if it were nothing through the forest. Its wings beat against the force as it tumbled through the air, desperately trying to right itself. It skimmed against the side of a tree, before the re-direction of the hit caused the body to twist sickeningly through the air to the next, where it shattered against the bark with such force its skin broke, leaving a trail of blood as it fell. When it hit the ground, it did not move again.
“Here I am!” I screamed through the forest, directionless. The woman had not shown herself, letting her plants decimate our army for her. I stopped to breathe, noticing I was farther than anyone else had gotten. The echoes of battle were all behind me.
“So you are.” I spun toward the voice, even as I built water magic in my palms. Two golden eyes sparkled cruelly amongst the pale face of a goddess a foot taller than I, pointed ears rising between locks of hair the color of the bark of her precious trees. This goddess took the form of a Celdic elf, but I noted that only with a passing curiosity. I thrust the ice shard in my palm toward her, and the icicle spun through the air before a branch snapped out in front of my aim, taking the hit defensively. The ice only sunk a few inches in due to the thickness of the heartwood.
