Slight and Shadow

by Shae Ford

  “How are they favored?”

  “It’s hard to explain,” Jake said, scrubbing his spectacles against his tunic. “But I think it all has to do with their skin. They believe that those born with darker skin are more favored, because it protects them from the sun. It’s all tied into wealth and status — it’s human business,” he said bluntly, when Silas showed no signs of ever understanding.

  “Humans,” Silas muttered out the side of his mouth to Kyleigh. “And they call us barbaric. I’m glad I wasn’t born here. I certainly would have been among the un-favored.” He touched the back of her hand with his fingertips. “And it’s a wonder they even let you inside the city!”

  She shoved him away.

  At long last, they reached the city’s end. All that stood before them now were miles of fiery, untamed land. Kyleigh looked to the north, making sure that they were even with the Baron’s highway. They would have to keep this path until the very last mile — then they would cut in.

  She didn’t know how long they’d have to camp in the Spine. They might have to wait for days, or even weeks. But above all, they needed to keep the Baron’s castle in sight.

  It was all Kyleigh’s fault, really. After she’d burned Gilderick’s castle to the ground, and after the incident with Sahar and the trolls, the two rulers had entered into something of an agreement. They blasted the mountains out from between them, forming a pass — and swore that if either of them was ever attacked, the other would come to his aid.

  Kyleigh didn’t know when Kael planned to launch his attack on the plains. But the moment Gilderick sniffed trouble, he would summon Sahar. Her friends couldn’t possibly fight off two armies at once. So when Sahar’s men left the palace, she would have to make sure they never reached the plains.

  Their battle would seem small in the end, but if they could cause a little mischief, it might give their friends a chance to escape. And in Kyleigh’s opinion, that would be worth every burning step.

  “Those men are still following us,” Jake said, with a glance over his boney shoulder. “What are we going to do about them?”

  “We’re going to lead them out into the desert,” Kyleigh said simply, “where the sand will muffle their screams.”

  Chapter 12

  Minceworms

  They walked for hours, until Arabath and all of its lively comforts disappeared behind them. The sun climbed steadily higher, its light seemed to grow more powerful with every step.

  The heat didn’t bother Kyleigh: the scales of her armor reflected most of it, and the shadow of her hood protected her eyes. What she found to be more trouble than anything was the sand.

  She’d had every intention of keeping them on a straight path. If they tried to weave around the dunes, the constant change in direction might force them to wander off-course. The smaller dunes were no trouble to cross — they took little longer than the average hill. It was when they came to the first reasonably-monstrous dune that her plan fell apart.

  It rose like a mountain out of the desert; the gashes the wind had left in it were so deep that they came almost to Kyleigh’s knees. But that didn’t stop her from trying to lead her companions across it.

  The sand slid out from under their feet, dragging them a half-step backwards every time they tried to lunge forward. More than once, Kyleigh lost her footing so suddenly that she had to catch herself on her elbows. But she kept her eyes on the crest, determined to reach it. Her muscles tensed at every slight shift in the grain, she wedged her feet deep into its slippery side.

  “It’s useless, dragoness!”

  Silas was standing at the base of the dune. He must have lost his footing: she could see very clearly where he’d dug in all four limbs to try to slow his fall.

  Jake had been less fortunate. He lay in a crumpled heap at the bottom, and the trail he’d left behind was more like a flopping fish’s: choppy and wild, with the hard imprints of his body pounded into the dune at every few feet.

  When Silas helped him up, an impressive amount of sand poured out the bottom of his robes. “I’m sorry — I can’t make the climb,” Jake panted. “We’ll have to go around.”

  Kyleigh knew he was right. Even if they could manage to climb every dune in their path, they’d be moving so slowly that it wouldn’t do them any good. They’d never reach the Baron’s castle in time. She’d just have to keep an eye on the sun, then — and be careful not to get them turned around.

  She sat down and was preparing to slide her way to the bottom when she spotted four figures atop a crest behind them. It looked as if they might be running, but the earth waved and shook so badly under the heat that she couldn’t be sure.

  In any case, it was obvious that they were gaining.

  She rode the shifting sands to the base of the dune, using the weight of her pack for balance. “We can’t stop here,” she said, when she saw Jake settling down for a rest.

  “Why not? This is as good a spot as any.”

  “Not quite.” Silas watched the four bandits from over his shoulder. His eyes stayed focused on them as he spoke. “It would be best to meet our stalkers on even ground. If they attack us from a high point, it will give them an unfair advantage. I should know,” he added with a wicked smile. “I’ve broken many necks that way.”

  Jake leaned away from him.

  Kyleigh was surprised: she’d actually been about to suggest the same thing. Silas might’ve been a smelly cat, and she didn’t trust him any further than the length of his tail, but perhaps he wasn’t as worthless an ally as she’d thought him to be.

  After they’d dusted most of the sand from Jake, Kyleigh led them through a gentler stretch around the dunes. They were able to follow along the ridged back of a drift for about a mile before it sloped down into a shallow basin.

  The ground was hardened and cracked at the bottom — it stood out like a bald spot in the middle of the sand. Dunes ringed it on all sides, forming a nearly perfect circle. Kyleigh thought it’d be a grand place for a fight.

  “Thank Fate,” Jake said, when she ordered them to a halt. He sat down heavily — and then immediately sprang back up. “It’s hot!”

  Kyleigh laughed. “What did you expect, you silly mage?”

  “Well, I expected it to be hot — but not that hot. It’s like a bed of coals.” He rubbed his rump for a moment, glaring at the baking earth. Then his brows began to slip upwards. “I wonder why it’s so hot …?” he murmured, crouching for a better look.

  Kyleigh didn’t want her rump to wind up like Jake’s, so she sat on her pack. It was a bit lumpy in places, but there were certainly worse spots to rest and have a drink. They were stopped in the middle of the bald spot — where she could see all around them. She didn’t want to give the bandits a chance to take them by surprise.

  Silas paced restlessly in front of her, his eyes on the dunes. He kept his tension bunched up in the lithe muscle of his shoulders. His back was stiffened, his chest puffed out. His arms swung dangerously loose at his sides. Kyleigh swore she could see his every hair standing tall — even the fine, pale hairs on the back of his neck.

  Excitement rose from him as thickly as the hot breath of the earth, and she began to catch it.

  Her muscles tensed, her eyes sharpened. She could smell the sweat of the four bandits, drifting down from the other side of the dunes. Fatigue hovered over them like a cloud. Thirst pushed down on their shoulders. She could hear the hollow thud of desperation in their every step.

  Kyleigh inhaled deeply. She caught the stench of their weakness, and her blood began to thrum through her veins —

  “No,” she said firmly. She pinched her nose shut and took a long drag from her canteen. Her animal half hissed and moaned when the water struck her innards, but soon fell quiet.

  “No, what?” Silas said. He’d stopped his pacing and was watching her curiously. He smirked when he read the struggle in her eyes. “Why do you fight it, dragoness? Your senses are a gift.”

  “Only if they’re
used properly,” she said with a glare.

  Kyleigh couldn’t remember who she’d been before the change — that memory was lost to her, trapped in a darkness so deep that she didn’t think she would ever be able to find it again. But she’d learned much about being a shapechanger from the halfwolves who had taken her in.

  The dragon she’d bonded with was a part of her soul, now — it would never leave. Even though her human half controlled it, that animal spirit was still inside of her. Sharpfang had warned her long ago that a shapechanger’s war was never finished: if Kyleigh wanted to live as a human, then she must hold reason above bloodlust … or risk letting the animal consume her.

  Silas came closer, and she had to hold her nose again as his thick scent drenched the air. “Properly?” he said, half-growling. “Oh, you won’t get far if you turn your nose up at yourself.”

  “I’m not turning up my nose,” Kyleigh growled back. “But this isn’t a hunt. And these aren’t deer — they’re men. If we must kill them, then I’d like to do it with honor.”

  Silas laughed in her face. “If we must …? Honor?” He planted his hands on his knees and looked up at her through the crop of his hair. “Perhaps you haven’t noticed, but they’ve been hunting us like deer.”

  “Yes, I know —”

  “And the only reason they haven’t killed us yet is that we’ve been outrunning them. Do you think they plan to kill us with honor?” he said, thrusting his hand back at the dunes. “If they mean to show us no mercy, then I don’t see why —”

  “It may be a lion’s way to kill in cold blood,” Kyleigh said, rising to her feet. Her anger must’ve been burning at the front of her glare: Silas stumbled backwards. “It may be a lion’s way to stoop to his enemy’s level, but that isn’t my way. And as long as you follow me, you’ll do things my way. Understood?”

  Silas didn’t nod. But he also didn’t argue.

  Her words would’ve never worked on a human. Humans were far too proud, and their instincts were muddled by their politics. But to control another shapechanger, Kyleigh had to be dominant. She’d seen Bloodfang do it loads of times with the other wolves. She knew that she had to stand up to Silas now and declare that hers was the only way.

  If he didn’t like it, then he was welcome to fight her for it. But it was obvious by how he kept his chin lowered that he wasn’t keen to attack her.

  So she watched over his shoulder as the first of the bandits made his way to the basin. When the bandit spotted them, he bellowed something to his companions. “We’ll at least offer them the chance to turn back and live,” Kyleigh said, as three more heads popped up over the dunes.

  “Fine,” Silas hissed.

  Kyleigh stepped forward, and he crowded her heels. “Hello, there!” she called to the bandits.

  They halted in surprise.

  “I’m afraid it’ll do you no good to rob us — we haven’t got any coin.”

  “If you value your lives, you’ll turn back now!” Silas added.

  The bandits paused for only a moment. Then they advanced. The lead bandit shouted something in a foreign tongue, and the others laughed.

  “What are they saying?” Silas pressed his chest impatiently against Kyleigh’s shoulder, as if she was the only thing holding him back.

  “I don’t know, but it probably wasn’t very nice,” she mused. One of the bandits shot her a gesture. “And that certainly wasn’t very nice.”

  “Can we kill them, now?”

  When the bandits made the very serious mistake of drawing their swords, Kyleigh sighed. “I suppose we ought to. Let’s get on with it.”

  Silas growled in delight and stepped out from behind her, his eyes locked on the bandits. Kyleigh turned to tell Jake to get ready, and saw that he was still crouched over the ground.

  “Jake, we’re about t — what in blazes are you doing?”

  He had a vial in one hand and a long pair of tweezers in the other. With his tongue stuck out in concentration, he seemed to be trying to coax a small chunk of dirt into the vial. When he looked up at her, his spectacles nearly slid off.

  “Sorry, I was just — there are some flakey bits sitting on top of the dirt, you see, and I thought they might be worth examining. I’ve never seen anything like it. They keep breaking, though. I’m having to be very careful —”

  A roar cut over the top of him. The first bandit screamed as Silas burst into his lion form: “A’calla!”

  “You go ahead,” Jake said, waving Kyleigh forward. “I’m just going to finish up, here.”

  While Silas pounced on one bandit, two more charged around him — their eyes set on Kyleigh. She left Jake and went to meet them at a sprint.

  Harbinger shrilled when she pulled him free; his voice trembled across her ears and set her heart to racing. The bandits slowed their charge when they heard him, leaning back in fright. And Kyleigh attacked.

  She crossed swords with one bandit and sent the second flying with a boot to the gut. In two quick blows, Harbinger bit through the first bandit’s blade. Its severed half clattered to the ground. He took a few more swipes at her before he realized that he wielded nothing more than the hilt.

  Then she ran him through.

  By that point, the second bandit had recovered from his fall and tried to attack her from behind. She spun out of his reach and cut Harbinger across his back, but his sword sprang up to block her.

  Kyleigh knew then that she was dealing with an experienced swordsman. He glanced at the chip in his blade before his eyes shot back to her, and she knew he was trying to figure her out. He swung at her again, but his shoulder wasn’t into it — he was holding back.

  She ignored his feint and met him where he planned to strike: at her head.

  Their blades locked tightly. Harbinger bit into his sword, peeling thin, curling strips of iron from its edge. The bandit’s eyes tightened above his scarf, his arms shook against Kyleigh’s strength, and she had no desire to make him suffer any longer. With one hard shove, she sent him stumbling backwards — and while he was off balance, Harbinger bit straight through his chest.

  “Do we have them all?” Silas called to her. His head swiveled about as he counted the dead. Red stained the front of his tunic. “Where’s the fourth one?”

  Kyleigh spotted the fourth bandit quickly — sprinting his way over the dunes and back towards Arabath. She let out a frustrated growl. “That one was supposed to be yours!”

  “How was I to know? You never said we were splitting them.”

  “When there’s an even number, that goes without saying,” she snapped as she joined him.

  They watched the bandit cross over one dune and start climbing the hill of another. He had his back turned to them; Kyleigh could smell the panic on his breath. When he glanced over his shoulder and she saw his fear, she could no longer resist. She began walking towards him.

  Silas followed along beside her, so close that their shoulders pressed together. His raw excitement spilled into hers, fueling it. “I’ll race you for him,” he said, baring his teeth in a snarling grin.

  She grinned back. “Just try to keep up, cat —”

  An explosion rattled the earth, cutting her sentence short. They watched as the whole top of the dune blew skywards, swallowing the bandit’s body in a burst of orange flame. The dune showered back to earth in a stinging wave of sand, and Kyleigh thought she could see bits of the bandit’s scimitar glinting among the debris.

  When she turned, she saw Jake standing behind them, lowering his staff. He squinted as the last of the bandit fluttered to earth, his lip curled over his teeth.

  “What?” he said, when he saw Kyleigh and Silas gaping at him. They didn’t reply, and he huffed. “We couldn’t very well let him get away, now could we? Especially after they saw him change shape.”

  He thrust his staff at Silas, who yowled and dropped to the ground.

  “He’s not going to kill you,” Kyleigh said, kicking him in the rump.

  “I might,�
�� Jake said glumly. “That’s all I seem to be good for.”

  As they left, Jake looked back often. And darkness plagued his face.

  *******

  “We need to find shelter, dragoness!” Silas hissed, tugging on the hem of her jerkin.

  Yes — Kyleigh knew they needed to find shelter. In fact, she was so well aware of it that she didn’t actually need to be reminded every five minutes. But that didn’t stop Silas from pestering her.

  “If we don’t find shelter —”

  “We’ll be stripped of our flesh,” she said over the top of him. “They’ll gnaw us down to the bone, and leave our marrow to crisp in the sun!”

  “I’m sorry — what was that?” Jake said, trotting up to them. He’d been lagging behind for hours, studying the dirt samples he’d collected. But at the mention of being devoured, it was amazing how quickly he closed the gap. “Who’s going to be stripping our flesh?”

  “The creatures that have been following us all day,” Silas said impatiently.

  “We’re being followed?” Jake said, spinning around.

  Silas grabbed the straps of his pack and bent him downwards. “Do you not hear them? The little voices beneath the sand?” When Jake shook his head, Silas released him. “Humans,” he spat. His neck twisted about as he turned to glare at the falling sun. “Dragoness —”

  “I know,” she snapped back at him.

  She’d actually been hunting for a spot to make camp for a good hour, now. The problem was that Jake couldn’t climb any of the higher dunes, and a spot too close to the ground might very well get them eaten. She paused at the top of their next climb, scanning over the blistering landscape for a suitable place to rest.

  “There’s nothing but sand!” Silas moaned in her ear. “I was a fool to follow you out here — and now I’m going to be eaten for it!”

  “Eaten?” Jake said, with no small amount of alarm.

  Kyleigh ignored them. She’d just spotted a small drift in the distance — one that stood well away from the others, and just tall enough to keep them from harm. She left her companions and went for it at a run.