The Shapeshifters: The Kiesha'ra of the Den of Shadows

by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes

  Even if the serpiente had been sincere in their offers of peace, my lack of response would force them to attack before we could.

  I could not afford to waste time.

  Swiftly, I searched for suitable clothing: something that would not be ruined by a short walk in the woods but that was appropriate for meeting with another monarch. I settled on a soft blouse of woven raw silk the color of dark sage honey, and a pair of slacks of lightly tanned lambskin that would provide adequate warmth against the slight chill of the night. I reached for the boot knife the merchant had given me, but if I was going in peace I would need to go unarmed, as Irene Cobriana had arrived in avian land.

  Unfortunately, I had no natural defenses to rely on, like a serpent’s gaze or venom. I had wings with which to flee and hand-to-hand training that would never match a professional soldier’s or guard’s. A natural hawk takes its prey with talons and beak, striking too swiftly for resistance, and that is how my kind preferred to fight: from the sky. If I was attacked on the ground, any serpiente opponent would make it a point to keep me there.

  Still, I put the knife aside.

  There was, as always, a vase of flowers on the table beside my door. Remembering a signal I had developed with Rei when we were both mischievous children and I had constantly been sneaking out of the Keep, I moved the flowers from the doorway to the trunk at the foot of my bed. If he came looking for me, Rei would see the flowers and know I had not been abducted.

  He would still worry, but this was the best I could do. There was no way I could ask him to come with me; bringing the Royal Flight would be suicide. Even if Zane had given his guards express orders to let me come with an entire regiment, no loyal guard would allow the cream of the avian army to enter serpiente land.

  Taking a deep breath to gather my thoughts, I changed shape, luxuriating in the wonderful feeling of sliding from the awkwardly shaped human form into the beautifully streamlined, graceful one of a golden hawk.

  Swift wing beats took me over my balcony, and within moments I was gone above the treetops.

  I LANDED AND returned to human form several minutes’ walking-time south of the serpiente palace. I knew there were archers stationed on the roof of the palace; if I tried to fly closer to the building, I doubted that even Zane’s promises of safety would keep them from shooting me down.

  Of course, Zane’s promises still might not protect me on the ground, if he had even been honest in the first place. By this time, he probably did not think I was going to answer the invitation. If he had posted his loyal guards, the ones he trusted to greet me, he would have done so in the days after he had spoken to me. Now …

  The woods were too quiet, and as I moved through them toward the palace, gooseflesh rose on my arms.

  “What do we have here, Ailbhe?” I jumped at the sound of the voice, and turned just in time to see a fair-haired woman step out of the forest shadows behind me.

  Her white-blond hair was tied back in a loose braid, and her slender body was sheathed in smooth leather that laced down her back and both legs, tanned and darkened in a pattern so as to make her nearly invisible in the forest. Knives rode in sheaths on her thighs and at her mid-back, and a stiletto was bound in her hair. She also carried a stave as long as she was tall, the end of which was tapered and affixed to a silver blade. I recognized her as one of the guards from the Mistari palace and saw her eyes narrow as she recognized me.

  Before I could move, I felt the sharpness of a blade at my mid-back. “What are you doing so far away from your flight, little bird?” a male voice inquired from behind me.

  The woman stepped forward and nodded toward a wide tree nearby; a light prodding from the blade pressed against my skin moved me against the wood.

  “Turn around,” the woman commanded, and I did as ordered.

  The guard behind me wore a similar outfit to the first, altered to fit his gender, which I knew was the traditional uniform for the serpiente equivalent of the Royal Flight. He had the same striking white-blond hair as the woman, and features that suggested they were related.

  “I’m trying to reach Zane Cobriana,” I attempted to say as I turned. “He—”

  The woman pressed the tip of her blade against my throat. “Quiet, hawk. Ailbhe, search her.”

  The man moved forward, and I tensed as he skimmed his hands over my body. The search was thorough; had I attempted to hide a weapon, it would have been found. As it was, the man seemed dissatisfied to find me unarmed. He ran his fingers through my hair as if I might have hidden a knife there, frowning at the feel of the feathers that grew at the nape of my neck. As he passed his palms over my chest, he found the pouch I wore underneath my clothing. I had hidden Zane’s signet ring within it in order to avoid awkward questions in case I ran into another avian on my way here. The guard tucked the pouch into the bag he had slung across his back without looking into it.

  I opened my mouth in another attempt to explain myself, but the woman shot me a glare that stilled my breath.

  She spun her stave and struck me in the backs of the knees, smacking the joint with enough force to bruise. I tumbled to the ground, teeth set against the moment of pain, and the serpent addressed her fellow. “Ailbhe,” she ordered, “tie her wrists.” To me she added, “I’m tempted to kill you here, but Zane would be cross if I didn’t let him interrogate you first.”

  With my wrists bound behind me, I was led by the two guards to the serpiente palace. Another pair eyed us dubiously at the front gate and followed my guards in.

  Four guards for one unarmed hawk?

  I remembered how Irene Cobriana had been treated when she had visited the Hawk’s Keep, and realized that I was receiving the serpiente equivalent of that treatment. Did I really seem so dangerous to them?

  I was led along winding paths I would never remember later. Finally we turned into a larger hall, but before I could take stock of my surroundings, one of the staves struck me in the back, knocking the wind from my lungs and sending me stumbling to my knees. Only Ailbhe’s stave, positioned carefully in front of me, kept me from tumbling to my face on the mosaic floor.

  Despite abused knees that protested the action, I attempted to stand, only to be struck again, this time across the shoulder. I bit my lip against the pain, trying to keep my chin up and my expression calm even though every cell of my being was screaming at me that I was deep in the serpents’ nest and not likely to get out alive.

  “Fetch Zane,” the woman ordered one of the two guards who had tagged along at the doorway. He nodded and left the room without a sound.

  She spun the stave menacingly, and I returned my gaze to the golden, copper and red marble that made up the snakeskin pattern of the floor. A few moments later the door opened, and the guard nodded sharply to one of the others to take her place as she went to greet Zane at the doorway.

  Her “greeting” included sliding her arms around his waist and kissing him thoroughly enough that my blush overcame the ashen paleness of my terror; no one but me seemed surprised at the display.

  Zane stepped easily into the hall, his hand lingering on the woman’s waist with affection for a moment as he stepped away. “Adelina, what on earth is important enough to—”

  He saw me, and instantly fury rose in his eyes; I flinched, waiting for another blow.

  “Get your hands off her,” Zane hissed, moving with the grace I had associated for so long with killing that my heart leapt into my throat and told me death was imminent. However, Zane dragged the guards to the side, tossing each inelegantly away from me.

  Then his eyes lit on the guard he had addressed as Adelina, who was protesting loudly. She was silenced when Zane fixed his hot red gaze on her, cut off as surely as if he had held a blade to her pale throat.

  Compared with the warmth with which he had greeted her, his voice made me shiver as he asked flatly, “Did you search her?”

  “Yes … my lord.” Adelina hesitated before using the formal, as if unused to it but recognizing th
at this was not a moment in which she should be familiar. “She had nothing.”

  Zane nodded, apparently unsurprised. “Out.”

  “Zane—”

  “Out, Adelina!” Again Zane’s anger, even not directed at me, made me recoil … and wince at the sudden spear of pain in my knee as I did so.

  Adelina called to the others in the room, and the rest of her group followed when she left. For a moment I savored my surprise; had I told the Royal Flight to leave when Zane or Irene Cobriana was in the room, they would never have obeyed.

  I jumped as Zane dropped gracefully to his knees in front of me. He drew a knife from his back, and for the second time in as many minutes, I was sure I was going to be killed; instead he reached around me and cut the bonds securing my wrists.

  The position brought him uncomfortably close. As I remembered the last time I had seen him, when I had assumed myself still trapped inside a dream, I realized that he probably saw no need for formality.

  After the ropes fell away and I had turned to rubbing my wrists, Zane asked quietly, “Did they hurt you?” His voice was soft, but still rang with the danger I had seen moments ago.

  “A few bruises,” I answered, moving to stand if only to regain a semblance of dignity. “Nothing I have not—”

  I bit back a rather unladylike curse as my knees went out from under me; they had stiffened in the last few minutes and were now protesting the blow Adelina had delivered to them. Zane caught me, and as I recoiled from him, it took all his grace to keep us both from falling back to the snakeskin floor.

  The flash of anger in his eyes caused me to defend his guards. “They did no more than would be expected,” I assured him, thinking again of when Irene had come to the Keep. “I assume they are your personal guards?”

  Zane nodded once, still visibly simmering. “Their leader, Adelina, and her second in command, Ailbhe, are brother and sister—two of the fiercest fighters among the palace guards. They are also the last possible people I would have chosen to patrol if I had known you were coming.”

  “You had no way of knowing,” I assured him, attempting to cool his fury. “And your guards had no way of knowing I came peacefully.”

  Zane said dryly, “You are more generous than I am.”

  “Ailbhe has the ring you gave to me,” I added, my terror having receded enough for me to remember that. “I had no chance to explain to them.”

  Zane’s response was sharp. “Adelina had him search you?”

  Puzzled at the question, I nodded.

  Zane drew in a breath, then let it out before he said, “I’ll speak to the two of them later. Now you should come sit and rest. You’ve been hit more than is good for you.”

  Catching my arm as if the movement was natural, he led me to the smooth oaken table that sat at the back of the hall. I remembered that he had offered his arm when Rei and his guards had found him in my room at the Mistari camps as well.

  Touching in general was rare among my kind, even in such a formal manner. I had gripped Rei’s or Vasili’s arms some days when grief or war had led me to exhaustion, and that display alone had been frowned upon by most of the court. I had heard that the serpiente were freer with contact, but until now I had never needed to compensate for that particular difference.

  Suddenly it occurred to me that I had no idea exactly how far that openness extended. I recalled how Zane’s guard had greeted him, and the kisses he had stolen both at the Mistari encampment and in my own room. I had thought at the time that he probably considered me either foolish or wanton not to decidedly protest such an action, but perhaps doing so was so natural to him, and he had not considered how shocking it would be to his avian counterpart.

  Slightly soothed by this realization, I settled into the chair Zane offered to me, relaxing my aching body and cataloging my bruises. They were no worse than those I had gained in mischief as a child, or in weapons drills with Rei; the bruises across my shoulders and knees would heal quickly.

  “Irene made me wait one more night before I decided you were not going to come,” Zane stated as he swung gracefully into the chair opposite where I sat. His anger was slightly better concealed now, but it was still visible in the slick tone of his movements. “Thank the gods she did.”

  “As it is, I cannot stay long,” I was forced to admit. “My guards do not know where I am, or else they would never have let me be here.” And if they knew how the palace guards had “welcomed” me, they would do anything in their power to keep me from ever returning, I thought.

  Zane’s expression took on a hint of surprise, and his voice was resigned as he said, “I forget how much power the Royal Flight has over its queen.” He shook his head. “Adelina never hesitates to protest when she thinks I’m likely to get myself killed, but the guard doesn’t dare try to stop a cobra from doing as he wishes.”

  Recalling how Zane had cleared his guards from the room with one word, I had no doubts as to the truth of his statement. Catching the glimmer of anger still in Zane’s gaze, I was equally certain as to why the guard was so obedient to its prince.

  “You’re being announced as Tuuli Thea tomorrow, correct?” Zane asked, in an abrupt change of topic.

  “Yes,” I confirmed, slightly surprised that Zane knew the details so well. I allowed my expression and tone to carry the question, knowing that Zane would answer or not as he thought appropriate.

  Zane caught the inquiry in my voice and explained, “I’ve people loyal to me who have access to the Keep. They keep me informed.”

  I swallowed a feeling of unease at the thought of the serpiente having spies in the Hawk’s Keep. More unnerving was the knowledge that they would need to be avian, or else they would have been caught long before now. Zane might have been able to sneak around the Keep at night by using the stairway, but it would be impossible to follow the goings-on in the court without the ability to fly.

  “And who are these ears of yours?” I asked, unable to keep the suspicion from my voice.

  “If we manage to succeed in ending this damn war, I will gladly introduce them to you,” Zane answered smoothly. Though he did not say it outright, the second meaning to his words was clear. If we did not end the war, he would keep his spies in place.

  I had been aware that Zane’s attempt at peace might be a ruse, but I had been willing to risk that on the chance that he might be sincere. It had not occurred to me until that moment how carefully Zane must have laid his plans before inviting the avian royalty to join this negotiation dance.

  With painful clarity, Zane’s earlier words reverberated in my mind. Irene made me wait one more night before I decided you were not going to come. Thank the gods she did.

  If I had not come this night, would his spies have killed me in my bed? Or would Zane himself have done the honor, ending my life with the cobra’s poison that he had once assured me would stop my heart more swiftly than I could draw breath to scream? Suddenly I was sure that if the time allotted to me had run out, Zane might have attempted to end the war by eliminating the leaders of the other side—namely my mother and me—with methods far more sure than any of Karashan’s plans.

  As if reading my thoughts in the silence I allowed to pass, Zane stated coolly, concisely, “If I give you my word, Danica, you can be assured I will keep it. I want bloodshed no more than you do, but I will do what is necessary to end this war. If that means accepting the Mistari’s suggestion, then I will go down on bended knee this moment and ask you to be my Naga. If that means listening to any other suggestion you have … so be it.” He concluded, his tone never changing, “And if it means taking the Hawk’s Keep down stone by stone with my bare hands, then without hesitation I will begin.”

  I stood, moving away from the intensity in his gaze. If I refused to listen … would I even be allowed to leave?

  “I came here to talk about peace, not to receive threats.”

  “I gave my word you would be safe if you accepted my invitation,” Zane assured me, not rising from
his seat, as if attempting the impossible feat of appearing harmless. “If you turned around right now and left, neither my guard nor I would stop you.”

  “And afterward?”

  Zane closed his eyes for a moment, and when he opened them again his expression was as remote as the morning star. “I hope we can end this war with peace, not a bloodbath,” he answered. “I’ve reached the point where I honestly think I would slit my own wrists if I thought it would end the fighting. Unfortunately, the palace guard would not react well to losing its last prince, and again we would have a slaughter on our hands.” He shook his head and finished bluntly, “You are an attractive woman, Danica, but I do not love you. I do not think I ever can. I look into your golden hawk’s eyes, and no matter how stunning the form they accompany, I think only of your warriors murdering my loved ones. Since you recoil every time you accidentally find your own gaze fallen upon Cobriana garnet, I suspect you feel much the same way.”

  “Are these statements going somewhere?” I inquired, voice detached.

  “I wanted to make sure there were no misunderstandings between us before I asked my next question,” Zane answered immediately. He stood, and I braced myself to keep from flinching as he moved toward me. “I have considered our options, and elected to attempt the least bloody first.” Graceful as the serpent that lived inside him, Zane went down on one knee. “With the understanding that there may never be anything between us but a shared desire for peace, and my word that I will never force upon you any duty beyond the political expectations of the position, I implore you, Danica Shardae, to agree to be my Naga.”

  I felt my heart skip a beat, and for several seconds my voice caught in my throat.

  He couldn’t want an answer now … but of course he did, or he would not have asked. Zane waited silently, still as a statue, as I alternated between animalistic terror, the desire to flee, acceptance of my responsibilities and the knowledge that if I said no now, I would need to return to the council and prepare for battle.