by Melle Amade
3
The writhing mass of shifters to descended on me in a flurry of fur and feathers as they shifted from their human bodies into animal forms. Eagles with their talons. Ravens with their giant black wings and sharp beaks. And bears with their massive claws and teeth. All came crashing down towards me.
There was no way I could myst even doing it twice in the space of thirty minutes was reckless. The magic was dangerous. The more you used it the more fragmented you could become. The greater the possibility that you would never be able to put yourself back together again. I had two choices: stay there and get ripped apart by the angry shifters or flee. I’d been trained to stand my ground and fight. Fighting was my nature, but stupidity was not. I knew when to flee and now was that time.
In seconds I had taken on my Javanese leopard form, my black fur melting into the shadows of the night as I sprinted away, my heart crashing against my rib cage. I was low and fast and black, but all shifters had enhanced scent and it would be nearly impossible to lose them if I stayed on land.
And they had loosed the hounds.
Even before I had raced far on the manicured grounds of Muiderslot I could hear the barking of the hounds used for the hunt. I let out a roar and pressed faster into my run.
Let them know where I am.
If they are so incapable of tracking me themselves that they need dogs, then I would let them know where I am.
Because I knew exactly where I was headed.
My paws hit the ground, claws scraping into the soft earth as dirt flew up on my belly. The roar and calls of the bears and birds behind me mingled with the barking of the dogs. I pushed my body harder and faster.
There was one place I could lose half of them, but I had to get a decent head start. And I didn’t have one.
Muiderslot sat on the edge of a large bay where you could barely see the edges. It was filled with saltwater. The bears could swim and maybe Polaris could handle the saltwater, but the hounds that they used had no such skills. I was small and sleek and fast and grew up on an island. Not only did we swim in the rivers, but our training included surviving in the sea for 24 hours, holding our breath underwater and until we could do that, we were not considered an adult Javanese leopard
Unlike Java, where there were cliffs overlooking the sea, Holland had no such precipices. In the Netherlands they had dykes, round tall levies that kept the sea away from their land. Nothing grew on the dikes around Muiderslot and there would be nowhere to hide. They would easily spot me.
So, I let out another loud roar.
If they were going to catch me, they needed to know I was not afraid. I raced up the bank of the dyke in full view and lept in the water diving down deep and swimming forward with all my might. If I surfaced too early the birds would spot if me, but at least I was sure to lose a few of the canines and bears.
The water crashed around me, undulating in massive waves. The bears were in the water. I swam faster and harder holding my breath as I shifted into my human form. Leopards swim naturally well above water but human’s swim better in the deep. I was also much smaller so if I swam very deep, I would barely make a ripple in the water. But I could only hold my breath for five minutes eventually I would have to come up. My muscles ached as I reached forward to divide the water in front of me and drag myself forward. I need as much distance as possible between me and whatever was left trailing me before I went up for air.
When I felt the final air escape me and my lungs burning, I rolled over onto my back and stopped all movement whatsoever. My body floated up and I tilted my head back so my nose and mouth came out just enough for me to exhale and gulp in another breath, easing the pain in my lungs. I kept only my face above water, opening my eyes to the sting of the sea and peering to discover what was still following me.
The bears were sprawled in various directions but none were close. Birds circled the air in wide sweeping arches their eyes trained to spot any unnatural movement in the water. I had to go down into the water again and despite my swimming capabilities I was still way too close to Muiderslot. Fortunately, only one bird seemed even remotely close to me and it was a raven. Ravens were clever and ruthless, but their eyesight was nothing like the eagles. There was a good chance that the bird hadn’t seen me.
I descended again into the waters and five minutes at a time I made my way across the bay. Eventually the birds were tiny specks in the distance, and it wasn’t long before my feet hit dirt. I stood up, body trembling from exhaustion and cold. These freezing northern seas were nothing like the tropical waters surrounding my island.
It took me a moment to get out of the water walking through the heavy sludge and muck to climb up the side of the dyke. There were more trees over here, but I knew I couldn’t stay in the area for long they would still be hunting me even if they had a much wider area to look now. I slid down the other side of the dike before my breath had even calmed and moved into the trees, resting at the base of a tall trunk. I gripped the ground beneath me. I might be able to handle myself at sea, but I still preferred land.
“One move and you die,” the Irish brogue was unmistakable. In the sunrise I saw the glint of the sword pressed against my neck I glanced up, not moving a muscle. It was the redheaded punk girl.
The raven.
4
“How the hell did you track me?” I growled. Like seriously, how was that even possible? I lost everyone except this twenty-something punk raven?
“It’s what I do,” she said with a grin. “Put your hands where I can see them.” Another blade reached out stopping my hand from grabbing my kris from its sheath.
“Two blades.” I raised my hands where she could see them. “Impressive.” But how the hell was I going to get out of this situation? I was going to have to stall her. Maybe lure her closer and head butt her.
“You’re not so bad yourself.” Her face was sharp as she sized me up.
“You can’t take me.” I sneered at her.
“I could kill you right now,” she grinned, her blade nicking my flesh with a stinging pain.
Fuck. She could.
“Do it.” I dared her.
“I might,” she said with a shrug. “But first I want to know, why were you trying to assassinate El Oso? That was a pretty ballsy move.”
I didn’t dare move my head, but my eyes bored into her. Maybe she wasn’t such an enemy.
“How did you track me?”
“It’s my job. I track hunters,” she said, with a shrug.
My stomach tightened. She was good and there was a hunter nearby that I definitely didn’t want her to track. “You’re on the front lines?” It was more of a statement than a question.
“Why were you trying to kill El Oso?” she asked, her voice as hard as the blade that slid up to the bottom of my chin.
Against my will I raised my head to look at her. I had to decide and quickly. Could I trust her?
“If I tell you will you let me go?” I asked.
“Maybe,” she shrugged, but there was a steel glint in her eye that seemed to make it clear she wasn’t a fan of El Oso either.
“I don’t trust the Berzerken.” I said.
To my surprise she laughed, a rich cawing sound. “I think that’s pretty obvious. Why?”
“Drop the blade.” I insisted.
Her eyes narrowed on me. “First tell me why.”
“El Oso is collecting magic objects from different clans in an effort to cast a spell giving the Berzerken greater power than all shifters. We don’t know where or what the items are, so killing El Oso seems the best option.” She was either going to think I was crazy, or believe me.
“What are the objects?” she asked, the blades suddenly dropped from my throat and my heart. “Don’t lower your hands,” she said.
I glared at her, but my heart unclenched. If I told her what they were, would she try and get them for herself? Somehow, I didn’t think so. “A blade, a jewel, a cage, a chain and a chalice.”
Her eyes narrowed. “These are ordinary items,” she said.
“Not the ones he’s looking for.” I dared not even look towards the kris at my waist. “You’re not going to turn me in to the Order?”
“My name is Davin,” she said, sheathing one of her blades and holding out her hand to take mine. “I’m not a fan of the Order either.”
My gaze narrowed, but I gripped her hand and stood up. “But you’re a raven, sworn to the Eagles and Eagles are devoted members of the Order. Hell, they founded it.”
“That was hundreds of years ago,” she said. “A lot has changed.”
“But you’re going against your own clan and Muiderkring West if you rebel against El Oso,” I pointed out. “Muiderkring East has long been against the Berzerken.”
“Yes,” she said. “But things in my clan are definitely not as they seem, and I’m pretty sure it’s the same with the Eagles. Something happened at the Matching. That’s why Agi disappeared. She’s going against her clan and the Order also.”
I shook my head. “I’m not here to deal with clan politics. I’m here to kill El Oso.”
Davin cocked her head to the side. “It looked to me like you could use a little bit of help. No one is a match for him alone.”
I closed my eyes, taking a slow deep breath in. “I have trained for this.”
“And I have trained to kill Hunters my whole life,” Davin shrugged. “It doesn’t mean I make the kill each time. And especially not against one as powerful as El Oso. But I know one thing, the Order will find you. Especially if we stay out here just on the outskirts of Muiderslot territory. They’ll be scanning the perimeters.”
She had a point. And I didn’t have enough strength left to myst in order to hide. It was completely against my nature, but she hadn’t killed me, and she’d brought up a few good points.
“And we need to find the eagle girl,” she said.
“What?” I asked. “The one who ran away?”
“Agi.” Davin said. “Absolutely. She knows more about the politics of the Order than either of us do by far.” Her gaze settled on my sheathed blade. “What is it.”
My hand moved to the hilt protectively. “My family’s ancestral kris,” I said.
“Nice sword.” She nodded but said no more.
I shot her a side glance. There was something about the way she said it that made me think she knew something she wasn’t telling me. I shrugged the feeling off. There were things I wasn’t telling her either. But for the first time I felt like I had someone on my side who understood exactly what I was going through and had a similar if not exactly the same goal.
“Come.” I motioned her to follow me through the woods. “I have a place we can go.”
“Seriously?” she asked. “You’re going to walk? Like that? Let’s shift.”
I glanced down at my wet jeans and t-shirt. “It’s going to garner a lot less attention than a Javanese leopard roaming the streets of Amsterdam.
She shrugged falling into step next to me. “Fair enough.”
“But how are we going to find this Agi?” I asked.
“Oh,” Davin said with a smile. “I know exactly how to accomplish that.”
5
“This can’t really be where you live.” Davin’s Irish brogue roused me from my slumber as she placed a steaming hot cup of tea on the bed side table.
“You wanna go back to your castle life?” I ask.
“I wasn’t raised in a castle,” Davin held up a sugar pack silently, pointing at my tea to see if I wanted any in it. I shook my head.
“My Opa said the only tea that needs sugar and milk is bad tea.” I inhaled the scent of sunscorched mountain tops that wafted from my cup. “I don’t buy bad tea.”
“Alrighty then,” she smiled. “We always have shite tea in Ireland, so I douse mine in milk and sugar. Neither of which I could find in your excuse for a kitchen.”
“Drink it,” I commanded as I took a sip of the scalding liquid. My body liked it hot. It rejuvenated me and filled me with the strength of home. I rested back on my pillows. Davin was right. This place was a bit of a dump. But I couldn’t exactly live just anywhere. I needed a safe house where no one would find me, yet one in the proximity of central Amsterdam. The paint on the walls was peeling, the ceiling was cracked, and the light fixture in the center hung there with just empty wiring, waiting for a light that would never come. Instead the landlord had put a rickety floor lamp in the corner that served as the only light in the dim room.
Davin stood at the window looking down as she sipped her tea, her face screwing up at every sip. “The red light district?” she asked, cocking an eyebrow at me. “Is that how you make your money?”
I was about to hurl my cup of tea at her, when she looked at me with a grin. “You’re kinda sensitive, aren’t you?” she said.
“I am not a prostitute.” I huffed.
“Lighten up, killer,” she said. “I never thought you were. Hell, you’d make more money selling your blade than selling that bit.”
I groaned. “Do you always insult your hosts with every breath?”
She pressed her lips into a thin line, frowning at me. “No. I’m sorry. I’m not good with people.” Her gaze turned back to the window. Well, I was good with my family, but they were slaughtered by the Hunters and now…well, now, I don’t really know that I trust anyone.”
“Aren’t you engaged to the future head of your clan? The young lord of the Ravensgaard?” I asked.
“Yes.” Her voice was clipped, and her shoulders tensed. Clearly it was not a union she wanted.
“But you’ve left him?” I couldn’t quite understand her.
“He usurped my family,” she turned fully to face me. “Not Riordan, the one I’m supposed to marry, but his father. They locked my grandmother up for the last twenty years.”
“What, why?” I sat up in the bed, leaning forward to her. My grandmother was the most revered woman of our clan. It was unfathomable that she would be held against her will.
“She is the keeper of the magic.” Davin said softly. “It is her magic that hides Castle Brannagh, our family seat, and gives our people the power to disappear from the human world behind its gates. They wanted her power, but also the high seat. By killing my parents and capturing her, they did just that. Now everyone is sworn to the Murtagh and I was hidden on the front lines.”
“Does anyone else know about all this?” I asked.
“A few, but we are powerless. All I have is this,” she said. She deftly reached into a black leather pouch she wore around her neck and held up the largest, most stunning diamond I had seen in my life. We had diamonds in my clan, but nothing as polished and magnificent as this. Even in the dim glow of the room, it sparkled and cast rainbows into the crevices.
“The jewel,” I murmured, my hand resting on the hilt of my kris.
Davin looked at me solemnly and nodded. “It’s from the Dark Crown,” she said. “It holds our magic. Like the kris holds yours.”
“How did you-” My words broke off when I saw the way she cocked her eyebrow at me.
“No one is that passionate unless they have something to lose,” she said. “A jewel. A sword. A cage. A chain. A chalice. The sword is the kris isn’t it?”
I nodded slowly. Only a few people in my clan even knew this.
“The Ravensgaard diamond is the jewel, I think,” Davin said. “I felt it when you first told me. It hides our family seat, Castle Brannagh behind powerful magic.”
“If it’s a shield, how is it going to help us find Agi?” I asked.
“It can be worked both ways,” she smiled. “It can hide people or call them to you.”
I spent so much time hiding, I didn’t like the idea of calling people to me, but for some reason I trusted Davin.
“How does it work?” I asked as she sat down in the center of the small room cross legged and cupping the diamond in both her hands.
“Do you remember what she looks like?” Devin aske
d me, her accent so thick it took me a moment to understand what she was saying.
“Um, yeah.” I nodded picturing the lythe blond young woman who seethed of elegance and restraint. I was almost jealous the first time I saw her. Not for her beauty, but because of her poise. Like every decision she made would be made for the right reasons.
“So, hold her clearly in your head and I will tune into the diamond. It should show me where she is,” Davin said, her eyes closed.
I sat cross legged across from her, eyes closed, picturing the blond beauty until I could almost feel her presence in the room. In the stillness I heard the door far below open and close. The vision of Agi so clear I opened my eyes and turned to the doorway, convinced she was about to walk through the door.
Davin still sat across from me serene and quiet, eyes closed as if in a completely different world. She wasn’t even aware the door below had opened and shut. My face tightened as my muscles bunched. The footsteps on the stairs weren’t those of a single person, nor from their weighted sounds, it wasn’t a young woman either. These people were considerably larger than Agi.
Then I smelt it, wafting up the stairs and under the door, into my dank little studio.
“Berzerken!” I hissed the word at Davin as her eyelids flew open.
We just had time to spring to our feet as the door crashed open and Polaris and Patch burst in.
6
“For fuck’s sake,” Davin’s voice was drowned out by the remnants of the wooden door flying across the room and slamming into the walls.
“Did you find her?” I asked dodging to the side as Patch lunged at me. I glanced over to gauge Davin’s response.
A swift nod was all I needed as she drew her blades and squared off against Polaris.
“Just go,” I said, my gaze darting to the open window.
“They’ll kill you!” She exclaimed as both bears began to shift into their animal forms.
