Progeny (The Children of the White Lions) (32 page)

Kenders and Broedi sat on a rock straight ahead. Somehow, he and Jak had kept the right line and found them on their first try. Hearing Jak exit the woods behind him, he turned and stared at his brother, smiling wide. He gestured up at their sister and the hillman. “How about that?”

Jak looked up and grinned, although the smile faded a moment later. “What’s going on up there?”

Nikalys turned and looked back up to the boulder. Broedi and Kenders sat close to one another, face to face, eyes closed. From where he stood, it seemed as if the two were holding hands. A protective anger swelling inside his chest, he shoved Smoke’s reins toward Jak and began to march closer to the boulder.

“Nik? What are you doing?”

Nikalys ignored Jak, striding forward, looking for a way to climb up to where his sister sat with the hillman. Unable to spot a clear path, he planted his feet and stared upward. “Hey!”

Kenders—sitting with her back to Nikalys—swiveled around and peered down to where he stood. A nervous smile spread over her face. “Oh! I—we didn’t hear you coming.”

“Obviously. What do you think you’re doing?”

Her smile dwindling, she stammered, “We were…well…” She glanced at Jak, uneasy. “I asked Broedi to—”

Interrupting her, Nikalys called, “Broedi! Get down here!” He might have asked for an explanation, but he did not want to listen to one.

The hillman rose from his seated position, moved to stand beside Kenders, and stared down at Nikalys. “Are you upset, uori?”

“What do you think?”

From behind him, Jak called, “Nik!” Glancing back, Nikalys saw Jak tying off the horses to a nearby tree branch while staring at him. Jak’s eyes were anxious. “I think you should calm down.”

Nikalys had no interest in calming down. Turning around, he glared up at Broedi. “Get down here, Shapechanger! I will not let you move on my little sister!”

Kenders gasped, an expression of embarrassed horror bursting over her face. “No! That’s not what—”

Broedi shocked her silent as he stepped past and leapt from the boulder. He soared sixty feet through the air and, with a resounding thud, landed spryly on his feet. Pebbles rattled.

Nikalys looked from the hillman, back where Kenders still sat atop the boulder. Broedi should have broken both legs trying to do that, yet he landed as a cat would when tossed from a barn loft.

Broedi strode toward him, asking, “Are you challenging my honor, uori?” He stopped only a few paces away from Nikalys and glared.

Nikalys had to look tilt his head back to meet the hillman’s gaze. Summoning some courage to go along with his anger, he said, “You promised you would keep our sister safe! Yet we find you…” He trailed off, not truly knowing what they had been doing. Whatever it was, it had looked inappropriate.

“Nikalys!” called Kenders. “You are being a fool!”

Ignoring her cries, Nikalys took a step closer to Broedi. “You can go now. We’re done with you.”

Broedi shook his head. “I think not.”

His blood pumping, Nikalys growled, “Leave, Shapechanger!”

Broedi crossed his arms over his massive chest. “No.”

Reaching up, he shoved Broedi hard, shouting, “Go!” He might as well have tried to shove the cliff. Broedi did not move.

“Nikalys! Stop it!” cried Kenders. She was hurrying down whatever hidden path Nikalys had failed to see. “He was only trying to help!”

“We don’t need his help! We don’t need anyone’s help! Not the Constables’! No one’s!”

Reaching the bottom, Kenders skidded to a stop.

“What do you mean ‘not the Constables’?’”

Shifting his glare to her, he snapped, “They thought we were telling a tale. They’re not going to do anything. No justice for us.”

While Kenders’ face fell, Broedi rumbled, “What did you expect? A massive water fibríaal? Ten mages walking on water?” His eyebrows lifted. “An
ijul
? Your story is outlandish.”

Nikalys’ gaze whipped back to Kenders. “You told him!?”

He was not sure with whom to be angrier, Broedi for calling their tragedy a lie or Kenders for telling it to him.

Standing in the same spot where she had stopped, Kenders nodded and, with a touch of defiance, said, “Yes, Nik. I did. He’s done nothing but help us. I figured that he—”

“I said I don’t want his help!” growled Nikalys. He glared up at the hillman. “We can take care of ourselves!”

“You can?” rumbled Broedi. “Need I remind you that if it were not for me, you and your sister would be dead now?”

“We have Jak now. We don’t need you. We’ll protect each other.”

He glanced over to find Jak standing with the horses, staring at them, a worried look on his face. Nikalys wondered why his brother was not helping him.

In a low growl, Broedi asked, “Will you protect each other like you protected your parents?”

Nikalys’ head whipped around, his eyes narrowing in an instant. “
What
did you say?”

Despite his rising anger, Nikalys was shocked. In the short time they had spent with Broedi, the hillman had always been calm, stoic, and polite.

Kenders exclaimed, “Broedi! That’s a horrible—”

With a deep, lupine-like snarl, Broedi barked, “Quiet!”

Kenders’ eyes grew wide as she was lifted into the air and suspended a foot off the ground, her arms pinned to her sides. She opened her mouth to scream, but no sound came forth.

“Go ahead,” snapped Broedi. “Protect her.”

The assault on their sister finally spurred Jak to action. Rushing forward, Jak shouted, “What in Nine Hells are you doing? Put her down! I never agreed—”

Broedi roared, “Stay out of this!”

An invisible force lifted Jak into the air and threw him back, slamming him into the tree with an audible thump. Jak slid down the trunk and slumped to the ground, his head lolling to the side, blood dripping from his mouth.

Nikalys’ heart stopped. He took two steps toward Jak’s body, but halted as Broedi’s baritone reverberated along the cliff base. “Where are you going?”

Nikalys whirled around and stared at the hillman, his eyes burning with hot, unbridled animosity. Broedi was as still as a granite statue, returning Nikalys’ venomous gaze with his own hard glare. Nikalys hesitated, still unsure what to do, what he could do. He glanced at Kenders struggling in the air and then back at Jak’s unmoving body.

“You are doing the same thing you did in Yellow Mud.”

“What does that mean?”

“You stood there,
watching
as those mages made the fibríaal. You stood there,
watching
when they sent it toward your home. You stood there,
watching
as it destroyed everything.” His eyes and voice turned cold. “You watched and you did nothing.”

A week’s worth of churning, pent-up anger and emotion erupted. Letting out a primal, rage-filled scream, he charged Broedi. “Aaaaaarrrgh!”

He had no plan. He simply wanted to pummel the Shapechanger.

When he was a few paces from the hillman, he launched himself at Broedi, his fist cocked. Broedi easily sidestepped his flailing attack and whacked his backside as he stumbled past. Off balance and unable to regain his footing, Nikalys tumbled, falling to the rough, rocky ground. Gravel dug into the palms of his hands.

Rolling over, Nikalys glared at a scowling Broedi.

The hillman rumbled, “You will need to move faster than that, uori.”

Nikalys had no chance taking Broedi straight on. He needed to distract him somehow, perhaps get behind him. With his heart thudding in his chest, Nikalys stared to a spot just past the hillman. He needed to get—

Shift.

He was staring at Broedi’s back.

One moment he had been on the ground, the next, he was standing here, just like the fight with the brigands. Too stunned by his sudden displacement, he simply stood in place and stared, wondering what had happened. His hesitation allowed Broedi to spin around, lay a giant hand on Nikalys chest, and shove hard. Nikalys stumbled backwards, tripped over a rock, and fell. His teeth rattled as his rear struck the hard dirt.

Broedi glared at him, eyes narrowed. “Too slow.”

Nikalys stared up at the hillman. Thinking he might have a chance against the Shapechanger, some of his anger and desperation dissipated. He knew what he needed to do now, even if he did not know how he was doing it.

Adjusting his approach and readying himself to strike, Nikalys looked up at Broedi and decided he want to be behind him again, but a little to his right. Nikalys stared at the spot, wanting nothing more than to be there instead of here.

Nothing happened.

Broedi asked, “You want to know what your iskoa and I were discussing?”

Nikalys shifted his gaze to the hillman.

With a sneering grin, Broedi said, “Traveling to Greya’s temple in Lakeborough where we will be joined in union. She said she feels safer with me.”

Nikalys looked at his sister, stunned. She was an impulsive soul and prone to rashness, but this was selfish, thoughtless, and the epitome of brainlessness. “Are you mad?!”

Rather than meet his gaze, she was staring at Broedi, a horrified expression emblazoned on her face.

Broedi rumbled, “If you would like, uori, you and your kaveli may be witnesses to the event.”

Nikalys’ rage reignited like a handful of dry grass dropped in a bonfire. That union would never happen. He stared to the right of the hillman.

Shift.

Broedi began to spin, but Nikalys was already swinging his clenched fist upwards. With a vicious strike, Nikalys’ knuckles connected with Broedi’s jaw. He felt and heard the solid crack of bone on bone. His hand erupted with pain. The hillman’s chin felt every bit the granite it looked.

Broedi backpedaled and crashed to the hard-packed dirt, sliding over loose rocks and stones. Rubbing his jaw, he sat up and eyed Nikalys. Wearing a slight smirk, he began to shift and change. His nose and mouth fused together and lengthened, his head stretching as though it were bread dough being pulled from two ends. Thick, golden brown and black fur sprouted from his skin, quickly growing into a heavy coat. Arms and legs thickened, his massive hands melted into heavy paws. Sharp, brown claws poked out from what used to be fingers.

The beast rose from the ground, stood on its hind leg, and loosed a mighty roar that rattled Nikalys to his soul. The horses whinnied, their fearful nickering echoing along the cliff wall.

Nikalys knew it was Broedi, but his mind screamed bear. This may be the first he had ever seen, but he had heard enough stories to put a name to the beast.

The bear lowered itself to all fours and loped toward him. Nikalys’ eyes went wide as the mass of fur and claws barreled down on him. His anger evaporated, replaced in an instant by abject fear. The bear had been nearly twice his height when standing, and even on all fours was taller than him.

Nikalys stood, rigid and unmoving. He could not take his eyes from Broedi’s open, snarling maw. When the bear was only a dozen paces from him, instinct took over. His gaze flicked to a cracked patch of dirt immediately behind Broedi—

Shift.

—and he drove his balled fist into Broedi’s haunches, striking with a wicked viciousness he never would have thought himself able to muster. The bear roared in pain and turned its head, searching for him. Looking to the beast’s other side—

Shift.

—Nikalys’ fist connected with the bear’s snout with a jarring crunch.

Shift.

He jammed his right knee into its ribs. Something inside the bear cracked.

Shift.

Again, his right fist lashed out, intending to strike the right side of the bear’s face. Nikalys was aiming for the giant brown orb of an eye.

“Stop!”

His blow halted in mid-strike. Surprised, he tried to pull back and punch again, but he could not move his arm. In fact, he could not move at all.

The shout had belonged to Kenders. He tried to turn his head to look at her, but he could not. All he could do was shift his eyes side to side.

In front of him, the bear staggered about for a moment before plopping down on its haunches. The whimpers of pain trickling from the beast were infinitely less fierce than the thunderous roar from only moments ago.

Steady, strident steps approached from the right. Kenders stepped between Nikalys and Broedi, facing him, an expression of sisterly rage on her face. “You, oafish, fish-brained, brutish lummox of a man—no, not a man! A boy! A silly, brainless boy!”

Nikalys glanced at the bear, worried it might attack Kenders, but Broedi seemed content to sit there in a slight daze.

With heat radiating from her eyes, Kenders continued to berate him. “Blast it, Nik! Why didn’t you listen to me?!”

He looked back to her, confused why his sister was so angry with him. Broedi had antagonized him, restrained her, and assaulted Jak. The hillman was the aggressor. As though she could hear his thoughts, Kenders spun around and glared at the bear. “And you! What got into you? How dare you hang me up in the air like…like laundry! Why were you goading him on like that?! And that nonsense about our
union at the Greya’s temple
? Blast the gods, Broedi! Are you mad?!”

If a bear could appear apologetic, Broedi did now.

An instant later, the bear began to shift, quickly reverting to the hillman’s form. The fur disappeared, the massive paws shifted back to giant hands and feet, and his head returned to its original shape. Once the transformation was complete, he remained sitting on the ground, rubbing his jaw and the side of his face.

“I apologize, uora,” rumbled Broedi, his voice calm, his tone contrite. “Truly, I do. I did not enjoy a moment of that.” The hillman’s normal demeanor was back: quiet, stoic, and polite. The crazed-eye Shapechanger was gone.

While Nikalys was trying to make sense of things and failing miserably doing so, Jak walked up and stood next to Kenders, shaking his head and smiling.

Nikalys’ eyes went round.

Jak was fine. He looked the same as he had before the fight had begun. There was no blood, not even a scratch.

Sounding equal parts amused and amazed, Jak said, “You are a brave—and terribly gullible—idiot.”