The Twelve Kingdoms (35 page)

The lizard form wavered, then blinked into an older woman, the one from the council. Rayfe's knees pinned her shoulders and my sword speared her lower abdomen. She bared teeth at him, said something in Tala.

“In Common Tongue—you wouldn't want to be discourteous to our guests.”

“Kill me. I'd rather die than watch you destroy our people.”

“I'm hoping your next words are to tell me that my queen and niece enjoy continued good health.”

“What does it matter? All is lost.”

“Tell me.” Rayfe had the sound of a desperate man. Harlan must have heard it, too, for he stepped up and put a bootheel on the woman's hand, leaning his considerable weight into it.

“I've little experience with shape-shifters,” he commented in that eerily neutral tone he could adopt. “If you break pieces off, do they grow back?

The woman snarled at him but grimaced, focused on Rayfe. “They're fine. Terin is a fool.”

“No argument there. How many in the cave?”

She firmed her lips and turned her head to the side.

“The interesting thing about shape-shifters”—Ash clapped a hand on Harlan's shoulder, his raspy voice conversational—“is that you
can
cut pieces off, but they have to shift to regrow.” He crouched and set a blade at the base of the woman's pinky. “And it hurts as much as it would you or I. Of course, if they bleed to death first, it's no good. Would you like to see?”

Harlan grinned, not nicely. “I would. In the interests of learning about this fascinating new culture.”

“Ten!” the woman spat.

“Who?” Rayfe put the question to her as if she'd answered immediately, as if the attendant conversation hadn't occurred. “Give me names.”

Seeming to give up, she collapsed into herself, listing names, her voice grating with despair.

“You're going to lead us to them,” Rayfe said when she finished. “And we'll let you live. Else I'll give you to the Dasnarian to take home for a zoo pet.”

“I'm loyal to Annfwn, to the true Tala ways. Salena was a traitor and now her get will destroy us all.” Her dark blue gaze burned into mine. “Foul blood runs in your veins, viper.”

“This loyalty of yours means nothing,” Rayfe growled. “Don't you see? It's empty. Based on stories and songs and empty ideals. People are real.”

“Principles are real. The rest is nothing.” She gathered herself, shouted something in Tala, and convulsed, shifting into a shredded mass of flesh, blood, and bone.

Rayfe jumped up with some sort of Tala oath, then gazed down at her. The cousins moved restlessly, looking deeply unhappy, powerfully affected.

“S
he suicided?” I asked after a moment of silence.

Blue eyes flashing hot, Rayfe nodded. “Not a pleasant way to go, but a fast and effective one. Most of us live in fear of doing it by accident. To do so deliberately . . .”

“A martyr's death,” I concluded. “Meant to shake you.”

Zynda glanced at the other cousins. “King Rayfe. We shall take care of the remains. Ursula assessed it fairly. No one else should know of this.”

“I'm grateful. And for your assistance at this dire time.”

“You might have invited us to do so.” Zynda tilted her head meaningfully.

“I have enough accusations of favoritism to manage without crying to Salena's family for help.” Rayfe looked to me. “How did you find us?”

Zynda flicked a glance at me. “We followed a star.”

He shook his head and sighed. “All right. They're up in there somewhere. I can't sniff them out. Even now”—his gaze scanned the cliff riddled with holes from castle-sized to minute—“I'm not exactly sure which they're in.”

“We may not be wizards and shape-shifters, but we have our methods. We can find them.” I glanced over my shoulder at Ami, who sat with her back to us, playing with a fussing Astar. We left the cousins to their gruesome clean-up task. Putting an arm around Ami, Ash sat beside her, and she leaned into him. I stopped to clean my sword, giving them a moment.

“Is she all right?” Rayfe inquired quietly.

“Yes.” I exchanged glances with Harlan, giving him a nod of assurance, though I doubted he needed it. “Of us three, Ami has experienced the least of the crueler aspects of conflict. But she's got steel. She would not quibble with anything we do to retrieve Andi and Stella. Just don't ask her to watch.”

He nodded in understanding, gaze going back to the cliffs, seething with an impatience I understood well. And yet... “If we get to them, do we have the numbers to overpower Terin's group swiftly?”

Rayfe glared at me. “Do you suggest leaving my queen in peril a moment longer than necessary?”

I returned the stare, evenly. “If delaying allows us to muster greater forces, yes. We can keep them pinned. They're not going anywhere and they won't hurt their hostages as long as they have hope. Think about this, King Rayfe. This is end game for them. If all is lost for their objective”—I gestured in the direction of the suicided councilor—“what's to stop Terin from killing Andi and Stella out of sheer spite? Why not strike at our hearts that way?”

Rayfe scrubbed his hands through his hair and I saw clearly the shadows of exhaustion in his face, the way fear and worry had eaten at him. Had he slept at all since Andi was taken? Likely not if he'd been focused on not losing her.

“We have them pinned,” I repeated. “They know it or they wouldn't have risked that attack. I'm hungry and I need to rest. Captain Harlan, would you ask Zynda to assign a couple of the cousins to keep watch for movement?” He gave me the
Elskastholrr
salute, with a flicker in his eyes that showed he knew and approved of what I was doing. “Ami takes forever to feed that baby,” I told Rayfe. “Why don't you grab ten minutes of shut-eye? Then we'll formulate our strategy.”

His face hardened and he opened his mouth to argue. I stopped him with a hand on his shoulder. “King Rayfe. You're no good to her if you're not sharp. Take a few minutes. We're here to help now.”

Rayfe narrowed his eyes at me, then sat bonelessly, head propped on a log. “Andi said you always took care of everyone, whether they wanted it or not. Ten minutes.” And he was out faster than Astar at his mother's breast.

“Well done,” Harlan murmured as I stepped up to his side, keeping his keen gaze on the cliffside.

“Any sign of movement?”

“No, and there won't be. Terin will figure his best strategy is to stay hunkered down and try to pick us off when possible. They don't know you can use the Star to triangulate on Andi, so they think they have time.”

“Figured that out, did you?”

He didn't take his eyes off the cliff, but his lips curved in satisfaction. “It heats up the more you three are in proximity to each other?”

“So it seems. I'm not sure what to make of that.”

“I have no doubt you'll make something of it eventually.”

“Your faith in me is sometimes alarming.”

His smile twitched. “I know. Take your own advice and rest. You're no good to them if you're not sharp.”

“Very funny.” But my thigh throbbed and some of the deeper bruises ached, so I put my back against a tree and closed my eyes, letting my mind drift over the problem.

When we wakened him several hours later to participate in a strategy session while the cousins kept watch, Rayfe looked like he would cheerfully murder me. At least he looked capable of it now, so the lie had been worth it.

“The more I think about it, the more I figure Osme had to have lied about the number of Tala in the cave.”

He cocked his head. “Possibly. Though she knew she'd suffer when we discovered it.”

“Not if she'd already resolved to suicide,” I pointed out. “Your threat about Dasnarian zoos put her over the edge.”

Grimly he nodded a head at Harlan. “A tale we use to frighten our children with. I have no idea if it's true at all. The idea of animals in cages is appalling to us.”

Harlan lifted a shoulder. “So far as I know, none of them have alternate human selves. If they do, I'm sure someone would have noted it.”

I smothered a chuckle though Rayfe seemed completely unamused. I'd forgive him a lack of sense of humor, given the circumstances. “Ami and I can get close and pinpoint Andi's location, but what's to prevent Terin from snatching Stella and running?”

“Or from him killing them both?” Zynda inserted, face grave. “You mentioned that before and it's a good point.”

Yes, but I'd thought better of mentioning it again.

“Stealth is better, if we can do it. Or convince him somehow that he's better off on the move than waiting us out. Can he be waiting on something? I make him as out of options at this point. In my experience, a cornered beast is a dangerous one.”

Rayfe, with his glittering gaze and barely restrained violence, only proved the point. “He can't have much support left, but he's also a fanatic. He won't give up, though his group has always been in the minority.”

“Zynda, you come at this from another angle—do you agree?”

My cousin cast Rayfe a cautious glance and opened her mouth.

“I know my people, Your Highness,” Rayfe interrupted with a growl, sounding more like a wolf than ever.

“Do you? Did you suspect Osme before this?”

His jaw clenched over the bitterness of that betrayal, as I'd suspected.

“King Rayfe.” I tried to sound gentle. “We never expect the strike from within. That's why coups of this sort can be devastatingly effective. I've studied enough of them. You're not to be blamed for trusting the people who should have been trustworthy, but take advantage now of the objective eyes and ears available to you.”

“You can dispense with calling me by my title, Ursula,” he ground out. “And you may be absolutely correct. Zynda?”

Zynda leaned back on one elbow, unperturbed by her king's foul humor. But then, Rayfe, for all his temper and arrogance, did not stand on much ceremony. A different style altogether from Uorsin's. Of course—a different people and a much smaller kingdom to rule. Still, interesting.

“The Tala are much like any other people,” Zynda offered, as if in direct contradiction to my thoughts. “We, of Salena's family, believe Salena's daughter should be queen. Andromeda has our full support, always.”

“A comfort,” Rayfe remarked.

Zynda smiled easily. “As do her sisters. However, the Tala are also a superstitious people, much ruled by our animal natures. Instinctively, we believe the strongest should rule. The test that made you king is an ongoing one, Rayfe. Winning that tournament is no sinecure. You must continue to be the strongest, the cleverest, the most determined, the one most favored by Moranu, to keep your throne.”

“What are you saying, Zynda?” I asked.

She held my gaze, both grimly serious and mischievous, making me wonder what animal she claimed as closest to her heart. “That the people wait and see. If Rayfe cannot rescue his queen from the likes of Terin, he is not fit to lead.”

“A harsh judgment to live under.”

“Are the Twelve so different, Cousin?” She shook her head slightly. “I think not. The ruler who fails his people deserves to lose his throne.”

“All three goddesses favor this effort,” Ami spoke up. “Glorianna, Danu, Moranu—they work hand in hand. Andi and Stella belong with us. We just have to find the right path.”

Ash laughed soundlessly under his breath and Ami elbowed him. “The goddesses work in mysterious ways. Don't forget that Glorianna granted you your greatest wish, no matter how circuitously it came about.”

He looked down at her lovely face, her curls catching the waning light and her twilight eyes the same shade as the sky—and something of him went hungry as he brushed the ends of her shorn hair.

“It will grow back,” she told him softly.

“I know. But I don't like the idea of you going up there, Ami.”

“My daughter. My sister.” She shrugged. “I can't be someone I like and not do it.”

“I agree,” I said, though she hadn't explicitly stated what I had in mind. “Once night falls, Ami and I will scout and get a fix on Andi's position. Stealth is the name of the game. They'll post watch, no doubt”—I glanced at Rayfe, who nodded—“but they have to be growing weary also. Osme and her trained staymachs haven't returned to them. They have to suspect we killed the guard Terin left to slaughter Harlan and me. They're possibly running out of supplies. They were moving fast and for quite some time, so they can't have carried much. Stella would need to be fed. Even with a wet nurse, they'll have to be getting nervous.

“We'll appear to leave. Zynda—appoint your best inconspicuous shifter to keep an eye for movement. If they're watching us, they've noted that we've disagreed. Rayfe—keep that angry, just-under-boiling-with-violence demeanor. You'll leave with us, unwillingly. Once we have distance, everyone who can shift picks their most unobtrusive form. Ami and I will go on foot, Ash with us to guard our backs. Captain Harlan—I'm asking you to stay back with Astar.”

If I thought he'd argue the point, I was mistaken. He accepted the order with a nod. To my surprise, they all did. Even Rayfe. A crack team here, not unlike working with my Hawks. We all stood and Rayfe darkened his scowl. “I don't like it,” he shouted. “Coming here with your high-handed ways, Uorsin's heir. My people won't follow you.”

I stared him down coolly, my respect for him growing. “They don't have to follow, Rayfe of the Tala. They just have to get out of my way.”

Once full dark fell, Ash, Ami, and I changed into the darkest clothes we had with us, then smeared our skin with mud to eliminate the pale gleam of it.

“I thought I'd hear complaints about this,” I teased her.

“Oh, no. Mud is excellent to cleanse and purify the complexion,” she replied easily. “Though yours is beyond such help. A pity.”

She helped Harlan strap Astar onto his wide chest. We'd had to add to the length of the straps, to accommodate his girth. He should have looked absurd, swinging his massive sword to check that nothing interfered with his arc of movement, the comparatively tiny wide-eyed baby peering up at him, but he managed to look . . . heroic. He returned my gaze with a long, somber stare. Then touched the backs of his fingers to his forehead. “Danu shine her light on you, my fierce hawk. We shall await your return.”