Traitor's Son: The Raven Duet Book #2 (23 page)

“Just like you,” said Jase. “Killing my grandmother and wrecking my family to win a political fight.”

The indifference in her face made his blood run cold. This old woman would let nothing stop her, even if that meant destroying the human race.

“You know,” said Jase, “we’ve gotten wiser in the last century or so. We try not to wipe out whole species to save ourselves a little inconvenience.”

“How adult of you.” Otter Woman turned toward a crashing in the brush, and the bee man walked into the clearing, with a grizzly lumbering after him.

Even knowing this was an alien shapeshifter, not a bear, a primal chill ran through Jase’s veins at seeing the great beast so close.

“Wha’ do you want?” the bear rumbled.

“It’s not me who’s disturbing you,” Otter Woman said. “This human boy demands you give surety for the bargain we’re about to make. He doesn’t trust me.”

“Smart boy,” said the bear. “You lie almos’ as much as she does.” One paw gestured to the captured Raven, who croaked a protest.

“Bal’erdash,” the bear continued. “You lie all the time. Jus’ not as nazty with it. Make your bargain, human,” he added, turning back to Jase. “I’m hungry.”

“I promise to turn over all the dust in my possession,” Jase said carefully, “if Otter Woman will free my grandmother and Raven. And never interfere in any way, with any of my family, ever again!”

“That’s not what you said the first time,” Otter Woman objected.

“I’m not an idiot. I’m not going to give up the only lev- erage I have, just to see you kidnap one of my parents tomorrow.”

“Well, I’m not an idiot either. Suppose you’ve got more of it cached away somewhere? And even if you don’t, humans made that dust. What’s to stop you from making more?”

“So what if we make more? So what if we healed every ley in creation? That’s what you want!”

“A good poin-t.” The great bear nodded. “A very good poin’. Why not let them go? See if Raven can finizh it, like she says she can.”

“That’s what we agreed to when this started!” Otter Woman’s face twisted in frustration. “How about a simpler bargain, human? You give me that dust, or I’ll turn Bee People loose on your grandmother right now! If her spirit returned to her body mad, or tormented into idiocy, well, after such a prolonged coma no one would be surprised, would they?”

For the first time, the bee man smiled, and Jase’s heart flinched. Gima was shaking her head, Don’t do it, don’t give in.

He turned to Raven. Slowly, reluctantly, the bird nodded.

“She’ll do it,” the bear confirmed. “Otter’s alwayz had a mean streak.”

If he didn’t agree, she’d hurt Gima. He couldn’t allow that. And if Otter Woman refused to let her go . . .

His father was a lawyer.

“If I give you the dust,” Jase said, “all the dust I have, all that I know where it is, you, Bear, will keep my grandmother safe? Keep her from being tortured, or harmed in any way?”

The bear considered this. “Eventually, just being kep’ from her body will kill her. Humans ain’t dezigned to disincorporate for long.”

“But you won’t let her be hurt,” Jase insisted. “She’ll be well treated till she’s freed?”

“If Otter Woman agrees, I’ll enforze it,” the bear said.

“And if he hasn’t given up all the catalyst he has, with no more stashed away, then I can vent my anger however I wish,” said Otter Woman. “That’s part of it.”

Jase knew the words were meant for him more than Bear. She needn’t have bothered—he was already terrified.

“Don’ stop him from making more,” Bear pointed out. “or you from taking some other perzon he loves.”

“I won’t try to make more dust,” said Jase. “I wouldn’t begin to know how, anyway.”

“And I won’t take another of his relatives. Or friends,” the old woman said. “Or anyone he loves. This hostage appears to be sufficient.”

Raven croaked.

“And the terms of the original bargain will still be in effec’,” Bear confirmed.

Had Raven seen it too?

Bear waited, but Otter Woman had no more terms to add. Jase didn’t dare say more, lest she suddenly see the loophole she had missed.

“Done,” Bear pronounced. “The boy handz over all the catalyst he controls, and you don’ hurt the human woman. And Otter, don’ think of trying to. When I enforze a bargain, I enforze it.”

“Agreed.” Jase pulled the small vial from his pocket and held it out. His hand trembled slightly—he hoped she wouldn’t see it.

Otter Woman looked a bit reluctant, but she took the container from him. “Agreed.”

Bee People pouted. The caged Raven ruffled her feathers in distress. Jase’s grandmother had both hands clasped in front of her chest, as if she was praying . . . or grasping a medicine bag.

“Don’t worry, Gima,” said Jase. “I’ll get you out of this. I promise.”

He laid his hand over his chest and slowly closed it. To the watching shapeshifters it would have looked like a gesture that sealed a vow. Jase didn’t think even Raven understood.

But his grandmother did.

***

No one tried to stop him as he left the clearing. They probably assumed he was going back to the stone pile, out of the Spirit World. Instead Jase retraced his steps to Frog People’s pond, and found that this time the glacier wasn’t as slippery, and the flower’s thorns weren’t as aggressive as they’d been.

And this time, the frogs weren’t calling him as he approached. After he’d waited several minutes, a single frog swam up and crawled onto a flat rock.

“Mucked it up, didn’t you?” Its voice was the same as the giant frog’s, astonishing from such a small creature.

“I didn’t have a choice,” Jase pointed out. “I couldn’t let her hurt my grandmother.”

“Yeah, but you gave up the last of the catalyst,” the frog complained. “And what did I tell you? I told you to find the medicine bag, not to—”

“I didn’t give up the medicine bag,” Jase said. “I turned over all the dust I had, all I possessed, all that I knew where it was. I don’t control the medicine bag or know where it is. So I can still use that, if I can find it. You’ve got to tell me where it is.”

“I still don’t know,” the frog replied. “But if that’s the deal you struck . . . I don’t know where it is. I don’t even know who knows, but Goose Woman might. She hears lots of things that people aren’t supposed to tell her. Pillow talk.”

“Can you take me to her?” Jase asked. “I’m tired of thrashing around in bogs and brambles.”

His feet were tired, his hands were raw, and a meal and a hot bath sounded really good to him. And he hadn’t even begun to free his grandmother yet.

The tiny frog eyed him curiously. “I can guide you. But you should know, boy, one of the reasons you’re so tired is that there’s as much of your body here as there is in your world. What happens to you here will happen to all of you, everywhere.”

“All of me? Are there more . . . This is one of those weird, theoretical physics things, isn’t it? I hated that class.”

“OK,” said Frog People. “I’ll make it simple. If you die here, you die. Period. No waking up and going home, like your grandma would.”

Jase had already figured that out. “I thought Otter Woman and the others were forbidden to kill me. The terms of the original bargain still stand.”

“They stand back in your world,” Frog People told him. “No one expected you to start wandering around in the interface, so that’s what you might call a gray area. Otter Woman doesn’t much like gray. She’d probably have killed you when you first turned up, if Bear and some of the others hadn’t come down on her about what she tried to do to Raven’s last human. Very direct, that was. If you head out of here like she thinks you will, she’ll probably let you go. Once she sees you’re not being a good boy . . . You can be hurt here. You can be killed.”

His whole body ached already. But his heart hurt worse.

“I’m not leaving till Gima’s free,” Jase said. “Mr. Hillyard was right—if you really want something, you’re willing to pay for it. Like the taiga does.”

The round frog-eyes blinked. “What’s wrong with the taiga? It’s a great place. A little chilly in winter, but I can adapt to that.”

“It is great,” Jase agreed. “But it has to burn in order to grow. Take me to Goose Woman.”

With the frog clinging to his collar, its voice booming in his ear, navigating the Spirit World proved easier. There were still patches of bog, and berry brambles with long thorns, but his small guide steered him around the worst obstacles. Soon Jase found himself approaching what looked like an old-style bark-covered round house, on the shore of a rippling lake. Jase was pretty sure there were no lakes this size within walking distance of Whittier, but then the leather flap across the doorway lifted and he forgot about Spirit World geography.

The woman who emerged was older than he was, maybe in her midtwenties, with the clearest skin and the warmest dark eyes he’d ever seen. She wore the beaded leathers that had been summer garb for many Alaska Natives before cloth came into their world, but something about the way she wore it proclaimed that she’d just as soon get out of it.

Jase felt his whole body coming alive, before he got within ten feet of her.

The frog on his shoulder shot her a disgusted look.

“Ease up, would you? He’s got to ask you some questions, and he needs to be able to think straight.”

“He could think afterward.” Her voice managed to be husky and musical at the same time, and a thrill shot through Jase’s blood.

“He needs to think now,” Frog People said. “Let up, will you?”

Jase struggled to think. It wasn’t easy.

“Please.” His voice emerged in a croak, and he cleared his throat before going on. “I need some . . . some information. I need to ask you where Otter Woman . . .” His thoughts were dissolving in a sensual haze. “Where Otter Woman hid . . . Please,” he whispered. He wasn’t entirely certain what he was pleading for.

“You have to choose.”

She moved closer, till he’d have sworn he was picking up her scent—spicy, musky, deep. He could have fallen into it.

“Play or talk?” she asked. “You can’t have both. I’d rather play.”

She licked her lips, making the type of play she had in mind abundantly clear. Jase summoned reserves of will he’d have sworn he didn’t possess.

“I’d rather talk.” He hoped he didn’t have to sound as if he meant it. “Talk, please.”

Her sigh was deep enough to lift the leather over her breasts, but that honey-thick allure lessened so suddenly he almost staggered.

If he could bottle what she had he’d make billions—in the nanosecond before it was declared an illegal drug. But whatever it was, once she’d turned it off it was gone. Jase felt nothing more than a natural reaction when the beautiful woman stepped forward and took him in her arms.

Not that his natural reaction wasn’t distracting.

“Hey, I chose talk.” Unable to believe he was doing this, he put his hands on her hips and tried to push her away. “Talk!”

“I don’t want to be seen talking to you,” she murmured, snuggling closer. “So relax.”

Relaxed he wasn’t, but Jase let her arms slide around him. “Do you know where the medicine pouch is? The one Otter Woman’s using to hold my grandmother here?”

Her body was soft against his, but a rising sense of danger cooled his arousal.

“I do know. People tell me things.” Amusement rippled in her voice. “Mostly I don’t care, but the ley here feels a lot better since Raven’s been working on it. I like this part of the world, so this time I listened.”

Her lips feathered along his jaw to his ear, and despite the urgency of the moment, Jase forgot how to breathe.