Sons of Destiny Prequel Series 003 - The Shifter (39 page)

"That he ran off somewhere yesterday?" she called back. "Aunt Hylin just told Mother all about it."

"Do you think he's upset you didn't marry him?"

She rolled her eyes. "Considering how often I turned him down, he had no right to be—mind what you're doing with that blade!"

He lifted his chin in acknowledgment and went back to work. Solyn followed Kenyen partway down the path toward his family's holding, until they were away from prying ears, though not prying eyes. Embracing him, she whispered, "Do you think we can get your horse back?"

That was not what Kenyen expected her to say. He chuckled and hugged her closer. "Maybe. I'd like to, for sure, but I'm more worried about Tunric getting nervous and making some foolish, potentially dangerous move against us before we have reinforcements."

"I'm worried about that, too," she murmured, kissing his throat. "I'll try to study some more spells when I have a spare moment. Hopefully no one gets careless and needs an extra Healer today." She hugged him extra hard, then relaxed. "I'll see you after you've done your morning chores."

He lifted her chin, brushed his lips over hers, then kissed her deeply. When they parted, it was with a sigh from her and a soft groan from him. "... At least I have something to look forward to today, besides mucking out goat stalls."

She blushed, thinking of the coming night. Last night, their lovemaking had started much earlier, allowing them to get up at a reasonable hour this morning. Watching him head across the valley, she sighed.
Tonight, we'll not want to exhaust ourselves. Maybe not even make love at all, even if we're both looking forward to it. We'll want to be vigilant.

I just wish I
knew
if my paper birds made it to their targets—and, stupid me, I should've sent one with Traver! Or rather, two, one for "we found the Magister" and one for "we're in trouble"... though I didn't know it'd be a "we" until we rescued that poor woman. At least she's free, now,
Solyn consoled herself, turning back up the path toward home.
Hopefully we can find and free more of their victims. Or... or at least tell their families what really happened to them...

Solyn wasn't overly devout. She prayed to Cora during holy days and festivals, but rarely outside of those moments. As she walked back up the path, she prayed now.
Goddess of Mountains and Valleys, thank You for the glorious luck we had in Traver running across Kenyen, allowing us to free him before he could be killed. Please, help us to stop the rest of these madmen? You know I don't ask You for much, but we could really use some help in wrapping up this matter...

There was no reply, of course. Cora could have Manifested, as in physically appeared beside her—as all gods could, if the need were great enough, or at the deity's divine whim—but Solyn didn't need that kind of help.
Just a bit more of good luck on our side will do, that's all I'm asking You.

Kenyen half-feared, half-expected a confrontation with the Mongrels. The trick with the lanolin might disguise some of it, but not all of it. His scent could be explained away from previous visits, but Solyn had never been to the cottage before. Of course, most of the shifters didn't come in close, daily contact with her, so it was possible her scent wasn't that familiar. But he did expect some sort of confrontation, particularly after Tunric had raced off to go looking for his so-called son.

He just didn't expect it the moment he descended for breakfast.

He stopped on the next to last step, staring at the sight of Zellan holding on to an upset-looking Luelyn on his lap, one arm wrapped around her torso and the other hand clamped tight over her mouth, fingers damp from her tears. Beyond the two of them, Reina was being held on the cushion-strewn settee by a shifter he only vaguely remembered from the bonfire night, while Ysander was being held next to the hearth by a third. Each adult had a knife at their throat. Thumps, rustlings, and a faint crash could be heard from somewhere beyond the front hall, no doubt a result of the herb-room being ransacked.

Before Kenyen could do or say anything, Solyn descended the stairs behind him. She stopped and stared as well. Zellan lifted his chin, though whether to signal Kenyen to back off and not attack like the real Traver would, or if he meant for the younger man to grab Solyn, Kenyen didn't know. One of the other two called out.

"Tunric!" the one holding Reina snapped. "He's awake!"

Kenyen descended the last step and rested his hands on his hips. Shaped like Traver, wearing Traver's clothes, he knew from the way Ysander and Reina narrowed their eyes in sudden suspicion that his pose was very un-Traver-like. It wasn't meant for them, though. The power and confidence implied in his stance, along with a touch of impatience, was meant for the Mongrel curs who had invaded the house.

"About time you woke up, boy," Tunric growled, coming into the parlor from the front hall. He stalked up to Kenyen and slapped him. "You're Gods-be-damned
useless
! Like that boy of mine! You've had all that time in this household to find the Gods-damned thing, and you're
useless
!"

Thankfully, the blow came without claws. The force of it did rock him a little, but aside from a sting and a slight bit of bruising, Kenyen wasn't harmed. Ignoring the throbbing, he asked, "What do you mean, useless? I'm here, aren't I?"

"But you never
found
it!" Tunric accused him, pointing a finger at Kenyen. "I
knew
I should've killed you, the moment I saw you!"

"
You
never told me
what
I was supposed to find!" Kenyen lifted his own hand and poked the older man in the chest, hard enough to make him flinch. "
You
kept it a Gods-be-damned secret! That means it's
your
damned fault I couldn't find whatever 'it' is! So, unless
you
don't even know what you're looking for,
what
in the flaming Netherhells
am
I supposed to be finding in this place?"

"You're working with
them
?" Ysander demanded. He tried to lunge forward, glaring at Kenyen. The Mongrel shifter holding him increased his muscles, making the linen of his tunic creak with the strain. Subsiding, Ysander continued to glare at the Shifterai by the stairs.

Solyn realized she needed to react, too. Affecting a hint of confusion and rising accusation in her voice, she asked, "Traver, what's going on? You know what's going on, don't you?"

Reaching back, Kenyen caught her by the arm, dragging her down the last few steps. A spin wrapped his arm around her throat, pulling her against him at an awkward angle. He didn't actually hold her hard, but she did pretend to choke, and "clawed" at his arm, as if the pressure on her neck was too much.

"A
good
wife," he growled, "doesn't question her husband." A quick flex of his arm muscles produced more mock-choking sounds. At least, Kenyen hoped they were faked. He looked back at Tunric, who was smirking. "Now, since you seem bent on ruining my secret,
what
are you looking for? And make it quick. I haven't had breakfast yet, and it's been a very long time since I had someone to chew on."

Tunric narrowed his dark eyes at the order. He did move, though, turning to face Reina. The Healer was glaring stoically at him, unmoved by the blade at her throat. "Greensteel," he growled. "The antithesis of that accursed bluesteel, which marks us all. The one thing which can un-scar our bodies, and allow us to completely blend in wherever we want to go. And
this
bitch and her cur-pup know how to make it!"

Reina frowned at the first insult, but Ysander only blinked in confusion at his. Kenyen decided to enlighten them as to the slander. "He means you're not only the lowest of the low, being a cur, you're at the bottom of all hierarchies, following along in the wake of a woman, of all things."

That news only received another bemused blink.

The man holding the blacksmith snorted. "Too stupid to know when he's been insulted. Can I cut 'im, now?"

A muffled wail interrupted any answer their leader might have made. Luelyn sobbed against the hand smothering her mouth, fresh tears trickling onto her cheeks. Caught in her husband's fake stranglehold, Solyn quickly started humming. It was the same tune she had used the other night, with the same soothing energies pouring out of her. This time, she didn't just touch one distraught female, her sister, but extended it to the Mongrel shifters in the room.

It was all Kenyen could do to prevent a sneeze, at that. He even reshaped the interior of his nostrils, trying to quell the damnable itch her magics stirred. Half a dozen tries, plus some thick-scaled skin, cut off both his sense of smell and the itch, save for its after-effects. Eyes watering, he watched some of Tunric's belligerent tension ease. Some, but not all.

Thankfully, none of the other four shifters looked inclined to sneeze. That did, however, make him think of an alternate plan to distract the Mongrels in their quest.
Now to find the right moment to tell them.

"No. Not yet," Tunric muttered. "We still need something that'll remove our permanent scars—and will you shut her up?" he added, turning to scowl at Kenyen. His gaze strayed briefly to the humming woman. "She's beginning to annoy me."

"Why?" Kenyen countered. "She's keeping the brat quiet."

"It's annoying me, that's why!" Tunric snapped. "Either you shut her up, you damn pup, or I'll slit her throat!
She
doesn't know the secret to making it!"

Solyn jumped at that threat, losing the thread of her hastily cobbled spell. She recovered fast, though. A quick, hard look at her sister, and Luelyn widened her eyes. A heartbeat later, the little girl wailed again, this time even louder and more frenetically.

"Oh, for sodomizing a Netherdemon—shut up, you little brat, or I'll tear out your throat
myself
!" Tunric ordered the young girl. She shrieked at that thought and sobbed wildly.

"You do
that
, you Netherdemon
spawn
, and I will pull your body to pieces with my powers!" Reina snarled, losing her calm at the threat to her child. She grabbed wildly at the arms holding her prisoner, forcing the shifter to actually struggle to contain her. "By Cora, I
swear
I will!"

Thirteen

"Oh, dear. I think you got the little bitch mad," Kenyen quipped, unable to resist the opportunity to rattle the criminal shifter even more. "You know, it's really not a good idea, making a mage foreswear her Healer's Oaths
not
to do harm."

Solyn quickly began humming again, and Luelyn obediently quieted down again. She extended her spell toward her mother, but only enough to help lull the man holding her into relaxing again. Back aching from her position, she shifted a little to take some of the strain off her spine. Thankfully, Kenyen moved his arm to accommodate the subtle change, or it really would have been pressing against her throat.

"As for
you
, young pup—" Tunric snarled, whirling to face him. Kenyen cut him off before he could say anything else.

"—
I
suggest you shut up,
old dog
, and let this 'young pup' teach you a new trick. Now that I
know
what you're after, I can actually
help
you," Kenyen countered. "All
you
have to do is shut up and
listen.
"

"Solyn, you didn't tell him," the blacksmith muttered, staring at what he could see of his still humming eldest daughter, given she was on the far side of her husband from him. "Tell me you didn't!"

Tunric seized on that news, his scowl switching to a fierce grin. "Oh, so you
did
get some news out of your 'fresh meat' after all?"

Affecting a smirk, Kenyen mock-kissed his wife on the head. "Plow a bitch good and hard, and she'll tell you anything you want."

Solyn growled at that, but only because she figured it was expected. The two of them had fallen into an unspoken accord on trying to treat Kenyen as if he were a real Mongrel shifter, instead of an honorable one. His words provoked a coarse chuckle from the other shifters in the room. Figuring they were sufficiently distracted, she resumed her soft humming, putting more of her magic than her voice into her spell.

"So? Where's the blade, boy?" Tunric ordered impatiently.

Kenyen rolled his eyes. "It's
not
a blade. The knife is just a decoy. A distraction.
Any
knife will do."

Tunric narrowed his eyes at that. "What do you mean by that?"

"The power to heal scarlessly doesn't lie in steel, whether it's green or red or purple," Kenyen lied. Behind Tunric, he could see the eyes of his in-laws widening in comprehension of what he was actually doing. Only he and Solyn could see, however, because the other shifters were looking at him. He affected a slight but smug smile. "The
real
power lies in the
cheese
."