Chapter 15
We waited until sunset before Elnos and I snuck over to a spot about a mile down the main road, sticking to the trees for cover so that we wouldn’t be ambushed.
“Are you sure you’ve got the timing right?” I muttered as I crouched behind a bush. Even with the foliage to shield us, I had to shade my eyes with my hand against the brilliant sunset painting the sky in streaks of red and gold.
“I’ve been here long enough to memorize the watch schedule.” The grass beneath Elnos’ feet rustled as he tried to make himself comfortable. “The captain of the night guard spends his days with a woman in town. He should come by in the next ten minutes.”
We settled in to wait for the captain to show up.
My eyes were trained on the dirt road, but my thoughts were elsewhere—on Rylan, specifically.
I still couldn’t believe Iannis had sent for him to help us, knowing how I felt about him.
Rylan had done the unthinkable—he’d hired a witch to put a spell on me.
Such a thing just wasn’t done in the shifter community.
If someone had a problem with another shifter, they handled it according to clan customs. Using a charm or hex or other magical device on another shifter was dishonorable, and most clans considered it a punishable offense.
The only acceptable excuse was if magic were required to save a life, but since shifters healed so quickly and we were immune to most diseases, such an event was extremely rare.
Maybe Rylan figured the exception applied, since in his mind, he was saving your life, a voice in my head pointed out.
I gritted my teeth at that. It would be exactly like Rylan to convolute the situation in just that way in order to justify what he had done.
But by making me forget to warn Iannis, he’d ended up putting me in danger anyway.
Rylan knew me better than anyone else in the Jaguar Clan—he should have known I would go after Iannis.
Doing so had involved infiltrating a Resistance camp and thwarting a plot to assassinate the Minister, and shortly after that, the Resistance had put a price on my head.
So in the end, Rylan had only created more danger for me, and helped plunge all of Solantha into a terrible civil war the moment Iannis was gone from the scene.
“Sunaya,” Elnos hissed, nudging my arm. Blinking, I cleared my thoughts, then caught the whistle of a steamcar coming from around the bend. “Are you ready?”
“Yep.” Tensing, I watched Elnos lift his hand. In it, he held a tiny metal spike. The car came chugging around the bend, a shiny, maroon-colored vehicle that looked brand new. Clearly, the captain was being paid well—or perhaps he was skimming profits from the factory somehow.
Elnos spoke a Word, and the spike shot from his hand and into the captain’s front tire. It ripped through the rubber, causing the tire to deflate instantly, with a loud hiss.
“Dammit!” the captain shouted as he pulled the car over, conveniently to our side of the road rather than his.
I sprang out from beneath the cover of the trees, landing directly in the passenger seat—the fool had put the top down on his car.
Stupid, since it left him more open to attack, but I wasn’t going to complain.
“W-what is the meaning of this?” the captain stuttered, his eyes widening with outrage. He was a tall, bulky man with thick brown hair and a mustache, bright red thread embroidering his dark blue uniform. “Who are you?”
“A good guy,” I said, clapping a hand over his mouth. He tried to struggle as I spoke the Words to the sleep spell Fenris had taught me, but he was no match for my shifter strength. The struggle lasted about three seconds, and then he was snoring in my arms.
“Great job,” Elnos said, emerging from the foliage.
I hopped out of the car and walked around to the driver’s side, then hefted the man out of the car.
Elnos helped get him onto my back, draping his arms across my shoulders while I held his legs, piggyback style.
“Give me a second to hide the vehicle, and then we’ll be on our way. ”
“No way.” I swiped at a bit of drool that dribbled onto my shoulder from the sleeping guy on my back and grimaced. “I’m not carrying this guy around for a second longer than I have to. I’ll meet you back at camp.”
Elnos rolled his eyes, but he let me go on my way as he put an illusion spell on the car to hide it from human eyes. It would have served the owner right for us to just destroy it, but Rylan was going to need it if he hoped to pass himself off as the man I’d just knocked out cold.
Elnos caught up with me just as I reached the camp. Iannis, Fenris, and Rylan were sitting on logs around the fire pit in the center of the encampment discussing the next phase of our operation, and they all looked up as I arrived.
“That’s a big one you caught there, cousin,” Rylan said, coming over to me. “Want some help?”
“No.” I rolled my shoulder to the side and dumped the man onto the ground. He grunted a little as he hit the dirt, then rolled onto his side and immediately continued snoring.
“Damn. That sleep spell really is effective. How long do you think he’ll be out?” Rylan asked me.
“Only a few hours,” Iannis said, coming up from behind him. He touched my shoulder briefly. “Did everything go as planned?”
“Yep,” I said. “No witnesses, and the car’s waiting.”
“Excellent.” Iannis turned his gaze to Rylan. “It’s time to turn you back into a Resistance soldier.”
“Hmm.” Rylan glanced at the man lying on the ground. “Not sure I’m a fan of the mustache.”
“Yeah, well, you’re going to get it,” I snapped. “So just cooperate.”
Rylan frowned. “I am cooperating. Stop acting like such a bitch, Sunaya.”
I bared my teeth, but before I could say anything, Iannis grabbed Rylan by the shoulders and hauled him around.
“I have no intention of meddling in your relationship with Sunaya,” Iannis growled, sticking his face into Rylan’s, “But she is my fiancée, and I will not tolerate insults to her. Is that understood?”
Rylan stared at Iannis for a long moment, back stiff. Surprisingly, I scented no fear off him, or anger either. Then he nodded slowly.
“Of course. I spoke out of turn.” An easy smile curved his lips. “I’m glad my cousin has chosen a man who is willing to defend her honor.”
“I don’t need your compliments,” Iannis said mildly, releasing Rylan. “But I do expect you to apologize.”
“No,” I said, flustered as Rylan turned back to me. I loved Iannis for sticking up for me, but all this attention was throwing me off. “You don’t need to apologize. You’re right, I am being a bitch, and now I’m holding up this entire operation. Let’s just get on with it.”
“That would be good,” Fenris said, glancing at the rapidly setting sun. “We don’t have much time before Rylan needs to report for his watch.”
Iannis went to work on transforming Rylan into the night guard captain, while Fenris and I secured the actual captain in the tent, binding his hands and feet and gagging him so he would not be able to move when he awoke. In the privacy of the tent, Fenris also strengthened the sleep spell.
“Does Rylan know that you’re not a normal shifter?” I asked, using mindspeak so Rylan wouldn’t be able to overhear.
Fenris placed a hand over the man’s forehead, checking for who knew what, then flicked his fingers and muttered a Word.
A privacy bubble enveloped us, like the one Iannis had used in the inn’s common room.
“I believe he is curious about my origins, as he gave me quite a few speculative looks on the airship ride here,” he said.
“But I have given him no reason to suspect that I use magic.”
“Good,” I said emphatically. “I would hate for him to use that against you if he ever decided to defect back to the Resistance.”
“Sunaya.” Fenris grabbed my arm as I turned to leave the tent, and I looked back at him. His face was expressionless, but there was a pained look in his dark brown eyes. “I don’t presume to know your cousin well, but I believe he regrets hurting you, and is trying to atone for his actions.”
“So what, are you saying I should forgive him, just like that?” I propped my hands on my hips and glared at him. “What the hell is going on? First Iannis, and now you, both telling me I should just let Rylan off the hook for nearly getting us all killed.”
Fenris rubbed a hand over his bearded jaw.
“I am not saying you should forgive Rylan right away,” he said, “but you might consider moving in that direction. Iannis tells me that Rylan is the only member of your family who actually loves you, and that is not an easy thing to lose.” A shadow crossed his face.
“I had to leave my mother and father behind in Nebara. They think me dead to this day.”
“Oh, Fenris.” I dropped to my knees in front of him, where he still knelt next to our prisoner. “That’s horrible. Were you close to your parents?”
He smiled, despite the somber subject. “I am nearly two hundred years old, Sunaya. It’s not as bad as losing your parents when you are young.
But they moved back to Nebara when I became Chief Mage there to offer their support and advice, and we saw each other at least once a week.
They were devastated when they learned of the Federation’s decision to execute me, my father in particular.
He had strongly tried to dissuade me from what he saw as a disastrous, suicidal course. ”
“I can’t imagine faking my death, and then being unable to tell my family I was still alive.” I wrapped my arms around Fenris’s broad shoulders and gave him a brief hug. “Do you ever think about getting in touch with them?”
“Yes, but not as much as I used to.” Fenris pushed back so that he could look me in the eye.
“I did not tell you this story to elicit sympathy for me, Sunaya, but to make you reconsider your attitude toward Rylan. He may not be your only family, but he is your relative. This is your chance to mend the rift between you two.”