Epilogue
After the fire from Trick’s pyre fades, I say a final goodbye to my friend and mount Cloud, joining my companions. We ride along the path up the mountain in silence. Through some unspoken agreement, Kaelen and I drop a ways back from the group, giving us privacy that feels like a gift.
When we summoned Artemisen, I wasn’t sure I’d ever be alone with my prince again.
No one seems to blame me for the loss of the second key—another gift, which I appreciate even more than these stolen moments with Kaelen.
But the truth is, I don’t blame myself, either.
I made the choice I needed to make in that moment.
I’d make the same one again.
And we can still succeed. Artemisen said so. She said she believes in me, and—
HEY.
I whip my head from side to side, scanning the path. Is someone … speaking to me inside my mind?
HEY!
“What? Who—?”
Kaelen, riding next to me, raises an eyebrow but puts a hand on his sword and scans our surroundings. “What is it? Did you hear something?”
“I … this is going to sound crazy, but somebody is talking to me. Telepathically. Or I’m finally losing it, after all the stress of this—”
I’LL BE DEAD SOON IF YOU DON’T LISTEN TO ME, TWO-LEGS.
“There it is again! Kaelen, what’s happening?” Panic prickles at the back of my neck and shivers down my spine.
“Maybe the aftermath of the battle …” Kaelen begins tentatively, but I don’t hear anything else, because pain sears the skin on my wrist directly above my new tattoo.
I scream and double over, grabbing for my left wrist.
Why am I burning?
I look down at my arm and gasp.
Kaelen guides River beside me, his voice tinged with the promise of violence when he asks, “What is it? What happened?”
I hold out my arm, unable to speak.
The image of a snow leopard is now etched into my skin near the new tattoo of the moon and mountains. The cat crouches as if preparing to race up the slope, leap into the sky, and jump over the moon.
“What is that?” Kaelen whirls from side to side on his horse as if he’s going to find monsters or Zhagarn hiding behind the trees on the side of the road. “Who did that to you?”
“I don’t know! There was a voice in my head, and then the pain, and I don’t know who did it to me!”
I DID IT. BUT YOU DID THE SAME TO ME, LOUD FEMALE.
That’s when one of the famous extinct snow leopards of the Panterran Mountains leaps into the path in front of us, all grace and power and danger. He’s as huge as Kaelen was when he shifted into a snow leopard inside the temple.
He bares his fangs and looks at Kaelen.
NOT EXTINCT. HUNGRY. CAN I EAT THIS PURPLE-EYED HUMAN?
“No! You can’t eat him,” I shout, struggling to be heard over the horses’ nervous whinnies and stomping hooves.
“Soli! Stay back!” Kaelen leaps off his mount and draws his sword in one smooth motion. He stands between me and the snow leopard, and my mind fills with a wordless sensation of feline amusement.
“Kaelen! Stop! This snow leopard is … special!”
FINALLY.
“And kind of a smart mouth,” I mutter.
IF I KILL HIM, YOU WILL BE ANGRY?
“Yes, I will be angry if you kill him! Do not kill the prince.” “What’s happening?” Kaelen says slowly and quietly, as if taking care not to startle the snow leopard, but he still holds his sword at the ready.
I, TOO, NOTICE HE STILL brANDISHES HIS CLAW, YET MINE ARE SHEATHED. SHALL I SHOW HIM?
The huge cat holds up an enormous paw the size of a meat platter, and his claws spring out. I can’t help my gasp, but Kaelen’s made of stronger mettle. He only narrows his eyes and tightens his grip on his sword hilt.
“No comparing claws!”
“What do we do, Soli?”
“I don’t know. Maybe Artemisen sent him?”
The snow leopard stares at me.
WHY WOULD THE GODDESS SEND ME TO YOU?
I CAME TO YOU BECAUSE THE EMPTINESS IN MY SOUL RECOGNIZED THE SILENCE IN YOURS.
The silence?
Does he mean the Gray Mind?
YES. THE GRAY. YOUR MIND HOLDS SPACE FOR THE BOND LIKE NO OTHER I HAVE ENCOUNTERED.
I don’t know what to do with that, but I don’t have time to think about it, because the cat abruptly sits.
Right there in the middle of the road.
TELL YOUR MATE TO PUT DOWN HIS CLAW.
“He’s not my mate.”
OR I WILL BE FORCED TO EAT HIM, DUAL-NATURED OR NOT.
“Stop! There will be no eating humans or … or dual-natured people, especially not him,” I say, wondering how he could know about Kaelen. Does like recognize like?
Kaelen is staring back and forth between me and the cat, his entire body tensed to strike, but awe dawns slowly in his eyes.
“Is … is the snow leopard communicating with you? Telepathically?”
“It’s either that, or my brain completely cut free its moorings to any shred of reality.”
“Can it—”
“He,” I correct him. Nobody likes to be called an it, especially talking snow leopards, I’m guessing. I can’t help the burble of laughter that escapes my lips at the thought.
Now both of them are staring at me.
“Yes. He’s talking to me. Inside my mind. Um. Snow leopard? Wait. I can’t call you that. Do you have a name?”
ALL LIVING BEINGS HAVE NAMES, SOLITUDE GRACE GRAYMIND.
I WOULD ASK THAT YOU COME DOWN FROM THE HORSE AND APPROACH.
I slowly dismount despite Kaelen’s protests. “It’s okay, I think. He asked me to come closer.”
“Oh, sure. That’s a good idea,” he says, but I can hear the resignation in his tone. “Are you sure about this? Getting so close to something that could kill us with one paw tied behind his back?”
The cat snarls, and those huge fangs are way too close.
NO HUMAN WOULD DARE TRY TO BIND MY PAWS!
“No! Kaelen didn’t mean—It’s just an expression. Nobody will try to bind your paws. Or any part of you. Zero bindings, okay?”
“Soli.” Kaelen is still talking to me with that calm, don’t-upset-the-monster voice. “Please translate for me what exactly is going on.”
THIS IS VALOURIAN ROYALTY? THE brAINS SHRANK OVER THE CENTURIES, I SEE.
“I—”
TRANSLATE THAT.
Funny how a smug taunt sounds the same coming from a cat as it does from a human.
“Nope. Won’t do it. Also, I’m going to step closer to you now, so please … put your fangs away.”
He growls at me, but I shake a finger at him.
“I listened to you. Now, you need to listen to me.”
Did I just … scold a snow leopard?
Mentally, I shrug. Oh, well. In for a copper, in for a silver, as Trick says.
Trick.
A flash of pain slices into me, but I force myself to shove it aside. I have a telepathic snow leopard to focus on.
And he’s absolutely beautiful. Kaelen looked the same when he transformed, but I wasn’t in a place to appreciate it then.
I wish I had the nerve to touch the cat’s ridiculously fluffy pale gray fur, marked with black and gray rosettes. What I can see of his chest and belly is pure white. And his tail is incredibly long. “Are you going to hurt us?”
One of his rounded ears twitches.
I WOULD NEVER HURT YOU. I’M HERE TO PROTECT YOU.
“He says he’s here to protect us.”
YOU. NOT “US.”
“Us would be better,” I tell him.
The snow leopard tilts his head and narrows his enormous eyes. They’re the vivid, icy blue of the sky over the mountains, and for a moment I just stare at him. He’s pure muscle beneath the fur, and he smells wholly feral and wild—like musk and grass and danger.
“You are truly beautiful,” I say honestly, unable to keep the words from spilling out of my mouth. “Like a Guild artisan painted your designs. I’ve seen drawings of snow leopards in ancient scrolls, but never in color. I had no idea you—your kind—would be so magnificent.”
He preens and stretches, all while keeping a wary eye on Kaelen.
YES. MAGNIFICENT IS A VERY GOOD WORD FOR ME.
ALSO: HUNGRY.
IS THERE FOOD, IF I CAN’T EAT THE HUMAN?
“He wants food,” I tell Kaelen. “I think we should find some for him.”
“This can’t be real,” he says, his gaze darting back and forth between my face, my wrist with its new snow leopard marking, and the very real animal in front of us. “How can this be real?”
The snow leopard makes an odd chuffing sound and then, looking at me, tilts his head toward Kaelen.
CENTURIES OF ROYAL INbrEEDING.
I can’t help it. I laugh at his caustic tone in my head.
“What?” Kaelen’s eyes narrow.
When I take a cautious step, the snow leopard stands to face me. He’s so huge his head is level with mine.
SOLI. DO YOU UNDERSTAND YOU ARE NOW MINE TO PROTECT?
“To be honest, no. I don’t understand this at all.”
BUT YOU ACCEPT IT?
I stare into his eyes and reach deep inside myself for the answer to his question. It can’t possibly be yes. How could I accept that a snow leopard—a member of a species believed to be entirely extinct—is now my protector?
“Yes,” I say slowly, but he senses my hesitation.
IT MAY TAKE TIME.
BUT CAN YOU ACCEPT THAT I AM YOURS TO PROTECT, TOO?
“Yes,” I say instantly. Then I freeze, shocked to realize it’s true. Somehow, magically, I do believe it. He and I are connected, and I have to protect him, although I have no idea how I can protect one of the fiercest predators to ever walk the hills and mountains of Altarra.
But it’s true.
He’s mine.
“Yes,” I repeat, my voice stronger. “I accept you’re mine to protect, too.”
GOOD.
“I have to protect a snow leopard,” I say wonderingly.
We hear shouts and the thunder of hooves.
Andras, Chitai, Elianna, Sergeant Neville, and Bern are racing back down the mountain path toward us, shouting and waving weapons, all aimed at my cat, who suddenly collapses in an ungraceful heap, panting hard.
He must be injured. He keeps swiping his tongue over his shoulder and flank, wincing.
“He’s hurt, Kaelen!” I kneel next to the cat, ignoring the tiny part of my mind screaming danger, danger, danger.
I trust Kaelen to deal with our companions, allowing all my focus to coalesce around the snow leopard. My snow leopard.
I reach out to touch him, startled by the dense, soft feel of his fur, like the most luxurious carpet crafted in the Freeholders’ Territory.