“We were ambushed, Priestess. One of our travel companions has been taken,” I answered as honestly as I could. The Source sometimes allowed the wielder to tell the truth from lies. I couldn't take the chance of offending the priestess when she might be the only one around with the ability to help us out of this embarrassing predicament.
“You must be in need of warm food and a place to sleep. The temple always provides.” She waved a hand, and my body tingled as a wave of Source magic rolled over us. I gritted my teeth as the ropes that bound us fell away, freeing us. I scrambled to my feet, rubbing the soreness from my wrists where the rope left deep, bloody marks behind. She stood to the side and waved us in. “Be welcome,” she said, her tone soft yet still stern and obviously suspicious.
She gave Rijjat a strange look as he passed through the entrance first. Remus cocked his head towards me as if to ask me if I’d witnessed the exchange. I nodded, following the priestess inside.
We moved through a shield of thick Source magic as we entered. It was a protection barrier, but I didn’t quite understand the mechanics of it, which was becoming more frequent in this country. I didn’t enjoy facing the unknown, yet I constantly found myself up against it. It made me wonder if I should start preparing my men back home to detect magic if it was to be used so easily against us.
I’d been taught from a young age that the Source was inherently evil, giving power to those who would abuse it. I didn’t know if I agreed with that or not, but I knew enough to be wary of it. Was it the Source itself that was evil? Or was it the wielder and the dark soul inside them that controlled the magic? I supposed the same thing could be said for any man who wielded a blade.
“It isn’t much, but this will be where you can stay for now,” the priestess said, looking me over as I waited for the others to enter the room. She looked perplexed like she wanted to say something but couldn’t find the words. Or maybe it was because the potion was starting to wear off, and I was returning to my natural state. Either option wasn’t favorable.
“Thank you for this gift, Priestess,” Remus said reverently as he bowed his head in thanks. The shifter knew more about these customs than I did, so I decided to follow his lead and bow my head for once.
The room was larger than I’d expected, with long gossamer fabric hanging from the ceiling and swaying in the breeze from the open windows high above our heads. Sconces crackling with fire lit and warmed the room, and cots were situated in groups of threes and fours in every corner. In the very center of the room was a slightly smoldering fire in a pit, the smoke traveling upwards towards seemingly nowhere. Magic, I supposed.
The temple was beautiful, with murals splashed across the marble walls and the sound of free-flowing fountains somewhere in the distance. Here and there were other priestesses wandering the halls, their faces shrouded behind thin veils, but none of them paid any attention to us.
“Rijjat, these friends of yours—keep them out of the tithing chambers. The altars are not meant for the eyes of the undevout. And keep them out of trouble. They don’t know our customs, which means they are your guests and your responsibility.”
My head swiveled between Rijjat and the priestess, my eyes narrowed. So they knew each other well then…
“Yes, Priestess,” Rijjat said with a respectful nod. Satisfied with that, the priestess cast me another odd frown before turning and striding out of the room on graceful feet.
“If this potion wears off, I can find her,” Remus said the moment she was gone. He was due for another one before the sun set, but Xmara had the potion. “I can scent her when it wears off, and we can hunt them down like dogs.” His nostrils flared, and something in his eyes was feral.
I wondered what their relationship actually entailed behind closed doors. Technically they were betrothed now. Why did the thought of them together turn my stomach? The time for Xmara and I was long over, and I thought I’d come to terms with it. And yet the thought of what might be happening to her at this very moment made me want to call upon my King’s army to storm this city, overturning every rock and stone to find her.
“And what if I don’t feel comfortable with that plan?” I found myself asking. Rijjat paused, eyes bouncing between Remus and me. Remus glared at me. “You were forbidden by your King from returning to your shifted state. Do you really expect me to stand by and watch as you commit treason?”
“Then you’re out of luck,” Remus growled, stepping closer to me. “Xmara is going to be my wife someday, making her my responsibility. My cat wants to find her just as much as I do, and that means I am going to do whatever I have to do to bring her back, with or without the Captain’s permission. You can return to your King and beg for forgiveness for losing his poisons master if that’s what your conscience tells you, or you can just trust me.”
“I don’t trust you,” I snapped in his face. In his eyes, I could see a barely there ember of light burning inside of him, the animal within growing excited to be set free. “How could I ever trust a thief?”
Remus scoffed, shaking his head as he backed away from me. “Well, Xmara trusted me more than she did you, so that has to mean something, right? You didn’t even know she was X. She was right under your nose for ten years. What kind of Capitan does that make you, Caldor?” He laughed, his eyes flickering over me in what looked like pity. “Or is there something the two of you aren't sharing with me? Perhaps it’s clouding your judge—”
“Mine and Xmara’s past does not concern you!” I bellowed out.
Rijjat was standing to the side, his eyes shifting between the two of us even faster now as if in rapt attention. Remus’s lips twisted into a smirk at my outburst, and I realized I’d just made a mistake and revealed information he had no right to know. Information that made me seem weak.
“Well, this is just lovely,” Rijjat drawled, rolling his dark eyes as he leaned against the wall picking at his nails. We both turned to look at him. “Xmara might be rotting away in a dungeon somewhere getting fondled by grubby thieving men, and you’d rather sit here and bicker instead of finding her?” He shook his head and sighed. “Perhaps I’ll have to do this myself after all.”
What could I say to that? He was right. Remus and I were bickering about things that shouldn’t have mattered while Xmara’s life was at stake. I could only imagine the things she’d say if she were here right now. Remus shook his head and walked to the other side of the room, fiddling with the vials and trinkets in his belt, hopefully contemplating their use for when we went after Xmara.
I turned and headed for the fire pit to warm my hands while I contemplated our next move, and I supposed, while we waited for Remus’s shifter senses to come back. At this point, his ability to scent her might be our saving grace.
Xmara
Icame to with bleary, stinging eyes, struggling to sit up as I took in the decadent room I found myself in. The walls were high, with the ceiling towering above me, painted murals across every surface.
The open window beside me was covered, barely holding back the sunlight that added only a small amount of warmth to the room. There was nothing else near me aside from a chair and the bed I was currently tied to. I searched for anything sharp or serrated, but found nothing, realizing that my belt of tricks and trinkets was gone, along with every weapon stashed on my person.
I shuddered, grinding my teeth in irritation at the realization that someone somewhere had to have become intimately familiar with my body while I was out if they managed to locateeverysingle weapon I had. The only thing I had left at my disposal was my thallium—one of the world's deadliest poisons—tasteless, odorless and untraceable. It was the same potion I gave to Waylan in small doses over the course of a year.
I could feel the highly concentrated capsule in the back of my mouth. If I had no other choice, I could bite down on it hard enough to break my teeth. The thallium would travel through my body, killing me so quickly that nobody could intervene.
I laid silently as I plotted either death or escape. One way or another, I was getting out of here. I needed more information than I currently had though, not to mention I had to relieve myself badly, and I refused to die and soil myself at the same time.
Still, I had nothing left to process about the room. I could tell you the colors of the walls, how many chips were in the paint, every smell, both good and bad, and that the person who had been here before, sitting in that chair, had a habit of picking the paint off of it.