Authors: Dean Murray
I rolled out of
bed, grabbed a light breakfast of one of the more citrusy fruits
growing in the kitchen, and then headed outside to see if I could
find Set. The transition to an all-fruit diet had gone better than
I'd expected.
Normally a
shape shifter had to keep plenty of protein in their diet if they
wanted to keep control over their beast. All I could figure was that
one or more of the odd varieties of fruit that we'd been eating must
have decent amounts of protein in it.
My beast had
actually been quite a bit easier than normal to keep under control
since we'd arrived at the enclave, which made me wonder if part of
the issue over the last several months had been that I'd been missing
something key from my diet. It was something to keep in mind for when
I went back to the normal world, assuming I survived that long.
I went to the
entrance to the main lamia cave and asked the guards if they knew
when Set would be looking for me. They didn't answer, but one of them
hissed something to someone inside the cave and five minutes later
Set came outside.
"You are
ready, Isaac Nazir?"
"Yes, but
we don't need to start right now if it's not convenient for you. I
was just trying to find out when to expect you."
"Now is an
appropriate time."
I followed Set
to the circular cave where I'd fought the day before and then
transformed and stretched to loosen up some of the knots. I'd been
expecting Set to jump right into teaching me techniques. He'd never
been overly verbose before, but this time he assumed a kind of parade
rest and examined me for several seconds.
"I was
perhaps hasty in my agreement to train you, Isaac Nazir. I am still
willing to do so to the best of my ability, but honor compels me to
tell you that I may not be able to deliver that which you requested."
"I don't
understand."
"You did
not ask for only training, you asked for an edge in the challenges
you may face in the future. I can provide training, but the act of
doing so will skew my perception of your abilities, causing you to
qualify to face stronger opponents. It is a problem that is…circular
in nature."
I cocked my
head to one side, interested in seeing where he was going.
"That
would be challenge enough, but there are other considerations. If you
continue to defeat your other challengers, you and I will face each
other in this very circle. If that were to occur, my having trained
you would possibly make you less likely to defeat me."
Looking at
Set's massive bulk and knowing that his own people considered him one
of their best fighters, I almost told him that I didn't expect to
last long enough for that to be an issue, but something stopped me.
"You seem
the kind of man not to present a problem without first arriving at a
solution, Set. What do you suggest?"
He bowed his
head slightly as though in appreciation of a compliment. That made me
wonder how many of his mannerisms were copied from his interactions
with humans and shape shifters previously and how many were the
result of actual parallels between our races.
"In this
instance I have not been able to see a solution that satisfies the
full demands of honor. I have just come from speaking with my queen
in the hopes that she would be able to illuminate my path."
My pulse sped
up. The lamia queen was an enigma. She was the reason that we were
here cooling our heels. I'd already killed two of her people for no
good reason that I could see. If she had agreed to talk to us then
the deaths wouldn't have needed to take place, but I saw no
indication from Set or the others that she cared about the deaths of
her people.
That could
indicate someone who was so caught up in her power that she no longer
viewed her subjects as real people, but that didn't seem to match up
with the fact that Set had gone to her for advice when stumped on a
question of honor. Even more confounding was the fact that she was
supposed to be capable of seeing things the rest of us couldn't.
Celeste's
ancestors had stopped short of claiming that the queen was some kind
of omniscient deity, but they'd walked right up to that line. How
could someone like that allow unnecessary deaths when she knew how
the challenge matches were likely to end even before they started?
"How was
your conversation with her?"
"Disquieting.
There are other considerations where you are concerned that make it
harder than normal to assign you a proper opponent. I believe that
she recommended that I stop picking your opponents and instead allow
the others to volunteer. You will fight the weakest of all the
combatants who volunteer for any particular challenge."
I mulled that
over. As long as the lamias were all able to watch each fight then
they would have a decent idea of how good I was. In a shape shifter
pack that would just mean that only the very best fighters in the
pack, the ones who were virtually guaranteed to win, would volunteer
to face off against me, but the lamias would probably be compelled by
their honor to
all
volunteer unless they were absolutely
positive that they couldn't beat me.
Once again I
was basing my chances of survival on the goodwill and honor of a race
of beings that I knew next to nothing about, but by now I should have
been used to that. I would agree to his proposal, but I was most
curious about his comments about his queen.
"Disquieting?"
"Yes…I'm
afraid I lack the words to adequately explain further."
I wanted to
press him on that point, but he'd gone completely still, which I was
pretty sure was a sign that he was uncomfortable. I'd seen the guards
outside the main lamia cavern freeze up in the exact same manner each
time that I'd approached them.
"You feel
that the course of action…suggested by the queen satisfies the
requirements of your personal honor then?"
There was a
long pause as though Set was translating a particularly difficult
problem or possibly just that he didn't know how to answer.
"She is
the queen. She is beyond concepts such as honor. If she orders me to
take a particular course then I have no choice. One might say that
there is more honor in following the mandates of one's queen than in
any other action. She supersedes individual honor."
That wasn't
very reassuring. My survival depended in no small part on the honor
of Set and the others, but they could be ordered to set their honor
aside at any point by their queen. I still didn't understand the
other considerations Set had referenced, but he was giving the vibe
of someone who had been pressed as far as he was willing to be
pressed.
"I am
satisfied that you have done all that can be expected to uphold
honor, Set. If you are willing, then I am ready to begin my
instruction."
Isaac Nazir
The Lamia Enclave
By the time
that Set released me for the day I was tired and sore in a way that
rarely happened to a shape shifter after we manifested our first
alternate form. Despite my injuries, Set had worked me as hard as I
could ever remember being worked. I was actually glad that I wasn't
at one hundred percent. I wasn't sure that I would have survived the
training session that Set would have put me through if I'd been
healthy.
I stumbled into
our cave a little after what felt like noon, and found Celeste pacing
back and forth through the kitchen. She acknowledged me with a nod,
but didn't even slow down.
Neither of us
said anything for nearly a full minute while she continued to pace,
and then my hunger finally got the best of me. I waited until she was
on the far end of her circuit and then darted in and grabbed one of
the biggest yellow melons.
"You could
have said something; I would have waited for you."
I stopped
mid-bite and looked longingly at the fruit in my hand before looking
up at her. "I didn't want to spoil your crazy cabin fever motif.
You seem to be putting a lot of work into it."
For the
briefest of instants I thought she was going to get mad at me, but
then she smiled.
"I guess
you're right. I've been stuck inside here for days and I'm starting
to go a little stir-crazy."
"So leave.
Nobody is stopping you. Ash and Kristin will be fine for an hour
while you go out and stretch your legs. If you're really that worried
about them I can always stay here with them."
She looked a
little guilty. "I wasn't even thinking of them, actually. You're
right, they would be fine. It's the lamias. I'm not sure what they
expect out of a queen. Their queen never seems to leave that cave,
and I'm worried that if I go out into the valley that they will
decide I'm not…queenly enough and it will ruin our chances of
talking to their queen."
"That's
silly. They aren't going to decide that. Besides, it isn't even their
call. The queen will decide when she wants to talk to us. The
consorts and workers don't have anything to do with it."
"How can
you be so sure? The queen doesn't work in a vacuum. I'm sure she
talks to the consorts at least. Who's to say that she's not going to
be influenced by them if they decide that I'm not acting the part?"
I wanted to
argue with her, but I was the one with the most to lose if she was
right. Given that I could lose the next challenge match at any point,
it didn't seem smart to risk anything that might stretch our stay
here out any longer than absolutely necessary.
"What
about if I go out there with you? The lamias said that there wasn't
anything dangerous that would go past the curtain, so Ash and Kristin
will be safe while we're gone. The lamias were okay with you coming
here in the first place, they can hardly get up in arms about you
going out to the valley as long as you have a proper escort."
"I'm sure
you have better things to do, Isaac. You look like you're about to
fall over at any minute."
I filled a
large cup with water from the faucet that I was pretty sure came from
some kind of overhead cistern as I shook my head.
"I'll be
okay, I'm just a little tired. Let me bring something to eat and I'll
be fine. Besides, what else am I going to do? I can't take a nap yet
and it's not like I can fire up my tablet and do research or
anything."
After a few
seconds she hesitantly nodded. "Thanks, Isaac. That would be
nice."
We set out on
one of the larger paths. It was nearly big enough for two lamia to
walk alongside each other, so the two of us had no problem walking
side by side in human form. The melon at my side was a reassuring
weight and I found myself wondering how long it would be before she
found a place to stop so that I could eat.
"Why don't
you lead the way, Isaac? You probably know of a place where we could
stop and sit down."
I nodded and
steered her towards a large clearing off to one side of the valley. A
tiny tributary of the stream trickled through one side, but other
than that it was fully enclosed except for the path that connected it
to the rest of the valley.
The privacy
would hopefully mean that Celeste would be able to relax a little. It
looked for a moment as though she still wasn't going to be able to
let her hair down, but then she took a deep breath and walked over to
the stream.
As she sat down
and rolled up her jeans to mid-calf so that she could put her feet in
the stream, I sat down on a nearby rock and bit into the melon I'd
brought along with me.
Celeste waded
in the cold water for a couple of minutes and then about the time
that I finished up with my lunch, she came over to a nearby slab of
rock and sat down.
"So you
were Alec's right-hand man for the last four or five years. What's he
like?"
For a second I
thought she wasn't serious, but when I looked over at her, there
wasn't any indication that she was trying to be funny. She wasn't
grinning at me, she wasn't even watching to see my expression. She'd
stretched out on the rock with her eyes closed and her shirt pulled
up so her bare stomach could get some sunlight.
"He's
okay."
"Really?
You've known him basically your entire life and that's the best you
can manage?"
I felt a spark
of something from my beast, but he was too tired and well-fed to get
worked up over anything right now.
"Alec is
everything you would expect out of the heir to the monarchy."
"A
power-hungry fiend who will sacrifice anyone and anything to expand
his sphere of influence?"
I frowned at
her despite the fact that her eyes were closed. "No, he's
nothing at all like that."
She opened her
eyes a crack to look at me and then shrugged and closed them again.
"Sorry, the monarchy represents different things to different
people. My family felt like his ancestors screwed them out of their
position in the old order. Before the monarchy was established we
were one of the preeminent packs in North America. His family and
mine both had a history of producing hybrids with exceptional
abilities, but unlike his ancestors, mine never used their abilities
to take over the rest of North America."
"I've been
through all of this with Ash. I did some research after the last time
we talked and there were some very well-respected pack leaders who
contradicted the history that your ancestors passed down to you."
"The
victors always rewrite history to make themselves look better. You
should know that, Isaac."
"Why is it
that
I
should know that?"
She looked over
at me again and shook her head. "You don't really think that
you're some kind of anonymous face in the crowd, do you? Every single
wolf pack, regardless of whether they come down for or against the
Coun'hij, maintains a file on the dominant personalities in every
other pack. We all have a big dossier on Alec Graves and most of us
have at least a small file with your name on it."