Shifter Planet (22 page)

“I’m
not
a norm!” she insisted. “I’m a freak who hears voices in her head. I wasn’t even born here!”

“That makes it worse. You have to understand—” He gave a frustrated sigh. “What makes the shifters unique,” he said slowly, “what lets us rule this fucking planet is our ability to commune with the forest. What if you’re not the only non-shifter who can do that? What if you’re the first of many? You don’t only have to fail, Amanda, you have to fail spectacularly so that no norm will ever try again.”

“That’s the stupidest thing I’ve ever heard,” she said in disgust. “If norms were going to line up to join the Guild, don’t you think they’d have done it before now? And if that’s the kind of thinking going on in the Guild, then I’m worried for the planet because it’s being run by a bunch of furry idiots with dicks.”

She saw the flash of his teeth when he smiled at her choice of words. She hadn’t meant it to be funny, and she wanted to slug him for being so stupid. He seemed to sense her intent and sobered abruptly.

“You’re right. I am an idiot with a dick who should have known better. My own mother is the strongest, most capable person I’ve ever known, and she’d be ashamed to know I had any part in what they did to you.”

Amanda listened, her face turned away to the darkness so he wouldn’t see the furious tears filling her eyes. She didn’t even know why she was so angry, except that it was all so pointless. All she’d wanted was the freedom to roam the Green at will. Who could possibly be hurt by that?

“I
am
sorry,
acushla
,” he said softly. He wrapped his arms around her from behind, pulling her back against his chest when she would have elbowed him away. “Truly I am.”

He was so warm, so big and strong, and she was so tired of carrying all the worry alone. His arms tightened, holding her close, and she let him. Just for this moment, she wanted to let him be the strong one, let him worry that some vicious beast was about to pounce on them and make all of the Guild shifters’ dreams come true.

“Promise me something,” he said.

“What?” Her voice was thick with suspicion.

“Don’t ever tell my mother what happened with you. She’ll skin me alive and make a nice rug for the hearth.”

Amanda laughed, knowing that was what he wanted, and unable to stop it. She straightened, feeling his arms resist for a second before letting her go. She turned and punched his chest lightly, careful to avoid hurting him. “You’re an ass, de Mendoza.”

“I am.”

“I like you anyway,” she said with a sigh. She rubbed her arms against the cold. “We should get back inside before some beastie undoes all my hard work saving your idiot life. I wouldn’t want to lose you now.”

“No,” he murmured. “Not now.” He dropped an arm over her shoulders, and they walked together back to the cave.

Chapter Thirty

A
manda’s first thought on rolling out of the warm sleeping bag the next morning was that tonight she’d be sleeping on the soft ground of the Green. The night had been deeply cold, just as Rhodry had predicted. The fire had kept the cave fairly warm, and exhaustion had done the rest.

He murmured restlessly, and she tucked the covers back around him hoping he’d sleep longer. He’d fallen hard asleep the night before. Yesterday had probably been too much, walking as far as he did. On the other hand, the more exercise he got the faster the rockweed would be worked out of his system so he could reclaim his ability to shift. He still hadn’t said anything about it, though Amanda knew it weighed on him that he couldn’t take his animal form. And that weight grew heavier with each day that passed.

She pulled on her boots, which was much easier with both knife sheaths empty. She’d given Rhodry her spare blades, and kept the belt knife and the short bow for herself. He’d tried to talk her out of the bow. Unsuccessfully, of course. She wasn’t even sure if he’d been serious about it, or if he’d just been jerking her chain. It was hard to tell sometimes.

She picked up the arrow quiver and shook it unhappily. Her supply of arrows was growing thin. That was something else she’d have to work on once they got back to the trees. Dropping to all fours, she threw the quiver and bow out ahead of her and crawled through the cave opening.

The skies were clear and the wind completely still, with the dawn air retaining a cold bite that sent a shiver down her spine. She could appreciate the freshness of the morning, despite the cold, especially this close to the Green. With no wind off the glacier, the fragrance of the distant forest drifted in very faintly, full of the deep, earthy scent of the trees and everything that dwelled beneath them. She drew a full breath and exhaled on a long sigh. It was the smell of home and it filled her with longing.

Telling herself the sooner they got started the better, she hurried around the rock to take care of her morning needs, her mind full of the pleasures waiting for her at the end of this day’s journey. She pulled her pants back up, rearranged her clothes, and was just turning to go back to the cave when a throaty cough sounded over the stones, carrying clearly in the crisp air. She froze in place, even as her heart sped up with fear. Stripping away her hood to hear better, she slowly turned, searching for the source of the sound with eyes and ears both. She couldn’t see much from where she was. The rocks were too tall and too tightly clustered, and they blocked her view back toward the glacier.

She scrambled up the rocks, jamming her fingers into tiny crevices, not caring about the blood and skin she left behind. The top of the rock pile was precarious and uneven, perhaps twenty feet high. Leaping sure-footedly from stone to stone, she climbed rapidly until she reached the highest point.

She stilled, then stretched out her awareness and listened. The confirmation she sought was there in the trees they’d left behind, whispering to her of a fearsome creature from the darkward stalking the forest. Ice bear. They were deadly stalkers, their white coats making them hard to see, their eight-inch claws giving them the run of the trees despite their size. And they were fast, blindingly fast in the attack.

She had a moment’s regret, wishing they’d gone only a little farther yesterday. The Verge was on the border of the bear’s territory, just cold enough after a big storm for the creature to venture into for the hunt before retreating. So, was the bear hunting
them
? Or was she simply close enough to hear him hunting further north?

Either way, he was definitely hunting. That little cough she’d heard hadn’t been an accident. It was designed to terrify the target, to flush it out, and make it more susceptible when the bear finally made its move.

It had worked. She was terrified. She could see the bear now, and what she saw made her heart trip before resuming its frantic rhythm in her chest. He was standing just inside the tree line, and he was huge, the granddaddy of ice bears. This monster was at least twelve feet tall and carrying well over the usual two thousand pounds of muscle and fat beneath a long, dreadlocked coat that was filthy and knotted with dirt and brambles. He was down on all fours, swaying on the edge of the Verge, his big head moving from side to side as if reluctant to go further. But then his nose came up and her heart stopped. He began running, lumbering across the open space of the Verge, untroubled by the same rock field that had so hindered her and Rhodry. Platter-sized paws stepped light as feathers, gliding over the rocky litter, growing closer and more terrifying by the second as he moved in a purposeful line toward her position, her scent clearly in his nose.

She spun around, jumping over rocks until she was right above their cave. She dropped down to her belly and leaned over the precipice to shout down a warning to Rhodry, just as a belling roar of discovery rolled over her. She looked up in shock to see the bear in full charge and heading straight for her. She scrambled to her feet, screaming Rhodry’s name as she prepared to fight for her life.

Ignoring every instinct that told her to flee, she ran along the top of the rocks, leaping over boulders as fast as she dared, fighting for footing as she circled up one side of the horseshoe formation, angling for a bow shot. She heard Rhodry shout her name, saw him emerge head-first from the cave opening seconds later.

The bear’s massive head swung around instantly, its nose lifting to the scent of shifter, and without ever slowing its lightning-fast speed, the beast altered its charge toward this new, more dangerous foe.

She shouted wordlessly, bringing her bow up to draw and fire in a single smooth movement. Her fingers stung as the arrows flew, as she reached for the next arrow and the one after that, aiming for the back of the bear’s neck where its spinal cord met its vicious little brain. Her aim was true. Her arrows pierced the thick skin…and stuck there, unable to penetrate through the heavy layer of fat. The bear spun again, abandoning its efforts to reach Rhodry through the narrow cave opening, rearing up instead to meet her attack with a frenzied howl. She was ready. Her next arrows flew as true as the first, striking the beast just left of center mass where his five-chambered heart lay. Or so her studies had told her. She’d never faced an ice bear before, and could only hope the books were right. She loosed two more arrows, making a total of four lodged in the monster’s chest and three sticking out of its thick neck. They seemed to have little effect, not even slowing the giant down.

Rhodry was shouting something that she was too distracted to hear. The bear was close enough to smell now, rank and disgusting, her arrows sticking out of his hide like quills, bobbing madly with the force of the animal’s berserk rage. Tiny, nearly blind eyes glowed with fury, gleaming red orbs amid the dirty white of its fur, as it swung its head from side to side searching for her with its sensitive nose. She kept firing, afraid of revealing her location, even more afraid she would fail to put the creature down before it found her. She sent her last arrow flying with a hiss of a prayer, shuddering when those eyes focused suddenly and directly on her, pinning her in place with terror. The ice bear took a clumsy step forward and roared.

She stared in dread fascination as the monster opened a mouth as big as her head and let forth a howl of rage and pain. In a move too fast for her to follow, it flexed its hind legs and leaped onto the rocks, claws digging deep furrows into the stone with horrific shrieks that made it sound like what it was, a creature from hell itself.

She cried out and stumbled backward, stunned at this new attack. She’d thought herself safe high above the ground. None of her books had said ice bears could jump like that.

Her hand shot down in a blind grab for her belt knife, her eyes searching frantically for someplace to hide. She was trapped on the rocks, treacherous underfoot and nowhere to run. If she could find a gap big enough to wedge herself in deep, she could use her belt knife to make the bear think twice about coming after her.

The bear was bellowing furiously as it came over the lip of stone, not even pausing before it charged. Wounded, bleeding from a half dozen different places, it was on her in seconds.

Her feet slid out from under her and she fell backward, the unforgiving stone slamming into her tailbone as she scrambled desperately to hold onto her knife. One giant paw swept in, raking down her thigh, shredding her leggings and tearing through muscle as she screamed in agony.

Chapter Thirty-One

R
hodry had heard the bear’s victorious bellow and shot awake, jumping to his feet and nearly slamming his head against the sloped stone ceiling before remembering where he was. He looked around frantically for Amanda and heard her scream his name. Cursing his absence of claws, he grabbed the two knives she’d left him and scrambled out of the cave, snapping his head back in just before eight inches of ice bear claw nearly took off his face. Rocks tumbled from above and he heard the whisk of arrows.

“Amanda!” His shout was nearly drowned by the roar of the ice bear as it turned to deal with her attack.

Three bolts suddenly pierced the creature’s neck, one right after the other, and Rhodry realized she was above him, up on the rocks and aiming for the back of the bear’s neck, right where every Harp hunter would have aimed. And exactly the wrong spot to take down an ice bear. They had too much fat, hitting the spine was nearly impossible, especially on a monster like this one. The killing shot for an ice bear was through the eye into the brain. It was a difficult shot, not impossible for a trained Guild hunter. But did she know about it?

He yelled at her, knowing even if she could hear him, she’d be too consumed by the bear’s attack to make sense of his words. The creature was wounded, her arrows had done that much. It was whipping itself from side to side, no longer interested in Rhodry, twisting around, searching for its tormentor, for Amanda. Another arrow flew, striking the thickly padded chest and sticking there. The bear reared up to a fearsome height, roaring, the percussion of sound sending rocks and dirt rattling down the stone face as one more arrow struck and the bear finally realized where the threat was coming from.

Beady eyes focused, powerful legs flexed and the screech of injured stone blended with Amanda’s shriek of terror as the beast climbed upward. He shot out of the cave, forgetting his injuries, no longer feeling the pain. He rolled behind the huge animal and stood, knives thrusting upward, just in time to see the great creature make a final effortless leap to the top of the unforgiving stone. The bear howled in triumph and Amanda screamed.

Rhodry dropped the useless knives and shifted.

Chapter Thirty-Two

A
manda stabbed wildly with her belt knife, pressing herself back into the crevice, trying futilely to squeeze deeper into what was nothing more than a narrow seam between two giant boulders. The bear was maddened with pain and blood loss, wounded by her many arrows, one paw bleeding freely where she’d slashed it open with a lucky jab of her knife. Running on nothing more than instinct now, blinded by its own fury, the monster howled its defiance at the puny creature who’d dared to attack it, who smelled like prey, and yet fought like a shifter. It stuck its jaw forward, snapping at her arm as she drew back, sharp teeth barely grazing her forearm and yet slicing it wide open. She didn’t have the breath left to scream. She could only choke out a silent sob and shift her knife to her left hand.

A savage scream suddenly ripped through the air, sending involuntary tremors through Amanda and spinning the ice bear around to face a new, far greater threat. A growling blur of black fur flew up and over the edge, and the two massive creatures collided, their mingled howls filling the air with rage and violence. She blinked through her tears, trying to make out what was happening, wondering what new hell had joined the fray. It was a huge beast, sleek and black with a mouth full of snarling teeth and eyes that spat gold fire as it grappled with the massive ice bear.

She gasped in shock. By all the gods, it was Rhodry. He had shifted at last.

The two great predators rolled back and forth over the uneven boulders, claws slicing flesh with terrifying ease, jaws ripping open bloody wounds as screams of fury and pain bounced off the surrounding stone.

She struggled to her feet, her leg barely holding her upright. There was little she could do. Her knife was useless for this, and she was out of arrows, though their bodies were so entwined, she would have been as likely to hit Rhodry as the ice bear even if she’d had them.

Rhodry’s hind claws dug into the bear’s belly as they rolled over and over, the bear trying to use its greater weight to crush the shifter, its huge jaws snapping at his throat. The bear gave a high-pitched shriek of pain as the cat’s claws found purchase and ripped open a great gash in its gut.

Momentum shifted and now it was Rhodry who snapped at his attacker’s throat, furious snarls tearing through the air. The bear wrapped its huge arms around the big cat and squeezed, trying to snap his spine, keeping its head tucked in to protect its vulnerable neck. They rolled perilously close to the edge, and Amanda cried out a wordless warning. The bear gave a powerful shrug and flung Rhodry away, then curled back to its feet and started forward after him.

Rhodry spun gracefully, all four feet leaving the ground as his body twisted in midair. He launched himself at the ice bear again, halting its forward momentum and shoving it backward until they were both poised at the very edge of the rock formation, twenty feet or more above the rough ground.

For a moment they hung there, balanced on the precipice.

Then she watched in horror as some infinitesimal balance shifted and they went over, falling with duplicate screams of outrage. She felt more than heard the impact shuddering up through the stone and then nothing.

She lunged forward with a shout of denial, her leg giving way beneath her, so that she half climbed, half fell down the rock face and landed with a shriek of pain. The two powerful creatures lay on the ground in front of the cave, neither one moving. Rhodry was barely visible behind the mountain of blood and fur that was the ice bear, the monster’s neck twisted at an angle that left no doubt it was dead.

Stumbling and clawing her way over the bloody ground, she reached her shifter. His leg was trapped beneath the dead bear, and she threw herself at the thick body with a shout of defiance, shoving its great, lifeless bulk away until he was free.

“Rhodi.” Her voice broke as she knelt over him, tears streaking down her face to fall on his blood-drenched fur. He was panting heavily, eyes closed, sides gusting as he struggled to breathe. She ran her hands down his sleek body, crying anew at every fresh wound, despairing of ever finding the skill to heal him this time. “Rhodi,” she repeated, holding his head in her lap, stroking his face, not knowing what else to do.

She felt him stir, felt the shudder of flesh and muscle, and knew what it meant. She scooted away reluctantly, one hand trailing over his leg and paw. One moment there was a huge black cat lying before her, and then with a ripple of fur and popping bones, Rhodry lay sprawled naked, his golden skin torn and streaked with blood and sweat. He rose up on hands and knees, head hanging down, breath coming in great sucking gasps of air. He eyed her through half-closed lids and he shifted again, retaking his animal form.

She swallowed a wordless protest, knowing the effort it took for him to shift rapidly like this, knowing also that instinct was driving him now, pushing him to change, the shift finally undertaking the long-delayed healing of old wounds and new. The cat rose again on four wobbly legs, panting heavily. His big head swung over to regard the dead ice bear, and then back to stare unblinkingly at her once again. He took two faltering steps, closing the distance between them, and collapsed against her with a groan of effort.

A
manda wasn’t sure how much time passed as she sat there with Rhodry, the two of them slumped next to the dead ice bear. At some point, she slid to the ground, lying with one arm over his furred back, too weak to remain upright. She knew when he shifted again to human, could remember being relieved that he had his shifting ability back at last.

“You’re bleeding.” Rhodry’s voice was low, with a note of panic she’d never heard from him before. “Damn it, Amanda, you’re bleeding.”

She smiled. Of course, she was bleeding. The bear had attacked her, hadn’t it? She remembered pain…and fear. That was gone now. Everything was gone. She drifted away, coming back to feel a sharp ache around her upper thigh, something too tight. It hurt. She pushed ineffectively at the hands that were hurting her.

“Stop it,” he said absently. “You’re bleeding out here. Damn bear must have nicked an artery.” That last was said more to himself than to her. His fingers dug into her leg and she screamed. “I’m sorry, I’m sorry,” he muttered. “I’ve got to stop it.”

“A
manda.”

Her eyelids were impossibly heavy. Something in her responded to the urgency in his voice, and she forced them open, squinting as she tried to focus.

“Where’s your flare, Amanda?”

She blinked at him in confusion, feeling sweet darkness pulling at her consciousness. She didn’t want to be awake, why wouldn’t he let her sleep? She shifted slightly and nearly screamed at the pain in her leg. Rhodry was holding her, forcing her to remain still, to look at him. “The flare,
acushla
.”

She frowned. She didn’t need the damn flare. It was all a trick anyway.

“Threw it away,” she mumbled through dry lips. He swore viciously, and she felt laughter bubbling up. She’d fooled them all. She smiled and let her eyes close, and the pain went away.

When she woke next, his arms were around her and the ground was falling away. That wasn’t right. She was too big. Men didn’t sweep her off her feet like some dainty maiden.

“No,” she protested fitfully. “Rhodry, no. I’m not—”

“What you’re not is dying on me, damn it. Now hold still.”

A
manda’s eyes opened slowly. Rhodry was sleeping next to her, his breath warm and steady, his arm lying across her body, his big hand draped protectively over her hip. She ached. Her hands, her arm, her leg more than anything, a deep pain that throbbed with every beat of her heart.
What?
Oh right, the ice bear. She doubted that particular memory would lose its potency any time soon.

Rhodry stirred, his arm tightening as he moved in his sleep. They were still in that damn cave. Or, no, not the same one, one just like it. He’d probably moved them, what with the big dead monster right outside the front door. She felt like giggling and recognized the touch of hysteria. She brought a hand up to cover her mouth, which didn’t stop the tremble in her shoulders.

“Amanda?” His voice was rough with worry.

“I’m okay,” she said, her voice shockingly scratchy. “It was just…” She closed her eyes, suddenly exhausted all over again, wishing they were waking up somewhere else, wishing things could be easier for a single gods-be-damned day.

He curled carefully around her, and his lips brushed her cheekbone. “When this is over,
acushla
, I’ll take you to the mountains and show you my home. You’ll see the Green like you never have before, rolling hills of it as far as the eye can see. There’s beauty to be had in the darkward too. I’ll show it to you.”

She nodded silently, waiting until she knew she could speak without blubbering.

“What does ‘
acushla’
mean?” she asked, feeling overwhelmed by the sudden emotion of the moment. “You keep calling me that.”

She felt his smile in the curve of his lips against her cheek.

“It’s Irish Gaelic, from the Devlin half of my family. It means ‘sweetheart.’”

“Oh,” she whispered, wanting to cry all over again. What the hell was wrong with her? A little near death experience, and suddenly she was going all weepy. “Are you okay?” she asked hoarsely. “You shifted…”

“Shifted and healthy. It was you I was worried about this time. Damn bear ripped the hell out of your leg.”

She mumbled something incoherent, already drifting off again.

“You threw your flare away,” he said accusingly.

She answered without opening her eyes. “I wasn’t going to use it.”

“Amanda—”

“How long was I out? I mean since the bear attack,” she asked, changing the subject.

He sighed. She could feel the vibration of his body, his heat against her chilled back. “The bear attacked yesterday morning, and today’s sunset was about four hours ago.”

Her heart fell. She wanted to be back among the trees
now
. She could taste it she wanted it so badly.

“We can start home again tomorrow. I’ll go slowly—”

“Day after tomorrow,
acushla
. You haven’t even been on your feet yet. And yes, we’ll go slowly.”

“I don’t want—”

“Another day will give me some time to start curing the bear’s pelt before we pack it out. It took most of today to strip it down. That was a fat bear.”

“Pelt?” She opened her eyes and rolled over slightly to look at his face. His golden eyes were gazing down at her, glinting with humor. “You skinned the bear?”

“Aye, I thought that might get your interest. You didn’t think I’d leave it behind, did you?”

“Who gets it?” she asked, eyes narrowing in suspicion.

“We’ll talk about that later.”

“Day after tomorrow then,” she said, pushing her face against his chest to cover her yawn, finding it difficult to keep her eyes open. “We’ll go slowly,” she repeated, already asleep.

“S
lowly,” Rhodry agreed again, wrapping the tattered sleeping bag more securely around them both, and watching her sleep in the curve of his arm. He hadn’t told her the whole truth. Hadn’t told her how close she’d come to dying, her blood soaking into the dirt to mingle with the ice bear’s. If he’d been even two minutes slower in recognizing the danger, it might have been too late, and she would have been gone forever. And in that brief instant when he’d thought he was losing her, he’d felt…empty. As if his own life was draining away instead of hers. It had surprised him. It had scared the hell out of him.

All those oaths he’d sworn to himself to stay away from her, telling himself that she was a complication he didn’t need. All of those excuses for ignoring the aching desire, the hunger that had consumed him from the moment they’d met… No more excuses, no more pretending. She was his, and he was going to fight for her whether she liked it or not. Because that moment of emptiness when he’d thought he’d lost her? It was something he never wanted to feel again.