When my transformation was complete, I whirled, knocking the table over. Rekala sniffed at me curiously and rubbed her face against mine. Looking down at my forelegs and paws I could see they were streaked with a rich, dark blue colour—much darker than Rekala’s fur.
I looked up suddenly, sensing the other humans in the room, tasting them in the air. They smelt delicious. I let out an almighty roar and ran two paces towards them. Some looked startled.
‘No!’
Rekala shouted, leaping in front of me.
I crashed into her, back paws tucked under my body, fangs reaching for her neck.
‘Talon!’
I tumbled onto my face, back in my human form, at her feet. The others’ expressions of fear changed to mirth, but they didn’t know how close I’d come to killing one of them.
‘Now I know what you’re dealing with,’
I said to my Rada-kin, rubbing the bridge of my nose.
‘The instinct to hunt is powerful,’ Cradic said, helping me up. ‘Something to be aware of in a carnivorous form. Perhaps make sure you’ve eaten before you attempt that next time, Talon?’
The room erupted in laughter. Even the Rada-kin seemed amused. I smiled at myself.
‘You had already eaten,’
Rekala said, remaining serious.
‘But the urge to kill remains.’
Only one of the other students was able to transform. The young woman with the hawk Rada-kin would need a lot more coaching and the boy with the capybara was having trouble keeping a strong connection to the mind of the distractible creature.
Cradic took the student who had morphed into horse form, and me, aside at the end of that lesson and told us we didn’t have to attend any more lessons. We had learned everything we needed to know, and now it was up to us to practice transforming. He reminded me to take more care with my animal instincts, an instruction that seemed to parallel the anger control I’d had to learn after Ella’s abduction. I decided to ask Bessed and Drea about the relation between the two at dinner.
‘I think your anger is understandable given what you’ve been through in your life,’ Bessed told me. ‘Many of us have seen the ugly side of war and violence because the Zeikas keep bringing it to our doorstep, but few would have lost both parents and a sister, like you.’
The night Bessed had caught me and dragged me back to Jaria came to my mind. I’d been alone in the wilds for three weeks after Ella and the other Anzaii were taken. I had tracked them as far as the Kiayr Ranges, where I had lost the trail in the snow. Even at thirteen I’d had an uncanny knack for surviving alone in the forest, but I was half-starved and delirious with cold and fatigue when found.
Grief-stricken as I was, I never would have returned to Jaria of my own accord. Bessed and Uola found me and forced me to face reality. There was no way I or anyone else could go after the Zeikas.
Rekala entered the room, chuffing in my direction. I reached out a hand to stroke her. Drea patted her on the shoulder too.
‘Ask Drea if there’s any more of that butter fish,’
Rekala commanded.
‘There’s no more, I’m afraid,’ Bessed answered. Uola had overheard Rekala’s demand and passed it on faster than I could. ‘There’s a shortage of fish this season. In fact I was wondering if you feel up to an errand,’ Bessed continued. ‘Are you and Rekala getting tired of hanging around the village yet?’
I glanced at my Rada-kin, knowing how she longed to get out into the forest. ‘It might be nice to get away for a while, practice some of this transforming on our own somewhere.’
‘Good,’ Bessed responded. ‘Because I need you to go down to Tez and buy some fish. Unless, that is, you think you can do better than all our regular fisherfolk.’
‘I’ll give it a try tomorrow,’ I replied. ‘And if I can’t catch enough, we’ll go to Tez for what you need.’
‘Is that all right with you, Rekala?’
‘Of course,’
she replied.
‘I’m starting to see that you know your way around this human world of yours. I go where you go.’
Chapter Four—Fishing
I
pulled myself out of the water, shaggy black hair streaming. The day-star warmed my skin, soothing the scrapes I had sustained during the morning’s efforts. I sneered at the single white fish I had managed to catch with my spear. Sensing something in the bushes ahead of me, I lifted the fish up, pretending to inspect it. The pink-white flesh glistened and it gave off a smell like bulrushes and chowder mixed together.
Rekala’s hunger saturated me through the wave we shared. This had been one of the most difficult things for me to get used to: her constant, unrelenting,
driving
hunger. I could now understand why some new Rada gained weight in their first year of being bonded.
The icetiger ran out from the shadows, making a soft drum beat travel through the ground and into the bare soles of my feet. Just before she reached me, she stood up on her hind legs and chuffed noisily.
‘Give it to me,’
she crooned in my mind.
Nostrils flaring, she lifted her paw to pat at the fish. Sitting on her haunches, she could easily reach it. I held it up even further.
‘That’s half a day’s work,’
I moaned indignantly.
‘You know how much Bessed needs this fish.’
‘I will catch you a camel in return,’
she wheedled.
‘You’ve never even seen one,’
I retorted.
‘Much less brought one down.’
Camels roamed the plains to the south east; it wouldn’t necessarily be any time soon that she could fulfil such a promise.
‘I know enough about them from your memories. It will be easy.’
‘I can’t give it to you,’
I said apologetically.
‘It’s my duty to give this to Bessed.’
‘Duty, duty, duty. You humans worry far too much about the future. What will I eat, what will I wear, what will this person or that person think of me?’
I wrapped the fish in sackcloth then dried myself with a length of flax cloth from my pack. After changing into dry clothes, I strapped on my dagger sheath and positioned the spear diagonally across my back.
‘There is another new kin pair,’
my Rada-kin said suddenly.
‘Somebody named Asher has just met her new Rada-kin.’
The ease with which Rekala had started using the waves impressed me. She was already familiar with most of the other Rada-kin, and conversed with them from anywhere in the village. It was incredible being linked to the network of Rada in Jaria. Throughout my entire life I had lived right alongside it but never been a part of it like this.
‘Do you know what kind of animal the other Rada-kin is?’
The icetiger licked her lips and, with a soft growl, said,
‘Lemur.’
I chuckled.
‘Yet another sentient prey animal that you can’t eat.’
‘I may be able to resist it,’
she replied,
‘if you give me that fish instead.’
‘We had better depart,’
I said, suppressing a laugh.
‘Considering my tiny catch, Bessed may want us to head out for Tez today.’
Rekala stretched slowly to her feet.
‘I know you’re considering giving it to me. I can read your thoughts, remember?’
She stalked toward me, eyes becoming intent. Before she could pounce, I hoisted the pack and ran into the forest. I knew she could easily outstrip me, no matter how lazy an afternoon she’d had, yet she only trotted behind me, pretending to be waylaid by the swinging branches and palm leaves I flung at her.
As I stumbled into the clearing at the eastern edge of the village I could see a group of horseback archers practising near the stables. I envied them for a moment, but then I saw the long-sleeved clothing and armour they had to wear, and felt sorry for them. Summer in Jaria was hot, despite the fact that we were so close to the Kiayr Ranges.
Rekala’s blue fur had started shedding since we came down from the higher region where we’d met. It hung off her in big clumps. I bent down to pull some of it away and she twisted to snap her teeth at me. I ran from her across the open ground to the village centre. Several heads turned to watch as we passed, but I didn’t care—I was so filled with glee that all my cares melted away. Rekala gave me a head start and pursued me with frightening speed. We raced across the main road, nearly upending a mule cart loaded with fresh fruit, and skittered to a halt in the forecourt of the village storehouses.
Uola had informed Bessed we were coming. My adoptive father emerged from the closest storehouse, wiping his dusty hands on his shirt.
‘So, has the prize-winning fisherman of Jaria succeeded where others failed?’ he queried.
‘Sad to say, no,’ I replied, handing him the sackcloth-wrapped fish.
Rekala growled as the fish changed hands.
‘One is better than none,’ Bessed said, with a shrug. ‘But I would like you to go to Tez for me and get some more.’
‘Would you like us to go this afternoon?’
‘Yes, that would be good,’ he replied. ‘There are some Rada-kin here who only eat fish. And some of the villagers don’t like going without it. My cold store is getting dangerously low.’
‘I’ll go now,’ I said. ‘It’ll take me five days to get there, even if Rekala is willing to take horse form for the journey.’
The icetiger sent me a disgusted impression.
‘You want me to become a prey animal?’
‘If not, we could let you take Meeka,’ Bessed said.
‘Nay, all is well,’ I said. ‘Either Rekala will transform or I will.’
‘As long as you’re sure you can handle it,’ Bessed said, giving me a purse full of bronze coins.
‘We’ll be fine,’ I assured him.
‘Right, Rekala?’
‘Right,’
she grumbled.
Back at my house, I strapped my bow and arrow quiver to my back and packed my saddlebags in a hurry, wondering how to convince Rekala that horses were noble creatures. The great cat knew horses well, having hunted the wild mountain ponies in the past. As magnificent as humans might think horses were, they were still prey animals to Rekala. If she wouldn’t transform into one and carry me, we would both have to travel in animal form and I wasn’t sure if I had the concentration to stay morphed for that long.
When I came out of my family’s cabin, a large dapple grey horse with thick, feathery fetlocks awaited me.
‘Rekala?’
I exclaimed through the waves.
The horse tossed her head and snorted loudly at me.
‘It’s not as bad as I thought,’
she said.
‘The view is really something, and I have so much energy!’
She fidgeted a little as I girded her with a saddle and secured my packs to it. There was no need for a bridle—Rekala could sense where I wanted to go faster than I could have tugged the reins. I dug into one of the packs and found a small leather satchel of sugar lumps.
‘How about this, then,’
I said, holding one out in my hand,
‘to a horse’s tongue, these are supposedly irresistible.’
She nibbled the lumps, bobbed her head and lifted her top lip into the air.
‘I’ve never tasted anything like it.’
While she was distracted, I pulled myself up onto her back. She shifted her weight suddenly and I sensed her impulse to buck and bolt, but with an immense effort of will she kept herself still.
‘It is rather humbling to be a horse,’
she told me indignantly.
‘I’ll have none of that rib-kicking nonsense I saw those other humans doing before.’
I laughed at her as we moved off down the road. We ventured east out of the village following the river bank past where I’d spent the morning fishing. With our minds linked it was so simple to work together.
During that first day of travel I appreciated things about a horse’s body that I had never contemplated before; the way the muscles strained and the blood quickened to fuel them, the rapid beating of the heart and the deep, steady breathing. Rekala was not slight in her horse form, but after only a few hours she had worked up a sweat. Still, a sense of strength suffused her body. It was a strange feeling to her—the steadfast and enduring nature of the horse. She was used to many a lazy day, with only the occasional burst of speed to run down prey.
I set up camp using the basic supplies I always travelled with, cooked a meal of hearty beef stew and garlic seared vegetables. Rekala found hunting much easier now that she had the ability to think in abstract ways and predict the behaviour of her prey.
The next five days passed in much the same way as the first. When Rekala stopped to rest I would perform camp chores, maintenance on my gear or slip into the forest to hunt. Most of my forays were fruitless, but I caught enough pheasants and lizards to keep our energy up.
‘I can’t possibly go any further with all this weight on my back,’
she told me on the fifth day.
‘We can’t be more than half a day out of town
,’ I reassured her.
‘What’s the urgency?’
she wanted to know.
‘I’d like to get back to Bessed as soon as possible, that’s all. I’m working right now.’
Despite my words, I slid down from her back and started unfastening the saddle and packs.
‘From what Uola has revealed to me, Bessed wants you to be happy. He wouldn’t mind you taking a few extra days to rest and spend time with me.’
‘You’re probably right,’
I replied.
‘But Bessed is like that. He’s always thinking of other people. He needs this fish and I’ve got to get it to him. The least I can do after everything he and Drea have done for me is be a good worker.’
‘But I can’t go on,’
Rekala whined.
‘I’m too sleepy.’
‘It’s all in your mind,’
I replied.
‘A horse can travel for weeks, day after day.’
‘Humpf, all you have to do is sit there. Most horses would have been carrying people around for most of their lives. The muscles in my body are different. Even when I take horse form, it feels all wrong.’