"Because we were fully aware of how dangerous he was," the officer said calmly. "Any attempt to recover you meant that he had to be, removed."
"I'll show you dangerous!" she screamed, raising her hands. A vicious blast of fire erupted from her hands, and it hit the Wikuni officer dead in the chest. The Wikuni managed to scream only once before he was reduced to a smoldering pile of melted steel and ash.
"This is not the time, Kerri!" Azakar said, squeezing her around the middle. "If you start killing them, they will start killing us!"
"They killed Tarrin!" she screamed. "They killed my brother!"
"And you're going to lose your sister if you don't stop!" he said in a powerful voice. "Look around you! They have us surrounded, and Tarrin wouldn't approve if you got everyone else killed!"
Keritanima looked around. There was Allia, a murderous look in her eyes, but her head was tipped back with a dagger point held to her throat. Dolanna was laying on the wharf, and Keritanima didn't know if she was dead or unconscious. Dar had a bear Wikuni holding him in a powerful grip, a claw at his throat, and Faalken had his hands raised with muskets pointed at him, looking at Dolanna in clear worry and concern.
"Bring them, quickly!" someone shouted from the ship. Wikuni started jabbing at Keritanima and those around her with the bayonets fixed to the barrels of their muskets. They were herded, Azakar still carrying Keritanima, to the gangplank of the ship, where what looked to be an Admiral or other very high-ranking officer stood at the top. He was a leopard Wikuni, with spots over each of his yellow eyes and a scar running on the right side of his muzzle, the scarline devoid of fur. "Come quietly, and we leave those behind alive," he said in a strong voice. "Resist us, and we'll leave them all like your friend over there, but either way, you will be coming with us. Even if we have to drag you back in chains."
Keritanima glared her rage at the officer, but she remained silent. Rage had overtaken grief, but she kept enough control of herself to know that it was not the time to fight back. The lives of everyone else depended on her good behavior. "Alright, but I promise you this," she said in a hissing voice. "You will pay for killing my brother. I swear it on Kikalli's spear."
"Then blame Jander," the man said, staring right at her. "He's the one who told us where you were, where you were going, and how to deal with the Were-cat so he couldn't destroy us before we could get control of you."
"Jander!" Miranda gasped. "Jander sold us out?"
"I prefer to think of it as doing his patriotic duty," the man said idly. "Take them below, and cast off. Leave the others unharmed, so long as her Highness here behaves herself." He turned and started walking away. "And one more thing, your Highness. We have operatives here. If you start misbehaving once we're at sea, I'll have them kill your friends. Keep that in mind before you start hatching your little schemes."
Keritanima looked back as someone grabbed hold of her wrist and pulled her out of Azakar's arms, looked back to the dock, looked back to soemthing that would forever be burned into her soul.
Tarrin, laying in a pool of his own blood. He laid there, and he was all alone. That hurt her as much as seeing him like that, seeing that nobody was there to comfort him as he breathed his last. And it felt like she was leaving a part of her own soul with him.
GoTo: Title EoF
Chapter 9
The mood in the small cabin was grim.
Dolanna sat on the edge of the bunk, holding a shirt to the grievous wound in Tarrin's chest, flanked by Faalken and Allia, who held his paw in her delicate hands as both stared down at him in grief-stricken worry. He had lost so much blood, laying there on the dock! The Wikuni wouldn't let anyone get close to him until well after the clipper and its accompanying frigate were a good distance away. And then they let everyone go and retreated, without hurting anyone else. The entire time, Tarrin lay there and bled onto the wharf, losing precious moments and precious blood, dying in front of them. She was amazed that he had survived for so long. But Tarrin was strong, and his will to live was formidable. That was the only thing keeping him alive now.
There was nothing else she could do. She felt so helpless! The wound had been inflicted by a silver arrowhead, and that made it unhealable by anything other than time. But time was the one thing that Tarrin did not have. His life hung by a thread, and Dolanna had seen enough to know that the wound was mortal. No matter what she did, it would not be enough. Without magical healing, Tarrin would eventually give up, and then he would die. His stubbornness was the only thing making his heart beat. He was already pale, the pallor of death, losing the blood that helped color his skin, and looked dead already.
"Dolanna, how is he?" Faalken asked in a very worried voice, looking down at him.
"Silence!" Dolanna snapped, holding the shirt harder to his bare chest. She had to stop the blood. If she could just stop the bleeding! Then he may have a chance! She could feel his hearbeat through the shirt held up to his chest. She could feel it slowing more and more, becoming irregular in its rhythm, see that his breathing was becoming shallower and shallower. He was starting to falter!
"No, Tarrin, do not give up!" she said in a desperate tone. "We are here for you!"
But her pleas had no effect. His heartbeat stopped for a span of seconds, each an eternity to her, then it started up again, much weaker than before. It managed only a few beats before it stopped again, and then he let out all his breath in a slow sigh.
Then she felt someone behind her. Dolanna turned to look, and gaped in astoundment as Triana stepped through the doorway. As tall as Azakar and as lithe as Allia, the strong-featured Were-cat took only one look at the three of them, and then at Tarrin. Her expression never changed from its stony mask as she reached out and put her paws on his chest, between Dolanna's hands, and looked right at her. "Don't move it," she said. "And be careful. When I do this, he may jump."
Dolanna nodded wordlessly and pushed down hard. She never felt anything, but Tarrin's body suddenly convulsed, and he took in a powerful breath, as if he'd been dunked into a icy pond. Then he collapsed back to the bed, his hearbeat and breathing stronger.
"What did you do?" Allia asked in worry.
"Gave him the strength he needs," she replied in her powerful voice. "Now keep that bandage on the wound. I'm not done yet."
The three of them watched as she kept her paws on him. They couldn't see anything that she did, but Tarrin lost the pallor that had denoted the loss of blood, and his breathing stabilized into a very slow rhythm. "Keep that bandage on him," she said again. "Don't move it until I tell you to."
"Why are you doing this?" Dolanna managed to ask, keeping her elation that he seemed to be improving to herself. "Tarrin said you meant to kill him."
"I've meant to kill my other children from time to time as well," she said gruffly, keeping her paws on him. "He's no different."
"Your child?"
"He is now," she snorted. "And I don't let my children die unless I'm the one that kills them. Who did this to him?"
"It was the Wikuni," Allia said quietly. "They ambushed us. Tarrin never had a chance."
"I saw them," she said. "I'll deal with them later. Right now, I'm needed here. You, out," she said, looking at Faalken. "Stand at this door and kill anyone that tries to come in. You, go get some hot water and rags. We need to clean the wound before we dress it," she ordered of Allia. "You, Sorceress, stay here. I need your Sorcery."
"I cannot heal him."
"I know, but you can use your power in other ways. We need to get this rag off of him and bandage him without reopening the wound, and we'll need your power to do it."