Hunted by Magic (The Baine Chronicles #3)(22)

“What’s the red stuff in the baskets?” I whispered to Fenris.

His yellow eyes narrowed as he considered. “I believe its clay.”

Ah. Well that explained what I’d smelled earlier. So they weren’t a scouting or hunting party – they’d come out to collect clay to make pottery or whatever else the Coazi did with the stuff. I started to relax a little, and let out a sigh of relief.

Instantly, two heads swung around in our direction – the two men I’d pegged as warriors earlier. They jumped to their feet, one drawing his bow, the other hefting his spear. I bit back a curse as we dropped back down behind the crest of the knoll, but it was too late – they’d already seen us.

“I don’t suppose you speak Coazi?” Annia hissed at Fenris.

“Of course not.” Fenris bristled. “Let us hope that one of them speaks our language.”

Rather than waiting for them to find us cowering behind the hillock, we got to our feet slowly, our hands in the air to show that we meant no harm. The two warriors were already halfway up the hill, and they momentarily froze at the sight of us before leveling their weapons in our direction and shouting angrily.

“Please!” Fenris shouted, drawing their attention to him. “We mean no harm!”

“Why you come on our land?” the spear-toting warrior demanded. He wore his hair long and free, and was a taller, leaner version of the man next to him. Their features were similar enough that I wouldn’t have been surprised if they were brothers, and I breathed a sigh of relief that they knew some Northian. “This not white man’s land!”

“We are sorry for trespassing,” Fenris said, lowering his head. He kept his hands in the air, his body language contrite and nonthreatening, and I forced myself to do the same even though the beast inside me growled at the idea of showing submission to a weaker life-form. Just because I was perfectly capable of killing these people didn’t mean I wanted to. “We are looking for a friend of ours. He might be lost somewhere on your lands.”

“Friend?” the other man asked. He was shorter and stockier than the other, and wore his hair in a topknot. His dark eyes were narrowed, and he kept his arrow firmly trained on me. “A white man?”

“Yes. A white man with red hair.” Fenris gestured toward Annia’s flowing locks, though her auburn hair was much lighter than Iannis’s. “Have you seen him?”

“He was flying in an airship,” I added, drawing the taller man’s attention toward me. “It may have crashed somewhere near here. Did you see anything big fall from the sky?”

The two men looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. They immediately started talking to each other in low tones, which was unnecessary since we couldn’t understand a single word they said. The fact that their broad shoulders had relaxed a little ignited a spark of hope in me.

“Do you think they’ve seen Iannis?” I asked Fenris.

“It’s entirely possible.”

“If we’re lucky, he might even be at their camp!”

“Or unlucky, depending on what they’re doing with him,” Fenris warned.

Finally, the two Coazi males turned back to us. The stockier one met my gaze, and for the first time curiosity sparked in his dark eyes. “You are a man-beast, yes?”

“Huh?” My mouth dropped open, taken aback by the strange question.

“Woman-beast, then.” The Coazi male gestured impatiently. “You can turn into an animal. I tell by your strange eyes.”

“Yes.” My lips quirked a little at his description of me – I’d been called a lot of things in my life, but “man-beast” was certainly a new one for me. “I turn into a panther.”

The taller Coazi turned to his group and announced the news to them in their native tongue. The groups eyes widened, and then they broke out into wide smiles and started talking excitedly, jumping up and down on the balls of their feet.

“Er, what’s happening?” I asked Fenris worriedly.

“Your guess is as good as mine.”

The tall Coazi male turned back toward us. “We hear of the strange man-beasts the mages who rule this land made, but never seen one. You show us?”

“You want to see me shift?” I asked incredulously. Part of me was stung by the idea – I wasn’t some kind of pony to be paraded around for their amusement.

Fenris touched my elbow. “I know it might seem demeaning, but I see no harm in doing this if it helps create goodwill with the Coazi.”

Swallowing a sigh, I took a step toward the Coazi. “Alright, I will do as you ask. You might want to take a step back.”

They all stepped back hastily, and Fenris shot me a scowl as I fought against the urge to snicker. Of course there was no reason for them to step back, but I enjoyed the idea of screwing with them a little after being asked to put myself on display like this. Closing my eyes, I reached for my inner beast, and let the white light wash over me. I heard the Coazi gasp and murmur as my body stretched and changed, bone and muscle and skin reforming, fur sprouting, teeth and claws elongating. Delighted at the chance to break free, my beast purred loudly – we were the same person, and yet not, two sides of the same coin. It was hard to explain to someone who wasn’t a shifter – a bit like having a split personality, except that my beast and I weren’t really all that different when it came right down to it. My human instincts were simply more dominant in human form than they were when I shifted.