The Wish Granter (Ravenspire #2)(45)
“Thad, wait a minute,” Ari said as he started toward the open front door. The hum of excited conversation drifted in from the courtyard.
He paused to let her catch up.
She reached his side and asked, “What if those beasts escape their handlers? What if they eat their handlers? What if they aren’t capable of killing Teague, but he decides to take their presence here as a threat? Maybe we should just put them back on the boat.”
“If Teague hears about it, then he’ll know better than to send another messenger to the palace,” Ajax said.
She glared at him. “Teague could ignore this, or he could decide it’s a precursor to Thad’s trying to keep Teague from collecting on his contract.”
“Teague is constrained by the rules of his magic, as are all fae,” Ajax said.
“But we don’t know the rules of his magic! We only have assumptions and folklore. Before we tempt him to retaliate against Thad for a perceived act of aggression, we need to know exactly what we’re dealing with.”
Thad leaned down to whisper in Ari’s ear. “We need the hunters as allies. They might know how to defeat Teague. We have to accept the beasts for now.” Straightening, he moved to the door. Ajax followed.
Cleo slung an arm around Ari’s shoulders. “Ready?”
Ari nodded, but inside she had a terrible, gut-wrenching fear that her brother was hurtling toward disaster and there was nothing she could do to save him.
She followed Cleo out of the palace and into the front courtyard, where staff and nobility were packed side by side along the perimeter. Thad and Ajax were cutting a swift path through the onlookers, and Ari hurried to follow.
When she reached the courtyard proper, she stopped and stared at the frightening spectacle in front of her.
Two enormous iron crates rested on the pale stone floor, each covered with a black cloth embroidered with silver runes around the edges. Vicious snarls filled the air, and the occasional scrape of a talon against the bottom of the crate sent a chill down Ari’s spine.
What kind of (terrifying, probably ravenous) monsters were hidden beneath those cloths?
Beside the crate closest to Ari stood a girl about her age with the lithe, muscular frame of someone whose body was a sharply honed weapon. Her dark red hair was worn long, and a brilliant strip of shocking white that started at her left temple was braided and tied with tiny silver chains. She wore all black, and several of the runes that were embroidered on the cloths were inked into her forearms. In her hands, she slowly twirled a black whip studded with iron spikes.
Ari suddenly felt tremendously underdressed for the task of helping Thad take ownership of the caged beasts.
The girl’s ice-blue eyes landed on Ari and then flicked away to study the rest of the crowd. Something in the way she held herself reminded Ari of Sebastian—always searching for a threat.
One of the beasts screamed—a bloodcurdling howl that had the crowd stumbling back to the tree-lined edges of the courtyard, as if that would somehow keep them safe.
A boy who looked nearly identical to the girl, down to the runes on his skin and the streak of white in his dark red hair, leaped on top of one of the crates, a thick iron chain with a wicked-looking spiked ball at the end of it in his hands.
“Your Highness and assembled guests, there is no need to fear.”
The girl’s eyes narrowed.
Ari guessed that meant the boy was telling them a big, fat, you’re-probably-going-to-be-eaten-by-a-monster lie.
“I’m Hansel, and this beautiful but surly girl is my sister, Gretel. Watch out, she bites.”
Gretel bared her teeth.
“We bring you two of the finest specimens from our latest hunt on the isle of Llorenyae.” His voice rose and he threw his arms out to the sides as if to draw all the onlookers toward him. “Of the Felinaes sapiaena species, pure-blood young adults in their prime!”
Felinaes sapiaena. Ari’s mouth went dry. Panther shape-shifters. There was no way Teague, and everyone else in Kosim Thalas, wasn’t going to hear about this.
Hansel warmed to his subject. “Fiercely territorial and unrepentantly carnivorous, Felinaes sapiaena make the perfect guard beast when properly restrained.”
“And how do we make sure they are properly restrained?” Thad asked.
Ari scanned the crowd and found Sebastian standing at the far edge, just outside the courtyard. Their eyes met, and she could practically feel the tension vibrating from him.
Finally, someone else who understood that bringing panther shape-shifters onto the palace grounds was a terrible idea.
“An excellent question, Your Highness.” Hansel leaped lightly from the crate. “As with all creatures who have fae blood, iron causes weakness. The younger the beast, the greater the effect of the iron. When you carve certain runes into the iron, you exert additional control.”
He whipped the cloth from the crate beside him, and a ripple of screams and gasps swept the crowd. Ari clenched her fists and fought to remain calm and poised on the outside while she stared at the pair of monsters crouched on two feet inside the crate. Their limbs were long and catlike, but the beasts stood on two legs. Ari estimated that at full height they would tower over Sebastian. They were covered in black fur, their lips were pulled back in vicious snarls, and glowing amber eyes glared at the onlookers. Gretel pulled the cloth from her crate to reveal a matching pair. Iron collars with runes hammered into the surface circled the creatures’ necks.