Ecstasy Untamed (Feral Warriors #6)(57)

They reached the prisons to find the grizzly and fox prowling their cages as impatiently as any caged beasts. But the lynx merely lay on the floor watching them. As the group approached, Grizz and Fox shifted into men in twin sprays of colored lights, Fox fully dressed, Grizz startlingly naked. Despite the size of him, there wasn't an ounce of fat anywhere. Which was more than she really needed to know.

Fox stared at them, looking thoroughly annoyed. But Grizz growled, grabbed the bars, and shook them as if he were trying to yank them out of the floor. "Let me out of here!" he roared.

Lynks closed his cat eyes, ignoring them.

Lyon and Tighe exchanged a look that said they weren't sure how to go about this. If they meant for the Shaman to go into one of those cages, Faith didn't want to be anywhere near when they opened the doors. Certainly not Grizz's, anyway.

"The Shaman is here to examine you," Lyon said, his voice loud enough to be heard over the bear shifter's fury. "If you've been infected with Mage magic, as we suspect, he has the ability to sense it. We need to know what's happened in order to help you."

To Faith's surprise - to everyone's she suspected - Grizz thrust his hand through the bars, palm up, as if asking for that help.

Lyon stepped forward without hesitation and grasped Grizz's wrist. The big Feral growled but didn't fight him. The Shaman took a step forward, hesitated, then continued forth, laying both hands on Grizz's exposed forearm. He jerked his hands back, then cautiously touched the big man's arm with one hand only. For several seconds, he stood rooted, his eyelids drifting closed. Finally, he stepped away, turning to Lyon. "He's badly infected, though I can't say for certain it's Mage magic. It could be Daemon or a combination."

"Is the animal spirit infected?" Lyon asked.

"I don't know. It's impossible to tell."

Fox stuck his hand out in the same way Grizz had, his jaw set in a hard line. "My turn."

Lyon released Grizz and repeated the move on Fox. The Shaman touched the fox shifter's arm, then motioned him closer to the bars and reached into the cage, pressing his hand to Fox's forehead. The Feral watched the Shaman warily but allowed the touch.

"Nothing." The Shaman pulled away, turning to Lyon. "Completely clean. No darkness or magic whatsoever."

Fox folded his arms, his jaw hard, his stance shouting, I told you so.

Lyon opened the door of the cage himself, then held out his arm. "No hard feelings? After what happened last night, I couldn't take a chance."

Fox stared at him for several seconds, letting Lyon's arm hang before he finally, slowly unfolded his own and grasped Lyon's forearm as Lyon grasped his.

"How are Jag and Paenther?" Fox asked.

Lyon nodded as if pleased with the question. "Stable and healing. They'll make it." Lyon turned to the third Feral. "Shift, Lynks."

The cat lifted his lids, blinking at the Chief of the Ferals lazily. Ignoring the command.

Lyon glanced at Fox. "Vhyper tells me you managed to shift your form to the size of a small horse last night. Far larger than your predecessor."

Fox shrugged, his mood still darkly angry.

"Maybe you'd like to demonstrate that to Lynks. You can do it in his cage if you'd like."

Tighe chuckled. "You can show him your teeth up close and personal."

Fox glanced at Tighe, a dangerous smile spreading across his mouth. "Bloody right."

In a quick spray of sparkling lights, Lynks shifted, then rose, fully clothed, to stare at them sullenly. He didn't look well. He looked, Faith thought, as if he'd suffered and wasn't a man used to suffering.

"Put your hand through the bars," Lyon snapped. Lynks did so slowly, and Lyon grabbed his wrist as he had the others.

The Shaman's examination went much as it had with Grizz. "Thick, dark magic. The same as the other." He released the Feral, and Lyon did the same. "It appears that the nine are clean, but the seventeen have most definitely been infected, as you believed."

Faith's stomach knotted. She wondered what would happen if she held out her hand to the Shaman, too. Would he declare her infected? She swallowed hard, watching Grizz once more shake his cage like a wild beast.

"Maybe not all the nine." Hawke released her and stepped toward the Shaman, holding out his hand as the caged Ferals had done. "Check me, Shaman."

Lyon tilted his chin in question.

"I was in that spirit trap," Hawke replied in answer to Lyon's unspoken question. "As was my hawk."

The Shaman took Hawke's wrist as he had the others. With a frown, he lifted his hand to the top of Hawke's head. "I sense no infection, but . . ." His frown deepened. "There is deep trauma within your bond with your animal, warrior."

"I know. We're working on it."

The Shaman nodded.

Lyon's brows lowered with concern. "But you don't sense that it's being caused by magic?"

"No, but I'm not sure I'd detect any magic within the spirit, only the man. If you find a cure, Hawke and Tighe should partake of it, too, just to be sure."

Lyon glanced at the two caged Ferals. "Can their magic be cleared in the usual way?"

"If it's Mage, I would assume so," the Shaman replied. "If it's Daemon, perhaps not."