The three of us move through the streets, and Alaric keeps one hand on the hilt of a sword belted to his waist. He glances into every alley, and fixes any gang members who come too close with a warning glare. I don’t know if that’s really because he’s worried about danger, or if he’s simply playing the part of a tough bodyguard as well as he can.
Except that Idoknow. I realize that I can feel Alaric’s wariness, can feel that protectiveness, like a hunting hound ready to lash out at any threat.
“That’s good,” Elanar says, clearly sensing the way I’m using my powers. “Now reach out further. Immerse yourself in the emotions and the animal instincts around you. Not thoughts, but feelings.”
He walks with me, guiding me through the slums while I try to extend my awareness. I can feel the animals around me, the birds above and the dogs fighting in the gutter for scraps.
“Notthe beasts,” Elanar insists. “Focus on the people, Lyra.”
I try to block the animals from my mind, for now. Maybe there will come a point where I can focus on both beasts and humans at once, but for now, it’s as though I’m trying to listen to one conversation while another is being shouted in my ear.
Except, as I start to focus on the emotions of the people around me, I realize that those are far louder than the presence of the animals could ever be. There are so many people around me, and I can feel waves of their emotions washing over me.
This being the slums, there’s plenty of desperation, and greed. I can feel lust coming from a house where a smiling woman beckons us inside, and the need for victory coming from a gambling den. I can feel anger and fear, hunger and… strangely, hope.
I can also feel a spot where there’s fury and the potential for violence, thick enough that it’s as though I can taste it, like the iron tang of blood in the air. I can see them, hanging in a red haze over the roofs of one part of the slums.
“There’s something happening… there,” I say, gesturing to the houses, and it takes me a moment to find out what, pulling back from the wash of emotions enough to look at what’s going on there through the eyes of a bird flying above.
Houses enclose a kind of courtyard or square within, with a well at the center, and a small tree. Two gangs stand on opposite sides of the square, while a small group of people stand near the well, looking terrified, unable to get out. The gangs are hurling insults at one another, clearly about to fight in some deadly brawl over territory, or simply because they hate one another so much.
I pull my awareness back to myself, looking over at Alaric and Elanar.
“There’s about to be a fight,” I say. “Two gangs.”
“Then we should leave,” Alaric says. “I can’t put the two of you in danger.”
I shake my head. “There are innocent people caught in the middle.”
“There are still only three of us,” Alaric says. He gives Elanar a pointed look. “And one of usisn’ta former gladiator, and isn’t as young as he used to be, either.”
He seems to be expecting Elanar to back him up, but the elderly beast whisperer looks thoughtful.
“This could be a valuable opportunity to learn more,” he says. He starts to move closer. “And don’t underestimate what I can do, Alaric.”
I follow him, wondering what he means by this being an opportunity for me to learn. “What do you have planned?”
“It’s not so hard to guess,” Elanar says. “There are too many of them to fight easily, I assume?”
I look through the eyes of the bird again, and the old beast whisperer is correct. There are at least a dozen men on each side, all well armed. I have only the staff I’ve been using to train, and if Alaric has a sharp sword rather than the wooden ones he was using to train, that doesn’t feel like enough to take on so many people at once. Maybe I could break this up by sending in a wave of creatures, but there’s a chance that will only add to the chaos in the square, and get more people hurt.
“I’m not sure how to stop this,” I say. “Maybeif I call in enough birds?”
Elanar shakes his head. “You aren’t thinking the right way. Forget about beasts for now. Focus on what you can feel. Grasp the emotions you would the way you would the thoughts and feelings of an animal. Shift them the same way.”
It sounds like a lot to do at once, but it’s my best chance to help people here, so I must try. I stand in the middle of the street, reaching out for the anger and the rage building just a little way away. I can feel the currents of it feeding into one another, as if each person there is stoking the aggression of theothers nearby, getting ready for the moment when it will burst into violence.
I try to soothe the violence I can taste in the air, soothing it the way I might soothe the aggression of a wolf about to attack. I smooth away the red haze of the anger, replacing it with calm, taking away the urge to fight. I can feel confusion there now, as if the people within the small square can’t quite remember why they were about to kill one another.
I see gang members hurrying from it, backing away to regroup and perhaps remember their hatred. Alaric looks at me with amazement.
“That’s astonishing,” he says. “You did that?”
I nod, and he takes me by the arms, looking at me with eyes that aren’t his own, thanks to his illusions.
I can feel everything Alaric does in this moment. I can feel the desire he feels for me, and beneath that, the deeper waves of love. They hit me hard enough that I can’t quite recall which feelings are his and which are my own.
“I hate that we have to be apart,” Alaric says. He sighs. “I did it deliberately after the revolution. I thought I could protect you, but it hurts so much sometimes. All of this… I’m trying to be a better man, the kind of man who might deserve you.”
