Chapter Seven
“You should tryplayingI Eat You,” Zynda said, walking beside me. I didn’t realize she was there until she’d spoken—a daunting indicator of my level of distraction.
“Shouldn’t you be going to the council chambers?” I asked her mildly, to cover the surprise that she’d snuck up on me. Twice in one day, between her and Ursula.
To be fair, the Tala shapeshifters move uncannily fastand silently. Kral was right—I had gotten faster, entirely from sparring with Ursula. Even as a partblood who couldn’t actually shapeshift, she could move like lightning striking. Zynda was not only a fullblood, she was likely the most talented shapeshifter alive. It didn’t pay to forget that, as much as she seemed to be a graceful and lovely woman in human form, she was also the dragon. Not tomention any number of other lethal and predatory forms I’d seen her take.
She smiled at me, all blue-eyed beauty and friendliness, no frown of concern for my previous behavior. “I will go there. Eventually. But they don’t need me for the talk-talk-talking. I loathe that stuff anyway. I’m just the transportation.”
I snorted, the half-laugh another surprise. “And I’m just a mercenary soldier.”
Her smile took on a rueful twist. “None of our lives are as simple as they once were. But, in fact, Jepp and Kral are the messengers, and Marskal knows everything I do.” She shrugged in her languid Tala way, pushing her hair off her shoulders and stretching her arms up to the sun. “Sparring with you gives me an excuse not to have to be inside those horrid stone walls any longer than necessary.”
“Are we going to spar?” I asked.
“Yes, thank you!” She smiled radiantly, as if I’d invited her. “When you mentioned the training yard I figured I could be useful, so my cousin won’t worry that you’re going to kill your brother. Do you want to talk about it?”
“No,” I replied definitively.
“Good. I’m a terrible listener.” She laughed when I slanted her a glance. “We all have our strengths. Ifit were me, I’d rather try to kill something than talk about my feelings, too. I’ll teach you to playI Eat You.”
We’d reached the training yard, now empty with everyone either retired for midday meals or at their guard stations. I’d been planning a good workout, it was true—alone, so I could fume to myself—but sparring with a shapeshifter of Zynda’s caliber could be interesting. “All right.What are the rules?”
“Quite simple. I shift to a form, try to best you in it. You counter with something that can top that.”
“I can’t shapeshift,” I pointed out, somewhat unnecessarily.
“But you have many weapons and fighting techniques. Basically, it’s a test—which of my forms can best you, which of your weapons can best me. And remember, I heal when I shift, so don’t worry about pulling yourstrikes.” She grinned. “Do your worst, mercenary.”
“I don’t heal magically, so watch your claws, shapeshifter.” This began to sound fun. With my blood still hot, I drew my sword, swinging it to loosen my muscles.
Her smile took on a feral edge. “Just try not to actually kill me. Marskal would be most put out and we don’t need any more manly displays today.” With that taunt, she shifted intoa tiger. I barely registered the sight of the big cat—astonishingly orange, ribbed in black warning stripes, mouth opened in a mighty snarl that had frozen plenty of warriors in their shoes—before she leapt at me.
I barely dodged those lethal claws, coming up under her belly with an upward, two-handed heave of the broadsword that connected with a satisfying bite. Or started to, because she vaporizedat the edge of my blade, becoming a raptor that dove with a shriek. Talons slashed down my upraised arm before I countered with a hastily drawn short blade, my broadsword heavy in one hand on a backstroke too distant to bring it to bear in time.
Next time, I’d make a pile of weapons to access. A bow or spear would be handy. The raptor—was it an eagle? I couldn’t get a clear look at her and itdidn’t matter—buffeted me with stunning blows of its wings, hooked beak going for my eyes. I dropped the sword, as it was too big for close infighting like this, and seized the bird by the slender neck, squeezing.
And found myself embracing a fucking grizzly bear. My fisted hand slid uselessly off the thick throat as the bear roared in my face, stopping my heart, and then wrapped its great armsaround me in a deadly vise so that my spine cracked, the fanged jaws closing over my head. I was done for. I’d be so done for if this was to the death.
But I still had my dagger and I drove it up, into the soft cavity under the rib cage, into its heart, putting all of my muscle into it. Hot blood gushed over my hand, along with entrails and the scrape of bone resisting, then cracking. I roared,too, into the bear’s steaming maw, my defiance and rage in the face of death.
And it was gone.
Zynda—remarkably composed in her pretty blue dress, hair sleek and flowing—stood barefoot before me with a slender hand pressed over her heart. Her eyes huge and dark blue as the deepest ocean regarded me with shock. “Moranu, Harlan—I told you not to kill me!”
I looked down at my dagger hand, coveredin blood and gore. Why did the fleshly aspects of the bear remain when the animal itself had vanished? In this, too, I shared Ursula’s uneasiness with shapeshifting. A profoundly strange magic. “You had my entire head in your jaws,” I pointed out, very reasonably. “All you had to do was bite down a fraction more to end me.”
“Yes, but I didn’t,” she snapped. Then burst out laughing. “Well played,Dasnarian. I’m only glad Zyr didn’t see this. He’d never let me hear the end of it. Beaten by a mossback.”
I found myself grinning back at her and rolled my head on my neck, feeling the bear’s bruising grip in my spine. “My ancestors thank you. I’m sure more than one faced an actual grizzly in the forests of Dasnaria.”
“Two out of three?” she suggested with raised brows.
It had felt good notto have to hold back. “You’re on. But I’m stockpiling some weapons for this round.”
“Sure.” She pretended to examine her nails like a lady of court. “But I won’t go so easy on you this time.”
“Same,” I told her.
