She looked at Carter. “Should I?”
Glumly, he said, “You may as well. The bottom of the boat won’t be much protection if—”
The boat bumped gently into something and stopped moving, though the engine continued to run. Carter reached out and turned it off.
Fen sat up. The boat had run aground on an island. A man and a woman stood on the island, smirking at them. The woman was Asian and in her twenties, with black hair in a bob. She wore leather armor straight out of a Renaissance Fair. The man was white and older, with long straggly gray hair and a long straggly gray beard. He wore a long white garment something like a doctor’s coat and something like a wizard’s robe, embroidered all over with strange black symbols.
The pair had nothing in common, and yet they struck Fen as being two of a kind. After a moment, she placed it. They both looked incredibly smug.
“My name is Balin,” announced the man. “I am one of the ancient order of wizard-scientists, and I am here to claim my Dark Knight.”
Chapter 13
The worst thingabout the wizard-scientists, Carter thought, was being forced to take them seriously. They were pompous. Their collective name was ridiculous, and so were the individual names they took on. They wore absurd costumes. They ought to be a joke.
He’d also seen them nearly kill several of the Defenders, and drive others near to madness. Worst of all, they had no regard for innocent bystanders, but would ruthlessly cut down anyone who stood in their way. When they’d kidnapped Roland, a woman had tried to defend him. They’d taken her along with him, and their experiments had killed her. As far as Carter could tell, it had broken Roland’s heart as surely as if he’d been a shifter who had recognized his mate at first sight, and then discovered that she’d died alone at the hands of his enemies, before he could even learn her name.
Fen was an innocent bystander. She had nothing to do with the wizard-scientists, but if they decided she was a problem, they’d murder her as casually as if they were swatting a fly. They could do it, too. Just one of them had taken out the entire team of Defenders, apparently without even breaking a sweat.
“So itwasyou guys all along?” Fen asked. “Did you put Eldon McManus up to hiring the hunters, or was that whole thing a lie and Eldon had nothing to do with it?”
Balin’s lip curled in scorn. “I would never dirty my hands with such fools. No, I merely utilized an existing situation. When I learned of your rival’s scheme, I decided to allow his chosen hunters to exhaust and harry you before I stepped in myself.”
Fen glanced around nervously. “Where’d Sugar and Precious go?”
“Your little pets have fled,” said Balin. “Like your so-called friends, they have no true loyalty.”
“Bullshit!” Fen snapped.
“Don’t say another word,” Carter hissed at her. “And don’t do anything. They’ll kill you.”
Her elegant eyebrows arched in disbelief as she stared at the pair in their idiotic costumes, but he jerked his head at the frozen Defenders. She gave a reluctant nod. Carter was immensely relieved that she wasn’t going to try to do anything heroic. He had a horrible vision of her hurling a pawpaw at Balin and getting vaporized on the spot.
His monsters broke into an angry inner chorus.
Shift, hissed one.Shift and protect her!
Yes, shift,growled another.Slay the wizard!
The monsters began to chant in unison.Slay! Slay! Slay!
[murderous crimson]
[urgent dandelion yellow]
Carter resisted the urge to clutch his head. He didn’t have any better ideas—yet—but shifting was a bad one. Balin would freeze him, and then he’d be a frozen monster. In front of Fen. And the Defenders.
Shift and attack before he can do that!
Bite his head off!
Rip his throat out!
Crush him!
Choke him!
Tear him limb from limb!
