Chapter Seven
Jasper ran a hand over his face and brushed the rain soaked bangs out of his eyes. He glanced at Luke. His brother sat with his back to a tree, his clothing and hair just as wet as his.
“What do you think?” He looked into the sky. The night was black with the lack of moons and starlight.
“I think he’s probably in Mydens right now, having a mug of sloan with a hot bowl of stew, sitting next to a toasty fire.” Luke shook his head and sent droplets of water spraying back into the rain. He stood and hung his pack over his shoulder. “Let’s go.”
Jasper nodded and the brothers set off once again.
“Jasper?”
“Hmmm?”
“What are you going to do after this?”
The Namael frowned. “I hadn’t thought that far ahead. What about you?”
Luke shrugged. “I suppose I’ll go home.”
“Will Mel be upset?”
He shook his head. “No. I’m not sure how to explain it, really, but she’s different, yeah?”
Jasper nodded. “Yeah. She didn’t even look upset when she met us. I mean, she looked surprised; I was certain she was going to pass out, but she didn’t. Any other woman might have tried to kill you in your sleep after the fact.”
Luke grinned. “I know. I worried about it for a while. I really have no idea why she can handle being fated to me. Her father is a captain in Damian’s army. She was brought up in a den where it was regularly said that the only good Namael was a dead one and yet despite her upbringing, she is able to tolerate being mated with me.”
“Technically, you’re not Namael, Luke. You do still shift into a dog.” He glanced at his brother. “And what about you? Do you feel any different now that you’re bound to Damian?”
Luke raised an eyebrow at him and slowed so they were walking. “I’ll admit I’m a bit insulted by the question.
“It’s a fair question.”
“No, it’s not. Yes, I’m bound to Damian and yes, I’m bound to Mel.” He frowned. “But at last count, I’ve killed more Majs in the past two days than you have.”
“That’s not what I meant.” Jasper stopped walking and grabbed Luke by the arm to stop him. “I didn’t mean to imply that you’d think less of us.” He didn’t try to hide the guilt he felt as his brother glared at him. “Luke, dog or not, you’re my brother.” He swallowed hard. “It’s just us now.”
Luke’s anger dissipated instantly. “I know.”
They continued in silence for a few minutes. Jasper ducked under a branch and glanced back.
“What I was trying to ask was whether or not you were planning on joining the Maj army.”
Luke ducked under the same branch. “I’m not sure. It’s a good living; I’d make more than enough money to support a family when it happens. I just… I’m not sure I could kill a cat just because I was ordered to.” He took a deep breath. “I really don’t know, Jasper.”
Jasper gave his brother a pat on the back and they started off at a job once again. He glanced up into the sky as the rain continued to fall. Two hours later, the brothers were able to see the faint glow of candles burning in the windows.
“Do you know where the inn is?”
Luke nodded and started into town. “By the moons, just don’t shift.”
Jasper grunted. “You managed to pass yourself off as a cat for ten years. I’m sure I can pretend to be a dog for one night.”
The innkeeper, an older gentleman with silver hair and eyes just as blue as Jasper’s, looked up and grinned as the brothers walked through the door.
“Good evening, my young friends. How goes your night?”
Luke smiled. “It will be going splendidly if you can tell us there’s a room available.”
The innkeeper chuckled. “Indeed I can.” He made his way from behind the counter and unlocked the first room down the hall. He gazed at Jasper for a moment. “You’ll be wanting a door near the exit.”
Jasper frowned. “Any room will do, thank you.”
“My name’s Blue.” He walked into the room. “Because of the eyes, yeah?” He turned his attention to Luke. “Keep your friend out of trouble.”
“He’s my brother.”
Blue snorted. “Dark brown hair and light blue eyes is a rare combination indeed for a Maj to be born with.”
“A lot of Majs have blue eyes,” protested Luke.
Blue raised an eyebrow at him. “Dark blue, yes.” He closed the door and motioned for the brothers to sit on the bed. Neither obliged him and he shrugged off the lack of trust on their part. “My real name’s Byron.” He looked each of them intently. “Of Pinsaber.”
Jasper felt his mouth fall open and couldn’t do anything to stop it. “By the moons, you’re a Namael?”
Blue nodded. “It’s a long story that includes me being accused of murdering my mate twenty years ago after which I ran off to hide and ended up here.”
“So who killed your mate?” Jasper wondered how much to believe. Was it possible the man was telling the truth?
“It was my brother. He thought if the one I was fated to was dead, that he might fate. You know, the whole ‘only one twin can fate’ rule.”
Luke grunted. “And we’re to believe you’re a Namael and that you’ve been living here in Maj territory for the past twenty years?”
Instead of pleading his case, the innkeeper’s form flickered and rematerialized as a cheetah in front of them. He sat on his haunches, tail twitching, his head cocked to the side then shifted back, the amusement he was feeling at the brothers’ obvious shock clear on his face.
“But how have you managed to avoid being found out? No one’s questioned you?”
“They have.” Blue sat in the chair before answering Jasper’s question. “I don’t shift. Ever. When a being asks, I tell them I’ve been cursed by a Wedelven witch and simply can’t.”
“But what about your mark? If you pegged me for a Namael due to my eyes others have done the same to you.” Jasper reached back to the straight line all Namaels had behind their ear while Luke reached back to the crescent the Majs were born with.
Blue grinned. “They can accuse all they want, but the fact of the matter is, without my mark, they can’t prove I’m not what I say I am.”
Luke frowned. “All shifters are born with a mark.”
The innkeeper nodded. “They are. However, when I realized I’d be moving to Maj territory, I used a hot piece of steel and burned the back of my ear. All that’s visible is a scar.” He turned his attention to Jasper. “Now, what I would like to know is what, in the name of the moons, you are doing here?”
“That would be none of your business.”
Blue grunted. “It wouldn’t have anything to do with the idiot that came in this morning?”
Luke shrugged. “I’m sure you get a lot of idiots in here.”
“Ah, I do, tough not many of them start to brag about what he’s done to a family of tigers after he’s had too much to drink. And they definitely don’t tell me about their plans to get their hands on another Namael girl due to the fact he had so much fun with the last one he’d had the pleasure of meeting.”
He watched as the brothers went from curious and semi-relaxed to tense and wild. It was almost as if the two of them had shifted, but stayed in their human forms. He stood and held his hands up in a sign of peace.
“He’s in the pub right now.”
“Which room is his?” growled Luke.
“It’s the one right next to this one. I had a feeling you’d want easy access.” He glanced at Luke curiously. “What does this have to do with you?”
“That was also my family he killed.”
“But you’re Maj?”
Luke blinked and some of the anger was released by confusion. “I was raised by Namaels.”
“But you turn into a dog?”
Luke nodded.
&nbs
p; Any further explanation was interrupted by the sound of drunks stumbling down the hall.
“The man you’re looking for, he’ll be the one with the scar?”
Jasper nodded. Blue opened the door to see who was coming down the hall. Luke and Jasper froze as the man they were searching for glanced into the room and stopped short. He stumbled slightly and peered at Jasper.
“Do I know you?” he slurred.
“No, sir, I don’t believe we’ve met before.” Jasper tried to keep a civil tone. To start a fight in an inn deep in Majs territory would mean certain death.
The man stumbled toward him. “Sure we have.” He frowned and leaned against the doorway. “I killed you.”
His friends slapped his back and laughed as though he’d just said the funniest thing in the world.
“Come on, Jim. Obviously, you didn’t kill him. He’s standing right there.”
Jim blinked and tried to focus on the men standing before him. Blue stepped between them and looked to a black haired man standing behind the man who had killed the brothers’ family.
“Kale, you’re home early. How was hunting?”
“We found a herd two days after we left town. It doesn’t get much better than that. Who are the pups?” Kale looked curiously past the innkeeper.
“These are my sister’s boys. I promised to put them to work for a few months.”
Kale smiled. “Make sure he doesn’t work you too hard, boys.” He grabbed Jim by the arm and steered him to the next room. “Come on, Jim. Go sleep it off.”
Blue stood in the doorway. “Have a good night’s rest, boys. I imagine you’ll need it tomorrow.”
Jasper and Luke looked at each other once the door had shut.
“I’ll take first watch.” Jasper sat by the window and tried to see the moons through the rain clouds.
Luke stripped down to just his pants. “You won’t do anything stupid while I’m asleep?”
Jasper smiled sadly. “Luke, I want the man to die for what he did, but this isn’t a suicide mission.”
Luke nodded. “Wake me in three hours.”
Jasper leaned his head against the cool window pane and listened to the rain drops hitting the glass. He closed his eyes and thought about what he’d just told his brother. After what had happened, did he actually want to go home once this was done? Was going home an option? Could he bear to step foot in a cabin where every room would remind him of what had happened to his family? No, he didn’t think so. Did he want to go on living when his entire family had been butchered? He opened his eyes and glanced at Luke who was already snoring lightly on the bed. No, not his entire family; he still had Luke, and through his brother, Mel. He closed his eyes once more and took a deep breath. He tried to imagine letting himself get killed during the upcoming fight, or even simply shifting in the inn and letting the beings there take his life. His jaw clenched. No. The bastards wouldn’t get him as well.
Jasper felt a spark flare deep inside of him as a low growl made its way up his throat. Never again, he silently promised the rain outside. He’d do his damnedest do make sure something like this didn’t happen again. He’d give his life to be sure no other cub ever came home to find his or her family butchered. He felt his father’s General’s ring sitting in his pocket. It seemed he’d be joining the Queen’s guard after all.