Sneak Peek at Prologue & Chapter One

 

 

Prologue 

 

Darkness settled over the city as the lamps dimmed to conserve energy. Curfew was never truly enforced outside the slums, but no sane or respectable person had reason to be out this late anyway.

A lone hooded figured slipped down the dark street into alleys moving further and further from the noble district border. The gaps grew smaller as the buildings became one solid lane framing well used cobble and dirt streets.

 The young man paused to look around before turning down a narrow space between stores – less of an ally and more of a gap where the buildings had begun to sag and disintegrate. Several feet in he gave a sharp whistle and waited.

“Punctual,” a woman’s voice spoke from the shadows. “Unusual for your type.”

“I keep my appointments,” he stated easily, his voice confident and smooth. “You were successful?”

“Sir,” the woman chuckled. “The Shades are always successful. Do you have our payment?”

“As agreed, plus a little for your impressive skills. The magi still have not reported anything suspicious.”

“Nor will they,” she laughed brightly, stepping from the shadows; a slight form with a heavy hood covering her head. “You came alone? Awfully risky, isn’t it?”

“I have no intent of deceiving you, and I know how your company works. You would never risk a good customer for something as petty as a few extra rouns.”

The woman approached him, tipping her head until he could see her mischievous smile in the waning moonlight. “You’re right, sir. Consider me surprised. I expected a fleet of batair to accompany you.”

“My business is mine alone. I have no need to involve anyone else.”

“Ooooh, I smell secrets!” Her voice filled with hungry amusement.

“Ones I intend to keep to myself,” he stated firmly.

The woman shook her head slightly. “Secrets have a way of finding daylight eventually; Heir Prince…”

He tensed. “I’m not—"

“No sense lying to us, Your Highness. We do our research. Don’t fret your pretty little head though. We know a powerful connection when we turn one. Our lips are sealed so long as you keep our favor.”

It was hardly comforting, but the noble would accept it for now. After all, what proof did they have? He only had to bide his time.

He pulled a pouch from his belt and handed it to the woman. “Check if you like.”

She took it and tucked it away immediately. “No need. I trust you.” Just as quickly she produced a satchel. “Check if you like,” she repeated with a mocking grin.

“No need,” the young man sighed. “I trust your work.”

“Call on us again, Your Highness. You know how to reach us.”

“Of course.”

The woman vanished back into the shadows and the man quickly retreated from the alley. He was not sure what to think. He had been so careful to keep his identity to himself, but he knew the risk of dealing with the Shades. Now they knew who he was and could leverage it over him should they choose to use it. He was going to have to watch his step and keep on their good side for now. Born-confidence alone – it seemed – would not be enough to get him to his goal.

  

Chapter One 

 

The Warren

 

Kaidi wondered what would kill her first. Her father’s oppressive, silent disappointment or the reaming he would give when they got home? He had not spoken of her rash decision for the four days of travel back to their home in the mountains.

She kept her gaze on the road they passed over, painfully aware of her father sitting on the driver’s perch behind her. The wagon bumped and swayed as they moved down the rough path. She didn’t need to look to know he was scowling. He didn’t act out in anger, at least not so often now that she was grown. It took something really reckless and stupid to cause his wrath.

Like stealing a little mark girl from the capital city.

She pulled the shivering bundle closer to her side. The child inside, barely a yearling, sniffed and wiped the tears from her eyes. The stinging wind hardly helped.

Addie was a mark, easily identified by the long ears on her head, and the two tiny horn buds barely poking from her rusty red hair. It had clearly been chopped short by careless hands. Freckles spotted her nose and fearful face, large doe eyes trying to see beyond the open wagon to the world around them. She was dreadfully small for her age. It was hard to say if it was due to malnutrition, or just her particular breed. Marks, even a year from birth, grew quickly, more so if they were born in their animal shift.

They still knew so little about her, but Kaidi didn’t care. She stood by her choice to take the girl away. By human standards, Addie looked nine or ten. As a mark she could be even younger. Certainly she was old enough to be sold off for in-home help. Old enough to be beaten and put to work by some soulless merchant.

By Kaidi’s standards, Addie was still just a little girl that should have been running around playing with friends. She didn’t deserve the life of a mark – not that any mark truly deserved that life – and that’s why Kaidi stole her.

Which was probably why her father was so silent. She couldn’t blame him. Had they not escaped from the city, she would be dead and her father would be dead or in prison, and Addie… Addie might have been returned to that horrible man, or she would have been culled for allowing herself to be stolen.

Once a year under the guise of being an albino bull, covered from head to toe with a cuff and papers instead of a tag stamped into her ear. She carried things for her father, like a good little mark, and kept her mouth shut.

That’s where she had seen Addie and made what could have been the last stupid decision she ever made had things gone wrong.

Marks that looked like Kaidi were owned and operated under the militant batair or, on rare occasions, alongside a constable. Normal folk didn’t have the money or the clearance for a predator mark like a lion. One held by someone without a proper license would be killed on sight. However, Kaidi was not a mark. She had never shifted and never would.

She looked down at the small girl who was still having trouble looking back at her. Kaidi couldn’t fully blame her for that, she looked like a lion, after all. During their first encounter Addie had been afraid she was going to eat her.

Kaidi was a mix of two worlds, not fully as she looked and not fully human. Her father was human – not a native with his dark skin and shaved head, an oddity to be sure. Not many southerners made their way north to Lohesh, but he didn’t warrant more than a curious glance. Humans traveled freely in Rouna, regardless of their heritage.

Her mother was felid; a native of the far south where her father originated and where they had crossed paths. Kaidi didn’t know much about her heritage, only that she looked like her mother – according to her father.

Sandy gold fur covered her body and her rounded ears stood from long dark hair that she kept pulled back and plaited. Her sharp teeth and claws certainly got her into trouble growing up. Learning her strength and how to be careful had been challenging. Her father had the scars to prove it.

No, Kaidi and Addie were different in every way possible. Addie, born into slavery. Kaidi, grown up with a loving home and community. They did share one thing. Both were born into a world that didn’t want them. At least that’s the sense she got from her father whenever she asked about where she came from.

The loud whinny of a horse snapped her out of her thoughts. She sat up and looked over the side of the wagon. A gray-dappled mountain pony with a familiar rider trotted up the road toward them. The heavy-set, stout creature was born for the harsh winters and deep snow and could travel for days without rest.

Her father, T’atje, called out to the tall man. “Einar! What brings you this far up?”

“You. You’re late.” Einar pulled his pony alongside the wagon, looking over T’atje and Kaidi. His peppered brown hair showed his age more clearly than the thin lines on his face. “Trouble?”

“Nothing serious. Just a delay.” T’atje said with a deep sigh.

“Uh-huh,” Einar looked over the wagon a bit longer, taking in the load of goods they were bringing back for the village. “You weren’t robbed?”

“No,” he promised.

“See anything on the road on your way?”

T’atje frowned. “Like what?”

Einar pushed his pony further forward until he was in line with T’atje. “I’ve been tracking something through the forest. Big beast.”

“What kind of beast? A bear?”

Einar shook his head. “No. I haven’t been able to get a clear look of it, but it’s definitely not a bear. Tracks read wolf – but wrong.”

Kaidi felt her stomach turn sour and she hugged Addie a little closer.

T’atje scanned the trees around them. “You don’t think it’s a grimmaulid, do you?”

“I’m afraid so,” Einar sighed.

It couldn’t be a grimmaulid. Those beasts never came down from the mountains into the valley. Especially not this close to The Warren’s borders.

They were said to be large, wolf-like beasts made of nightmares. Like living-dead things with crimson eyes, too-big teeth, and fur that appeared to fall from their bones. It was said their howls could take years from your life. At least, that’s what she believed from Einar’s stories. Kaidi had never seen one and hoped she never would. The idea that one could be prowling their forests sent chills straight down her spine.

“It’s too big to be a normal wolf, let alone anything else. Got a glimpse of fur through the trees, it blends in too well. Evasive too.” Einar continued.

“Just what we need...” T’atje rubbed his face with one hand. “Have you told Bethany?”

He shook his head. “Not yet. I wanted to get a better look at it before I jumped to conclusions but looks like that’s not happening. I’ll let her know, see if she senses anything and I’ll warn the village.”

“Since when do they come into the valley?” Kaidi asked. “Did something happen to the tree markers?”

He shrugged. “Nobody knows what those beasts think. Just stay out of the forest. I don’t want to have to come save your tail.”

Kaidi pushed off the alarm and smirked at the older hunter. She had known Einar her whole life and despite the man’s gruff presentation, she knew he was a softie. “You have it backwards, old man.”

Einar chuckled; green eyes full of pride. “Maybe most days, but I don’t think so with this one, kid. It’s a grimmaulid.”

“Best for us to get home quickly then,” T’atje interjected.

“Who’s the new kid?” Einar asked, never one for tact.

Kaidi sat up straighter, bracing herself for anger from Einar too. “Addie. She’s coming home with us.”

Einar studied her tense posture and challenging expression. “So, that’s why you were late?”

Her ears pinned and her tail thumped against the side of the wagon. “She needed help,” Kaidi stated unapologetically.

Between Kaidi’s aggressiveness and the way T’atje avoided eye contact Einar was quick to assume the situation. “I see.”

“No harm done,” T’atje tried to dismiss the unspoken accusation. “I’ve cleared up anything that would prevent us from trading in Lohesh. We will just need new documents if Kaidi’s going to go back with me.”

“Maybe she shouldn’t then,” Einar suggested. “It was always a big risk anyway.”

“I can behave myself. I am not a child,” Kaidi huffed indignantly. “Dad shouldn’t have to go alone.”

“There’s plenty of capable people who could – and should – accompany him in your place.”

Kaidi grit her teeth. “I can do my share.”

“I didn’t say you couldn’t. I said it’s more risk than you should take,” Einar didn’t back down from her aggression. He was one of the few people in The Warren that was not threatened by Kaidi’s big teeth and sharp claws.

“We will discuss this later,” T’atje told them both. “We have all winter to make a plan.”

Kaidi swallowed a growl but let the argument end there. She was not going to give in so easily. Going to Lohesh was the only time she got to travel beyond The Warren and the idea of giving that up made her feel sick.

Einar and T’atje talked as they continued down the mountain road, traveling through the thick forest. Kaidi found herself watching the dark shadows for the creature Einar had mentioned.

“Kaidi?” Addie’s small voice whispered from under the furs beside her.

She turned to see the girl’s big brown doe-eyes peeking out at her. One was still swollen and dark from the black eye she had when Kaidi found her.

“Hey, kiddo. How are you doing?” She gently brushed her cheek with the back of her hand.

“Why’s it so dark?”

Kaidi chuckled and pulled the girl into her lap, encouraging her to look around. She was so small and underweight. Kaidi guessed she might be a type of gazelle. Lohesh had mark breeds of every kind, it wasn’t uncommon to find something flashy alongside something mundane.

“We’re in the valley,” Kaidi explained. “The tall mountains and the forest all around us block out a lot of the sun.”

Addie shivered in her lap as she looked around. “Is it going to be like this all the time?”

“No. When we get closer to The Warren, the trees clear out. It’s bright and sunny there, I promise.”

“Okay,” the girl tucked against her, her nervous eyes darting around, searching the trees. She cowered a little more when she saw Einar riding near the front of the wagon leaning close to Kaidi to whisper. “Who’s that?”

“That’s Einar. He came to make sure we made it home safely.”

“Does he know I’m here?” Her voice was so small Kaidi could barely hear her.

“Of course he does.” Kaidi rubbed her arm. “Don’t worry, he’s a good guy.”

“Look,” T’atje called from the driver’s seat. “There’s the village.”

Addie pushed up as far as she could without leaving Kaidi’s lap to catch a glimpse of what T’atje was pointing out. She could just make out the beginning of fields lining the road further down the mountain and the village just beyond.

“We’ll be there by sunset.”

“It’s so… small,” Addie murmured.

Kaidi was amused by her remark. She remembered her first trip to Lohesh, she had been awed at the massive size of the city. The walls around it stretched into the horizon and the tiered levels seemed to touch the sky. It had been so massive and claustrophobic.

She could only imagine that traveling the wide untamed lands between the city and the mountains had to be an alarming experience for a young mark who had never been beyond its walls.

“That’s part of what makes it so safe,” T’atje explained. “We have a community that works together to make sure everyone is well fed, safe, and happy no matter their situation.”

“What will I do?” She strained to pick out more houses in the distance.

“Whatever you like,” Kaidi promised.

Addie frowned, not understanding. “But what will my tasks be?”

“Only tasks you want,” T'atje explained patiently. “But not until you settle into life here, and what it means to be free.”

Addie shook her head, unable to wrap her mind around what he was saying. “But…”

Kaidi smiled softly and brushed her head between her tiny horns. “Don’t worry about it too much, kiddo. You’ll see.”

“O-okay,” she stammered.