The Hunt (Shifter Origins) Page 4

  “There is still much work to be done to make this city great,” Rei Salus said. His fingers clutched the arms of his throne. The polished gems on his fingers sparkled. “I have done too much to keep Sajra from ruin after the death of the Nobles. It cannot all be lost after me.”

  “Vallius was a fool to put his trust in a panther. It cost him his life.” Regis Jaleh gave an obedient nod. “I’ll never understand why the Nobles refused to mate and preserve their line.”

  Salus smirked. “Maybe they knew the tigers were what Sajra needed to be great.”

  “You have managed to preserve and expand Sajra, my rei,” she replied.

  “The marketplace is booming now, isn’t it?” Salus reached into a pocket in his robes and pulled out a shiny new pressed coin. An imprint of a tiger mid-roar, with its ears flattened and sharp teeth exposed, marked the front. “There is now a price for everything, and our coins have been circling quickly. Soon, trading for goods will be a thing of the past. Everyone will have these in their pockets.”

  It was still warm when his father pressed it into the center of Kael’s palm. “Of course, we will keep a little more for ourselves,” he chuckled, his black mustache twitching.

  Kael didn’t respond. He only closed his fingers around the coin and watched his mother join in Salus’s laughter.

  “Because of these coins, the marketplace has tripled in size. All of Sajra wants to get their hands on them,” Rei Salus said. “Sajra is full of life again!”

  “And Prince Kael will continue the greatness after you,” Jaleh said, leaning forward to glance around Salus’s throne at Kael.

  Salus peered down at him, too. “Will you, Son?”

  There weren’t many times Salus referred to Kael as his son. He could count them on his fingers with some to spare. During those rare moments, Kael’s heart would always skip a beat. He nodded, and a grin spread across his face. “Of course, Father.”

  Shouts erupted outside. Stomping footsteps leaked in between the cracks and bounced off the walls. Rei Salus jumped to his feet just as the tall doors flew open. A girl, not much younger than Kael, burst into the room and threw herself onto the floor in front of Salus’s throne. A herd of guards filed in behind her. Gleaming black hair and a soiled dress were the first things Kael noticed. Even at his young age, he held a weapon. He gripped the hilt, but Rei Salus’s arm came out to stop him.

  “Please,” the girl choked. Her body trembled before them. “Please…my mother and father…they have been overcome with fever. I’ve come for help.”

  When the girl lifted her head, Kael’s breath froze in his lungs. Two glowing yellow orbs, glossed over with tears, stared back at him. Dirt smeared the creamy tan skin of her cheeks.

  “A panther!” Rei Salus snarled. “How did she get in here?”

  The hair lifted on the back of his neck at the word. Kael had heard about panthers before. He had been told the story of their city’s creation, of how the blessed mother, Sajra’s, spirit had split after her death and had created the lions first, the tigers second, and the panthers last. His father had warned him about their stealing, their lying, their cleverness, but he had never seen one before, especially this close. Kael couldn’t help but think that the panther girl looked very much like the other children he’d met, except for the darkness of her hair, brown of her skin, and the tatters of her clothing. To him, she didn’t seem like a thief or a liar. Her bottom lip quaked, and she wept into her hands. To Kael, she just appeared shaken, desperate, and scared.

  “Remove her,” Rei Salus ordered his guards.

  The girl’s piercing shriek rattled Kael’s ears. “My parents are dying! I’ll do anything. Please! I’ll work for the money or medicine. I’ll sit in the prison. Anything. Please…”

  Kael held his breath, his gaze snapping from his father to the girl and back again. His pulse quickened.

  When Salus held out a hand to pause the guards, Kael pushed all the air out. Maybe his father was thinking the same thing and had decided to help.

  “You expect me to believe you’ve come here for medicine,” his father said, stepping down. Still on her knees, she glanced up at him through tangled dark strands of hair. He towered over her, and an amused expression flashed across his face. “What do you really want?”

  “Nothing else,” she begged. “I have no money for the marketplace. No one will trade with me. Please, my rei, they don’t have much time. I’ll do anything if you—”

  “Liar!” Salus bellowed. Kael jerked in surprise at the power of his voice. “Panthers and their tricks! Do you think I’m a fool? After what the panthers did to Noble Vallius, you deserve nothing! Your fake tears don’t sway me. Take her away!”

  The guards stepped forward. They seized her by the arms and began to drag her out. She kicked and tugged against their holds. More guards grabbed her by the legs.

  She screamed. “My parents—they’ll die! They’ll die!”

  They carried her out, and when the doors closed again, Rei Salus returned to his white throne. The panther’s frantic cries echoed throughout the palace.

  Rei Salus pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed. “Those beasts like to test me,” he muttered.

  “You were right to push them to the end of the river,” Jaleh responded with a curt nod. “To make them live there, away from the rest of us.”

  “I know. I know…”

  Head whirling with what he’d just witnessed, Kael gripped the coin in his hand and stood.

  “Where are you going?” Salus shot up.

  “She just needs medicine or money,” he explained, voice wavering. “Her parents are dying. She needs this more than I do.”

  Salus snatched the gold piece out of his hand before he could take another step. “Panthers are liars, Kael. They’ll say anything to steal from you.”

  “But she was crying,” he replied. The sound of the girl’s shouts silenced, and Kael’s stomach sank. “I think she was telling the truth, Father.”

  “If you believed that, then you’ve fallen for the panther’s trickery.” His gaze hardened. “You’ll never be the rei that Sajra needs.”

  Kael hesitated, stealing one more glance at the throne room doors. He sank back into his chair, saying nothing more.

  In front of the burial cave, Regis Jaleh cleared her throat, jerking Kael from his memory. He ran his palms over his own snow-white and silver ceremonial robe. It reminded him of where he really was—at his father’s burial, seven years after he’d met Cara. Kael tried to imagine her after her parents’ deaths. He pictured her allowing silent tears to fall from her eyes and drip off her chin, like she had when trudging up the river with him and his guards. Her feelings were real—raw—just as they had been during his first encounter with her all those years ago. Yet he couldn’t even express an ounce of sorrow for his father, the Rei of Sajra, as he joined the Nobles in the afterlife forever.

  For some reason, this all felt wrong.

  If he had never met Cara, he wouldn’t be questioning his family or their traditions. She was different from him—the panthers were different from everyone. They stole. They lied. She knew nothing of him, or the tigers. He couldn’t let her words cloud his judgment. But still, Kael wanted to know more. He wanted to be sure he had done the right thing—for his family and for Sajra.

  “Prince Kael,” his mother said, her tone quick and sharp like the sound of a blade slicing through the air. She did not raise her eyes to him. “With Salus’s death, you must take your place as rei sooner than expected.”

  “Yes, Mother.” Kael clasped his hands behind his back. He’d known this conversation was coming. He just hadn’t expected it to be during his father’s burial. Like her, Kael forced his gaze forward, seeing only the cavern and the guards lining up in front of it, awaiting their next order.

  Regis Jaleh waved the guards away, along with the small group of musicians. When they were alone, she went on, “Sajra cannot wait until after you choose your mate and run in the Hunt. It nee
ds a ruler. I have already made arrangements for your ascension ceremony. It will be held the morning of the Hunt. You will become rei, announce your mate, and then run with her.”

  Four days. The Hunt was in only four days. Sajra had many young, pretty women, all of whom would leap at the chance to be his mate. None of them stayed in Kael’s thoughts, made his pulse soar or his breathing hitch. Flashing blank faces, that was all they were to him.

  Forget choosing a mate for love, like he had wanted, like his parents had not done. He wouldn’t have enough time for that.

  As if reading Kael’s thoughts, his mother threw him a warning glare. “Your decision affects all of Sajra. You’re mating for your people, for your bloodline. Have you even considered anyone for your regis yet?”

  Cara, naked and with a dangerous look in her eyes, materialized in his thoughts, with her creamy, tan skin, round breasts, and long legs. He swallowed. The vision shifted to the last image he had of her, sitting on the uneven stone floor of the prison cell, her lips pressed together, and tears rolling down her cheeks. And he had just closed the door.

  He blinked her away.

  “Kael—”

  His throat went dry. “No,” he choked.

  “You don’t have much time,” she replied. “Of course, I would prefer you choose a tiger, but there are plenty of beautiful leopards or cougars in Sajra. Whomever you choose, be sure she is the regis Sajra needs. Reserved. Supportive. Sensible.”

  Like his mother.

  Unsure of what else to say, he gave her a stiff nod. She returned it, spun around, and made her way back to the palace, leaving him alone. The morning sun hung higher in the sky, and the heat pressed against his face, making sweat bead on his brow and upper lip. Kael wiped it away with the back of his hand. He stared at the cavern where his father lay at rest beside the first rulers of Sajra.

  Rei Salus’s voice hummed against his eardrums. “If you believed that, then you’ve fallen for the panther’s trickery. You’ll never be the rei that Sajra needs.”

  Kael wanted to be the rei Sajra needed. He would prove it to his father, to his mother, to everyone, and he would do it with his first challenge—Cara. First, he needed the truth. The only way he was going to find it was by speaking to the lynx, the merchant in the marketplace that Cara had claimed to have traded with. If the lynx had never seen her, especially around Rei Salus’s announcement on the dais, then he could be sure she was lying to him.

  …

  When Kael came upon Sajra’s statue in the center of the marketplace, he ordered his two guards to stop at his side. The dais had been stripped of its burgundy drapes from the day before. It stood barren on spindly legs. Soon, it would be draped in vibrant reds and golds for his ascension ceremony, and for the Hunt. Then, he would be rei and mated to a woman he didn’t even know.

  Kael cleared his throat. He didn’t want to think about what lay ahead anymore. He needed to find the lynx’s tent and ask him about Cara, the scarf, and the rabbit meat.

  Rows and rows of tents and vendors’ tables surrounded Sajra’s statue, each one covered in sparkling gems, shiny silks, and trinkets to sell and trade. The soft whistle of a pipe played in the distance—a dreamy, soothing tune, unlike the blare of the ceremonial horn he had heard earlier that morning. Not many patrons were out today, and Kael attributed it to the rising temperature. The sun hung high in the blue sky, pushing a smothering haze down on the marketplace. Heat radiated from the packed red clay through the soles of his boots. Kael glanced down at his white ceremonial robes, wishing he didn’t have to wear the layers of fabric for the entire day, even if it was to honor his father.

  He spotted the place he had seen Cara standing after Rei Salus’s speech, behind the crowd and just out of the shadow of two vendor tents. One had its flap pinned open. He gestured his guards to stay put, and walked over.

  Kael stepped through the opening, bowing his head to fit inside. Multiple sharp scents assaulted his nostrils at once—jasmine, vanilla, rotting meat, and sweat. They were so overpowering he could taste them all colliding on his tongue. His eyes pricked. A strip of sunlight cut through the musty darkness inside. A single uncovered table adorned with two burning sticks of incense and an empty stool were the only objects occupying the space. He coughed, wondering where the putrid smells were coming from.

  “Blessed Mother, wait a second!” a raspy voice shouted from behind the tent’s rear opening. “I know you’re here. Rude, I swear.” The flap snapped back revealing a short man with pointed ears, squinting eyes, and long, grayish whiskers hanging from his thin mouth. The lynx.

  His clothes were baggy and a lifeless shade of brown—except for the brilliant green scarf tied around his leather belt. As he approached Kael, the beaded crystals shimmered in the sliver of daylight, throwing star-bursts of color onto the tent’s walls.

  Was that the headscarf Cara spoke of? Kael’s heart pounded. Had she been telling him the truth all this time?

  “Prince Kael,” the lynx stammered, finally realizing who had come to visit him. He bowed low, almost hitting his head on the table. When he stood up again, his eyes twitched from side to side. “Welcome, welcome! What brings you to my humble little booth?”

  “Did you trade with a panther yesterday afternoon?” Kael asked. He touched the new dagger sheathed at his hip, and the lynx’s eyes fell on it.

  His lips pulled back in a nervous smile. He was missing a few teeth. “I don’t like to associate with those creatures,” he said and swallowed. “Like everyone else.”

  “A panther named Cara claims she visited you yesterday. Is that true?” He locked gazes with the man, warning him not to lie.

  “I…” The lynx’s beady eyes flicked from Kael to the exit behind him. “I…don’t remember…”

  “I’m sure you do.” Kael ground his teeth. “I am trying to find the creature who killed the Rei of Sajra. Your information is valuable. You will not be punished for telling me the truth.”

  The man paused, his upper lip twitching. “I did trade with her,” he replied after a moment, but quickly added, “I had no idea she was going to strike back and murder Rei Salus. She spoke nothing about it to me. If I knew, I wouldn’t have allowed her to step foot in here.”

  Kael’s blood rushed faster through his veins. Cara had been here. She hadn’t been lying. “What did you trade with her?”

  The lynx’s hand flew to the jeweled fabric around his belt. “Some rabbit meat.”

  Kael’s lip curled up in a snarl. “And she gave you…”

  “My prince, you know panthers don’t have anything worth trading,” he snorted.

  A growl rumbled in Kael’s throat, his patience wearing thin. His skin prickled with building rage. There was movement behind him, and he could see the shadows of his guards drawing in closer. “I don’t have time for this, Lynx. Tell me what you traded with the panther.”

  Silence.

  Kael closed the space between them in two steps. Only the table separated them. He slammed his fist down, making the incense jump.

  The man yipped and looked up at Kael, eyes wide with panic. His long, curved fingers fiddled with the knot of the scarf. He wrenched it free and thrust it toward him.

  Kael snatched it. The material felt like water in his hands—cool and silky. It was lined in gold thread and decorated with real crystals in a swirling design.

  Realization hit him. This wasn’t just a scarf. This was a headdress worn during the run of the Hunt. It was a tradition in their city. The male would gift it to his mate, and she would wear the color of his family to show her acceptance.

  Cara had traded a Hunt headscarf for a little bit of rabbit.

  Kael’s heart dropped. Was it hers? It couldn’t be. Cara had told him she wasn’t mated. Then whose was it—her mother’s?

  A twinge of pain shot through his chest. Kael knew how Cara felt about her parents. She must have been desperate to barter away her mother’s scarf. It must have ripped her apart.

  She had
told him the truth. But how could he be sure she hadn’t left anything out of the story, like hiding in the shadow of a tent and shooting a poisonous dart at Rei Salus?

  Kael glared at the lynx. A fire heated his insides. “This is a Hunt headdress. It is worth more than a bundle of rabbit,” he snapped. “You know that.”

  “Well, yes, my prince,” the lynx began, “but she is a panther.” He spit the last word as if it was a curse. “And a guilty one at that. I saw you and your guards carry her away to the prison. She deserved every rock thrown at her.”

  Kael’s nails extended into claws. The lynx had cheated Cara out of meat. He had been one of the people at the top of the hill. He’d hurled a rock at them both. Furious, Kael gripped the table with both hands and flipped it over. It crashed onto the dirt floor, causing dust to erupt and swirl.

  The lynx fell to his knees and clutched his hands together in front of him. “Please, Prince Kael, I’m sorry. I’ll never sell to a panther again!”

  “You will never cheat anyone out of their trade again,” he commanded, his voice rumbling, “or my guards will close your tent for good.”

  “Yes, yes. Of course, my prince.”

  Kael tied the headscarf around his own belt, like the lynx had done. The green color stood out even more against the whiteness of his robes. Then, he shoved his hand into his pocket, pulled out two coins, and tossed them at the lynx. “For what the rabbit was worth.”

  As the lynx sifted through the dirt for the coins, Kael left the tent and stepped back into the blurring heat. His guards stood there, spines straight, waiting for his command.

  Kael sucked in a deep breath of fresh air, knowing exactly what he had to do. His next stop was the prison.

  …

  Despite her aching muscles, Cara rose to her feet. Her joints cracked and popped in protest. The sharp scent of urine mixed with the sour, dank smell of mold stung her nose. Dry grass lay scattered across the cold stone floor and sat in two heaps against opposite walls. She wondered how many prisoners had come in and out of this cell and used the piles to relieve themselves. Hot bile rose up, burning her throat, and disgusted, she swallowed it down.