'What's happened?'
Faint cries carried on the night air. Two scouts guarded Jedit Ojanen, bound to a tree a mile from the village. He'd remain isolated, they'd said, until the moon was fully set and Johan properly executed and buried.
Yet more cries and a hideous wail of a tiger grieving set them all twitching.
'Terrent Amese!' rumbled one guard. 'Could it be an attack?'
'You mean the Khyyiani?' asked the other.
'It's not the season.' Jedit growled, still angry at his impotence. His hands and arms were swaddled in rope.
'Bite your tongue, Jedit!' One guard shook his spear in the prisoner's face. 'We've had naught but trouble since you found that manling! Likely when you and he traipsed all over Efrava, you led a war party of Khyyiani straight to us!'
More cries from the village, more sobbing than fighting. Finally one guard said, 'Go. I'll watch his highness.'
The guard departed at a trot. The other paced, shifting his spear from hand to hand. Jedit looked at the moon just risen.
'If there's a raid,' he said, 'you should free me. The execution of the manling can wait-'
He jumped as something brushed his back, then realized it was a paw, small and soft. Unmoving, he blithered, 'Uh, that is… Ruko would let me go.'
One by one the ropes binding Jedit were severed by a razor claw. Jedit flexed his wrists. 'They'll need every warrior in the village-'
'Will you belt up?' Torn between duties, the guard whirled on Jedit and was knocked cold by a fist like a sledgehammer.
'Hestia.'
The small she-tiger stepped from shadows. 'Jedit. I slipped away from my family. I had to see you. Something's gone horribly wrong in the village. People panic and wail.'
Not knowing the problem, Jedit didn't know how to proceed, especially given his prisoner status. 'I'll… circle around and keep out of sight.'
'Go.' Hestia's large eyes were moist by moonlight. 'I fear I shan't see you again.'
'You will,' said Jedit. 'I promise. Terrent Amese be my witness, I'll return.'
For a moment, electricity crackled with a thousand things unsaid. Then Hestia grabbed Jedit's huge shoulders, pulled him close, and pressed her muzzle to his. To exchange breath was a tiger's kiss. She pushed him away. To not say goodbye was another custom.
Jedit loped off, veering west to circle the village and its queer, spine-chilling wails. Dashing through the jungle, eyes alert for bare footprints, Jedit covered miles in minutes. Yet his target was ridiculously easy to find. Of all things, Jedit heard three voices in the middle of nowhere.
At a wide spot in the trail, Johan faced Ruko and another tiger scout. Jedit assumed Johan had been led from the village to be executed by the two designated scouts. Yet the three conversed as calmly as neighbors gossiping in the marketplace. Slowing to a jog, Jedit advanced until all three turned his way.
The tiger-man rubbed his nose, mightily puzzled. The lone man showed no fear or apprehension of the scouts. By starlight, the man's bony face was luminous as a bleached skull, completely placid. Why didn't Ruko move to intercept Jedit?
'Johan. Ruko.' Unsure of his mission or stance, Jedit blurted, 'What of the execution?'
Ruko's face was blank. 'Execution? Oh, it's been stayed. Johan and I are talking instead.'
'Talk?'
In the darkness, Johan's black eyes were invisible, so his bone-white face seemed blind. He toyed with his enchanting stone. 'Yes, we talk. People should be allowed to go where they will. No one should stop them. Isn't that true?'
'What?' asked Jedit. 'What nonsense is this?'
'I wished to leave and did.' Johan stared. 'I met this patrol, and no one should be restrained against their will. Isn't that true?'
'True,' echoed Ruko and the guard.
'Wait! Why the wailing in the village?' Jedit shook his head, whiskers shivering. His skull buzzed as if full of bees, making him dizzy.
'Oh,' said Ruko, 'someone died.'
'No one important,' added Johan.
The mage's brow began to ooze sweat. These tigerfolk had alien minds not easily subdued. Lucky there were only three, or Johan would fry his brain controlling them. Gasping, concentrating, he rattled to sink the hook.
'I go my way, and you go yours. Back to the village. That's reasonable, isn't it? Sensible? I gain my home, you yours. I go. Won't you agree?'
'Agreed,' said Ruko.
'And I?' Jedit blinked amber-green eyes as a fog floated in. Queer on such a starry night.
'You?' Johan sucked wind for energy. 'You go with me, by your own choice. To find your father. Jaeger will be glad. You come with me. All right?'
'Yes.' Having decided, or so he thought, Jedit said to Ruko. 'I go with Johan. You return to the village.'
Abruptly the two scouts whirled. Johan recalled that this race never said goodbye, thinking it bad luck. Winded, exhausted, he blurted, 'Wait!'
The scouts whirled, amazingly fast, and for a second Johan thought they'd shed his spell, but he put out a hand and gingerly brushed the hafts of their stabbing spears. 'I only wanted to say, your spears are impressive weapons. Fine workmanship. Lovely rich-grained wood. Now go.'
Wrinkling noses at the odd comment, without further ado Ruko and the scout turned east. Immediately Johan jogged west.
Jedit trotted to catch up. 'What's the hurry?'
'Uh, to gain the desert before dawn.' Johan cursed, tired of fabricating lies for cretins. 'We've a long way to go. To see your father.'
'Oh, yes.' Still squinting against the fog in his mind, Jedit loped alongside the barefoot mage.
Meanwhile, Ruko and the other scout had paced a hundred yards, eager to return to their village and-what? They couldn't remember their mission. A furious buzzing filled their heads, but Ruko marked it down to fatigue. In the village they could rest. Except…
Ruko stopped short and snuffled his black nostrils. 'I smell smoke.'
'Queer,' said the scout. 'My spear feels-'
Fwash! With a whisper and whoop, their thick spears suddenly ignited. The tiger scouts dropped the burning shafts immediately, crying in pain and surprise, but the magical immolation had already spread. Flames surged up their arms, across their chests, down their bellies, and around their necks until their shaggy heads were wreathed in flames. Acrid smoke spiraled from their fur, sizzling so hot leaves on bushes shriveled and caught fire. The tigers howled as hair and flesh charred. Yowling, they dropped to the forest floor and thrashed and kicked, but the flames would not be quenched. As their flesh blackened and split into raw seeping wounds, the tigers' wild scrambling stopped. Finally they lay still and died. Flames continued to flicker awhile, as leaves and dirt crackled and burned, then even those small fires extinguished.
Far off, Jedit pricked his rounded ears and asked, 'Did you hear a yell?'
'No,' said Johan, for once truthful. 'Come, the desert awaits.'
'Ah, yes, the desert. And my father.'
Rather, his ghost, thought Johan. And yours, soon.
Chapter 4
Without a sound, Jedit Ojanen collapsed facefirst on the desert sand.
His muzzle banged gravel so hard that blood jetted from his black nose. Even slumped, he struggled to keep
