human standards, he found her every bit as beautiful as the gods' sky-painting. He'd been trying all day to think of a way to tell her how he felt about her, but he still had no idea how to express his feelings without sounding like an idiot. Maybe if they started talking about something else first, the words he truly wanted to speak would come to him.
'Any luck with the zombies?' he asked.
Kirai swallowed a mouthful of plains-rat stew before answering. 'Not yet. It's possible that their musculature has desiccated to the point that they cannot be made to function again. It's too early to tell for sure, though. I still have a few more tricks that I can try. That's why I'm brewing more of my 'foul-smelling glop.'' She gave him a wink, and Ghaji felt his heart lurch in his chest.
Tell her now…
He cleared his throat, not that he had any real need to. 'Kirai… there's something I want to tell you. Or maybe ask you.' He scowled, irritated at himself. 'Something like that.'
Kirai paused, another spoonful of stew halfway to her mouth. She raised a curious eyebrow. 'From the tone of your voice, whatever it is must be serious. Is the commander angry about the zombies? Did you explain that we didn't have any choice but to immobilize them?'
In truth, the Karrnathi commander was less than thrilled, but that wasn't what Ghaji wanted to talk about right now. 'It's not that, it's… about earlier. After we stopped the zombies.'
Kirai frowned and laid her stew bowl on the ground. 'I don't understand.'
'The way you hugged me, it…' Ghaji gazed upon the fire, unable to look Kirai in the eyes. 'No one ever hugged me like that before.'
'I was just so relieved that we'd won. I couldn't believe it!' A teasing tone crept into her voice. 'Don't tell me that I hugged you too tight! Did I bruise the big strong warrior?'
He smiled but still didn't look at her. 'I think I'll survive. I liked how hard you hugged me. It was… nice.'
Kirai didn't respond right away, and for several moments the only sound was the bubbling of her chemicals in their pots. And then Kirai began to laugh.
'I'm sorry, Ghaji, really! I know I shouldn't laugh, but it's just too funny! I mean, you know… I'm human and you're an ore!'
Ghaji stiffened and his heart turned to a cold lump in his chest. Though it was the hardest thing he had ever done in his life-harder by far than fighting a horde of blood-thirsty zombies-he forced out a hollow laugh.
'I was just joking. Enjoy the rest of your stew.' Before Kirai could say anything else, Ghaji rose to his feet and walked away from the fire, heading north as night continued its descent upon the Talenta Plains.
Come sunrise, he was still walking.
Ghaji was just about to suggest that they give up on the Turnabout's captain and seek passage elsewhere when the tavern door burst open and a tall, broad-shouldered man walked in, followed by a dwarf wearing a heavy cloak.
All eyes turned toward the newcomers. The dwarf stood with a taciturn expression on his face, while the tall man met the patron's curious gazes with a broad grin. 'Good evening to you all! Word has reached me that there are good people present in this establishment who seek to hire a vessel swift and true!' His voice was a warm, honeyed baritone, and he sounded as if he had come for a reunion with old friends rather than a meeting with potential passengers.
The man was in mid-fifties, with sea-weathered skin, a hook nose, and a bushy black beard. A gold earring hung from his left ear, and he wore his hair in a small pony-tail tied with a tiny red ribbon. He wore an overlarge black tricorner hat with gold trim and a large red feather sticking up from the back. His red long coat was unbuttoned over a green tunic with a white ruffled collar and a purple sash around his waist. The coat had large black gauntlet-like cuffs, past which his ruffled white shirt sleeve collars were visible. He had thick-fingered, calloused hands, and wore gaudy jeweled rings on all ten of his fingers. Black trousers, brown boots, and a cutlass sheathed at his waist completed his outfit.
Ghaji took one look at the man and burst out laughing.
'You have got to be joking!'
Diran stared at the blackened arrowhead shape seared onto the flesh of Leontis's palm.
'I assume you have a good reason for asking me to kill you.'
'Isn't it obvious?' Leontis closed his fingers and made a fist to hide the scorch mark, as if he were ashamed of it. 'I've been cursed.'
Diran didn't reply. He knew his old friend would speak when he was ready. After several moments, Leontis took a deep breath and began.
'Six months ago I was traveling in the Principalities near Tantamar, at the behest of a village priest who'd contacted the cathedral. Livestock in the area were being slaughtered by some kind of animal, and there were rumors of a strange beast prowling the hills at night. The priest feared that a lycanthrope might be active in the area, and he asked that a priest with battle experience be sent to investigate. The Order of Templars chose me, and I was dispatched immediately. The Templars didn't expect me to discover anything more than some rogue beast or another-quite possibly nothing more sinister than a normal wolf-that had found an easy source of food to fill its belly. You know as well as I that lycanthropes of all kinds have been extinct in Khorvaire since the days of the Purge… or nearly so.'
'But it's that nearly so that caused the Templars to send you,' Diran said.
Leontis nodded. 'In the years since you last saw me, I've made something of a specialty of investigating reports of lycanthropy. I'd always been fascinated by tales of the Purge-the heroics and the atrocities the Purified committed in the name of the Silver Flame. It sounds foolish now, but I thought that I could help balance the scales for the Flame, help redeem the Purified that were involved in the Purge by investigating lycanthropy now with a clear head and a pure heart… fighting evil with strength, determination, but also with compassion.' Leontis smiled at Diran. 'Just as you taught me by the banks of the Thrane River so many years ago.'
'It doesn't sound foolish to me at all,' Diran said. 'And I know Tusya would agree.'
Leontis shrugged. 'Perhaps. At any rate, during my investigations over the years I'd discovered and fought any number of creatures, both mystic and mundane, but not once had I encountered a true lycanthrope.'
'Until you went to the village near Tantamar.'
Leontis nodded. 'Despite the rarity of true lycanthropic outbreaks, the Templars take no chances when a report comes in. They dispatched me to the region by airship, and within a few days of the village priest making his report, I was scouring the woods near his village for signs of lycanthrope activity. For two weeks, I roamed those woods, hiking by day, camping at night, my senses ever alert for even the merest hint of supernatural evil. I didn't find any, nor did I find any physical signs. I found no tracks, and no animals were killed during my time there. Then one night-my last night in the area, I'd already decided-as I was about to drift off to sleep in my bedroll I finally felt it: the presence of true evil. I grabbed my bow and strung it, then slipped the quiver of silver-tipped arrows I'd brought over my shoulder. Then I walked off in into the night to begin the hunt.'
'But you weren't the only hunter stalking the darkness,' Diran said.
Leontis let out a bitter laugh. 'Hardly! There's always something hungry roaming the night, isn't there? But you're right. As I was hunting the lycanthrope, so too was it hunting me. I suppose it was my arrogance that proved my undoing. After all, I was one of the Purified, a warrior of the Silver Flame… I'd battled evil on so many occasions, faced creatures so powerful that ordinary men and women would've been driven to the brink of madness merely to gaze upon their dire countenances. How could a single lycanthrope compare to that?' Leontis shook his head. 'Pretty damned well, as it turned out.
'Lycanthropes are different than other evil beings, Diran. They combine the best and worst aspects of both man and beast. Intelligence and cunning, savagery and cruelty, instinct and forethought… that's what makes them so deadly, and that's why the Purified fought so hard to eradicate them during the Purge. If their contagion were allowed to spread, Khorvaire-perhaps all of Eberron-might be lost.'
Diran waited for Leontis to continue, but when the man had remained silent for a time while he stared into the fountain's basin, Diran said, 'So you encountered the lycanthrope.'
'Yes. It came at me out of the darkness, moving far more swiftly than I would've thought possible. I had an arrow nocked and managed to release it before the beast was upon me, but I had no idea whether I had struck the
