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Madawc faced me in black, run through with silver threads. He glittered like ice in the sun when he moved. He spoke to me as we stood, waiting. “You are Alatir.”
“Did you doubt it?”
“I thought you long dead.”
“You thought wrongly.”
He gave a half bow, a strange self-mocking smile on his face. “I think, dear lady, that you are some lovely phantom come to haunt me.”
“I am flesh and blood and magic.”
Magic grew in the circle of torches. Magic ran along my skin and tugged at my hair, like an unseen wind. I called sorcery to me but did not want to commit its shape to any one spell. I wanted to know the measure of the man I fought. In my terror, he had been twelve feet tall, an endless fountain of magic. Now he was a man, and I was no longer a child.
Fire exploded around me, orange death. The air was choking, close, heat. The fire died, and I stood safe behind a shield. Lightning flared from his hands. The bolts struck my shield and shattered in an eye-blinding display of light.
I faded inside my shield, willing myself into another shape. I was small, thin, hidden in the grass. A green adder hidden in the uncertain torchlight.
I could feel the vibration as he moved over the earth, but I could hear his puzzled voice asking, “Where is she?”
I felt his magic wash over me, searching, but I was a snake and had no real business with magic. He did not come too near the empty folds of the silk dress, but I slipped out a sleeve hole and began moving cautiously, thin and hidden, toward him.
I was a small snake and could not bite through his boots. As he passed me, put his back to me, I grew. I was an older snake, thick as a man’s wrist. There were gasps from the audience. He turned, puzzled, and I struck. He screamed as my fangs tore his flesh, poison pumping home. His struggles flung me away to lie half stunned in the grass.
I began to shapeshift, slowly. He was yelling, “Get me a healer, now!”
A soldier, the one who had brought in the littlest boy, said, “You cannot be healed until the fight is over, Lord Madawc. That is the rule.”
“But I’ve been poisoned!”
The mercenaries whom he had bullied and made into whoremongers formed a wall of steel. “You will not leave the circle until the fight is done. Isn’t that right, Captain?”
The captain, who had brought me in, didn’t have a problem with Madawc, but he licked his lips and agreed. He knew better than to go against all his men. “You must wait for healing, Lord Madawc.”
“I will see you all flogged for this, no, hanged!”
It was the wrong thing to say. The soldiers’ faces went grim, dispassionate. They waited for someone to die.
I stood naked and human once more. All I had to do was stay alive until the poison took effect, and that wouldn’t be long.
Madawc turned on me with a snarl. “I’ll take you with me, bitch!”
He formed a soul-beast, made of magic, hatred, and fear. It was a great wolf that glowed red in the night.
I had never made a soul-beast before. It took great strength, and if it was destroyed, the spell caster died with it. I formed mine of power, vengeance, the memory of five years of unused magic, the quiet stillness of water, and the freedom of skies. It flowed blue and burst into being a moment before the wolf leapt. Mine was a thing of feathers and claws, no known beast.
I felt the power as never before. I rode the winds of it. It lifted me in a dance of death and joy. I was fanged claws and whirling feathers of gold and sapphire. I bit the wolf and raked his sides with claws. I bled under his teeth and staggered under the weight of his body.
The wolf began to fade. As it lost substance, I gained its magic. I drew its power like a hole in Madawc’s soul; I drained him until I fell to my knees, power drunk, stunned.
The soul-beasts were gone. It was effort to turn my head and see Madawc on the grass. His body convulsed, and bloody foam ran from his lips. The green adder is a deadly thing.
I was stronger than five years ago, but all those years had been without training. Madawc might have killed me without the aid of poison. Then again, he might not.
The geas was gone, and I felt pure and empty of it. I had expected triumph; instead I felt relief, and a great empty sadness.
A voice declared the match over and Alatir the winner. There were hands, a cloak thrown over my nakedness, the warmth of healing magic, and a warm draught of tea.
Dawn light found me rested, healed, and in the bedchamber that had once belonged to Madawc. By Meltaanian law it was all mine now, both my father’s lands which had been stolen and Madawc’s. Madawc had never bothered to appoint an heir from his many bastards. No royalty would marry him.
There was a knock on the door, and the captain entered with the mercenary who had brought the little boy in. They both knelt, and the captain said, “My lady, what would you like for us to do? We have weeks left on our contract, and our contract is now yours, if you want it.”
I asked, “Have you a guard outside my door?”
The younger man spoke. “Yes, my lady, some of the dead lord’s friends are less than pleased at the duel’s outcome.”
I smiled at that. “Is Lord Trahern still within these walls?”
“No, my lady.”
I ignored the captain and asked the other man, “What is your name?”
“I am Kendrick Swordmated.”
“You are now Captain Kendrick.”
The other captain sputtered, but I interrupted him. “I want you gone from here and never come back. Take the four men who rode with you on search yesterday.”
There must have been something in my eyes that told him not to argue. He gave a stiff bow and left the room.
“Now, Captain, how long ago did Trahern leave?”
“Only moments, my lady.”
“Then take what men you think you need and find him. Relieve him of the peasant boy he got last night. The boy is to be healed, then taken back to his home. A gift of gold will be given to his family.”
He smiled. “Yes, my lady.”
“And free all the others. They are my people now, and no one mistreats my people. No one.”
He bowed, grinning. “All will be done as you ask, Alatir Lord-Slayer.”
“Lord-Slayer?” I questioned.
“Yes, my lady, from last night.”
“Go then, Kendrick.” I stopped him just before he left. “I must attend some business and will be away perhaps until tomorrow. But I will return and expect everything to be done as I asked.”
“I will inform the castle staff of your absence and will do as you ask.” He bowed and left the room.
I stood at the open window and let the autumn wind shiver over my skin. I changed into a familiar form and took to the sky on gray wings.
I settled on the lake’s dark waters and looked for Gyldan. I could not remain with the flock now. I remembered too much, but I had promised him a good-bye.
He called to me from shore, his voice different than any others. I paddled over to him and hopped up on the grass. Regardless of what shape I wore, I loved him. We caressed, touching necks and bills. How could I leave him behind? And how could I take him with me?
He stepped back from me, and I saw magic shimmer over him like silver rain. The flock awoke with cries of alarm and took to the safety of the sky. I watched him change, slowly, but his magic was strong and sure.
He lay, a naked man, pale, white hair like moonlight. Eyes sparkled black so they showed no pupil. He blinked up at me with wide uncertain eyes. His voice was deep and song-filled, full of rushing wind and the freedom of wings. “I saw how you changed.”
I was human beside him, crying.
He ran hands down the length of his new body. “I could not follow you as a bird, but as a man…”
I knelt and kissed his forehead. “You are not a man.”
He gripped my hand. “I am your mate. I will follow you, whatever form you take.”
We held each other as the sun rose and knew each other as a woman knows a man. Afterward he lay panting beside me with innocent eyes. How much he had to learn. I could take the memory of my magic, of his magic, away. I could leave him as I found him. I ran a fingertip down the sweat-soaked length of his body. He shivered. “Your name is Gyldan, and I am Alatir.”
He tried the names on his human tongue, “Gyldan, Alatir. Are they nice names?”
“Yes, I think so.” I stood. “Come, we can take shelter at the mill for today. They will give us clothing and food.”
