Cold Steel

“I might be able to do those things even were you not my sire.” Waves of pain like hot knives still stabbed through my right shoulder. I wondered if I could bring myself to stab him again, even though my first attack had proven successful in forcing the Hunt to retreat.



His stance remained relaxed and confident. “Do you ever ask yourself how it is you can command the loyalty of others? Why they do your bidding at your word? It must be so, because my blood is your blood. Those I command are yours also to command.”



“There are better reasons for people to be loyal. People give back to you what you give to them. You may say it is blood or birth that binds servants to masters and plebeians to their patrician lords, but that is only another word for force. The Council in Expedition ruled because they had wealth enough to keep themselves in power. But I watched the people of Expedition speak out in protest. I watched them fight. They took the opportunity to govern themselves. They did not wait for it to be given them. They did not say that their demands for new laws and for justice must cede to the prerogatives of blood and birth.”



“Yet blood binds all.”



“Does it?” I demanded. “Do you command every creature in the spirit world?”



He said nothing, but he blinked.



I was breathing as hard as if I had been running, or maybe it was just my aching shoulder that made me dizzy. “I think you only command the Wild Hunt, not one creature more.”



A smile cut his face. Before I thought to retreat, he folded his wings forward to cage me in their web of ice. His clawed hands pulled me close, not in an amorous way but as if he had decided to dismember me and rip off my head. His voice had the shiver of a bell when a rod is drawn across it to make it vibrate.



“Hear my words, little cat. A prince among slaves is still a slave. The courts bind him with blood in the palace where those without blood cannot walk. You are bound because he is bound.”



“I don’t care what you say! I will free my husband!”



He let go, opened his wings, and launched himself into the sky. I staggered back. Bee, Rory, and the cats shook free as if chains had been loosened.



“Cat!” Bee grabbed my hand. Rory shoved his head up under my free hand.



My shoulder really hurt. I took in short breaths to get through the sting of pain.



Over the palace the eru caught an updraft and spiraled up until he became too small to see.



The pain ebbed enough for me to think straight. “Bee, how did you know it wasn’t Vai?”



“That was easy. First, he met us here. I was here all alone for about ten throbbing heartbeats before you came through after me. When he asked where you were, he referred to you as “Cat.” Andevai never calls you Cat. He calls you Catherine. I don’t understand why your sire didn’t kill me immediately, but I suppose he would want to save me for the next Hallows’ Night sacrifice. Did he say something to you when he imprisoned you in his wings?”



I waggled my hand to show I did not mean to answer where my sire might hear, and she nodded, then glanced past me. Her eyes flared as her mouth turned down. Rory’s mother coughed a warning. Shapes like fanged butterflies fluttered toward us in a zigzag way that made my skin prickle. The Master and his Hunt had departed, but other denizens of the spirit world had come calling, attracted by Bee’s scent.



“You have to leave, Bee.”



“Your jacket is wet. What is that?”



I rubbed at my shoulder but I could tell it was a shallow scrape. Rory also had a scratch along his right shoulder, oozing the golden liquid that was his blood.



“Nothing as important as getting you back to the mortal world. Bee, give me all the bottles. And leave the hammer. I’ll take Vai’s tools.”



Her high color suggested she had known this moment would come. “I sorted the packs in Adurnam already. I never thought I’d be able to come into the spirit world with you, Cat. I knew I would just get in your way here.”



“Rory will go back with you.”



He protested with a coughing grunt.



“Rory, you know perfectly well it’s not safe for Bee to travel Europa alone. Don’t argue. Queen Anacaona will stay with me. Find a troll maze to hide in if Hallows’ Night comes before I return. We’ll meet in Havery, at the law offices of Godwik and Clutch.”



“Yes,” she said. “Havery.”



Rory’s mother snarled. A swirl of bright leaves swept up as on a blast of icy wind, congealing into a monstrous beast with a lizard’s length, a silky coat of pale hair, and a snake’s jaws. Two of the cats charged at it, but its claws drove them back. I leaped forward and cut its open mouth with my sword. The beast disintegrated into a thousand shards that clattered to the ground with a noise like chimes.

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