Kenric snorts, “She tore through all but three of them, mostly with her claws, before she ran off into the trees hunting their archer. She was so swift and so brutal that every single liegeman here was almost pissing himself at the sight of my darling, petite wife. I had her spell them to think we killed those bandits.”
I smile at Kenric. “They were a threat to you. I would do a great deal worse to end any threat to you. You saw me run down the caravan line to get to those bandits. I was faster on foot than the mounted men. That’s a speed I can maintain for two or three days when I’m rested, perhaps longer, if I can get a bit of rest and some food here and there. Did you really think, after seeing me outrun your horses to get to those bandits, that you had managed to catch unwilling prey?”
I look up at Kenric and bat my eyes. “Did you not get your prize?”
Kenric laughs and pulls me into a hug. "I adore you, my treasure."
Inaba laughs. "It sounds like she wanted to be caught and to give up the prize."
I nod. "Very true, but only to the one I wanted to have that prize. Had another male joined the pursuit, he’d have faced my wrath."
Kenric gives me a look, but I shrug. "I told you that Fey are predators. Anything running makes us want to shift and give chase. Anything that another chases might be worth catching for ourselves. It is a primal thing for us, so deeply rooted that I don’t think there’s a record of any being born without it. It takes a lot of control and practice to master that urge.”
“Can you control it?” Inaba asks.
I nod. “Some of us even learn to harness it. During the border wars, shifting and remaining like that kept us alive. Because we were shifted or partially shifted for so long, we gained a great deal of control. We had to, since we were in groups of sixteen jammed together to fight back against the creatures that were stalking us. The camps we were given upon arrival, and the ones we built ourselves later, were often not very large. There wasn’t much room, so you couldn’t go off by yourself unless you went outside. If you did go off alone, you were dead in short order. We cooked, ate, slept, and lived almost on top of each other when we weren’t fighting side by side. I know my war band, the group of sixteen I was part of, better than I know the family that raised me. I have closer ties to them than I do to most of my blood relatives. You can’t live and fight with people like that unless you can gain control of yourself when you’re shifted, especially when all of you are shifted all the time. Tempers flared, and we’d have our squabbles, but at the end of everything, we all knew that we desperately needed those other fifteen people to help us survive the next night.”
Inaba considers this and nods. “Why were you shifted?”
I explain a bit of what it is to be a Fey. “When we shift like that, it also brings many of our otherwise latent abilities out. All of the normal senses become far more acute, along with a couple of other things I don’t think humans have.”
“Can you explain this?” Inaba asks.
I nod. “Let’s take vision. Unshifted, like this, I see colors normally, although I think I see more shades than most humans. I can see further than most humans, and it makes me frighteningly accurate with things like bows and siege weapons. When I’m partially shifted, my vision improves, and I can see quite well, even in low-light conditions. Once I fully shift, I can see body heat; colors in the dark become distorted, but I can still see in near total darkness. Deep caves are about the only place I can’t see when I’m fully shifted, even though I can still see body heat.”
“Since you were fighting at night, I can see where that would have been helpful,” Inaba says.
I sigh. “It wasn’t just vision. I think you saw at the barn that, even unshifted, I hear better and over a greater distance than most humans. When I am shifted, it becomes even more acute and directional. A partial shift lets me hear things somewhere in between the two. My sense of smell, when I’m not shifted, is enough to tell people apart, pick up on moods, emotions, and some trains of thought. When I was still in Imelenora, other people’s fear was a real problem. We were stuck, partially shifted, but their fear kept us on edge constantly. Among the Fey, shifting like that is normally a precursor to an attack, so it triggers a fear response in almost everyone. During the war, if someone near you was afraid, it usually meant that something was about to attack.”
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“What about when you are shifted? What’s your sense of smell like then?” Inaba asks.
I smirk for a moment. “Better than any hunting hound you’ve ever seen. When I am shifted, I can track almost anything by smell alone for miles. I can smell well enough that I can pick up your heartbeat from the pulsing changes in your scent. When I’m partially shifted, it’s somewhere between the two. We have a sense that humans do not seem to have. I can sense living things in ways I can’t quite explain. The more fully shifted I am, the more clearly I can sense them. I can sense when something is injured and might be easy prey. I can sense other predators who might be stalking me or my kill. I can sense almost anything big enough to provide a meal, so a rabbit or larger. There is another sense that many, but not all of us, seem to have, that hinges on danger. There are times I can look at something like a cave and walk away because I sense that there’s something too dangerous inside. I can’t sense anything else, just that it’s dangerous and that I shouldn’t try it.
“Do you have any other changes?” Inaba asks.
I grin and nod. “Fully shifted, I get an extra row of teeth. My pupils become slits, more like those of a cat. I have an extra set of knuckles and claws on my hands and feet. Even partially shifted, my strength, my speed, and my stamina all increase. When I’m not shifted, I’m blazing fast, even for a Fey. When I am partially shifted, I’m even faster, and fully shifted, a human might not even notice me passing or be able to dodge my blow. The same goes for my strength. I know that I’m tiny, even by human standards, but I’m still quite strong by human standards and decently so by Fey standards. Hagiwara found that out when I used my shield to push him back. So did the bandit that I threw onto a sword, or one who ended up with his spine driven into his skull.”
“I… see,” Inaba says slowly, “I think I begin to understand.”
I grimace a bit. “We change a lot when we shift. I think we might have hunted the humans here once. Most of them seemed to instinctively fear me when I shifted. I’ve seen how they depict some of their demons and monsters. It looks surprisingly similar to a big male Fey in hunting mode.”
Kenric snorts. “Watching you dance through those bandits, ripping out throats, disemboweling them, snapping necks, and then dashing off into the woods faster than most of them could blink certainly didn’t have anything to do with that.”
I turn on Kenric. “Did I hurt any of them?”
Kenric starts to say something, but I wave him off. “Did I hurt any of them?”
He shakes his head, so I press on. “Why would they fear something that just protected them?”
Kenric contemplates this for a moment before accepting my point. Inaba also seems to be thinking this over.
I explain my predicament. “I cannot shift around them. You are the only one who doesn’t fear me at all when I’m shifted. The Sergeant only fears me a little. His trust outweighs his fear. The Sergeant trusts me not to hurt him, just as I didn’t harm any of your men, or Duke Jellema’s men, or wagon drivers. Despite the advantages it gives me, I must keep control of it, or I risk frightening everyone. I need to be careful, so I don’t find myself in situations where I have to shift to defend myself or feel I need to shift to protect you. This is one of the reasons I decided to hire Inaba and his group. Having more capable men will lessen my need to throw myself into another attack to safeguard you. The smell of their fear, the scent of blood, and the sounds of fighting all made me feel like I had to protect you.”
Smiling, Kenric looks at Inaba. “Coming from any other delicate, petite woman, it would sound utterly ridiculous, but from my wife, she truly means it.”
I frown at Kenric. “I saw how you were armed when you came looking for me in the forest. You weren’t ready to fight them. Your cuirass wasn’t buckled properly. Your gorget wasn’t latched properly. You weren’t even wearing your gambeson. You made more noise crashing through the underbrush than a bull moose charging after a cow in heat. You were calling out for me. All these things tell me that I must teach you, train you. If we have to go and live among the Fey, you must be able to protect yourself from them. Once you have learned, teach the Sergeant and let him teach the other men that serve you. Then I will feel less of a need to shift to protect you.”
Inaba laughs and claps Kenric on the shoulder. “We will help you with that. I see your point. If Kenric and the others were more capable, you would be more confident in letting them deal with something as simple as some bandits on their own. You would feel less pressure to intervene to protect them. Thank you for sharing all of this with us. It helps us understand what our role needs to be much better. Now, if you will excuse me, I must go water Falke and confer with the others.”
Inaba leads the now magnificent Falke away.
Kenric eyes the horse, amazed. “The change in Falke is unbelievable. All those horses look amazing. I can’t believe we got them for five hundred ducats.”
I smile at Kenric. “Falke is out of his despair. Inaba feels more like a competent, capable warrior with a mount who understands him. They are good for each other. I knew that they’d change drastically. I wanted them away from that place before the spell took hold. I might have to kill the innkeeper if he saw them like this.”
Frowning, Kenric looks at me. “Would you really have done that? Over some horses?”
With a grim smile, I nod. “I gave my word to those horses. If I don’t keep my word, then I am Oath-Broken, even when that word is given to a horse. I will not be Oath-Broken because some thieving innkeeper won’t honor an already agreed-upon sale. Would you have me lose my magic over something so simple? I’d do whatever was necessary to get those horses out there and away from that terrible place. Those animals sensed that, which is why they were willing to trust me.”
- What’s your boldest prediction for the next three chapters?
- Who do you think is playing the longest game?