The Kingdom's Crown (Inheritance of Hunger Book 3), page 27
Oh! Oh, Atticus Darby was the horse. Well…that was convenient.
Owen, Daniel, and Cosmo were waiting in a doorway, and they came out to my side.
"It's madness inside. No one knows what to do, and I think a good percentage of the staff went missing during the shift," Cosmo said, kneeling down and sliding his fingers into my fur. "No going back now, little muse."
I butted my head softly against his chest. I wished all my Chosen were coming out into the city with us, but I wanted someone to keep an eye on the castle while we were gone, and I didn't want them caught up in any danger as humans without magic of their own. It would drive my tiger mad if they got so much as a scratch on them, and that would only lead to serious trouble.
"You'd better go. I heard the council demanding they send in the army," Owen said. I snarled at that, but Owen just ruffled my ears. "Remember that the army is one of the first places they put two-natured to work."
"Sam, go tell Griffin and then come back to find us. We should go," Aric said to me as the white owl took off overhead. Aric hadn't risen into the saddle he'd put on Darby, but perhaps the idea of being ridden was offensive for a two-natured. "They'll send guards around to the back gate soon."
I rubbed up against the legs of my Chosen who were remaining behind, nuzzling my jaw into Daniel's outstretched hand.
"Have fun," he murmured. "Don't get into any trouble."
I huffed at that, and Thao bit lightly on the end of my tail, urging me to chase after Aric and Darby heading for the gate.
There was a winding road through tall outbuildings adjacent to the castle, where carriages and stores were kept, that separated it from the city. We hurried down it now, and I enjoyed the change of scenery. It'd been weeks since we'd been to the beach, and I realized now that I had too little fresh air in my life, cooped up during mourning. The floors in the castle were slippery under my paws, and this gritty road was uncomfortable but an improvement, less likely to send me sliding into walls as I gave chase.
"Stars," Aric gasped as we reached the first break in the narrow road that opened to the city.
The city now overtaken by animals. And in spite of the strangeness of foxes and deer and groundhogs strolling the road, the scene was calm, as if the city had been abandoned in order for wildlife to take over. The only sign of humans were the faces plastered fearfully to windows, staring out of the shops. I wanted to paw at the glass, draw the humans out to show them that we were safe creatures, not monsters, but an enormous strange tiger banging on a window probably wasn't the most effective tactic.
"Griffin said she'd be watching for conflicts from overhead, but if the council is calling on the army, that's where they'll likely break out first," Aric called to us, frowning briefly and shaking his head. "Feel like a zookeeper with you lot looking at me like that. Or dinner."
I grinned at him, not the most reassuring sight in this form, and pushed my way around my shifted Chosen to lean against his side, making him stumble. He reached down, patting at my head, and above us a soft gasp exhaled, a shop girl leaning out of a window with wide eyes.
"My lord, aren't you frightened?" she shouted to Aric, squawking as a squirrel ran along the building ledge past her, chasing after a bird. "One hardly knows if they're real beasts or not."
"How many tigers do you think are roaming about the capital generally?" Aric barked back with a roll of his eyes. The girl only gaped at him, and he shook his head, muttering down to me, "Not sure I enjoy being called milord." He eyed me in silence for a moment, and his frown quirked. "And I'm surprised to find I don't enjoy that you can't talk back at me. I'd expected to savor your silence."
I growled and butted his hip with my head. Truthfully though, I felt strange in this form for so long, especially not being able to communicate in more than animal signals with the others. Cresswell's warning growl as I moved too far ahead sounded more like a threat than concern, and it was a struggle keeping my human brain in control.
And unfortunately, that control didn't grow easier when we found the first instance of violence in the city, and it wasn't even from the army.
I caught the whiff of fear, a horrible warning stench, and hurried around a corner to see four young men crowded around an upturned crate.
"Ughhh, stars, smell that? Look what you made it do!"
"Bryony," Aric shouted as I bounded in their direction, snarling.
Cresswell, Thao, and Wendell were quick behind me, and one of the young men let out a wild screech at the sight of us, the others whirling around.
"Shut it, Cowper, it's just one of them," one of the larger men snarled, and he stepped forward with a sharpened stick thrusting in our direction, his teeth gritted back at me. "You'll be put to death if you so much as scratch me, you fucking beast!"
Wendell's back was bunching with tension at the perceived threat to me, and I knew his control must've been as thin as my own. Cresswell was trying to prowl in front of me, but at the thought of him being stabbed again on my behalf, I leapt up, not from paw but from my feet.
"And what do you think will happen to you if you scratch your princess or one of her Chosen?" I shouted.
The young men gasped, and one stumbled right into the gutter of the street, falling on his ass. The one with the stick in his hand paled and fell to his knees, or seemed to until I realized he was attempting some strange kind of low and humble bow.
"Begging your pardon, Your Highness, we didn't know you were—"
"What should it matter who I am? You have a fellow Kimmerian trapped under that crate. Release them at once!"
Wendell was still growling, but he eased up as I dug my fingers into the fur at the ruff of his neck.
"But they're just—" The man's argument died on his tongue as he looked between the crate—which reeked horribly and made it pretty clear they'd caught a skunk two-natured—and up to myself.
"You heard the princess," Aric said, looking fierce with one hand on the hilt of a dagger.
"Whatever word you were about to use applies to me as well," I hissed.
"A-a-apologies, Your Highness," the one who'd fallen first whispered, scooting forward and throwing off the crate.
Sure enough, a sweet-looking black critter with its white stripe running down its back appeared and scrambled away from the men, more of its horribly pungent defensive smell appearing. But instead of running to safety, the skunk transformed in front of all of us, revealing a massive, scarred man with dark hair and the characteristic soot marks of a blacksmith.
"You four better fucking watch yourselves," he hissed, the men paling. "Get back inside, you smell worse than your personalities."
They were boys really, and were probably just out of school. I hoped the skunk smell clung to them for days.
The blacksmith turned in my direction, lips quirking. "Never can tell, can you? Would've pegged you for more of a kitten type, Your Highness," he said, with a surprisingly gallant bow that did nothing to diminish the oddly flirtatious feeling that rose up from the comment. He vanished back into a skunk and hurried away.
"I suppose I would've imagined him as something more robust," I mused, watching the skunk's retreat.
"What's that look in your eye?" Aric asked, frowning. I smiled and transformed back into my tiger without answering. "Come on, let's get to the barracks."
Cresswell nipped my shoulder in punishment for hunting down trouble, but I ignored him aside from nudging back. This was why I'd chosen Thao's bite in the first place and why I was so determined to join the march.
The rest of the trip through the city was fairly peaceful, there were even a few scenes of the two-natured interacting with their human neighbors, much to the delight of any nearby children. But I noticed there seemed to be fewer animals out than we'd seen at first, and it wasn't until we neared the barracks—halfway between the castle and the thieves' court we'd visited—that I realized why.
There was a standoff between the army and the two-natured. I was tempted to rise up to my human form again to involve myself until I noticed that the army seemed to be facing off itself at first, at least half of the suited soldiers standing in a line protecting the two-natured.
"Your orders are to stand down!" one general bellowed.
Howls and roars and yips answered back.
Would it come to fighting? I knew the two-natured wanted the day to be peaceful, and the men still guarding them were silent, calm guards. I was still debating how I might be most helpful in the situation when a bright familiar cry tore through the air. From a barracks rooftop, a flash of rust zipped down toward the crowd of two-natured, Griffin spying us in the mass and heading in our direction.
Aric raised his arm for her to land on, but before she'd passed overhead the line of army-aligned soldiers, a net was tossed into the air. I roared as it tangled around the hawk's form, bundling and flattening her wings, weights dragging her down to the ground.
"Shit, she's on their side. I'll—Bryony!"
I was leaping away from my Chosen, around the smaller animals at the back of the crowd, past an odd assortment of deer mingling with bobcats and other predators.
Cresswell roared his frustration, but I ignored him, weaving and slinking and pushing my way through to the front of the crowd. Through the legs of soldiers, I could see flashes of the heap on the ground, no longer small, and with a shade of crimson deeper than Griffin's feathers. She'd transformed back into the woman, still tangled in the net.
One of the soldiers bravely spun to face me, eyes wide but arms outstretched. "No! We promised peace."
I flashed back into my human form, perversely pleased when he looked more terrified by my feminine form than my feline one. "Let me through immediately!" I snapped.
But it was too late, Griffin was surrounded on the ground, one soldier holding a spear over her. She was trying to stand as the men bellowed for her to flatten herself on the ground. I wasn't sure if it was an accident, or intentional, but the spear came down at Griffin's face at the same moment she tried to rise.
"Griffin!" I screamed.
I didn't notice the hands on my waist, pushing me through the line of soldiers to reach my friend.
"Release her at once," I cried.
"Step back from the woman, by order of Her Royal Highness, Princess Bryony," Cresswell echoed.
"Magic," Aric hissed in my ear, jumping forward and tugging two of the soldiers roughly back from Griffin as I marched forward. There was another scream from the air, Sam's white owl landing heavily on the ground next to Griffin before quickly becoming the man.
"Transform," Sam breathed to Griffin, clutching her shoulders.
"No, wait!" I cried, falling to my knees next to them. "Get her out of the net, I can help."
"It's a fuckin' scratch," Griffin said, but her voice was as tight as a pulled string, and there was blood seeping quickly out from between the fingers that cupped her eye.
"Then it's a scratch I can heal," I snapped back.
"Was flying too low," Griffin breathed as Sam and Aric hurried to untangle her. Cresswell barked orders back to the general to take his men into the barracks. I thought I heard him use my mother's title too, but I didn't care.
"You weren't too low. They shouldn't have been trying to capture any of you," I said, gathering magic into my palms.
"Just glad it was me," Griffin said, but she whimpered as Aric accidentally nudged her arm.
"Move your arm," I said, reaching out to her face.
"What if my eye falls out?"
I blinked at her. Griffin was exceptionally pale and starting to tremble, and she let out a strange giggle.
"I'll—I'll put it back in," I said, trying not to grimace, sincerely hoping I didn't have to keep that promise.
Griffin bellowed as Aric tore her hand away from her face, and I quickly slapped my own over the brilliantly red and bleeding wound running down the right side of her face.
"Hold her still," I said to Aric.
"Why—" Griffin's question broke off with a scream as the magic struck.
"Griffin!" Sam reached for me, about to tear me away, but Aric wrestled him back.
"Leave it! Bryony saved your wings, didn't she?" Aric snapped.
Sam groaned, but together the men held Griffin still, her face thrashing slightly underneath my grip, magic pouring out of me as Griffin's blood also wet my palm.
"Oh stars, enough!" Griffin grit out.
I ignored her for a beat, and then finally lifted my fingers up, just a fraction. Her face was smeared with red, bloody tears running out of her injured eye, but it looked as though…
"You're frowning," Griffin whispered up at me.
I tried to smooth my face, smearing away some of Griffin's blood gently to reveal a shiny scar. She blinked, and Aric, Sam, and I all sank back at once with a unified whoosh of relieved breath.
"Eye still attached," I said weakly. "Can you see all right?"
Griffin kept blinking, forehead wincing, but each blink seemed to wash some of the red out of her vision. Her eye was pale now, almost white, but the pupil was still intact, if drooping down a little. Oh stars, had I left her blind?
"What did you do?" Griffin whispered, eyes widening, looking between each of us. She closed her eyes tightly, and Aric handed Sam a white handkerchief, the other man quick to wipe the blood away from Griffin's face.
"I…healed you? Shit, Griffin, did I—?"
Her eyes opened again, head shaking, taking the cloth from Sam's hand and rubbing her face more roughly. "I can see," she said, but there was still something wary in her gaze as she looked between us, and she winced as she glanced at me. "I can see, it's just…still healing probably. I can see."
"Your hawk will be fine," Sam reassured her, and Griffin nodded jerkily.
I glanced behind us. The crowd of two-natured was growing agitated, and Cresswell was still arguing with the general. Another man pushed through the line of soldiers, and in the wildness of his appearance, it took me a moment to realize I recognized him.
"Griff?" Jack McCallum was undone, out of the usual formal dress I saw him in, hair tangled and collar open. He hurried to us in open panic, and I slid out of his way, watching with nervous interest as he took Griffin's face in his hands.
She didn't flinch, but her eyes widened in that startled look she couldn't seem to shake since I'd healed her.
"I'm fine," she said, some of her calm, dry nature returning, although she was gentle with Jack and her bloodied fingers left a brief stain on his wrist.
His lips pressed flat, but he nodded and released her, moving to join Cresswell.
"By order of Her Majesty the queen, and the Southern Council, we order the army to stand down," Jack bit out. Jack turned toward the vast crowd, voice raising. "The army's official duty is to protect the peace, including the safety of the two-natured. Her Majesty is making an official announcement at the palace. The gates will be opened."
I landed roughly on my bottom, my gaze drifting to Aric in surprise, his own face reflecting my shock.
"We have to get Darby out of the capital," he said, voice almost too low to hear.
"I'll keep my end of the bargain," Griffin said. "We'll leave with him now."
"You're sure you're all right?" I asked.
Griffin didn't look back at me, her gaze lowered firmly to the ground, even as Sam helped her up off her feet. Jack returned to us, and my Chosen slipped through the crowd, back in their human forms, Wendell's hands holding Darby's reins. The army was finally falling out of their lines, and the two-natured were turning in the direction of the castle, some of them also taking on their human forms.
"The announcement?" Griffin asked Jack.
"Good news, you should come."
Griffin shook her head. "Errand to run. Need to sneak this fellow out of the capital," she said, nodding to the horse standing amongst us.
Jack's eyes widened, glancing at me. "It was my request," I said.
"Well in that case, take my carriage. Stay at Cambell Manor, Griff. Don't be a pest and argue," he said, arching an eyebrow at her as her mouth opened to refuse. "We'll have business to discuss."
"You should rest," Sam urged her.
"Fine," Griffin bit out. "Carriages and manor houses, sure." She pushed past the men, and I stepped back out of her way until she caught my hand. "Thank you."
She looked up at me, a brief flinch in her scarred right eye quickly covered with a soft smirk.
"Good luck, Your Majesty," I said, squeezing her fingers.
Griffin huffed a laugh. "What an awful mess you've left me with," she murmured, but she squeezed back. "Come and see me when you're in the north."
A sudden pang struck me. I didn't know Griffin well, I knew significantly less of her than I wanted to, and now I wondered if it would ever really be possible to grow that friendship. I would be queen. She would be king, funny as it was to say it. Opposite sides of Kimmery, as Scrapper had put it.
"Oh dear, where's Scrapper?" I asked, looking suddenly around for the man.
"Drinking at the bar with the rest of his lot," Griffin said with a roll of her eyes. "S'pose we'll have to pick him up on our way out."
"We're certainly not keeping him," Aric answered wryly. "Come on, princess. Let's get back to the castle to hear the queen's announcement."
I jumped into Griffin's path before she could leave, wrapping my arms around her shoulders and squeezing tightly. "I'm sorry, and thank you, and—and…"
"Goodbye, Bryony," Griffin murmured, patting my back gently.
26
Bryony
“You seem awfully solemn," Cresswell murmured.
We were in the crush of the crowd of two-natured, an odd sight and an even stranger feeling. Animals kept brushing up against my skirts, and I wasn't sure if it was because of the close quarters or if it was some strange acknowledgment of thanks or appreciation.
"I feel…it's as if the air is changed," I said, my voice barely audible over the sound of hooves and paws on gravel, of bird cries in the air. "I don't know how to explain it."
"There's this kind of flavor—no, energy, on the battlefield on the last day," Cresswell murmured. "It's the feeling of change, I think. One night, I would fall asleep with the sense that the fighting would never end, and the next morning, I'd wake knowing and not understanding how that it would be the last day. You don't know if you're about to win or lose, you just know it's the end."
