Shadow Walker

by James 'Fel' Galloway

Chapter 14

The ridge was a fortress.

The army had done an incredible job fortifying it in the hours after they took it, for it had a loose stone wall about a rod high, and a shallow trench was dug out behind it so men and Arcans could kneel behind the wall and fire from cover. The approach to the ridge was nothing but grass, making it impossible for them to come unseen, and the ridge itself had sea pines on it behind their forward position, allowing those not engaged in battle to rest with cover, in safety. Danvers' tent had been erected in a clearing behind some of those trees, and it was there that Clover took him. A cookfire in front had a thick stew bubbling, and a small ferret Arcan male served them bowls of it when they sat down. Kyven was starving from the long night and morning of heavy activity, and he wasted no time attacking the stew.

"Alright, Toby, how did you get here?" Kyven asked as he took a third bite.

"Well, wasn't that hard 'tall, really," he answered. "Ah took a boat from Alamar ta' Tambay, and Ah went ta' Tallasar."

"Why, though? I thought you were buying Arcans."

"Kyv, they ain't an Arcan left in Alamar," he said.

Kyven almost dropped his bowl. "You're kidding!"

He shook his head. "Not a single one. Anywhere."

"How on earth did you pull off that miracle?"

"Money, an' lots o' it," he answered. "Ah bought all of them, Kyv. Ah even bought the house Arcans out o' every house. Anyone who didn't sell, well, they didn't keep they Arcans long. Seems some scoundrel came in the night an' stole them," he said with a slight smile. "Ah was told to strip Alamar o' every single Arcan, an' Ah did just that."

"That has to be hundreds of thousands of Arcans!"

"Closer to a million," he answered. "They tried ta' stop me when they realized what Ah was doin', but the city really couldn't. They ain't no law that says a man can't buy Arcans."

"I love the way he talks. It's almost hypnotic," Nightfall said with a smile, looking at him.

"Hush, you," he grinned at her. "Anyways, after Ah done bought every Arcan they was ta' buy, then stole the ones they didn't want ta' sell, wasn't much use for me ta' stay there no longer," he shrugged. "Ain't no Arcans comin' in ta' replace 'em. Right now, Alamar ain't got a single Arcan anywhere. By then Ah made a deal with yo' spirit, and she changed me ta' this here. It ain't so bad," he admitted. "After Ah got used ta' walkin' again and learned ta' talk right, anyway."

"What deal?" Ember asked.

"Ah owe her a little somethin' that has to do with Nightfall," he said, leering at her slightly. "An' Ah'm also what you'd call the official emissary from Haven ta' Flaur. When I showed up in Tallasar, at they capitol, they didn't take me seriously at first, but then they decided Ah was the real thing after they got in some news from the rest o' Noraam. Ah brokered the deal between Haven an' Flaur, so they know that all the Arcans go back with us, that's the price fo' us helpin' 'em. That's part o' the treaty Ah signed on behalf o' Haven. She told me ta' stay with the army an' help as Ah could, but that Ah'd best not get mahself kilt."

"I wouldn't like to see that either," Kyven chuckled. "I still can't believe it. Every single Arcan? It just boggles my mind."

"It sho' wasn't easy, but Ah did what Ah said Ah'd do," he said proudly. "With the others buyin' up every Arcan, they ain't no Arcans comin' in ta' Alamar no more. Right now, all they kennels, the Blue Ring, everything, it's all empty. People ain't got no jobs, and they righteous mad, but then word reached Alamar that the Loremasters broke they word and was tryin' ta' take over the Free Territories. So now all they angry men are marching up through Georvan. Alamar is gonna fight," he said, a bit proudly.

"They're not with the army though," Kyven noted.

"They marching west of Lanna, this be too far for them ta' come," he answered. "We plan ta' join up with 'em in Carin, prolly near Rallan."

"Damn," Kyven grunted. "I don't think the Loremasters have the men to fight back against Flaur and Georvan and Alamar. And if the northern kingdoms decide to fight too, it'll be over. Even if it's just Balton, Mallan, and Phion."

"That's the general idea when you fight a war, brother," Clover said lightly. "Make it as unfair as possible."

"Don't talk to me about unfair, you treacherous woman," he retorted with a grin, waggling a finger at her. "You'd do my totem proud."

"It's how women get things done, brother," she winked at him.

"Wily coyote," he taunted. "So, what have you been doing to help, Toby?"

"Well, Ah still have a lot o' friends, an' Ah also have a talker that reaches back ta' the army. Ah'm keepin' in touch with Firetail. She passes on things the Flaurens need ta' know, and Ah tell them about it. They's that, and they's my new powers," he said. "Ah done learned how ta' hide in the darkness, and that makes me one of they best scouts in the night."

"Well, I can't really teach you, but I can show you what I can do, maybe you can figure it out," Kyven told him.

"Both of us," Nightfall said. "Mother said you know how to use the powers better than anyone. I want to learn more."

"Why can't you teach them?" Ember asked curiously.

"Because it's entirely personal," he answered. "How I shadow walk might be different from how Toby does it. All I can do is show him what I do and describe it as best I can, and he'll just have to experiment until he figures out how he does it."

"That doesn't make any sense."

"It makes perfect sense, little sister, if you think about it," Clover told her. "Their powers are based on their strengths, weaknesses, and their perception of the world, and no two people have the same perception of the world. It is as different as we are from one another."

"Actually, it's based on how we comprehend the shadows and how they interact with the world," Nightfall told her calmly. "Basically put, the better we understand the shadows, the more we can do. Now that I'm smarter than I was before, I want to learn to do more with my power, because I can understand better. Since Kyven understands the shadows better than anyone else, he's the best with the powers."

"Actually, I think it's my Shaman training that helps the most," Kyven said modestly. "Since my illusions force me to look at the world a little differently, I've found it works well when it comes to dealing with my shadow powers." He raised his hand and covered shadows over it, then changed it to shadow itself. Ember looked in awe at his opaque hand. "Since I have to be able to envision things that don't exist, imagine shapes and colors and light and shadows, it lets me envision doing something like this," he said, stretching his hand impossibly long, as long as his forearm, with fingers that no longer moved by joints, but undulated in curves like snakes.

"What about shadow walking?" Toby asked.

"That's a little different," he answered. "But it was my Shaman training that let me figure it out. I really need to practice more with it. I have the feeling that I haven't even scratched the surface of what I could do with it."

"And that's why I want to learn," Nightfall declared.

"Well, we'll have time for me to try to teach you," he reasoned. "After they secure Cheston, we'll be moving north."

"Ah told you about Alamar, so spill about Cheston," Toby pressed.

Both Kyven and Clover described the battle from their points of view, Clover from the outside and him from the inside, then when Lucky and Lightfoot joined them, they gave their views as well. Kyven noticed that Lucky sat almost in Lightfoot's lap, he wanted to be close to her, and she wasn't pushing him away. In fact, she kept a hand on his knee, almost as if she was establishing her ownership of the young cat. Toby and Nightfall seemed amazed when he described setting up the fort for Danvers to take it, how he took the turrets, then tricked them with the doors.

"That's why he's the best Shaman we could have put here, my friends," Clover said simply. "For all my power, which is considerably more than his, I simply cannot do the things that he can do. Kyven proves that it is not power, but the judicious use of that power, that is the most effective."

"No, it's because I put up with my totem," he answered.

"She don't seem all that bad ta' me," Toby said. "But then again, she didn't do the things she did ta' you ta' me, either."

"I just hope you were careful dealing with her. She's very good at taking far more out of a bargain than she gives."

"Ah had two examples of how careful ta' be, mah friend," he said seriously. "Ah was very careful. Our deal is specific. Ah give her children by Nightfall, however many she has with her first birth, and when she's pregnant, Ah have the choice ta' be changed back at any time Ah want. An' when she changes me back, she pays me."

"That's it?"

"More or less," he answered. "Ah was careful to make the terms very clear. She wants shadow fox Arcans, an' she said the breed can't be sustained by just one pair. Deepen the gene pool, she said, though Ah have no idea what that means. What is a gene?"

"Got me," Kyven shrugged. "I guess it means that Umbra's kids can't marry each other or their kids will have birth defects. Her kids need other kids to marry."

"Ah guess so."

"So, any luck yet, Nightfall?" Clover asked.

She shook her head. "Not yet. I'm looking forward to it," she added, patting her slim belly. "I want to know what it's like to carry new lives inside me."

"So, do you change back too, Nightfall?" Lucky asked. "When Toby changes?"

She shook her head. "I won't ever go back to what I was," she answered him evenly. "And I'm glad. I love being an Arcan much more than I liked being a shadow fox."

Lucky gaped at her. "You weren't a human?" he asked in surprise.

She shook her head again. "I was born a monster," she answered. "Just as mother changed Toby to an Arcan, she changed me. After all, we're on opposite sides that now meet in the middle. Didn't you know that?" she asked, and Lucky shook his head. "Arcans are half human, half animal. Well, Toby was all human, but mother made him half shadow fox, so now he's an Arcan. I was a shadow fox, and she made me half human, and I'm an Arcan. I'm no different from any other Arcan, except I think a little differently because of how I was born. For that matter, Toby and Kyven think differently than other Arcans, because they were born human."

Kyven had to be impressed by Nightfall's intellect. Where Umbra was smart but just didn't care, Nightfall was just as smart as Umbra, but she paid attention. She was observant, and she thought critically, not catering to her whims the way Umbra did.

"A wise observation," Clover told her with an appreciative nod.

"She always talks that way. Ah sweah, Ah can barely keep up with her," Toby chuckled. "But Ah don't mind all that much. She's fun in bed, an' as long as we enjoy that, everythin' else will fall inta' place."

Nightfall rolled her eyes, which made Clover and Lightfoot grin. "Kyven," she called. "Why don't you smell like a human?" she asked.

He blinked. "I, I don't know," he answered. "Maybe it's because I still have shadow powers, even though I'm human. Why, what do I smell like? An Arcan?"

She shook her head. "I have no idea. I've never smelled anything like it before. I wouldn't know what you are if I didn't see you, if I just picked up your scent in the forest. I think that's why the Lupans like you."

"How so?" Clover asked.

"His smell is, well, it's nice," she answered. "It's, well, hard to explain." She shook her head, causing her thick fan of black hair to sway behind her, the tips of her longest locks brushing the ground. "It's pleasant. Attractive. If I were still a shadow fox and I saw you, I'd be afraid and hide. But then I'd smell you, and I'd be curious, and I'd come out, because your smell isn't frightening."

"Well, the deer are certainly afraid of me," he chuckled.

"I've never noticed his scent being any different from other humans," Clover murmured.

"Then you don't have a sense of smell," Nightfall challenged mildly. "He smells absolutely nothing like a human."

"I have a very acute sense of smell, young sister," Clover smiled. "But I think this is something we might investigate. If he smells entirely different to you than he does to me, well, there must be a reason for it."

"Later, I don't want be sniffed like the next meal," Kyven snorted, which made Lucky laugh.

"Was it really that bloody inside, Lightfoot?" Kyven asked.

She nodded. "That's how it is claw fighting," she answered him, patting him on the thigh. "You still want to learn?"

"Yes," he answered immediately, leaning against her. She didn't push him away. She actually put her arm around his shoulders.

Danvers rode up on Strider, then slid down. The Equar stepped up and butted Lucky with his snout playfully, but backed up when Lightfoot gave him a challenging stare. "How goes it inside, General?" Clover asked.

"The Flaurens and Georvans have everything under control," he answered. "They got the fires out, and they're searching the city for weapons. They didn't like my orders, though. I think we're going to fight over them."

"What orders?"

"I ordered all Arcans rounded up and brought to me," he answered. "Marshall DeVaur knows I'm going to free them. He doesn't like that at all. He seems to think that the Arcans he captures are his personal spoils to sell in Flaur after he goes back home."

"He knows he'd better not," Toby declared. "Ah was there when his gov'ment tol' him ta' hand over all Arcans ta' us."

"Well, he seems to think he has the men to beat the Loremasters as it is, so he won't need our help," he said with a frown. "I think he's seriously considering sending us away and trying to keep the Arcans."

Kyven stood up. "I'll deal with that," he said in a dark voice. "Where is he?"

"In the fort," Danvers answered.

Without another word, without even a sound, Kyven covered himself in shadow, then used it to form a gate into the shadow world. The things were lurking fairly close, but not close enough to worry him yet as he took a single step and pushed his power into the real world through the shadow world, creating an ostentatious cloud of shadow right in front of Field Marshall DeVaur. He used that shadow to converge a gateway back into the real world, and stepped through it even as he willed it to pass around him. He became visible in the shadows, his eyes glowing and the first thing the four men there saw as they recoiled from the cloud of darkness, and then that cloud evaporated to leave Kyven. "Marshall, I hear you don't want to release the Arcans to Danvers," he declared in a strong, authoritative tone.

"They will not be needed, no," he said simply. "I have the manpower to take Avannar without them."

"That's too bad," Kyven told him. "Because you will release them to Danvers, and he will free them. That is the price Haven demands for helping you against the Loremasters, the release of our people. They are not here for you to simply capture and sell to line your own pockets, DeVaur," Kyven warned in a flat voice.

"We do not need your Haven to win this war," one of the other men said dismissively. "And so, the spoils of Cheston are ours to distribute as we please."

"Yours? Did you raise a finger to take Cheston?" Kyven exploded. "Danvers took Cheston, not you! If anyone's getting any spoils out of this, it's Danvers!"

"He didn't hold the city when we arrived," one of the other men stated.

"Fine, if you want to play semantics, allow me to play the most important one. Either you release the Arcans to Danvers, or I'll have to do something about it."

"Is that a threat, you vile creature?" DeVaur asked hotly.

"That's a fact," he said with a dark expression. "The Arcans are not assets for you to buy and sell. They are sentient beings who are unjustly enslaved. Your government agreed before you started out what was going to happen, and you either intended to commit treason against your own government from the start, or your greed got the better of you and you intend to commit treason now. Either way, you will release the Arcans, and you will do it right now."

"Or what?" DeVaur said with a challenging smirk. He snapped his fingers, and Flauren musketmen on the battlements lowered their muskets at Kyven.

"Or this," he snarled in reply, darkness exploding all around the courtyard. Men shouted in Flauren and a couple of shots were fired, but Kyven wasn't there to get hit. He reached out and grabbed the dandied-up Flauren commander and converged a gateway into the shadow world, and dragged him in with him. The man moaned and vomited when the vertigo of the shadow world assaulted him, but Kyven just dragged him with him as he took ten steps, each step traversing hundreds of minars in the real world, then ripped a new gateway out of the shadows and pushed him through.

Near Firetail's Hill, Kyven and Field Marshall DeVaur stepped out of a sudden explosion of shadow. DeVaur fell to the ground, retching again, but Kyven grabbed him by the back of his embroidered red jacket and held him up. "Look!" he snapped, as Arcans stopped in their daily routines and gaped at the two humans that had just suddenly appeared. "Look at them, DeVaur! Look at this place!"

"Where, where are we?" he asked weakly.

"We are in Haven," he answered hotly in reply. "Home to over a million free Arcans. Now look at them!" he said in a near shout. "Look at the buildings! See how far they go, in every direction! Arcans built all this!" he raged, then he whirled him around and grabbed him by his vomit-stained lapels and hauled him off his feet, holding him in midair before him. "DeVaur, you are two thousand minars from human civilization, and if I leave you here, they will rip you to shreds," he said with a snarl, his glowing eyes glaring up at him. "Now you are going to swear on Flaur and your mother's soul that when I take you back to Cheston, you will order the immediate release of all Arcans to Danvers. If you do not, I will leave you here alone, and let you try to find your way back to Flaur. If you can get out of this city alive, and you somehow survive, you should get back to Flaur sometime around spring. And Trinity help you if you get caught up here in the winter. Up here, snow falls by the rod."

"I ... I agree," he said, coughing weakly and obviously trying not to throw up again.

"Oh, you do, do you?" Kyven asked scathingly as he again covered them in shadow, and the startled Arcans that had seen the episode play out saw the two humans vanish as abruptly as they appeared. Back in the shadow world, DeVaur's eyes swam and he burped menacingly as Kyven marched another ten angry steps back to Cheston, then held him by the back of his jacket so he could see into the shadows. The things had homed in on him quickly as he moved and then moved back so close together, and they were almost visible. But they were making eager moaning sounds, sounds that chilled the blood. "Do you hear them, DeVaur?" Kyven asked in a cold whisper. "They're the things that live in this place, and to them, we are food. But they don't eat flesh, DeVaur, they eat your soul, and I've seen what they do to men when they do it. It gave me nightmares for weeks. If you lied to me, if you renege on your promise and say anything other than to immediately release the Arcans when I take you back into the real world, I will throw you in here and close the door and I will let them eat you," he said in a blood-freezing hiss.

The first of them arrived, visible to both Kyven and the Flauren commander, and DeVaur shrieked in terror at the sight of the demonic, shadowy form. "I will! I will! Mei diau, I will!"

With a savage jerk, Kyven converged a gateway and stepped backwards into it even as he willed it around him, pulling DeVaur in backwards and letting him see that thing race towards him, its appendages stretching out for him, its eager moan making DeVaur wet himself even as he vomited once again.

There was screaming when Kyven backed out of a circular disc of pure shadow, and he dragged a somewhat messy Field Marshal DeVaur out with him. Almost immediately, he covered himself with a perfect illusion of himself and separated himself from it as he built a second illusion of a beetle and attached himself to that one, much as he had done in the cutting shops in the Loremaster headquarters. He didn't want some jumpy musketman to shoot him in the head. "Well, DeVaur? I'm waiting to hear what you say," he said, pointing at the still swirling disc of shadow threateningly. His illusion motioned, and the disc moved of its own accord, sweeping up and over the illusion's head, then settling itself not two fingers from the top of DeVaur's head, threatening to drop on him. DeVaur didn't know that the gateway was actually closed, that this was just a shadow, but it was his loss.

Guile and deceit.

DeVaur wiped his mouth with his embroidered red sleeve, giving that swirling shadowy circle over his head a fearful look. "Banarro, release all the Arcans to General Danvers at once."

"But, Field Marshall-"

"At once!" he barked in command.

The illusion gestured, and the shadowy disc broke up and evaporated like fog before the desert sun. "Good enough. Now keep that agreement made between Flaur and Haven in mind at all times, DeVaur," Kyven told him simply. "We will adhere to our side of the bargain. Danvers' men and the Arcans under him will fight, and fight well, but don't for a second believe that your men and your firepower gives you the right to rewrite the agreement for your own profit. As the Alamari say, a deal is a deal. We Shaman have ways of punishing those who break a deal with us. As you have seen. So long as you honor your word, you and I will get along like two kittens in a basket, DeVaur. But lie to me again, try to break the treaty between Flaur and Haven again, Field Marshall, and you and I will be taking a little walk in a cold, dark place to discuss the matter."

DeVaur shivered almost unconsciously as he took off his jacket, then hurriedly put it in front of himself to hide the fact that he had pissed his breeches from his men.

"Oh, and DeVaur. Never, ever have men point guns at me again. That makes me cranky. You don't want to make me cranky."

It was unsafe to shadow walk again, but they didn't know that, nor did they know they were talking to an illusion. As Kyven left the courtyard through the open main gate, hidden under his illusion of a beetle, the illusory Kyven seemed to created another of those shadowy disks, then stepped through it.

Guile and deceit.

He got back to the ridge and abandoned his illusion to see Danvers sitting with his friends around the campfire, telling Toby and Nightfall a story of some sort. They all looked up at him when he approached, then sat back down and took his bowl of stew back up. "They're releasing the Arcans right now, Danvers. Get men down there to bring them up here. And keep our army separate from them from now on."

"What happened? What did you do, Kyven?" he asked.

"I dragged that peacock into the shadow world and threatened to leave him there if he didn't release the Arcans," he answered flatly. "That bastard had the nerve to have his men point their muskets at me when I demanded he keep the agreement Flaur made with Haven. He threatened me, so I threatened him right back."

"He seriously did?" Danvers asked in worry.

Kyven nodded. "He was displaying his power. You know, we have more men, we have more guns, my dick is bigger than yours, and I dare you to do something about it. That kind of bullshit. I showed him I could do something about it. Scared him into wetting his pants," he chuckled as he took another spoonful of stew. "So, I think you should go get them, Danvers. And keep us separate from them, and be careful. I'll guarantee the next time we attack a city, DeVaur will have all the Arcans go in first to absorb the bullets for his men, out of spite for me hurting his pride."

"No, no he will not," Danvers said grimly, standing up. "Let me go get the Arcans, Kyven. And all of you, spread the word that we should get ready to move out. If I can't get a satisfying answer out of DeVaur, we will do our part on our own. I will not march under the flag of a man that I can't trust. He can just relay his intent over a talker and we'll go about helping them without them commanding us."

"What will we do?" Clover asked.

"We will go in front of DeVaur's army and make sure there isn't a single Arcan left on any plantation, farm, or village for him to take, which also helps him by us sweeping the way clear for him. And when they get to Avannar, we take their Arcans as well," he declared. "A night with you and Kyven moving through their camp should take care of it."

"Will they let us get away with that?" Lucky asked.

"Lucky, our army moves four times faster than theirs," Danvers smiled. "This army won't move more than ten or fifteen minars a day because it's just so large. It's also not just one nation's army. It takes time to make camp, break camp, and there are required stops to rest and to eat. I have no doubt that DeVaur and Williamson, the Georvan commander, aren't going to agree on everything, and that eats even more time as they iron things out. With our horses and our Arcans, we will leave them in the dust. Where they march fifteen minars in a single day, we move forty, and that's even with us stopping to free every Arcan we can find."

"I like the way you think, Danvers," Kyven chuckled.

Danvers mounted Strider, and the Equar pranced a little. "I'll be back with the Arcans soon. Like I said, spread the word through our men and get us ready to move out."

"We'll take care of it," Clover promised.

They broke up and did Danvers' bidding, first warning the command staff, then spreading out to tell the men and Arcans. As Kyven moved through the army, he discovered that the attitude of many of the humans towards him had changed. Where before he was met with outright hostility by the vast majority of the men, now they called to him or waved to him, and weren't afraid to call him Shaman. He wasn't sure exactly what had changed their minds about him, but he figured that his efforts on behalf of the army had earned him a little respect. The men knew that all the intelligence that they were getting about farms and villages, all their intelligence from Cheston, it came from him. He supposed they knew as well that Danvers had tasked him with the difficult mission of setting the fort up to be taken as well. The Arcans, on the other hand, seemed to have no problems with him being a human. He thought that he'd get some resistance or some issues because of it, but the Arcans didn't care if he was human, because he was a Shaman. As his nannies moved around with him, he spread the orders, passed out quite a few blessings, and even got a few kisses from some appreciative Arcans.

What caught his eye, though, was a human soldier sitting on a barrel near a fire, sweating far more than what would be expected in the late summer heat. He had a bandage around his upper arm, which was a little bloodstained, and he didn't look well. Kyven advanced on him without word or warning, putting a hand to his head. He had a fever.

"Hey!" the young, dark-haired soldier protested.

"You have a fever," Kyven told him. "Why didn't you go to Clover to have that arm healed?"

"It's nothin', not worth it," he said dismissively, but a touch defensively.

"It's infected," Kyven told him, reaching for the bandage.

"Ay! Leave me be!" the man protested, but when Ebony put a large hand on his shoulder, leaning down to stare him calmly in the eyes, he settled down. Kyven untied the bandage and revealed a very infected wound, an injury that looked days old, the wound open and with pus oozing from the top corner of it. "What happened?"

"Tree branch clipped me," he mumbled. "It's just a scratch."

"It's badly infected, and it needs immediate treatment," Kyven told him, putting his hand over the wound. He built the spell to cure diseases, then beseeched the shadow fox for the energy to cast the spell. The magic flowed through him immediately, purging the man of disease ... both the infection in his arm and a venereal disease the man probably didn't even realize he had. His face got back a little of its color immediately, and he looked down at his arm as a line of pus was ejected from under the skin above the wound, the abscess purging. "There, that takes care of the infection," Kyven told him. "Fastpaw, take our friend to Clover and have her heal the cut, so it doesn't get infected again."

"Yes, Shaman," the spotted cat nodded, offering his clawed hand to the man. "Come with me, soldier, I will take you to Shaman Clover."

The man had the sense not to object, mainly because he was the smallest person there. Fastpaw was the smallest of his three self-appointed bodyguards, but that was just a relative comparison, since he was slightly taller and more muscular than Kyven.

After Kyven finished his roam through camp, he returned to the pavilion to find Danvers there, overseeing the packing of the tent. There were hundreds of new Arcans, all of them being checked over by Clover one by one, some of them in tattered field clothes, some naked, and a few of them in house servant garb. "I see DeVaur kept his word," Kyven noted, looking up at the general, mounted on Strider.

"With tremendous prejudice," he said dryly. "DeVaur made it clear that he doesn't want us here, so we're being good neighbors and we're leaving."

"Over the Arcans?" Kyven asked.

He nodded. "He doesn't believe Arcans should be free, Kyven, and thinks they're nothing but chattel. Livestock. He's a slaver in heart and mind, and I will not march under the flag of a man that epitomizes everything I'm out here fighting against."

"Well said," Toby said as he came up with Nightfall.

"So, we're pulling out. DeVaur's furious that I am, says I'm breaking the agreement with Flaur, but I find that highly amusing since he himself tried to do the same thing first. I gave his second in command a talker linked to one of mine and told him that I'd tell them where I was and which way I was going so they could march behind us without opposition. I told him I'd fort up outside Riyan and wait for them there. So, in the meantime, what we are going to do is fan out and sweep every Arcan in our path up either into our army or send them into the frontier, to deny DeVaur any chance to enslave any Arcans he finds along the way."

"Did you tell Firetail?" Clover asked.

He nodded. "She doesn't disagree with my decision. She said I'm here, I know what I'm doing, so she trusts me to make the right decisions."

"Good enough for me," Kyven said. "I see I'm going to need a horse."

"Your roan is still in the host, Kyven," Danvers smiled. "I'm sorry to take back my Equar, but he is mine."

"I need to find one of my own," Kyven chuckled. "I'm gonna miss riding him."

"There are some out there," Danvers shrugged. "Search for a wild one and try to tame it."

"Yeah," Kyven drawled sarcastically. "And why did you raise yours from basically a newborn, Wilson Danvers?"

He laughed. "To keep him from killing me."

"I tell you what. I'll go find a wild one, and I'll trade that one for Strider."

"Ah, no," he grinned.

"Mmm-hmm," he hummed knowingly, which made Danvers laugh.

The advantage of their army was mobility, and that wasn't just in how fast it moved. The men in their army were seasoned veterans who knew how to make and break camp quickly, and the Arcans learned quickly how to mimic their efficient system. Danvers gave the order to prepare to march, and in two hours, the camps were broken, the four cannons they had were packed for travel, all the gear was packed and in packs or on pack horses, and the men and Arcans were ready to go. Their sizable chunk of new Arcans had to learn how they did it, but since they had almost nothing, they at least had nothing to pack. Danvers had been wise to keep almost everything he came across as they marched south, including extra clothes for the new Arcans, and he spread out the muskets he'd confiscated from Fort Summer and a few of the alchemical devices among the Arcans to have or to carry, including the two repellers and the groundpounder, which would be very useful in when they attacked Avannar. The repellers were hitched to the backs of horses and were going to be pulled like wagons. Danvers had had his Arcans carry everything out of the fort when they were relieved just to stockpile it, but that moved turned out to benefit them, since DeVaur would have probably taken it all had they left it behind. They'd taken nearly a thousand muskets out of the fort and a couple hundred alchemical weapons, a few useful alchemical devices such as four healing bells and the repellers. They still didn't have enough muskets to go around for their new recruits, but at least they had more weapons to bring to bear.

Kyven felt a little too close to the ground as he mounted his own horse, the roan he'd named Spirit. He'd been serving the army as a pack horse since Kyven took Strider, but seemed to recognize Kyven and nicker softly when he approached him. Kyven mounted up and patted the horse on the neck, but he got a little nervous when the Lupans melted out of the trees, padding among the men fearlessly, as the men ignored them; the army had gotten used to the Lupans that had attached themselves to the army, and to a lesser extent, so had the horses. Numb was a better term for it. They didn't panic at the sight or smell of the Lupans anymore, but when they got close, the horses got skittish.

"Woah there, it's alright," Kyven told the horse reassuringly, patting him on the neck again. "They won't bother you, boy."

He didn't settle down much, but when they started to move, the idea that he was moving settled him a little more.

As they started out, Kyven turned and looked between the trees, down at the Flauren army camped around Cheston. In a way, they represented the second half of the war that was coming. The Shaman and Haven would not stop with just freeing the Arcans they could during the war. They would demand all the Arcans freed, and their current allies would most certainly turn against them once that happened. DeVaur represented what was coming. He had mouthed platitudes towards the idea of freeing the Arcans captured during the war, but as soon as he was out of the eyes of his government, he decided that he wasn't going to do a damn thing Haven wanted, and that his personal enrichment mattered more than the lives of the Arcans his government had agreed to free. DeVaur represented the segment of the human population that would never see the Arcans as anything but slaves, and would fight to hold onto them, just as DeVaur had had his men threaten Kyven with their muskets when he demanded he uphold his word. DeVaur represented the enemy they would face after the Loremasters were defeated ... for he had little doubt that nations like Georvan, Alamar, and Flaur, who absolutely depended on their Arcan slave labor to grow their cotton, grow their rice, grow their sugar, or formed the cornerstone of their entire economic system, would declare war on Haven the instant Haven demanded they release their-

Holy shit. If it worked for the Loremasters, why not for them?

He spurred his horse and rode up through the column to the front, where Danvers and his lieutenants were riding with Clover, Lightfoot, Toby, and Nightfall easily keeping pace with the horses. "Danvers," he called, riding up with his nannies and the Lupans padding up behind him.

"What is it, Kyv?"

"I think we need to change strategies," he said. "Do you really think that DeVaur has the manpower to take Avannar without help?"

"Yes, I think he does. He's going to take losses, though."

"So, we can afford to send a portion of our army out and have it do something else?"

"Easily."

"Good. You said it yourself, Wilson. The Flaurens don't like us and what we're doing. Is it a stretch to believe that when the Loremasters are dealt with, they might be our next enemy?"

"No, that's not a stretch, my friend. What are you getting at?"

"We beat them to the well," Kyven declared flatly. "We divide our army. Half of it goes on to Riyan, and the other half will take the mining villages back from the Loreguard. If the commanders there feel they can't defend the mines, then they destroy them to deny them to the Flaurens when they march their armies in. After all, we don't need them. If we're going to have to deal with Flaur and the other nations that won't give up their Arcans, we force the issue. We do to them what the Loremasters wanted to do, starve them of crystals. When the time comes, we offer a simple deal: your Arcans for crystals. One or the other. You can't have both. After all, in just a few years, there won't be any crystals coming out of the mines anyway. We offer to trade Shaman-made crystals in exchange for them freeing their Arcans."

"I love how you make that offer, when you don't have to make any of them, brother," Clover teased.

"It does have some merit to it," Danvers said, scratching his chin. "And we were intending on clearing those mining villages anyway. But we could never hold them, so destroying the mines might be the only option. Forcing the slaveholders to face the reality that there won't be any crystals to replace the ones that die in the collars of the Arcans is an effective tool. But, I need to talk to Firetail before I make that kind of decision. This is something that Haven needs to discuss first. But I think it's a good idea," he grinned. He took out a talker, and in moments, he was talking to Firetail.

Kyven listened as Danvers explained the intent behind the decision, then what they would do. "I think it's a good idea," he surmised. "From the reaction of DeVaur, I think we need to start planning for after the Loremasters, Firetail."

"I don't see a problem with it, since we intended on marching our own army over the mountains and capturing those villages ourselves, as part of our strategy to take and hold the Smoke Mountains," she said. "You'll just make it happen sooner. But, you can do something else for us."

"What is it?"

"Find Kyven and tell him we need him here."

Danvers handed the talker down to Kyven, and he chuckled as he brought it up to his face. "I'm here, Firetail. What did you need?"

"Brother, the commander of the humans will not give up," she said with a sigh. "He is very clever, and. He intends to force us to slaughter his army to the last man. While all his attempts to attack our positions have failed, he's absolutely convinced that the Loreguard will send reinforcements to get him out. He will force us to slaughter his army, and that is something we will not do."

"So, what do you need me to do?"

"We believe that their army can't continue to hold on without him. So could you come and take him out of Deep River? Don't kill him, just pull him out and drop him in front of me and Danna. I think she wants to punch him in the face."

"Damn right I do!" Danna's voice was barely audible in the background.

Kyven laughed. "It won't be immediate," he told them. "It's too dangerous for me to shadow walk right now. I can come this afternoon."

"That is fine, my brother," she answered. "We just want this to end without a massacre, but it needs to end now. Even Danna believed that the humans would surrender by now, but they have not, and now their adamance is disrupting our other plans. We should have been in the western slopes of the Smoke Mountains by now, and in position to take control of them."

"Well, I'll come and do what I can to help, sister," he said simply.

"Thank you, brother. I look forward to cooking a meal for you."

Kyven handed the talker back to Danvers, and regarded Firetail's request. It seemed that the man, Taggan Wild, was giving Danna a headache. Well, he couldn't allow that. Nobody aggravated Danna except him.

"Who is this Firetail?" Ebony asked as he drifted back a little from Danvers.

"She's what you might call the leader of the Shaman," he answered. "As much as there is one. We're actually not very organized. She sits on the council that rules Haven as the representative of the Shaman. To us, and to Haven, that means she's more or less in charge."

"What is Haven like, Shaman?" Striker asked.

"Cold," he answered. "It's far north of here, and winter comes early and buries the city in snow. But the summers are golden and warm, and the farmlands stretch from village to village south of the city like a giant stones board," he said, remembering what he saw of it. "The whole region is populated by Arcans, but there are a few humans who live in the southernmost village, a place called Vanguard. They were homesteaders or explorers that stumbled across the Arcans, and decided to stay."

"I can't imagine it," Ebony said. "A place where there are no humans. What is it like?"

"It's not much different than human cities," he shrugged. "Arcans live, they work, they make things, they farm. They just live, live without fear of a slaver's collar." He turned his head and gestured, and built an illusion of a memory, an image of Haven as seen from one of the hills to the southwest, one of the places where he ran when he was training. It showed the city sprawling across its wide, shallow valley, gentle snow falling down upon the angled slate rooftops, designed to make the snow slide off them before it built up to the point where it collapsed the roofs, and Arcans moving about on the streets, tiny in the distance in the image of his memory. "This is Haven, as I remember it from the wintertime," he told them. "It was cold that morning, and the snow had just started, and I looked down from the valley hillside and the air was so clear I could see all every single snowflake falling all the way to the city. It was beautiful. I think that's why this memory has always stuck with me."

Ebony and the boys weren't the only ones looking at the image. Danvers and his four lieutenants were studying it with amazed faces, and Clover looked a touch wistful. "I know where you were," she said distantly. "There's a big spruce tree just behind you, and a big flat rock beside it that looks like a giant creature lopped the top off with an axe, it's so flat and so smooth."

"That's where I was," Kyven said, impressed.

"It's a favorite place among many of us there. It's called Spirit's Table. There was an old tradition of leaving food there at the summer solstice as a way to thank the spirits for watching over us for another year, but after we had several years of poor harvests, the practice ended. They leave hand-picked wildflowers there now. It's quite lovely, because they don't just throw them down. They arrange them carefully."

"I hope I can leave my own flowers if we get there," Ebony said.

"You will," Kyven told her. "As long as you don't get crazy thinking you have to protect me, silly woman. As Toby said, I'm dangerous enough by myself."

"Well, you'll have to live with us, Shaman," Striker said lightly.

"You three are going to find out how hard it is to keep up with me," he said dryly. "Especially if Danvers sends me out to scout."

"That won't really be possible from here out," Danvers said. "We're not going to be traveling in a column, but in units that fan out to find and free Arcans from plantations and villages."

"That's not going to endear the Georvans in DeVaur's army to us."

"They have to catch us to stop us," Danvers said lightly. "Even with us fanning out, we'll still move four times faster than they will."

"Why haven't we started doing it then?"

"Kyven, my dear friend, look behind you. Does that look like our entire army?"

Kyven did look behind him, then he laughed. "Alright, I'll give you that one. I take it they're working behind us instead of in front of us?"

"For now, yes, because I want distance between us and the Flauren army," he answered. "They'll bring the Arcans to our forward camp, then we'll redeploy into the fan pattern tomorrow."

"I may not be back until tomorrow morning."

"Danna," Clover said lightly.

"Hush, woman."

"Danna's your mate?" Ebony asked.

"He wants her to be," Clover teased.

"Clover, you're going in the right direction for some payback," he warned. "And you've seen what I do to people. So please, keep it up."

She laughed. "He doesn't get to see her often, so it's no surprise he wants to spend time with her. She's actually not bad at all for a human. I like her a lot."

"She's interesting," Lightfoot injected, which was a surprise.

"So yes, I'll be spending some time with Danna after I deal with her little general problem."

"I'm not surprised," Danvers said. "Danna seems to be very intelligent and competent, but from what I've heard, she's not very experienced. A seasoned general like Tag is probably giving her some problems."

"He won't for much longer," Kyven said simply. "I'll take care of it."

About sunset, as Firetail and Danna enjoyed a light meal at a field table set up outside her tent, the shadows seemed to swirl up. Kyven's form became visible within the shadows, and then the shadows melted away, leaving him behind. Danna wasn't wearing a uniform, she was wearing a simple wrap that left her shoulders bare, her blond hair tied in a tail behind her. Firetail was wearing her customary simple shirt and skirt. Danna stood up and gave him a toothy smile, then a fond hug, showing she was wearing only a little thing around her waist, almost like a torn piece of sheet tied around her to create a makeshift skirt, that was considerably higher on her left leg than her right. It came down to her right knee, but barely covered her left thigh, and rode far up her left hip where it tied at her waist, leaving her hip appealingly bare. Her tail slashed behind her when she realized he was giving her a very assessing look, then she laughed and slapped him on the arm. "Stop ogling me, you silly man," she protested.

"But I like what I see," he protested, holding her out at arm's length and looking her up and down.

"What, you prefer fur over skin?" she challenged, putting her clawed hands on her hips.

"No, I prefer you, whether you have fur or not," he answered, which made Firetail smile. "Now, you seem to have a little problem with Taggan Wild?"

"Just a little one, the man is proving to be quite tenacious," Firetail answered. "Please, sit down and visit before you chase him down."

"What's he been doing?"

"Anything he can to dig in more and annoy me," Danna answered. "He's attempted four separate attacks on our positions, trying to test our defenses, including a fairly serious one on our catapults."

"I thought you had complete view of him."

"That was before he literally built a blind to conceal what he's doing in the north side of Deep River," she answered. "He built it out of charred logs he scavenged when he dismantled the town, and we can't bring them down because he's placed all his supplies under them. We need those supplies. If we destroy the blind, we destroy what we need."

"The man is very clever," Firetail said in respect.

"Using the blind to hide what he's doing, he's sent out four separate probing attacks. Two were against our hillside positions, one was a probe of the river valley, and then he sent a real attack against the catapults we were using to send burning pitch down on him to keep him from getting any ideas. We stopped them all without many losses, but he's managed to retreat back into his makeshift fort with the bodies and equipment of the men we kill."

"How's the supplies for us coming?"

"Very well, but we're not letting him see that," she told him. "No Arcan goes around where he can see carrying a musket. Since he dug in, we've been trying to bait him into making a serious attack. Well, he tried one yesterday at sunrise, when we had the rising sun in our faces. We fought his men off when they overran a couple of our forward positions, then they pulled back when we brought muskets into the fight. Even with the muskets we're building here and the muskets coming from Haven, getting our hands on the thousands of muskets and gunpowder and equipment he has is absolutely critical when trying to arm an army this size."

"Why not rifles? Didn't Clover send a Briton rifle for your gunsmiths to take apart and duplicate?"

"How can she get one here, Kyven?" Firetail asked calmly.

He grunted and stood up. "I should have thought about that. Do you have gunsmiths here?"

"Yes, several," Firetail answered.

"Then I'll be right back." It was a simple matter to shadow walk back to the army, pick up a rifle, then evade the things on his return trip and return to the very place he'd been standing. Firetail and Danna jumped a little when a sudden cloud of shadow produced him without a sound, then evaporated around him like smoke. "Bring your gunsmiths and a couple of brothers or sisters here that can duplicate this," he said.

Firetail laughed. "I guess dinner will be delayed."

"Better have breakfast here too, cause I can't shadow walk again for a little bit. So I can't go fetch Wild for a couple of hours."

Four gunsmiths arrived, as well as five other Shaman, and they watched in rapt interest as Kyven disassembled the rifle into its components. "Do you see an problems duplicating any of these pieces?" Kyven asked his fellow Shaman."

"Can you break this housing down any more, brother? Are there any moving parts inside it?" a willowy mink Arcan male Shaman asked, whose name he didn't know.

"I think there's a spring or two in there."

"Then it has to be taken apart more."

"Alright, we're getting into the unexplored territory here. I think the gunsmiths need to take over."

The four gunsmiths did manage to break the rifle down even more, until the steel housing had been completely gutted and every part was carefully laid out on the table in an exact pattern that would allow them to reassemble it. "Alright, this is as disassembled as it can get," the stocky, rather rare badger Arcan declared. "Honored Shaman, can you duplicate this?"

"Easily," a male coyote said simply. "We'll need equal weight of metal and wood for raw materials."

"Let's not take any chances here," Kyven said. "These rifles are much more complex than the muskets. I think we should duplicate them completely, to the point of using the same metals. I'm sure that isn't steel," he said, pointing at a pin that was part of the internal workings.

"It is, actually," Firetail said, picking it up. "Everything here is iron or steel.

"But it's blue."

"That's because it was forged differently from the rest of the pieces. Probably to make it stronger," one of the other gunsmiths said.

"Not a problem for us, we can make our duplicates match the originals."

"Alright, let's make a duplicate of everything, then put the duplicate back together and see how it works," the badger announced.

Firetail called in the materials, and the four Shaman duplicated every piece of the rifle. The lead gunsmith, the badger, then began assembling the duplicate pieces, which had been laid out right beside the originals on the table. He used several tools, chisels and prods and tiny hammers and such, and he worked with surprising speed and very nimble hands. Once he had all the little pieces reassembled into the main components, into the field-strip pieces Kyven recognized, the badger then expertly put those back together after watching Kyven take it apart, and only having seen it once. This badger was good. After he locked the stock back to the housing after reinserting the firing pin and spring, he tossed it to Kyven. He caught it, actuated the cocking lever, which moved a little oddly since nothing in the duplicate had been oiled, then pulled the trigger.

The hammer snapped down on the empty chamber, exactly as it was supposed to.

"I think we have a winner," the badger grinned broadly. "At least after I take it apart and oil it in the same places the original was oiled. You have the bullets this uses?"

Kyven took them out of his pocket, twelve of them, and the badger beamed like he was the sun.

"Remember, the brass casings holding the bullet can be re-used, and you have someone in Haven who knows how to press the bullets."

"Tweak?" Firetail asked, and Kyven nodded.

"I know how as well, but you don't have a bullet press here. Neither does Tweak, for that matter."

"Can you get one?"

"Not today. We have a few with the army, so we can make our own ammunition. But I can bring one tomorrow so you can duplicate it, then take it back. We need it. Actually, I'll have Clover duplicate one and I'll just bring that one."

"I think we have a plan, then," the bull Shaman smiled. "We'll need to learn how these work."

"I can teach someone, and they can teach others, and so on," Kyven said dismissively. "I've done it before. I can train a class tomorrow night when I come back."

After that was done, after the gunsmiths and the Shaman retreated, talking among themselves as they took the original and the duplicated rifle to inspect and ensure they did it properly, Kyven ate a nice dinner of roasted venison marinated in an herb broth, boiled corn ears, and stewed greens with her and Danna, then he and Danna walked along the catapult clearing. Kyven couldn't stop looking at her in her skimpy attire, and that seemed to annoy her just a little bit. "You didn't stare half as hard when I was human."

"I stared at you for hours when you were asleep, when you were naked," he admitted.

She laughed ruefully. "I forgot about that," she said. "It seems so long ago."

"I told you before, Danna, I don't care what you look like. Human, Arcan, doesn't matter. You're still you."

"I think you really mean that," she said, nudging him with her furry shoulder. "Does this mean you'll still be there when I'm old and fat?"

"I'll always be there," he told her earnestly. "When all this is over, if we survive, I want to be more serious with you, Danna. Maybe even get married."

"Kyven!" she gasped. "You're serious?"

"As a cleric," he answered. "I'd like to have a nice house somewhere in Haven, maybe in Vanguard so we don't upset the timid Arcans. You can have a house near mine or maybe just live with me, hopefully, and if we do marry, you damn well better live with me. I can walk to you Haven for your meetings, I've learned how to take people with me now, and we'll see if it works."

"But ... I'm not giving in to the bitch," she said. "I may be stuck like this."

"I don't care," he shrugged. "I can deal with the fur if you can. I told you, Danna, I don't care how you look. You'll just have to put up with one thing."

"What?"

"I was forced to give something up to her," he told her, a bit sheepishly.

"What?" she asked, a touch ominously.

"I owe her one more child-well, one more birth with Umbra," he told her, a bit defensively.

She gave him a look, then did something he didn't expect ... she laughed. "Why did you agree to it?"

"It was that or give her your Seal," he told her. "I went with the lesser of two evils."

She chuckled, then sighed. "Sad that I'm laughing about you being unfaithful."

"Well, I'm sorta not entirely faithful as it is," he admitted. "Lightfoot can be persistent."

She gave him a sudden look. "Lightfoot?"

"She doesn't care about me being human," he shrugged. "And I'd be afraid to say no. She might hurt me."

Danna laughed earnestly then. "I have no idea why, but that doesn't bother me as much as if you'd found some human whore. Arcans ... they don't see that the same way we do. It doesn't mean as much to them."

"I don't think she'll be a problem for long, though," he said with a slight smile. "Lucky's wearing her down. He'll get in her bed inside two weeks, mark my words."

"I wish him good luck."

"Have you been practicing your shadow powers?"

She nodded. "Wanna see?"

"Sure. Show me what you've got."

They stopped, and she held her clawed hand out. She swept it in a circle, and a trail of shadow trailed behind it, until it formed a wavering circle before them. She pulled her hand away and gestured, and then the circle became a square, then it became a star, then in filled in and expanded to take on the silhouette form of a human, a male human. The figure bowed to them, then she gave him a wink. "Watch."

She furrowed her brow in concentration, then held her hand out and clasped the hand of her shadowy creation, and then shook it. Her hand didn't sink into the shadow. The shadowy creation reached out and poked its finger at Kyven's chest, and it made contact.

She made the shadow solid!

"Holy shit!" he gasped. "How did you do that!" He reached his hand towards the shadow, but his hand passed through it.

"I sorta figured out how to make the shadow kinda real," she answered, a bit victoriously, but she was out of breath. "It takes a lot of effort, though. I can't make it stay that way but for about ten seconds."

"How? How exactly?"

"I dunno. I can't really tell you how, I just ... do it."

He nodded, understanding what she meant. This wasn't something they could teach each other. He'd have to learn how to do this trick on his own, because this was something he had not considered. But, spirits, the possibilities. It was a trick he very much intended to learn, and fast.

"Have you tried shadow walking?" he asked her.

"I've been trying," she answered. "I'm being careful, though. You said it's dangerous in there."

"It is. Just remember, when you do finally manage it, don't hang around in there. Just come back out quickly."

"How do I get out?"

"The same way you got in, but it's much easier to get out than it is to get in," he told her. "And remember what I told you about the place."

"It'll make me dizzy and maybe nauseous, there's no gravity, and I can control distances with my mind but I still have to physically move if I want to move myself."

He nodded. "And don't practice after I leave. Not until noon tomorrow. It should be safe then."

"Okay," she nodded. "So, I figured out something you didn't," she said teasingly.

"You did indeed, my Danna girl," he answered. "And I'm glad. Maybe with the two of us learning new tricks, we can show each other, and we both get better."

"For as long as I'm like this. Which may be forever," she grunted. "Cause I sure as hell am not giving that bitch babies."

"I'll find a way to make her change you back," he promised her. "Just be patient."

"I trust you, Kyv," she said honestly, and that made him glad. "What happened at Cheston? I want to hear the whole thing from you, not through the reports."

He spent nearly an hour describing everything, from his freeing the Arcans of the Pens to the battle in Cheston, and then the perfidy of DeVaur and the withdrawal of their army from DeVaur's oversight and control. He told her about his bargain with the shadow fox, how he'd finally managed to hold his own in a bargain, then he told her about Toby and Nightfall.

"Another brood bitch like Umbra?" she asked, amazed.

He nodded. "She's a lot smarter than Umbra, though," he told her. "She's Toby's partner, like Umbra was mine. When Toby gets her pregnant, he says he has the option to get changed back to a human at any time he chooses."

"Why would he stay like, like this?" she asked, holding up her arm.

"Because we're fighting a war, and that has definite advantages over this," he said, slapping his own chest lightly. "As an Arcan, he's faster, he's stronger, he can see in the dark, and he has much more acute senses. I know you know that."

"Yeah, I know that."

"I take the fur from you from time to time because of its advantages, like when I need to run very fast or I need the senses. So, he might decide to hold off on changing back until after the war's over, and hold onto his advantage. As long as he's with the army, he has no fear of a slaver's collar, and that's the only major drawback of it. As long as you don't mind the fur, anyway."

"Well, I mind it."

"Toby seems quite comfortable with it," Kyven told her. "An odd position to take for a former hunter that's been in the Arcan slave trade most of his life."

"Toby's a complicated man," Danna said. "I got to know him very well over the winter. He was the only other human around to talk to, you know."

"Nightfall doesn't seem to like him very much," Kyven observed. "Well, that's not entirely right. I think she gets along with him, but wouldn't be with him as a mate if she had a choice. I get the feeling she's with him only because she told her to."

"Too bad for him. Umbra's absolutely crazy about him."

"Yeah, I know," he chuckled.

They talked a while longer, over little things, until well past midnight. After they returned to her tent, he kissed her on the tip of her nose, looked down towards the Deep River. "Alright, where do you want him?"

"Right here," she declared, pointing at the ground before her.

"He might be messy when I get him here. The last human I pulled into the shadow world puked all over himself."

"I don't have a problem with that," she said simply.

"Oh, here, let me take that from you," he said, then he touched his amulet as he willed it to activate. His bones turned to icy water, and he heard her gasp slightly as she too changed, but he couldn't really see it. After seconds, it was Danna the human standing there in her little skimpy top and tied-on cloth, her smooth skin visible on her hip, and it was Kyven the Arcan taking off his boots. She was just as sexy as a human wearing that as she had been as an Arcan. "Rowr," he called.

She blushed, then laughed. "For some reason, I feel naked now," she declared. "I just feel covered when I have the fur. I hope I have time to get a robe on before you get back."

"I'll give you a minute or two," he grinned toothily. "I don't want him ogling what's mine."

"Yours, am I?" she challenged.

"Yup. All mine," he retorted. He then retreated into the shadows, melting away as his laughter chased Danna when she tried to smack him.

Kyven had seen Taggan Wild in person before, and it was dark, so it only took him a few minutes to find him in what used to be Deep River. They had completely torn down the village and used the materials to fortify the walls, including that blind Danna mentioned, which was a very cleverly built array of boards and logs that covered nearly a quarter of the open space of the walled area beside the hillside. There were thousands of men inside, sleeping in tiny tents, but there were also nearly a thousand men awake. Some were standing watch, watching the forest in the night but listening far more than they were watching, but some were hard at work, digging in even more, digging a deep pit under the blind, pilling the earth up against the wall to make it even harder to push the wall of logs down. Taggan Wild was asleep, in his tent under the blind, with two guards standing outside with shockrods in hand.

He loved it when they made it easy.

He converged a gateway back into the real world right behind Wild's cot, but instead of stepping out, he instead reached through it with his hands. It made his hands instantly go numb, putting them in the real world while staying in the shadow world, but they didn't stop working. He only knew he had a solid grip on Wild's nightshirt because he could see it, but he couldn't feel a damn thing under the pads of his hands. Tag was jerking awake at that touch, and he screamed just as Kyven yanked him, dragging him through the gateway and into the shadow world. Wild gasped, but Kyven didn't give him a chance to get sick, immediately turning and converging another gateway in front of Danna's tent, then throwing him through it. Wild tumbled out of the gateway and to the ground, and Kyven stepped through his gateway even as he willed it to pass around him, and Wild looked back in time to see the black-furred Arcan step out of the night itself, his eyes glowing with a steady green radiance. "What the fuck!" he gasped, looking around wildly as musket-wielding Arcans started advancing towards him.

"Did you think that the Shaman wouldn't do something about you, General?" Kyven asked calmly. "They got tired of you, so they called me. Welcome to the camp of the enemy."

"I should slap you for being such a stubborn ass," Danna growled as she came out of the tent, wearing a dressing robe, but still with bare feet.

"Danna Pannen," Wild said, trying to recover his wits. "Another magic trick from your Shaman?"

"From a very specific Shaman with some very specific capabilities," she said simply. "This has gone on far too long, so I called him in to deal with this. And here you are."

"So, here I am," he said in a calm voice, sitting cross-legged on the ground. "And what do you intend to do?"

"We're not going to kill you," she told him. "We don't murder people, General Wild. You'll be our guest for a while, then we'll give you back to your men after they agree to surrender, and we'll send you back over the mountains."

"Well, that's ... generous of you," he said, giving Danna a nervous look. "How did you pull this off?"

"A good Shaman never reveals his secrets," Kyven said calmly.

Wild gaped at him. "You!" he gasped. "The black fox Shaman! Steelhammer!"

"It's been a while since Riyan," Kyven smiled toothily. "I was there, you know. I walked right by you as you talked to your officers."

"They reported that you were the one that led the Arcans out of the pens."

Kyven nodded. "That and I gave your opponent a very detailed overview of your troop placements and the best way to attack to minimize casualties and maximize the damage. That's what I do, General. I'm a spy, and I'm not that bad at it."

"He's the best there is," Danna said simply.

"So, after you turned out to be far more annoying than Danna expected, she called me in. I can never say no to her," he said, grinning at her.

"Well, given that you pulled me out of my bed and I landed right here, on my ass, I can see why you're a good spy," he said with a rueful chuckle. "Some kind of magical movement?"

"Something like that," he said evasively. "Now, we'll see how long your men last without you, General, wondering if they're the next one to disappear."

"What do you mean?"

"Can't you hear them?" he asked with a mild smile. "There's yelling and confusion down there. Your guards probably saw me yank you right into nothingness, saw you disappear. They'll wonder what happened to you, then after a little while, they'll start wondering who's going to be next. Eventually, they're going to break, and then they'll surrender."

"My lieutenants know what to do."

"Then I'll just go get them," Kyven shrugged. "If I have to fix it so the only guy in charge down there is a squad corporal, well, that's no problem. But, if you shout down to them to surrender, things may go a little quicker."

"I won't do that."

"I figured you wouldn't, and I can respect you for it," Kyven said, looking down at him with a nod. "But, there's nothing stopping me from doing it for you, after I give your men some time to panic," he said with a smile, taking on the illusory image of Taggan Wild, perfect to the minute detail. "I'll just show up falling out of another of those shadowy clouds, act shaken, isolate your lieutenants when they come to me, get them out of the way so no one can reject my commands, then order your men to surrender. By the time the truth gets out, they'll already all be disarmed." Wild gaped at him, then gave him a sudden angry look.

"Barktoe, take the general here and find him some clothes that fit him, then put him in the prisoner's tent. Make sure he's treated well, but watch him very carefully. He's extremely dangerous," Danna ordered one of her guards.

"At once, General," the burly canine said, pounding his fist against his chest, over his heart, in a curious gesture that looked almost official. "Shaman," he said with a respectful nod, holding his hand out to the seated man. "Sir, if you'd come with me, please," he asked.

General Taggan Wild, his legs bare to the thigh, was escorted off by one of Danna's guards. Kyven and Danna looked at each other, then they burst into laughter spontaneously. Kyven came up to her, then he ended his time wearing her fur. They both endured the icy change, and she shook herself as he rubbed his forearm vigorously, waiting for the goosebumps to fade. "So, you still wearing that sexy outfit under that robe?" he asked her in a husky voice.

"Oh, don't even," she laughed, pushing him away. She laughed even harder when he grabbed the edges of the robe and tried to pull them apart, and she slapped his arms a couple of times. That didn't dissuade him, so she gave him a wicked smile when she put the point of one of her claws below his belt, pointed up, in a very sensitive place. Kyven froze instantly when he felt that point dig into his crotch, then slowly, carefully put her robe lapels back down, then even smoothed them out. "That's better," she said with dancing eyes. She removed her claw, but gasped and laughed again when he reached out and grabbed her in a rough hug, pinning her arms inside the circle of his own. "You'd better behave," she warned.

"I don't want to behave," he whispered close to her ear. "I want to drag you into your tent and see if we can both fit on your cot."

"Like this?" she protested.

"I told you, I don't care about that," he breathed, sliding his hands up and down her back. "I was having sex with girls who look like that before you met me. It doesn't bother me at all."

"It bothers me," she told him.

"Does it?" he asked, barely more than a whisper, sliding his hands down and cupping her shapely butt in his hands.

"Yes, it does. And you're a pervert."

"Oh, I'm a pervert, am I? Who screwed me knowing I was the one wearing the fur?" he asked, caressing her posterior. And she didn't push his hands away.

"I didn't feel it. You didn't look it."

"But you knew it was there," he pressed, and she jumped slightly when he put a hand between them, on her breast, over her robe. "Admit it."

She pushed back and gave him a strange look, mixed with indecision, desire, and not a little fear. Then she looked around and realized that Kyven was pawing her in a very intimate manner out in the open. Her cheek fur ruffled in what had to be an Arcan's blush, and she looked at the guards, who were pointedly looking away from her, trying not to smile. "Let's discuss this in private, mister," she said in a hostile tone, grabbing the hand on her breast firmly by the wrist.

"Oh yes, let's go somewhere private," he agreed as she yanked on him as she dragged him into her tent. Her tent was actually rather spacious, with two large chests, a weapons rack for her musket, pistol belt, and other weapons, and a table that had maps strewn across it. She also had a cot, which had a mattress on it, and looked fairly sturdy if not very roomy.

He was here, he wanted her, and he was going to do his damndest to get her into that cot.

It turned out, however, not to be nearly a tenth as hard as he expected. The second she got him into the tent, and the flap fluttered closed, she crushed him against her, her claws digging into his back painfully. "Damn you, Kyven," she growled at him. "I don't know what to do with myself now!"

"Do what you want, Danna," he breathed in her ear.

Her tail shivered visibly as his breath washed over her ear. He reached down and between them for the belt of her robe, and she did not protest when he pulled it untied, then pulled hard at one side of it, pulling it open. She was wearing her little top and tied cloth under the robe, but that wasn't much. He reached underneath the skimpy top and put his hand solidly on her fur-clad breast, then kissed her on the side of her muzzle. "Kyven," she said in a low voice, then she literally growled in her throat. "Kyyyyv," she complained as his massaging of her breast started getting to her. "I, I don't know what to do."

"Anything you want," he answered, pushing her towards the cot, even as his other hand reached under her robe and started picking at the knot holding the cloth around her waist.

She was hesitant, but not because she did not want him. She was hesitant because she was an Arcan, and she was extremely self-conscious about it. He sensed that the first thing he had to do was prove to her that he did not care. That wasn't hard at all, since his ardor was in full boil, and his passionate touching of her replaced what would have been passionate kisses between them were they human. He knew enough about Arcan females to understand how to convey his passion through touch, through her heightened sense of smell, even through her tongue. Arcans licked because their lips were not shaped correctly nor were prehensile enough to kiss the way humans did, but their tongues were sensitive. When she opened her maw slightly, he kissed her lower jaw, and she licked at the side of his face before she realized what she was doing. He pushed the robe from her shoulders, finally picked through the knot on her little cloth wrap, and they both fell to the floor as he tried to get enough separation from her to pull her little top off. "Kyven," she said breathlessly, standing there in flustered confusion. "I ... I don't know what to do."

"You can let me get this top off you," he said urgently. She blinked and looked at him, then obeyed, holding her arms up as he pulled it over her head. Once he got her naked, got to see all her white fur, he pushed them both towards the cot. She surrendered to his ardor, allowing him to lean her back on the cot, and she winced when her tail got caught between her butt and the side pole of the cot, even through the mattress. She got her tail safely under her, trailing down between her legs, and he was careful not to knee it as he joined her on the narrow cot, kissing her fur under her chin, then kissing the end of her nose, showing her that he wanted her, and he wanted her badly. She responded to that passion uncertainly, no doubt finding that her feelings and what she was feeling was a little different with the fur, and that made her hesitant. But that didn't stop her from pulling up on his shirt, then running her clawed hands under it, along his lean torso.

He didn't give her time to worry too much about it. He worked his trousers off in a bit of a display of needful dexterity, and he lay atop her, letting her feel his weight, letting her feel his erect member between them, pressing down against the crown of her pubic bone. She accepted him when he pressed down on her, his head beside hers, her hands sliding up over his shoulders, and he winced when those claws suddenly punched into his skin when he mounted her. He found that she was as ready for him as he was for her, and she flexed her fingers a little as he fully penetrated her, digging those points into his skin enough to draw blood.

"Uhh, Kyven," she gasped in his ear. "I don't know what to do."

"Let me love you, silly woman," he breathed back. "And try not to flay me."

She actually laughed, and the clawtips removed themselves from his shoulders.

She wasn't hesitant for long. Both of them had searing memories of their first episode of lovemaking, and it was probably those memories that incited her into letting him seduce her this time. Kyven found that even though it was her wearing the fur this time and not him, it was no less intense, no less unbelievably pleasurable. Danna responded to him in ways no other woman ever had, and he found himself responding to her the same way. She wrapped her arms around him and moved with him as he made love to her, moving with him in ways he found incredibly erotic. She sure as hell knew what to do once she shed her inhibitions and surrendered to her passion, and her need, the feel of her against him, around him, the hot breath against his hair, the almost sinfully soft fur sliding against him in ways that were exquisite, the soft fur clashing with the erect nipples poking against his chest, the hard, sharp claws that raked down his back, the teeth that suddenly clamped against his lower neck and upper shoulder, her tail spasming and slashing between his knees. They were lost in their passion, him thrusting into her with growing need, and she met him with yearning resolve.

Then, she gave a startled gasp, and her claws drew significant blood when he felt her clench. He had enough experience to hold still as she gasped and growled and bit at him in the throes of her passion, and just like any other Arcan female, her clench against him incited him to a powerful, intense, almost mind-shattering orgasm. He winced in both ecstasy and pain as he gave his seed to her, and her claws dug deep furrows in his back.

She gave a choking sound, then panted breathlessly as he collapsed atop her, her claws still dug under his skin, and he could feel either sweat or blood sliding off his back and down his sides. He nuzzled at her neck and the side of her head, panting himself, then he slid his hands up her sides and along her arms, and gripped her elbows. "Danna," he whispered.

"Mmm?"

"You can take your claws out of me now."

She gasped as she released him, and he felt the unmistakable oozing of blood from the bottom edges of those deep gouges. "I'm, I'm so sorry," she said worriedly, which made him laugh.

"Nothing a Shaman who'll ride me over for a week for it can't heal, my Danna," he told her. "But I need get up before you get bloodstains on your mattress."

"Nooooo," she complained, lacing her fingers through his and pulling them over her head. "Don't move. Not yet."

"Did you like it?"

"Fuck," she panted. "I've never felt ... what was that?"

"Something female Arcans do when they orgasm. I assume you liked it?"

"I'm ruined," she told him. "It won't seem even interesting as a human."

He laughed, then he gripped her clawed hands sensually, and kissed her again on the side of her muzzle. "I'm glad you enjoyed it. And I'm glad you let me."

"I'm not dead, Kyv," she told him. "I still want you. You put your hands one me, and, and, I just lost myself."

"And now you know, I don't care what you look like, or if you have fur or not," he whispered in her ear. "Because it's you I want, Danna. You. Not what you look like. I want you."

"I'm ... I'm starting to believe you," she said.

"Oh, now you believe me? After I just seduced you and ravished you?"

She laughed. "After I clawed you up and you didn't stop," she told him.

"I'll take the scars," he said dryly, which made him let go of his hands and wrap her arms around him again. She ran her hands over his scratches, which was painful, and when she pulled them off, she had blood on the pads on her palms and fingers.

"Holy Father, I'm so sorry!" she gasped as she stared in horror at her bloody palms.

"It was worth it," he said immediately and with complete conviction as he rose up off of her, then went over to the tent flap. He opened it and looked out. "Could you please summon Firetail?" he asked a guard. "If you have to wake her up, do it. Tell her I need to see her."

"Of course, Shaman," the guard answered, hurrying off.

"Holy shit," Danna gasped as she sat up.

"What?"

"You're bleeding!" she told him.

"I think we established that, love," he answered lightly, which made her give him a flat look. He turned a chair around so he could sit in it with the back in front of him, leaning on it and giving her a light, playful smile. "I told you, it was worth it."

"We shouldn't do this again," she said, looking at him. "I really hurt you, Kyven!"

"This? I've had worse from Lightfoot," he snorted. "And just try to not do this again when I know how to get you into that bed, you silly woman," he winked. "I'll just have to put bags over your hands or something."

She gave him a hot look, then exploded into laughter, flopping back onto the bed.

"Kyven, what did-oh my," Firetail said as she entered the tent, wearing absolutely nothing at all, which was normal for her since she slept unclothed, then she took in the situation and smiled knowingly. "Danna, my dear friend, try not to grip and pull next time," she chided. "Grip, fine. Pull, fine. But not both."

Danna gave her a sheepish look, but Kyven just looked over at the Shaman matriarch with a dry expression. "I'd rather not face a week of cheeky comments, Firetail. Could you fix it please?"

"Why Kyven, you of all people know that I'll ride you twice as hard about this than the others," she grinned at him as she stepped over.

"But I know where you live, Firetail," he countered. "And I'm not worried about offending you if I get mean in response."

She laughed delightedly as she put her hands on his gouged back. He felt the angry buzzing in his back as her Shaman magic healed the scratches, leaving his back smooth and unscarred, if still bloody. "I'll get a rag and clean you up, my friend."

"I'll do it," Danna said, standing up without bothering to cover herself. "I owe him that much."

"I'll leave him to you then, my friend. Good night."

"Night, sister, and thank you."

"Any time, my brother. Any time," she answered as she left the tent.

Danna cleaned the blood from his back with a rag, and spent a lot of time tracing the pads of her fingers along his skin, touching him, feeling him with her heightened senses. Then she leaned down and touched her nose to the back of his neck, under his black hair. "Kyven," she called.

"Yes, Danna?" He shivered slightly when she licked the back of his neck slowly, sensually He bowed his head and let her do what she wanted, as she literally tasted his skin. Her hands came to rest on his shoulders, as her tongue tasted the skin behind his ear. "Should I ask the guard for some bags?" he asked.

She collapsed against his back in laughter, wrapping her arms around him. "You are an evil, insensitive prick, Kyven," she told him.

"Then I'm doing it right," he answered her flippantly, putting his hand on her forearms. "It's how I keep you on your toes." He felt her press against his back, her hands sliding up and down his chest and side, and was keenly aware of the swell of her breasts pushing against him. "Well, I'm glad I was intending to stay the night," he told her as she started licking him under his jaw from behind, easy for her to do since her muzzle was over his shoulder.

It wasn't nearly as urgent the second time, and also didn't involve asking Firetail to be healed. Kyven was the one that surrendered this time, allowing her to explore him with her fingers and tongue, as he had no doubt she was comparing what she was feeling to what it felt like when she was human. After she was done exploring him, she led him back to the cot by the hand, and to keep from gouging him with her claws, she allowed him to guide her down onto her hands and knees. He then made love to her again, his hands roaming all over her as he thrust himself into her, but as they went on, he moved with more and more intensity, more passion, and more speed. They ended with her pulled hard against his chest as he shook her entire body with hard, almost violent thrusts, as her claws kneaded the air in front of her and she pushed the side of her head against his as he pushed his chin over her shoulder, her tail curling around his hip and the tip lashing at his buttocks as it slashed back and forth in her pleasure. He held her tightly against him as she clenched, and that action incited him to another powerful orgasm, holding on for dear life as he survived their shared pleasure.

She pulled him down to the bed after they were done, holding him close and with her muzzle up against his neck, nuzzling him in a nearly Arcan manner. "Kyven," she whispered breathlessly, her breathing still fast, pushing her breasts against him with every inhale. "Don't think this changes anything."

"What's there to change?" he asked. "You're mine. This just proves it."

"So sure of yourself," she countered. "I may just be interested in your body."

"Such a bad liar," he teased. "You love me. Admit it."

"Like you've ever said it yourself!"

He rose up and looked down at her. "Danna," he declared, "I love you. And I'm not just saying that because I just made love to you," he said with a wry smile.

She laughed helplessly. "Really?"

"Really," he answered, kissing her nose playfully. "I think I've loved you since somewhere in midwinter in Haven, I just wasn't sure until after I started this insanity. Master Holm always did say that love wasn't something you knew you had until well after you had it. And every day that goes by, it just convinces me that much more that coming back to you is the best thing waiting for me when this war is over."

Her eyes softened, and she pushed her hand through his black hair over his eyes. "You go a long way to get into my pants, Kyven."

"It's worth every step," he grinned down at her.

"I appreciate the effort," she winked at him.

"So, I've bared my soul," he prompted.

"My mother told me that the instant a man hears you admit you love him, he stops trying. But," she said playfully, putting her hands behind her head. "I think you're the kind that'd lose interest if I didn't say it."

"I don't want to hear you say it, I want to know you mean it."

She smiled at him, sliding her leg up and down against his hip, sliding her sinfully soft fur against his outer thigh and hip.

He laughed. "Yeah, that's proof enough for me," he grinned down at her. "You wouldn't let just anyone make love to you like this."

She pulled him back down against him. "Kyven Steelhammer, I love you," she breathed in his ear. "And what I won't give to that bitch, I'll give to you."

"Kits?"

"Babies," she said, pushing at him. She saw his playful smile, then laughed and pulled him back down. "We'll find some way to make her change me back, then we'll have babies together, Kyven. Lots of them. On our little farm just outside of Vanguard, or maybe on the outskirts of Haven, if they'll let us."

"You're the general of their armies. I'm a Shaman. They'll let us," he told her, settling against her. "So, wanna get married?"

"After I get my humanity back," she told him. "I'm willing to do this with you, but no way are they tying a marriage cord around our wrists with me this way."

"Just more motivation for me," he said, lazily kissing the base of her jaw.

"And I expect a proper proposal. You dressed in your best, coming to call at noon, kneeling down, giving me the four flowers of love, a ring and a necklace, the whole thing."

"I'll be happy to when the time comes." He settled a tiny bit more against her, feeling drowsy. "Danna."

"Mmm?"

"I love you," he breathed, then he fell asleep.

She just held him, held him for a long time. She never thought that despite her being trapped by that bitch, being stuck in this body, she could ever feel so ... wonderful. She held him closely and tenderly, hearing him breathe, feeling it against her chest, and feeling a strange electric thrill in her to know that this enigmatic, handsome, frightening, powerful, wonderful man loved her, and she loved him, and she could be the luckiest girl in Noraam. She reveled in this newfound bond of expressed love between them for long moments in the dark, until she too fell asleep.

Outside the tent, hidden from the eyes of all, the shadow fox sat sedately with her tail wrapped around her legs. Her unwavering, unblinking, glowing green eyes were fixed on the tent, and they were content.

Finally. She was starting to wonder if she was going to have to do something drastic to make them admit the truth to each other.

But, it would spur her Shaman to new levels of cunning and trickery to try to wrest Danna away from her ... which would be a source of diverting entertainment for her.

She stood up and turned, then padded away, content with the fulfillment of plans set in motion seasons before. But that was her way. Slowly, patiently, planting the seeds and nurturing them until they blossomed into the flowers of her intent. She was a spirit of guile and deceit, but she was also a spirit of cunning, vision, and patience.

Seeds sown long ago had finally born fruit. But there were other seeds to be nurtured, and they needed her attention before they too could come to harvest.

Her body seemed to merge with the shadows of the night, and then she was gone.

Chapter 15