The Ways of Mages: Starfire (17 page)

“
Zan atar iell nou ma more
a…
si ri ost
i…
ri zail...(The voice told me to kil
l…
so I did. I will
)”
- Seer Kheniell of Razya
n’
s Keep

Kaishan waited. A curious feeling spread through him, a kind of hunger. Excitement seized his heart in its tight grip. He breathed through his opened beak. The rich scent of the cliff deer tempted him. Or maybe and more honestly, the scent of its blood. It was a young buck who had let youth get to its head. A more experienced buck had taught it that.

“
Come
on
.”
Insisted his twin She
yé
v. She
yév’
s night feathered wings opened in anticipation.

“
Wait
.”
Kaisha
n’
s tone was imperious. There was a soft clack as She
yév’
s beak shut. Kaishan felt his twin shift in resentment. The twin eagles perched upon a ledge above the cliff deer. They were young, no older than six. Adult Sheyestivans hunted in the great plains looking for easier, bigger meat. Only children and a few nimble adults hunted the cliff deer.

Both eagles watched the cliff deer limp along a hands width wide path. Kaishan eyed She
yé
v out of the corner of his eye. She
yév’
s posture was becoming restless. They both felt the bloodlust within themselves. Shifting into the Night Eagle gave one power, strength, invincibility. All of Sheyestiva gloried in their second forms. They were the ultimate predators. With eyes as sharp as a true eagl
e’
s in daylight and moonlight, there was no place to hide. None. With this form came the love of the hunt, the taste of anothe
r’
s life upon the tongu
e…
Kaishan could understand his brothe
r’
s impatience.

“
Wait
.”
Kaishan warned his twin when She
yé
v made to dive upon the deer.

She
yé
v growled deep in his throat. The deer froze. For a second it listened. She
yé
v hissed his excitement softly. Forgetting its injury, the deer panicked and tried to scamper away. The deer fell. She
yé
v dove after it.

“
She
yé
v
!”
Kaishan called. She
yé
v ignored him. Grumbling at his twi
n’
s foolishness, Kaishan sprang after his brother; his eyes following his twi
n’
s progress. The deer landed in a crumbled heap on a wide ledge. She
yé
v landed on its broken body, his claws going deep. She
yév’
s beak making quick work of the dee
r’
s throat. Dark blood gave the black beak a wet sheen as She
yé
v lifted his head in triumph. Kaishan back winged, hovered, watching and waiting.

“
Mine
!”
She
yé
v challenged Kaishan, his triumphant eyes glittering. She
yé
v bent his head to the corpse. Kaishan looked over toward the dark crack in the cliff. When he and his brother had come here they had both seen the fissure. They both knew what lurked there, but in his frenzy, She
yé
v had lost his sense. Now an oily iridescent tentacle emerged. Its coloring began to mimic the stone of the cliff as it snaked toward She
yé
v and the deer.

Slowly the tentacle was followed by two others of its ilk. After them squeezed a drooling serpentine head and body. A sovashatash. Only an adult Sheyestivan in eagle form dared to face it. It was suicidal for anything else to. He must have been foolish. As soon as Kaishan saw the sovashatash, his mind became cold and calculating. There was no time to worry about the stilling toxin hidden within the tentacles. It did
n’
t matter that he was only six, that sovashatash was threatening what was his.

Without giving warning to brother or snake, Kaishan dove. His aim was true. She
yé
v knew his danger only when he heard the thunk of impact and the sovashatas
h’
s hiss of pain. A chunk of bloody meat fell from his gapping beak as Kaisha
n’
s small body inflicted bloody rents into the snak
e’
s. She
yé
v was frozen by the cold glow in Kaisha
n’
s eyes. A strangled cry left his throat as the two tumbled over the side.

Warm blood welled about Kaisha
n’
s toes; its coppery tang soaked his tongue as he tore into the sovashatas
h’
s body near its head. That was his world; tearing, rending, and blood. He could taste the sovashatas
h’
s pain, its anger. He hissed tauntingly, tearing at more of its flesh. Kaishan heard the strangled cry as his momentum sent he and his enemy over the edge. He reached into the beas
t’
s mind and read its panic and rage. Kaishan laughed into its mind as he tore free of its body.

Kaishan swooped away from the sovashatash. Beating his wings, he gained a little altitude before diving after the tumbling snake. It smacked into a ledge before rolling off to continue its downward plummet. Desperately it tried to snatch an overhang with its dexterous tongue. It hung for a moment before sighting Kaishan. Anger flashed in its eyes along with the need for revenge. How dare this eaglet challenge it! It meant to grab the bird in its tongues and let it know a slow death. Too late did it remember that its tongues were the only things keeping it from gravit
y’
s hold. With a hiss it tried to reclaim its brake, but it was too late.

Sharp pains were gouged into its head, cold laughter in its mind. It saw the obsidian beak before it saw no more. The other eye did
n’
t need to wait long before it joined its twin. It felt the burning heat of poison being pumped through its veins. Much of it was being pumped out along with its blood through its many wounds. It felt the sharp claws of its attacker rake against its skull before tearing free. A moment later there was the grandfather of all pain then nothing. Nothing, but the cold laughter.

Blood. Oh! The taste of it, the feel of it, the smel
l…
Oh yes! Yes! It brought such a savage joy to him that Kaishan felt ecstatic. He was powerful and invincible.  He could defend what was his against everything. Against anything.  Kaishan sank his claws deep into the mangled sovashatash and shrieked his dominance to the clouds far, far above.

As the echo faded, Kaisha
n’
s bloodlust melted away. Below him rested the crushed remains of a once proud hunter. A patient hunter who waited for the right opportunity. It would still be alive now if the Coldness had
n’
t touched him. She
yé
v would be dead, but it would be alive. Both would have been alive if She
yé
v had only obeyed him. Kaishan shifted back to his human form.  He crouched upon the corpse staring straight ahead.

“
Kaishan
?”
She
yév’
s hesitant voice intruded upon his thoughts. She
yé
v stared up at his twin and felt as if he did
n’
t know him anymore. Kaisha
n’
s pale skin was painted with crimson blood. Blood was everywhere. Blood stained Kaisha
n’
s cliff hunting camouflage. His eyes were losing their chill, but not their intenseness. Never had they been so piercing and calculating.  Kaishan turned those eyes on him, their chill coming back. Nimbly, Kaishan leapt from the pile of sovashatash and faced She
yé
v. One of Kaisha
n’
s bloody hands raked through his hair, dying it a crimson to match the rest of him.

“
Idiot
.”
She
yé
v flinched at Kaisha
n’
s icy voice
.“
I told you to wait
.”
Kaishan realized his voice was dangerous, but he did
n’
t care at the time. If She
yé
v had followed his lead, they would be eating tender deer meat right now. But no, he had to mess things up. Out of the corner of his eye, Kaishan saw shifting. He glanced and saw that there was a small crowd of Sheyestivans. All had shifted to their human forms. Several of which were solders. One man was the Kike
l’
s training master. Kaishan turned to them, his eyes calculating.

Training master Doeshan bowed his head low to Kaishan, then not so low to She
yé
v. He watched his quieter prince return his intense gaze upon She
yé
v. Here is a weapon for his Highness. Doeshan thought.

Kaishan shifted back to eagle form, glancing at Trainer Doeshan. He did
n’
t need telecy to read what the man thought. Kaishan launched himself into the sky, a cringing She
yé
v following after.  

That was when it started, Ari
té
was sure. The lad was a born fighter and his father had taken advantage of that.  Ari
té
felt a feeling akin to hope. Kaishan had shown that he detested waste. If that was because he knew it was wrong or if it was just a little boy becoming sick at the brutality of his actions, Ari
té
could only guess.

She remembered hearing of the twin heirs to the Sheyestivan throne. They were only twins in birth. Kaishan had always been the quieter one; the one who thought. She
yé
v was the rash one. Rash and dull witted.  He did what suited him at the time. Ari
té
remembered hearing once that She
yé
v became jealous that Kaishan had been crowned High Prince shortly after the
sovashtash
incident. She
yé
v challenged Kaishan to a duel. Ari
té
wondered at his sense. The lad had seen Kaishan take down an sovashatash . But that seemed to have slipped out of She
yév’
s mind when he needed it the most.

As Ari
té
sat there, she felt something brush against her mind. It was
n’
t an intrusion or an attack, just a tentative investigation or perhaps just a sharing.  She gazed a Kaishan. Was he waking up? She narrowed her eyes, watching him. The tentative brush pulled away. Before it was gone, she felt the traces of a memory. Curious, she followed it.

The Coldness was always there now. Perhaps that was because he was always fighting. Kaishan swirled the practice staff. Doeshan watched him with a critical eye. They had been going through this drill all morning. Kaishan was sick of it, but he understood the need of practice. Besides, he needed to keep his position. No longer did he learn the basics with his three brothers. Now he was working on more advanced weaponship, taught personally by Doeshan.

Kaishan picked up techniques quick. Soon, Doeshan was fixing the little things. But, when Doeshan saw his pupil start going down the wrong road he would spar briefly with Kaishan to keep him awake. To be honest, Kaishan relished it. All of it was a joy; the quickness of reflex, the low burn of working muscles, the complexity of the patterns. In these, he excelled.

The circular training court became his home. It had been cut into the plateau from the top by his people. Sunlight peered into the hole and fell a hundred feet to the trainees. Trodden grass lined the floor. Dirt showed its face where the grass could not stand the constant tramping of feet. At its widest point, the yard was fifty feet. All of it was his home. It was where he was the happiest.

Yet at the same time, it scared him.

The Coldness was always there now.

After a brief sparring in which Kaishan held his own against his master he was given freedom for the moment. Kaishan bowed before leaving Doeshan. As he was returning his stave to its rack a young girl who served the trainees refreshment came to him. She offered him a clumsy curtsy before offering him her tray of drinks. Kaishan knew her to be new to the training court. He accepted one of her offerings. He nodded his thanks before turning to put the weapon away.

“
I am owed blood
!”
A young voice he knew well called out
.“
I challenge you, Kaishan Varcress
.”
She
yé
v called as Kaishan closed his eyes
.“
Your crown should belong to me
.”
Kaishan glanced up at his twin and the fading Coldness returned fully. It mattered not that She
yé
v was his twin. His had been challenged. Challenged formally. Such a challenge could only be answered or ones respect would fade away. Doeshan had been adamant when instructing the princes in this. Any could be challenged by any one. Emperor could be challenged by the lowliest soldier. However that did not happen often. No one ever Blood Challenged the emperor because the challenger would most likely lose.  There was only one outcome to a Blood Challenge; someone lost everything, including their life. The formal challenge was a heavy thing.