Quintessential Tales: A Magic of Solendrea Anthology Read Free Page A

assume that the other two were angry with the orange and white behemoth that had attacked them on the beach. Royce wasn't too happy with it either.
    A renewed bout of spitting and hissing shattered the stillness of the clearing. Black-and-yellow let out a low, menacing growl that even Royce would have known better than to argue with. Orange-and-white looked at White-and-gray as if pleading for support. Finding none, Orange-and-white's tail drooped. It laid its ears back along its skull and slunk away from the fire. Royce knew defeat when he saw it. Though he didn't know what they'd been arguing about, Orange-and-white had clearly lost the fight and had been driven out because of it.
    An unpleasant sensation passed over him, like insects scurrying across his flesh. Four luminous eyes peered up at him from the edge of the clearing. They knew he was awake. Black-and-yellow moved under Royce's cage and disappeared from view. A growing sense of unease gnawed at him, roiling his stomach, but Royce forced it away. Fear served no purpose. He wasn't sure what was going to happen next, but he knew that he needed to keep a clear head to get Torus out of this in one piece.
    The cage jerked, slamming Royce against the wall. He braced for excruciating pain from his legs and was surprised when it didn't hurt as badly as he'd expected. Far enough from the disrupting effects of the sea, his bond with the Quintessential Sphere had been re-established. The forces that were slowly draining him of life were also mending his bruises and broken bones. As the cage was lowered into the light of the fire, Royce saw that the worst of the contusions had faded to a pale yellow shadow of what they'd been. The minor cuts and scrapes were all but gone. He was thankful that Torus was still passed out in his cage. He wasn't looking forward to explaining his miraculous healing. He’d taken great care over the years to hide his special abilities from those he fought alongside. Even going so far as to using cosmetics to take on the appearance of normal healing. He had no such supplies to work with now.
    He touched the ground and for a moment, nothing in the clearing moved. Black-and-yellow peered at him through the bars. White-and-gray stood just beyond, also looking toward the cage. Orange-and-white was still nowhere to be seen, and that made Royce more nervous than the two beasts that were peering at him with what seemed like a mixture of hunger and curiosity.
    Black-and-yellow stepped up to the cage and fiddled with it, his long claws scraping against the thick bars and sending a shiver up Royce's spine. His captors were well armed with fangs and claws. He had nothing with which to defend himself except his wits. He'd have much preferred a sturdy blade or spear. A door in the side of the cage opened and Black-and-yellow stepped back. He waited, his luminous eyes dancing in the firelight.
    Royce had sprung many traps in his career with the Army. He'd found himself landed in several more. This smelled of a trap. They were giving him just enough rope to hang himself with. If he bolted, they'd run him down. It was a predatory instinct, to chase fleeing prey. They were testing him, to see if he'd run.
    Lowering his hands to his legs, he pressed on the skin above and below his knees. Pain blossomed, which was reassuring in its own way. At least pain was a known commodity. Though he was no healer, he knew the bones weren't fully mended yet. He could feel it. A subtle strangeness around him. The Quintessential Sphere telling him that he wasn't in peak form. Royce snorted softly. As if he needed the Eternals to tell him that. Even so, his legs felt as if they'd support his weight, if he moved carefully. Slowly.
    With thick fingers calloused by years of abuse, Royce picked apart the expertly tied knots Torus had used to lash the splints to his legs. His captor's eyes tracked each movement, no matter how minute or innocent. He laid the bindings aside and moved the