Talon (The Astor Chronicles Book 1) Read Free

I reached the camp long before her and spent some time gathering wood and getting a fire going. When the icetiger reached the camp with her kill, she let go of it and lay down, panting with exertion. She allowed me to approach her and stroke her back where the muscles most pained her. It was new for her to experience pain in an emotional way, and she seemed equally surprised by the pleasure of my touch.
    I set some water to boil in my kettle and peeled a couple of shadow yams I’d dug up earlier in the day. I dropped them into the simmering water and put the tin lid on. I got to my feet and approached the deer carcass. The icetiger stared at me menacingly.
    ‘It will be easier for you to get at the flesh when I’m done.’
    There was a minute of hesitation as the icetiger tried to stare me down. Everything in her experience screamed at her to protect the kill, but her renewed mind, which was linked with her new spirit, understood the sacred bond between us. In the relationship of Rada and Rada-kin, the former was the master.
    ‘Why should it be that way?’ she sulked. ‘I’m the better hunter.’
    I had no response for her other than to point out the obvious—she was an animal and I was a human, made in the likeness of the Lightmaker, and ordained with dominion over all of Chryne.
    ‘Is it my job to clothe and feed you now?’ she demanded. ‘Is that it? Is that what I have this spirit for?’
    ‘Nay,’ I replied, ‘but your generosity means a lot to me. We are in this together, you know. I won’t abuse my power over you.’
    ‘Some would,’ she complained.
    ‘“The servant who continues to serve despite the cruelty of a master is a servant of the Lightmaker”,’ I said, quoting from the Holy Scrolls. ‘“The master who abuses his servant is, himself, a servant of Zeidarb”.’
    ‘And who is this Zeidarb,’ the icetiger queried moodily. ‘I do not know him.’
    I was pleased at that. ‘He is the author of darkness, the antithesis of good and truth, the Lightmaker’s opposite in every way.’
    ‘Is he flesh and blood, then?’
    ‘Nay,’ I replied. ‘He is a spirit, but he is omnipresent, meaning he can be in many places at once. I have never seen him. He sends his minions instead, in the form of people with corrupted souls—Zeikas—or demons that have crossed from the waves to the waking world.’
    ‘Demons?’
    ‘Monsters given flesh.’
    The word monsters had little more meaning for her than demons, but she delved into my memories to try to understand .
    ‘That sounds unnatural. What are you getting me into, human?’
    ‘You’re going to encounter a lot of “unnatural” things in the human world, cat.’ I replied. ‘And it’s not all bad. There are things in this world you would never have dreamed of.’
    ‘Like this: I never dreamed the day would come when I would allow a human to skin my kill.’
    I grinned at her, even though she needed the waves to understand the meaning behind the expression.
    When I was done skinning the deer, I cut off a leg for myself and let the carcass fall to the ground, where the icetiger pounced on it and started eating.
    My mouth watered. It would be a rich, tangy meat, much nicer than the grain-fed cattle of Jaria. I seasoned the meat by inserting cinnamon and bay leaf from my pack and set it to roast over the fire.
    The sound of the icetiger chomping and ripping the deer’s flesh was almost in tune with the popping and crackling of the fire. The breeze gusted every now and then, lifting the smoke into high eddies and fanning the flames.
    Before it got too dark I set up my canvas shelter, unrolled my travel blanket, and set my white goatskin pillow at one end. With the icetiger fast asleep nearby, I spent the evening cleaning and oiling my boots, pondering my good fortune and staring at the fire. The sounds of the forest at night were not threatening to me. Even with the distant sound of wolves howling, I felt at home in the wilderness.
    Confident