The Last of the Ageless Read Free Page B

the man had been trying to kill him, so the Ancient Teachings would condone Dalan’s actions.
    The woman stood and regarded Dalan contemptuously. Under all the blood, it was impossible to tell what color her vest had been. Now matted with blood, orange fur with black stripes covered every inch of her skin. The tips of her fingers ended in sharpened claws.
    She appeared to be trapped between birth form and some kind of cat transmeld, which meant she was definitely a Changeling, but not a true transmelder like him.
    Dalan held his hand out, though he hoped she wouldn’t take it until she’d cleaned her paws. “Hello. Dalan, of the Omdecu Tribe.”
    She didn’t take it. The woman’s mouth moved as if to introduce herself, but her cat’s eyes pierced Dalan, making him want to check over his shoulder for what might be behind him.
    She turned her face to the side and snapped, “No.”
    Dalan stepped back, concerned she might be a half-wit Brute, a Changeling whose mutation had left her mentally unstable or deformed.
    The woman huffed. “Here. Take this.” She held a furred fist toward him, and a pendant dropped from it, suspended by a band of leather.
    “Why?”
    “For thanks…” she said through her fangs. “For what you just did back there.”
    He smiled. “Oh, no need. The Teachings say—”
    “Really,” she rasped. “Take the damn necklace. You apparently deserve it.”
    She stepped forward, and he decided to humor her demands in case her people’s customs obligated her to offer him a gift of gratitude. A flat, oval stone hung from the black leather cord.
    “Well? Put it on.”
    “Thanks.” Dalan slipped it over his head. “Wasn’t necessary.” A pink light blazed as the necklace touched his chest. He held the stone up in the darkness to discover that two pink dots gleamed inside it.
    She gave him a strange, sideways glance, as if waiting for him to say something. When he didn’t, she asked, “What happened back there, to your gun?”
    “Oh.” He held it up. “Doesn’t work after dark.” Dalan wiped the sweat from his brow. This early into the night, the heat of the drylands still reigned. “Needs to be recharged.”
    She shot him a look of confusion—or what he assumed was confusion. It was hard to tell through the fur.
    Despite looking like a transmelder, she evidently lacked his people’s ability to communicate telepathically. He chose his words carefully before saying, “The gun is recharged by the sun. It is a rare Ancient weapon.”
    The furred woman smirked. “It may be Ancient, but Ancient guns aren’t all that rare. I’m guessing yours is a LEC6. Six seconds to recharge, right?” The slitted pupils of her cat’s eyes unnerved him.
    Dalan squeezed the gun’s grip. “Yes. Old technology…” He ran a hand through his hair, wondering how she knew so much. “The Ancients supposedly saved up daylight so they could use it after dark, but the knowledge is lost to us now. Is not rare?”
    “No.” Her disinterested expression went unconcealed as she tossed him a knife. “Here. Use that at night, then.” It stuck into the earth near his foot.
    Dalan had saved her from a horrible death, perhaps a death worse than these men had suffered. He shuddered. If he intended to remain in his birth form and pretend to be a Purebreed, he might actually need the knife.
    He tucked it away and glanced up at the night sky, searching for the All-Seeing Eye. The stars of Ursa Major caught his attention, but the glint of the All-Seeing Eye shone brighter than any stars. Dalan closed his eyes, begging its forgiveness for the killing it had witnessed.
    When Dalan opened his eyes, he noticed the strange woman had followed his gaze. “Now, there’s some rare Ancient technology. Who knows what junk is left above the Earth?”
    Her assumption that the All-Seeing Eye was a piece of Ancient technology and not a sacred omen irked Dalan, but he didn’t want to argue over it with a stranger. “Uh… so,