Circe's Gifts

Chapter 35

Pet's first, odd thought was to protect Tiernan -- or perhaps not so odd since he still did Circe's bidding. In the midst of his despair at losing her, the purpose gave him strength.

At the moment, with no weapon and even his hands tied, he didn't know exactly what to do. When the first of the dark creatures -- faceless, claws of ebony -- slashed out at Tiernan, the mouse ducked and shoved with his head. It worked at the cost of just a little scratch across his back.

Dylan and Kalliope moved in to help, and though they tried to make a circle around their friend, Prince Tiernan had other ideas.

"Protect the king and prince!" he ordered. "Keep them safe!"

Pet would do just that, as long as Tiernan remained safe within that group as well. So he backed up with the others as Tiernan moved, and he suspected that Kalliope and Dylan thought the same thing.

The guards did their best, and the others in the room fought with what weapons they could get their hands on -- table knives and goblets, water pitchers of silver. The strange scene looked fearful, macabre, and somehow almost amusing.

Pet spotted Leith standing in the midst of the room away from the battle. He looked serene and contemptuous as his hands moved and moved -- directing the fight.

"We have to --" he began pulling at his ropes -- "We have to get to Leith. He controls the creatures!"

Prince Druce, surprisingly, moved up beside him and with a knife in hand. He cut the rope that bound Pet's wrists and then turned to do the same for Kalliope while someone else freed Dylan and Tiernan.

Druce grabbed hold of his arm. Pet hadn't realized that he was moving away from the group till then.

"You'll never get through to him!" Druce shouted. The noise had grown, and Pet hadn't noticed the din of screams and roars and cries of pain. Many people had fallen, Lords and Ladies in their fine clothes and nearly defenseless. The sight angered him again and seeing Kalliope start forward got him moving as he pulled away from Druce. In truth, no one was going to survive if someone didn't stop Leith.

"Circe, help us," Dylan whispered as he, too, started forward, a bittersweet wish.

Pet knew they would not get close. Leith saw them and snarled, his hands moving and directing more of the black creatures at them.

Pet knew one thing: he could get through as a mouse. Pet thought he could still change, and feared that if he did, he would never be human again. Circe's magic surely couldn't outlast her.

Kalliope leapt at one of the creatures, but it swept her aside, leaving a long bloody track across her neck and chest. For a moment he feared she would die, but the blow had only cut skin and not a vein. She began struggling to get back up again.

Dylan went down. Tiernan moved in beside Pet, a long knife in his hand.

"Tiernan -- be ready," Pet said. His hand brushed once against the human's arm, a movement that almost cost him his hand when one of the creatures swung at him.

He wished himself to be a mouse again -- wished it very hard and took a shuddering breath as the change came.

Mouse: very small, and about to be trampled. He dashed out from underfoot. The cries of the others grew unintelligible in this noise, and the smell of human blood made him ill. Everything frightened him so much that he almost forgot what he needed to do. He kept moving amid the crush of bodies, over the distance that seemed too far now that he was small.

Leith must have seen and sensed the change. Perhaps, rightly so, he didn't fear much from a mouse, though. If that was all Pet had ever been, it wouldn't have been a problem for Leith because the mouse part of him wanted to do nothing more than race out of the room. Pet brought his human thoughts to take control, glanced back at his friends, bleeding and falling, and ran straight for the mage.

There was not much Pet could do, but he had one idea of how to at least distract the man. He scrambled up a boot, clinging to laces and slipping beneath the cloth of the man's trousers. As soon as he found bare skin, he dug his claws in and bit. The taste of human flesh and blood was unpleasant, but he bit and bit again and again -- and only became aware that Leith knew of his presence when the man slapped hard against his pant leg, dislodging Pet and sending him falling down the boot to the floor. Pet scrambled back to his feet and tried to flee, but the boot caught him. The kick propelled him through the air and past humans and creatures until he hit what must have been the debris of one of the tables and slid, nearly senseless, into the clutter on the floor.

Couldn't breathe very well. Couldn't see clearly but Pet knew that the shadow creatures hesitated in their attacks and the humans racing in on them in a rage. Pet could almost focus on Leith and knew he backed away toward the door, his magic faltering. Pet could feel that in the air, like lightning broken and starting again in fits.

Then another change, a different light -- and there were more men in the room. Magic came, and it frightened Pet until he realized that Leith had thrown up a shield around himself. The room finally grew quieter except for the cries of the injured, the sobs of the frightened.

"It was a risk," Leith said, voice still calm. "But this is not a loss, yet. Their Mistress is gone, and her powers fade while mine grow. In the next meeting, the power will be on my side."

He slipped back into the shadows, and in the next heartbeat he was gone and his creatures no more than dark dust on the Great Hall's floor.

Saved them, this time.

Pet closed his eyes and let the darkness come.