A week passed and Jabone had neither kissed her again nor was she any closer to figuring out what to do with the knowledge that Jestia was a witch desperately working on some elusive spell. And for what reason did she need the spell? She was also only a few words closer to learning Kartik. She had learned the words for food, water and sword. That was it, the whole of her Kartik vocabulary. It wasn't very helpful in trying to figure out more about them or their secrets.
It was the third Tuesday of the month. They had just all been paid and they opened the gates to allow the whole of the garrison—except those that pulled guard duty—to go into the village for the day. Kasiria imagined that for the villagers these days when most of the population of the garrison was running around the village must seem both a blessing and a curse. With the men spending their money all over town as fast as they could being the blessing and having to deal with their drunken asses fighting and tearing things apart being the curse.
She had half hoped that she and her unit would draw gate duty. She wasn't really looking forward to having the four Kartik youths turned loose on the unsuspecting village. She decided she would have to go with them and try to keep them in line, though all she really wanted was a day to herself away from the garrison that seemed more like a prison to her every day now.
They walked out the gates together and she immediately ordered them, "Stay together and stay with me." They all just looked at her as if to say they hadn't been planning to do anything else. They always did everything together and although she wondered just how much more they were actually hiding from her she also knew that they considered her to be part of their group now, not that she had any idea just exactly what that meant. She'd never been part of a group before and certainly not such a strange one.
Growing up her sisters and brothers had wanted nothing to do with her and their mothers had made sure of it. Her mother was dead so there was no one to protect her from their open disdain. She was the child of the king's favorite wife who had tragically died. Her father's undying love and devotion to her had been both a blessing and a curse. Without it she might have grown up cold and unfeeling never knowing love. Because of it her siblings hated her so that she might as well have been an only child. She remembered a lonely childhood of grand privilege where her only playmates were her nanny and her invisible foes. Her father had thought it was cute when she dressed in play armor and took up a toy sword and fought off the forces trying to take over her play room.
It stopped being funny when she was putting on real armor and grabbing real swords and running off across the country to fight real battles.
Her "unit" was the joke of the garrison, a unit made up of only five people. The other sergeants cackled and pointed and made fun until they had to face any of her unit in the practice ring and then they stopped laughing and just tried to keep from being beaten to pieces. Still it was a bit of an embarrassment for her as the king's own daughter to be in charge of the "misfit" unit as the men had come to call them.
She turned to look at them carefully avoiding making eye contact with Jabone who always smiled at her in a way that she found disarming because she half expected that what he was thinking was that he would just wait for her not to be able to stand it anymore and come to him, and she wasn't at all sure that wasn't exactly what was going to happen.
"Now listen up." They all looked right at her, except Jestia, who was looking at her nails and making a face as if the worst thing that had ever happened to her was that she had a broken nail when Kasiria knew for a fact that the girl's nails were as ragged and rough as her own. She sighed and went on. "I'm not expecting any sort of trouble and I don't want you to make any." They all nodded except Jestia who was still looking at her nails. "Did you hear me, Jestia?"
Her head snapped up as if she couldn't believe she was being called out and she said in a voice that dragged, "Yes I heard you, behave and whatever we do don't have any fun. Quite clear. As if going into a village that reeks of crap is any more exciting than staying in the garrison. Why not take our horses and ride to some place less dirty if you have such a place in this gods forsaken country."
"Absolutely not, we can't leave Pearson," Kasiria said.
"Have you got some clever way to keep from stepping in shit here?" Jestia asked, and the other three nodded.
Kasiria made a face. She had noticed the stench when she road in. "In the Jethrik we don't throw our own waste into the gutters. It's an Amalite thing I guess, and it is pretty disgusting. I suggest you walk on the wooden walkways," Kasiria said and then threw up her hands turned and started walking. It wasn't a big village but it wasn't exactly small either. She was sure that these four would have no difficulty finding trouble wherever it might hide without much effort on their parts. She'd listened to them tell stories of tavern jumping in one Kartik village or another. The stories all started with one of them stating that the other one had gotten so drunk and then done some unbelievably stupid thing. That made Kasiria cringe as she now took them into a village where she was sure if she didn't keep a very tight rein on them she would be hearing a story soon about when they were in Pearson one or more of them got really drunk and did some incredibly stupid thing.
They started down the street and Kasiria found herself looking for an herb shop, someplace where she might get some salt for herself and her unit. She wasn't thinking about the others, just walking single minded looking for just what she was looking for and nothing else. She had grown up in the castle with servants and all the finest clothes and in spite of or maybe because of it she didn't really have a frivolous bone in her body. If she was doing something she wanted to do it and have it over with and then move on to the next task. She had never understood the lure of shopping maybe because she'd never had to actually do it. As the king's daughter she was brought everything she might ever need and choose from a dozen outfits. Now a soldier, she wore a uniform and was fed what she was given in the mess hall. Her gear and horse were provided by the kingdom, so what was the point of staring into shop windows or going through the wares in a cart?
Not too surprisingly it was Jestia who complained first. "Can we go in anywhere or would our horrid out-country ways just be altogether too embarrassing for you? I mean what's the point of being in town if we aren't even going to look at anything? We could just walk around all day trying not to step in shit but I don't think that's any more fun than doing nothing back at the garrison," she said, indicating the shops they were just marching past. "I haven't been shopping in so long I'm not sure I still know how to spend money."
"Oh, I'm sure you haven't forgotten that," Ufalla teased.
"Ah yeah sure," Kasiria said.
Without asking any further questions Jestia walked into the nearest shop, dragging Ufalla by the hand after her. The others followed her inside. It was a textiles shop and Jestia fell on a length of brightly-colored Kartik silk, holding it up as she said excitedly, "Oh, look Ufalla, wouldn't this just make the most gorgeous gown?"
"Yes, and a gorgeous Kartik silk gown is just what you want to be wearing in the trenches or on horseback while slaying the Amalite horde. I hear silk doesn't blood stain easily," Ufalla teased.
Jestia sighed then as if beaten, then seeming to ignore them all she started looking at yet another length of cloth and then another and then another. Until finally Tarius said, "Gods, Jestia, the rest of us would rather walk around town all day avoiding shit than stand around watching you make a fool out of yourself over one piece of cloth or another. Could we go now?"
"I'm still looking," Jestia said with a pout.
Kasiria was so bored she was thinking about just crawling into a bin of cloth and taking a nap.
"I could stay with her and we could meet you someplace later," Ufalla suggested with a shrug.
"Why should anyone have to suffer with the little princess," Tarius said, and it was obvious he used princess like a curse. Kasiria inwardly cringed. "Let her do what we want to do for a change."
Part of Kasiria thought it was a bad idea to leave the two women alone, but the part of her that had been screaming all her life that a woman didn't need a man to take care of her thought if any women could take care of themselves it was these two. Ufalla was better with a sword than anyone she'd ever fought except Jabone, and Jestia was both a swordswoman and a witch. If they weren't safe on the streets of this small village than no one was. And surely alone the two women wouldn't get into too much trouble.
"Meet us near the evening meal time at the Broken Tankard tavern on the east side of town and I'll buy dinner for us all, my treat." She looked at them hard. "Don't get into any trouble, please." They nodded and she was more than happy to leave them to it and go off with the two men. She smiled at Ufalla as she walked past her and said, "I'm sorry."
Ufalla smiled and said, "She doesn't know it yet, but she will pay for it one way or other."
Kasiria wasn't exactly sure what price Ufalla might ask for and she didn't want to know. She followed Jabone and Tarius out the door, shutting it behind her.
* * *
Ufalla stood at the door with it open a crack. At her shoulder Jestia asked impatiently, "Are they gone?"
"Yes, completely out of sight," she said, and opened the door. They walked out closing the door behind them no doubt ruining the shop keeper's day as he had no doubt been sure he as about to make a huge sale.
Jestia actually laughed, and it made Ufalla smile. It had been too long since Jestia had done anything but work on her spell and worry because she couldn't do it. "You were right. Your brother does make a perfect accomplice."
Ufalla laughed, too, and said, "Yes but only if you don't tell him what to do and he doesn't know he's doing it."
Jestia making sure no one on the street was watching her, reached down took a fist full of dirt in her hand blew on it then tossed it in the air and whispered, "Find witch." Ufalla saw nothing but Jestia laughed again grabbed Ufalla's hand and started leading her down the street, so she must see something.
"Is that it then? Just say what you want and it's that easy?"
"Usually," Jestia said, "I'm a thought caster. All I have to do is say what I want and it happens."
Ufalla hated to ask but curiosity got the best of her. "Can't you do that with this invisible shield thing?"
"I told you I tried I couldn't do it," Jestia snapped back. Then she took a deep breath and not turning to look at Ufalla no doubt because she was too busy following the trail that Ufalla couldn't see she said, "I'm sorry Ufalla."
"That's all right. I guess it was pretty ignorant of me to ask. I mean if it was that easy you wouldn't be working on it most every night."
A few minutes later Jestia was pulling her into an herb shop. An old woman inside was working with a mortar and pestle and she looked up at Jestia and smiled, "So, sister, what can I do for you?"
"I need to buy a spell," Jestia said.
Ufalla wondered if perhaps lack of sleep had made Jestia lose all sense but then the old woman just replied as if it weren't an odd request at all, "Which spell?"
"I need invisible shield."
The old woman frowned, reached under her table and pulled out a huge book from where Ufalla could only guess. "I don't think I have that one but let's see." She opened the book to the middle and said, "Book book, look look, find invisible shield if it is in your nooks."
Ufalla made a face.
The pages started to flip without her touching them. After this went on for several seconds the book just slammed shut and the old woman picked it up and put it away. Ufalla wasn't quite sure where she put it because it was just a table and it was like she had pulled it out and was now putting it back on a shelf that didn't exist and then the book just disappeared. Ufalla bent over 'til she was almost standing on her head to try and see where the book was. When she stood up again she looked at Jestia and it was obvious from the look on her face that she knew what the old woman was going to say before she said . . .
"I'm, sorry sister I don't have invisible shield. The only person I ever knew that had an invisible shield spell was the witch Jezel."
"Damn!" Jestia spat. "I can't believe she did this to me. I have to have that spell, but she only gave me half of it."
The old woman looked impressed. "You're Jazel's apprentice then?"
"I was," Jestia said. She looked at the old woman again, "Do you have some spell to summon Jazel or to get the spell?"
"Now wouldn't that be handy? A summons spell. You could just get any spell from any witch's spell book. No such spell exists, child. I suggest you go to the Kartik and get it from your old teacher, because I also know of no summons spell strong enough that it will move a person across an ocean," the old witch said.
Jestia looked ready to cry but then looked at the witch and asked curiously, "Were you casting in the woods west of here several weeks ago?"
"No," she said simply. "Is there anything you need while you're here?" She waved her hand in the air and a curtain behind her opened to reveal another room which was obviously an apothecary.
Ufalla knew Jestia and knew she was getting ready to stomp off without even looking because she was mad she couldn't get what she'd come for. If she couldn't get exactly what she wanted she wouldn't get anything. "Jestia, you'd better see if she has anything you need."
Jestia nodded. Shoulders slumped, she walked in and started looking around the room. Ufalla didn't realize she was keeping guard until she heard them. She went to the door and opened it a crack. "Damn, Jestia, Kasiria is headed this way."
Jestia nodded and paid the witch for what she had.
Ufalla closed the door and turned to look at the old witch. "Do you have a back door?"
"You should know I do. The Amalites hate witches even now and would gladly burn me if they got half a chance. The Jethriks barely tolerate witches and loathe the craft. I'd have to be a pretty stupid witch not to have a back door in the Jethrikain-held territory of the Amalite. It's at the back of the apothecary behind the curtain." She turned to Jestia and said, "Good luck little sister. Don't worry too much about the spell."
"But I have to stop the dream from coming true."
"Then you'll have to find some other way."
Jestia nodded and headed for the back door. As Ufalla walked past her the witch whispered in her ear, "Things aren't always as they seem, and things really do get darkest just before dawn." As the curtain closed at her back Ufalla heard the others come in the front door.
"Can I help you?" the old woman asked.
"I'd like some salt," Kasiria said.
They slipped out the back door, closing it quietly behind them.
"Was Kasiria following us?" Jestia asked.
"No, she was buying salt."
Jestia nodded. They walked a few feet down the alley and then Jestia sat down hard on a small wooden box sitting in a stack of trash and just started to cry. Ufalla fell to her knees in front of her and wrapped her arms around her.
"Jestia, it can't be as bad as all that. You're just tired and . . . "
"You're an idiot. Yes it is that bad, because I don't know what else to do." She put her arms around Ufalla and cried on her shoulder. "I should have stayed in the Kartik."
"Then go back now, Jestia." Ufalla pushed Jestia back then and dried the tears from her eyes with her thumb. "If that's what you think you need to do then you should just go home, Jestia. Do whatever you have to do to save yourself."
"Will you come with me?"
"No I can't."
"Then I can't go home because there isn't time to go and come back."
"You make no sense at all, Jestia."
"I have to find another way, that's what she said. I have to find another way that's all."
"That's right and you will." Ufalla smiled, stood up and helped Jestia to her feet. "I'm thinking 'Wall of Bats I don't Know Where They Came From' is looking better and better."
Jestia laughed.
"Come on, let's get out of here. If anything it's filthier here than it is on the street. Let's really go shopping," Ufalla offered
"But you hate shopping, Ufalla."
But I love watching you do it, Ufalla thought and said, "Well then someday you'll go hunting with me." Jestia pulled a face at the horror of the thought of it. Ufalla laughed, "See there? Then we'll be just about even."
* * *
Kasiria bought her salt and then watched as the men bought bags of herbs, and knew they must really, really hate bland food. They had gone to the livery to buy some tack for Jabone's horse and then just walked around looking at things and talking 'til it was time to meet the girls at the tavern. When they walked in they found Ufalla and Jestia already waiting for them at a back table and when they sat down across from them it was obvious that they'd already had a couple of beers because their eyes were glassy.
A serving wench came over asked what they'd like and Kasiria ordered five more beers and the evening meal which as fate would have it turned out to be stew and bread. They had all laughed and Jabone said, "I would kill for a big chunk of meat or some fish about now." And the others even Jestia agreed.
"So," Tarius asked looking at Ufalla. "Did she like to kill you sister?"
"Aye," Ufalla said. "Looking at the most boring things in every shop front and cart we passed and I don't think she actually bought anything all day," Ufalla said.
Jestia sighed. "What would have been the point of it? There is nowhere to wear anything nice. I did buy an apple. Of course it had been in storage so long it was pithy."
"I know I ate it. I told you it was the wrong season here for apples to be fresh," Ufalla said.
They brought out the beer and stew and Kasiria watched with curiosity as Jabone pushed his mug over in front of Ufalla and started to eat his dinner.
Kasiria ate her stew and bread listening to the women who were obviously near drunk if not already there. They were sizing up everyone in the bar according to how they thought they might perform sexually. Jastia comparing the men while Ufalla compared the women of which there weren't many.
"That woman over there, she'd do you but you'd have to pay," Ufalla said, and Kasiria thought she was most likely right. It was a Jethirk bar and in the Jethrik "nice" women didn't hang out in taverns, rarely drank, and didn't wear so few clothes so in all probability she actually was a prostitute. Ufalla started digging in her pocket and said, "I wonder how much money I have."
"Not enough," Tarius said with a sigh, looking longingly at the woman.
Jestia pointed to a man standing at the bar. "And if you did him you'd have to make him pay, because otherwise it wouldn't be worth it," Jestia said, and laughed in that peculiar way that people did when they were drunk, loud and too much and for very little reason.
"Or you could just ask him to do it twice and slap you," Ufalla said and then they both started roaring with laughter.
"It's the punch line to an old joke," Jabone explained to Kasiria who was looking confused, but that didn't help her confusion.
Tarius looked at her then told the joke. "This woman says to her lover give me ten digits and make it hurt, so he made love to her twice and slapped her."
Kasiria just shrugged, and this made the women laugh even more than they had been before.
Kasiria was just starting to relax and enjoy herself when much to her disgust in wandered Thomas and his troop. She had seen men from the garrison all over the village all day long but she had purposely picked this tavern and not the one closer to the garrison because she had learned that it was owned by and mostly patronized by Jethriks and that the soldiers rarely patronized this one because it was so much further from the garrison and therefore it was harder to stumble home drunk. She was glad when Thomas sat on the other side of the tavern away from them.
"My brother must tell better stories than he tells jokes," Ufalla said.
"Your brother tells wonderful stories," Jestia said dreamily.
Kasiria noticed to her dismay that the women had downed the two beers she'd just bought them and Ufalla had drunk Jabone's and they had ordered two more.
By the time she'd finished her first beer and started on her second and was starting to feel it the two women and Tarius had both downed three more mugs and ordered another.
"Ah, maybe you'd all better slow down there, all right? We have to actually get back to the barracks and be up for roll call in the morning or they dock our pay."
"Let me get this straight. They pay us, let us go to town with our pockets full of coin, but then if we don't show up to roll they dock our pay?" Tarius slurred out.
"That's right," Kasiria said, taking another sip of her beer thinking that she'd better watch what she drank if she was going to be sure of getting them all back to the barracks tonight, and glad that at least Jabone seemed to be staying sober.
"Don't worry, Kasiria, we know how to handle our liquor," Jestia started, then just laughed out loud again. "Or at least Ufalla does," she said, slapping the other woman hard on the shoulder.
They all started laughing and Kasiria realized it was yet another joke she didn't get. She sighed. They might as well be speaking in Kartik for all that I can understand what they're talking about.
"Yeah," Ufalla slurred out, "It's not like we're the Katabull."
"What?" Kasiria asked quickly.
"I said," Ufalla screamed in her direction, getting laughs from all her fellows. "It's not like we're the Katabull."
"What are you talking about now?" Kasiria demanded.
Jabone looked at her, shrugged and said, "The Katabull have no tolerance for alcohol at all."
"Which means?" Kasiria demanded to know.
"When they drink they cat out whether they want to or not, and just a little alcohol will get them rip snorting drunk," Tarius said.
Kasiria looked at the half empty mug of beer—her second—with a sort of panic.
"What's wrong Kasiria?" Jestia asked.
"I . . . I don't feel so good. I . . . I better go back to the barracks." She stood up quickly. "Please do me a favor and get back to the barracks in one piece tonight." She took off, stopping just long enough to pay their tab and leave extra for what they might still consume. Outside she looked in a panic up the street in the direction of the garrison, but she couldn't go to the garrison. If she was about to "cat out" the garrison was the last place she wanted to be.
Thomas had followed her outside without her knowledge and from behind her he started, "Hey Kasiria . . . "
She turned quickly and punched him so hard in the face that she knocked him off his feet. Then she just started running down an alleyway in a panic. She jumped a fence she shouldn't have been able to clear and ran off into the woods and as she did she could feel it happening. She was changing form. She ran 'til she was well away from everyone and everything and then she sat down on a rock. Now fully catted out there was no seeing like she had been. Now . . . Well it might as well have been day and if she had thought her hearing couldn't get any better she had been wrong. If she thought about it she could hear the noise from the Broken Mug Tavern and even pick out the sound of Ufalla's voice.
As if things couldn't get any worse Hellibolt appeared in front of her. She looked up at him and held up her hands that were half again their normal size and had claws. "Dammit all, you might have told me I couldn't drink anymore."
"Oh you can drink, you'll just turn into the Katabull." He thought about it and then said, "So I guess you can change if you want to but you'll be drunk."
"I'm not drunk now," Kasiria said.
"If you say so." Hellibolt shrugged.
"You might have told me Jestia was a witch as well, and . . . Are they even on our side Hellibolt?"
"Of course they're on your side." He laughed then. "Jestia's a witch. Well I guess that makes a certain sense. The gift is strong in her blood line. The green eyes should have been a dead give away. Kartiks almost always have black or brown eyes."
"Tell me about these people I live with, Hellibolt," Kasiria demanded.
"Why should you know who they are when they don't know who you are? All you need to know is that you can trust them."
"Can I?"
"Yes, with your life and with your heart. Heed my words, Kasiria, there are more Amalites than any of us could have guessed. I have seen them swarming in my mind."
"What do you mean?"
"Your destiny is at hand, Kasiria."
Then he was gone. She thought of all he had said then stumbled to her feet drunkenly and screamed in a slur, "Again you have gone, telling me nothing of real importance!"
She realized she was screaming and stopped. "Like how the hell am I going to change back?"
She saw a rabbit and chased after it, stumbling through the woods as she went.
* * *
Thomas walked in rubbing his chin and Ufalla let go of Jabone's arm. "See I told you she could take care of him herself."
Jabone looked at Ufalla who just threw her hands up as if to say do whatever you're going to do and Jabone got up and walked over to Thomas. He glared at him and Thomas flinched even before Jabone picked him up, carried him to the door of the tavern, and threw him out it into the street. "I told you not to talk to them and not to look at them. That will be your only warning." He turned to the rest of Thomas's troop and growled at them until they left, too. Then he walked over, sat back down and enjoyed watching his friends get pie eyed. Had they been home he would have drunk with them. After all nobody there cared if he changed. Finally when Jabone was sure they'd had enough he announced it was time to go and they took turns letting him hold them up as they got up walked out of the tavern and started back for the garrison.
About half way back Ufalla passed clean out and he had to throw her over his shoulder and carry her while trying to keep the other two walking in the right direction.
"Light weight!" Tarius screamed at his sister's unconscious form where she was draped over Jabone's shoulder, her head bouncing off his butt. Then Tarius and Jestia just cracked up laughing.
"Quiet both of you," Jabone said. Then they both made an unbelievable amount of noise shushing each other. He shook his head and walked double time. He had just laid Ufalla down and gotten the other two in the barracks when he noticed Kasiria was missing and he felt like his heart stopped in his chest.
He looked quickly at where Tarius had just tripped over one of the cots and landed on his sister who didn't so much as move. Then watched as Jestia launched herself at her own cot missed and hit the floor and then just started laughing. They weren't going to be any help and he decided they could very well take care of themselves.
He didn't hesitate. He walked outside and sniffed the air. He didn't smell her. Jabone took off running to the men's barracks. Inside he found where Thomas bunked and dragged the sleeping man out of his bed by his collar. "What have you done to her?" Jabone demanded.
Thomas looked down at him in real terror, no doubt a night of being beaten on had made him paranoid, and sure that Jabone was about to kill him he sputtered out, "Who? What?"
"Kasiria is gone. What have you done to her?"
"Nothing I swear it. The last I saw her she was punching me in the face. I swear by all the gods, Jabone. Seriously I really was just going to apologize to her. Really apologize to her and she just punched me before I could say anything and then she ran off."
"If you are lying to me . . . "
"I know, I know, no one will find my bones," Thomas forced a smile. "I swear Jabone . . . "
Jabone dropped him and took off. He went back to the tavern. No one was around so he called on the night and started to sniff out Kasiria's trail. Right then he didn't care about detection. He didn't care about anything but finding Kasiria. Having found her scent he took off at a dead run into the woods.
When he found her he felt like his heart finally started beating again. "Kasiria I . . . I thought . . . " He walked up to her back and put a hand on her shoulder, not even thinking about what he was. "Kasiria," he said with an air of relief. "I was so afraid something terrible had happened to you."
"It has," she cried, and he should have recognized the change in her voice, but maybe because his was altered the same way he didn't.
"Has someone hurt you?" he said, his anger rekindled.
"No, no one's hurt me," she said, but she was crying so her words didn't match her actions. "You might as well know." She turned then though she didn't get up from the log and he was looking into the face of the Katabull and so he suddenly realized even before she screamed was she. He didn't know who was more startled as they just stared at each other. Kasiria finally smiled and stated the obvious. "You, you're the Katabull."
Jabone nodded laughed out loud, moved and dropped to his knees in front of her. He ran his hand down her cheek and kissed her gently on her lips. "My madra always says a beast can smell it's own kind. I should have known when I was so attracted to you that you were one of us."
"Which mother the Jethrikian lady or the Kartik warrior?" Kasiria asked, an air of distrust entering her voice.
"My madra." Jabone laughed and hugged her tight to him. Then he let her go and stared into her face again. "Two thirds of the Katabull are queer. I'm the child of a cross pairing, I have four parents. Two mothers and two fathers."
"I have no idea what that means . . . I'm just so happy you weren't just making up the most huge lies to tell me." Kasiria cried then and hugged his neck. "I . . . I can't change back. I'm going to be stuck like this forever. For the god's sake I caught a rabbit with my bare hands and ate it raw and I'm still the Katabull."
"You're still drunk. The alcohol has to leave your system before you can change back. You didn't drink that much, so it shouldn't be long now," Jabone explained. "Don't you know that?"
"No . . . I don't know anything," she said, drying the tears from her eyes with the back of the hands she was sure she was just never going to get used to. "I don't know anything about being Katabull. I didn't know 'til a few weeks ago that I was one."
* * *
Kasiria explained how she'd come to find out that she was Katabull, leaving out the whole Hellibolt thing and explaining instead that the men didn't remember because she'd licked the blood off her hand and changed back before they saw her.
She couldn't very well tell Jabone that Persius was her father, not knowing how the Katabull felt about the king.
"My fadra, he was a half breed. My madra taught him to change when he was older than you are. I've never heard of any Katabull changing without willing it . . . Except well drinking of course and sometimes . . . " He let it lay there blushing a little and then said, "My madra taught me to change when I was very young but she said it was different than the way she taught my fadra to change. Maybe I could teach you, I could try anyway." He looked thoughtful and added. "Most of the nation are pure bloods like my madra. I don't think they know much about the changing in people even like my fadra, and you don't know how much Katabull blood you have do you?"
She sighed. She knew but if she told him, how was she going to explain how she knew? So she just shrugged.
"I don't understand why you felt you couldn't tell us," Jabone said. "I know why you and I must hide what we are from the Jathirks but why hide it from us?"
"I can't make it happen, so there would have been no way for me to prove it. This is only the second time it's ever happened to me, and you know how it is," she said with a sigh, "the more people that know a secret the harder it is to keep . . . Are the others?"
"No just me," he said proudly, and it was pride. He was proud of what he was. She was just trying to get used to the whole idea and he was busting with pride that he could finally tell someone that he was the Katabull. If half of what they had told her was true being Katabull in the Kartik was like being a knight here, so why wouldn't he be proud of what he was?
"So, the others aren't Katabull but Jestia is a witch?"
"How did you . . . "
"Katabull remember? Better sight, better hearing even in my human form. I followed she and Ufalla to where Jestia's been practicing her craft."
"She can't master a spell she thinks she needs," Jabone explained.
"Yes, that's what I got. So . . . We really don't need more than five people in our troop," Kasiria said with a laugh.
"No, I'm pretty sure two Katabull and a witch make up more than the difference," Jabone said with a smile. "You are changing back now and if we want to get back any time soon I need to find something to eat." And with that he ran into the woods.
Kasiria watched as her hands became her own again and was almost sorry. In minutes Jabone walked out of the woods and he too looked human again. And that's all it is, too, a look, because we aren't human. It's just like a suit of clothes we put on. Under this we're still animal.
Jabone walked up to her and hugged her then he released her took her hand and started walking back towards the garrison. At least she hoped he knew where he was going because she sure didn't.
"Jabone . . . With all that's been happening, all these huge changes in my life, all I have been able to think about is you," she said shyly.
"And all I have been thinking about is you." He stopped then and took her in his arms. She wrapped her arms around him and then they were kissing and this time she was sure she was getting it right.
* * *
They had spent most of the night walking through the woods, just talking and holding hands, occasionally stopping to kiss. By the time they got back to the barracks the garrison was already bathed in the light of false dawn. They walked in to the almost too quiet barracks to find three of the cots pushed together and Jestia and Tarius as naked as the day they were born spread across them and each other.
"Oh no," Jabone said, a note of doom in his voice. He looked around for Ufalla and then tripped over her where she was lying on the floor. She groaned and rolled over and Jabone looked around for Kasiria and realized she had left the barracks. He tiptoed back outside and whispered, "Kasiria you have to help me. We have to dress them and move them before Ufalla wakes up."
"I can't," Kasiria said, shaking her head violently. "I just can't, they are naked," she told him as if he might not have noticed.
"Kasiria, you don't understand," Jabone pleaded, "If Ufalla finds them together like that she may kill them both."
"But why? You Kartiks just . . . Well you just have sex; it doesn't matter."
"That's not true, Kasiria, and . . . This is very complicated but she just can't find them like that."
But talking Kasiria into moving and dressing his friends turned out to be a moot point as a thundering voice erupted from inside their barracks, "How the hell could you do this!"
Then Ufalla was out the door, down the steps, and running past them. She started to throw up against the side of the barracks. Although it was hard to say whether she was sick because of how much she had drunk the night before or because of what she had just seen.
She threw up for a good five minutes and then she looked up at Jabone and demanded to know, "How could you let this happen?"
"I didn't know, I swear, Ufalla. Kasiria got into some trouble and I had to go get her. We just got back ourselves."
Tarius walked out of the barracks pulling on his pants. He glared at his sister. "What the hell is wrong with you?" he asked in an angry whisper. "My head's about to split and you're screaming like a banshee."
"What they hell is wrong with me!" Ufalla growled back. "How could you do this to me?"
"What the hell have I done to you?" Tarius asked, clueless.
For answer Ufalla ran up to him, growled right in his face, and then she dove on him and they were just slamming their fists into each other. Jabone watched them and sighed. If they had been at home and if it had been any other girl they'd been fighting over he would have let them fight it out. But they weren't home, and here a fight didn't settle a dispute, and she wasn't any other girl she was Jestia, Ufalla's one true love, so he doubted seriously that fighting it out was an option. Kasiria obviously wanted to break them up but was just running around trying to figure out who to grab and how. She kept looking at him expectantly as if he should stop the fight, but he'd been around them enough to know when you could act and when you couldn't.
He waited 'til Ufalla had wound up straddling her brother and then he grabbed her and pulled her off Tarius. She struggled to get free but Jabone just held her against his chest. Kasiria moved to stand between Tarius and Ufalla, and as Tarius stood up and acted like he was going to go after his sister again Kasiria put her hand in the middle of his chest and pushed him back.
"Calm down both of you," Kasiria ordered in a harsh whisper. "You're going to bring the whole of the garrison down on our heads."
Ufalla pushed away from Jabone still growling, and he finally let her go knowing that despite appearances she had calmed down. She glared across the space between herself and her brother. "Tarius" she hissed, "you are no longer my brother. If you were drowning in a puddle of water and all I had to do was put down my hand and draw you out, I would let you drown."
It was a Kartik curse. Jabone put a hand on her shoulder. "You don't mean that, Ufalla, they were both just drunk. He wasn't thinking. You know he never thinks."
"I did mean it." Ufalla swore then growled at her brother one last time. He growled right back at her and then she turned on her heel and stomped away. Kasiria started to go after her but Jabone moved and took her arm.
"No, let her go. It's Ufalla; she just needs to walk it off. If you try to stop her or talk sense into her she'll likely beat you up," Jabone said in Jethrik, and Kasiria nodded her understanding.
"What was that all about?" Tarius said, rubbing at his aching head. "Why did she curse me with the Kartik separation curse? I'm not her brother?"
"Tarius, you huge blind fool. You could have bedded any other girl in the world and not have incurred your sister's wrath. Why did you have to sleep with Jestia? Don't you know how Ufalla feels about her?" Jabone didn't wait for an answer, he just stomped back into the barracks where Jestia was still passed out and naked lying across the beds. He kicked the cot hard and kept doing it 'til Jestia woke up holding her head. He yelled at her just because he knew it would cause her pain. "What the hell have you done you royal whore?"
Jestia pulled a pillow over her head. "Leave me be, Jabone. It's no business of yours who I bed."
"It is when you come between my two best friends, my pack members. You knew how she felt about you, you had to. And all this time sleeping with her, holding her, knowing what she wants from you and now . . . You bed her brother. And he's just a dumb ass and it's him she's disowning not you."
Seeing he wasn't going to let her be she got up and pulled on her shirt which mostly covered her. "You don't understand, Jabone."
"Oh I understand princess. I understand that you think people are toys for you to play with and . . . "
"You don't get it!" Jestia screamed back and then she was crying. "I had to find another way."