Geared for Pleasure (33 page)

She
had
told him. Within moments of discovering he would join her on her jump. The captain had, in fact, descended more than usual to compensate for his human disabilities.

There was no doubt in her mind that he would respond badly were she to defend herself with
that
bit of information.

She swung back up, away from his reach and judgmental gaze. “The captain is the way she is for a reason. She knew I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. Dare knew I wouldn’t let anything happen to you. And nothing has. You are alive and unbroken, with a lovely view of the Felidae settlement and Queen’s Hill beyond. Are all Wode as ungrateful as you?”

“Ungrateful?” She could hear his teeth gnash. “What reason do I have for that? I am merely trapped ninety or more feet off the ground without the human trappings of wood grips or sawboots to get down.” His laugh was more a groan as he looked down. “I am also lacking Felidae claws and equilibrium. No. Nothing to be ungrateful for.”

Phina rolled her eyes. “The rope is all you will need. Let me see it. And keep your voice down, if you would. We are not that far from the stormfence.”

Cyrus handed her his two strands of rope and her fingers began to weave a harness as she had done so many times. There were occasions when simple stealth was more necessary than gadgetry.

“May I ask how you plan to get inside the palace, from here, of all places?” Cyrus stilled when the wind made the ironwood creak and sway. “It seems a backward sort of route.”

She would not share her secrets with him. Not all of them. She finished the last knot and grinned. “That should do the job. Did you know I once gave a tree feller an enormous amount of pleasure in one of these contraptions? I was distracting him at the time, of course—”

“Seraphina.”

She bit her lip at his warning tone. “I was trying to reassure you that it works.” She slipped backward into a hanging position once more. “Come on, stand up on the branch.”

Cyrus grumbled, but did as she asked, if a bit unsteadily. He had a crushing grip on the limb above him when he finally muttered, “Why am I standing?”

She watched his struggle for balance without a tail, and decided not to tease him. For the moment. “You’re going to put this on like a pair of pants. One leg at a time and pull it up.”

“Now is not the time for fun at the gullible human male’s expense, Seraphina.” His teeth were clenched and she quickly readjusted her strategy.

She shrugged, though she knew it would be hard to see from their current positioning. “It makes no difference to me. You can build a nest and live here until you sprout wings if you’d like. I was just attempting to give you an alternative other than that. Or death.”

The look he sent down to her was withering, but she knew he understood her meaning. He was still listening. Good. The last thing she needed was another person to worry about. What was waiting for her down below would be bad enough.

With a stream of curses that surprised even her bawdy sensibilities, Cyrus took the harness she was holding out to him and did as she asked.

While he did, she uncoiled the rope she had wrapped around her shoulder and, with some creative knotting, let one end fall toward the ground.

She swung forward and grabbed the middle of the harness where it met between his thighs. She licked her lips, studying the buttons that held his pants closed. “This is something I’ve never tried before. Interested, Cyrus?”

He made a sound she could not decipher and she laughed. “Perhaps another time.” Her free hand reached around to slap his rear
end playfully, then finished attaching her rope to his. “Now all you have to do is grab the rope and lower yourself down. Then you can control the rate of your descent and you won’t break anything when you land. Although the rope isn’t as long as I’d imagined. You may fall the last bit.”

“You want me to slide down the tree, and I may fall the last bit.” His voice was emotionless, but she knew he was still perturbed.

She pulled herself upright once more, tilting her head so he didn’t notice her looking at his lips. He had lovely lips… unless they were pinched and frowning. “I believe that is what I said, yes.”

His sigh was like a caress. “You’ve given me all the rope, Seraphina. How do you intend to get down?”

She got to her feet to stand on her branch without aid, causing him to call out to her in warning. In worry. There was no need.

She smiled coyly. “You keep forgetting I am Felidae, Sword. These boots may stop me from climbing as, I’m told, the old tribes of my people could.” She reached for handles of the
ton
sticks, pulling them out and spinning them in her hands. “But I am a master at the art of leaping.”

“So I’ve seen.” He still sounded concerned.

Phina sighed. “Slide down and take the southern route around the settlement. The Wode assigned here are lazy, and since there is no opening on that side, they rarely guard it. With a swift pace you can reach Queen’s Hill by nightfall. I will be close behind.”

She had not allayed his concerns. “There is no place for you to land. If you jump too far you will hit the fence. You know what happens to any flesh it touches.”

She met his indigo gaze, her feelings a jumble. She was irritated with his disbelief in her abilities but gratified at the protectiveness in his tone. There was no time for that kind of distraction. The kind that would revel in someone caring whether she lived or died. She decided the irritation was safer. For the moment. “Let me ease
your mind. If I do not see you in the palace, I will do your job as well. Once I have the dagger and return to the Deviant, we will come back to gather any pieces of you that might be left.”

She smiled, though her tone was determined when he opened his mouth to argue. “I refuse to listen to another word. Perhaps a demonstration of what I can do will help you focus on your own task.”

She would not stay and watch over him to ensure his safety. He could handle himself. And now he had to. If only to prove her wrong.

She took off at a run toward the edge of the long branch, leaping out with her arms outstretched, the
ton
in her hands. Her tail swinging instinctively to direct her flight, she aimed for the top of the stormfence, keeping her eye on the whitish-blue light that arced over the charged wire, a clear indicator of the potential danger.

It was thrilling.

She slipped the
ton
sticks long end down and directed their tips toward the wires. These weapons of wood were good for more than protection. They were also nonconductive.

When the wood touched wire, she used her momentum to flip midair, pushing off the flexible fence and pointing her body toward the nearest earthen roof.

Her boots touched down and she rolled on the curved surface, landing with a soft bounce on the ground behind what she knew was the mound home of an elder Felidae.

She glanced up at Cyrus, seeing him clearly through the branches of the tree, and lifted her arm. He may not see her expression, but the relief in his told her he had watched her flight. Knew she had been successful.

Now she was back where she had started. Trapped.

As she untied the knot in her shirt to let it hang, she wondered if Cyrus believed, as Dare had told her
she
had, that the Felidae had chosen this life. That they preferred solitude to intermingling and had asked for protection from human invaders.

It was not a belief unique to nobles and Wode. The ignorance stunned her. What sentient being would choose this? She had comforted Dare with a partial truth—most Felidae here accepted their lot and did not suffer for lack of food or excessive violence. Certainly not from lack of drink.

Most were docile, tamed after generations, despite the stories the elders would spin for them. Stories of a time when the Felidae were wild. When they outnumbered humans and lived freely, honoring their abundant world and soaring through the trees. Soaring on the wind.

Now they watched the gears of the giant shift clock at the settlement’s gate, living and dying by its chime. Those who chose to disobey its call led a different life. Scorned and spied on by their own kind, learning to steal or starve. To pleasure Wode instead of being forcibly taken. For Phina all of it had been untenable.

She slid along the back walls of the mound homes, breathing harder through the heavy air around her. She already missed the Deviant.

Felidae milled about, most preparing for their shift, finishing their meals or refreshing the fires of the outdoor ovens that would soon be used by their returning family members.

“Seri, I thought you had learned. Eli may kill you if he finds you’ve snuck in again.”

Phina lifted her
ton
defensively out of instinct before she realized who the voice belonged to. “Nob, how are you, my brother? Have you bedded that luscious girl with the facial markings yet? I remember she had her eye on you.”

Nob looked around, his body’s movements a strong indication of his disapproval. Phina used the time to slip her weapons back into her belt loops. “Shift is about to change and he’ll be heading back. We cannot let him see you, though I suppose you timed it this way. Why do you play these games with our lives, Seri? And why are you back?”

She would not admit how the words made her heart ache. Eli was the eldest. The strongest. Out of all of her relatives, he most despised her. But Nob had helped her get into the mines many times, as had Jobi, despite their displeasure with her. It seemed their patience was running out. “Is Jobi with him?”

Nob narrowed his gaze, as piercing green as hers. “You did not come back to see him, then? Neither has Nephi. We sent word to her weeks ago. Eli believes the palace life has corrupted her. Made her forget her family the way you chose to.”

“What happened to Jobi?” The hair on the back of her neck stood on end and the pain in her nerve endings made her flinch. If anyone had hurt him—a Wode or another Felidae—they would suffer before they died.

Nob shook his head. “An accident in the mines. A stupid accident. We lost control of one of the ore carts. It slammed him against solid rock, pinning him for hours until we could reverse the magnetism.” Nob paled at the memory. “His arm is crushed beyond healing. His tail… it had to be removed. The settlement elders have helped us hide his infirmity, but he will be seen. And when he is, he may be taken by the Raj.”

Or their science ministers. How many Felidae had disappeared after they were too injured to work? Told they would be cared for and given the best Theorrean medicine they had to offer for their sacrifice. Phina knew there was more to it than that. She could not let that happen to Jobi.

She gripped the woven shirt Nob wore, which was identical to her own. “Listen to me. I must get into the mines. Nephi is in danger again.”

She had his attention now. “Raj Ellsworth?”

Phina nodded. “The queen cannot protect her. I can. There is a place for her where she will be free. Where he can never hurt her with his obsession again. I can take Jobi as well, but I need your help.”

Nob pulled away from her. “You would take everyone from me. Kill or steal every person I love.”

She felt her claws extend and forced herself to close her fingers into fists. The pain would keep her on task. “You could come with us. It never occurred to you, did it? To leave. There is so much out there, Nobel. So much life and sunlight.”

He shook his head. “I will help you one last time, Seri. For my brother’s sake. And for Nephi. After this I want your true oath—in moon’s blood—that you will never put our family in jeopardy like this again. Never come back to our home.”

Moon’s blood. It was a Felidae oath that was unbreakable. She freed one hand and reached down to take a slender blade from the lining of her boot, the only weapon other than the
ton
she’d dared carry into this place.

She opened her palm, which was already bleeding from her sharp nails, and sliced into it with the blade. Nob held out his hand and she did the same to him. With the moonlike silver of the blade pressed between their palms, she swore, “Help me, and I will save our family. I will never return.”

Phina wanted to believe she saw pain or regret in his expression, but she knew it was a lie. She had caused her brothers too much suffering for them to forgive. Jobi as well as Eli and Nob, may hate her for what she was about to do, but Nephi would understand. And they would be safe.

Her brother nodded his agreement with the sound of the clock’s chime. He tugged her hat lower on her forehead and took away his hand, licking the blood off with his tongue.

Phina did the same.

He took her blade and stuck it in his own boot. “Wode haven’t searched me in over a year. Since the last time you paid us a visit. Keep your head down and follow me.”

They merged into the thick queue already forming in the
settlement. Factory and mine workers together in a single line that would only diverge once they reached the pipeline of the large metalworks that surrounded the factories.

She’d snuck inside once. Despite their haughty demeanor the factory Felidae had the harder job. The heat, the mechanisms that had to be maintained, the danger… Mining was simple in comparison.

None of the other Felidae—who Phina knew could easily sniff her out—said a word to alert the Wode to her presence. Perhaps they knew she had come to save Jobi from his mysterious fate. She knew how well loved he had always been by his peers.

They seemed to understand her purpose. As they passed her old mound home, two Felidae ducked out from the open door, keeping the injured man between them.

He looked terrible, his skin pale and sweating, one sleeve of his shirt dangling past his hand to hide it from view. The handsome face she had looked to throughout her childhood was bitter. Twisted. He saw her and curled his lip in disgust, but did not speak.

They moved into position ahead of Nob and Phina, and she watched her brother lay his palm on Jobi’s back in support. How hard would it be for them to say goodbye to each other? They were each other’s only consolation. The one left behind would have only Eli, who had no love in his heart to give. Nob may as well be alone.