Crucible of Fate

separated?”
    “Yes, you can go to bed with him as long as there is no pressure on your abdomen. Do you understand me?”
    “Yeah, all right,” I muttered, finally surveying the room. “Where the hell am I?”
    “It’s a field hospital.”
    “There’s only two beds in here.”
    “Okay, it’s a mini field hospital.” She laughed lightly.
    “When did I miss that you were such a smartass?”
    She beamed. “You allow so much freedom in our presence that all of us are ourselves, my lord. It’s a rare gift.”
    I grunted. “I should quit being like that.”
    “No,” she crooned. “Never.”
    “I’m not a nice man,” I said flatly.
    “Of course, my lord.”
    My focus moved away from her again, mapping the entire area. It looked like a hospital out of every war movie I had ever seen. The difference was that it was sealed in plastic and cool air was being pumped in from two enormous generators I could see in the corner of the room. There were five people there, counting the doctor, and I saw one of the men walk over to Yuri and give him a shot.
    “What was that?”
    “Tetanus,” Dr. Pakhom disclosed. “I’m not taking any chances.”
    “How long was I out?”
    Her brow furrowed. “For six hours, my lord. You gave me quite a scare.”
    “And you said Jin is outside and he’s safe?”
    “With Taj and Rahim, nine members of the Shu, and fifty or more of your khatyu milling around,” she teased me. “I suspect so, my semel.”
    “Where’s Kabore?”
    “Here, my lord,” he said from close beside my bed.
    “Tell me where Hakkan Tarek is.”
    “When Dr. Pakhom and her team were delivered, an eight by eight by eight steel cage was delivered as well, from Jamal. We placed it outside under a tarp, and he has shifted to his panther form and is in it.”
    “He’s like a zoo animal.”
    “Yes, my lord.”
    “How was a cage delivered plus five people?”
    “Eleven, my lord,” he corrected me. “Jamal sent six more of the Shu.”
    “How?”
    “By carrier helicopter, my lord.”
    “We don’t have a carrier—”
    “There are others that do, my lord.”
    “I want answers now,” I said, starting to sit up.
    “No, no,” Kabore ordered, placing a hand gently on my collarbone and then pressing me down into the bed. “You must be careful with yourself. We need you.”
    “What the hell is going on?”
    “What’s going on is that we have been waiting for a semel to trust for a hundred years, and it turns out to be you, Domin Thorne.”
    “Who’s we?”
    “If you clear the tent, I can tell you.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    He just waited on me.
    “Clear the tent, then.”
    He faced the others. “Would you excuse us a moment, Doctor?”
    “Of course,” she said and herded her team out through the plastic flaps to another zippered door before we were alone.
    I could see them outside, but between the hum of the generators and the distance, no one could overhear us.
    “Now,” Kabore said, turning back to me. “Ask me anything.”
    “Who is ‘we’? Who has a carrier chopper to lend me?”
    “The Iusaaset, my lord.”
    “What is the Iusaaset? Aset is throne, but what’s the rest?”
    “Throne of all, of the atum, of your ancestors, those who protect you,” Kabore revealed. “We are the ones who police the world, Domin Thorne.”
    The words hung in the air between us a moment before I slowly sat up. He let me, even though he seemed worried and moved one hand close in case he had to steady me.
    “I knew it.” I swallowed hard. “It’s not the job of one man.”
    “No, it’s not.”
    “So you, what, are all over the world in every city, every—God, just everywhere?”
    “Yes,” he affirmed. “Werepanthers would never remain hidden from the world if there was no greater organization at work. And while most semels govern their tribes well, and most fall into line and follow tribal law, there is still a criminal element as well as those who would expose us and make people aware of our existence.”
    “I remember once when I was young going to a magic show off the strip in Vegas, and there was this guy, and his assistant changed magically into a panther. I mean, I knew they were both panthers, and I thought, that’s fantastic, I never even thought to do that, but then when I talked Logan into going with me the next night, they were gone.”
    “Yes, I’m sure that was the Iusaaset.”
    “Did they kill them?”
    “No, that is still for their semel to decide. They