Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

their arms. Two of them bent and tenderly picked up the
     bodies and started this way. Benessarai spoke to the other two. Lily raised her voice.
     “Benessarai, he intends to kill your hostage!”
    The elf glanced her way. “Hostages are not killed.” He waved at the two remaining
     elves as the two carrying the bodies passed Lily.
    She tried again. “He’s going to kill me, too, and feed me to his goddess.”
    “That is true.” Benessarai cocked his head, curiosity brightening his eyes. “It is
     rather a waste. I have never encountered a sensitive. Bring her to me.”
    Friar spoke softly. “She is my prize, not yours.”
    “Of course. My apologies, Robert. That was thoughtless of me.” He began to saunter
     toward them.
    Out of the corner of her eye, Lily glimpsed movement. A flash of orange. She ducked
     her head and shook it as if confused…which let her look that way without Friar noticing.
    A tiger peered around the far corner of the warehouse. Just the head showed—that enormous,
     orange and black head with green eyes slitted against the sunshine. The tiger nodded
     at her once and pulled back out of sight.
    Grandmother? Grandmother was here?
    Thank God she’d ducked her head and her hair washanging down, hiding her face. She had a moment to get her expression smoothed out,
     a moment to try to figure out what that nod meant. Distract them? Be patient? The
     latter, maybe, she decided. No one was rushing to the rescue right away, so maybe
     they had more preparations to finish.
    Benessarai stopped in front of her. “With your permission, Robert, I would like to
     try something before you make your offering. It would be too late afterward.” He chuckled
     at his own wit. “Your man will need to let go of her and step back, or he will be
     affected. He wouldn’t like that.”
    “Of course not.” Friar didn’t put much effort into the lie. He sounded downright brusque.
     “If it won’t take long.”
    “Not long at all.”
    “Hugo, release her but keep her covered.”
    The big man grunted and dropped his hold on Lily. The smell of pizza retreated with
     him. Her shoulders ached.
    “Hugo won’t shoot to kill if you try to escape,” Friar told her. “He’ll aim for your
     stomach. A gut full of buckshot would kill you eventually, but not so quickly I would
     fail in my duty to the Great One.”
    “Do step away just a bit, Robert. There, yes.” Benessarai wiggled the fingers of one
     hand at Lily.
    Magic prickled over her face. It felt like a breeze with feathers in it. “Air magic,
     only slightly shaped. Mind-magic is connected to Air, isn’t it?”
    He frowned slightly and wiggled his fingers again.
    The gust of magic was stronger this time, more prickly. “Why is it okay for Friar
     to kill me? I’m a hostage.”
    “No, you aren’t.” Benessarai studied her the way a scientist might study a lab rat
     that was not reacting in the expected way to a stimulus. He started in with more hand
     waving, this time accompanied by a short chant.
    Friar smiled slowly. “Allow me to explain. An abomination can’t make a true covenant.
     If Alycithin was unable to make a true covenant, she has no family. If she has no
     family, she is not party to the code. If she is not party to the code, then alas,
     you are no hostage. Only a prize.”
    “I see. Yet I’m a valuable prize, aren’t I? I’m surprisedBenessarai is willing to let you kill me without learning where sensitives come from.”
    This time the elf answered. “I am curious. Do you claim to know?”
    “Oh, yes, I know. You have humans in your realm, right?”
    “Your kind are everywhere.” He said that the way a New York apartment dweller might
     speak of roaches: try as you may, you can’t get rid of them. “Tell me,” he said.
    “Make me your hostage so I don’t get fed to Her Evil Nastiness and—”
    Friar slapped her. Hard. Way harder than he should have been able to. She fell to
     the ground, dazed, with black fluttering at the edges of her vision.
    “You do not—”
    He kicked her in the ribs. She gasped and curled around the sudden pain.
    “Speak of—” His leg drew back for another kick.
    A tiger roared.
    Hugo screamed.
    Five hundred pounds of Siberian tiger raced straight at them.
    Friar’s eyes widened. He reached for her. Lily tried to scramble out of the way, but
     she was dizzy, slowed by the blows. He got hold of her arm and started dragging her,
     and he should not have been able to do that. Not