Magic Rises

information about themselves to others,” I told her. “I learn as I go, and the subject of just how many scents you can recall never came up.”
    Hibla checked Derek’s face. “We can recall thousands. Knowing this is important.” Her tone made it plain she thought I was a moron unfit for duty. First Desandra, now her. I was beginning to get tired of the constant you-are-not-a-shapeshifter song.
    “Learning other things was a priority.”
    “What other things?”
    “How to effectively kill one of you with a six-inch knife. I’m a fast learner and I had a lot of practice. Turns out there is a way to jam the knife blade under the cervical vertebrae in such a way that your neck pops right out. Remind me some time, I’ll show you.”
    Hibla blinked.
    Derek laughed quietly.
    “What about the head of the man I killed? Do you know his scent?”
    “No,” Hibla admitted.
    “So he wasn’t with any of the packs.”
    “No.”
    “And we don’t know how he got into the castle?”
    Her upper lip wrinkled. “No.”
    Strangers or not, the assaults had to be coming from one of the three packs. Someone had made a bargain with the devil and now these creatures were walking among us disguised.
    We came to a heavy steel door barred by a metal rod as thick as my arm. It had to weigh at least fifty pounds. Hibla casually lifted it with one hand and pushed the door open. We emerged into the courtyard and I made a beeline for the cage.
    The prisoner saw me. The pile of rags shifted and a dirt-smeared hand reached between the bars toward me.
    “Please . . .”
    Next to me Derek grimaced. A moment later I caught it too, the stench of stale urine and feces. Hugh was a fucking bastard. “Your magnanimous Lord Megobari lets him sit in his own excrement.”
    There was a small pause before Hibla answered. “It can’t be helped.”
    Yes, it can. It definitely can.
    We reached the cage. A man looked at me through the bars with feverish eyes. Not that old. It was hard to tell with all the dirt, but possibly twenties. Filthy dark blond hair. Scarce beard. His cheekbones stood out, sharp like blades on his gaunt face. Unless he was naturally emaciated, they were starving him.
    “Please,” he whispered.
    English. Fantastic.
    “Beautiful lady, please, water.”
    I pulled a canteen off my belt and passed it to him. He grabbed it and drank greedily, gulping the water.
    “Easy. If you drink too much too fast, you’ll vomit.”
    The man kept drinking. His hands shook. He barely looked human.
    “How long has he been in the cage?”
    “Two months,” Hibla said.
    Dear God. “And the last time he had water?”
    “He gets a cup of water and a cup of gruel every morning.”
    This was torture. Hugh gave him just enough to keep him alive but not enough to end thirst and hunger. I’d done without water before. When you don’t have it, that’s all you can think about. I didn’t care what the man had stolen; putting him in a cage and letting him rot in his own filth was inhuman. “How can you follow a man who does this?”
    Hibla squared her shoulders. “My father was a dispatcher at the Gagra railroad station. When the Shift happened, he turned into a jackal in the middle of the station. Once the magic wave was over, the railroad guards cornered him and shot him, and when he wouldn’t die, they threw him under the incoming train. And then they hunted down our family. Me, my mother, and my two brothers, we had to run into the mountains with nothing but the clothes on our backs. When I walk through the town now, people bow to me. You want to know why I follow Lord Megobari? I do it because I am not the one in the cage. You can be outraged all you want. It bothers me not at all.”
    The prisoner clutched his stomach and vomited water onto himself.
    Hibla sneered. “Abzamuk.”
    The man shook his head, drank another desperate swallow, and hugged the canteen to him. “Thank you. Thank you, thank you, thank you.”
    “What’s your name?” I asked.
    “Christopher. Christopher. I am.”
    “Why did they put you into the cage?” Derek asked.
    “I stole. Very bad, very, very bad. Wrong. It was a book. I wanted the knowledge.” His gaze fixed on me. “Beautiful lady, kind lady. Thank you.”
    Derek glanced at me. “He isn’t all there.”
    No, he definitely wasn’t. Either he was nuts to begin with or sitting in the cage shook a few screws loose. Crazy or not, the desperation in his face was real. Hugh could let him die in