Page 99 of Conspirators' Kingdom

“Look for his official cartouche as well. Better to have the real thing than to create a fake,” Mereruka said.

“Hair, cartouche, pocket realm. Anything else?” Vasilisa asked.

“That should be all,” Mereruka replied.

“Then come along, kitty. We’ll travel the shadow path.”

Mereruka could hear the glee in her voice. He pitied Bas already.

“Wait! No! You sadistic bitch!”Bas yowled, his claws digging grooves in the wood of the deck as Vasilisa dragged his feline body into the void.“Dad! Taisiya! Help!”

“Safe travels, Bas.” Taisiya’s smile was understanding but ultimately unmoved.

The sound of his curses ringing in their heads was gone the moment he sank completely into shadow. Mereruka suppressed his own shiver. He did not envy his son in the least.

“How, exactly, did you win her loyalty?” Mereruka asked.

Taisiya looked down, eyes on her hands folded in her lap and smiled sadly.

“After her mother died, Vasilisa refused to leave the void. I lured her back to our world by dangling her favourite sweets on the end of a fishing line, hovering just far enough above a shadow that she would have to come part way out to get them. The void may provide solace, but I hear it is distinctly lacking in baked goods.”

“You…fishedfor her?” he snorted.

“I suppose I did.” Her smile was irreverent.

The image was patently ridiculous. Mereruka laughed so hard he had to wipe tears from his eyes. Taisiya’s eyes brightened.

“And you? How did you become Bas’ father?”

“Essentially the same way. Bas was feral when I found him, living as a kitten rather than a little boy. When shapeshifters refuse to take their common form, the form that looks like you or I, they lose their reason and eventually the ability to shapeshift altogether, trapping them. Eventually they go mad. I lured him in with regular food and then promised him a whole roasted duck if he ate it using his hands. Eventually, he decided to stay rather than return to whatever hole he’d been living in.”

Bas never spoke of his birth parents or family, if he even remembered them. He’d been such a scrawny, feisty little toddler. And for many years, he’d been the only person Mereruka would gladly call family. He might have saved Bas from becoming feral, but Bas had forced Mereruka to become a better person.

“I hadn’t thought I would hear the word ‘feral’ again once I left Lethe.” Taisiya wrinkled her nose in disgust.

“Imagine my surprise when I heard it referring to the mages who resemble shapeshifters, and not people stuck in the forms of unnaturally strong beasts, slowly going mad.”

“Is that a common occurrence in Maat?”

Mereruka shrugged to hide his unease. He couldn’t imagine his life without Bas, didn’t want to think about what would have become of his son had he not seen the little boy behind the kitten’s wary eyes.

“More common than I would like.”

Taisiya reached a hand out to his and squeezed.

“I look forward to seeing what they can accomplish once they get over their dislike of one another,” Taisiya said.

“Like we have?” Mereruka asked.

Taisiya rolled her eyes.

“Flirt,” she accused.

“Tease,” he retorted.

“Scoundrel.”

“Villainess.”

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