Page 6 of Sanctuary of the Shadow
“He has no animal characteristics to speak of,” the second said.
“He has claws. Look.”
There was a silence as they studied their strange discovery.
And then Cragar said, “Whatever he is, he’ll fetch us a handsome sum.”
The gazes upon the naked figure flared with sudden avarice. “Let’s take him.”
Cautiously, the three men approached the male. They seized him by his arms and legs and hefted his considerable bulk off the desert floor, shuffling awkwardly toward the cart.
Halfway there, he awoke.
Delirious and weakened by whatever ordeal had left him stranded in the desert, the creature could not attack anywhere near as effectively as he might have been able to. He simply jerked in the men’s holds and lashed out with his claws, an ominous growl rumbling in his chest. Reflexively, they dropped him and jumped back, and the male hit the ground.
His eyes snapped open.
They gasped.
“By the Goddess, what is this beast?”
The creature snarled and, though he seemed to be hovering on the brink of unconsciousness, slowly began to climb upright. He painstakingly stood before them, stretching to his full height and swaying on his feet. He blinked heavily, revealing unnatural eyes—twin pits of darkness with wreaths of flame at their centers. Flexing his claws, he sank into an unsteady attack position.
And then two enormous, leathery wings burst from his back.
The men stumbled back, one falling to the ground. Seemingly from nowhere, those wings had appeared. There’d been no sign of them moments ago.
The male snarled, the curling of his lip revealing gleaming white fangs. He was fear personified. A living shadow of death.
“Get the chains,” Cragar commanded, facing off with the creature. He didn’t care what it was. He was looking at that shadow of death and seeing gold raining down.
One did not flourish in his line of work without getting an acute sense of what was sought after. In fact, he was already thinking of one buyer in particular who would be interested in this specimen.
There was a male of indeterminate species—some said human; others, Enchanter—who traveled the Territories with his troupe of Elementals, charging a sizable fee to showcase them to curious patrons.
What might this creature of shadows be worth to such a man? Surely nothing short of a fortune.
“Get the chains,” Cragar repeated, “and secure him tightly. We’ll take him to Allegra and sell him to the Fiend Collector.”
The creature resisted capture with everything he had, as feral things were wont to do. Cragar’s men sustained several lacerations that would require the use of precious medical supplies.
But in the end, the creature’s debilitating weakness was no match for three humans motivated by the prospect of wealth. A strike to the temple finally took him down, and his wrists and ankles were securely bound.
He was loaded onto the back of the cart and hauled back to camp. The following morning, they packed up again and hit the dusty road for Allegra, Central Territory.
There was business to be done.
…
The human woman cast a nervous glance over her shoulder as she slipped into Harrow’s tent. It was always this way—no one wanted to be recognized visiting a phony psychic, but the lure of knowing the unknown was too great for them to stay away.
Sitting neatly in the empty chair, the woman smoothed her skirts, eyes widening as she took in the appearance of her “fortune teller.” Harrow was used to such reactions.
Today, she wore a red shift with a patterned silk robe on top, the loose sleeves and bottom decorated with tassels. Heavy teardrop earrings and a silken headband to hide her pointed ears contrasted with her thick black hair. A locket nestled between her breasts inside her dress, hanging from a delicate chain.
Her clothing helped her look the part, but that was mostly because it was how the Seers of old traditionally dressed. And her locket was her most precious possession—it was her mother’s, the only thing Harrow had of hers. Inside was a tiny shard of crystal, the last remaining piece of her mother’s casting stones.
As for Harrow’s customer, she was nearly the opposite of Harrow in every way. Pale-skinned, human, wealthy—likely the wife of a successful merchant. Allegra was smack dab in the middle of the Central Territory, the Ether Queen’s domain, making it an ideal trading hub for all five Territories.
