Hear that snap? The camel’s back—right after the last straw.
“Not going to happen,” I said, crushing the picture tube in my hand.
“Excuse me?” the Marquis said, slowly turning back to me.
“This is my client,” I said. “I did not risk life and limb coming here just to hand him over to you. I need your advice, for which you’ll be well paid. That’s it.”
Hot breath brushed past my face and feathered my ‘hawk, and I looked aside to see the glowing green eyes of the Bear King not two feet from my face.
“The Marquis tattoos all the werekin in my realm,” he said, voice crackling like two slabs of granite sliding over each other. “We need no other.”
“If he was in your realm, he’d have already come to the Marquis,” I said. “He’s not. He’s a Little Fiver, an Edgeworlder. He’s under Saffron’s protection, and came to me—and he’s going under my needle.”
“You are challenging me, aren’t you, little one?”
I should have been filled with terror. Alright, I was filled with terror—despite the fact I’ve never been afraid of bears, even when I watch some giant Kodiak’s crap-inducing roar on the Discovery Channel. For some reason they’re not as scary to me as tigers, much less the fake stuff dreamed up by H.R. Giger, that really twists my gut. But here, inches away from the Bear King’s bared teeth and red glowing eyes, I was terrified and frightened to the point of useless bravado.
So I squeezed my fist tight, pouring a cascade of mana down the vines into my yin-yang, and then shoved my glowing palm at his face.
The Bear King ducked his head back as if stung, snarling, but otherwise frozen, making no move to respond. I could feel his magic, his power sparkling on the edge of my tattoos, and it was far weaker than I expected; surely it took more power than that to change man into beast? The Bear King’s eyes tightened in very human rage and his muzzle wrinkled in a very feral snarl, and he began to shake, his claws drawing a squealing whine out of the metal of his throne, tires supporting it squeaking ominously as he shifted his weight. Now I was challenging him, on his own throne; but he was afraid of magic; and there was no easy way out for us without one of us showing weakness. He had to respond to this.
And then it was the Marquis who rescued us, leaping forward to come between me and the Bear King, grasping my hand with one tattooed thumb pressed into my yin-yang to bleed off the power. “And so we have ourselves not just an inker, but one inked! A real magician,” he said, crying out to the crowd, holding my hand up high. “Surely she is not afraid to prove herself worthy in front of our King, to prove she has the magic to ink a mark upon a wolf!”
“I accept your challenge,” I said loudly, and then more quietly, “Thank you.”
The Marquis looked over at me, yellow eyes glinting. “Thank me?” he giggled, sounding less like a half-wolf monster who could tear out my throat than a catty little prima donna… who could still tear out my throat. “You don’t even know what the challenge is, much less how to win it. I’ll take your flash and your client, and send you home with your tail between your legs, you tall skinny bitch.”
“I don’t have a tail,” I said.
“You don’t now,” he said. “But… we shall see.”
15. THE DUEL
We faced off in the pit. Somehow, the vampires were in my corner, though I doubted whether the sulking Transomnia, sitting on the edge of the pit staring at his muddy pants, was actually on my side. Instead it was Calaphase and the recently returned Revy (short for ‘Revenance’) who had my back, while the young feral tiger girl and the wolf-chested boy tended the ego of the Marquis as he preened opposite us in the ring.
“What’s he doing?” I asked, watching Lord Buckhead speaking with the Bear King.
“Apologizing for you,” Calaphase said. “And explaining what Trans did that put you in such a foul mood.” Trans looked up sharply, then looked away. “We were contracted to keep mortals away so that the weres could let their beasts roam free without fear of discovery and blackmail, not to make it impossible for those with legitimate business to conduct it.”
“This is the kind of legitimate business you conduct?” I asked,