Lord of Hawks has stolen my courteso. Give him back.’
She was blazing and beautiful and, even knowing what she had done, I felt drawn to her. I understood how Lord Saturn could love and hate her at the same time. She was power, down to the flesh and bone.
The cubs stood behind her, arms crossed, muscles on display.
‘A child,’ Saturn said, his voice dripping with disgust.
‘Mine,’ Tasha retorted.
‘He wasn’t ready. What did you do to him?’
She arched her eyebrow. ‘I made him mine. If you are going to take him from me, you must expect a battle.’
‘Excellent,’ said the snake man. ‘That is settled, then.’
Saturn looked at him in horror. ‘Power and Majesty, you can’t be on her side in this.’
‘You presume much, Lord Saturn,’ said the snake man, looking utterly relaxed. ‘I expect you to work for your privileges, like anyone else. The boy is one of us now. How it happened is irrelevant. Tasha Lord Lion cannot let an insult like this pass. You know that. If you want him, you must fight for him.’
Saturn looked down at me, and I let go of his coat, unsure what I was supposed to do.
Owls fluttered into the yard from every direction, white snowy creatures flapping and gliding down to form a bright white shape: a big woman with pale hair and dark eyes. She stood beside Saturn, as careless of her naked breasts as the columbines who changed their costumes backstage.
‘You were not invited, Celeste,’ said Tasha with a glare at the newcomer.
‘Where my Lord needs me,’ the pale-haired woman said with an easy smile.
‘Play on,’ commanded the snake man.
I hung back, at the edge of the canal.
The fight was swift and vicious, and I was hardly aware of what it entailed. They flung handfuls of light across the canal, ducking and weaving to avoid each other missiles. Then Tasha was a lion, tearing and biting, and Saturn flashed into a storm of hawks.
Garnet changed first, hurling his two gattopardo bodies into the fray, and the hawks tore at him, claws and beaks drawing a hundred points of blood. Lysandor shifted into his furry lynx form and bit birds out of the air, spitting them broken onto the floor. Celeste screamed into owl form, savaging his eyes and throat.
Ashiol was the last to change. He looked at me, head tilted a little to one side as if trying to work out if I was worth it. Then he was cats, and the hawks tore chunks out of him, too. Fur flew. Blood splashed.
I closed my eyes because I couldn’t bear it any more. A large, slippery hand grabbed me at the back of the neck. ‘Watch them, little cub,’ said the snake man. ‘This is for your benefit.’ He smelled of cheap imperium.
I wanted to say that I was a lamb, not a cub, and I wanted to go home, but the words caught in my throat. The snake man — the Power and Majesty — squeezed my neck until I opened my eyes and stared.
They fought, tearing themselves to pieces. Lysandor broke first, rolling aside and into his human body, nursing too many wounds. Celeste reformed her body and then fell apart into owls again, unable to hold it all together. Ashiol slunk away one bloodied black cat at a time.
Garnet was cornered by several hawks, biting and snapping at them, but then one pecked hard at the back of his foot and he went whining to the corner, his whole body in convulsions.
Tasha shifted from lioness to human, rolling in the blood that smeared across the concrete floor. She laughed, tilting her head up to the ceiling, exposing her throat to the hawks. ‘Go on,’ she said with great relish. ‘Savage me.’
Saturn shaped back into his human form. He reached a hand down to her and she tugged him down on top of her instead, laughing as he kissed her neck.
‘An important lesson, little rat,’ the Power and Majesty said with relish. ‘You are of the least value of anyone in this Court.’
Well, that was nothing new for me, was it? Bottom of the pecking order.
Saturn and Tasha rolled together, petting and biting like the animals they were. Saturn looked up at one point, guilt crossing his face, but she dragged him back to her.
The cubs regained their breath, and then Garnet came over to me, holding out a hand. ‘You don’t have to,’ he said, and he looked as guilty as Saturn.
‘Aye, I do,’ I said,