He’d been flying through the canopy, keeping a careful watch over Isabel while remaining undetected. She saw the threat in an instant. A jaguar was stalking them, crouching in the jungle brush and creeping toward one of the men on the outside of the group. She brought her mind back from Slyder, debating with herself about the best course of action. She could leave the big cat to the soldiers or take control of it. If she controlled it, she could keep it a secret or she could reveal the power she retained in spite of the malaise-weed nectar.
She decided to be bold.
With a thought, she linked her mind with the cat’s and imposed her will on the powerful jungle predator.
“It’s just a cat,” she said to Trajan as she began strolling toward it. “Here kitty, kitty.”
The jaguar was a full-grown male, easily eight feet from nose to tail and more than two hundred pounds of graceful power. The men cautiously formed a circle around Isabel and the cat, poised to strike. She stilled them with a gesture as the black cat strode up to her and nuzzled her belly. She returned his affections by scratching him behind the ears. After a moment, he rolled over onto his back, exposing his belly for her to rub.
She smiled, kneeling next to him to oblige, eliciting a deep, rumbling purr from the cat that filled the stunned silence. She looked up and smiled at Trajan, holding his dark eyes purposefully, as if to say “I know something you don’t know.” She stood and the cat rolled to his feet, rubbing against her side.
“I think I’ll call you Shadowfang,” Isabel said.
“How?” Trajan said. “How is this possible? I was assured that the malaise-weed nectar would prevent you from using magic.”
“And where do you suppose those assurances came from?” Isabel asked pointedly. “The Sin’Rath, maybe? Looks like they were wrong.”
She looked around at the mixture of fear and awe on the faces of the men surrounding her, weapons still at the ready.
“He won’t hurt you, any of you,” she said. “In fact, he’ll ensure that other predators remain at a distance while we travel.”
“You expect us to travel with a jaguar?” one of the men asked.
“I do,” Isabel said.
“No,” Trajan said.
“Would you try to kill him?” Isabel asked, facing Trajan.
“No,” he said. “The jaguar is our family crest. The House of Karth holds them sacred.”
“Well then, I don’t see the problem,” Isabel said as if they were discussing what to have for breakfast.
He stared at the cat for a moment before nodding slowly. “I do not like magic,” he said, “and I’m coming to understand why it has been forbidden—this is not natural.”
From that point on, the men looked at Isabel differently, almost as if they were wondering if they had somehow become her prisoner and not the other way around. Shadowfang ranged out around the group, chasing off any other predators that were lying in wait. The days ran together until Isabel wasn’t sure how many had passed when they finally arrived at their destination.
Trajan led them into a crack in a large stone that in turn led into a narrow ravine completely covered over by the jungle. Isabel commanded Shadowfang to remain in the area but to fend for himself, avoiding humans, until she returned. The ravine went deeper and deeper until Trajan stopped and unlatched a secret door fashioned to look like part of the rock face of the ravine wall. The door opened into a passage.
From there, the journey took another two days. Isabel used Slyder to keep track of which way they were traveling so she could keep both the hawk and the jaguar moving in the right direction. The passages were dark and dank, sometimes natural stone, other times cut from bedrock. When they finally came to a well-fortified stone door, Isabel instructed Shadowfang and Slyder to take up residence in one of the larger trees nearby.
The door opened to a roomful of soldiers all arrayed before it, shielded by fortifications and armed with all manner of heavy weapons, crossbows, and ballistae.
“Prince Trajan, you are a welcome sight,” said a man wearing a uniform with emblems of rank.
“Thank you, General Rashford,” Trajan said. “It’s been an arduous yet relatively safe journey.”
“Your father will be greatly relieved to hear you’ve arrived,” Rashford said. “He’d never admit it, but he’s been worried about you since he sent you to apprehend the witch.”