still an arrow’s flight away, yet Lizzan could see that a sloth’s neck was clamped between the cat’s jaws, the heavy carcass dragging along the ground between his powerful legs.
Her gaze returned to Aerax, her heart filling her throat. Strangers they should be. Yet it had been so long since she’d seen him this way—returning from a hunt, wearing nothing but a cloth tied around his hips, with blood and dirt streaking his skin. Hardly could she tear her eyes from him.
“Do you think Caeb intends to carry that all day?” Riasa asked, sounding amused.
“He will eat it while Aerax makes ready.” Which was likely why he’d hunted a young sloth. Given a choice, Caeb would have killed an adult and spent several days consuming it, napping between each enormous meal. But even a cat of his size and strength could not drag around a fully grown sloth. “Did they not do the same when you traveled with him from Krimathe?”
“Never did I see them hunt together before. Always the cat hunted alone and the prince bathed him after.”
A chill scraped down Lizzan’s spine. Aerax had said that everyone in the crystal palace believed he was defanged because he never showed his teeth. But only a fool would look at him prowling alongside the cat now, and mistake him for what he was. Although Aerax had no claws or fangs, the only difference between him and Caeb was their number of feet.
Riasa was no fool. “On this journey, I do not think you will worry overmuch that the Parsatheans’ numbers are halved.”
She would not. Instead she had a new worry, because people often tried to kill what they feared. And Vela had tasked her to protect Aerax. So there must be something to protect him from.
“Take care when you are at Radreh,” Riasa said.
Lizzan tore her gaze from Aerax. “Why?”
“Have you been there before?”
“To Radrana.” The city at the base of the mountain. “Not to the monastery.”
“Nor have I. But I do not like what I hear coming out of that realm.” She cast a glance toward the baths, where a number of Parsatheans milled near the entrance. “The young monk and Prince Tyzen seem careful when they practice their magic. The monks of Radreh are not known to take the same care—and now you bring them a powerful charm that might be valuable to anyone who hopes to fight the Destroyer.”
Frowning, Lizzan said, “You think they will try to steal it and risk Vela’s wrath?”
And Lizzan’s.
“I cannot know. I only think you should take care. And as the monks know magic, too, do not fully rely on that charm to protect you.”
“I have my sword,” Lizzan reminded her, and when Riasa nodded, she returned to the part the other woman had skipped blithely past. “The prince and the monk practice magic?”
“I assume that Preter gives the prince lessons. Always, they are together—and what other reason is there to spend time with a monk?” Riasa’s mouth pursed with sudden amusement. “Though I rather liked that one.”
“As did I.”
“Then perhaps I will end Preter’s quest when we meet again in the north. But now I must go and see my lady off—no farewells!” Suddenly Riasa backed away a step, as if to escape the weight of Lizzan’s heavy sigh. “No farewells, Lizzan of Lightgale. My warriors and I will be in Koth before the first snow falls, so we will meet again.”
Chest tight, Lizzan nodded. “Then we will. And a safe journey to you.”
“And to you . . . though I do not know how safe you will be. Already you are marked as prey.”
With a grin, Riasa took her leave—and there was no mistaking her meaning. Heart pounding, Lizzan turned to face Aerax and Caeb as the cat veered off, dropping his sloth a few paces away before continuing on. Aerax came straight toward Lizzan, his gaze locked with hers, yet she was aware of Caeb closing in from behind.
So many times she’d seen them move as one being before. Most long-toothed snow cats were solitary, but some brothers remained together—and stalked their prey in this way. Separating, one captured their target’s attention with a direct approach while the other circled around.
Different paths, but a singular goal. And the scrape of Aerax’s teeth over his bottom lip, the hot path his gaze took from Lizzan’s head to her toes, told her that both man and cat were hungry this morn.
Purring, Caeb prowled past her, rubbing against her back with enough