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Onja shook her head, annoyed by his blathering compassion. “Stand up!” she commanded. With an effort he obeyed. “I do not want to punish you, Shan. I am trying to teach you.” Blue energy swirled in her dark eyes, but then Onja’s face softened with something akin to vulnerability. “For over seventeen centuries I have been alone. Then you were born, and I have watched you grow, and in that time I have hoped that you could ease my loneliness. You know of loneliness. You feel it more every day.”

Shan nodded. He could empathize with his Queen.

She continued, “You are worthy to be my companion, Shan. I want there to be love between us.”

“I love you,” Shan blurted. Perhaps these words would be the magic needed for her to end her use of the human as a game piece.

Onja smiled, and for an instant, she was a beautiful rys female with an allure that no poetry could describe. Then her voice hardened. “But only a powerful rys can be my consort, Shan. And you have only just begun to know your power. I want you to be like me, to understand me. You are still too like the other rys, who with my protection live in peace and wealth. They are respected, as well. I have seen to that, but they are innocent, unlike me. I fought the Great War long ago. I made the world as it is now. I made myself Queen. And now I would teach you of this power, Shan. It is a great pleasure to know, and it will be a great pleasure to share it.”

Shan was uncertain of what she was getting at, and when he did not respond, Onja chose to be blunt. She said, “Shan, I want you to use your magic to kill this woman.”

“Kill her?” he said stupidly.

“Yes. Free yourself of this useless pity that is making you weak. Kill her and feel what your power can truly be like. You will understand once you have done it,” Onja said.

She stepped aside and went behind him as if she might even shove him toward the cell of the unfortunate woman. Onja’s lips caressed his ear. “Trust me,” she murmured and tiny ripples of pleasure radiated from his ear along his cheek and down his neck.

It is a simple thing, Shan told himself. He had hunted and eaten the flesh of animals. He had used his magic to do such a thing. Killing the human would be easy, but it seemed so different, so wrong.

Shan approached the cell. With the force of his mind, he unlocked the door and then pulled it open. The lantern light did not really penetrate the black square of despair, but Shan heard the woman shuffling about inside. He stood there thinking.

The woman came to the door, drawn toward the light by the awful hope that she was being set free.

She was a mess. Her hair was undone, hanging in tangles around her dirty sunken face. Filth now marred her once fine garments and her golden scarves hung over her shoulders instead of wrapping her head. She staggered into the doorway, squinting at the light and shielding her eyes with her hands. Dirt filled the creases in her palms.

She began to talk. She begged for mercy and asked if she was being released. She babbled apologies for the Zenglawa and gave promises on behalf of her kingly husband that they would bring more tribute than ten tribes next year.

Shan saw her now in her loathsome despair—caused by his impulsive interference. If not for him, she would have either died quickly in the throne room or been halfway home with her tribe right now. The guilt was awful. It would be best to end this.

Shan grabbed her by the arm and tossed her toward Onja. The woman stumbled appropriately to her knees and Shan swept down behind her. Dropping to one knee, he placed one hand around her throat and twined the fingers of his other hand through her dirty hair and clasped her skull.

Onja raised her lantern and hovered excitedly.

Shan fetched his power that was inherent in every cell of his body and focused his mind. The shaking body in his grasp suddenly fueled his sense of supremacy. Her blood thudded against his fingers and he felt her soul bashing inside her body like a mad bird flapping in a cage.

He had to decide how to kill her. Suffocate her? Stop her heart? Shatter her spine? So many possibilities opened up to him in an inspiring rush of knowledge. His magic could let him do just about anything to her body. He could manipulate any system and damage any part of her. He could kill her instantly or make her suffer for days.

Shan’s eyes were glowing with fierce blue light. His magic surged inside him in thrilling waves of ecstasy. Yes, it was amazing to cast aside pity, compassion, and innocence. The other rys would not be wary of him because he stood in Onja’s shadow. After this, they would fear him because he was fearsome.

I kill at Onja’s command, he thought and the sick delight of the moment unraveled. The realization that Onja was exerting her authority over him changed everything. She did not love him. She wanted to control him because he was powerful. The clarity with which Shan saw what the rys Queen was doing blinded his mind with bright epiphany. An exploding defiant rage replaced his growing bloodlust. The eruption of his hate was made even more intense by the lifetime of affection Shan had felt for Onja. She had nurtured him, taught him, given him pleasure, but now his juvenile love withered like a baby being drowned by its mother.

Shan released the woman, who collapsing sobbing onto the wet gravel. Shan stomped close to Onja and swatted the lantern from her hand. It banged loudly against the rock wall and the light went out. Only the cold glow of rys eyes broke the darkness now.

“I WILL NOT KILL HER FOR YOU!” Shan thundered to Onja’s face.

Pure shock gripped her body. No one had told her no for well over a millennia.

Blue energy rippled along Shan’s arms and boiled from his eyes. He had never felt his magic like this before. Filled with righteous energy, he bent down and picked up the woman. He pulled one of her arms over his shoulders and started to leave. She scrambled alongside him. Between her near-hysterical sobs, she thanked him. Her gratitude was such a tiny, human thing, but the sentiment told him that his power did not have to be evil. NEXT PAGE >>>