I dropped from the tree, landing in a crouch about ten feet away from the tiger, and gave him a taunting smile. “Wouldn’t you like to know?”
“A hybrid.” Disgust rippled through his words. “I’ve heard rumors a shifter with mage powers existed, but I thought it was a legend.” He didn’t sound impressed.
Ignoring him, I turned my head in the direction I’d scented Fenris and Annia from earlier. “You guys can come out now. It’s safe.” Sitting down, I rested my back against the tree, then drew my knees to my chest and rested my forearms across them as I waited. A few minutes later, Fenris and Annia entered the small clearing. Their eyes widened at the sight of the frozen tiger shifter.
“Is that guy still alive?” Annia asked, awe in her voice as she crouched down in front of the tiger shifter and waved her hand in front of his face, much like his companion had done to him earlier. “He looks like a taxidermist went to town on him.”
“Tell her to get her hand out of my face,” Daresh growled.
“Or what?” I sneered. “You’ll bite her hand off?”
The tiger shifter said nothing, but the scorching fury burning inside him was so palpable I thought he’d set the tinder-dry forest on fire.
“Yes, he’s still alive, and really put out about the fact that you’re waving your hand in front of his face,” I told Annia. “He told me to ask you to stop.”
“Really?” Laughter tinged Annia’s voice. “That is just too weird.” Grinning, she patted the tiger on his head, then stood up and turned to face me. “How the hell did you do that to him?”
“I’ve got skills.”
“Indeed,” Fenris said dryly. “Have you used any of those skills to get information out of him, about the Resistance camp and Iannis’s whereabouts?”
“Not yet. Figured I’d wait until you guys got here first. Do you want to do the honors?”
“Certainly.” Fenris turned toward Daresh. “What business does a Resistance camp have in Coazi territory?”
“I’m not telling anything to the likes of you.”
I stood up and approached the tiger shifter, lifting my right hand in the air as I did so. Blue-green fire snapped and crackled from my palm, the flames licking at my fingers. “I’m not sure if the rumors mentioned this or not, but fire is kind of my specialty. Now that you’re not moving around anymore, there’s no reason I can’t slow-roast you.”
“You wouldn’t dare.” The tiger sounded indignant and fearful all at once.
“Wanna bet?” Reaching out, I trailed my hand above his spine, letting the flames come within a breath of his fur.
“Alright, alright!” Panic screeched through the tiger’s mental voice. “I’ll tell you. Just get that away from me!”
“Talk first, and I might.” I raised my hand slightly so that I wouldn’t accidentally set him on fire, but remained close enough so that he could feel the heat of my flame.
“The Resistance has always had a camp out here,” the tiger shifter said hurriedly. “We negotiated with the Coazi a while back to let us hide out on their lands, as we do with a lot of the tribes across the country. They’re not allies, but because they hate mages too, they let us stay here as long as we respect the land and follow their restrictions.”
“So you’re not out here for any specific reason?” I pressed as Fenris relayed the information to Annia verbally. “Like, say, to take down an airship of mages passing through?”
“We didn’t take down the airship, but we were told to expect the delegates’ arrival.” Daresh’s voice turned smug. “We prepared some very special accommodations for them.”
Fenris growled at that, but hope filled me – Daresh had just admitted the Resistance had the delegates. “So you’ve taken all the delegates prisoner, then?” I demanded.
“All but the Chief Mage.” Some of the smugness faded from Daresh’s voice. “The idiot we planted aboard the airship killed him.”
No! I nearly screamed aloud as shock and grief rippled through me. But then I remembered the serapha charms around my chest, and forced myself to remain calm. The tiger shifter might have believed he was telling the truth, but his intel was wrong – Iannis was alive. The charm didn’t lie.
“How did he die?” I asked, pretending I didn’t know better.
“We weren’t given specifics. But trust me, if he’d been alive we would have brought him in. He was our main target.”
I gritted my teeth – the tiger shifter had confirmed our suspicions, but we were still collecting more questions than answers.
“Where is your camp?” Fenris demanded.
The shifter hesitated, so I lowered my hand, allowing the flame to singe his orange fur. “Oww, oww, oww! Okay! We’ve taken over an abandoned mining village at the base of the Sarania Mountain Range.”
I frowned, calling up a mental image of the map we’d studied earlier. “That’s to the west, right?” There were two mountain ranges flanking the plains here.
“Yeah, if you head west through the forest, you’ll come right to it.”