I didn’t know what to think about the creatures who were now only seconds from their deaths. Were they the vicious nekhek as I’d always believed? Evil spirits that had long ago served the same Mahdek bastards who had waged war on my people in centuries past and may have come back to kill my sister just two days ago? Or were they just what Ferius claimed – squirrel cats – animals trying to protect themselves as any of us would when attacked?
The leader bared his teeth and growled something that would’ve got me in a good deal of trouble if my parents had ever heard me utter it. Who knew animals had such foul mouths?
‘I think I’m ready,’ Panahsi said. His chubby fingers once again twitched through the somatic pattern for the river of fire. It wasn’t quite perfect, but probably close enough to work. I was going to have to make a decision now: watch as he killed the entire pack of squirrel cats, or take one more step into treason against my own people.
‘Don’t do it, Pan,’ I said. ‘Just back off and let them go.’
‘Shut up, Kellen,’ he replied.
Nephenia reached out but stopped short of touching him. ‘Maybe Kellen’s right. They’re not attacking. We can—’
‘Good,’ Tennat said, his voice still sounding as if he were soothing a nervous horse. ‘By the time Panahsi casts the spell it’ll be too late for any of them to get away.’
I had my arms under me now. With a solid push I could get to my feet and make a run at Panahsi before he got the spell off. Just as I was about to move, the lead squirrel cat turned and chittered at me. ‘Hey, kid, tell the fat one a couple of things for me.’
I froze. First, because it’s weird to have an animal turn and speak to you, and second, because I was kind of annoyed that he’d called me kid.
‘What do you want me to say?’ I asked.
‘Say you’re sorry for being a traitor,’ Tennat replied, assuming I was talking to them. ‘Or just keep cowering there. Either way, your turn is coming.’
The squirrel cats were still waiting, as if they were somehow prevented from attacking. Panahsi was breathing easier now, calmer. The lids of his eyes half closed and his lips were moving as he rehearsed the spell. Fire spells are tricky – make one mistake and you get all the flame you asked for but not on the right target.
‘Come on, Panahsi,’ Tennat urged. ‘Light them up.’
‘Just a second. I’m almost ready.’
The squirrel cat gave an odd noise then, a kind of ‘huh-huh-huh’ sound that I was suddenly quite sure was his way of laughing. ‘Kid, you listening?’ he asked.
‘Uhh … yes?’
‘Tell fatty that just because he doesn’t understand me, doesn’t mean I don’t understand him. Oh, and tell him to look behind him.’
I looked over to where the animal was nodding. There wasn’t any light behind Panahsi, so at first all I saw was a rock in the shadows, only I didn’t remember there being a rock there before. The shape moved and I suddenly figured out what it was, and why the squirrel cats had waited. While everyone was standing around staring at each other, one of the pack had snuck around the long way to get behind Pan.
‘Panahsi, stop! Look behind you!’ I called out.
He ignored me. I guess he figured I was probably just trying to distract him. The first syllables of the fire river started flowing from his mouth – a deep baritone that vibrated on the precise resonances called for by the spell. Hells, he’s doing it.
The lead squirrel cat evidently understood. He let out a new sound, this one a sort of ‘heff’ that I interpreted as a sigh. ‘All right then, skinbags. You asked for it!’ He gave a short, sharp snarl and the black shape of the animal behind Pan flew into the air, going straight for the back of his head and digging its paws into his thick hair. The creature wrapped its front paws around his head, the furry webbing between its limbs covering his face while it used its long, cat-like hind paws to kick at the skin at the back of his neck. The other squirrel cats scattered, moving quickly even though they never took their eyes off the source of the flames.
‘Aim, you fat idiot!’ Tennat shouted.
I saw Nephenia extend her arms, touching the thumb and middle finger of each hand together as she spoke three words into the night air. It was a kind of shielding spell that kept the other squirrel cats from jumping onto Panahsi.
‘Nice!’ Tennat said. ‘Keep it up a little while longer.’ He brought his own hands together, fingers forming an attack spell. Predictably it was another gut sword. He aimed at the lead squirrel cat, who skittered in a zigzag pattern as if trying to dodge someone throwing rocks. That wasn’t going to work against a gut sword though, which didn’t require perfect aim, only a clear line of sight. I got to my feet and charged at Tennat, but at the last second he turned on me and his expression shifted to a grin. Pain exploded in my abdomen – worse by far than anything I’d felt during our duel the other day. Whatever illness Tennat had been suffering lately was clearly healed now, because I was pretty sure he was about to kill me.
‘Tennat, don’t!’ Nephenia screamed.
Hey, maybe she doesn’t hate me, I thought, as my insides started crushing in on themselves.
She let go of her shielding spell and grabbed Tennat by the shoulder, but he just shrugged her off. He said something to me which I couldn’t possibly hear in all the noise, but I guessed must be along the lines of, ‘I’m going to kill you now, Kellen, because, as you long suspected, I am a huge moron whose only ambition has been to make your life hell until I could find an excuse to end it.’
Panahsi screamed. One of the squirrel cats had just bitten a tiny chunk of flesh out of his arm. Nephenia, evidently making a quick calculation about whose life was more important at that exact moment, turned back to start the shield spell again.
I tried to roll away, to get somewhere out of Tennat’s line of sight, but to no avail. It didn’t look as if I was going to get much help from the squirrel cats either. They were focusing all their attention on Panahsi, throwing themselves at the shield Nephenia was putting up, some of them getting through as she struggled to maintain her focus. Pan managed to reach back and grab the one on his neck. The flames of his fire spell danced around his fingertips, setting the creature’s fur alight, as he hurled the thing away, into the centre of the oasis. Two of its fellows raced towards it. The poor creature rolled on the sand in obvious agony as its fur began to burn. When the other two reached it, they turned around and kicked their back paws in the silver sand, half burying the burning creature to smother the flames. The injured creature got back up, hobbling back towards the fight, though I could see part of the thin membrane that allowed them to glide was burned away.