I couldn’t tell if he was joking. “A – what?” I’d never heard of something like that.
“You’ve heard the legend of Lycaenthrope, yes?” he asked.
I nodded bitterly. “That silly legend was what killed my grandfather.”
“I’m sorry,” Ethan said briefly. “It’s not just a legend, though, I’m certain your grandfather was wrongly sentenced. Skinwalkers are a similar species to Lycaenthropes but can shift whenever they please. Not all Skinwalkers are like Ric, however.”
“Why?”
“It’s his story. If you want to know, you’re going to have to ask him,” he said.
Bloody tease. “So what’s your story?” I waited patiently as, I assumed, he gathered the correct way to dance around the question.
“They’re Demons,” Ric announced, returning from his cooldown. Ethan rounded on him and he shrugged. “What? You told her what I am so now we’re even. I didn’t tell her the whole story though, did I-?”
“Alright,” Ethan said, shifting his arms behind his head as he leant back against the stone. “We’re Demons, or rather, that’s what people have called our kind for centuries. If our species ever had a name it’s been lost in time. We look like Gnathians but we have our differences, mainly in the eyes, teeth and nails, as I’m sure you’ve already observed.”
“I hadn’t noticed the nails,” I said.
“They’re a bit creepy,” Ric said, lifting one of Ethan’s hands for me to see.
His nails looked normal at first but once I’d run a finger across his cuticle and felt the lump beneath it I realised what he meant. The skin surrounding his nails was tough, not soft and flimsy like mine. Ric then went so far as to push up Ethan’s top lip and exposed his sharp-looking canines and premolars. Even the rest of his teeth had an odd razor’s-edge look to them. He batted Ric’s hand away and pushed him onto his back.
“Alright, I think she gets it.” Ethan glared at me as I eyed him in wonder, possibly terrified I’d start poking and prodding at all his unusual assets. Then, of course, there were those strange, beautiful eyes that made me suspect what felt like an age ago. People – Gnathians – didn’t have eyes like that.
“I knew you two were odd.” I smiled.
“You’re strange yourself, for a Gnathian,” Ethan said.
“But I don’t have the eyes to prove it.” I motioned to my brown eyes. “Mine are the colour of dirt.”
“Without soil we wouldn’t have the foundation to create new life,” Ric said, poking me in the nose.
“Oh shush.” I waved him off. “I used to think it was unfair. Father seemed to have eyes of every colour, and my mother’s eyes-.” I had to think for a moment: brown; blue. “I think they were dark, but I don’t really remember.”
“Demons’ eyes are actually supposed to be blue, like Lavender’s and Willow’s and Alistair’s.”
“So why are yours-?”
“I’m different from them,” Ethan said simply.
“Like any creature there are different sorts, each bred and evolved for different purposes,” Ric said. “Take the long-haired cattle of Meriloch in the high north, for example. Thanks to their heavy coat and thick layer of fat they can withstand the harsh year-round winters.”
“But you aren’t cattle, you’re men,” I reminded him.
“Just about,” Ethan smiled. “Excluding half-breeds and mongrels there are three main breed of Demon that we concern ourselves with. Those like Willow; those like me; and those like Stephan.”
“You mean, Stephan-”
“He and his atrocities are known as Berserkers. They’re malevolent, soulless, wild creatures born from one man’s hatred. They feed on anything that moves, even their own kind if they’re driven to it. It’s in their blood to destroy anything good and pure in the world and feed off the chaos. Lucky for us, however, most of them are mindless animals with little skill and almost no control. It makes them easy to track and easy to kill.” Ethan spoke of it like he was describing rabbits in the woods.
“But Stephan and Gabriel weren’t like that. They were horrible, evil things, but they were fully in control of themselves.” I couldn’t even tell the difference between them and other men.
“Yes, well, this is where things get a bit more difficult,” Ethan started. “Stephan has an endless amount of self-control. He can hide the colour of his eyes and blend in with Gnathian society without causing suspicion – even in your land, it seems.” I felt nauseous at the idea of him walking toe-to-heel with other innocent people.
He continued. “Gabriel on the other hand has a good amount of control but he can’t pass as Gnathian, not out of the shadows. His lust for death and destruction has poisoned him beyond redemption, and though he can blend in with the night-dwellers, should they catch his eye it’d be the last thing they’d ever see.”
I shuddered. “So why are they different from the others? Why can Stephan do something the others can’t?”
“Because Stephan created them.” Ric and Ethan exchanged an unpleasant look. “He’s their Daeia.”
“How can that…” I couldn’t think of the words. “Why do you take it upon yourselves to hunt them down? Surely the Kingsguard will have soldiers to fight in a war that affects the state of their country-”
“At one point maybe, but that’s a very long and difficult story. I’ll fill you in another day,” Ethan said.
“So if there isn’t a Kingsguard, or any notable armies to spare, how can a person with such power be stopped?”
“That’s why we brought you here, to Andor.” Ric motioned to the glade around us. “This was our fault.”
“We were overconfident and na?ve.” Ethan put his head in his hands and took a deep breath. “We’d killed so many of them by that point; had spies in every district and took out their eyes and ears. We were so careful to begin with. Their numbers had eventually dwindled to a couple of dozen – or, so we’d believed.”
“It happened when we were riding south; following a lead from a Berserker we’d persuaded to tell us the location of Stephan’s refuge.” Ric rested a hand on Ethan’s shoulder.
“By persuaded you mean-”
“I’m sure you can imagine,” Ric dismissed and continued. “This town was a second home for us. Our council at the time, some of its wiser members, told us we shouldn’t take the Berserker for his word and we should wait for confirmation, but we were impatient. We were young.”
Ethan laughed breathily at Ric’s words. “Daeus help us, we were stupid.”
“Their suggestions were obviously dismissed and we set off as soon as the horses could be saddled. We hunted the mountains for days but found nothing. The bastard played us for fools.”