Serpent's Quest

Chapter Fourteen: Old Wounds

CHAPTER FOURTEEN

OLD WOUNDS

The Lawgiver House was an eccentric pastiche of various styles of human architecture designed by Maldwyn Softpaws, Nikko's father, with too much interference from Claw Redhand. As a result it stood four stories high with a basement equally divided into store rooms and dungeons. It had balconies, parapets, gargoyles, towers and dormer windows, as well as other architectural nightmares that made foreign visitors wince to look at it. Rivaling the manor for size, it had taken ten years to complete. Rumor had it that Claw had built this house as a way of relieving the sense of emptiness that had plagued him after the deaths of his sons, turning it into an obsessive hobby and Maldwyn's artistic bane.

Claw had lent Cahira twenty of his Nibari to get the dust and cobwebs out and render the place somewhat inhabitable after four years of standing empty. Cahira made do by limiting their efforts to a single small section of the House and pretending the rest did not exist.

Kynyr sat propped comfortably by a pile of goose-down pillows, eating chunks of roasted mutton from a bowl on the bed table across his lap. His bruises had cleared up and the scabs of his wounds had vanished, leaving unblemished skin beneath. A bandage still covered the blade wound, to keep the stitches from catching on his clothing.

Company had arrived and encircled him. Nikko and Finn – his friends came by at every opportunity – and Cahira.

Kynyr chuckled. "At least Mary's letting me feed myself now."

"You still don't remember?" Finn leaned closer.

"What's to remember? I remember beating Malthus. Then nothing until I woke up here. Gram calls it concussion."

"And that's what it is." Cahira gave an authoritative nod.

Kynyr touched the back of his head gingerly. "Hell, my head's still sore."

Moss nestled in Nikko's lap, dozing in doggy contentment. "I don't like what is happening at the camp. I've questioned everyone and they act as if nothing happened. No one will talk to me."

Finn frowned. "Place gives me an itch. It ain't been the same since that Malthus moved in."

Nikko gave a weary nod. "I know."

"You should toss his butt out."

Nikko shook his head at Finn. "I'm supposed to be enforcing the laws and customs ... not breaking them."

"Laws and customs change, Nikko," Cahira said. "When I was young they would have stoned Merissa to death for sleeping with a sa'necari ... much less bearing his cub."

Kynyr winced inwardly. Every time someone mentioned changing customs, the first example they gave was always Merissa. "Isranon was a good mon."

"Was he?" A wisp of irritation crept into Cahira's voice. "I wouldn't know. I've always stayed away from the sa'necari ... including the Dark Brothers. What freedoms we have, we gained from the Sharani conquest. Thirty years of Sharani rule. If not for them, the sa'necari would still be demanding a ritual tithe of our young." Cahira threw a hard glance at the young wolves, as if daring them to disagree with her.

"Gram..." Kynyr tried to derail it, but could not think of what to say.

"No. You listen to me. The Rebellion was Claw's dream. He paid for it with the lives of his sons. And it got him nothing."

"The clans would like to be rid of both of them," said Finn.

"If not one, it will be the other. I, for one, would rather have the Sharani than the sa'necari."