AARYN

"The… what?!" Elreth's eyes widened and she blinked.

"They must have found Hannah. I just intercepted a messenger galloping through the wood to get you. Get up, Elreth, you've got a meeting to get to."

She blinked again, then cleared her throat. "We have a meeting to get to, you mean," she said as she pushed the furs back and stood to get dressed.

"I'm not sure—"

"If this is about the disformed, I'll need you there. And if it's not, it won't hurt to get your input."

"What else could it be? I just pray they don't know you hid it from them!"

Elreth sucked in a breath, her fingers flying on the buttons of her leathers. Then she twisted her hair into a bun and pulled on the shirt. It was still open when she turned for the door of the bedchamber and urged him to come with her.

"There's a guard in the Great room!" he hissed as she stepped into the short hallway with her buttons still undone.

She froze and looked at him over her shoulder. "Thank you," she murmured, then her fingers flew to the buttons. She didn't take another step until she had them done. Then he stepped past her into the hall. They both emerged into the dining area and the guard turned, looking relieved.

He saluted Elreth and she nodded back. "What is your message?" she asked carefully.

"Urgent meeting of the Security Council—they plead your immediate attendance."

"Of course," she said and began walking towards the door, looking far calmer than Aaryn knew she was. He could hear her heart pounding. He prayed the guard wasn't paying too much attention—or put it aside to her being startled from sleep.

"Did they give you any message about what the… catalyst was for this meeting?" Elreth asked casually as they passed out of the door and back into the meadow.

"No, Sire, but there was great urgency. And two of the scouts were in the building."

Elreth glanced at him, but didn't hold the gaze. "Sounds like we better run then," she said, only a touch breathlessly.

The guard glanced at Aaryn he resisted the urge to roll his eyes. "Go, both of you. I'll get there as soon as I can." Elreth opened her mouth, but he shook his head. "This isn't the time. Go. I'll only be a minute behind you."

She blew out a breath, then squeezed his hand and took a step, then her lioness rippled around her and a moment later thick feline paws sprinted quietly along the path, barely scattering the dust, alongside the pounding of horse hooves.

Aaryn sprinted as fast as he could, but as soon as they entered the wood, they disappeared around a bend in the trail ahead of him, their four legs giving them far tighter control and traction on the dirt of the forest path.

Aaryn ground his teeth and told himself there was no reason to feel embarrassed. There were many Anima who couldn't run with the speed of Elreth, or the Equines. You didn't have to be disformed to eat their dust.

But the tightness in his chest didn't pass—especially when he began to pant from running so hard all the way to the eastern quarter where the Security Council building squatted under the trees.

*****

ELRETH

She hadn't even taken her seat yet, had found the Security Council mostly on their feet in a circle around a table in the building, discussing something on its wooden top with great severity, and low voices.

When she stepped into the circle to find a carcass on the tabletop, she frowned.

Tarkyn stood across from her, pointing to something and muttering with one of the guards who was nodding and answering a question.

Her stomach lurched at the sight of her Captain as the events of the Flames and Smoke roared back to her, but he only glanced at her, held her eyes for half a breath, nodded once, then turned back to the guard.

"How long since it was killed, in your estimation?"

"I'm not certain how much sun it would have gotten in that position under the tree. But I believe three days, four at most?"

Tarkyn nodded. "That's what I would estimate too. So the day of the Royal Flames, or the next day."

The elders all murmured between themselves.

Elreth frowned. "We're here—an emergency meeting—to examine the carcass of a Pricklepig?"

"No, Sire," Lhern said quietly. "We're here because of how the Pricklepig died."

She looked back and forth between them all, waiting for someone to tell her why they all looked like they'd each swallowed one of the animal's spines.

But just then, the door lurched open behind her and Aaryn stalked in, his chest heaving and sweat sheening his entire body, making his shirt stick to his arms and shoulders as he moved.

His eyes went to her immediately and her belly curled at the expression of protectiveness and the question in his eyes.

Did she need him?

She tipped her head for him to join them at the table, then turned back to the circle of males. "Okay, someone tell me and Aaryn what's going on, please? Why are we concerned about the death of this particular Pricklepig?"

Tarkyn nodded at Aaryn whose tension she could feel even though they weren't touching, then picked up something small that had been hidden from Elreth's view by the hide of the animal.

Pricklepigs were named for the spines that covered their backs and sides—vicious spines that were barbed and, if inserted into flesh, would remain, or tear out a chunk of flesh with them on removal.

The animal was generally peace loving, though very fat, with tender meat. A favorite for many Anima, though the hunting and skinning could be tricky.

In this case it was obvious that the anima had been killed by a hunter, not another animal. Quite aside from the fact that animals generally only tangled with a Pricklepig once in their lives, this particular male had been skinned—its throat cut, then slit from chest to genitals, its head and hide removed in clean cuts, and the skin left on the legs.

Though, oddly, only its meat muscles had been removed, but apparently nothing else—not the internal organs which were such a delicacy, and not the spines which the Anima would de-barb and use for jewelry and hair pins.

When Anima killed an animal, they made use of every possible part of the anatomy—either for food, or as a resource in some way. Even the fat was rendered, and the bones used for marrow. But this animal had been stripped of its meat and the rest left to rot.

Then she saw what Tarkyn was holding towards her and Elreth's frown deepened. It was a tiny cluster of metal, slightly misshapen.

"What is that?" she asked, taking it from him, ignoring the way Aaryn grunted when her fingers brushed Tarkyn's to take it from him so she could examine it.

"It's metal," Tarkyn said somberly. "Something called a bullet."

"A bullet? What is a—" Then she stopped and looked up at Tarkyn, around at the others, her mouth open. "The human weapons?"

They all nodded.

"There is a human in Anima," Lhern said, his voice dark and ominous. "And he's hunting."