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Preece sauntered in with Nesswen at his heels. Nesswen, a shaggy young blond,
had watery blue eyes, and an overbite.
Malthus fetched mead for them and repeated his patterns with the spells. When
he emerged with the tankards, he saw that Yren had arrived with Rheu and
Torquil. Rheu was the smallest and youngest at fourteen, while Torquil was the
largest member, a huge strapping smith's apprentice. They were all good with
the long knives that rode at their hips, but only Torquil could claim a
moderate expertise with swords and axes. They wore simple wool drawstring
pants, and knee length robes that wrapped loosely around their upper bodies in
a variation of the traditional lycan garb that allowed them to switch freely
into their powerful hybrid forms.
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Malthus had no intention of allowing them to know that he was sa'necari, and
that every single female in the refugee camp had been made subject to his
will, with his spells knotted into their minds. There were now sixty-one myn
living here in the camp, twenty-one of them adult females.
His taste did not run to true humans, so he had only slept with the five
sa'necari and Clodagh.
"Some of them don't want to come outside anymore,"
Shalto said.
Oswyl nodded a quick agreement. "They don't want
Pandeena and that new lawgiver to see their bellies."
"Sooner or later.... "Preece let his gaze slide across every face. He had the
jaded air of a stone-cold killer, which was why no one ever crossed him at the
camp. Preece had made no secret, among his companions, that he had been the
one who put a knife in Kynyr Maguire's back during last summer's riot simply
because he had always wanted to kill a guardsmon. "They're going to get
noticed."
"And then we're all in trouble," Torquil said.
"That's not right," Yren protested. "We shouldn't get into trouble over a
bunch of sluts."
Malthus sucked his cheeks in with a sly glance to the side, his head lowered.
"But that's exactly what will happen.
Remember what Pandeena said. She's going to blame us for whatever happens with
these women."
"Hsaaah," Shalto growled. "I didn't do anything to her and she busted me up."
"She's pretty," Torquil said. "But the only way we'd get a stick up her would
be to tie her down."
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321
"She's a vicious trolleymog," Oswyl muttered, staring into his tankard. He had
not yet raised his head once.
"My point, Oswyl," Malthus said, his tone smooth, with a faint undercurrent of
amusement. Then he straightened and met each eye in turn. "They'll Read the
females, and then punish us all. The females will complain to make themselves
look innocent. They'll tell on all of us."
"We can't let that happen," said Shalto.
Malthus took a long, considering drink from his tankard, and then sat it down
with a thump for emphasis. "I have a solution. We need to move the pregnant
ones to where they can't be found, along with their children. And I've found
the perfect place for them."
"Where?" Shalto asked.
"My mother's manor."
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"Your mother's got a manor?" Shalto asked in surprise.
"I thought all your family were dead," Torquil said.
Malthus turned to Torquil. "All my sa'necari family, all those on my father's
side except my nieces, are dead. The human side of my family appears to have
found safety in a distant valley. My human mother has agreed to take the
pregnant ones and their children in. Once they're gone from here, we should
all be safe from the lawgiver and the priest again."
"What about the other females?" Yren asked. "Sooner or later aren't they all
going to get full in the belly and we'll have to do this all over again?"
"My mother is a bio-alchemist, when we deliver these to her, she'll give me
some potions to sterilize the others."
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Torquil whistled. "You think of everything."
"I would never have survived this long if I didn't," Malthus said. "I rode to
Ocealay alone when I was your age, Torquil. I
proved myself among the kandoyarin there."
"So we'll still get to wet our sticks," grinned Rheu.
"Wear masks to this meeting," Malthus told them. "My friends and I will be
doing so also."
Oswyl finally raised his head from his tankard with a suspicious expression.
"Masks? Why?"
"Safer that way," Malthus replied. "If no one sees your face, they can't say
who you are. Animal masks. I have a lot to teach you. Next time I go hunting
I'll meet with my mother's friend and set up the meeting."
* * * *
Unseen by all of them, one of the largest wolves currently in the village
slunk away into the shadows. He had not been able to get close enough to catch
more than fragments and had little idea what they were talking about beyond
the suspicion that they might be sleeping with some of the women in the camp.
He bolted across the forest, taking a roundabout path to Pandeena's apartment.
He would have a look at some of these females tomorrow, maybe find an excuse
for Pandeena and himself to go door to door and check on all of them.
Caimbeul's conversation with Kynyr a few days ago had convinced him that the
Sanctuary was the best place to begin his investigation of Malthus in earnest.
Everything else the taverns and other gathering places had failed to pan out.
He
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needed to explore other possibilities, and considering what had happened to
Nikko, following Malthus on his hunting trips did not seem wise.
As he rounded the edge of the compound, Caimbeul saw several young lycans
traveling stealthily over the grounds, moving from shadow to shadow until they
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