Free Shapeshifters by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes Page B

course the neitherbrief nor chaste kiss with which Zane had ended the encounter.
    He had asked me to come to serpiente land, and I had nodded; what had he thought when I had never appeared?
    Dear sky above, he probably thought I had refused his offer to negotiate, his attempt at peace. After the fury with which my guards and family had dragged me out of the Mistari camps, Zane probably thought my nod had simply been a device to get him to leave, and of course he would not dare to return without knowing whether I had informed the Royal Flight of his presence. They would have posted guards on the servant’s stair if I had mentioned Zane’s nocturnal visits, and if he tried to return they would kill him on sight.
    I knew what I would think, were the tables turned. For the sake of all my people, for the safety of the Hawk’s Keep, I would be forced to assume the worst: that the serpiente were unwilling to consider an end to the war, and that indeed they were planning to retaliate.
    Even if the serpiente had been sincere in their offers of peace, my lack of response would force them to attack before we could.
    I could not afford to waste time.
    Swiftly, I searched for suitable clothing: something that would not be ruined by a short walk in the woods but that was appropriate formeeting with another monarch. I settled on a soft blouse of woven raw silk the color of dark sage honey, and a pair of slacks of lightly tanned lambskin that would provide adequate warmth against the slight chill of the night. I reached for the boot knife the merchant had given me, but if I was going in peace I would need to go unarmed, as Irene Cobriana had arrived in avian land.
    Unfortunately, I had no natural defenses to rely on, like a serpent’s gaze or venom. I had wings with which to flee and hand-to-hand training that would never match a professional soldier’s or guard’s. A natural hawk takes its prey with talons and beak, striking too swiftly for resistance, and that is how my kind preferred to fight: from the sky. If I was attacked on the ground, any serpiente opponent would make it a point to keep me there.
    Still, I put the knife aside.
    There was, as always, a vase of flowers on the table beside my door. Remembering a signal I had developed with Rei when we were both mischievous children and I had constantly been sneaking out of the Keep, I moved the flowers from the doorway to the trunk at the foot of my bed. If he came looking for me, Rei would see the flowers and know I had not been abducted.
    He would still worry, but this was the best I could do. There was no way I could ask him tocome with me; bringing the Royal Flight would be suicide. Even if Zane had given his guards express orders to let me come with an entire regiment, no loyal guard would allow the cream of the avian army to enter serpiente land.
    Taking a deep breath to gather my thoughts, I changed shape, luxuriating in the wonderful feeling of sliding from the awkwardly shaped human form into the beautifully streamlined, graceful one of a golden hawk.
    Swift wing beats took me over my balcony, and within moments I was gone above the treetops.
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    I LANDED AND returned to human form several minutes’ walking-time south of the serpiente palace. I knew there were archers stationed on the roof of the palace; if I tried to fly closer to the building, I doubted that even Zane’s promises of safety would keep them from shooting me down.
    Of course, Zane’s promises still might not protect me on the ground, if he had even been honest in the first place. By this time, he probably did not think I was going to answer the invitation. If he had posted his loyal guards, the ones he trusted to greet me, he would have done so in the days after he had spoken to me. Now …
    The woods were too quiet, and as I movedthrough them toward the palace, gooseflesh rose on my arms.
    â€œWhat do we have here, Ailbhe?” I jumped at the sound of the voice, and