“Friend?” the other man asked. He was shorter and stockier than the other, and wore his hair in a topknot. His dark eyes were narrowed, and he kept his arrow firmly trained on me. “A white man?”
“Yes. A white man with red hair.” Fenris gestured toward Annia’s flowing locks, though her auburn hair was much lighter than Iannis’s. “Have you seen him?”
“He was flying in an airship,” I added, drawing the taller man’s attention toward me. “It may have crashed somewhere near here. Did you see anything big fall from the sky?”
The two men looked at each other out of the corner of their eyes. They immediately started talking to each other in low tones, which was unnecessary since we couldn’t understand a single word they said. The fact that their broad shoulders had relaxed a little ignited a spark of hope in me.
“Do you think they’ve seen Iannis?” I asked Fenris.
“It’s entirely possible.”
“If we’re lucky, he might even be at their camp!”
“Or unlucky, depending on what they’re doing with him,” Fenris warned.
Finally, the two Coazi males turned back to us. The stockier one met my gaze, and for the first time curiosity sparked in his dark eyes. “You are a man-beast, yes?”
“Huh?” My mouth dropped open, taken aback by the strange question.
“Woman-beast, then.” The Coazi male gestured impatiently. “You can turn into an animal. I tell by your strange eyes.”
“Yes.” My lips quirked a little at his description of me – I’d been called a lot of things in my life, but “man-beast” was certainly a new one for me. “I turn into a panther.”
The taller Coazi turned to his group and announced the news to them in their native tongue. The groups eyes widened, and then they broke out into wide smiles and started talking excitedly, jumping up and down on the balls of their feet.
“Er, what’s happening?” I asked Fenris worriedly.
“Your guess is as good as mine.”
The tall Coazi male turned back toward us. “We hear of the strange man-beasts the mages who rule this land made, but never seen one. You show us?”
“You want to see me shift?” I asked incredulously. Part of me was stung by the idea – I wasn’t some kind of pony to be paraded around for their amusement.
Fenris touched my elbow. “I know it might seem demeaning, but I see no harm in doing this if it helps create goodwill with the Coazi.”
Swallowing a sigh, I took a step toward the Coazi. “Alright, I will do as you ask. You might want to take a step back.”
They all stepped back hastily, and Fenris shot me a scowl as I fought against the urge to snicker. Of course there was no reason for them to step back, but I enjoyed the idea of screwing with them a little after being asked to put myself on display like this. Closing my eyes, I reached for my inner beast, and let the white light wash over me. I heard the Coazi gasp and murmur as my body stretched and changed, bone and muscle and skin reforming, fur sprouting, teeth and claws elongating. Delighted at the chance to break free, my beast purred loudly – we were the same person, and yet not, two sides of the same coin. It was hard to explain to someone who wasn’t a shifter – a bit like having a split personality, except that my beast and I weren’t really all that different when it came right down to it. My human instincts were simply more dominant in human form than they were when I shifted.
Opening my eyes, I surveyed my spellbound audience, and couldn’t help but chuff in amusement at their wide-eyed stares. Wanting to milk it a little more, I stretched my long body, padding at the reddish dirt beneath my paws and allowing them to see my claws. Affecting lethargy, I gave them a wide yawn, exposing my long fangs, and they gasped.
“Fearsome,” the stockier Coazi said, his dark eyes shining. “The legends we hear…they are true. But man-beasts are no longer slaves of the evil mages?”
“No, we are not,” Fenris said, a little sharply. I slanted my gaze to him, wondering about the defensive tone in his voice. Maybe it was on behalf of Iannis, who wasn’t there to defend the mages. “Shifters have not been bound by slavery for at least five hundred years.”
“But mages and man-beasts not equal, no?” the Coazi male pressed.
Fenris opened his mouth, but he paused as the white light washed over me, and everyone else turned my way to watch as I changed back. A few moments later, I once again stood on the knoll in human form, my arms crossed beneath my breasts as I narrowed my gaze at the persistent Coazi.
“What’s with all these questions?” I asked. “Are you really so interested in the welfare of shifters?”
“Shifters,” the shorter male repeated, testing the word on his tongue.
“Not concerned with…welfare…but your interest in missing white man,” the taller Coazi said. His dark eyes gleamed with something like mischief as he regarded me. “We know mages can fly in these machines, and the machine had mage…symbol painted on outside. Why is a man-beast trying to rescue evil mage?”
“Huh.” I raised my eyebrows in surprise, starting to see the line of logic the Coazi male was following. Despite their strange looks and clothing and the heavy accent, they were quite intelligent. Much more than I had given them credit for, which made me feel guilty. Really, if I looked down on a group of people just because they were of another race and culture, was I any better than the mages who looked down on us shifters for similar reasons?