Part of me wished I could stay in beast form as I made my way to the Palace. But the Resistance would be on the lookout for a black panther, and though I would blend in with the darkness well enough, traveling as a shifter still wasn’t the wisest move.
Yeah, and neither was staying in your apartment after receiving a death threat.
I scowled. Yeah, so maybe I should have headed for Solantha Palace right away, where I would have been safe. But I’d been away for so long. After the arduous adventure of the last few weeks, traveling across the country to rescue the Chief Mage, dealing with political assassination attempts, and other bullshit, I’d just wanted the solace of my apartment. Besides, I wasn’t about to let the Resistance think I was scared of them by running straight for the Palace with my tail tucked between my legs at the first sign of trouble. I wasn’t scared of them, and I wasn’t going to let them intimidate me.
But I was scared for my friends, and for the people around me, and I couldn’t let the Resistance hurt them again because of my pride. Even though the last thing I wanted to do was take up residence in the Palace again, I would do it if it meant saving lives.
As I walked toward the Mages Quarter, whose towers I could see jutting into the moonlit sky even from this distance, my eyes wandered, taking in the city. Sadness filled me at the cracked windows and boarded-up storefronts, at the trash littering the streets, at the threats and curses sprayed onto formerly pristine walls and shutters. This wasn’t the Solantha I knew, the clean, bustling city that oozed with character. This was a city under attack, besieged by terror and fear. People were scared to walk the streets at night, and even during the day they averted their eyes and stayed as far away from passersby as possible. It was a little terrifying to see just how far downward Solantha had slid in the time I’d been gone.
Heading toward Solantha Palace, I caught flashes of light in the distance, and my sensitive ears picked up distant explosions, screams, and battle cries. The commotion was coming from the direction of Shiftertown, where the Resistance had established their base, mainly in a couple of abandoned factory buildings close to the Rowanville border. Many shifters had fled the city when the Mages Guild had gone on a rampage, arresting anyone they suspected of having ties with the Resistance. Those who remained had sided with the Resistance out of defiance. I had heard the residents were even letting the Resistance use the vacated homes in their sector of the town, and that shifter children as young as six or seven were proudly displaying the red armbands signifying their support.
My thoughts turned to Boon Lakin, the tough-as-nails Shiftertown Inspector who had become a friend to me. Would the Resistance have been able to take Shiftertown as easily if he, or my aunt Mafiela, the Baine Clan Chieftain, had not been swept up in the arrests? The clan chieftains were divided on the issue, but Mafiela had always been very much anti-Resistance. In the past, I’d always scorned her for it, but that was before I realized the truth about the borderline terrorist organization. Her son, my cousin Rylan, was a prominent member of the Resistance, and my aunt had written him off as soon as she’d learned he’d joined.
You’d think I would welcome my aunt’s misfortune, considering she’d thrown me out of my home and clan at the age of twelve, and done her best to make my life difficult. But it still seemed unfair for the Mages Guild to imprison her without cause. As for Lakin, he was just doing his job. The Tiger Clan chieftain had shared their fate, as well as a number of other shifters who hadn’t escaped town, falsely confident that their innocence would protect them from the mages’ wrath.
Iannis had ordered the wrongfully imprisoned to be set free, but that had been less than twenty-four hours ago, and it would take time to process their release. Many of them were probably still languishing in their cold, dark cells on Prison Isle. I shivered at the thought – it was a place you did not wish on anyone but your worst enemy.
A wave of magic rippled through me as I crossed the invisible line separating Rowanville from the Mages Quarter, and I realized wards must had been activated around the perimeter. That explained why these elegant apartments and town homes, with their magically enhanced trees and shrubbery, remained untouched. Old resentment burned inside me at the fact that, while the rest of the city was burning, the mage families slumbered in safety in luxurious homes behind their magically reinforced doors. They weren’t subject to pain and terror like the rest of us.
That’s not really fair, I told myself. If shifters and humans had the ability to ward ourselves from Resistance soldiers, we damn well would have done the same thing. All the mages did, or so I guessed, was put up a boundary that stopped any non-mage from coming through. The same thing would hardly work for the rest of the city, which was mostly comprised of non-mages. But still, I wished there was some kind of magical protection we could give everyone else, to keep them safe from the Resistance.
The neighborhood around me changed again, apartments and townhouses giving way to elegant homes and mansions butting up against the coastline, vying for the coveted view of Solantha Bay. Solantha Palace rose above them all, a sprawling white stone edifice with red tile capping the roofs and turrets. Casement windows sparkled in the moonlight, and rune carvings shimmered on the edges of various ledges. To my surprise, there were no guards stationed outside. As I passed through another set of wards and walked up the garden path to the entrance, I could see none guarding the front door either. Strange. I’d never seen the Palace without guards before.
I took the wide staircase two at a time, wanting to get inside as quickly as possible. The massive double doors were closed tight against the evening, and with no one around to help me, I was forced to pull one open myself. An impossible feat for a normal human, but my shifter muscles managed. Closing the door behind me, I leaned against it to catch my breath, allowing my illusion to drop with a sigh of relief.