Page 153 of Blood Sanctuary, Part One

Cassia’s aura colored with surprise, then swelled with pride. Had she not realized what honor would be hers tonight?

LAURELS

The sand slid underCassia’s shoes with each step she took out into the middle of the gymnasium. She kept a hand in Knight’s ruff to steady herself. With all eyes on her, the force of the crowd felt even more powerful than before.

But she did not run the gauntlet of cruel spectators at the Tenebran royal court. She felt herself carried forward on the energy of the Hesperine enthusiasts, as if they passed her over the crowd on their shoulders. A strange exhilaration filled her as she had never felt before.

“Dockk ckuundat!”Cassia cried.

Knight launched into his parade gait at her side. She gathered her skirts and led him on a lap around the ring for all to see. Their display garnered resounding applause from Hesperine hands and Tenebran boots alike. She and her hound came to a halt before the dais.

Kadi strode to the stands, where her Grace sat next to her father in a section draped with the banners of the Stand and Blood Argyros. Kadi levitated before Javed, and he gave her his blood mark with a caress upon her palm, whispering something in her ear that made her smile. Argyros leaned forward and spoke to her, words of encouragement, by the pride on his face.

Kadi came to face Cassia. The Master Steward positioned herself slightly to the side of Knight and looked at Cassia instead of meeting the hound’s eyes.

“May I propose the terms of our challenge?” As Cassia lifted her voice, the crowd quieted.

“Certainly, honored guest,” Kadi answered. “We will hear your terms.”

“Knight has the strength to face a Hesperine. You need not drink a potion to reduce your power.”

“I deem that fair.” Kadi turned around to include the mortal and Hesperine audience. “Do you?”

The Hesperines sent up a cheer for her strength, while the Tenebrans applauded Knight’s ferocity. Everyone was ready to take sides and watch a bloody battle.

Time for Cassia to surprise them all. “I admit, my next suggestion is out of the ordinary, especially in a house of battle. I will not ask you to agree unless your honor allows it. Consider that my hound does not understand the difference between a friendly contest and a real fight. His instincts know no rules, and his only code of honor is the survival of hisloma kaetlii, the person he lives to protect.”

“Yes,” Kadi mused, “I doubt we could persuade him to obey the ‘no biting’ rule.”

The crowd laughed.

The spirit of the exhibition took hold of Cassia, and she lifted Knight’s training lure for dramatic effect. “Even a liegehound’s play is training for battle. That is the only arena he understands as a mock fight—his exercises with me. Therefore I propose that you, Master Arkadia, engage in a training exercise with him. You will not need your tactics, for I will teach you ours.”

Kadi stood in a ready stance, a thoughtful expression on her face. “An unconventional suggestion indeed. Will he tolerate an exercise with me?”

“He will do anything I ask of him. In the spirit of our efforts to diffuse conflict between our peoples, I challenge you to do what no Hesperine has ever done before—meet a liegehound in battle not as his opponent, but as his partner.”

“On my honor, I will not stand down from a challenge.”

Kadi’s devotees let out a roar, hoisting Stand banners bearing her name. The Hesperine elders, especially her father, just looked relieved. The Tenebrans looked warier than ever. Cassia suspected too many of them would view it as madness to reveal liegehound tactics to a Hesperine. She knew there would be Hypnos to pay when Chrysanthos took her to task for turning her opponent into an ally tonight. But she wasn’t half done yet.

Cassia crossed the distance between herself and Kadi and offered Knight’s training lure to the Hesperine. Kadi’s nostrils flared. Even Cassia could smell the lure’s powerful odor of lanolin-rich wool, dead pheasant, and liegehound drool. But Kadi took the mangy thing in hand without a flinch. Cassia knew the Master Steward had faced far greater challenges to the Hesperine senses than this.

“You have managed to surprise me.” Kadi spoke low, and the audience didn’t appear to hear her. “I came here tonight prepared for a real fight with Knight.”

“Did you really think I would agree to something that dangerous?”

“I am equal to it.”

“I have no doubt of that. But Knight has been pitted against Hesperines for too much of his life already. I will suffer it no longer.”

Kadi looked down at the lure. “I am glad for this opportunity. Do you know why I became the Stand’s expert on liegehounds?”

“They are Tenebra’s only weapon against Hesperines, and the heart hunters roam the border with packs of them, just on the other side of the ward you patrol.”

“That threat is personal to me. Have you heard of the fate of the bloodborn Atalanta?”

“Yes. I carry Orthros’s grief for her in my veins.”

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