The Scent of Poison
Neshan Territory, lying between the tigers' domain and the lions', was a city where auctions and gambling dens ran wild.
So many travelers passed through a place situated as it was that the tigers' leading house, Caliph, and the lions' leading house, Leotel, co-governed the city together. After Rabin Caliph's death, however, the feud between Caliph and Mariner turned savage, and little by little the balance began to shift. While Caliph's attention was fixed on Mariner, the Leotel family set about quietly expanding its influence in Neshan Territory, determined to wring out a fatter share of the profit.
In a city that had once known only lawful auctions and gambling, illegal underground auction houses sprouted one after another, and most of the takings slipped into Leotel's back pocket. That one of those auction masters had taken to selling a tiger in secret was merely another fruit of that reach.
"Well, I'll be. The moment we go looking for a honey-gold-haired girl, she walks right past my nose?"
Otus, master of the underground auction house and a badger beastkin, stared at the girl before him in sheer disbelief.
He had heard only moments ago that the Mariner family was searching for a girl of about ten, with long honey-gold hair and brown eyes. And then, as if the world were mocking him, a child who matched that description to the last detail had strolled right past. Startled, Otus had snatched her up on the spot, yet the more he turned it over, the less he could believe his luck.
"Honestly, she looks closer to eight than ten..."
Otus's man studied the girl with a dubious eye. The long fangs made one thing certain—she was a carnivore, not some herbivore breed—and predatory beastkin generally ran large. This girl, though, was far too small for ten.
"Still, we ought to send her to Mariner and see. Even if she isn't the one, we've nothing to lose, have we?"
Otus grinned at the girl.
"Listen, little one. Better to land in a fine house than rot as an orphan in an alley like this, eh? Play your cards right and you might live as a young lady, so sit quiet."
She carried a certain air of breeding, but she was surely no precious young lady come to attend an auction. She had been alone in a back alley with no escort, her clothes blotched with stains, and she was barefoot besides. Whatever Mariner wanted her for, what became of the girl after she arrived was none of his concern. Still, it had to be better than scraping by as a back-alley orphan.
"Mister, your breath stinks."
The girl pinched her nose.
"Ugh, I'm gonna throw up. Get your face out of here."
She recoiled in open disgust, and Otus let out a dry laugh.
"Well, now. Since I'm sending her to Mariner, I can't lay a finger on her. Still, she could stand to be made a little more docile."
Seizing the girl by the scruff, Otus hoisted her up and tossed her to his man.
"Ah! Mister, you're about to snap my spine! Be gentle! I swear I'll just claw your face off."
Forced into the man's arms, the girl threw a tantrum. A mouth that foul—she was certainly no young lady of a fine house.
"Hey. Lock this brat up over there. The moment the important deal is done, I'll take her to Mariner myself. A little time in there ought to settle her down."
"Yes, sir."
The man tucked the girl under his arm and headed off. Pressed hard at the belly, she thrashed.
"I can't breathe! Mister, don't you know how to hold a kid? You wouldn't even haul a sack of flour like this."
"Tsk. I can see you grew up mean because nobody ever taught you a thing. If you want to live, kill that temper. Keep this up and something truly ugly is going to happen to you."
The man squeezed her stomach harder, and a choked squeak escaped her on its own.
Treating a little girl like this. These really are rotten villains. Just you wait until I save that tiger. I won't let this go.
So as not to rouse suspicion, she deliberately played the part of a thoughtless child her age, and glared at the man without bothering to hide it.
They have to take me to Mariner, so they won't just lock me up anywhere.
According to the unidentified beastkin who had carried that powerful pheromone, the tiger was being given special treatment. The odds were high, then, that Bariya—bound for Mariner—would be shut away wherever that tiger was kept.
And the guess proved exactly right.
The moment the man opened a door, a room appeared, lavishly dressed in gold and crimson. From the solid-wood table at its center to the chairs, the curtains, even the smallest ornament, nothing was ordinary.
A reception room for distinguished guests, plain as day.
A stay at the Caliph Estate had given her an eye for luxury, and she was certain of it. The tiger would be sold here, without a doubt.
Rescue the tiger, and steal a few things that look worth taking while I'm at it!
She was short on coin as it was. The timing couldn't have been better.
The man crossed the splendid room, opened a door set into one side, and stepped into the chamber beyond. It was not quite as lavish as the last, yet it too was crowded with fine things. He did not stop there. The instant his fingers brushed a few volumes on the bookcase packed tight against one wall, a low grinding rumble answered him, and the bookcase swung open to reveal a hidden space behind it.
Bariya, who had never expected to see something like this, felt her heart kick with excitement. She felt like a secret agent in the middle of a covert mission.
"All right. You stay put in here."
But the thrill died quickly. The space was pitch-dark, its only light a single tiny lamp on the wall, and the man shoved Bariya into a small barred cage as if he were tossing her in. Her head cracked against the bars. She spat a curse under her breath. At this rate I'm going to knock myself stupid.
"You'd do well not to throw a fit in here. You aren't the only one. Consider yourself warned."
The man sneered at Bariya's glare and left the hidden room. The door shut, and she was left entirely alone.
No. He said I wasn't alone. The tiger has to be in here.
It was quite dark, but as a wildcat beastkin she had little trouble seeing her surroundings. The secret space was not large. Boxlike barred cages of every size, the same sort she had been locked in, lay scattered all around. They varied, but most stood empty—all but one.
A rustle. From the cage farthest from her came the sense of a presence, and Bariya faltered. She had been told it was a tiger, so of course she had pictured something on White's scale. The cage the presence came from was far smaller than her own, a size that would feel comfortable only to something no bigger than a wildcat, not a person.
Don't tell me it's a baby tiger?
Buying and selling a child. They really were wicked villains!
"Tiger."
Bariya rapped the bars and called out. Rustle, rustle. Whether it had heard her or not, the sound of movement grew louder. It was tucked so far into the corner that she couldn't make out so much as a shape, let alone a face, so she raised her voice.
"Tiger, can you hear me? Are you alive? If nothing's hurting you, look this way."
An animal might manage some measure of communication with a beastkin, but true conversation was impossible. Bariya, however, stood close to a Divine Beast, and for her it was possible, just as it had been when she spoke with White. That tiger ought to have understood her too, yet it only flinched and would not look her way at all.
Was it hurt? Worried, Bariya shifted into her wildcat form at once and slipped easily between the bars. The moment she drew up to the tiger's cage—
"Huh?"
Startled, she snapped back into human form without thinking and scrambled backward.
The tiger before her was even smaller than she had imagined, small enough that Bariya, still a child herself, could have cradled it in one arm. But the real problem lay elsewhere.
This scent...
From the tiger rose a smell she had encountered once before. A fragrance far more bitter and venomous than Bariya's own peculiar, grassy pheromone hung thick around it.
Strange. She had been told, quite clearly, that it was an ordinary tiger, not a beastkin. So why was a pheromone—something only beastkin possessed—coming off a tiger cub?
"Are you a beastkin?"
The tiger's body jerked. And for the first time, it looked at Bariya. In the dark, red eyes gleamed—a color no ordinary tiger could ever have.
Not... a Divine Beast.
She knew it by instinct. This tiger was no Divine Beast. It was a beastkin, without question. And yet it could not take human form, and moreover—
It has a Poison Pheromone?
The hyena beastkin who had ambushed the Caliphs and her in the dark forest. One of them had carried a vicious Poison Pheromone. That same poison, the one that had nearly killed Shirca, was rising off the tiger now.
Bariya's face hardened sharply.