A Contract of Common Enemies
"Shirca brought her back. The one who nearly died at the hyenas' hands."
"More precisely, the little one was the one threatening the hyenas. Remarkable, isn't it?"
They had moved to the living room and given a brief account of everything that had happened. Baden and Sabrina looked at Bariya at the same time.
"Mrr, mrrrow."
Bariya had her face buried in a bowl, eating meat. Only a little while ago, dragged back against her will, she had glared at them like a mortal enemy—and yet now, with meat in front of her, her mood seemed to have eased. As if she had spent her whole life half-starved, the child's eyes went wild at the mere sight of it.
"Mother. Father."
Shirca appeared in a rush. The sight of Bariya at the table, shoveling meat into her mouth without a care in the world, pulled a disbelieving laugh out of him before he could stop it.
"I wondered where on earth you'd gone. Mother, did you truly catch the little one in the middle of her escape?"
"She was about to step through the front gate. If I hadn't brought her back, she'd have been long gone."
"I had no idea she could move that fast."
Shirca pressed a hand to his brow and shook his head.
"Mraaaagh."
Mouth stuffed full of meat, Bariya let out a thoroughly discontented wail. Being snatched back a breath away from a successful escape was, quite plainly, a grave injustice.
"If it worried you that much, you should have watched her properly."
At Sabrina's rebuke, Shirca only shrugged.
"Tyreen was standing guard. But when she came to, she herself was asleep in the corridor outside the bedroom, and the little one was already gone."
"What?"
All three of them looked at Bariya. Whether she was pretending not to have heard, she gave no reaction at all.
"Tyreen isn't the sort of girl to ignore an order and simply fall asleep."
"No, she isn't."
Sabrina drummed her fingers against the armrest, then tossed the words out bluntly.
"White submitted to that little one."
Baden and Shirca were genuinely stunned. White was the white tiger Sabrina had kept since her own youth, raised with such care that she obeyed no one but Sabrina. Her temper was fierce enough that she ignored even Baden and Shirca, both far stronger than she was. And that White had submitted to a kitten who was still so very small?
"She makes no secret of her displeasure with me, and yet she has the sense not to bare her teeth."
Sabrina had been born with a strength exceptional even among tiger beastkin. It was that overwhelming power, and nothing else, that had made her the patriarch's wife.
"......Those hyena bastards were sniffing around our territory. Could that have something to do with the little one as well?"
None of the three missed the flinch from Bariya, her face still buried in the bowl.
"Hyenas? I dealt with everything that crossed the border yesterday."
When Shirca asked in surprise, Sabrina shrugged.
"They weren't animals. They were beastkin. I spotted a few last night and took care of them. That's why I came back earlier than planned. You won't be recovering the corpses."
Of course they wouldn't. It was Sabrina who had handled them, and no one else.
"No matter how I look at her, this is no ordinary child."
"Grrrr."
Sensing that the air had turned dangerous, Bariya bristled with every ounce of wariness she had. Sabrina thought she could guess why the kitten was even more guarded than White.
"Little one. Do you want to go to the hyena domain?"
"Kyack!"
Bariya shrieked with startling force. The sound was shockingly sharp.
"You like hyenas?"
"Kyaaaack!"
She couldn't make out a word of it, but she knew a string of vicious curses when she heard one. Sabrina smiled, satisfied.
"I see. As it happens, we aren't particularly fond of hyenas either. Which means we share a common enemy."
A common enemy?
The fur that had stood on end all over Bariya's body slowly settled as she let a measure of her guard down. She looked interested.
"Tiger beastkin and hyena beastkin have been on bad terms for hundreds of years. These days we're as good as mortal enemies, thanks to the filthy tricks those damned hyenas pulled."
Fierce anger rose across Sabrina's beautiful face. Bariya shuddered, as if she had caught the aggressive pheromones thick with emotion.
"I don't know why, but they must have a reason for hunting you so desperately. So, little one. Don't leave. Stay here."
"......"
"We hate those hyena bastards enough to want them dead, and you seem to feel no less. We'll protect you from them. For you, Caliph will be the safest place there is."
Bariya understood that much. The Caliphs were stronger than House Mariner, the ruling family of the hyenas.
"And we'll use that to torment those hyena bastards and pound them into—"
"Mother. The little one is right here."
Pound them into what?
Under Bariya's innocent gaze, Sabrina changed course.
"......We'll turn their guts inside out. Well? I'd say that makes a decent alliance."
Bariya didn't think it was a bad offer. Three years on the run had worn her down, mind and body alike. If she meant to grow strong enough to strike the hyenas properly, she needed a safe fence around her. And if the Caliphs and the Mariners were on poor terms, they might even join hands with her and see her goal through—revenge.
Except.
Even after they learn my secret, will the tigers truly protect me?
If they discovered why House Mariner was going to such lengths to find her, what guarantee was there that they would not abuse her as the hyenas had? She had suffered so cruelly at those hyena bastards' hands that she could not bring herself to trust tigers either. So she would forge a means she could trust.
Bariya's form began to change. The small body braced against the tabletop drew itself upright; her limbs lengthened, and fingers and toes took shape. A thick fall of wheat-gold hair spilled down her back. When she slowly opened her eyes, clear brown irises came into view, bright and sparkling. It had been a long time since she had taken human form.
None of the three had imagined she would shift so suddenly, and they froze where they stood.
Perched on the edge of the table, Bariya seized the whole of the room in a single instant. Looking straight at the three who stared at her as if spellbound, she spoke plainly.
"Wride a con'ract."
"......"
"......"
"......?"
The clumsy words that had spilled from her own mouth startled her, and she clapped both hands over it. Shame washed through her at the way the tiger beastkin were looking at her, as if she were something strange.
Human form and human speech, both after far too long!
Now that she thought about it, it had already been a year since she last took human form. A leopard cat's body was far better for running, and unlike ordinary beastkin, Bariya had no limit on how long she could remain in animal form. She scrubbed furiously at her cheeks and her lips.
"Con! Tract! Con-tract! Cuh—con! Tract! Write!"
Breaking it into pieces, at least, the sounds came out right.
"Write it! Wri! Wriiite!"
Write—as if I can even say write!
Incensed that the words would not come out as she willed them, Bariya let loose a roar fit to shake the room.
"Con! Tract! Write! It!"
It was an exceedingly forceful command.
"......I understand. You want a contract guaranteeing your safety."
Fortunately, Shirca caught on at once. She would not have to force an explanation through a tongue that refused to move as she wished.
"Good. We'd rather have it that way ourselves. First, little one—what's your name?"
"Bariya Bell."
The precious name her mother had given her came easily, even from a tongue that stumbled over everything else.
"And your age?"
Bariya spread both hands wide.
Ten.
All three faces hardened at once. Neither her beast form nor her human form had looked anything like ten, so they had assumed she was younger.
"......I'll ask just one thing more. Where did those clothes come from?"
"Clothes?"
At Shirca's question, Bariya looked down at herself in puzzlement. The dress was a dingy yellow, every stain still plain upon it, the sleeves torn halfway off. Worse, the rips had been patched over and over with scraps of other cloth until the whole thing was little better than rags.
"Wore it when I lived with the hyena fam'ly."
Her disobedient tongue grated on her terribly, but she got the explanation out. She had no money for anything new, and since she lived mostly as a leopard cat rather than a human, she had simply gone on wearing this. She washed it in streams, of course, and when it grew too worn she asked a kind village woman to mend it. Even so, there was no making something already filthy truly clean.
Was it these clothes Shirca meant, when he said I smelled?
Surely not. But perhaps the patriarch's heir could tell?
"If I smell too much, I'll go an' change......"
The last thing she wanted was to be told she smelled because of her clothes.
"It isn't the smell. But they aren't good for your health, so you ought to change. We'll draw up the contract properly after that."
Bariya nodded and climbed down from the table. Seeing Shirca rise with her, she said,
"I'm not running away. You don't have to follow."
She had learned how very good it was to stay here, and unless something went seriously wrong, she had no intention of leaving.
"That's not why I'm coming with you."
Then why?
Bariya was puzzled, but she didn't ask. She left the living room at Shirca's side.
Just before the door shut she thought she caught Sabrina's vicious cursing—"Crazy, unhinged bastards......"—but Shirca smiled and closed it, and she heard no more. Bariya tilted her head and trotted after him, her steps light and quick at his heels.
"We've lost contact?"
House Mariner, the ruling family of the hyenas. Darius Mariner, the patriarch's eldest son, could not keep his fury in check at the news his men had brought.
"The animals were confirmed to have been dealt with by the heir, Shirca Caliph. But the beastkin we sent after them—we cannot trace what became of them."
"Why the hell not!"
"It's only... that is... we have word that Sabrina Caliph, while traveling, passed near where our informants were lying in wait."
Sabrina Caliph. Daughter of Frost, that noble house of white tigers, and wife to Baden Caliph, patriarch of the tigers. And at the same time, the foulest-tempered, most brutal, and strongest wretch among all the tiger beastkin.
"Damn it, those cursed tiger bastards!"
Darius snatched up an ashtray and hurled it. The glass ashtray slammed into the wall and shattered into pieces.