Don't Leave Without a Word
"I'm not telling you that you can't leave."
Shirca said it firmly, so Bariya would not misunderstand.
"If it comes to something you can't help, you may go. We have no intention of taking your freedom. Only—when you do leave, say so before you go. Don't vanish without a word, the way you did this time."
Bariya looked down at the contract. There were the five conditions she herself had set down, and the single condition the Caliph family had asked in return. It did not even say she must never leave. It did not say she had to ask permission. The terms were overwhelmingly in her favor.
"Is this really okay?"
"Of course. There's only one thing you have to do at the Caliph Estate. Grow strong enough to bring down a pack of hyenas all by yourself."
That was precisely what Bariya wanted most. She wrote her name at the bottom of the contract in careful, neat strokes and signed it, and the three Caliphs, who had breathed a quiet sigh of relief, signed in turn.
"There. With this, the contract is complete. We're counting on you from here on, Bariya Bell."
Sabrina offered her right hand. Bariya drew herself up like a proper little adult and shook it.
"Please take care of me, too."
After Bariya had gone back with Tyreen, the three beastkin of the Caliph family sat over the contract on the table, sunk in thought.
"She's no ordinary child."
At Baden's words, the other two nodded. Facing hyenas in the body of a kitten had been the least of it. There was the nerve to demand a contract outright from the three Caliphs—beastkin that even seasoned predators found difficult to meet eye to eye. There was the deftness with which she had spelled out exactly the terms she needed. And there was the powerful aura that rose from her as if it were the most natural thing in the world.
"Her manner of speaking and her handwriting are pure ten-year-old. Her behavior and her mind are nothing of the sort."
Sabrina tapped the contract. When the girl had asked for meat only once a week, it had left her speechless—and then there was the way she had watched them on the sly, afraid they might refuse. It was staggering to think what those hyena whelps must have done to her, and the longer one looked, the clearer it became that this was no ordinary child. How to put it? Now and then there was a dissonance too sharp for her to be called merely a girl of ten.
"Even Shirca wasn't like that at ten."
Children of predators matured quickly, and Shirca, the heir, had been exceptional even among them, for he had truly inherited the blood of Sabrina, the most gifted tiger beastkin of the age. Even so, that same Shirca had never been bold enough to stand his ground before Baden and Sabrina at ten. And a mere cat beastkin looked the three of them straight in the eye? She was no ordinary beastkin. Not by any measure.
"There's a strong chance she possesses an Authority."
"We can't be sure, but it's the reasonable thing to think."
Sabrina nodded at Shirca's words.
An Authority was a special power granted only to a tiny few among the chosen. Luck alone did not bestow one. There was a condition that came before all else: one had to inherit the blood of a Divine Beast.
Divine Beasts were born where the sacred energy of nature gathered thick and deep. Every one of them held a special ability called an Authority, and their lives stretched far beyond those of beastkin. Unlike beastkin, so strongly ruled by instinct, they tended toward reason and gentleness, and many lived out their days in the wild. Some, though, had married beastkin and borne children. Of the beastkin born carrying that blood, only a vanishing few ever manifested an Authority like a Divine Beast's own.
Bariya might well be one of them.
"If it was an Authority that let the little one put Tyreen to sleep and slip out of the Caliph Estate with no one the wiser, then it all makes sense."
"Though we still don't know what sort of ability she has."
Authorities came in endless variety, and many had never been clearly identified at all, which made them difficult to guess at.
"If it were a simple power like ours, it'd be easy enough to tell."
Sabrina closed her fist, light and easy. There was nothing in it now, but had that hand been holding anything at all, whatever it was would have been smashed to pieces. Her birth family, the Frosts, was a house mingled with the blood of a White Tiger Divine Beast. Sabrina was the White Tiger beastkin born once in generations with the strongest Authority of all, and Shirca, who had inherited her blood, bore an Authority of his own.
"Either way, if she has an Authority, it explains why those hyena whelps are after her. Those damned bastards are desperate to get their hands on one."
Baden clicked his tongue. Beastkin chosen by a Divine Beast were exceedingly few. Among all the tiger houses, the Frosts were practically the only one with Divine Beast blood in their line, and not a single hyena house had ever been chosen. No Authority could ever have manifested among them, and that lack had curdled into an inferiority complex. Once the Caliphs—chiefs of the tigers, the hyenas' old rivals—had married Sabrina and her powerful Authority, that complex had only grown more vicious. The total rupture between the two peoples had begun entirely after that.
"So in the end, the little one is a victim dragged into a worthless war of pride."
Baden's face twisted. Bariya had said she had lived in the hyena house in a filthy dress. Had those whelps kidnapped her and locked her away, scrambling for any way to seize an Authority for themselves?
"That's probably why she told us not to ask about her. There's no guarantee we aren't the same as the hyenas."
The thought alone made Shirca furious, and he clenched his fist tight. Covet an Authority all you like—how could anyone abuse a child of only ten that way? It was beyond anything his sense of the world could comprehend.
"She's being hunted on her own, and young as she is, she isn't looking for her parents. We have to assume they've already passed on."
Baden nodded at once at Sabrina's words.
"Even so, there may be family left. I'll look into the cat beastkin houses that carry Divine Beast blood."
He meant to find Bariya's family if he could, but he also meant to protect them, in case the hyenas were already a threat to them as well. The blood of a Divine Beast was noble and precious. It must not fall easily into the hands of those blinded by greed.
"We don't know what the little one's Authority is, but we'll keep quiet about having noticed as much as we have."
"Yes."
"Understood, Mother."
Her guard was already razor-sharp. Mention an Authority, and she might run again before anyone could stop her. It did not matter that she did not trust the Caliphs. They had no thought of begging her to. That was hers to give. But they would not—could not—let her slip out of this place in secret and fall into the hands of those mad hyenas. That, at least, they would prevent by any means necessary.
From the moment the contract was signed, Bariya remained as an honored guest of the Caliphs. Word that a cute, darling ten-year-old cat beastkin—not some raging tiger—would be living among them spread through the whole estate in no time.
"Good day, young lady!"
Jake, Shirca's right hand and one of the chief reasons Bariya had been brought to the Caliph Estate, came hurrying to find her the instant he heard. Then he saw her crawling out from under the bed, of all places, and his eyes went round.
"Wh—why are you coming out of there? Is the Young Patriarch not letting you play on the bed?"
Unlike Bariya, Shirca was sprawled at his ease on the sofa, and Jake shot him a glare. Faced with insubordination from his own man, Shirca was at a loss for words.
"Anyone watching would think your master is the little one, not me."
"Of course the younger little miss's safety comes first!"
Jake declared it as if it were the most obvious thing in the world, and Shirca had nothing left to say.
He's not wrong, though.
"Ah, I forgot my greetings. We met yesterday—do you remember me? I am Jake Gillian, a knight of the Caliph family, in service to Lord Shirca Caliph."
Bariya, patting the dust from her skirt after crawling out from under the bed, nodded.
"I remember. The mister who gave me jerky. It was yummy."
The jerky was why she had not been able to run and had been caught, but looking back now, it was thanks to that she had made a contract with the Caliphs and come under their protection.
"I hated you a whole lot, actually. But things worked out 'cause of you, mister, so I'll forgive you."
When Bariya held out her hand, Jake was moved, and he took it with great care to shake.
"I'm Bariya Bell."
"A very pretty name. It suits you, young lady."
"I know. Mommy named me."
It was the first he had heard her speak of her mother, and Shirca's ears pricked. Unfortunately, Bariya said nothing more.
"But why were you under the bed, young lady?"
"'Cause this is my room now. I was checking every bit of it to see what's in here. There shouldn't be anything weird, right?"
"She climbed up on the display cabinet, too, and came back down."
Shirca jerked his chin toward the cabinet. She really was a remarkable child.
"Ah—I've brought what the Young Patriarch asked for."
Jake set a box on the table beside the sofa. Bariya, who had been poking into every corner, perked up and came over. Inside were balls, a string tipped with fur, sticks—all manner of things.
"What's all this?"
"Toys for the little one to play with, starting today."
"Little one this, little one that—do you actually think I'm a baby? I'm not the age to play with toys!"
What do you take me for!
"I'll bet you anything. You're going to love them."
Shirca drew out one of the sticks, looked at Bariya, and grinned. At that ominous look she edged back—and in that instant, Shirca swung the stick.