Chapter 40

CHAPTER 40

“ M y baby!” Nancy’s mother shrieked. She clutched at her mate’s arm. “Don’t move a muscle, Nancy. Oh, I knew we should never have let you come to camp.”

“Now, now, honey,” Nancy’s father said, though he didn’t sound as calm as normal. “There’s no need to panic. Look, he’s nearly reached her.”

“It’s all right, Mrs. Peakes,” Conleth called down. “Everything is under control.”

This was something of an exaggeration. Nancy had really outdone herself this time. The longest ladder the camp possessed was still a good six feet too short.

“Nancy, I’m right underneath you.” Bracing himself against the trunk of the pine tree, he cautiously balanced on the very top rung of the ladder. “Can you edge my way a little?”

Nancy shook her head in vehement denial, clinging to a branch just out of reach. “Noooo! It’s too high!”

“You’re perfectly safe. I’m not going to let you fall.” He lowered his voice, so the goggling ring of onlookers below wouldn’t overhear. “Nancy, I know you can do this. Just like we practiced, all right?”

“But I’m scared!” Nancy declared, possibly for the first time in her entire life. “I can’t move. You have to come get me!”

“Don’t worry, Nancy!” Finley called up. “Conleth’s almost there.”

“Everybody stay calm and quiet,” Beth ordered. “We don’t want anyone startling Nancy so she jumps even higher.”

Estelle sucked in a deep breath. “AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAH!”

Pine needles showered over him.

“Sorry,” Estelle added, not sounding at all remorseful. “I thought I saw a…scorpion.”

“Heeeeeeeeeeelp!” Nancy screamed enthusiastically, now ten feet higher. “Conleth, save me!”

Her mother let out an equally dramatic shriek, swooning back against her mate’s chest. “She’s going to faint! Somebody catch her!”

“No, Otis!” Diana snatched her son away from the base of the ladder. “The last thing we need is for you to go up there, too.”

Otis wriggled, stretching his arms up. “Want Uncaleth!”

“Uncle Conleth doesn’t need any more distractions right now.” Diana clamped the toddler in her arms. “Are you sure you’re all right up there, Conleth?”

“Fine,” he replied through gritted teeth. He tested his weight on a branch. “Nancy, stay right where you are. Please .”

His pegasus nudged him. Sensing two newcomers, Conleth risked a glance down. Hetta and her dad had returned at last, joining the group gathered at the base of the tree. Thankfully, there was still no sign of Ignatius or his uncle. Conleth did not think Lord Golden’s opinion of either the camp or himself would be improved by discovering him struggling to return a stray child to ground level.

Mr. Rosecomb tilted his hat back, squinting up. “What are y’all doing out here?”

“Nancy’s got spooked, and now she’s stuck in a tree,” Finley explained. “It happens sometimes.”

“Not often ,” Beth said quickly, glancing at Nancy’s parents. “Hardly ever, really. This is practically the first time all summer.”

Hetta’s face was puffy and pink from crying. She sniffed, wiping her nose with a disintegrating paper tissue. “Well, why doesn’t she just climb down?”

“Because she’s up high and she’s too scared ,” Beth said, pitching her voice loud enough to carry all the way across camp. “And she can’t move, so Uncle Conleth has to get her.”

“Which might take a while ,” Estelle added, with equally significant emphasis. “Especially if she keeps getting startled and jumps higher .”

“Ohhhhhhhh,” Hetta said, eyes widening. She raised her voice. “Be careful, Nancy! That branch you’re standing on looks awfully thin. I think it might break at any moment!”

More pine needles pattered onto Conleth’s hair.

“Oh no!” Nancy exclaimed, with a complete lack of any actual alarm. “Now I’m even higher!”

From his elevated position, Conleth saw Beth flash Hetta a thumbs-up. A belated realization hit him.

I am being manipulated.

“Where’s Archie?” he asked.

“Archie?” Beth made an exaggerated show of looking around, despite this being completely unnecessary for a pegasus shifter. “I’m sure he was right here a second ago.”

“Maybe he went to the bathroom,” Finley suggested.

Estelle nodded vigorous agreement. “Yeah, that must be it. He’s definitely in the bathroom. What else would he be doing?”

Well, that’s not at all ominous.

Conleth briefly reached out with his pegasus sense, but he couldn’t spare the concentration to locate Archie amongst all the strangers crowding the camp. He’d just have to trust that whatever the kids had cooked up between them, Paige would be able to deal with it for now.

“Nancy,” he said in an undertone. “I know you’re trying to delay me. And I also know you’re not really scared. But your parents are panicking. Come here right now.”

“Uh oh.” Nancy raised her voice. “He’s on to us, guys!”

“Oops.” Estelle looked at Beth. “Now what?”

Worry flashed across Beth’s face, quickly followed by relief. “It’s all right, he’s nearly here. Nancy! You can stop stalling for time!”

“Who’s nearly—” Conleth started, but Nancy was already in motion. Without the slightest hesitation, she hopped from branch to branch, joining him at the top of the ladder.

“Sorry about that.” Nancy dusted pine needles from her t-shirt. “We can go back down now, if you want.”

Her dad’s jaw dropped. “Did she just…rescue herself?”

Nancy’s mom was staring up in astonishment as well. “But she gets vertigo!”

“Not anymore,” Nancy said cheerfully. “Conleth’s been giving me climbing lessons! Look, I’ll show you!”

Conleth shot out an arm, barely managing to snag her before she launched herself off the branch. “As confident as I am in your skills, I think we’d best take the ladder.”

He went first, keeping a wary eye on Nancy in case she got into difficulty (or, more likely, got bored and opted for a more direct descent). The moment he set foot on the ground, he found himself accosted on all sides.

“Hooray for Conleth!” Estelle flung her arms around his waist. “Group hug, everyone!”

Before Conleth could protest, campers attached themselves to his every limb. As a display of affection, this was very sweet, and also deeply suspicious.

He attempted to extricate his left leg from Rufus’s determined grip. “Why are you all so determined to stop me from going anywhere?”

Finley hung from his right arm. “We’re not doing that.”

Estelle tightened her hold on his torso. “We just looooooooove you.”

“ALL BEAR WITNESS!”

Oh please God, no.

God apparently had other things to do today. Proving that things could always get worse, Ragvald descended on them with all the subtlety of a landslide.

“HEAR MY WORDS!” the wyrm roared. “I CHALLENGE CONLETH TO A TEST OF HONOR!”

“Ragvald!” Too late, Moira sprinted up, out of breath. A small crowd of curious parents and campers straggled behind her like the tail of a comet. “Ragvald, no! ”

“Forgive me, Princess, but I have already issued the challenge,” Ragvald replied. “To call it back now would be a most grievous stain upon my honor. Friend Conleth! How do you answer?”

“He accepts!” Beth declared, which was diametrically opposite to how Conleth had been about to respond. “Of course he accepts. Don’t you, Uncle Conleth?”

He gave his niece a long, level look. “That depends on what Archie is doing right now.”

“Nothing bad, I swear.” Beth lowered her voice, expression painfully earnest. “Don’t worry about Lord Golden seeing Ragvald. Ignatius promised to keep him busy at the other end of camp, and I’ll tell you if they start heading this way. Please , Uncle Conleth. Just go along with it. For me?”

Nancy fixed him with wide, innocent eyes. “For all of us.”

“And try your very, very best to win,” Hetta added. “We can’t explain why, but it’s really important you don’t concede defeat. Please?”

He still had no idea what the kids were trying to achieve, but it clearly meant a lot to the whole pack. He sighed.

I cannot believe I’m doing this.

“Very well,” he said in resignation. “Ragvald, I accept, though on one condition. Swear on your honor that you won’t?—”

“Wait!”

This interruption was far more welcome. Paige hurried up, Archie in tow. Conleth breathed another sigh, this time of relief.

“It’s okay, everyone,” Archie panted. “You can let him go now.”

Conleth shook off campers, hastening to his mate. Putting his back to as much of their increasing audience as he could, he murmured in her ear, “What’s going on? Where’s your mother?”

“She stayed behind in the office. She’s not ready to face a big group of shifters yet.” Her smile was the most beautiful sight he’d ever seen. “But she’s agreed to get help, now that we know the real problem. Everything’s going to be all right.”

Beth looked anxiously from Paige to Archie. “So your mom knows about Conleth?”

“Yeah, I explained that he and Paige are mates,” Archie replied. A somewhat disgruntled expression crossed his face. “Except it turned out Paige had already told her. So I guess you didn’t actually need to keep Conleth busy. Thanks anyway, though.”

So that’s why the kids had been hell-bent on occupying his full attention. “You have my thanks, too. All of you. Even if it wasn’t necessary.”

“That’s okay, it was still fun,” Nancy said cheerfully. She turned to her parents. “Sorry for worrying you, Mom, Dad. I wasn’t really in trouble, honest.”

Her father was still looking somewhat stunned. “When did you get so good at climbing, sweetie?”

“At camp,” Nancy replied. “Please don’t be mad at Conleth. It’s not his fault I didn’t tell him I’m half fainting goat. He’s been helping me practice all summer.”

“But—your heritage!” her mom exclaimed. “You can’t do things like that!”

“Honey.” Nancy’s dad touched his mate’s hand. “I think we’ve just seen that she can .”

“I know that you only worry because you love me,” Nancy said to her parents. “And that you want to keep me safe. But Mom, I didn’t inherit the condition. I just needed to get over my own doubts, and trust both myself and my mountain goat’s instincts.”

Her mom’s gaze drifted up to the tree. Her anxious expression shifted, the corners of her mouth tilting up. “You did go very high. And up a tree rather than a cliff face, too. Not many members of the herd would be able to do that so easily.”

Nancy beamed. “Want to see me climb it again?”

Her dad chuckled, pulling both her and his mate into a bear hug. “Yes. I think we would.”

“Though perhaps not right at this moment,” Conleth interjected hastily.

Paige laughed, sliding an arm around his waist. “We should rejoin the other packs for the rest of the planned activities. Leonie’s probably having kittens over all this disruption to her schedule.”

“Hold, shield-sister!” Ragvald boomed. “First, friend Conleth and I must resolve a matter of honor.”

“It’s okay, Ragvald,” Archie said. “I only asked you to challenge Conleth as a backup plan, in case the other kids couldn’t keep him busy for long enough. You don’t actually have to toga honk him.”

“But I must!” Ragvald declared. He reached out a hand, drawing an alarmingly familiar rope out of nowhere. “The challenge has been issued and accepted! Surely you would not suggest that either one of us would retreat now.”

Conleth took a reflexive step back. “Personally, I’m very happy to retreat.”

“Ragvald,” Moira said, her tone sharpening with regal command. “Stand down. That’s a direct order.”

Ragvald shook his head. “I am sorry, Princess, but some things must override even my oath to you and your noble clan. You may as well ask me to pluck out my own beard. My ancestors would cover their faces in shame if I broke our most solemn and ancient tradition.”

“Would your ancestors accept my unconditional surrender?” Conleth said, without much hope.

From the look Ragvald gave him, he might as well have offered to perform intimate acts on the wyrm’s ancestors. “To concede without even facing me would imply that I am unworthy to be your opponent. Such a grievous insult could not be tolerated. We would have to settle it like men.”

Conleth briefly considered the pros and cons of getting dragged across the ground in front of half the camp’s clients, versus half an hour in a boiling hot sauna with a naked Ragvald.

With a resigned sigh, he picked up the rope. “Fine. Just promise you won’t shift. It’s hard enough concealing your presence when you aren’t the size of a bloody barn.”

“You have my sworn word.” Face splitting in a toothy grin, Ragvald took the opposite end of the rope. “I do not need the strength of my true form to best you. As we both know.”

“I am well aware of that fact.” He set his feet, bracing himself for the inevitable graceless faceplant. At least this time, he only had to endure the humiliation once. “Let’s get this over with. Moira, would you count us down?”

“Wait!”

Paige’s voice snapped like a whip. She strode forward, planting herself firmly in front of him.

“If you’re going to insist that we follow your traditions, Ragvald, then you have to follow ours as well.” She grabbed the rope in both hands. “And in our culture, tug-of-war is a team game.”

“Yeah!” Archie took up position in front of his sister. “Come on, everyone!”

Most of the other kids rushed forward, seizing the rope as well. Only Hetta hung back, gaze darting nervously between the pack and her father.

“Come on, Hetta!” Estelle called. “You might as well join in. It doesn’t matter if you shift, now that we all know your secret.”

“And you shouldn’t be embarrassed about your animal,” Finley added. “Did you know chickens are the closest living relative of Tyrannosaurus Rex? You’re basically a modern-day dinosaur.”

“You see?” Hetta’s dad said to her. “I told you your friends wouldn’t laugh. You don’t see anybody laughing at me , do you?”

Conleth blinked.

Paige stared at Hetta’s dad. “ You’re a chicken shifter?”

“Surely am.” Hetta’s dad puffed out his chest. “And you can bet your sweet petunias that plenty of would-be alphas have found out the hard way that don’t make us pushovers. What we lack in size, we make up in pure cussedness. And not just the roosters, neither. You want to see raw aggression, you just try getting between a hen and her chicks.”

“Dad,” Hetta started. “I?—”

Her father was still in full flow. “Predator comes after a chicken, nine times out of ten, chicken’ll win. And we can see colors you can’t even imagine, and navigate by the sun, and?—”

“Dad!” Hetta interrupted, more loudly. “That’s what I’m trying to tell you. I’m not a chicken shifter.”

Her father pulled up short, brow wrinkling. “But honey, your egg donor was pure human. Got her genes tested and everything, to make sure nothing else would be in the mix. And there’s only chickens roosting in my family tree.”

“That’s just it.” Hetta bit her lip. “I guess I’m…well, it’s easier to just show you.”

Her form shimmered.

And got bigger.

A lot bigger.

“Coooooooooooooooool,” breathed Archie, staring up at the T-Rex.

Nancy’s dad went rigid. Eyes rolling up, he toppled over, stiff as a board.

“Oh dear.” Nancy’s mom hastily caught him before he could hit the ground. She pillowed his head in her lap, fanning him with one hand. “No need to worry, everyone! Just a perfectly normal involuntary reaction. He’ll be fine in a minute or two, once the shock wears off.”

Hetta’s dad was too busy goggling at his daughter to notice anything else. “You’re a…dinosaur?”

The T-Rex looked bashful, or at least as much as was possible for an enormous prehistoric predator with razor-sharp teeth. It shimmered, shrinking back into Hetta’s slight form.

“I didn’t want to tell you because I thought I was a freak, and you’d be ashamed of me.” She cast a shy, sidelong glance at Finley. “But maybe I’m actually a throwback. To an earlier branch of our family tree.”

“You’re a dinosaur ,” her dad repeated, wonderingly. His weathered face split into a delighted grin. “Oh, honey. It wouldn’t matter what kind of shifter you are. You make me proud just by being you. But I’m going to crow about this from the rooftops!”

“Well, Ragvald?” Conleth knew he should be modeling good sportsmanship for the kids, but he couldn’t help smirking at the wyrm. “Still want to go through with this? It seems your unbroken string of victories might be about to come to an end.”

“Yeah!” Archie grinned evilly at Ragvald as well. “Prepare to get totally honked.”

“Hey!” A stocky girl stepped out from the crowd. Conleth recognized her as Flora, one of the campers from Ragvald and Moira’s pack. “If you’re all going to help your counselors, we should get to help ours.”

“No, no, brave hatchling.” Ragvald waved her back. “I must abide by the traditions of my people, even as you outlanders must abide by yours. My honored shield-siblings may call upon their warband as dictated by the customs of their ancestors, but I must face this challenge alone.”

“But it’s not fair!” protested another camper. “Especially if Hetta’s allowed to shift and you aren’t.”

“If anything, we’re at a disadvantage if Hetta shifts,” Estelle countered. She curled her arms in demonstration, hands crooking. “In her other form, her arms are too short to reach the rope.”

Hetta nodded agreement. “And my teeth are too sharp to hold on to it with my mouth. I’d bite through it.”

“Your concern does you credit, young hatchlings, but there is no need for my opponents to bind themselves with oaths as well,” Ragvald said to his campers. He wound the rope around his forearm. “I would not wish them to hold back their full strength. They are only outlanders, after all.”

“Okay, so we’ll put Hetta on the end, behind Conleth,” Beth declared. “Then if she accidentally shifts, she can get out of the way.”

“I think I should go back there too,” Archie said. “I mean, I’ll try not to shift, but I probably will. And I don’t want to make Nancy jump again.”

As the kids sorted themselves along the rope, Paige leaned in close, lowering her voice to the barest whisper. “Are you sure we should let them do this? Even with all of us, Ragvald’s still likely to win.”

“Probably,” he murmured back. “But I trust him to be careful. He may be all too happy to whip me around like a dog with a rabbit, but he’d never risk hurting a child. Are you sure you want to do this? You’re right, this is likely to end up with us all in an inglorious heap.”

“You can’t expect me to stand back and watch my mate struggle.” She kissed his cheek. “If we faceplant in the dirt, at least it will be together.”

He caught her waist, pulling her in for a proper kiss. “I’ll do my best to catch you,” he murmured against her mouth. “Though if you’re on top, I can’t guarantee a soft landing.”

“Conleth! Paaaaaaaige!” Archie hollered from behind them. “Stop being gross and concentrate!”

Grinning, he released his mate. Setting his feet, he gripped the rope. “All right, pack. On the count of three. Together.”

“Three…two…one…” Moira dropped her raised hand. “PULL!”

Paige threw her full weight against the rope as shouts of encouragement filled the air. Behind her, she could feel Conleth straining with every ounce of his shifter strength, giving his utmost for the kids once more, as he always did.

The combined force of the pack seemed to take Ragvald by surprise. The wyrm stumbled, taking a hasty step forward before managing to brace himself.

“We’re winning!” Estelle screamed. “PULL!”

The campers redoubled their efforts, leaning so far back they were practically sitting in each other’s laps. Paige suspected her own merely human strength wasn’t contributing much, but she tightened her grip anyway. Ignoring her protesting muscles, she pulled with all her might.

For a moment, she thought they might actually do it. Ragvald had lost his grin, his whole face tight with concentration. No show-boating now; he clung two-handed to the rope, biceps standing out like boulders.

But try as they might, their team couldn’t gain so much as another inch. The rope might as well have been anchored to a mountain.

Paige felt the moment the kids started to falter. Little by little, the knot in the middle rope started to slide toward Ragvald, despite their team’s best efforts. Teeth gritted, the wyrm edged backward half a step, then another.

“We can…still do it!” Beth panted. “Don’t…give up…now!”

The kids dug in their heels, but it didn’t do any good. The knot crept ever closer to Ragvald’s side. Still, the campers were making the wyrm work for his victory. They clung to the rope, refusing to concede.

It wasn’t fair. Intellectually, Paige knew there was nothing at stake in this competition; no grand prize to be won. Yet the game still meant something to the kids. They’d finally come together as a true pack, facing their fears and helping each other. If there was any justice in the world, they should win. They deserved to win.

But they were going to lose. Estelle, Beth, Hetta, Nancy, Finley, Rufus, her own brother, her own mate —they were all putting their hearts and souls into winning, and it still wasn’t enough.

Protective fury burned in her chest, swelling until it felt like her skin would split. They were going to suffer yet another disappointment, and it wasn’t fair, and she had to do something ? —

She bent over, grabbed the rope, and yanked .

With a startled exclamation, Ragvald lost his footing entirely, falling flat on his face. The sudden lack of tension threw their own team off-balance. The kids went over like bowling pins, scattering in every direction.

Paige was concentrating so hard on dragging Ragvald across the ground that it took her a moment to realize she was the only one still pulling. She stumbled to a halt, the rope dangling from her mouth.

…Wait.

Why was the rope in her mouth?

Paige stood there, blinking in confusion, teeth still clenched on the rope. She’d expected the kids to leap up to celebrate their victory, yet they seemed frozen in place, staring at her.

Conleth broke the stunned silence first. He started to laugh, with his full chest, pounding the ground. As confused murmurs rippled through the watching crowd, he pushed himself up, staggering to her side.

“Well,” he wheezed, bracing a hand against her shoulder. He grinned at her, green eyes alight with pure joy. “That explains everything. ”

Belatedly, Paige spat out the rope. “What does?”

At least, that’s what she’d meant to say.

It came out as: “Graaaaaaw?”