The Priestess and the Thief

At her gesture, Demon tossed his head and snorted smoke, taking a step back from her.

There was a collective gasp from the watching Tenebrian nobles and again Roke’s hands tightened on the rope around her middle. He was all set to yank her down into his arms. If Demon made one more threatening move…

But then Ellilah leaned forward and looked directly into the zorel’s slitted eyes.

“Now, don’t be like that,” she said gently but firmly. “Come here and let me get to know you—we’re going to be friends.”

Demon snorted again but this time he came to her. Ellilah put out her small hand with the half-eaten krisper and he sniffed at it. After a moment, he lipped it delicately from her palm and crunched it between his great jaws.

“That’s more like it. Would you like another?” Ellilah asked him.

Roke watched in disbelief as the huge creature actually nodded its head, as though it understood her! What power did she have over these beasts? Whatever it was, it seemed to come as naturally as breathing to Ellilah.

“All right. Here. But you have to let me pet you if you want it,” she told the big zorel, reaching into the bowl for another fruit.

Demon didn’t appear to have a problem with this deal. He came closer yet and took another krisper from Ellilah’s small hand. As he crunched this one, she stroked his broad forehead and long muzzle, patting between the flaring nostrils which now breathed only mild puffs of benign white smoke.

Roke was amazed all over again at the little priestess’s courage. Despite having seen the huge beast flame a groom to death not thirty minutes before, she showed not a bit of fear as she stroked the huge head and deadly jaws. And Demon, for his part, seemed to enjoy being stroked.

“Now, do you want to tell me what happened just now?” Ellilah inquired, just as though she was talking to a young child who had done something wrong. She pointed to the dead groom, lying at the far end of the training ring. “What happened there?”

Demon hung his huge head and snorted and Roke could have sworn that the massive beast was actually expressing sorrow or guilt for his misdeeds.

“All right now, all right.” Ellilah stroked the huge head again and looked into the zorel’s eyes. “You let your temper get away with you, didn’t you?” she asked gently.

Once more, the huge head nodded up and down.

“And you’re sorry now, aren’t you?”

Another nod and Demon let out a keening wail.

“I know you didn’t mean to.” Ellilah wrapped her arms around the massive muzzle and pulled it close, so that Demon’s head was resting on her knees as she stroked him. “They shouldn’t have poked at you with pain prods but you shouldn’t have lost your temper, either,” she lectured softly. “This is what happens when you let the Fury take over—you do things you’re sorry for and can’t take back.”

Demon keened again and Roke swore that the huge slitted eyes—now golden rather than red—were actually filling with what appeared to be tears of remorse.

“I know you miss him.” Ellilah leaned over to give the huge head a hug. “I know you’re sorry. But don’t cry, baby—I’m here now. And I’m going to take care of you.”

Demon nuzzled her anxiously, nearly knocking her off the fence with the force of his affection. But this time Roke felt no need to yank her down and save her. To his amazement—and the apparent astonishment of the whole Tenebrian Court—she had tamed the monstrous zorel whose head was bigger than her torso, and he was, indeed, acting as quiet as a lambkin, just as Ellilah had predicted.

“Well!” The Crown Prince had come up beside Roke. He was staring in wonder up to where Ellilah was sitting on the top of the fence, still cradling Demon’s huge head. “So she wasn’t lying,” he remarked to Roke, his bulging eyes wide with wonder. “She really is a Zorel Entrancer!”

“The finest one in all of Pok,” Roke said proudly, staring up to Ellilah as well. “And the galaxy, for that matter. Taming and training zorels is in her blood—it’s her purpose in life.”

And as he watched the little priestess with the huge, dangerous zorel, he really felt he must be right. This instant connection Ellilah had with zorels was more than a knack—it was clearly a gift from the Goddess herself. And just as clearly, Ellilah was most in her element when she was using it.

So why was she so determined to return to a life she clearly wasn’t suited to?

This is where she belongs, Roke thought, watching her stroke and cuddle the fearsome Demon. Or not here, exactly, but out on a ranch, training zorels. The Goddess wouldn’t have given her such a gift otherwise.

He just wondered if Ellilah would ever be able to use her gift again after her quest was complete.