Divine Comedy (31)

Jane

I've known the pain from burning at the stake all those years ago, but this was a different kind of burn unlike anything before. Long after Luka's teeth had torn off my arm, hot needles of pain stabbed through the stump that remained.

The coolness of Alec's hand over my remaining one, and Seth's furry face against my cheek, provided me some comfort. The pale blue hues of dawn began to stretch over the sky. I gritted my teeth and relaxed the clutch over the stump to loop my remaining arm around Alec, who helped me to my feet. Through my narrowed eyes, I saw the Cullens speeding toward us. Their faces bore both relief from the danger they've escaped and distress at the sight of me.

Esme reached out to rest a palm on my cheek. "Oh, Jane, your arm..."

I was touched by her motherly gesture. "Better that it was just me than anyone else getting hurt," I managed to say.

"That horse was so fast," Renesmee said, her eyes widened with awe and fear. "We didn't know he'd catch up to us."

Bella wrapped an arm around her shoulder, and her gaze on us brimmed with gratitude. "Yes, thank goodness the six of you were here to cover our backs."

It had taken me a moment to recognize Renesmee. She had grown so quickly since I last saw her. Now she looked around my age and stood taller than me. As for Bella, I thought I saw shame flicker behind that gratitude. She'd been used to playing the role of protector. The arrival of Luka, a kresnik immune to her powerful gift, had thrown Bella out of her element.

Emmett peered over the cliff. "Where's the horse now? Is he dead?"

"I'm afraid not," Goro said grimly. "He retreated. He swore that he'd be back."

Edward stepped up to shake his hand. "I must join my wife in thanking you all, and to say it's a great honor to meet the man who'd been Carlisle's mentor. Jane's and Alec's, too, of course."

The rest of his family looked as if in agreement.

"Ah, you've heard of me." Goro returned the handshake. "And it's my pleasure to finally meet you, his coven, although I wish it was under better circumstances."

Carlisle approached me to study my wound. Even with delicate, caring hands, his fingers at the edge of my stump made me wince. "Is there anything we can do for this, Goro?"

"Unfortunately I don't think there's anything to do but let the pain subside on its own." Goro rested his hand on my back, and when he addressed me next, his voice softened. "I'm sorry."

I nodded numbly. No amount of venom could heal this kind of wound. Not when burns were involved. I would have to come to terms with living the rest of my life without a right arm. Seth padded away and bent down his neck to retrieve my fallen sword. He grasped the blade with care between his teeth, then padded back and offered it to me hilt first.

"Thank you, Seth," I murmured, and took Kurojaki from him with my remaining hand.

I raised it over my head and slid it back into the sheath, slowly at first, hesitating, then completed the motion with a determined, solid sound of hilt against wood and lacquer. It wasn't the end of the world. I still had my left arm. I could still fight. But I would have to fight differently from what I'd been used to.

Standing beside my brother, I felt the weight of all eyes from the family, as they took in our appearances from head to toe.

Rosalie crossed her arms and nodded almost as if in approval. "You two look like real warriors."

"Seth was right," Edward said. "You look and act like you've changed a lot over the years."

"We saw you taking on Luka." Jasper sounded impressed. "That's some serious teamwork and fighting skill you showed back there."

I grimaced and said wryly, "It still wasn't enough to truly take him down."

"We were trained to fight against our own kind, and the occasional Child of the Moon, not kresnik." Alec said. Continuing to keep me upright, he shot a dismayed glance at me. "I'm not sure if there's even a way to fight someone like Luka."

We fell into a brief silence, the lack of answers threatening to sink us into a pit of despair. Then Goro spoke up. "There might be one: fight fire with fire. Or more precisely, it takes a spirit to defeat a spirit."

"How do you know this?" I asked.

"I don't. Not for certain, anyway. But that's my hunch, and I've found that my hunches are rarely wrong. This is beyond my scope of knowledge, but I know just the person who can help you where I can't." Goro cast his gaze to the sea. "Her name is Tsermaa: a former student of mine and a great warrior in her own right. After training under me, she went on to form a unique style of combat, one that involves fighting with two swords from horseback."

"Two swords..." That seemed to pique Alec's interest.

Seth's ears twitched at the mention of horseback riding.

"She also took on a fervent commitment to the practices of shamanism, last I heard. Out-of-body experiences are...well, not out of the ordinary for her."

That had my attention. My left hand closed into a fist. "She could teach us how to fight the kresnik. Where can we find her?"

"Tsermaa lives quietly as a nomad in Mongolia," Goro replied. "She keeps to herself even more than I do, but I can give you a way to track her down, if you want it."

Alec and I shared a glance. "We do," I said. "If Mongolia is where we need to be in order to get an edge on our foe, then that's where we'll go."

Suddenly Seth let out a string of whines, and ended with a grunt. He looked beseechingly to Edward.

The mind-reader of the Cullens spoke on Seth's behalf. "He says that he wants to go with you two." His gaze flitted over to me. "He wants to learn how to fight with you, Jane."

I frowned. "But we're already fighting together, Seth. Remember how we took down Kurojaki."

Intrigue flickered and dawned in Edward's eyes as he took in Seth's reply. "He says...he says that he and you could go even further, work even closer together. Tsermaa is a vampire who rides and fights from the back of a horse. What about a vampire who can ride and fight from the back of a wolf?"

My eyes widened. I wasn't alone in my reaction. Even Goro stared down at Seth as if the possibility hadn't dared to cross his mind.

Edward went on for Seth. "Luka is in the shape of a horse, isn't he? Horses can be tamed, and they can be broken."

"I see what you're getting at," I murmured. "What better way to learn how to subdue a wild horse than from a horseback rider?"

Goro made a firm nod. "No other nation on earth has a better understanding and more intimate history with horses than Mongolia."

Leah padded up to stand next to Seth.

Edward spoke for her as well. "She says that if he's going, she's going, too."

Seth threw her a questioning glance, and she nipped at his ear in response—a sign of putting down her footpaw and accepting no other option. I didn't need Edward's translation to know that Leah was exercising her protective older sibling rights. Rights that I fully understood and respected.

I looked back to Goro. "That's that, then. Please show all four of us the way to find Tsermaa."

My former mentor pulled out his sword, held it with the hilt facing upward, and fingered at the tuft of hair hanging at the end of it. The hair spanned the length of my index finger. It was black as a starless night. "This is it," he said. "This was my farewell gift from her: hair from the tail of her horse."

It surprised me to get a whiff of a scent from the hair. "Even after all that swimming across the ocean, it still smells?"

Goro cracked a smirk. "Horses are like that. Can't get rid of the smell even if you wanted to." He lifted the tuft of hair to let me, Alec, Seth, and Leah lean in to sniff at it. "Tsermaa travels everywhere with her horse. Follow the scent of her loyal companion, and you'll find her."

On that note, we headed back to Forks. The Cullens led the way home. Alec, Goro, and I took the rear. Missing an arm threw off my center of balance. I couldn't run as fast as I once had, or I'd trip and fall over. Alec stayed close to my side. On the stretch between the Canadian border and Seattle, Seth lowered his belly to the sand to offer me a ride on his back.

I thought that would be a relief for me. Instead that made for an even more uncomfortable experience. Seth's body dipped and heaved as he loped across the sands. Every motion he made threatened to jolt me off his back. I had to keep a tight grip on the fur at the middle of his neck. If I held on as if I had both hands, on the sides of his neck, I'd slam my face into fur with each land of his paws. Worst of all, the lurching motion worsened the pain at my stump.

Alec kept pace with Seth, continuing to watch over me. No doubt he was aware of my discomfort, but I was too proud to admit anything of the sort. He knew that if he showed concern, I'd just get irritated, so he stayed quiet.

By the time we reached the Cullen house, it took every ounce of control I had to keep my legs from shaking as I slid off Seth's back. Riding was a lot harder than it looked.

Seth and Leah parted ways with us to head for La Push, to inform their mother of the recent turn of events.

"What will you do now?" Alec asked Goro.

"I've been thinking on the way here, and I settled for sticking around to help out the Cullens." With his rugged face, as well as his simple clothes and bag of swords slung over his back, Goro looked out of place in this modernly furnished and spotless house. "I keep a stash of extra jinrō fangs and claws back in the cave at Iya Valley. They're not enough to put into proper swords, but just enough to make a few small daggers. We have to prepare for the kresnik coming back. In the mean time, arming the Cullens and teaching them basic bladed weapon techniques is the least I can do."

Jasper, who had overheard, spoke up. "I was hoping that you'd teach us a few tricks."

"Can I learn to fight too, sir?" Renesmee asked, her eyes alight with excitement.

Goro smiled down at her. "Of course you can. Everyone should be armed and ready. It wouldn't sit well with me to leave out anyone."

"Am I hearing talk of learning to fight over here?" Emmett lingered in the living room with us, his broad grin making him look even more excited than Renesmee. He only needed to rub his hands to complete the picture of childlike glee. "I am one hundred percent here for this conversation."

Goro crossed scar-notched arms over his barrel-like chest. "I noticed that only wolf fangs and claws have any real effect on the kresnik. They wear him down and make his power wane, if not leave actual damage on him. They're also the only things that can protect our flesh from his burning touch."

Alec and I nodded in agreement. I had learned that the hard way. The raging pain in my stump had finally dwindled to a dull, throbbing burn.

Goro glanced over at Alec. "Something weighing on your mind?"

My brother nodded. He had looked hesitant before, but at Goro's prompting, he said, "You mentioned that Tsermaa fights with two swords. I would like to fight with two swords as well."

Since I shared a mental link with him, that confession came as no surprise to me. What I didn't know would be Goro's response.

"You just got yourself one. You want to jump into using another already?"

That was meant to be a lighthearted tease, but a sheepish expression fell upon Alec. He stared down at his folded hands over his stomach. "I'm sorry...it's just that...my sister has one arm now, and I want to be doubly sure I can help her and protect her in battle."

"Brother..." I reached out to lay my remaining hand on his shoulder. I sensed guilt rippling out of him like invisible waves. "You don't have to do that. It's not your fault I lost my arm."

"Still, I want to push myself to become a better, stronger warrior. You told us that we're always learning. What if I want to learn how to use two swords?"

Goro grinned. "I like your attitude." He reached behind to rummage through a pocket in his bag, and pulled out a small clothed sack. "We've picked up quite a lot of teeth and claws from Timur, so much so that I could forge a sword and still have enough pieces left for a second one." He handed the sack to Alec. "Take this to Tsermaa. She also knows how to forge jinrō swords. If she agrees to teach you, then she'll make that second sword."

My brother accepted the sack of teeth and claws with a grateful bow.

"Take this with you, too." Goro detached the horse hair from the hilt of his sword, and handed it to me. "Just in case she doesn't believe I sent you." He clapped hands on our shoulders. "May you both come back wiser and stronger, and give my regards to your wolf companions."

The next day, we reunited with Seth and Leah to head for Denali. From there, Garrett let us board his private jet. The swords that Alec and I carried would never let us get past airport security and on a commercial airline. Garrett, however, didn't mind our unusual luggage.

He set a straight course for Ulaanbaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Kate accompanied him as the co-pilot. I thought that she wouldn't be pleased to see me and Alec again. Instead she joined us in the plane cabin and surprised us with a more cordial greeting than expected.

"I heard you two completed training with Goro," she said. "That's quite the achievement."

"Thank you," I said with a small nod.

A wry grin tugged at a corner of her lips. "I once trained under him a long time ago. I never finished it, never got the sword. I stopped at hand-to-hand combat." She shrugged. "But that's all right with me. Hand-to-hand lets me use my gift." She held up a palm that crackled with electricity. "I can't do this while I'm swinging around a sword."

I welcomed Kate's change in attitude toward us. Goro served as a pillar of strength and virtue among our kind, so completing training under him served as a seal of approval that Alec and I could be trusted, I supposed.

Kate returned to her place beside Garrett, and Seth turned away from the window.

"Have you been to Mongolia before, Jane?"

"No, never. It'll be a first time for me as it is for you." I held his hand. "I'm glad your mother let you and Leah come along."

He didn't flinch away from my cold touch. Instead he squeezed my hand back. "It took her some convincing, especially since I just came back from Japan, but Luka is seriously bad news. If we have to go all the way to Mongolia to figure out how to beat him, then that's what we have to do. Mom understands that."

Garrett landed the jet on the outskirts of the capital. We disembarked to fully behold what we'd been seeing through the windows: a great expanse of steppe plains that seemed to stretch on forever past civilization. Alec and I, Seth and Leah said nothing for a few moments as the staggering sight robbed us of words. Before the golden grass and deep blue sky, I felt incredibly small.

Would we be able to find Tsermaa in such a place? I stifled the doubt as I raised the tuft of horsetail to my nose, and breathed in deeply. I lowered it, tipped my chin back, and closed my eyes. I drew in another deep breath. I let the wind tell me what I needed to know.

The scent was faint, but there was a trail, all right.

Garrett and Kate waved at us from the stairway of the jet and wished us well. We waved back and called out thanks. Then Seth took the horsetail from me and waved it above our little huddle.

"Everyone got the scent down? If not, get a good long whiff before we head out."

Alec leaned away from it with a wrinkle of his nose. "Once is enough for me. Horses smell even stronger than wolves."

Leah flashed him a smirk, then with all seriousness she said, "I guess you'll be with me, huh? Try not to fall off."

Behind the cover of an old, unoccupied warehouse, Seth and Leah shifted into their wolf forms, letting me and Alec jump onto their backs. Together we hurtled headlong into the grasslands.

Because Mongolia was such a sparsely populated country—the most sparsely populated, in fact—Seth and Leah didn't have to worry so much about being seen by many people. Cities here were few and far in between, and clearly Tsermaa made her home in the plains between.

The second ride on Seth wasn't much better than the first. I squinted against the wind, which clawed at my hair and loose ends of my clothes. Alec did the same, his eyes nearly squeezed shut as Leah made him soar with her over the field. Our sense of smell led us to a gorge west of Ulaanbaatar, in the course of three hours and countless miles. The scent had grown stronger through our run, and it was freshest around the cliffs. That was encouraging.

But as Seth and Leah slowed to a trot through the gorge, and they lowered their noses to the dirt, the strong scent seemed to take them in circles.

Alec frowned. "Strange. How can that be? The fresh scent hasn't veered off anywhere else. It's all around these rocks."

I shared his confusion. Then a gust of wind blew down from the cliffs, and I expected dust to blow my way, but there was something else, too. Horse musk. My eyes flew wide. "Above us—!"

A great hoofed beast sprang on me and Seth with a roar. Seth yelped and twisted out of the way. I seized at his fur to keep from falling off, and flattening myself against him saved me from getting my head and neck ripped off my shoulders.

Alec and Leah bounded to our side. Seth whirled around with ears pulled back and coat bristling.

It was a massive horse, one that stood several inches taller than the Clearwater siblings in their wolf forms. Muscles rippled along its front leg as it pawed the dirt. I threw a shocked glance at the rocks overhead. Despite its bulk, somehow the horse had been perched on indents along sheer rock, like a mountain goat, before it ambushed us.

And perched on its back, without a saddle or reins, was a Mongol woman clad in a fur-lined tunic. Her hair, like mine, was parted at the middle and pulled back, but unlike mine, it was dark and long. She appeared to be in her late twenties, but that told me nothing of her true age. Her golden eyes glinted as fiercely as the curved swords brandished from each hand. No mistake about it—we found Tsermaa. Or rather, she found us.

"Who are you? What do you want?"

The hostile words out of her mouth took me aback. She didn't speak Mongolian, as I had expected, but clipped, fluent Russian.

Alec glanced at me. "She must think that you and I are from Russia."

Fair assumption to make. "We came from the United States," I said in English. "We come to you in peace."

Tsermaa glared blankly at me, uncomprehending, so I repeated my reply in Russian. I let go of Seth's fur to produce the horse hair from my pocket.

It matched the jet black mane on Tsermaa's horse, though its coat was a striking reddish orange, like rust. At my gesture, Tsermaa leaned back on her saddleless perch. "Goro must have given you the lead. Only he knows where to find me."

I nodded. "My brother and I were his students."

"I noticed your swords. They smell new." Tsermaa tipped her head at us. "Congratulations." Though sincere, that came off more cool and detached than warm and friendly. Wariness stiffened every part of her body, including her voice. "So what do you want? Why did Goro tell you to come see me?"

To reinforce my lack of intent to fight, I dismounted from Seth and spoke on everyone's behalf. "We need your help. A kresnik, a human spirit in the form of a horse, is threatening to destroy our family and friends. We don't know how to fight him, but Goro said that you could teach us."

Tsermaa considered this for a long moment, then she said, "I see." As if they were one seamless entity, she and the horse smoothly turned away. "Come, then." The horse quickened its pace, and Tsermaa flashed a challenging glance over her shoulder. "We don't like to go slow. Try to keep up."

In the blink of an eye, her horse took off from a brisk trot to a full gallop. Leah and Seth charged after it, taking me and Alec along for the headlong run.

That was no ordinary horse. It ran at a speed that smeared the stretch of sky and plains into a blur. Even Leah, the fastest of the wolves in La Push, pumped her legs hard to keep up. Alec shut his eyes and pressed himself against Leah's nape, struggling not to get thrown off in the process. Seth and I followed behind, not going faster mostly out of his attempt to avoid jostling me too hard.

I thought that the plains would never end, but about half an hour later, when a round felt tent loomed in sight, Tsermaa and her horse slowed down. Beside the tent, she slid off with seasoned grace. Alec and I, on the other hand, touched ground on shaky feet. We clung onto Leah and Seth's coats to keep from falling over.

Tsermaa ducked in and out of the tent carrying large squares of cloth. She tossed one over the horse, and to my amazement, the horse turned into a man. His hooves became hands that caught the cloth over his back and pulled it down to wrap it around his waist.

Tsermaa had two pieces of cloth left, and she tossed them over Leah and Seth next. They followed the horse-man's example, shifting back into their human forms so they pulled the cloth over their naked bodies.

"I neglected to make proper introductions," Tsermaa said. "You already know me, but this is Ganbold, my husband." She gestured to the large stocky man beside her. His cheeks were wind-bitten, red, and round as his belly. His horse's mane had become dark hair in long braids.

"You're mated with a shapeshifter..." I murmured in awe. I had never heard of such a thing until now. I told Seth about the relationship between Tsermaa and Ganbold, that they were more than just rider and horse, and he shared my reaction at the revelation. His mouth dropped open at them.

"I...I'm Leah...Clearwater..." Seth's sister managed between heaving pants. The run still left her utterly exhausted. She gawked at Ganbold. "You...you're so damn fast..."

When I translated Leah's introduction for him, a cordial smile perked up his round cheeks. "You are not too shabby yourself, Leah Clearwater." His voice, like Tsermaa's, was rollicking and deep like an ocean current.

He seemed much less threatening, now that we were no longer deemed as enemies.

Seth, who hadn't exerted himself as much, collected his composure and spoke up next. "I'm her younger brother, Seth."

"My name is Jane," I said, "and this is my twin brother, Alec."

"And what possessed you pair of siblings to get acquainted?" Tsermaa's golden eyes darted among us. "It's not often that I see my kind running around with wolves."

I delicately raised my eyebrows at her. "I daresay that it's not often you see us on the back of a horse."

That made Tsermaa chuckle. "True. We do not bother with riding on horses. Ordinary horses, anyway."

"You're a shapeshifter, like me and Leah," Seth said to Ganbold. "We had never met other shapeshifters besides our wolf pack."

Again I translated English into Russian, and Tsermaa grinned. "The world is a big place, and the world feels the biggest in Mongolia."

Still feeling quite small in this far-flung, wild corner of the world, I had to agree.

Seth

The round tent—a yurt, I think it was called?—wasn't the only thing we saw when we had stopped. Not too far from it, I could make out a herd of horses under the dimming sunlight, about thirty or thirty-five total, all as broad and sturdy as Ganbold. They were feeding on grass at their hooves. Some of them craned up their long necks to peer at us.

"They're yours?" I asked Tsermaa.

"Not mine," Jane said on her behalf. "Ganbold's. He doesn't own them, though. They're his family."

"His what?" Leah blurted out.

I did a double take and peered back at the herd, as if launching into a contest to see whose stare was more curious. Now I noticed the glimmer of humanity in their dark eyes, the same as us wolves. Was I looking at brothers, sisters, uncles, and aunts? "Wow," I breathed. "A whole clan of shapeshifting horses." I turned back to Tsermaa. "They don't seem to mind having you around."

"I've been married into the family for three centuries," was her amused reply. Then she beckoned to the tent. "You all look tired. We'll prepare supper for you, then we'll talk."

Leah and Alec were the first to enter, and I trailed after Jane. Wiped out from my run, I almost tripped over the wooden doorframe. The tent inside was more roomy than I had thought. The woodwork over our heads fanned out like the rays of a red, setting sun. There were no beds in sight, which didn't surprise me. Tsermaa was a vampire, and Ganbold, being a horse, probably slept outside standing on locked legs.

"How come Tsermaa speaks Russian?" I asked Jane in a low voice, even though she and Ganbold didn't know English. "I thought she'd be speaking...y'know, Mongolian."

"Russia and Mongolia have had close socio-political ties through the course of history, so for a long time, Russian has been the second most widely-spoken language here. Recently English is becoming more popular, now that the Soviet Union and communism is no longer such a big influence, but Tsermaa doesn't strike me as the kind of person who'd keep up with the trend."

I shook my head with wonder. "You know everything, Jane."

She couldn't help a self-satisfied grin as we settled into a semicircle around the stove. "No, not everything," she said, in her attempt to be modest. "I can't speak Mongolian. I'm willing to learn while we're here, though."

Ganbold worked at the stove to cook mutton and heat milk for himself, me, and Leah, while Tsermaa served cups of warmed marmot blood for herself, Jane, and Alec.

In an awesome flex of teamwork and language skills, the vampire twins made an understandable conversation among all of us possible. They would switch between English and Russian, with Jane translating to and for Tsermaa while Alec did that for Ganbold.

"Now, about why you're here," Tsermaa said after a sip. "You speak of a kresnik. I'm not familiar with that term. Care to explain?"

The four of us took turns recounting in greater detail about Luka's unwanted visits to Forks, and his attempts to kill us and the Cullens.

"He's a shaman, then," Ganbold said with a grunt. "A spirit warrior, a kresnik...we use many words to describe the same thing."

"I'm surprised this is the first you've heard of Luka," I told Tsermaa. "Him being a horse and all."

"I had never come across him or his predecessors in all my seven centuries of living in Mongolia." Her golden gaze briefly traveled up the big center pole supporting the roof. "You say he's drawn to the strength and numbers of our kind, but I keep a low profile and I'm constantly on the move. Furthermore, I've never had an interest in forming a coven. Ganbold and his clan are family enough for me."

"You were interested in training under Goro, though," Alec remarked.

Tsermaa nodded. "I was a soldier during the tailend of the Yuan Dynasty, when the Mongol Empire fell apart. After the death of Kublai Khan, inept heirs clamored to be his successor, and I was caught in the crossfire of their petty squabbling." She made a wry chuckle behind a closed mouth and shut her eyes. "I had dreamed of living the glory days of conquest and epic battles. Becoming an immortal creature felt like I'd been given a second chance. I heard of a great warrior in Japan, so I sought his guidance. Demanded it, rather."

Jane made a knowing smile. "I am all too familiar with what Goro does to big egos. I guess he had put you in your place."

Tsermaa returned the smile. "Indeed he did. He beat the delusions of grandeur out of me. By the time I had finished training, all I wanted was a simple, quiet life, with only the swords on my back and a horse to carry me over the plains. Even after I turned, I had never lost my love for horseback riding. After returning to Mongolia, that love eventually led me to Ganbold. I realized then that there were more people on these plains than I had thought."

I realized that, too. It seemed to me—during my run, at least—that there were more horses than people in Mongolia. At first glance, anyway. What if some of those horses were, in fact, just people who didn't feel like being people? Being human can be crazy complicated. So much stuff to worry about, so many responsibilities. When you're a horse, you don't have to deal with school, a job, or taxes, among other things. You just had to think about where to find enough grass to eat, I guessed. What a sweet, simple life. Maybe Tsermaa and Ganbold had that in common, and that was what had forged their bond.

Jane stared down her cup of blood thoughtfully. "Goro said that you also turned to shamanism after leaving Japan. He said that the out-of-body experience isn't out of the ordinary for you." She looked up at Tsermaa, and her eyes may still look gold, but they turned as hard as flint. "You can do the same thing as Luka, then? You can make your spirit leave your body?"

"Yes, I can. We call it spirit-roaming in these parts." The Mongolian vampire held up a hand. "Before you ask me how, let me ask you four something first. It's important for me to know. Have you ever believed in the very idea of a spirit, a soul?"

I was about to let my big mouth run, then I checked myself and looked to Leah for her opinion.

After a moment, she said, "I think it'll be okay this time."

It was our duty to protect the secrets of our tribe, but with our loved ones in dire peril, I thought we could make an exception. I was glad my sister agreed.

So I told Tsermaa, "We're from the Quileute tribe, and we are descendants of a chief who made a special pact with the wolf. While the chief left his body, it was stolen by his enemies, so his spirit couldn't return to it. The wolf let him borrow its body. Stories of spirit warriors have been passed down our families even to this day."

"That doesn't sound too different from the origin of my own clan," Ganbold remarked. "My ancestor was a wise, blind shaman. In his youth, he became gravely ill and was left for dead. The crows pecked out his eyes to free his spirit, but he entered the afterlife before his time. To attempt compensating for the lost eyes, the sky god let him choose one gift and granted him return to the land of the living. My ancestor chose the power to change into a horse." He rested a hand on his heart. "I believe that story to be true, and that his power runs in my blood."

"That's an amazing story," I said. I ate up folklore and myths and magical tales like candy.

Tsermaa looked pleased as she glanced between me and Leah. "Your tribe has done well to preserve knowledge of the power you possess."

"But we can't make our spirits roam like Taha Aki could," Leah said with dismay. "If that's a tradition our tribe once had, it's lost to us now."

"Not completely," Tsermaa assured her. "Ganbold and I can teach you and your brother to dig deeper into yourselves, and show you how to tap into that power sleeping within." She looked next to Jane and Alec for their response to her question.

The twins looked reluctant to answer. Finally, Jane spoke up. "To be honest, I had never believed in the idea," she said softly. "Especially after becoming immortal. I've believed for hundreds of years that we are soulless creatures damned to hell—if hell even exists."

Alec picked up where his sister left off. "Of course, we were proven wrong when we saw Luka for ourselves, and after Goro told us about you, Tsermaa. But..." He furrowed his brow. "We're still coming to terms with the truth of it all. It's quite a lot to take in."

"I see," Tsermaa said. She brought fingers to her chin, just under thinned lips, as she studied Jane and Alec. "You most likely don't want to hear this, but you two will find spirit-roaming extremely difficult to learn, if not impossible."

"Of course it'll be," Jane muttered sullenly in English, leaving that aside untranslated.

"Your lack of belief for so long is the reason why."

Alec frowned. "But you, one of our kind, can spirit-roam."

"That's because I'm from a people that has long believed in spirits...their presence, their power, their movements, our ability to communicate with them and cross their world." Tsermaa shook her head. "That belief hasn't left me when I turned. Faith buries its roots deeper than the line between human and vampire."

"Will you still teach us?" Jane asked. I thought I heard a note of plea in her voice, and a deep-seated fear at hearing "no."

Tsermaa paused during the last sip at her cup, then she said, "Oh, I'll teach you, all right. The question lies in whether you are willing to be taught."

"We are." Jane's hardened voice rang through the hollow of the tent, then she tried to ease up. "I mean, we have to be," she went on softly. "Luka is bent on destroying our kind. We can't let him. If the only way to defeat him is fighting his spirit with ours, then that's what we'll try to do."

"We thought it best if Jane and I work together like you two," I told Tsermaa and Ganbold. "Like a horse and a rider."

Alec sounded almost demure as he spoke up. "I would also like to learn how to fight with two swords as you do, Tsermaa."

The Mongolian couple exchanged an amused glance.

"Spirit-roaming, horseback riding, dual wielding swordsmanship..."

"You ask much of us," Ganbold said.

"But that makes things interesting," Tsermaa said. "Our quiet little nomadic life was bound to be shaken up eventually. Very well, training starts first thing in the morning." She and Ganbold took away our empty cups and bowls. "You young wolves better get some rest."

Leah looked over her shoulder. "But there are no beds."

Ganbold laughed. "Yes, about that..." He ushered me and Leah outside. "You two wait out here for a bit. I'll set up beds in the ger for you."

Oh. Not a yurt. So that was what the tent was called.

"Feel free to say hello to the herd," he said cheerfully. "They don't bite."

Alec and Leah walked over to the horses, drawn by curiosity. I was going to join them when I noticed Jane loitering beside the tent, fixing a downcast stare at her boots and with her left hand shoved in her pocket.

I jogged over to her. "Hey, babe, you okay?"

"No, I'm not." She pulled her only hand out of her pocket to hold her temple. She screwed her eyes shut, as if in pain. "I don't know if I can do this. I want to, but I don't know if I have what it takes."

I gripped her shoulders and leaned in to kiss her scarred forehead, trying to save her from spinning more into that whirlpool of anxiety. "Shh, it'll be all right," I said softly. "You heard Tsermaa...you've got to believe."

"I...I'll try, but..."

I took her hand into both of mine and lowered it from her head. "If you can't believe in yourself, believe in me who believes in you."

Jane met my eyes, and she managed a tiny smile. "That's...that's very touching, Seth. Thank you."

Actually, I got that line from Gurren Lagann, an over-the-top anime about robots the size of galaxies, but I wasn't gonna ruin the mood by telling Jane.

She stood up on her tiptoes to press a kiss to my mouth. "Don't let my worries keep you up tonight. I think Ganbold's done with the beds. Go to sleep now."

"Will do. We got a lot on our plate tomorrow!" I gave her a final hug, then ducked inside the tent to leave Jane gazing up at the night sky. I'd admire it with her, if I could, but I was real tired from the run earlier today.

Here in these plains, with no city lights in sight, all the stars could shine in their proper brilliance.

The paradise arc is in Mongolia! Thanks for following me to this last stretch.

I thought it'd be fun and interesting to introduce other kinds of shapeshifters besides the wolves. It's true that there are more horses than people in Mongolia. The country is that sparsely populated. But what if some of those horses are secretly people?