“I made preparations to leave for America. Gisli’s allies tried to stop us, and several of my loyal Guards were killed in the process, but we got out of there and took the most loyal Guards with us, as the Lady had counseled. I wish I could’ve fought Gisli and done away with the problem for good, but blanche cannot spill their family’s blood. There are so few of us. It is one of the sacred tenets of the Rule, which you will read in the book. Bound as I am to uphold the Rule, I could not fight my brother. He knew this. He knew I would never challenge him, which is why he could do what he liked to me and mine with no fear. He would not hesitate to kill me and my wife and remaining child as well. But he knew I would never do the same. So we struck an unspoken deal. I would leave and go into exile with my immediate family. I left the Guard Captain in charge of the Clan, but when that Alpha died under mysterious circumstances, my brother took over as steward of the Clan in my stead. Somehow, in the middle of all of this, Gisli managed to finally turn white and the people accepted him as my royal steward. It was a bitter pill to swallow, but I had no choice.” He sent Gina a loving, regretful smile. “I could not let him hurt you, kitten. Or your mother.”
Mitch didn’t speak right away, allowing the father and daughter their moment of silent communication. He mulled over the king’s words and thought he finally understood the man’s motivations. After such a devastating loss, if he had a mate and young, he would do all he could—including giving up everything, as the Tig’Ra had done—to protect them.
The king rubbed one hand over his brow as he sat back, remembering. “It was so long ago. But the Mother of All gave me a vision. A fleeting hope that one day, another white tiger would come. One that wasn’t related to us by blood, who could fairly challenge my brother.” He looked straight into Mitch’s eyes. “I believe you are that tiger.”
“I think you’re right, sire, based on the flashes of insight I gained at the sacred circle.”
“You saw something?” The king leaned forward in his chair, bracing his forearms on the table.
“A charred, black landscape where molten rocks spewed from a glowing fissure. Barren land covered in thick sheets of ice and snow. Ice fog. And two white tigers locked in mortal combat, their blood staining the snow.” Mitch admitted to the strange scenes he’d glimpsed in his mind while the beam of light had hit him in the circle of stones. He hadn’t understood them at the time, but clarity was dawning. “I think I’m one of those tigers, though I haven’t really seen all of what I look like now. Still, the stripe pattern on one of them looked a lot like mine, only bleached out.”#p#分页标题#e#
“A tiger does not change his stripes, even when he goes from d’or to blanche. Only the coloration and appreciation for the magic of the Lady changes,” King Frederick confirmed.
“I never knew tigers could go from gold to white.” This was something outside of his experience, training and education. It was part of the many mysteries surrounding the blanche, and they guarded their secrets well.
“There have only ever been a handful of white tigers in any generation. In order to keep the line going—and in some cases where all the blanche were wiped out—the Lady intervenes, taking a worthy d’or and turning him or her blanche. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen.”
“My mother was born golden, Mitch,” Gina said softly. “She turned white over time, after my parents were married. In fact, I still remember her being golden when I was little.”
“It usually happens like that for those who marry into the line,” the king added. “It’s a gradual thing that affects our mates over years. But the change in you, Mitch, is much more dramatic. Only a handful of times in our recorded history has such a thing occurred, and never by this method. Usually the white shows the first time a youngster shifts, like it did with me…and Fridrik and Gina. Or, in times of trouble, the Lady sometimes appears to a worthy older candidate and turns him or her white in a blinding flash of light, then sends them on a quest or puts them directly on the throne. For you to have changed in this indirect way—through blood—is both more interesting, and somewhat confusing. If you were a consort, I would expect the change to happen in the usual, gradual way, but your sudden change—particularly while Gina and I still live—is troubling.”
“What does it mean?” Mitch was still very much stunned by the turn of events.
Those flashing images he’d seen in the stone circle didn’t give him a great deal of confidence. The two tigers had been evenly matched and both were bloodied. There was no reassurance to be taken from those images that Mitch would prevail if he followed through and challenged Gina’s uncle.