Chapter 16
DION
It was dawn and the sun was readying to rise. We’d been running most of the night following the girls’ trail up the mountain, they’d escaped hours earlier, before we realized they’d gone. Their head start wasn’t too big, but in our haste to follow them, we lost their trail.
Roman sniffed the air, his wolf was off the track and among the rocks. We’d back tracked for half an hour now, having made our way back down the mountain. The only thing for it was that the scent must have blown further up the mountain in the morning breeze.
I could feel the frustration rolling off him. If there was one thing Roman held pride in, it was his tracking. They never went further up the mountain, he growled. He gestured with his head to the side. They left the trail here.
Why?
Roman didn’t reply, but we left the trail.
We followed a rock formation that was above us on a jutting peak.
A little jagged point that the mountain had pushed out when it was young, it looked like a wolf’s head.
It had probably been here when the land was green.
When Jebra was known as Mahlwreith and the Wolf’s Paw seal flew the winds.
When foresight was used to tell the prophecies of all, and the heavens were sung down to the Gardens of the Half Moon.
I smiled to myself, despite the damn situation we were in.
The tales Roman had told me when I was young were coming alive.
Even when we’d come out this far in the Warlands, I hadn’t believed him in all the stories.
But now, caught up in my own adventure, I could feel them in my blood. Feel them becoming real.
Which was just as troubling as it was awe inspiring. We’d found Feyra’s letter when looking after her things. It had fallen out one day as we rode and Agatha missed it.
It was then, I realized, that we doubted her. Something in her reaction…Our wolves had both spoken and we’d not listened.
Well we were listening now.
The trail was patchy, uneven and would’ve been hard walking had we been human. But as wolves we traveled easily. Soon a distinctive path came and turned up into a deep cut in the mountain peak. Like a valley, but–
Roman stopped before me, staring at the division in the mountain. His eyes rolled into his skull, showing only the white’s of his eyes. He began frothing at the mouth and his lips curled back in a rictus grin.
Roman!
But he growled, then began speaking.
Sabre’s cleaver clove the mountain in two,
so that my love could travel through.
And when the stars shone down the gap,
Mahlwreith opened up in my lap.
The evil that had lain there long,
Now spread out fingers strong–
A screech rang out into the air!
Then everything went wrong. My hair stood on end and I felt the surge of a powerful wolf shifting. Feyra! Roman went limp and fell to his chest. His eyes roved the interior of his skull as he finished his foresight, but I couldn’t hear him for all the screeching.
Because out of the horizon, and higher up on the mountain, dozens of Merls soared.
Roman! I nuzzled him with my jaw, and nipped his neck. He snapped out of it, his eyes rolling down unnaturally. I’d never seen him gripped by the foresight like this! But he jumped to his feet, his hair standing into the wind and his nose scenting deeply.
Through the gap!
He bounded forward and I followed. I ignored the screeching Merls and only focused on the immense power that I could feel emanating from Feyra. She was pumping out sheer anger and rage. Fear. A feeling of protection. Which meant Agatha was still with her.
The wind picked up in the gap, and soon our sprinting was reduced to slow marching forward. A battle where the winds barreled at us, battered our fur, and whistled in our ears. All I heard was the roaring of thunder, of gods smiting us for having discovered their secret.
But then we broke through the halfway point and were again running, but now with the wind at our backs. It carried us forward, racing towards the rising light. The sun climbing higher into the sky, calling us forward, calling us on.
We broke loose of the gap and emerged into chaos.
Merls were bombing through the sky at a camp below. Even from here I could tell a Lady Skol squadron when I saw one. But what were one hundred men and a cavalry unit doing out here? Whatever they were doing, death was all they were receiving now.
Merls screeched and dived, careened and swooped through the dusty air filling with screams of agony. My ears pained and I had to keep reminding myself to block them.
But the real action was to our right.
I could see Feyra, battling a Merl.
Damn the girl! Does she not know what the thing will do to her? Roman screamed.
We ran for her, parallel to the death below. More Merls dove for the men, and more blood was unleashed upon the dry soils.
Feyra’s surge was pulsing in immense waves. I could feel her within me, her rage driving me crazy. You must stop or you’ll attract more Merls, I screamed desperately.
But she didn’t hear me. All she knew was fighting a death battle with a demon spawn. Roman roared and I growled as we sprinted across the mountain. Our pads slipped on shale rock and we nearly tore out claws getting to her.
Feyra dodged a wing attack and moved in for the kill. She changed her stance again, another last minute swerve, managed to bat a paw across the monster’s face—but it scratched her back with a wingtip. She howled in pain.
Having distracted her long enough, the Merl got itself into a good position, it readied itself to kill her. It wouldn’t bite and paralyze, this was death.
It roared and leapt–
Just as I gained a boulder and launched myself over Agatha.
We collided mid-air. I felt its ribs crack and the lung deflate as one of the bones punctured its chest. The monster screeched as we tumbled over one another, rolling down the hill. We came to a stop on a plateau and I roared while it screeched for back up.
It stood dazed, unable to balance with one broken rib sticking out of its flesh and through its lung. It screeched again for back up, but only a wheezing whine came.
All I had to do was kill it.
Feyra appeared, surprising the Merl. It turned to face her, just as her paw came that same way.
Its neck snapped like dry wood and died as it stood.
Its head had been ripped off and spinal cord fountained up blood as it fell.
She roared up at the heavens. Eyed me with hate and rage, then turned when a second scream broke the air.
We looked up at Agatha and Roman. Roman was fighting off four Merls trying to protect Agatha. We ran for him, bounding up the slippery slope. Our claws couldn’t gain a purchase though, and our haste only slowed us.
A fifth Merl descended, swooping down the mountain face. The four other merls pounced on Roman. He was overcome and driven from Agatha’s side. The fifth took Agatha without stopping. Her scream carried over us and we watched helplessly as she was carried off.
No! Feyra screamed. Nooooo!
She continued roaring and watching as I scrambled on to save Roman. I gained the hill and batted the bodies before me. One’s neck broke like the other before. Another was unfortunate to turn and feel the full length of my claws along its back. It dropped, twitching and unable to move, but not dead.
Roman was able to stand and sink his teeth into the neck of the nearest monster. Biting until he snapped the neck, he then swung it. Stopping with a deafening crack that echoed out into the desert. Its wings went limp.
The last fled, leaving us with the paralyzed Merl.
We stood over the hideous monster. It’s tongue lashing up at us, tasting the air and scenting its last moments. We wouldn’t kill it straight away, we needed answers–
Feyra pushed through and slashed its throat with her claws. Blood began to seep out into the ground and it grinned in dying.
You idiot girl! Roman yelled. You’ve just killed the one thing that knew where your friend was!
Feyra looked at us, rage still rolling through her eyes. We need to kill more!
Look around you, Roman said. They are leaving.
The squadron below were long dead. The horses were fleeing, running out into the desert and becoming prey of something else. Any man that may have survived would die in the coming heat of the days ahead.
But Feyra still only had rage, and betrayal for us. This is your fault!
Ours? I snapped. It was you foolish girls running off in the night. Why the hell did you do that?
I will not be sold off! I will not be a slave to Lady Skol. I will never be confined again. Feyra stood firm, bristling her mane, and daring us to come at her.
You have never been confined to us, Roman said. You could’ve left whenever you wished.
You say that now, Feyra said.
I give you my word, that you’ve never been confined to us. We want, and need, your company more than you know. But you’ve never been confined, I said. I sat, a position of weakness. Trust.
Feyra watched me, unsure of what to make of my words.
We do not have time for this, Roman interjected. Those Merls left for a reason, but that’s not to say they won’t come back. Three werewolves is too tempting of a feast for them. They may be calling more numbers. Let us return to the camp.
No, Feyra said. We must find Agatha.
You just killed the only thing that knew. Roman snarled and bared his teeth. We must return to the camp and figure out the next steps.
We must find Agatha!
Then go! I said. Go after her. But where will you run to?
What will you do when you’ve used up all your energy because you’ve never shifted and are too weak?
The Merls, or anyone, will make light work of you.
It is not us you should fear ‘selling you off,’ it is the rest of the world.
I paced back and forth now, trying to ignore the feeling in my heart.
I didn’t want her to go because I didn’t want to lose her too.
Feyra’s twitching jaw lessened, then calmed as she thought about it. She sat, now unsure. I could feel the doubt rolling across her mind and reeking from her body. We had at last broken through to the thinking part of her.
Why should I even trust you? she asked.
Trust us? It is you we need to trust, Roman said. Fleeing from camp in the middle of the night like silly girls with fool motives. I don’t know what was in your mind or why you left, but–
You were going to sell us off! Betray us to Lady Skol, Feyra cut in. Agatha heard you.
Roman and I looked at each other in confusion.
Then back at Feyra. He shifted back to his human form and walked away, saying nothing to Feyra.
I heard him muttering about children though.
Let children decide childish things. The cuts on him were already healing, readying themselves to join the litany of scars he’d been long dressed with.
I too shifted back to my human form. I stood watching her, waiting to see if she’d shift too, but she didn’t. My body was too confused by what was going on. Sell her? Where had the girl got that notion?
“We would’ve never sold you off,” I said, watching the wolf that stood a head higher than me, even when sitting.
“You’re too important to our quest. To my prophecy…
and I know that you have your own. But more than that–” the words caught in my throat.
Was it time to play my cards? “I couldn’t have sold the woman I am destined to love. ”
I turned and left her. It was up to her now.