Chapter 26
DION
The sun was boiling. We’d been walking for hours without stopping. I didn’t know why Roman was pushing me so hard. Why he’d been so quiet these last few days? I’d just shifted for the first time, shouldn’t it have been a good thing?
I was fifteen, I suppose not too late. I couldn’t remember anything of it, really. But something had scared Roman. Scared him enough that we left the village immediately and began walking.
After so long without food, I was beginning to feel weak.
“Roman,” I said. “Can we stop? I need to rest. I feel–”
“The waterhole is just ahead,” he replied, without looking at me. “Rest there.”
‘Just ahead’ turned out to be another two hours, but when we finally got to the high-sided bowl canyon and could stop, I understood. “You’ve brought me out here as protection,” I said.
“Exactly,” he replied. “I didn’t have any herbs on me to drug you, and a good walk is the next best thing.”
“But why?” I asked.
He shook his head, watching the walls. He opened his mouth a few times and then never spoke. Eventually he pointed to the pool. “Go and swim out to the center of the spring. See if you can see how deep it is.”
He said no more, only waited for me to obey.
Confused, I rose and took off my robe and ran and jumped in.
The water was glorious. It was cold and refreshing.
The spring must’ve come up from the depths of the earth to be this fresh.
I swam out to the center where he’d said. When I turned around, he was gone.
“Roman?” I called, panic rising in my chest. “Roman!” My wolf stood in readiness.
“Look down into the water,” he called. He was up on a ledge.
How had he got up there? When had he climbed?
I looked below me; it was darkness. “What?” I called, looking back up. “I don’t understand.”
“Take a breath and look into the water. Can you see the bottom?”
“But why–”
“Just do it!” he yelled.
My body was already tired, incredibly sore from the shifting and walking, now I had to swim and play games? I held my breath however and then let myself go underwater. I looked to the darkness.
Can you see the bottom? reverberated Roman’s words. It was his wolf sense.
I stared at the darkness. The blue descending into black, the darkness stretching into infinity. I couldn’t see–
Focus! echoed his voice.
I kept looking, straining. My lungs were beginning to tickle with emptiness. I needed to breathe. I needed oxygen. Panic was starting to rise. My wolf was getting nervous, it would shift without my permission. I became afraid.
Focus!
The black became darker. The darkness absolute. I couldn’t see. I couldn’t–
Focus!
I squeezed my eyes shut. I tried to ignore the panic like Roman had taught me.
I tried to open myself up to my true senses, my wolf senses.
But the water was too overwhelming. The pressure of it.
The weight pulling my body down. My muscles were screaming for oxygen now.
My lungs were about to explode. I needed air. My wolf needed air. My wolf needed–
Look!
I opened my eyes and saw the bottom. Through the darkness, through the infinite black and shapeless sides. I saw the seal of the wolf’s paw on the bottom. The seal of the Half-Moon pack.
I watched the men gathered and leashed in the cages.
My blood was boiling. I held the talisman of the Half-Moon that Roman had given me all those years ago in my hands.
He’d given it to me when I emerged from the water.
It had been passed down throughout the ages, always ready for whoever would become the wearer.
But none had been worthy of it until me. Until I saw the seal at the bottom of the pool. Until I saw the seal that King Elex had placed there before his death, knowing that the wolf that would have the ability to see it would be the one to bring down Lady Skol.
Roman said that Queen Diora’s locket had been lost to the ages as well.
It provided an extra healing to the wearer, but it only worked on female wolves.
I wished that Feyra had been the one to hold it, it was the only thing I could think that might help her from my nightmares. But wishing was pointless now.
I looked at my talisman of King Elex. Roman had asked me to keep it hidden until after his passing. It had struck me as odd, seeing as I’d just swam into a lake and won the right to wear it, but then I hadn’t known about his foresight. He must’ve already known what his end would be then.
I put it on. I felt the pull of the full moon strengthen. It was as if it shone purely in my veins. A shiver ran through me and I wanted to do nothing more than shift into the biggest wolf I’d ever been.
It was time to save the men.
The area the men had been caged in was like an animal pen. Thousands of them were being kept prisoner by a platform of four Siren Singers. It was heartbreaking. Four monsters were all it took to contain us. I growled.
But not for long.
By now Zani would be singing her anti-melody, and Feyra would be taking Agatha hostage. Then, once we had our army we could storm Lassig. I just had to kill the Singers.
There were merls perched everywhere. On each corner and halfway down every line.
All up, there must’ve been one hundred of them.
I just had to get to the singers quickly, I’d need all the help I could get once they were gone.
If not, my death would be a spectacle for thousands of men that could only watch.
The clouds parted and the moon came out. The talisman began to hum. I felt my body vibrate. What was this thing?
I snuck further along the trail directly across from the cages. I was searching for the straightest track down to the platform. All I had to do was sprint down and kill four Siren Singers.
Easy.
I closed my eyes and thought of Feyra. I thought of her as she’d been at the Pools, when we’d made love.
I thought of her laughing and of the months we’d spent together.
I didn’t think of the dream I’d been having.
Over and over. The dream of her death. Of her lying pale and bloody, the great shadow looming. And the man that knelt over her.
I thought of her and remembered her words.
I love you.
I shifted.
Moonlight flooded my body instantly. My clothes tore to shreds and I hulked up into an enormous wolf. My fur shone like diamonds and a streak of gold ran down my chest. I reflected pure moonlight and didn’t waste any time.
I bounded forward. Leaping the outer fence in one move and snapping both the necks of the merls as I flew by.
I continued on, bounding down the dusty plain.
I slashed at the locks of the cages as I ran.
The men began to turn and call out, to shout and cry for help.
Their cries pushed me on and I took their power in.
Some cheered and others cried out in horror at the wolf sprinting among them.
The merls turned too slowly, the blur that was my wolf running past undisturbed.
The Siren Singers had faltered and were looking around for the disturbance.
The merls were screeching into the night and the camps of soldiers of Lady Skol behind were awakening.
Flames were rising, torches lighting, excitement was building.
I bounded for the platform, the Siren Singers saw me and renewed their singing. They sang louder, stronger. I believed in the anti-melody and ran on. They faltered again at the enormous wolf coming at them. The talisman vibrated against my throat, roared in my ears, it blocked out any disturbance.
With the strength of a thousand bound prisoners, the blood of all my ancestral shifters, and every wolf in the land, I leaped for the platform and flew through the air at the Singers.
It was pandemonium. They weren’t quick enough.
I was too strong. I snapped the neck of one Siren Singer, ripped out the throat of another.
I broke the back of a third as I kicked out with my hindlegs.
It fell awkwardly off the platform. And as the fourth turned to flee, I pushed it down, digging both of my claws into its throat and tore it in half.
Then merls descended on me and all I knew was pain.
I screamed and bucked, swiping and batting at every creature that was near me. I’d killed every singer, but now it seemed I would get killed by the merls. But thousands of wolf cries went up.
The men shifted!
The merls freaked out. Some flew immediately, and the others who had hesitated were slain.
The Siren Singer that had fallen on the ground was torn to shreds.
Thousands of hulking wolves were breaking their cages, tearing the merls to shreds, and any of Lady Skol’s guards that had come were killed instantly.
It was a bloodbath.
But I was still pinned.
Ten merls held me down and bit my flesh away. It hurt more than anything I’d ever experienced. I was going to die. I knew it.
This was my end.
Then one merl lost its head.
The next was ripped in two.
Suddenly I was surrounded by wolves. Firepaws.
Brother! The wolf of Locke came to me and allowed me to stand.
I got onto my pads and howled into the moon. The others joined. The talisman hummed louder and their howls became stronger. Each wolf became bigger in my vicinity. Their muscles bulged and claws sharpened. I was double the size of every wolf around me, and the Firepaws were big wolves already.
Who are you, friend? Where have you come from? Locke asked.
He wears the symbol of the Half-Moon pack! said one of the wolves. He came from the shadows.
I am the son of Roman, nephew of Marcus of Whiteclaw. I am the heir to King Elex of Malwreith. I am the killer of Lady Skol!
A shiver passed through Locke and the surrounding wolves. I heard murmurs across every pack’s wolf sense. I could hear the tones of every pack I knew, every leader that had ever crossed the gates of Moondaj. All except one.
Where is Marcus of Whiteclaw?
Locke bowed. Every wolf did.
The merls had gone. The men had fled. A trail of lights making for Lassig showed the bravery of Lady Skol’s finest.
But every man in the cages, thousands of werewolves transformed and glowing in the moonlight, all bowed down towards the platform we stood on.
But none answered.
Where is Marcus? I seethed.
Locke stood, looking me in the eyes. He is dead. When Lady Skol moved out to the Warlands, it was only the Whiteclaw pack here. They were slaughtered. None survived.
He bowed again.
I howled into the night. I drew in the power of the moon and pulled as much down as I could. I howled until my lungs were sore and my throat raw. My wolf kept growing, increasing in power and ferocity.
Then I looked upon every wolf waiting for me, watching me.
There are no more packs or clans. There are no more wolves of the Warlands. There is only the pack of the Half-Moon. The Army of the Jebra. We are the ghosts in the night that will bring down Lady Skol. We are the wolves to leave the desert! Tonight is the last night that you are illegal!
A thousand cries went up in response.
I jumped down from the platform and began running after the lights headed for Lassig.
Thousands of paws ran beside me and behind me.
We were the sound of boiling thunder, of heart attack inducing fear, of tearing claws and unforgiving mercy.
Anyone that had ever helped Lady Skol was going to die. For tonight was the night of death.
And I was going to kill her.