Chapter 34
Thirty-Four
Ayla
We'd been in the Reaper camp a few days, and I'd started to get used to the way they did things here.
Zasen, however, had been on high alert. He'd assigned shifts for guard duty, and everyone who stayed had to take a turn.
The crews were a mixture of the support staff, those who could fight, and dog handlers - and the Reapers had a lot of dog handlers.
I'd been assigned to the early morning shift.
The darkness before the dawn, Rymar called it.
Zasen said it was because my eyes could see better than anyone else's, but Moles wouldn't attack right before the sun rose.
The predators in the forest would be bedding down around then.
In other words, it was the safest of the shifts he could give me, and I wasn't sure how I felt about that.
It also meant going to sleep early enough to be rested when Rymar woke me.
The Reaper chief had assigned everyone from Lorsa to one of the now-empty cabins.
Ours had a loft. A small one. It was enough room for two people to sleep on the main floor, and the other two could fit up there, but since there was always one of us on a protection shift, we had more than enough room, and my bed?
It was the one on the ground floor, simply because Holly couldn't climb the ladder.
I had the blankets pulled close, with one arm out in the cold so I could wrap it around my dog. Too many times, I stirred, thinking I heard something, but eventually I fell into a real sleep - which was when Holly began rumbling.
At first, it was a soft, deep sound I could feel more than hear. Then, she barked! That loud, piercing sound startled me enough to jerk my body up to sitting. The cabin was still dark, but Holly was staring off to the side as if she could see through the wall.
"Hush," I told her, easing myself back down into the bed.
But while she stopped barking, her growl continued. I nudged her, thinking she was just distracted by the strange noises outside, when her mild complaints turned into something else.
Between one breath and the next, Holly jumped to her feet - still on the bed - and began barking like she was going to kill something. This wasn't her being annoyed. This was her guarding!
"Silence!" I ordered.
Her mouth snapped shut, and she turned to look at me. In that pause, I could hear the guys in the loft moving, clearly awake now, but there was something else. In the distance, other dogs were barking. Many of them.
"Shit," Zasen said, making a ruckus like he was scrambling out of bed. "Ayla, get dressed. Something's wrong."
"I'm up!" Kanik said.
"Find Eriska," Zasen told him. "I need her awake, and we need things organized."
I was mostly dressed, so I pulled on a second shirt with longer sleeves, then shoved my feet into my boots. The whole time, Holly was staring off at the wall, cocking her head from side to side. Every so often, she growled again, but as quietly as she could.
"Bows!" Zasen said as he rushed down the stairs.
I was ahead of him there. The quivers for our arrows were by the door, and the unstrung bows were under my bed. Pulling them out, I tossed his over, then twisted mine the way I'd been taught, using my leg to make the bend so I could put the string on.
"Ayla, take my quiver," Kanik said.
"No, you'll need it," Zasen told him before I could agree. "If we need backup, Holly will find you. I'd like that backup to be armed."
"Got it," Kanik agreed, making his own way down the stairs.
And then we headed out, leaving him behind.
Zasen took the lead, knowing this place better than I did, but he was following Holly.
We weren't the only ones moving, either.
From a dozen other cabins, people began to pour out.
Dogs were everywhere, and yet somehow it felt like this was organized rather than chaos.
Then, from the southwest, the pops of guns rang out and someone cried, "Moles!"
Zasen stopped hard and grabbed my arm. "Fuck, we need to watch the back."
"Kanik," I told him, looking down at my dog. "Holly, find Kanik!"
She spun around and ran as fast as she could. Considering we weren't that far, it was almost a waste to send her, but she hit the door to our cabin and scratched down the front with both paws. Kanik shoved it open, saw her, and looked around.
"Kanik!" Zasen yelled. "Get a group to watch our backs! It's Moles!"
"On it!" Kanik said, turning for the building Reapers used as a dining hall. "Holly, get Ayla."
And my dog ran back, weaving between the people still streaming past us.
Bows were in hands. Dogs were at their sides. I saw knives and krael at the ready, and everyone seemed to be running in a different direction, but Zasen didn't take off again. Instead, he stood there, watching, gauging where we were needed most.
Then he pointed to the southwest. "That's the weak spot," he told me - and took off.
Together, we ran. I had my bow in one hand, an arrow in the other, but Zasen was holding his krael.
His bow was slung across his back, ready in case he needed it, but the open space before us felt like it was too big, would take too long to get across.
I expected an army of hunters to rush into it any second.
And the gunshots were beside us now.
Then we were inside the tree line and still moving. Up ahead, I could hear the grunts and cries of battle. Gunshots broke through the stillness of the night, closer than before, but so did the snarls and barks of all the dogs. Then I saw a shadow shifting between the trees.
"Down!" I told Zasen, nocking my arrow and letting it fly the moment he ducked out of my way.
"Where?" he demanded.
I pointed, so he ran that way. More were shifting in the trees. They were just dark shadows, but I could still see them better than the Reapers and most Dragons, so I shot. My arrows flew, making my quiver empty faster than I liked, but if I found a gun, I could use that too.
A pop rang out much too close. Zasen yanked me behind a tree, but Holly was already moving. I hadn't even given her a command, but she darted around us, nearly invisible with her striped coat, and then a man cried out.
"Holly, kill!" I ordered - and the screaming stopped a split-second later. "Disarm!"
"You don't need a gun!" Zasen snarled. "Holly, come!"
"I can see," I reminded him.
So he let go of my arms. "Then lead on."
"Holly, guard. Get the Moles," I said, and headed toward the shifting shadows.
We hit the first group from the side. They were focused on what was before them, so they didn't see Zasen until he'd stung the first man and was grappling with the second.
The third ducked back, so I sent Holly at him.
The fourth and fifth were too close to shoot.
Dropping my bow, I grabbed my own blades, and finally got to lash out the way I'd always wanted.
The curved blade of my weapons cut one man across his arm. The spiked end of the other slammed into the last man's back. He dropped in pain, so I punched at the one I'd wounded first. I'd learned how to defend myself, but I wasn't as good with attacking. It also didn't matter.
Combat was different from my lessons with my men.
Lessons were controlled, slow, and always predictable.
This? It was panicked and wild. The Mole before me tried to grab my blades, not caring if they cut his hands.
He tried to use his gun as a shield, unable to get it up between us, but that was good. That meant I was winning.
Then the Mole gasped, his entire body locking up and crashing to the ground. Behind him, Zasen stood panting, his tail up and stinger out.
"This is why the bow's better," he said, lifting a brow smugly. "Your arrows have venom on them."
"I had him!" I hissed.
"Yeah, and this is real, Ayla."
But behind him, I saw something. Not close, but it made my eyes go wide. Zasen spun, noticing when my attention shifted.
"What?" he asked.
"I think that's Tobias," I said, pointing.
"Here?"
"He's a hunter, Zasen. He should be here!"
"Fuck!" His head whipped from side to side, checking around us. "How can you be sure?"
"There was a man much taller than the ones around him." And I lifted a brow the way he had a moment before. "If not Tobias, I don't know who it would be."
"Show me," he said.
But I had a better idea. "Holly, find Tobias!"
She looked at me, wagged her tail once, then started sniffing around. Not at the ground, but at the air. She turned one way, then the other, seeking a sign for where she should go. While I watched her, Zasen turned, making sure we weren't being encircled.
Around us, the forest was so loud, but none of it was close. Gunshots were heavier to the south. Dogs could be heard in every direction, and I saw many of them darting through the darkness, but that was when Holly finally found something.
She barked once, then took off. "Show!" I called after her, not wanting her to get out of sight.
She slowed, but not by much. I still had to run to have a chance of keeping up, and Zasen was following me. When I glanced back, I saw he'd shifted to his bow, ready for anything, but the line of battle had moved on. We were now behind them, or beside them - I wasn't sure which.
Then Holly barked, letting me know her goal was close. "Find him!" I told her. "Find Tobias!"
Up ahead, I heard, "You! You killed them!" And the words were in Vestrian, not English.
"Ayla! I know Ayla!" Tobias yelled just as I saw him, but he wasn't yelling that at me.
It was as if he hoped it would work to stop the man before him. Tobias's hands were in the air, but the man rushing him? That was a Reaper, and not one I knew. He'd probably never heard my name before - and looked ready to kill.
"Holly, guard Tobias!" I screamed.
Just as Zasen yelled, "No! Stop!"
But Tobias wasn't trying to defend himself. His gun was resting against his chest, his hands were up, his arms bent at the elbows, and a pair of yellow-fletched arrow ends hung from his belt. Time slowed as I realized the Reaper didn't care if this Mole was fighting back. He was already committed.
Holly flew across the ground trying to get there fast enough, but she wouldn't make it.
I could already see that. Behind me, Zasen was moving, but my feet had stalled, knowing I couldn't stop this.
Tobias was already dead. He'd pay for the deaths I hoped he hadn't been a part of.
He was a Mole, and here, that meant he was the enemy.
Then, "No!" And this time, the word was in English.
I saw a smaller man lunge to help Tobias, but I couldn't see his face. I did see his arms shove Tobias out of the way, but the Reaper was already stabbing. The blade hit this new man, sinking into his gut just as Holly reached them.
My dog hit the Reaper with her feet, bouncing off him the way she once had with Kanik, then spun to obey her command. Zasen rushed in behind her, and I did my best to catch up.
"Sylis!" Tobias screamed, ignoring the threat to catch his friend, lowering the other Mole to the ground.
"Not these," Zasen was saying. "They're informants!"
"They're fucking Moles!" the Reaper insisted.
That was when I reached Tobias's side. "Let me see?" I begged.
"Ayla, can you save him?" Tobias begged. "Please? He's my friend. He's been helping!"
"I know," I assured him even as Zasen shoved the Reaper further back.
On the ground, Sylis was clutching at his belly. I could see blood staining his hands, but the dark clothing he wore hid how much he was bleeding. I couldn't gauge the injury that way, I needed to see it, but that was when the Reaper tried to push around Zasen.
"You took my partner!" he roared, and his eyes were locked on Tobias, looking like he was going to kill the one man I needed to survive this mess.