by D. Brumbley
Lea asked for a numbers update every morning after the last count from the new arrivals. Not everyone was admitted as a guard or a fighter, but those who could prove that they were worthy fighters were accepted to the Unified forces. If they wanted to risk their life, then that was their decision. The Guards were chosen in a process that was a little more involved. “As of this morning’s count, we have three thousand fifty-two fighters. And five hundred seventy-three Guards. Without counting us.”
It was almost four times what they’d had when they went against the Council in Geneva months before, and the weight of it had been settling on Nick more and more as the days went on. He wasn’t fighting just for them anymore. He was fighting to change the order of things altogether. If he had felt inadequate before, he felt four times as inadequate now, but he couldn’t let that show. “Will all those who’ve submitted themselves as fighters actually fight when it comes time?” He had his doubts about many of the newcomers, some of whom seemed to have come just for a place to find a lot of wolves in one place and to party accordingly.
“Most will, I believe. Those who won’t will die in the course of a battle they shouldn’t have signed up for.” She deadpanned with a shrug.
And it will be my fault. Because I’m the one who called them out to fight. Nick thought to himself without saying anything out loud as the shadow of his thought went across his face. “Well enough. I’ll see you both at the meeting this afternoon. And I recommend not making any plans for next week.”
Lea smirked. “Not even a date? You know how hard it is for me to get one of those.”
Nick returned the smile. “I know a Fireborn Alpha that’s been sniffing around if you’re in the mood to get charred a bit.”
She wrinkled her nose as she looked over at Balthazar. “I’m not that desperate.”
“See to it you never get that desperate. You may consider that an order.”
Lea nodded and walked off with the rest of the closest guards. They would stay nearby, but they always gave him his space.
* * * * *
Eventually everyone started to spill in, all the Princes and Princesses of the New Council, so they were tentatively called until they decided what they wanted to be. The Earthborn were all led by Osvald and his mate, though it had been a bit of a fight to get that way. There were other Earthborn packs that had arrived, but their Alphas weren’t exactly excited about being under the command of someone else. They had accepted it, though, partially because Osvald had an overwhelmingly larger pack behind him and partially because they felt that once the current Council was destroyed and removed, they would still be greater leaders than they had been before.
There was a significant showing of Oceanborn, under Alpha Reston and his mate Marina. They kept away from the compound most of the time, but they were some of the most loyal and surprisingly good fighters. There weren’t many of them, not like the Stoneborn and the Earthborn, but they were a force to be reckoned with. Their pack, and the ones that they had convinced to follow them into Nick’s plan, had been officially snubbed by Coren because of bad blood and feuds. They were more than eager to get in and destroy him and his hold over the world.
Balthazar and Veronica sat side by side in their black chairs, fires burning in what looked like cup-holders on the arms of their chairs, their fingers dancing idly through the flames as they waited for everyone to arrive, though they weren’t speaking to each other. Sedovin and his mate sat beside Osvald looking thoroughly amused with themselves, as always, but Nick had learned that Sedovin’s flippancy and confidence were due to enduring faith in his people and a long history of having ruled them in prosperity and peace. Even so, they were just as excited for a fight as the rest. Kit was the only Alpha who sat alone, but she didn’t seem to mind in the slightest. Beside her sat the Forestborn Alpha, Mitch, who was one of the bigger scandals of the current council, because he was actually Turned. Even so, he led a fiercely loyal pack and was more cunning than most of those gathered, and so his power and strength among his own people were unquestioned. His mate Beatrice was an exceptionally old and pureblooded wolf, and any eyes that tried to look down on Mitch quickly saw hers glaring back at them.
Nick was the last to arrive, as always, but the Court fell silent as he took his place on his throne, looking around at all of them with a serious smile on his face. “Good afternoon, my lords.” The title got a snicker from a few people, but for the most part, it was accepted without comment. “Before we begin today, I thought it would be best, considering what we intend to start with this session, if we were complete. We have two friends I would like all of you to meet.” He motioned to the far end of the Court where it led down to a path that went to the fence nearby, and the crowd parted to let Lea and William through, escorting Orlando and Candra between them.
With the exception of a stolen glance through the fences, no one had ever seen the two coming before them in human form. Every time they went out of their house it was in the dead of night or as wolves, so very few, if any, even knew if they were real or not.
Candra held tightly to Orlando’s arm as they walked, especially since it was the middle of the afternoon and the sun was beating down overhead, but she looked just shy otherwise. Every ounce of her power was pouring into Orlando. There were sparks and sometimes even a running current that ran up and down their joined hands and arms as if they needed to further prove their power. Even in the daylight, Candra had a glow about her, and as they walked through the people, the wolves that she got closest to could feel her power radiating from her. They even benefited from it, since all it took was a deep breath of her presence to feel like they’d just gotten a shot of morning espresso.
Zara watched them carefully as she stood behind Nick. She did not filter her thoughts as she probably should have, and he caught a glimpse of her continued jealousy of Aura, and of Nick’s remaining feelings for the girl he once thought he should have been with. Whenever Zara saw Candra and Orlando together, she felt happier, not only because their bond was so strong but because it was another way that Aura had been hurt.
As he felt her happiness over Aura’s hurt, though, she could feel Nick’s thoughts darken in anger towards her, but he kept his composure as Orlando and Candra got up onto the platform itself. “I believe you all know them.” He went up to stand beside Orlando, before he went around the circle, introducing everyone in turn.
As Orlando looked around at everyone present, nodding and greeting them one by one, he felt like he was a wolf in a zoo. He wanted to help them fight against the Council that had imprisoned Aura and had kept Candra locked in a stone cell for almost twenty years, but the friends Nick had made in the process all gave him the shivers, with a few exceptions. Balthazar and Veronica he expected from Fireborn, and Reston and Marina seemed kind enough. Osvald and Sedovin and their mates just looked curious about him and Candra, but they had been around longer than the others, and so Orlando disregarded their intense looks. Mitch gave him the creeps, as did Kit. Nick, at least, he knew, and trusted, even though he still reserved a moment for a brief snarl at Zara standing behind his throne as he squeezed Candra’s hand tightly.
“It’s an honor to meet all of you. As it will be to destroy the Council beside you as well.” Orlando’s often easy smile came with a little more difficulty, since he knew they all considered him basically their secret weapon. Candra was just the ammunition.
Candra nodded and looked out at all of them once before she dropped her gaze to the ground. “It is an honor.” She wanted to say that it was an honor to serve them, but Orlando’s words rang in her memories. Candra was not a slave, she was her own wolf. She wasn’t there to serve anyone, but to fight for herself and whoever she deemed worthy.
“So,” Kit said quickly to end the awkward silence and to move past the young Lightborn who she was still shocked even existed. She would have fought for Nick’s cause even without the Lightborn and the Shadowborn. “Are we here to talk strategy?”
Orla
ndo took that as his cue and moved with Candra off the main part of the platform to a place behind Nick’s throne away from the others, still with Lea and William nearby. When they got there, he turned so that the sun was at his back and Candra was in his shadow, though he still had to hold her hand tightly and try not to let loose too much of his own power, thereby frying everyone around them, metal superconductors as they all were.
“We’re here to talk about victory by way of strategy, yes.” Sedovin said, ever the one to yank attention for himself whenever he could get it with a single flashy grin. “But I expect what we’ll actually hear is more talk of how we should all march directly on Geneva and burn the place to the ground, right, Prince Hothead?”
Balthazar suggested the approach before, but didn’t rise to the insult. “Losing Geneva altogether would send a clear message to every wolf in the world that the Council is through and broken. Including those wolves that still might fight for them elsewhere.”
Zara supported the decision to march on Geneva wholeheartedly, and Nick could feel it since she also believed that taking Geneva from the Council would prove the weakness of the old regime, but Nick wasn’t making a decision alone anymore. There were leaders from every element, and everyone needed to have their say.
Surprisingly, it was Veronica who spoke up next. “They’ll be expecting that we just show up en masse. Because they think us simple-minded enough to do it that way. Brute force.” She looked over at the Earthborn leaders, her eyes drifting across Sedovin and his mate as well before she continued. “While such force is necessary, obviously, they have that too. They have more of it, actually, from what my mother tells me.” That caused murmurs to ripple through the crowd, since no one really knew what that meant. “She’s a personal whore to Gregor Karalis, the Fireborn Councilor. He killed my father and took her so that even my father’s flames couldn’t be at peace.” She was putting out a lot of personal information, but everyone had their reasons for fighting against the old Council.
Nick hadn’t known that, but many things about Veronica made more sense with that revelation. To break the awkward silence that followed, Mitch spoke up, his legs crossed one over the other. His throne seemed to grow and change with every passing moment as the vines wrapped themselves around the wood and around his arms. He didn’t make eye contact with any of the other princes, and it appeared he was talking down to all of them because of it. “Lady Veronica is right. They want us to make things simpler for them. To put all our force in one place, away from the stronghold our new Ironborn friends have provided for us here. We need to bleed them. Weaken them. Make them fear us instead of looking down on us like the pests they consider us to be.”
Veronica sighed and avoided looking at her mate, since she didn’t know if he would be angry, amused or puzzled at the fact that his trophy mate had actually spoken up. “All of them have divided to protect their homelands. They’re waiting for us to move.”
Kit nodded after that statement, since she had been given the same information, but from one of the actual Council members herself. She didn’t want to reveal her close friend, so she kept that information private. “It’s true. They’re waiting for us to march so that they can trap us by coming at us from all sides.”
Zara knew that Teresa was a leak, but it wasn’t like the Council had given Teresa much information anyway. Not for a long time. How did these leaders know so much? Who else was giving them information? Zara touched the back of Nick’s chair very lightly with her fingertips. We don’t have a big enough force to split up. Not yet, anyway.
“If the Council has decided to split their forces, then so much the worse for them.” Nick finally spoke up, giving his own two cents on the matter.
Reston perked up at that. “You think we should attack them in their own homes?”
“I think they are a great deal more vulnerable alone than they are together. Just as we are all stronger together than alone.” Nick looked around at all the gathered faces one at a time. “Alone, we’re strong enough to survive, but that’s about all. We have here,” Nick gestured around the court, nodding especially at Orlando, Candra and Zara behind him, “gathered around us, a representative from every element. I can think of no other time in all of recorded history that such a thing has occurred, and certainly not under such peaceful circumstances. The Council’s combined forces have been their key to conquest for a long time, and ours, in that way at least, will be no different.”
Marina twirled her fingers around in her glass of water for a moment longer before she decided to join the conversation. “But even if we destroy one of them at their home, the rest of them will converge on us before we could move on to the next.”
“Not if we move fast enough.” Mitch said, still without making eye contact. “Or if we give them reason to think we’re going to attack, say, the Fireborn stronghold at Santorini, but then go after their Forestborn holdings in Germany instead. That would give us the time we need to do our work and then be gone by the time they arrive to see the smoke we leave behind.” The mere fact that he, a Forestborn Alpha, was talking about burning down a forest was a strong testament to his utter lack of constraint or inhibition.
Sedovin’s mate actually spoke up next, since surprisingly, both the Earthborn and the Stoneborn had been quiet for most of the conversation. “What if they have a plan for this as well?”
“I’m sure the Council has lots of plans.” Nick interjected. “Their homes will have their own defenses, their own standing armies. We’ll take them one by one until the rest of the Council understands they’re finished. Then whatever plans they have are irrelevant.”
They all considered quietly before Kit nodded in agreement. “All who agree to move on them individually?”
Mitch, Reston, and Nick stood with her, all of them looking at Balthazar, Osvald and Sedovin. The four of them were enough to make a majority, but Osvald stood up at their look, even if he didn’t look particularly happy about it. “I’m not going to be the one to break up this bunch before we even get started. I just hope this is the best option.”
Sedovin stood up afterwards, shrugging at Balthazar. “Sorry, Lord Hothead. Looks like we’re doing this brick by brick.”
Balthazar didn’t stand up for a long while as he looked up at the other six Alphas, but with a final look at his mate, he finally did stand. “We need to hit their strongest holding first. That, at least, they will not expect.”
“Agreed.” Nick said as he sighed, relieved that they were all in accord on the general strategy, even though he knew the rest of the day would still be spent arguing.
It was an interesting afternoon spent talking about how to organize all the fighters, how to accommodate more people coming in, and what to do once they all marched, as well as who to leave behind to protect the heart of the New Council. Candra was quiet the entire time, sometimes almost trembling when a disagreement would escalate, but there was never any real violence. Eventually, when the items brought up for discussion were all more or less decided upon by majority vote, Osvald’s mate looked over to where Candra and Orlando sat. “What about them?”
“What do you think?” Orlando said with confrontation and confidence in his voice. Every member of the council looked at him in shock at his comeback, and Sedovin actually laughed. Orlando quieted a little at the hushed reaction. “We’re here to fight the same as you are. And when I let loose on whoever we’re going up against first, trust me, I’ll have their undivided attention.” He looked at Mitch and Sedovin in particular. “Leaving those of you who prefer to kill our enemies by stabbing them in the back ample opportunity to do so, yes?”
Beatrice growled loudly at his last statement. “That’s assuming any of us are still alive once you’re through.”
“I haven’t killed too many of my friends yet.” Orlando shot back at her, his power sizzling around him as always. “And I don’t intend to start. Or would you prefer I stayed behind and let the Council spread rumors that I’ve actually de
serted you all and switched sides? Because that’s what’s going to happen if it doesn’t look like Thor’s throwing a party every time this Council attacks someone.”
Candra, surprising everyone, actually said something before anyone else had a chance to get in on the argument. “This is why they struggle.” She said it quietly, but not quietly enough that people couldn’t hear her speaking. Candra said it with her head down, but then she looked up and looked around. “I know them. They do this. They argue, they fight, they say bad things about each other and plot to hurt each other in ways that can’t be traced back. You’re no better than they are if you can’t set aside your pride.”
Everyone was shocked to hear her voice at all, and even Mitch nodded toward her. “We’ll be glad to have you with us, Sunchild.”
Sedovin answered next. “And those of us who like stabbing our enemies in the back will be glad to have you too.” He was still smiling, completely unfazed by the insult Orlando had thrown at him.
Candra stood up and let go of Orlando to step out in front of everyone. She turned to Nick once she was up on the platform and held out her hand. “I’m told that a true leader of wolves should taste the power of the gods.” She’d read about it, and she’d been told as much by every master she’d ever had. She was a living piece of their Gods on the earth, which was why her kind were so rare, and so legendary.
She was closest to Veronica and Balthazar, and as she approached them, everyone could see an actual shadow of fear in Balthazar’s eyes. But when she laid her hand on his arm, the fear vanished, and the fire around his other hand burst into a bout of white flame so hot everyone present could feel it, and he actually closed his eyes for just a moment before he opened them again to stare at her, truly understanding for the first time the reason why Lightborn were creatures of legend. His eyes were the brilliant red of a setting sun and filled with power as she pulled her hand away, moving on to his mate beside him.
Veronica trembled as she touched the Lightborn, but her generations of descent and her obvious power from it kept her from producing a flame like her mate. She shook a little more violently, but then she settled into the heat of the Light that was given to her, and she looked up at Candra with a nod. She knew that Candra would be important to the war, if only by her touch. Everyone would need her strength.
