***
The spitfire of a woman Wolf had taken from Condor is tied to the trunk of a nearby ash tree. It is the only way Wolf could think of to keep her from hurting any of his pack. She’d tried to bite Jackal, she’d attempted to run away, and she’d even tried to claw Lynx’s eyes out when she approached with a glass of water. A gag had to be placed in the hellcat’s mouth, but her howling curses still manage to bleed through the fabric. Whoever approaches them now had to have been drawn to their position by her ruckus.
“Show yourself!” Wolf calls from the perimeter around the House of Vultures.
Two figures emerge from the clearing where the House of Vultures dwells. A tall male in a dark mask with eyes that gleam like sunlight amidst shadows, and a smaller, nondescript female stomp through the grass in a rage. “Where is Bittern?” the furious woman shouts as she trounces up to Wolf, unaffected by his presence. “What did you do with her, you rat bast—?”
Wolf motions to the screaming shape behind him, his eyes never leaving the male. “Take her if you wish. The woman’s been an absolute menace since I rescued her from a beating. Are you abandoning your house for mine?” Wolf’s hand reaches for the sword at his hip. “Keep in mind that if your answer is anything but yes, I will be forced to kill you.”
Goldeneye raises his palms up to his eye level. “I am not so bound to my House that I would die for it. If I must join the wolves to survive, then so be it.”
“Untie Bittern now!” Grouse commands as she shoves a finger into Wolf’s side. “And what did you do with Mynah?”
With a curt nod of his head, an obviously pregnant Lynx waddles over to cut Bittern loose. “Mynah is free. She made her own choice to leave, just as she will decide on her own when to return to us.”
Brilliant light arcs into the sky toward the tree line as a whistle screeches through the air. The sound turns into a loud encompassing boom as the trees crack and splinter with the explosion, raining bits of wood and leaves onto Wolf and the others. Quickly Wolf pulls a knife, pressing it hard against Goldeneye’s throat. “Did you signal for that to happen?”
Goldeneye gulps, eyes widening. “You cannot be serious! I am here because I think you’ve got the best chances of winning this fight. Why would I join you, and then sabotage you in the next breath? How does that plan benefit me?”
With a snap of his fingers, scores of Wolf’s people appear in the trees, weapons gleaming like the dreadful grins of monsters that lurk in shadowy corners. “Take down the House of Vultures! Any that are left inside and out are considered our enemies. No mercy!”
A battle cry erupts as the fighters lope toward the House with an easy grace in their steps, Wolf right at the front of the pack. No one bothers to think of Goldeneye, Grouse, or Bittern as they stand by to witness the massacre of their home.
“What about Wren?” Goldeneye asks the women, his eyes searching for any sign of the master of disguises. “Did any of you see where he went?”
“I doubt he will stay with Condor,” Grouse replies as she helps Bittern stand. “He will most likely disappear into the woods.”
“Not as a nameless unchosen!” Bittern exclaims through her bloody mouth. “He’d never choose that.”
“No, but if any of us could find a way to join another house without starting a war, he’d be the one to manage it.” Goldeneye ends the conversation as ringing clangs of swordplay echo through the forest. “He’ll probably just kill a low-ranking member of the House of Piranhas and assume his identity.”
“Or he’ll go down to the minor markets and start a following there. Who knows, maybe one day we will all be begging to ally with the House of Wrens!” Grouse cackles, the sound melding with the cries of the warriors overtaking her former home.
***
The war for the House of Vultures is over quickly, a smoky residue staining the air as Wolf drags Condor out by his scraggly hair. Jackal runs his sword along Falcon’s side before anyone can protest. She crumbles into a heap, blood pooling around her feet as she tumbles. The House of Vultures burns bright; the flames of the fire licking the rotten wood are like the tongues of ravenous beasts savoring the taste of their prey. They sizzle with their approval.
“Where is the third one that ranked among your elite; I believe his name is Wren?” Wolf demands as he kicks the backs of Condor’s knees, shoving him hard to the ground.
Condor smiles wickedly. “You will never find Wren. He’s too clever for the likes of us.”
Wolf leans low to stare at Condor’s gleaming eyes. “I will enjoy killing you. For everything that you did to Mynah. Your end will be slow and excruciating. Every evil deed you’ve done to her will be repaid tenfold before I’m through!”
“Do your worst, Brother Mine.” Condor’s whispered words are slurred with his coughing laughter.
The name rattles Wolf so strongly that he almost drops his hold on the leader of the House of Vultures. “What did you say?”
Condor raises his hands slowly to lift the edge of his raven hued mask to reveal his true face. “Somehow, I doubt that you’ll have the heart to kill me, Brother Mine. After all, you failed to do it the first time, didn’t you?” Condor taps the scar that runs from forehead to chin.
“How could you have survived?” Wolf backs away from Condor, his face leeching its color underneath his mask. “I did what I was told to do—”
“Oh yes, I know,” Condor sneers as he lunges for Wolf’s knife, missing his mark by a hair’s breadth. He lands hard against Wolf’s chest instead, forcing him to the ground. “But you didn’t mind the task either, did you? Father always preferred you. You were the more cunning of us, and you were so eager to please him. What would he say now, do you think? Would he still love you best?”
“Father said it was a mercy to kill you, but deep down, I knew better,” Wolf answered, his eyes searching for an escape. “How did I not realize that you had survived? How long have you known that your brother was the Wolf?”
“Long enough. And once I figured out that you were interested in little Mynah, it was too much to resist. Can you imagine how it felt? Every time I touched her, I thought of you. How furious you would be to see her hurt and used. It was a rush of power, Brother Mine. Pure magic.”
Only through the restraints of his finest warriors does Wolf cease beating his brother. Blood drips from his knuckles and Condor’s dark, feathered mask. “I will soon know what you felt about Mynah,” Wolf whispers over Condor’s prostrate body. “Because I will feel that same rush of power as I watch Mynah take her vengeance upon you. She deserves the right to punish you first. But when she’s done, when she’s abandoned your broken bag of bones, I will take my turn too. And I will smile as we dig your grave together.”
“Who is evil now, Brother Mine?” Condor wheezes from his place on the ground, silenced by a boot stomping into his face.
Chapter 10
Siri eases me into the Pith, keen eyes scanning the ground for any signs of the boy. I see his mask lying in shards along the rocks, a bare spot where the sand has blown away. Standing over the pieces, anger floods my heart. “I cannot believe I spared his life, even after I learned about his birth origins.” I relish the sounds of the wood chips crunching under my boot as the Ddraig sniffs the air around us. “Where is the ungrateful, lying traitor? He wouldn’t just leave without exploring this place, and the other Ddraigs will finish him off before he has a chance to breathe in their presence.”
“He’s not far away,” Siri replies, sniffing the air around the cavern as she paces around its circumference.
“Why did I pity him?” I berate myself, my hands roaming over my unmasked face. The air on my face is uncomfortable after being hidden for so many years. “He told me he was a priest, and I just assumed that meant he was harmless. He was going to kill me, I am certain! If you had not stopped him, he would have choked the life right out of me. After everything I had done to keep him alive—”
A breeze tickles my hair as Siri snorts. �
�What did you expect from the Windwalkers? They are nothing but tricksters and thieves!”
I stop my raving long enough to listen to her words. “What do you mean? What is a Windwalker?”
“Windwalkers are the lowest of low, the vilest creatures in existence!” Siri’s eyes watch the cavern walls, as if Antero might be hiding among the stones. “Have you never wondered how Cassé became so barren? Did you ever ask how ‘the windstorm’ occurred? The Windwalkers caused it with their strange powers! They breezed right over the Devil’s Spine, travelling on the wind with the elemental magic in their blood. They danced on the wind, spiraling and stirring up its power until a mighty dust storm ravaged the land. The cruelest part of their attack was how they walked within the storm, shrouded in wind devils and tornados. They used their magic to dismantle human beings as if they were made of straw, then disappeared into thin air!”
“How could you possibly know that if you did not see it?” I accuse, turning on the Ddraig.
“I told you, the people of Déchets are horrible. I may not have seen your world get destroyed, but that does not mean it was their first attack, Iris. They’ve been coming after the Carreglas for centuries. It is lucky the Ddraigs were already hidden before the Windwalkers decided to attack, or else your kind would have no chance of retaliating now.”
Siri keeps muttering under her breath, but my mind drifts far into the past. Back to my birthday, so many years ago—back to the day I had watched my parents literally fall apart. A Windwalker had been there. He or she had stood right in front of me, ripping my parents apart. I remember watching my father’s hands disintegrate, the nails separating from his fingers. The idea that it might have been purposefully done by another person makes my throat go dry. Numbness settles deep into my bones, and I have no idea how to remove it. “Why did I survive?” My voice sounds like I am asleep.
“Because you were born to be a Cadogan, that’s why! Windwalkers couldn’t kill you because the blood of the Ddraigs protected you.” Siri nudges my shoulder with a claw, the force of it almost tipping me over. “Makes you harder to hurt, just like us.”
“So, everyone that survived that day has Ddraig blood?” Even the sadistic ones like Condor and Falcon? Even Lion—which makes Wolf’s massacre even more impressive. What about Creeper? Was he born to be a Cadogan too? Somehow, I could not believe it. Warbler? Was she meant to be one of us?
Siri shakes her head at me, “I’m sure that some of the non Ddraig blood survived too. They were either fortunate or smart enough to hide until the Windwalkers were finished.” I find some comfort in the possibility that maybe Falcon and Condor aren’t carrying the same protective blood as me.
“Siri, why are we not roaming the caverns’ depths in search of Antero? He could be anywhere in this place! We cannot let him get back to Déchets now.”
“He has never left this chamber, Iris. He’s in that gentle swirling air you feel even now, brushing your cheek. Watching, listening, and waiting for the right moment to reveal himself. But I can deal with that!”
A stream of fire flows against the breeze, a howl dancing through the cave as the wind rushes and whirls out into the sunlight above us.
“You…is he…?” I cannot form a complete sentence as the scent of scorched hair assaults my nose. The echoes of Antero’s screams still reverberate around me, shouting their accusations as they fade.
“You did this! It’s all your fault! Guilty, foolish girl!” I hear the words as clearly as if the boy is standing over me. Covering my years, I attempt in vain to block out the horror I feel.
“It is not your fault, Iris,” Siri asserts, but her words do little to remedy my heartache. “You did not send the boy here. You did not tell him to spy on the Pith. You did not even deal the killing blow. Quit beating yourself up over this!”
“How can you be so callous?” I growl angrily, even as I attempt to detach myself from my emotions. Parts of my heart are split between satisfaction at the ending of a threat and sadness at a life’s loss. Despite his recent actions, there had been moments when he had been my friend. Probably just a ruse, I try to reassure myself, forcing my mind away from his memory.
Still, it is long after the last echoes of Antero’s final words before I can force my mouth to engage in conversation once more. “There are others that need to come here to find their Ddraigs, aren’t there?” I focus on Siri’s slender white pearl sheen in her scales. Almost fragile in her beauty, she smiles over me.
“Will you bring them? Will you help us protect the Carreglas?”
“Explain to me how a stone can be such a powerful weapon, Siri,” I counter, leaning against her solid frame for comfort.
“The stone has many powers that few can understand. If the wielder asks, the stone can find and reveal answers to any questions, locate any object or person, and some have said that the stone can even fulfill your greatest desires. Can you imagine what such a tool could do? Any enemy could be located, any wealth found, any wish of your heart realized. Now put such a weapon in the hands of Déchets, combine its powers with those of the Windwalkers, and—”
“They would be unstoppable,” I finish. The images of my House mates fill my sight, and I am helpless as I imagine watching them get torn apart. What about Wolf? Could you bear to see such a fate bestowed upon him?
Siri drops her sleek, enormous head to nuzzle my side, sensing my distress. “Ddraigs are stronger with our Cadogans. Together, we can meet any attack without fail. Will you help us?”
“Will you come with me out of the Pith? If I show up alone, raving about everything you have told me, they will not let me survive the night.”
With a quick screech Siri lifts me out of the Pith, flying off in the direction of the House of Vultures, an answering roar bellowing out from deeper in the caves.
***
“She crossed the river into the lands of the Pith. Her tracks were at least a few days old. I did not dare follow her—I hope you can understand,” Fox explains as he reports to Wolf, hanging his head as he finishes. “On the way back, I found this one on the ground. He looks badly burned, and I am a little surprised he’s even alive.”
Wolf carefully examines the body of the scarred victim, trying not to heave at the sight of his marbled, bleeding flesh. It is hard to find any place on his skin that isn’t white and waxy, or oozing blood from darkened, leathery tissue. The boy’s body shakes with agony, the shock still pulsing through his brilliant eyes. “If I know your true name, boy, I can lend you some of my strength. Will you trust me?”
“Antero.” He quakes out the answer without a thought. The effect of the naming bond is immediate. Blood stops its sluggish exuding, blisters ceasing their popping. Most of the skin’s leathery texture flakes off, and the waxiness fades away. Wolf slumps to the ground, weary, but relieved to see the boy not in shock. “I cannot heal you completely, but these wounds will not kill you now.”
Antero sits up slowly, wincing as his aching bones bend. “My thanks to you. You have been kind to me.”
“She’d want that,” Wolf answers as the boy drinks from the water skin by his hip.
“I’m not so sure, Wolf. It was Mynah that attacked me,” Antero lies between gulps.
“Impossible!” Wolf growls at the ailing boy. “She saved your life! She started the war with my pack and the House of Vultures, all to save you! Only to turn around and attempt to kill you? If that is true, she must have had a reason!”
“I made the mistake of taking her to the Pith. There is evil there, Wolf. I fear that it has consumed her. Within minutes of our arrival into the Pith caverns, Mynah was changed. She was so full of hatred and paranoia that she was a danger to herself. When I tried to calm her down, she attacked me. I am lucky that I got away. If she manages to return to this land, she will not be the girl that you remember.” Antero slumps and lays on the ground, exhaustion creeping back into his bones.
Wolf laces his hands around the back of his head, gripping so tightly that some of
the strands caught between his fingers flitter down to the ground through his whitened knuckles. “I do not believe you. She wouldn’t….” His words die in his throat.
“You do not know the Pith. That kind of evil is unstoppable. It is infectious, and there is no cure! You cannot let her join your pack or return to her House. She would only bring that evil into your lands, until everything here was like the Pith.” Ever so slightly, the bond in Wolf and Antero’s minds trembles as the Windwalker sends his persuasions into the other’s body, Wolf unable to resist.
“What can be done to save her?” Wolf asks, his voice slurred slightly with his dreamy reaction to the Antero’s mental influence.
“I am sorry, Wolf. The only way to save her is to kill her.” Antero bows his head somberly as Wolf pours his bitter rage into his cries. Antero rises from his place on the ground, joints moving stiffly as he walks toward the trees. “I am leaving this place. I think I have done all that I can for now. Show her no mercy. It is the only way.” Antero snaps the bond between his mind and Wolf’s, dancing away on the wind.
A wildness overtakes Wolf’s eyes as he bellows, “Fox! Prepare the forces! We have to find Mynah and hunt her down!”
“You cannot be serious, Wolf! She just went into the Pith. There is no damage done,” Fox argues, gripping his leader’s shoulder to calm his reaction.
“I have to save her.” Wolf rips himself away from Fox. “The Pith is a dangerous place, old friend. She has messed with forces that have altered her. Mynah cannot be allowed to bring its evil into our people.”
“You’re not thinking clearly, Wolf. You’re talking about the girl that you love! For gods’ sake, see sense!”
“I will see Mynah protected, even if that means from herself,” Wolf persists, barking orders at the nearest men.
“Where’s the boy?” Fox asks as he searches the ground for his patient. “Surely he can explain—”
“He’s gone, Fox. But that hardly matters now. I have to kill Mynah!” In Wolf’s mind, the future is clear. Nothing can change my course of action. Mynah must die, and the sooner the better.
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