Frozen Rage: A Hellequin Novella (Hellequin Chronicles)

by Steve McHugh

  “Is there a werewolf equivalent here?” I asked.

  “The bride’s mother, Victoria Walker,” Gordon said. “She was one of those who left for a walk. She divorced the father some time ago, and she very much wears the alpha crown without contest. If she’d been there, no one would have started an argument. She’d have thrown them through the damn window.”

  “I haven’t met her either,” I said. “Haven’t met the bride or groom for that matter.”

  “Beth and Logan,” Gordon said. “Both are sweet kids, although they’re about a century old, so the ‘kids’ thing is subjective. Beth is the spitting image of her mother, in both temperament and looks. Logan is a calm, relaxed, surfer dude type. I’m pretty certain there’s never been a situation he couldn’t charm himself out of. They’re made for one another. A fact Beth’s father and Logan’s uncle both hate.”

  “That’s why they were fighting,” I said.

  “Those two have been looking for a fight for a long time,” Matthew said. “One killed someone the other liked, or some such. I don’t even think either of them know anymore.”

  There was a shout from deeper in the forest, and all three of us turned to look in the direction.

  “Did you see anyone else in there?” I asked Matthew, who shook his head.

  I took a step toward the forest when a young woman with dark skin burst out of the dense woodland, stopping a few feet away. She was breathing heavily, her long dark hair sown with leaves. She was completely naked, her body covered in scratches. She looked up at us as if seeing us for the first time, horror in her face, and pitched forward onto the snow, a small crossbow bolt jutting between her shoulder blades.

  “Oh shit,” Gordon said as he rushed over to her.

  “I’ll get help,” Matthew said, racing off.

  I removed my coat and helped Gordon move the woman on to it.

  “She’s still breathing,” Gordon said.

  “You know her?” I asked.

  Gordon nodded. “It’s Victoria, the mother of the bride.”

  “Oh shit,” I whispered as Victoria opened her eyes and screamed.

  Chapter Two

  After Victoria screamed, a lot of things happened in a really short space of time. She passed out again, the crossbow bolt still lodged between her shoulder blades, and Gordon and me—with help from several of Tommy’s people—carried her into the village, putting her in a medical facility that resembled a thatched cottage.

  Tommy arrived with Diana, Remy, and half a dozen more of Tommy’s people, and they took charge of the situation with all being sworn to secrecy until it could be ascertained what had happened.

  I hung around just in case anyone decided they needed another shot at Victoria, while Tommy and his people went into the forest to search for the attacker, and hopefully figure out what the hell was going on.

  I wasn’t sure how long I remained outside the medical center, but it was long enough to notice the mood change in the workers of the realm. This wasn’t the first time they’d had trouble, and from talking to a few of them, people often got drunk and stupid but it was the first time someone had tried to murder a guest.

  An hour later, Tommy found me sat outside and handed me a new coat to keep me warm. “Any trouble?” he asked.

  “Victoria is sedated, the bolt is out, and I have no idea what’s happened since then,” I told him. “We need to tell the people here. We need to tell her ex-husband and daughter. Sounds like she’ll live, but no one can leave the castle.”

  Tommy nodded. “I’ll take care of everything I can here, I’d like you to go down to the attack site. It’s bad, Nate. Really, really bad.”

  “Worse than the mother of the bride being attacked?”

  “There are three dead down there,” Tommy whispered. “A groomsman, a bridesmaid, and one of Victoria’s guards. They’re… you need to go see before we start removing bodies. Gordon and Matthew are there with Diana and Remy, the latter are off hunting.”

  I got up and stretched. “How far away is it?”

  “A mile, maybe a little more.”

  “Any way to get there quicker than running?”

  “Not on foot, no,” Tommy said. “There are tusked-horses in the stables, big shaggy things. They’re pretty good at moving quickly but it’s not a fun ride so I’m told.”

  “Why?”

  “They move very fast and you just hold on for dear life.”

  I clapped my gloved hands together. “Sounds like fun.” Tommy walked with me to the stables, and spoke to the hand working, who agreed to saddle up one of the animals for me.

  “Tusked-horse,” I said. “They couldn’t have come up with a better name?”

  “I suggested Tauntaun,” Tommy said. “Apparently, that’s copywritten and no one wanted to get sued.”

  “Of course you did,” I said with a chuckle as the animal was brought out of the stables. “It was at least a head higher than a warhorse, although slightly thinner. It had two, four-feet-long tusks that started at each side of its jaw—one of the tusks placed slightly higher than the other—but both looked like something you did not want to be on the end of. The horse was snowy white, with a shaggy, thick coat, and huge hooves.

  “She’s calm,” the stable-hand said. “But not the fastest.”

  She looked down at me with dark eyes and moved her head so I could smooth my hand over her neck. “She’s quite the stunner,” I said before climbing into the saddle and getting comfortable. I patted the back of her neck as the stable-hand fed her an apple that was the size of my face.

  “I don’t know where I’m going,” I told Tommy.

  “There’s only one trail, just follow it,” he said.

  “What’s her name?” I asked the stable-hand.

  “Sorcery.”

  “Oh, we’re going to get along brilliantly,” I said with a smile.

  We trotted out of the village and across the moat, Tommy beside me. “Nate,” he said when we were outside the village.

  I stared down at my friend; he looked tired. “It’s bad,” I said. “I know.”

  “We need to get this sorted, quickly. Those arseholes in the castle just need an excuse to reignite a damn war between werelions and werewolves. We can’t afford that.”

  “We’ll figure it out,” I said. “We were there when the peace was signed, we’re not going to be there when it’s broken.”

  Sorcery started off into the forest at what I considered a pleasant speed. She clearly knew the way along the winding path, but after a while the trees either side started to become denser, darker, as the canopy allowed less and less light into the forest. It wasn’t long before I was in darkness, and Sorcery’s speed picked up.

  Within a few minutes we were hurtling along the path, with me holding on for dear life as Sorcery moved and darted between trees only she saw as we whizzed past. More than once, leaves and branches brushed my hair and face, but I kept as low as I could, and reminded myself that Tommy had to deal with the families, and that was much worse.

  Eventually, the darkness began to dissipate as the branches above opened their arms, and Sorcery slowed to a trot.

  “Good girl,” I said, patting her neck. “Good, terrifying girl.”

  Sorcery walked up to two guards, both of whom nodded in my direction. One took the reins from me, and I climbed down off Sorcery.

  “That took less than a few minutes,” I said, looking back into the darkness behind me.

  “The tusked-horses move like water,” the guard with the reins said. “We’ll take care of this one while you’re working.”

  “Thanks,” I said. “Her name is Sorcery. She likes apples.”

  I patted her on the neck again and thanked her, before walking along the pathway that looked like it had been carved out of the brambles and trees that crouched either side. I stepped under an archway of flowers and into a large clearing a few hundred feet in diameter and ringed with huge, dark trees. The ground was covered in snow, which was spla
ttered red in patches.

  “Nate,” Gordon said as he peeled off a set of latex gloves and put them in a bag beside him. He was crouched next to the body of a naked man, and as I stood beside him, Gordon got to his feet with a loud sigh.

  I nodded a greeting and looked around the clearing. There were two other naked bodies on the ground, both with members of Tommy’s security team and, or, members of the medical staff in the village.

  “Two men, one woman. Well, two women if you include Victoria,” Gordon said. “All hit with arrows, but these three had their throats cut deep enough that they may as well have decapitated them and saved the effort.”

  “Not that I want to disparage how people spend their free time, but this was an orgy, yes?” I asked.

  “I’m not sure it’s an orgy with only four people,” Remy said as he walked over to me, Diana at his side.

  “I’ll bow down to your knowledge on such things,” I said.

  “He’s right,” Diana said. “Orgies have more people. This was just four people fucking.”

  “Okay, semantics aside,” I said, not wanting to get into a conversation about the technical parts of an orgy. “They were enjoying themselves and were attacked.”

  “The attackers had crossbows,” Remy said. “At least two of them to kill four weres without any of them fighting back. One of the males, the werewolf, had four bolts in his body.”

  “Two werewolves, two werelions,” Gordon said. “Before you ask.”

  “They were doing a lot for species relations,” Remy said. “But there are a lot of questions we can’t answer.”

  “Such as?” I asked.

  “There are no tracks,” Diana said. “Whoever did this, did it without leaving a trace. I think they used the trees; the trajectory of the bolts points to that being the case. I followed the scent into the forest and lost it about half a mile to the south, near some mountains.”

  “They came prepared to hunt people who could smell them,” I said.

  Diana nodded. “Werewolves and werelions were the intended prey here. No idea why though.”

  “Victoria is lucky she’s alive,” I said.

  Remy and Diana glanced at each other.

  “You think she was involved?” I asked.

  “I find it odd that three people died with multiple wounds, no tracks, and scents that vanish,” Diana said. “But they let Victoria go.”

  “She could have been lucky,” I said.

  “And I could have been Brad Pitt, but I’m not,” Remy said.

  “What?”

  Remy shrugged. “Made sense in my head.”

  “He’s had a long day,” Diana said with a shake of her head. “Nate, these people came to kill. Victoria would have to be the luckiest person alive, or they let her live.”

  “She’s either involved, or she’s the message,” I said.

  Diana nodded. “But she passed out before she could give it.”

  “Great,” I said with a sigh. “Do we know their names?”

  “The guard’s name is Kozma Imre,” Diana said. “He’s a Hungarian who has worked for Victoria for many years.”

  “The other two?” I asked.

  “Mona Reece,” Remy said. “And Varol Musat. She was from Wales, and he was from Romania. We’re looking into their pasts right now, but early suggestions are they’re both clean.”

  “You want it to get worse?” Gordon asked, passing me one of the crossbow bolts, the tip of which was gone

  “Not silver,” I said, surprised. “Who comes to kill weres and doesn’t bring the one thing that kills them?”

  “It’s a basilisk-tooth blade,” Gordon said. “The tips vanish with a killing shot. Victoria is more than a little lucky.”

  “These are rare, expensive,” I said, turning the bolt over in my hands. “And more than that, there’s no way you’d take a bolt to the back to try and show you were the innocent party when you’re involved. She’d have to be insane.”

  “So, she’s the message,” Remy said. “We just need to figure out what that message is.”

  “The groomsman, bridesmaid, and a guard were all involved along with the mother of the bride,” I said, more to myself than anyone else. “Any of them have a relationship outside of getting their freak on in the forest?”

  “We’ll check,” Diana said.

  “I’ll be especially tactful,” Remy said.

  I stared at Remy for a heartbeat, before looking at Diana. “Don’t let Remy ask anyone if they knew Victoria liked to fuck people in the woods.”

  “But that was my opening question,” Remy said, throwing his hands in the air in mock indignation.

  “He’ll behave,” Diana said, her tone suggesting that Remy wouldn’t have a choice.

  Remy smiled, but it vanished when he looked over at the dead bridesmaid. “Nate, whoever did this needs to suffer for it. The bolt would have killed them, or at the very least paralyzed them while they had their necks slit to the bone. This was an assassination.”

  I nodded. “Agreed. So which one were they assassinating?”

  “We’ll look into all three of them,” Diana said. “You going hunting?”

  I nodded. “Where’s Matthew?”

  “He’s out there,” Gordon said. “He found a bolt on the ground to the east.”

  “They split up after the kill,” I said. “I’ll go find him.”

  “Nate, be careful,” Remy said, suddenly serious. “You get hit with one of these things, and you could die.”

  The was a loud rustle at one end of the clearing and several of the guards drew swords as Matthew emerged from the dense foliage, chest heaving.

  “I ran for miles,” Matthew said. “Nothing. I’m going back to the castle to talk to Tommy and try to figure out how we get on top of this.”

  I walked around the clearing, looking at each of the three bodies in turn as Matthew, Diana, and Remy exited the clearing. Each body had the same wounds, although the male werewolf had been hit with more arrows than the others, and the female werelion had two more stab wounds in the chest.

  “There’s no passion in the kill, no loss of control, I don’t think this was personal,” I muttered, not realizing that Gordon was beside me.

  “You agree this was an assassination?” Gordon asked as the female werelion was placed in a body bag.

  I nodded. “But why leave Victoria alive? She’s the most influential of all three. Which makes me think one of these three was the intended target, maybe more than one. Someone paid to have at least one of them killed.”

  “Maybe the hiring was personal,” Gordon suggested.

  I nodded again. “These were clinical kills,” I said pointing to the bodies. “The guard at the very least was a trained professional. I can’t imagine someone with Victoria’s influence having a newbie protecting her. None of them fought back. Even when you consider all were having sex at the time, none of them did anything but die, except Victoria. If the assassins were hired, they didn’t come cheap. And they knew these four would come here for sex.”

  I spent some time walking around the forest close to the clearing, using my fire magic to change my vision to thermal and checking for tracks. The trees had some remnants high up in the branches, but the continued freezing temperatures made them fade quickly. I was just as likely to track an animal as I was a person, and I didn’t know the realm well enough to go traipsing through the wilderness only to get lost.

  I emerged from the tree line back into the clearing and found Tommy waiting.

  “You find anything?” I asked.

  Tommy shook his head. “Victoria is asleep. She’ll be okay, but they had to sedate her. The basilisk-tooth-blade tip was still intact, but it was seemingly coated with some kind of paralyzing agent. It was all around the edge of the wound. On the end of the arrow shaft too. It’s incredible she managed to run feet, let alone over a mile.”

  “She must be a strong woman,” I said.

  “She’s certainly that,” Tommy agreed. �
�We had to tell the wedding parties. The reactions ranged from out and out anger, to crying, to in one particular unpleasant case, laughing. That was the groom’s uncle.”

  “The dickhead in the dining hall?”

  Tommy nodded. “The one and the same. Victoria wasn’t always well liked, but she was respected, and feared.”

  “She wasn’t the target,” I said. “I don’t think so anyway. If she was, they did a shitty job, and nothing about this looks like the work of amateurs.”

  “It was well known Victoria was sleeping with one of her guards,” Tommy said. “It wasn’t well known that she was sleeping with a groomsman and bridesmaid.”

  “Did people know those two were in a relationship, or just shagging?”

  Tommy shook his head. “No, although I spoke to the bride and her other bridesmaids, and all of them said that Mona had been happy with a new man. She hadn’t told anyone about him other than to say he wasn’t human. Mona told them she’d reveal all after the wedding.”

  “And the groom and his groomsmen?” I asked.

  “Varol was well liked, and a similar story to Mona. New, secretive girlfriend everyone wanted to know more about, but he told them it was new, and he didn’t want to scare her off.”

  “So, we have three bodies, all of them appear to be well liked, two of them were secretly dating, and all of them were shagging in the freezing cold forest. I assume they didn’t get seen in the castle.”

  “That’s a good assumption, but we need to look into it more,” Tommy said. “I also want to know how these assassins got in and out of this realm. There’s meant to be only one realm gate, and that’s guarded.”

  “So there’s either a second gate, or they came through with the wedding guests.”

  “Or workers.”

  “You know that time I said yes to helping you?” I said with a long sigh. “I’m regretting it.”

  “Liar,” Tommy said with a smile, rubbing his hand across his bushy beard. “You wanted to keep busy, and this is going to do that.”