The Rising

by Terra Harmony

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  "After you." Serena gestures toward Liam. They stand across from each other, one surrounded in yellow—the other, not so much.

  He strolls, circling the border of flowers. Stopping at the end closest to the ocean, he holds out the crook of his elbow for Serena to take his arm.

  "I don't think so," says Serena. "I'll walk behind you."

  Liam turns his head before shrugging in defeat and sauntering away from the sound of crashing waves.

  Serena follows, pausing at the edge of the flowers. The gravity of The Dry is pulling down on her and everything seems too heavy. She can't bring herself to cross into unprotected land with Liam right in front of her.

  "It's called trust, Werewolf Liaison." Liam pauses several spans ahead and looks over his shoulder. "You can't do your job if you don't trust me."

  Why not?

  As she steps out of the circle the wind picks up—there is a rush of musty forest and wolf scent. Serena cringes, expecting a flurry of claws and fangs to follow. Nothing happens.

  One eye opens, and then another. The wolf is still in front of her, walking away. The wolfsbane flower remains clutched to Serena’s chest, as she tentatively takes another step to follow.

  The wolf's steps are light, barely making a sound through the forest. He knows which places to avoid, and where he can put his full weight.

  "Would it help if I were in my animal form?" Liam's voice is distant as he faces forward. "It could be like the old days, a mermaid with her werewolf protector."

  "The old days are long gone—your clan made sure of that."

  Liam pauses, arching his shoulders together like Serena has stabbed him in the back. He whips around to face her.

  Like muscle memory, Serena reaches for an arrow. It isn't there.

  "Our clan had its reasons for that night," Liam narrows his eyes. Serena thinks she sees a flare of red in them, though it could be a trick of the sunlight.

  "What reason did they have for killing my mother? Or what about my father?" Anger heats her cheeks.

  Liam drops his arms to his sides. "Both your parents?"

  "Among others," Serena answers, raising her chin. She swallows the hard lump that forms in her throat, refusing to the let the wolf revel in the pain his clan has caused her.

  The wolf shakes his head. "You don't know the whole story, for what it truly is, Serena Moon-Shadow."

  "And you do?"

  He nods. "More than you, I’m sure."

  Could he have even been there?

  "How old are you, wolf?"

  He smiles. "No older than you."

  Serena takes a breath, willing her temper to calm. A cool wind carrying the smell of salt and seaweed tickles the back of her neck. "At least now we are getting some questions answered. Kind of." She looks down at her wolfsbane flower in her hand. "Tell me your story of that night."

  He moves toward her, stepping into a swath of light filtering through the canopy. "If you return to me, I'll tell you as much as I'm allowed." He bows, then turns with a flourish of his cape, cutting off her chance to press him further.

  They continue the walk in silence, Serena maintaining distance behind him. She rubs at the charm on her breastplate trying to memorize and categorize important pieces of their conversation, filing them away like books in the archives.

  The terrain tilts up, gradually becoming steeper. After awhile Serena is leaning forward for more momentum, her breath labored. Just as she is about to request a break, Liam stops by an especially large tree and disappears around the back of it.

  "What are you doing?" Serena asks, taking a step back. She glances behind her, suspecting some sort of trap. "Liam?"

  A cape flies out from behind the tree, directly at her. Unfurling as it makes an arch in the air, Serena throws one hand in front of her face. The cape wraps around her arm, smelling of stale earth and wet dog.

  "We are almost there, and I don't want to risk them smellin' you," says Liam.

  Shaking out the cape, Serena allows the rest of it to unfold. "Gross," she says, as bits of dirt and shaggy hair tumble off. But she wraps the cape around her shoulders, tying it off under her chin as Liam's is. It settles over her scales, itchy and uncomfortable like the blankets in the orphanage.

  "Just keep it closed in the front as best you can. And pull the hood up," Liam begins walking again. No longer on a path, they are pushing their way through thick shrubbery.

  Serena obliges, lifting a hood that hangs off the back of the cape over her head. It almost hangs past her eyes. She turns her head to sniff. "Exactly how many wolves have worn this before me?" she asks.

  "Shh," Liam hushes her. "No more talking." All at once his movements become slow and deliberate. Every move forward is calculated and he emits no sound at all.

  Standing behind him, Serena stares at his wide shoulders working to push aside leafy branches. He turns, motioning her forward.

  Serena steps through to a small clearing. She stands in the shadows of two shorter trees that have grown toward each other. Their limbs intertwine just above Liam's head, so it feels as though they are in a small cave.

  "Stay in the shadows," Liam leans close to whisper in her ear. "And they won't see you."

  Barely noticing his breath on her cheek, Serena's gaze is transfixed on the scene before her. On flat ground following a steep cliff beneath her, there are as many as thirty trailer homes, in varying degrees of quality but for the most part unkempt and shabby.

  Still early in the morning, the camp is quiet and still. On the far right end, a trailer door swings open and the man that walks out automatically raises his hand to shield his eyes from the bright sun. Staggering toward a truck he reaches inside for a small rectangular package. He coughs as he pulls a slender object from the package and lights it from a small flame he holds in his hand.

  Serena raises a questioning eyebrow at Liam.

  "Cigarettes…it's…I'll explain later."

  When he steps alongside her, Serena moves the wolfsbane from one hand to the other so it remains between them.

  She turns her attention back to the camp. Draped on a thin line tied from one trailer to another is several capes, along with various other Ungainly-like clothing. "So you do wash them," whispers Serena.

  Liam smiles, glancing at the cape on her shoulders. "Some of them."

  "Do all of the werewolves live here?" she asks, counting the trailers.

  Liam nods. "Most trailers have two pack members."

  "So there are—"

  "Fifty two of us," says Liam.

  "The Undine…made that many?" Serena asks.

  "Yes—made them," Liam's fingers bend in air quotes as he says the phrase. "Then dumped them on the beach to be delivered and raised here."

  His tone has grown tense, and Serena isn't sure she should continue with her line of questioning, especially not this far away from safety, but she can't let the opportunity pass by.

  She clears her throat and clutches at the stem of the flower. "Do you know how we made them?"

  Shadows of the leaves overhead dance across his features, but Liam remains stock still, staring at Serena. Several moments pass, and Serena debates holding her hand up to his mouth to check his breath.

  "You don't know?" he finally asks.

  "No," Serena scowls in annoyance—mostly because she is choosing to ask a werewolf about Undine history instead of her own kind.

  Knitting his brows together, Liam answers carefully. "I think that is something to ask your mother—" Liam cuts himself off, remembering too late that Serena is an orphan. "Oh, ah— sorry." He shakes his head, cheeks turning red. He kicks at the pebbles in their small clearing.

  "Never mind," mumbles Serena. "I guess what I want to know is, have the werewolves had much luck mating?"

  Now Liam's cheeks turn crimson, and he gives a strangled sort of cough. Before he can string together any intelligible words, several high-pitched yelps of delight catch their attention.
r />   Serena and Liam look down in time to see kids running out of one of the trailers.

  "You have!" Serena steps forward, eyes glued to the three small boys.

  In no time each of the boys have found a long stick. They thrust at each other as they run around the trailer, the clacking noise of the sticks ringing across camp. "Unless they are Ungainly?" She raises her nose to the air and sniffs. "I can't tell—the air is much too saturated here."

  "Half werewolf, half Ungainly," answers Liam.

  "It doesn't matter," says Serena. "You found a way." She feels a lump forming in her throat and drops her wolfsbane flower, the revelation of new life blasting through fabricated barriers.

  "Boys!" a woman emerges from the trailer. "It's too early, you'll wake everyone up. Inside to eat your breakfast—now!"

  Liam gestures to her. "Their mother is human, the only one at camp. She married a werewolf and they had three boys. They are the only ones we know of that possess the ability to transform—all the others just come out as humans without a shred of wolf to them."

  "Are they here too?" Serena asks. "You said she is the only Ungainly at camp."

  "Alaric doesn't let them stay—they are sent packin' with their human mothers. Alaric agreed to let this human stay because she gave birth to the wolves, but also because she is a nurse. She is the only medical care we get." Liam's cheek color has finally returned to normal.

  Serena nods, squinting at the other trailers. "Alaric," she repeats the name Isadora uttered. "Where is he?"

  A howl bursts through the trees from behind Serena and Liam, blowing past them and down into the valley of trailers. The echo bounces back, followed by the sound of several tin metal doors slamming open. Six large men race out of their houses at the howl.

  "What is that?" asks Serena, the scales on the back of her neck standing up.

  "That is your Alaric," says Liam. "If you've had your fill of the camp, we can go see him."

  Serena watches the men shift into wolves as they run. They disappear into the tree line, a trail of shredded clothes in their wake.

  "Your head is glowing," Liam observes.

  "Yeah, that happens." Serena isn't sure she wants to seek Alaric. Something tells her she is better off facing the entire werewolf camp instead.

  She follows Liam back through the forest, away from the camp. Although they are walking downhill, her legs feel like lead. With every step, Serena clutches the werewolf cape tighter and tighter around herself. The only reassurance is the sound of crashing waves in the distance that seems to be getting louder.

  Finally, they are back on terrain she knows—flat ground and towering trees. Pushing their way through trees, the sun filters down through thick foliage piercing Serena even through the cape and her scales beneath.

  "Here," Liam whispers, ducking behind a falling log.

  Serena drops to her knees next to him and squints, focusing her eyes through the shrubs and onto the brightening shoreline. The entire King's Guard stands in a line on the beach, with King Merrick still in the water behind them. They are tense, holding their tridents at the ready, heads turning slowly and in unison.

  Serena's gaze floats to where they stare. A large, hulking man paces the beach, just out of the tree line in front of them. Six wolves stroll the beach around him, casting wary glances at the Undine.

  "Our agreement?" The man shouts out to King Merrick in the waves. His voice is thick and gravelly.

  The King moves closer, raising his upper body out of the ocean. He points his trident at the man. "Has not yet run its course."

  "Time is almost up, Merrick. My clan is anxious to know—will you follow through with your promise?" The man has long, black hair that hangs wild and loose past his shoulders, blending in with the cape on his back.

  "What promise?" Serena whispers to Liam.

  He shrugs. "I don't know."

  King Merrick is pacing in the breakers, swimming back and forth, almost a mirror image to the man on the beach. They are both agitated. Finally, the king stops, and raises himself up again. "And if I've changed my mind?"

  Lips curling up in a snarl, the man on the beach growls. "Only one other sacrifice will satisfy the debt, Merrick."

  Slinking back down into the water, the king's words aren't audible to Serena over the sound of the breakers, but he is nodding his head. He turns away, then looks over his shoulder. "You will have your answer soon, Alaric."

  "What sacrifice?" Serena hisses at Liam. "Me?"

  "Why would he sacrifice you?" Liam looks at her, eyes narrowed.

  "I don't know," says Serena, panic building. "But it would certainly explain why I am the Werewolf Liaison!"

  "Calm down," he says reaching toward her.

  Serena falls on her backside, scrambling away from his outstretched hand. "Keep away!"

  Liam nervously glances out at the guards. He pulls his hand back, and raises them both in the air. "Okay, okay. Just—shh. At least until Alaric leaves."

  "Who is Alaric to you?" Serena asks, freezing in her awkward, crab-walk stance.

  Liam grimaces. "My father—kind of."

  "Kind of?" she asks, getting back to her feet, brushing dirt from her scaled legs. She tries to hide the fact that her arms are shaking with fear. After all, Liam showed her the camp, and returned her to the beach.

  "At least, the closest I have to a father," Liam picks dead bark off the log in front of them.

  Serena thinks of Ronan. "I know what you mean…kind of," she says.

  This elicits a small smile from Liam. He stands, sniffing the air. "Okay, he's gone."

  Serena watches the king disappear below water, followed by a column of guard members. "I need to find out what that was all about," she says.

  "I'll ask around, too—let you know what I find out next time we meet."

  "Why?" Serena asks.

  He looks at her, confused.

  "I mean, why would you do that for me?" she clarifies.

  "What he's doin' is just plain wrong." He nods to the beach where Alaric stood. "Alaric feels betrayed, and he is hell-bent on revenge."

  "He feels betrayed?" Serena asks, mouth dropping open.

  "Yes," Liam frowns. "And he is experimentin’ with the pack, trying to make them stronger." Liam extends a hand and pulls back his cape, exposing the soft skin on the inside of his arm. There are dozens of small pinprick marks. "It is how more and more of us can shift without the full moon."

  "And you let him?" Serena steps forward, extending a finger to his wounds.

  "He runs the show," Liam shrugs. "We haven't had much choice until now. But then those boys came and…" Liam trails off, swallowing hard.

  "And you can't let the same thing happen to them," Serena finishes for him, dropping her hand to her side. "So you are finally ready to fight for your future." Her voice drops as a frown creases her face.

  "What?" asks Liam.

  Serena takes a deep breath. "The problem is, so are we."

  The pair stare at each other, an unspoken truce binding them together as they realize they might just have an ally in facing their obstacles.

  Serena doesn't have a chance to ask further questions. The tips of a trident pierce through the shrubs, directly in between her and Liam. It swings wide, then comes back, pulling Liam with it. Caught in the chest, just underneath the arms, Liam disappears through the bush.