by Mark Hayden
‘We are the Darkwood Pack. This is our ground and has been for generations.’
‘But the land is Princess Birkdale’s.’
He didn’t look happy, which was understandable. I had just pointed out that they were being kept like a pack of foxhounds. ‘Why are you here?’
‘I…’
An ear-splitting howl broke the afternoon silence. All of us turned our heads to the right, away from the compound and over a wall into a field. Somewhere out there, a Mannwolf was in pain and trying to exchange. The King and Queen forgot all about us and started running towards the cry, shedding clothes as they ran. What the hell?
‘Grab your bow,’ I said, and set off after them.
They vaulted the wall with the ease of athletes, and I vaulted it with the ease of someone a foot taller. When it came to running across the undulating meadow, there was no contest and they streaked ahead.
We’d crossed over the watershed now, and this land sloped down to where I’d parked the car when we were waiting for Mother Julia’s phone call.
Behind me, I heard Karina shout something, then seconds later I heard barking. Stupid girl, she’d let Scout get out of the car. This was not good. At least the wall was too high for him. I picked up speed and tried to see what was going on.
Karina loped past me, bow in hand, built up a ten metre lead, then stopped at the top of a ridge and put her free hand to her mouth. I caught up with her and jolted back at the sight. My gun was in my hand before I’d fully taken it in.
Two of the pack’s juniors were on their knees, hands behind their back, and one of them was doing the howling. Another, an adult, was curled up on the floor, moaning and holding her hands to her face. A fourth had been Tasered, and the one doing the Tasering was Elaine Fraser. Shit. Double damn shit and buggery. How had this happened?
‘Take aim,’ I said.
Elaine was trying to reload her Taser, and Tom Morton was trying to get his Airwave radio to work (it wouldn’t. Not in a Fae forest). In his other hand, he had an extended baton, and in front of them something was about to change their world forever.
The King and Queen had stopped well short of the action, and with practised movements, they got the last of their clothes off. I’ll never, ever forget the look on Elaine’s face as it changed from baffled incredulity (why were these people getting naked in front of her?), then to simple incredulity and finally to abject horror.
The exchange took about five seconds. The pack royalty dropped to all fours and executed a perfect yoga downward dog as their bodies shrank, their naked skin changed to fur and bushy tails sprouted from their coccyges.
Morton and Elaine had obviously come the long way, over fields up from the road where we’d parked earlier, and they were at the bottom of the field, where they’d been intercepted by members of the Darkwood Pack. They must have climbed over that high, dry stone wall and now their backs were to it. The pack leaders were still at a good distance from them, part way up the slope, and we were at the top. I had held our position because if we’d gone any further, we’d have lost the line of sight.
I was breathing heavily from running across the field. At this range, even with a SIG based gun, it would be a difficult shot. I dropped down and took up a kneeling stance, left arm resting on my left knee.
While I watched the King and Queen exchange forms, I tried to see the scene from Morton and Elaine’s viewpoint. They’d been attacked by four mad locals, and now two wolves were appearing. They would see me at the top and assume that I was in charge. Morton didn’t trust me, and this would confirm it. They weren’t going to lay down arms just because I asked them to.
‘Take out the Queen,’ I ordered.
Karina braced herself, took aim and shot Elaine Fraser in the leg.
What the fuck?
As Elaine was collapsing in agony, the black and white bullet of Scout shot into view. Perhaps if Elaine hadn’t been so nice to him, things would have turned out differently. If Karina had obeyed my order, things would definitely have been different.
Scout saw Elaine as part of our gang, and he knew these wolves were the enemy. He vaulted over one of the fallen pack and took up a defensive position in front of Elaine, barking and letting those overgrown dogs know who was in charge.
Morton had already dropped his radio and took a step nearer to Elaine. Then he picked up her Taser, now reloaded. Mannwolves live sheltered lives. They don’t watch a lot of TV. A Taser would have had no effect on their exchanged forms, because the electricity would have drained away on to a higher plane. They didn’t know that. They just saw a gun. The King went to jump at Morton while his Queen stayed back, ready to join in. I shot the Queen because she was the stationary target.
To hit her, I took a deep breath and prayed that my dodgy, titanium left leg would hold still. And something happened when I focused on it, as if the metal rod had planted itself into the ground. I have never had such a stable knee to shoot from. I narrowed all my focus to the gunsight and my middle finger. More than one millimetre of shake between deciding to shoot and engaging the trigger would make me miss.
I hit her in the back leg. It was enough.
Morton had already saved his own life by dropping the Taser and bringing up the baton. It meant that the King knocked him over, but couldn’t get a clear bite on his throat. When I fired, the King was going for Morton’s arm and ignored the gunshot. He didn’t ignore what happened next.
The Dwarven Work of Alchemy in my bullet unravelled the Queen’s Imprint and sent her exchanged form back to the higher plane in a huge discharge of Lux that was like an SAS flash grenade: sound, blinding light and all of the Queen’s pain projected magickally across the meadow.
The Mannwolves collapsed unconscious: they’d felt it in both their forms, doubling the agony. Except for the King. He staggered, but stayed on his feet. I wobbled, struggled to breathe, then forced myself to stand up and advance in a shooting stance.
The King left Morton and went to his Queen, then looked up and charged at me. My arms were shaking so much that I couldn’t risk a shot until he was a lot closer. I didn’t need to in the end, because Karina shot him first.
I kept the Hammer raised and turned round, partly to see if Karina were aiming at me. She wasn’t, she was walking backwards towards me, away from the rest of the Darkwood Pack who were now in a line on the ridge, all in human form and all naked.
I took my left hand off my gun and lowered the weapon to my side. ‘Put down your bow,’ I said to Karina. ‘Now.’ She followed my lead, and I raised my voice. ‘Hold! Let there be peace here.’
An old woman, grey of hair and hunched of back, spoke for them. ‘Who are you and what have you done?’
‘King’s Watch and two mundane police officers. They acted without my authority. This is a tragedy. Let it stop here.’
One of the younger adult males started to Exchange, and a voice from behind me shouted, ‘Jack! No! Stand back!’
The old woman and a younger one grabbed the wolf’s hairy coat as it emerged and pinned him down with force and magick. I watched and waited, holding my breath, until Jack had exchanged back to his human form. When no one else made a move to attack, I turned on my heel and looked around.
The King was human, too, and had an arrow sticking out of his hip joint. He was leaning up on his hands and breathing heavily. The Mannwolf who’d been Tasered was still flat out, and the woman clutching her face was now lying on the late Queen, whimpering with pain and grief. Morton and Scout were guarding Elaine, and Morton was trying not to drip blood on her from the tear in his arm. He was the one who spoke first. ‘I’m not going to be infected, am I?’
Well, that was one way of dealing with what had happened.
‘Sod that,’ hissed Elaine.
I looked at the King. ‘Do you still speak for the Darkwood Pack?’
He did his best to get further upright. ‘Kneel before your King!’ he shouted.
One by one, starting with the old woman,
the pack bent their knee until all had submitted. At that point the King said, ‘The hunt is over. I surrender.’ Then he flopped down and grimaced.
I holstered my gun and said, ‘Karina, release the cubs and triage Elaine.’ When she moved, I spoke to the pack. ‘Take your King and go home. Your sister needs lots of cold water in the eyes. Look up CS spray if you can. Leave the Queen where she is for now.’
I stood away to the side and put my back to the wall. The pack moved quickly and efficiently. In less than thirty seconds, they were gone over the ridge. ‘Here boy,’ I said to Scout. He was still shaking, and I bent down to hold him and reassure him. While no one could hear, I told him that he was a brave dog, and the best dog in the world. I got a tiny wag of the tail. ‘How is she?’ I said to Karina.
‘The arrow missed the femoral artery, so there’s no immediate risk. It should be left in and extracted in surgery. Sooner rather than later.’
‘Too fucking right,’ said Elaine. ‘Much sooner, please. And you’re wrong. The arrow didn’t miss, you did. You did this to me. Whose fucking side are you on?’
Karina looked bereft, totally adrift of all anchors. ‘I didn’t want anyone to die,’ she said.
Elaine dropped back on to the grass and carried on gritting her teeth. Tom waved his baton at the chaos. ‘What is all this? What have I walked into?’
‘You’ve walked into the world of magick, Tom. That’s magick with a k. You can walk out, if you want, but you’ll never solve the case.’
‘Me? How can I solve this?’
‘By joining me, before things truly get out of control.’
He looked around, then looked at my outstretched hand. He shook it. ‘I’m in. What now?’
‘Where’s your car?’
He pointed over the wall. ‘About half an hour’s muddy walk that way.’
‘Does it have sample kits?’
‘What the hell for?’
‘DNA. We need to take samples from this lot and get someone to compare them to swabs from Drake Blackrod. He was the one attacked in the woods.’
‘You want to take DNA from werewolves?’
‘Mannwolves. We don’t use the w* word. We’ll take this one step at a time, okay? It’s too much to digest all at once.’
He looked at his arm, still dripping. ‘Isn’t it infectious?’
‘Definitely not. It’s hereditary, and this lot are all closely related.’
‘Will they let you take samples?’
‘If they’re innocent, and I think they are, then they’ll co-operate. But that’s secondary. Elaine’s the priority.’
‘At last!’ she said. ‘But I’m not going with her.’
‘No, you’re not, don’t worry. Just one question first: how did you find us?’
‘Seriously?’
‘Seriously. As Karina said, you’re not going to die just yet.’
‘I filched her phone in Tesco and loaded a tracking app, alright? Now can we go?’
Karina’s unhappiness plunged to new depths when she realised her part in this fiasco. I had specifically told her to turn off Location Services, and because she hadn’t, she’d led Elaine straight to us.
I took a deep breath. ‘Karina, go and get Rachel. Tell her to bring the minibus up to the compound. Move!’
When Karina had run off, I knelt down and put my hand on Elaine’s shoulder. ‘There’s a Witch in the lodge who can take you to Preston Royal. She’s a good person, she’ll make sure you’re taken straight into A&E. She also needs to get a takeaway.’
‘In the name of God, tell me you didn’t just say that a Witch needs a takeaway,’ said Elaine.
‘Put out your arms,’ I told her. ‘I’ll haul you up and take your weight. Tom can take the other shoulder. It’s not far.’
We made it to the compound, and I started to explain the logistics of my plan, steering clear of the magickal elements. As we limped round to the turning circle, the minibus bumped into view. I scanned the compound, looking for an ambush. We were being watched from the main door, but nothing was lurking behind the walls, and I know that mostly because Scout would have told me if there were.
Rachel executed a twenty-seven point turn and we loaded Elaine on to a double seat. Gretel stood with her hand over her mouth, staring at the arrow shaft sticking out of Elaine’s jeans, a little flow of blood welling up every time she moved.
Karina had one more thing to say before Rachel (no longer wearing the evil witch costume) drove off. ‘Tell the hospital it’s not barbed. It’s a field arrow.’
‘And I’m supposed to feel better?’ said Elaine.
‘You will,’ I told her.
Morton gave her hand a squeeze and stepped out of the bus. He closed the door and banged on the panel. Rachel drove off, more carefully now, and I turned to face Karina, but she was on the move. She ran over the grass to the pool, and I was too exhausted to follow her at more than walking pace. Tom and Scout tagged along behind me. ‘If you’re really unlucky, Tom, you might get to meet a mad water Nymph in a second.’
Karina took out her Badge of Office, the dagger with Caledfwlch stamped in the hilt. She raised it and spoke. ‘From the water to the water. From the water we came, and to it we return. I abjure this bond and return the mark.’
She plunged it into the pool, and there was another flash of light. I held my breath for a second, but Nimue didn’t appear. Perhaps she doesn’t do personal visits for Watch Officers. Karina pulled the dagger out of the water and stared at it; perhaps she was having regrets already, or perhaps she was wondering why the hell she’d volunteered in the first place.
‘Does that mean she’s resigned?’ said Morton.
‘From the King’s Watch, yes.’
She was still sitting on the wall around the pool when we got close enough for her to hand over the dagger, now sheathed. I accepted it and said, ‘Tell Tom what you did.’
‘He saw what I did. I’m sorry it didn’t save any lives, but I did it for the best.’
‘Not that. Tell him you disobeyed a direct order. I ordered you to shoot the Queen.’
‘Yeah, but that was wrong. She was trying to protect her children.’
There was nothing I could say to that. ‘Hand over your Middlebarrow token. Saskia and Evie will get your stuff for you and bring your car out. Report to Merlyn’s Tower on Thursday.’
‘I’ve quit. I’m going.’
‘You’re still in the Army, Karina. You’ll answer to the CO like any other officer. She might court martial you or she might just slam the door in your face. Be thankful it’s not my decision.’
‘And if I don’t turn up?’
‘Then you’ll be AWOL. Token, please.’
She handed it over. ‘What shall we do with her, Tom? Can you bear to have her in your car as far as Preston railway station?’
‘Why not make her walk?’
‘Because I want her to go to Birkdale and tell the princess what’s happened and what I’m doing, and that if Princess Birkdale makes a move against Clan Blackrod, she will be making a very, very big mistake.’
‘I’m still here,’ said Karina. ‘Why should I do what you want?’
‘Because it’ll make you feel better and it’s the right thing.’ She nodded reluctantly. ‘Tom? Will you take her?’
‘Will it save lives?’
‘Probably.’
‘Then I’ll do it.’
‘Good. Karina, take the Volvo and DCI Morton and get his car.’
‘Shall I do first aid on his arm?’
‘If he’ll let you.’
‘Will you be safe on your own?’ said Morton.
‘I won’t be on my own. I’ve got Scout. And two spare clips of ammunition.’
‘Right. Back shortly.’
When the Volvo had disappeared, I waved for someone to come out from the great hall. The pack elder, now dressed, made her way slowly down the path. ‘You’ve lost your second,’ she said. ‘And you’ve sent the others away. I volunteered to com
e out in case you’re going to start a cull. We don’t read, much, but we all know the stories of the Pale Horsemen, of the Thunder. Why are you here?’
The Thunder? That was a new one on me. I filed it away for the future.
‘Did your pack attack a Gnome in the Irwell Valley on Saturday morning?’
She shook her head. ‘Is that what this is about? A dead Gnome?’
‘Killed by a pack.’
‘Not by us.’
‘Then help me prove it.’
She nodded. ‘Tell me what you need.’
When Tom got back, we took enough samples to cover the different familial strains. Of course, it meant that they had to exchange forms. Believe me when I tell you that taking a saliva swab from a wolf is not pleasant. I did two, then Tom joined in. When he took his first swab, I had a vision, a flash of memory, of a taller man having his hand bitten off by a huge wolf. I jerked my hand back and looked again. Tom was simply dropping the swab into a sample tube.
I had a mission for Karina while this was going on: go inside and supervise making of tea. I trusted the pack not to harm us, but why put temptation in their way? With the samples in my car, Tom and I leaned on the wall and looked over the land. The pack were going to bring their Queen back and we’d be leaving shortly.
‘Did you talk to Karina before? When she was dressing your arm and going to get the car?’ I asked.
‘I did. You know my mother works for the Archdiocese of York, right?’ I nodded. Due diligence and all that. ‘Well, I asked Karina about her religion, and God. Or should that be gods? She told me some strange things, and she said that you’ve met at least two of these higher creatures.’
‘I have. Listen, Tom, did you get in touch with Rob Fraser?’
‘I did. He’s on his way down from Scotland.’
‘When you’ve been to the hospital, when Rob gets there, why don’t you pick up Lucy and come down to Middlebarrow for dinner.’
‘You’re not dragging Lucy into this,’ he said with some finality.
‘I don’t want to drag her into anything, but can you go home tonight and not tell her? Mina was still in prison when I was recruited by the Allfather. As soon as I’d survived my first mission, I had to tell her. Not just that, depending on how the next couple of hours go, we’ll need to do some planning.’
