The Call of Ancient Light

by Ben Wolf

  All five of them jumped to their feet and drew their weapons.

  Out of the darkness emerged a mass of gray-and-brown fur with four legs, two light-blue eyes, a black canine nose, and sharp white teeth.

  The Wolf had returned.

  Chapter Thirty-Five

  When the Wolf emerged from the shadows, Calum had expected Lilly to cling to his arm or take cover behind him—or worst case, she’d cling to or hide behind Axel instead of him.

  But instead of doing either of those things, she snatched her bow into her hand, nocked an arrow, and took aim at the Wolf.

  At first, Calum didn’t know how to react. He glanced at her, looked at the Wolf, then repeated the motion until Axel took Lilly by her arm and pulled her away. She glanced at him, confused, then relaxed the tension in her draw.

  “Get behind me, Lilly.” Axel ushered her back, then stepped between her and the Wolf with his sword in hand.

  Calum shot a glare at Axel, but he didn’t seem to notice.

  “There’s no need to be alarmed.”

  Calum blinked. Had the Wolf actually just spoken?

  Magnus stepped forward. “You are not welcome here, thief.”

  The Wolf growled at him, low but more annoyed than threatening. “Believe me. If I could be anywhere else, I’d be there. But you know the Law as well as I do.”

  Axel shifted his stance. “Law?”

  A sharp sigh exhaled from the Wolf’s mouth. “You humans created the Law—or at least your King did—and you don’t even know it?”

  Axel eyed Calum, but he could only shrug. He was still trying to figure out how the Wolf could talk. Magnus had called them intelligent beings, but he hadn’t mentioned they could talk too.

  “He means the Law of Debt.” Magnus lowered his sword but didn’t sheathe it. “If anyone saves the life of another, the one rescued is indebted to the rescuer for the remainder of his life. Not as a servant, but as a comrade.”

  Calum smirked. He’d saved the lives of both Axel and Magnus multiple times, and they’d saved him as well. Apparently that meant they were indebted to each other forever.

  Magnus focused on Calum and smiled. “And as a friend. The bond is only broken upon mutual release, death, or betrayal—and betrayal is only acceptable if one party becomes an agent of evil. As children, Saurians are taught this Law above all others. I suspect it is the same for the Wolf tribes.

  “Even so, not everyone subscribes to or follows the Law strictly, which is perhaps why you have never heard of it,” Magnus continued. “And your upbringing in such a remote area of Kanarah was doubtless a hindrance as well. In any case, the Law is upheld by those who choose to do so, and it is incumbent on the one who was saved to accept the terms or not.”

  The Wolf nodded. His voice flattened, and he stared at Calum. “So… I’m here to fulfill my duty.”

  Calum raised an eyebrow, but he also lowered his sword. “And since I saved you from Magnus’s sword, your duty is to me?”

  The Wolf nodded again, somehow managing to frown—another thing Calum didn’t know Wolves could do. “Yeah.”

  “Do you still have any of the property you took from us?” Calum asked.

  “Um… no?” The Wolf squinted at him. “Why would I?”

  “So you spent all the coin and ate all the food?” Axel glared at him.

  The Wolf tilted his head. “A dog’s gotta eat.”

  Calum sighed, sheathed his sword, and stared into the Wolf’s sky-blue eyes. He motioned toward the rest of the group. “We’ve all saved each other more than once, but no formal obligation binds us. So I release you from your debt, if you so desire.”

  “I… uh…” The Wolf glanced between them. His eyes lingered the longest on Axel, who still held his sword in his hands as if he meant to cleave the Wolf in two. “I guess I’ll be going, then.”

  Magnus followed suit with Calum and also sheathed his sword, and so did Axel. Lilly replaced her arrow in her quiver, and Nicolai sat back down near the fire. His new sword, one he’d taken from a dead slave trader to replace his old meat cleaver, hadn’t even made it out of its sheath.

  After a few steps, the Wolf turned back. “You know, I could be of use to you guys. I’m fast. I can hide in the dark. I’m good at stealing stuff.”

  “Yeah, we figured all of that out already,” Axel said, his voice edged with sarcasm.

  “You said you would rather be anywhere else but here, yet now you do not wish to leave?” Magnus asked. “Which is it?”

  The Wolf’s mouth hung open. “Well, I mean… I don’t have much else going on.”

  “So you figure you’ll just stay here with us?” Axel folded his arms.

  The Wolf growled at him then sat his rear down like any normal dog would. He was definitely larger than any normal dog Calum had ever seen, but he didn’t strike Calum as being especially large for a Wolf. In fact, he seemed somewhat on the small side from what Calum would’ve expected.

  “Seems you could use someone like me in your group, especially if you actually wanna get to Trader’s Pass.”

  Calum glanced at Magnus. “What makes you think we need to get to Trader’s Pass?”

  With another sigh, the Wolf rolled his eyes. “I just overheard you talking about it. Plus, I heard you talking about it the night the Saurian almost killed me. And the night you let me steal your first bag of money. And the night you killed the sabertooth cats. It’s pretty much all you guys talk about.”

  Calum held up his hand. “Alright, we get it. You’ve been following us for awhile now.”

  “And robbed you twice, successfully.”

  Axel huffed. “And you failed once, spectacularly.”

  The Wolf growled at him.

  “Let’s get back on topic,” Calum said. “You’re right that we have to get to Trader’s Pass. If you’ve been listening to us, then you know what we’re up against. So how can you help us get past the King’s soldiers and to the pass?”

  “Simple,” the Wolf said. “There’s a secret path to get there.”

  Axel tilted his head. “There is?”

  “No,” Magnus said. “If there were another way to access the pass, I would have known about it.”

  The Wolf scoffed. “I don’t think I’d be calling it a ‘secret’ path if a lot of normal people knew about it.”

  Magnus folded his arms. “What makes you presume I am normal?”

  “Alright,” the Wolf said, “what makes you different from any other Saurian?”

  Magnus didn’t say anything.

  The Wolf raised one of his front paws, just like a dog begging for a treat. “It’s like I said: the path is secret.”

  “Then how do you know about it?” Axel asked.

  “It’s how I got here from across the valley without drawing a lot of attention to myself. Also, some of my tribe helped dig the tunnels long, long ago.”

  “Tunnels?” Calum looked at Magnus. “There are tunnels?”

  The Wolf growled. “Shouldn’t have told you that. Look, even if you find them, there’s only one path that actually connects from Kanarah City to Trader’s Pass. The rest? Well, you’d probably rather not find out where they lead.”

  “Wait, wait.” Axel held up his hand. “You said the secret path leads to Trader’s Pass. Now you’re saying it’s in Kanarah City? I thought we were gonna bypass Kanarah City.”

  “Then you thought wrong.” The Wolf shook his head. “I never said I could help you avoid Kanarah City. I said I could help you get to Trader’s Pass via a secret path that very few people know about. You access it through the city’s sewers.”

  “He’s right,” Lilly said.

  Everyone turned toward her.

  “Roderick and his men brought me over the valley on Trader’s Pass along with some other slaves. At one point, they blindfolded us and took us on a secret path. I knew we’d gone underground by the horrible smell and the lack of wind, and we eventually wound up in the city’s sewers before they brought us out. He’s t
elling the truth.”

  “Nicolai?” Calum asked. “Have you ever been in those tunnels?”

  Nicolai shook his head. “No, but Roderick and some of the other slave traders mentioned them a few times. I joined after they’d already made it over to this side of Kanarah, literally only a few days ago. My opinion? I think he’s telling the truth.”

  “Well, no one asked you,” Axel sneered.

  “Cut it out, Axel.” Calum shot a glare at him. “Nicolai made mistakes, but you need to start treating him like a member of the group nonetheless.”

  Axel scowled back at him. “Whatever.”

  Nicolai gave Calum a grateful nod.

  “I’m… not touching that one.” The Wolf gave Lilly a nod. “She’s right that some slave traders have been known to use the secret path.”

  “Helps them avoid the King’s soldiers, right?” Calum said.

  “It would be awful hard to bring slaves through Kanarah City’s west gate.” The Wolf scratched behind his left ear with his left hind paw. “It’s not unheard of, though. Certain guards will accept bribes, for example.”

  The five of them stared at the Wolf.

  “But… that’s not really pertinent right now, I guess.”

  “How far does the tunnel go?” Magnus asked. “Where in the sewers does it start, and where does it end?”

  “Depends on which direction you’re going.”

  Magnus glared at him. “You know what I am asking.”

  The Wolf exhaled another sharp sigh. “You access it through the sewers on the western side of Kanarah City, and it ends about five miles along the pass.”

  Magnus turned to Lilly. “Does that sound about right?”

  “I can’t say for sure on the distance, but the stench down there started out like death and gradually changed to more of a sewer-type stink before they brought us above ground,” she replied. “And it took several hours from the time we entered the tunnels to the time we got out.”

  “Like I said, though, you need a guide to make sure you don’t go the wrong way.” The Wolf stood on all fours and walked past the campfire toward one of the bags of food. He pawed at the opening with his front right paw until an apple fell out onto the ground.

  Axel snatched it away before the Wolf could get a bite and then he cinched the bag shut. “That’s not for you.”

  The Wolf growled at him. “Don’t you think that all the information I just gave you is worth one little apple?”

  “Sure, puppy.” Axel held the apple out in his hand, but yanked it away when the Wolf tried to take it with his teeth. “Ah, ah. Do you know how to play fetch?”

  The Wolf half-barked, half-snarled at Axel, who startled, dropped the apple, and jumped back. The Wolf bit into it, reclined back on his haunches to lie on his stomach, and dropped it between his front forelegs.

  While Axel swore and cursed, the others chuckled. Axel’s glare landed on each of them before it stalled on Nicolai.

  “No, I don’t play fetch.” The Wolf licked his chops. “Just be glad I’m not insisting on meat instead.”

  “Don’t ever do that again. You hear me?” Axel pointed his finger at him, but the Wolf just rolled his eyes and started gnawing on his apple.

  “What else is in those tunnels?” Magnus asked. “The ones that don’t lead to the exits?”

  The Wolf raised his head between bites. “Whatever it is, it’s not something nice. Better if we don’t run into it. I’ve heard of men going in and never coming back out, and the ones who survived to tell about it weren’t in great shape, either.”

  After a long pause, Calum looked at Magnus. “Well, what do you think? Can we trust him?”

  Magnus released a long sigh through his nose. “I do not like him, and I do not trust him. I think he is a treacherous cheat and a thieving fleabag who—”

  “You do realize I’m sitting here in front of you, right?” The Wolf eyed Magnus. “Even if I didn’t have exceptional hearing, which I do, I could still hear everything you’re saying about me because you’re standing like five feet away from me”

  “—but I think he may the only chance we have for getting to the pass without causing a ruckus that could get us killed,” Magnus continued, unfazed. “Right now, I cannot conceive of a better option. I say we do it.”

  Calum nodded. He faced Axel.

  “Don’t look at me.” Axel held up his hands. “My response is going to be the same as usual: whatever.”

  “What about you, Lilly?”

  She shrugged. “I don’t want to mess up your plans or anything, but I want to get home. If you’re telling me that going through the west gate won’t work—well, I’m not thrilled about going back into those tunnels, but I’d rather do it with all of you.

  “Besides that, the trip across the valley is too long and too dangerous for me to make alone, and since you’re already planning to head across, it makes sense for us to stay together. After my escape, the King’s soldiers might be looking for me, too, so a few more blades on my side wouldn’t hurt, either.” Lilly concluded, “So I’m in.”

  “Any thoughts, Nicolai?” Calum asked.

  “Uh…” Nicolai stared at him, and Axel scoffed. Nicolai glanced at him for a moment then refocused on Calum. “I’m just along for the ride. No one wants to hear what I think anyway.”

  “That’s not true,” Calum said, specifically to spite Axel. “It’s like I just told Axel—you’re a part of this group now. It means you have a say.”

  “I agree. Tell us your opinion.” Magnus’s reptilian gaze fixed on Nicolai.

  Nicolai swallowed and ran his fingers through his curly black hair. “Based on what you already told me about your run-ins with the soldiers in Kanarah City and before that, I don’t think you—we oughta risk running into them again.”

  “So you’d rather take your chances with whatever’s killing people in those tunnels?” Axel folded his arms then nodded at the Wolf. “And with this Wolf, who robbed us twice?”

  Nicolai shrugged. “He didn’t rob me.”

  “No, I guess he didn’t.” Axel scowled at him. “It’d be too ironic for a thief to rob a bandit.”

  “I think it’s clear what we’ve decided.” Time to change the subject before Axel got any more riled up. Calum looked at the Wolf. “What’s your name?”

  “Riley.”

  Calum moved next to him and extended his right hand. “Welcome to the group, Riley.”

  Riley stared at Calum for a moment, then he sat up, reached out his right front paw, and placed it in Calum’s open palm. “Glad to be here.”

  “How soon can we leave?” Calum asked.

  “How soon will you be ready to go?” Riley lay back down and chomped into his apple again.

  The next morning, Commander Anigo and the soldier with him crouched on the edge of a rock face. Far below them, six figures moved through the sunlit trees. He couldn’t quite make them out, though he thought he glimpsed a Wolf traveling with the group, three men, and a distinctly feminine shape with blonde hair and pink armor.

  When he noticed a set of vivid blue armor covering a green torso and tail, he knew he’d found them. They were heading north, toward Kanarah City.

  But Commander Anigo and the soldiers in Kanarah City would be ready for them.

  He got up and led the soldier to their horses. They mounted them and galloped down the mountain with abandon.

  Soon he’d bring them all to justice. Soon he’d be restored to his former glory in Solace.

  The trek from the mountains back to Kanarah City took a couple of days, and the group waited until nightfall again before they tried to re-enter the city. Riley knew a secret way into the city through an old drainage tunnel, so they avoided both the gates and the soldiers who stood guard there altogether.

  They half-walked, half-jogged through the city under the moonlight. A few people moved about in the streets, but far fewer than in the daytime. Those who did were mostly drunks, vagrants, and beggars. Thanks to Riley’s
knowledge of the city’s standard patrol routes and times, they managed to avoid running into any soldiers as well.

  Riley led them on a complex but covert path to the city’s west side through secluded back alleys and in the shadows of buildings. He finally stopped at a rusty iron grate at the bottom of a hill with a large pit just beyond. The opening behind the grate was barely wide enough for two large men to walk through if they stood side-by-side.

  Calum’s nose threatened rebellion at the stench. “This is the way into the sewers, I take it?”

  Lilly’s nose wrinkled. “I recognize the smell.”

  Riley let out a short, sharp sigh, something Calum had grown accustomed to but still didn’t appreciate. “Yes, Calum.”

  “This is an overflow outlet,” Magnus said. “Reptilius has a similar setup. If the area ever floods and the sewage rises, it flows out here and wherever else it gets too high, and it fills that pit. The stench is perpetually foul, but it keeps the sewage from ever rising to street level.”

  Axel tugged on the grate, and it barely moved. “You’d need at least two strong men to get this thing open. How did you get in and out?”

  “I only came out of there once, and I haven’t gone in back since. When I did come out, I waited for someone else to come along, and I just snuck out behind them before it could close. I think they were slave traders.”

  “It does not behoove us to waste any time. I would rather the soldiers—or anyone else—not realize what we are doing.” Magnus reached for the grate. “I will open it, and you five can go inside. Then I will ensure it shuts behind us.”

  What would’ve been a challenge for Calum and Axel looked easy when Magnus did it. While Nicolai gawked at him, Magnus pulled the heavy grate open, hefting it over his head with ease and holding until all of them made it inside, and then he shut it in perfect silence.

  Calum extended his hand toward Riley. “Lead the way.”

  Commander Anigo dropped a small pouch into Wandell Thirry’s hand. “Your cooperation is much appreciated, Mr. Thirry.”

  “It’s my pleasure, Commander.” Thirry stirred the silver coins inside the pouch with his index finger adorned with a silver ring that shone under the moonlight. “And we agree that you’ll make an introduction to your replacement when he arrives from Solace?”