Quarter Square

by David Bridger

  As dawn broke, the wolves settled into groups of hairy lumps, all ears and limbs. Their breathing slowed, and twitches and subdued dream yelps indicated they were sleeping.

  This was what I’d been waiting for. “Ready to do a runner?”

  “Let’s go.”

  We both made a move at the same time, but before I could get to my feet, she grabbed my arm. “Look.”

  The bodies of several wolves stretched into unnatural positions. Within seconds the whole pack was a writhing, twisting, bone-grinding, skin-stretching, moaning mass, and all that was visible was a hideous mix of fur and twisted flesh. The change happened quickly, and none of them even woke up. By the time the first sunbeams shone through the canopy above, the Axe had returned to their human forms. They slept peacefully, cuddled together in pockets of innocent nakedness.

  “Maybe we don’t need to run after all,” Min said.

  “Are you serious? Do you think it’s safe to hang around?”

  “I do. I don’t know how they became werewolves or how long ago it happened, but I’m certain they will never harm us while they’re in human form, no matter what else they’ve become.”

  Shad stood tall, stretching his arms high and wide as he gave a mighty yawn. I wasn’t in the least surprised to see he was hung like a fire hose. He disappeared inside his hut and reappeared, tying his loincloth, then strode directly across the compound in our direction.

  Min and I shrank back as a shadow fell across the gap at the edge of our door curtain and Shad’s voice came through.

  “Did you sleep well?”

  Min thrust the curtain open. “How were we supposed to sleep? You know it’s a werewolf that hunts us. You must know this from your history.”

  Shad narrowed his eyes.

  The sounds of the waking village roared in comparison to our silent face-off.

  “We thought you knew.”

  We ducked through the doorway into the open air. Min raised an eyebrow at him, and he cast his eyes down.

  “If we knew you were unaware of what we have become, we would have prepared you.”

  “I know you would.” She touched his shoulder and smiled. “So prepare us now.”

  His relief at her forgiveness was evident. “The story tells of a youth coming home from a journey. He left as a boy and returned as a wolf.”

  “Does the story say how he got bitten?”

  He shook his head. “Only that it was of his choosing.”

  I doubted that, for sure.

  “When the people saw how the change made him strong and improved his hunting skills, they all wanted the same. They held council and decided to take the bite.”

  Min and I shared a dubious glance but held our peace.

  “We became strong warriors.”

  “You already were strong warriors,” Min protested. “I’ve always been proud of the Axe.”

  Shad basked in her approval and beat his chest once with his fist. “Stronger than before, even.”

  “So you thrived.”

  “We did. Since long before the days of my grandfather, we have been the fiercest warriors of the forest. This makes us prosperous and safe.” He spread his arms wide to take in the whole village.

  “I’m…glad for you,” Min said, avoiding my eye.

  “Come. Today we feast in your honour.” He took us to the long hut.

  I squeezed Min’s hand and murmured, “Village hall.”

  “Yep.”

  When we walked through the entrance, about half the tribe were assembled inside, singing a tribute to Min, worshipping her in song. An appropriate form of worship for a goddess with music magic.

  Chapter Thirteen

  Shad linked arms with us as we walked down the central aisle between tables and benches filled with people. “I understand your fear last night, but we would never hurt you.”

  Min and I shared a glance.

  “Believe me, the Axe will always protect you, with our lives if necessary.”

  He escorted us to a pair of matching thrones. I took my seat beside Min as if I’d been doing it all my life, and grinned when it occurred to me that I had, in fact, been doing this all my lives.

  Shad returned to the doorway to talk with a group of people, and I took advantage of the lull to study the hall. It was oval-shaped and of similar construction to the domestic huts, but with two upright supporting poles instead of a single central pole.

  Beside the nearest upright pole stood two life-sized wooden statues of godlike figures. The female bore such a resemblance to Min that it took my breath away.

  She smiled. “The other one is a pretty good likeness too.”

  The other carving was male with a full beard, naked but for a loincloth.

  “Me?”

  “You’ve always loved your face fur.” She studied the statue. “That was you the last time we visited the Axe. They think the world of you, you know. They respect your wood magic.”

  Her eyes widened. “D’you know what? I think they’ve settled here permanently now they’re, you know…”

  “Werewolves.”

  “Yes. And I suppose that’s why they’ve stopped using sign language. Wolves can’t sign when they hunt.”

  The hall filled with people who joined the hymn to Min, except for two newly arrived women who conducted an animated conversation with Shad and Anya.

  When the entire tribe had assembled, Shad brought his urgent conversation to a close, and the group took their places on a raised platform opposite our thrones. Everyone except Min and me was singing their hymn. The rhythm, melody and harmonies were pleasant.

  The hymn came to an end, and Anya sang on alone. Hers wasn’t the most tuneful voice present, but it was powerful and the song was striking.

  Min nudged me. “That’s the protective ward.”

  Anya finished with a single shouted word, and the people repeated it.

  Min looked over her people with love and affection in her eyes. Then she started to sing.

  I couldn’t take my eyes off her, and I shared the adoration the Axe tribe felt. I’d never heard anything like this in my life. Not in this life anyhow. I didn’t understand her words, but their rhythm sounded familiar, and they stirred memories inside me like smoke stirred in the air.

  Her voice soared. The emotional journey I’d experienced when listening to her in the garden the previous week was nothing compared with this. She took me to new places inside, lifted me and showed me visions of such splendour that they removed conscious thought from the process of seeing them. I felt the visions but knew no words to describe them and didn’t try to find any.

  Min sang for a long time. I had no idea if the Axe people could understand the words any more than I could, but one thing was sure: everyone was entranced by her voice. I wanted to hug them all. Her song filled me with love. My heart swelled, and my mind soared. It was a holy experience.

  Eventually she lowered her voice and nodded discreetly to Shad, who raised his arms for attention. At the same time Min returned to the hymn the people had been singing when we entered. Shad circled his hands once, then lowered his arms, and the people followed his signal and joined in the song.

  Smiling, Min sat down, and after one more round of the melody Shad brought the song to an end.

  Min linked fingers with me, and I felt fit to burst with love.

  “Eat!” Shad roared.

  Everyone burst out laughing, and Min hugged me.

  When breakfast arrived on wide platters, the people dug in as if they were famished. Their metabolisms must be amazing.

  Shad invited us to step down from our thrones, and we sat with his family at the top table, where Anya introduced us to their daughters, Vua and Tae, the powerful warriors who’d spoken to Shad and Anya before the ceremony. They continued their hushed conversation with their mother while everyone else shoveled food, and during a lull in the clamour, one of them said something that sounded like Tyac.

  “What did you say?” I couldn’t hi
de my alarm, and several people glanced over. “I’m sorry,” I said more quietly. “What was that word you just said?”

  Vua checked with Anya, who blinked her approval.

  “Last night some of our people found the tracks of an unknown creature around our perimeter. This morning Tae and I went out to check them.”

  Tae continued, “We think it is Tyac.”

  Min’s ears pricked up, and she turned from her conversation with Karn. “Tyac?”

  Vua nodded. “His legend comes down to us alongside yours. We know of no other creature that could have left those tracks.”

  “Is he hunting you?” Anya asked.

  “Yes.”

  “We will protect you.” Anya’s sounded calm and self-assured.

  I shared Min’s confidence in these people and their wholehearted commitment. They would do everything within their power to save us from Tyac. But I also understood her concern about involving them in our troubles.

  A light draught blew across my back, and Min and I shivered in unison.

  Anya spoke to a boy, who brought us short, lightweight woollen cloaks. I tied mine loosely around my neck. It kept the chill off while leaving my arms free to move. Other people in the hall wore similar garments, so I didn’t feel odd, even though they reminded me of bed jackets old women wore in historical dramas on television.

  Anya tied one around her neck too, and I couldn’t help noticing again how gorgeous she was. The werewolf gene had made everyone strong and healthy.

  Was it a gene? Or was it a virus? Was it permanent, or did they have to pass it on to each new generation by biting their children? And did they change every night or only at full moon? I guessed we would find out if we stuck around long enough.

  My old terror of wolves, which occupied the forefront of my mind whenever I thought of Tyac, had mellowed into curiosity around the Axe. They were such loveable people—when they weren’t being wolves. And even when they were, probably.

  Min returned to her conversation with Karn, and I listened as she told him about the war party I’d heard a few nights ago. “I guess it’s the usual tension between Tin and Hare, yes?”

  Karn grunted through a mouthful of food.

  Min turned to me. “There’s this feud between two families which has been going on in the Wild since the Norman invasion. The Hare family of Dartmoor Forest is headed at present by Queen Fiona, while King Owen rules the Tin family from Bodmin Moor. In the beginning it was open warfare, but they reached an uneasy stalemate about five hundred years ago. Not so much a war these days as a power struggle.”

  Shad interrupted. “It’s been war these past ten years.”

  She sighed. “Has it been bad?”

  He roared with laughter. “Bad? No, it has been very good.”

  People laughed along with him, and he beat the table with a huge fist.

  “Good for the Axe. We are famous warriors in this war. Tin and Hare bid against each other to recruit us for their battles.”

  Things had changed even more than Min had thought.

  Shad leaned into Min. “This is why the bite is so good for us. We flourish. Nobody can beat us.”

  “What caused war to break out again after so long?” Min struggled to sound anything but dismayed.

  “It started with a skirmish between people from two fishing villages on opposite sides of the River Tamar. You know the Hare have always controlled the River Plym and the Tin family controlled the Tamar?”

  “Yes.”

  “Well, Tin still holds the Tamar upstream, but Hare aims to take the wide stretch near where the river meets the sea.”

  Min and I mouthed Plymouth to each other.

  Shad nodded enthusiastically. “Yes, in the outside it is Plymouth. And Hare wants it.”

  Min clutched his hand on the table. “They’re not going to invade the outside?”

  “They are. There is an in-between place in Plymouth, on the edge of the outside, that Queen Fiona plans to use as a base. If she can take this place, this…” He looked to Anya for help.

  “Quarter Square,” she said.

  “If Fiona can take this Quarter Square, she will have a broad corridor for her troop movements from the Wild to the outside and gain full control of the harbour. Then she will push upstream. It is a good plan, a bold plan, but it will fail.”

  Grinning at us, he enjoyed the anticipation of our next question.

  I couldn’t wait any longer. “Why will it fail?”

  His chest swelled with pride. “Because we will fight for Tin against Fiona. Any day now. We are waiting for the word to take Quarter Square and stop the Hare advance.”

  Min’s voice shook. “Shad, please…this is terrible.”

  “What, Min? What is terrible?”

  “Quarter Square has been my home for years. The people who live there are my family.”

  Shad’s confident grin dissolved, and an attentive hush spread across the hall.

  Min’s eyes filled with tears. “Please, Shad, I love those people. Will you help me find a way to save them?”

  Chapter Fourteen

  The breakfast feast became a war council. Everyone in the tribe had a say, although some voices carried more weight than others, but there was no strong dissent. Only a short time passed before Shad declared his decision.

  “We will help Min. We will fight to defend her friends in Quarter Square against Hare and Tin.”

  The ragged cheer that followed had hardly started before it was interrupted by a new voice from the doorway.

  “We will, will we?”

  Smiling in greeting, the people parted for a tall, massively brawny man with a presence as powerful as his physique.

  “Ban.” Warriors growled his name and clapped him on the back as he passed.

  After sweeping his gaze across Min and me, he embraced Anya and left his arm around her shoulder when he fronted up to Shad. “What is this, now? We are going against Tin?”

  Shad’s nod was emphatic. “We are going to fight against Tin and Hare if we have to.”

  Ban arched an eyebrow. “Then you have picked the right time to do it. I ran through the night with Owen Tin’s message. He orders us to take Quarter Square tonight.”

  A murmur passed through the crowd.

  Anya sat, holding on to Ban’s hand over her shoulder. “My little brother,” she told Min. Love and pride shone in her eyes.

  “Tonight?” Shad asked. “So the Hare will be moving into Plymouth soon?”

  “They are moving now. They will attack an hour before dawn tomorrow.”

  Anya craned her neck to peer up at him. “King Owen knows Hare’s plans very well.”

  “He has spies in Fiona’s camp. And Fiona has a spy in Quarter Square who has told her of increased tension in the settlement. I do not know what has occurred in there, but something has set the wind blowing.”

  “It’s Tyac,” Min announced. “He attacked us in Quarter Square a few days ago. We escaped him, but it created an uproar. I bet that’s what they’re talking about.”

  She bowed her head to Ban, who returned the greeting.

  “Min.” His eyes met mine. “Cayal.”

  “Who is the spy in Quarter Square?” Min asked.

  “I do not know. If I had a name, I would give it to you.” He turned back to Shad. “We should talk.”

  They walked from the hall together, two impressively powerful men in the prime of their lives, and left behind them a groundswell of anticipation.

  Min reached across the table and touched Anya’s hand. “What will happen?”

  “Exactly what Shad said.”

  “Ban doesn’t seem very happy about the change of plan.”

  “Ban will do what is best for the tribe.” Anya’s pride shone again. “He always does. Part of his job is to discuss plans with Shad and suggest other ways to look at a thing. Ban is our beta.”

  “Beta?” Min asked.

  “Is that like a second in command? I thought that would be you
.” I hoped I wasn’t stepping on anyone’s toes, but Anya clearly exercised personal and social power.

  “I am alpha, as Shad is alpha. Neither is above the other.” She grinned fiercely. “And Shad is the last person who would ever forget that.”

  “So what’s a beta?” Min wanted to know.

  Anya frowned. “It is difficult to find a single word. He makes things happen. If there is trouble between people, he stops it. He is strong, and he makes trouble go away.” She shrugged. “Yes. Like that.”

  “This is all new to me,” Min said. “The Axe never had anyone perform such a function before.”

  “We are wolves now.”

  Wolves. For the first time in my life I wasn’t scared of them. Tyac was a different thing altogether. He was still terrifying, but he wasn’t a wolf. He was a monster. The people of the Axe were genuine wolves, and around them I felt safe, protected and at home.

  Ban wasn’t happy. Not one bit, and he made no effort to hide his displeasure. He submitted to Shad, bowing his head for the alpha to place a hand palm down on top of it, but his shoulders were hunched in anger and his face was dark. He avoided making eye contact with Min, while glowering in my direction. His tribe was in danger, both from Tyac in the next few hours and from a betrayed and vengeful king further down the line. And we’d brought the danger.

  But he’d accepted Shad’s decision—which was also the majority decision, and I didn’t know which of those held more weight—and he’d accepted the task Shad and Anya had entrusted to him.

  “Ban is going to shepherd the youngsters and mothers with babies by a different route,” Anya explained. “He will come to us in a wide circle to protect them and keep them well clear of Tyac.”

  Because Tyac would be coming to us. I shuddered.

  Min squeezed my arm.

  “Hang on.” The implications of Anya’s words dawned on me. “Everyone is coming to Quarter Square? You’re all leaving this village?”