by Kal Spriggs
Vuk's accent was rather more pronounced, Aerion noticed. Vuk had taken off his heavy coat and Aerion saw the man wore a leather jerkin with metal rings sewn onto it. He also had a curved blade tucked through his belt. "I can't say the same," Aerion replied. "Tell me, where are you and your men from?"
"Us?" Vuk said with a smile, "We are merchants, travelers from afar, you might say." From the snickers of several of his men, Aerion doubted that was the truth of things. Vuk's men were a mix, many wore leather jerkins, some with bits of chainmail sewn over their vitals. All of them had weapons, either swords or hatchets or iron-banded clubs. Bandits, he thought, or worse... maybe spies for Hector or some of his mercenaries who deserted.
"I really don't think this place is as bad as you make it seem," Vuk said with a smirk. "Tell me, do most refugees believe your ghost stories?"
"They aren't stories," Aerion snapped. "I'm trying to save your lives."
"Of course," Vuk nodded. "And I'm sure the spirits could be appeased with some kind of sacrifice? Maybe some coin... or perhaps a few good-looking women?"
Aerion shook his head, "You clearly don't understand. This place isn't safe, not for you, not for anyone. If you stay here, you'll die."
"I don't think you understand, boy," Vuk said with a sneer. "We've got things pretty good here. Nicer than we've ever had it, anyway." He sipped at his goblet and then looked down at it. He snapped his fingers, "Mina, more wine!"
A woman swept in from the next room. Aerion's eye went wide as he saw her, stripped to little more than a thin bit of cloth around her breasts and with a skirt that barely hid the cheeks of her backside. Even with the fire, the room wasn't warm enough for that attire, even if modesty hadn't made her cover up.
Mina poured more wine into Vuk's goblet with a smile, yet Aerion could see how she trembled, either with fear or cold. Something is very wrong here, Aerion thought.
She finished and Vuk slapped her on the backside, "Out, woman, we're talking important matters here!" She didn't look up as she hurried out of the room.
Vuk had noticed Aerion's gaze, "Ah, Mina's a fine looking girl. There's others, too, in the other refugees, who just haven't grown hungry enough to come here yet... but soon."
Aerion's eye narrowed at the implication. It sounded as if Vuk had deliberately starved some of the refugees in order to convince their women to...
"Look," Jarek said, "clearly you don't believe in this threat. We'll lead those who are willing to go as soon as the storm passes." Aerion bit his tongue. Clearly Jarek hadn't realized that Vuk had set himself up as lord of the manor here. As such, he wouldn't like it if they took away his serfs.
"No," Vuk shook his head. "They stay. Furthermore, gentlemen I think that we've discussed all that we can. I think it's time--"
Pounding at the front door interrupted whatever he was about to say. "Vuk, Captain Swordbreaker!" A young man's voice shouted. "Marek says to come quick! There's something moving outside the gate!"
Vuk's face darkened with anger at the interruption. Someone opened the door and a younger man stumbled in, "There's something out in the storm, some kind of beast, maybe more than one!"
"Nonsense," Vuk snarled. "Nothing would be out there in that mess. We're doing important things here and--"
A howl, much like a wolf's but deeper and somehow more menacing rang through the village. A moment later, it was matched by another, this one further away.
Vuk's face had gone pale. He looked at Aerion, "Wolves should not be abroad in this kind of storm," he said.
A third and a fourth howl sounded, ever more distant. Aerion shook his head, "Those aren't wolves."
***
Aerion joined Walker and several of his men at the gate. Marek stood, trembling at the palisade gate, his eyes big. "Sir," he pointed, "I saw it moving out there." The wind had quieted some and now the snow fell more or less straight down. Visibility was up and Aerion could see much further, though with the way the snow fell, it might be days or even weeks before it looked to stop.
Even as he thought that, something loped out of the storm, big as a horse and covered in thick, black hair. Its wolf-like head hung low and it stopped, only a dozen yards from the gate, jaws agape. "What is that," Walker said, his high-pitched voice filled with shock.
"It's a Kariskir," Jarek said. Aerion and the others looked at him and Aerion could see the nobleman's face had gone pale. "They're sorcerous beasts, they live near the Black Fortress, bred by Aktan the Black to patrol the lands, there. I fought one with Lord Jack and his company once."
"How dangerous are they?" Aerion asked.
"It took ten of us to kill the one. Even with arrows in it and a spear buried in its guts, it still killed three men before Lord Jack was able to land a killing blow," Jarek said. "I'm told they sometimes hunt in packs, three or even four... I have no idea how they are so far away from where they should be." The Karaskir stared at them with intelligent eyes, a gaze that held far too much calculation for Aerion's liking.
The wolf-like beast tilted its head back and howled. Up close that howl sent shivers through the pit of Aerion's stomach. It was a primal thing, so much like that of a wolf, yet filled with dark intelligence.
More howls echoed back through the storm. First one and then a second came back, close enough that Aerion knew the creatures couldn't be more than a few hundred yards distant. Then, though, there was a fourth, this one to the north... followed by a fifth from the south.
More howls joined in and each time Aerion and the others turned their heads in that direction, each growing fainter in distance, until the last one was only just at the edge of hearing.
"You said four at most!" Walker hissed. "That sounded more like twenty!"
"Apparently I was wrong," Jarek said a note of fear in his voice.
The Karaskir tilted its head back and gave another howl and then it dashed forward, jaws agape.
Aerion would never have expected something so big to move so fast. Yet even as he thought that, he stepped forward into the creature's path, shield braced. It smashed into him with force that should have toppled him and then crushed him into bloody ruin under its paws, but the runes on the shield softened the blow into one that merely staggered him and bounced the creature back onto its haunches.
Aerion gave a shout and then swung his blade. The Starblade's broken length cut through the creature's thick hide and the Karaskir let out a yelp as hot, black blood gushed forth. A moment later, Jarek thrust in and his blade bit deep into the creature's side. "Spears!" Aerion shouted, "Bring up spears!"
The Starblade flared with light as it touched the creatures' blood, a sure sign that whatever this thing was, it wasn't natural.
The Karaskir leapt forward and its jaws snapped shut on Jarek's shield and then ripped it away. As Jarek stumbled back, Marek rushed forward with his spear, burying it in the creature's flank. The beast spun, faster than Aerion would have thought possible and its jaws slammed on the spear, shattering the wood and leaving Marek with just the stump of it.
Aerion swung his sword down on the back of the creature's neck as it prepared to lunge for Marek. The Starblade cut through hide, bone, and flesh and the creature's head dropped, still attached to the body by only a thin bit of meat and hide. A steaming spray of black blood erupted, covering Aerion and the others.
To Aerion's horror, the beast staggered back, stumbling and retaining its feet, dragging the mostly severed head for several yards, until it finally dropped to its knees, leaving a vast trail of black blood.
Aerion nearly dropped to his knees, his stomach revolting at the thick smell of the creature's hot blood. Yet as he looked past it, he saw other figures loping forward out of the storm. Three, four, and then six. Each of them as big as the first.
"Close the gate!" Aerion shouted. He turn and ran for the palisade gate, then got his fingers behind it and pulled. The heavy snow stacked up against it meant that even with his strength, the gate barely moved.
Walker and then mo
re of his men joined him, straining at the wooden frame. It groaned and then, slowly, it began to move, a huge wave of snow pushed in front of it.
Marek and two others got behind it to push, bracing themselves and the gate closed faster. Outside, Aerion could see the pack of Karaskir break into a run, racing at the gate. We're dead if they all get in here, he thought.
The last few feet were a race, as they slipped and slid through the snow, shoving the gate close with everything they had. One of the Karaskir got its head through just as they slammed it and Aerion heard its neck snap, yet the creature's jaws still snapped open and closed at him. The gate bounced open a bit from the impact. Aerion gave a shout and then hacked down into the creature's neck with his sword. Once and then twice. Black blood gushed forth and he shouted, "Close it!"
This time the gate slammed closed. Marek and a couple other refugees fumbled with the bars as Aerion and his men held it shut against impacts that rocked the entire structure.
"Aerion," Walker shouted from above, "you need to see this!"
Aerion rushed to a ladder and then climbed onto the platform over the gate. Two of Vuk’s men stood there with Walker, their faces pale with shock and their hands trembling. He didn't bother to ask them why they hadn't fired the crossbows they carried.
A dozen of the Karaskir paced just outside the gate, now and then one would put its front paws up on the palisade wall, and its head would come just short of the wall itself. A pair of them had dragged the corpses of their fellows clear of the gate. To his horror, they started to rip the bodies apart, wolfing down chunks of meat and staining the snow with the black blood. A moment later, the rest of the pack joined them, in a feeding frenzy that soon left only a broad stain in the snow.
The biggest of the creatures then loped forward and stopped, sitting on its haunches. It stared at Aerion, its meaning clear. We're next, he thought.
***
"Is there any other way inside?" Aerion asked as they all gathered in Vuk's house. This time Aerion had brought Walker, as his First Sergeant, as well as Sergeant Millar and Sergeant Gorich, his section sergeants, in addition to Jarek.
Vuk's eyes narrowed and he looked over at Senko. "No. No there isn't."
Aerion didn't trust that. "We'll need to search, make sure the palisade is intact." He gave silent thanks for the fact that Dawnspring had a palisade. Watkowa Village and many other villages didn't. Without that defense, most of the village would have already been overrun. "Sergeant Millar, have your section do a sweep. Make sure the wall is intact and that none of those... things made it inside."
He looked at Sergeant Gorich, "Get your men ready, we're going to have to post guards and your section will take first shift. I don't know that those things can jump the wall, but they seem smart enough to try something. I want all our people in groups of at least four." He didn't know if four men would be enough to deal with one of the monsters, but he figured they would last long enough to at least give warning.
"Vuk, I'll need you and your men to help with guard shifts," Aerion said.
"Us?" Vuk said with shock, "We're not soldiers, we didn't sign up for that sort of thing!"
Aerion glared at him, "Vuk, those things won't care if they get inside. They'll tear us all limb from limb and devour us. The only important thing right now is that we all get out of this alive. I'm not asking you to go out there and fight these things, just to help keep guard against them."
Aerion looked at Jarek, "I need to know everything you know about these things, my Lord."
"Honestly, that isn't much," Jarek hesitated. After a moment he spoke, "They're based off of wolves, but bred for intelligence and ferocity." He paused and then gave a shrug, "I had been told that they can scent blood from a long distance. They're drawn to battlefields and slaughterhouses over long distances. Lord Jack said they came down out of the high mountains on cold winters in packs, but they're so violent that they rarely work together for long. They need meat and lots of it to survive."
"Okay," Walker said with a nod. "That's good news. Maybe we can wait them out, get them to turn on one another."
"No," Aerion shook his head, "that's bad news. They need meat... we're the only big animals around for a hundred miles. No livestock, no other towns... just us. These things will stick around because they know we're here... and we don't have months of food to wait them out."
They had brought food for the refugees, but only a few weeks worth, enough to get them back to Zielona Gora. In fact, there were more of them than expected. They didn't have time for an extended siege by the creatures.
"Trapped in a cursed village," Walker muttered, "surrounded by giant wolves." He looked at Aerion, "This is your fault, you know."
"Thanks," Aerion said and rolled his eyes. "Everyone get to it. Marek, Vuk, I need you to stay here, I need to see what kind of supplies and resources you have."
He waited while the others left. Aerion nodded at Marek, "Well?"
"We have some food," he said with a glance at Vuk. "A few weeks if we space it out. Vuk has control over it, though, along with most of our weapons."
Vuk bristled at that, "I have only safeguarded the food for everyone's benefit and I took away the dangerous weapons to cut down on crime."
Right, Aerion thought, or more like so that no one could challenge you or your men. "How much supplies do you have?"
"Not enough for everyone," Vuk said with a glance at his men. "Not for long enough to change things."
"Show me," Aerion said, tired of the hedging. This had become a matter of life and death. From what Aerion had seen, Vuk had lorded over the other refugees. He had some stash of food that he hoped would last him and his men, then Aerion would have to force him to share it.
"No!" Vuk said. "You just want to to take it for yourself!"
Aerion stepped forward and loomed over the man. "Don't make me repeat myself," he said.
Vuk shrank back from him, yet there was something in his green eyes that didn't look at all submissive. "Fine, fine," Vuk whined. "Senko, lead him to the basement."
Senko stared a them, "But Vuk, that's not--"
"I said do it!" Vuk snapped.
Senko seemed to shrink on himself and then he looked at Aerion. "Follow me," he said.
"Want me to come, Captain?" Jarek asked.
Aerion glanced at Jarek, tempted to send him out again, but then he simply gave the man a nod. He followed Senko into the kitchen, where Mina stared at them with a nervous expression. Two other women, both as scantily clad as her, worked at cooking. They froze as the saw Aerion and Jarek. One of them looked like she was about to speak up but then Senko stepped forward, "Back to work!" He snapped.
All three women hurried back to their work and Senko gave Aerion and Jarek a sly grin, "Come, I'll show you to the basement," he said and gestured at the stairs.
"You first," Aerion said.
Senko's smile vanished. His eyes darted between Aerion and Jarek, "Of course," he said. He took a burning brand out of the fireplace and held it up with a smirk, "For light."
Aerion didn't respond, but he did follow the wiry man down the stairs. The stone staircase was narrow, but the stone steps showed good craftsmanship. The stairs went deeper than he had expected, at least thirty feet below the ground, and ended at a heavy wooden door. Aerion's one eye went wide as he saw the steel reinforcing bands on it. Perhaps it had been the merchant’s strongroom, though even if that were the case, it would have cost a fortune to build the room.
Senko opened the door and them stepped inside, his brand guttering in the dark, "Come, yes?"
Aerion started forward but Jarek caught his arm, "I don't like this," Jarek hissed.
Aerion shook his hand off. His anger with the man flared up, "Then don't come. We need to see what they have, lives depend on this." He strode forward before Jarek could respond. He walked past Senko and into the room. His eye narrowed as he tried to take in what the flickering light showed.
The room had an oddly alien loo
k, with five walls that didn't quite match up, rising to a series of arches that held up the rock above them. The shape of it made his head hurt. He saw no signs of boxes or crates. What he did see was an altar of some kind, with a bowl carved into its stone surface and an odd, eight-limbed woman carved into the stone above the altar. "What is this?" Aerion asked walking closer. He saw red stains, soaked into the stone. This is a place of sacrifice...
"Look out!" Jarek shouted.
Aerion spun, just as Jarek blocked Senko's lunge at him with a dagger. Senko swung the brand into Jareks face and the nobleman stumbled back with a shout of dismay as sparks flew everywhere.
Aerion let out a shout as the room sank into darkness. He drew his sword and stepped forward, just as he heard the door slam and the sound of a heavy bar being dropped into place. "Damn you!" Aerion shouted and hurried for the door. He beat on it for a moment, only to hear Senko's mocking laughter.
"Your legends of a spirit are the babbling of fools," Senko hissed though the door. "Our mistress, Shivenkaru, has taken this place for herself. It was her who consumed the spirit of this village, just as she devoured the souls of the peasants who lived here... and just as she will consume your souls."
"I will get out of here," Aerion said. "And I will kill you."
"Death is a release," Senko said. "The door and the rest of her shrine are strengthened by her. You won't leave that place alive if you fight her. Soon enough she'll turn you against your friend. That's the only one of you will live... only the one who dedicates himself to her, who swears into her service and sacrifices the other in her name will leave this place alive!"
***
Chapter VIII
First Sergeant Walker
Dawnspring, Duchy of Masov
15th of Annat, Cycle 1000 Post Sundering
Walker stepped in out of the cold and nodded at Sergeant Millar and Sergeant Gorich, "How do things look?"
