by B N Miles
“You don’t have to do that,” he said, his voice soft.
“I know. But it’ll help. And it doesn’t matter, everyone already thinks we’re… you know.”
“Sleeping together.” Cam stepped forward, closer to her, and she tilted her head. She relaxed slightly, arms dropping, lips parted. “You’re… you’re important to me, Key. I’m not going to ask you to do something that’ll embarrass you.”
“You’re not asking,” she said. “I’m telling you that I’m going to help.”
He shook his head slowly and a smile crept to his lips. “If only we really were sleeping together.”
Her cheeks turned crimson. “Is that… something you want?”
He met her gaze and stepped closer. She backed off and pressed herself up against a tree. He still couldn’t bring himself to find the words.
So instead, he pinned her against the tree with his body and pressed his lips against hers.
They kissed for a long moment. She let out a soft moan into his lips and he grabbed her hair tight in his fist. He felt his body ache for her, his cock stiffened, his muscles tensed. But slowly, he broke the kiss off, his forehead lingering against hers.
“We have to go warn Dagan,” she whispered.
“I know.”
He didn’t move. She didn’t push him off. They stayed like that for several long moments before Key finally put her hands on his chest.
Cam took a step back and nodded at her.
“Come on,” he said.
She slipped her hand through his arm and they headed back to the column together.
19
Dagan looked between Cam and Key, a frown on his face, and slowly shook his head. “That’s an interesting story,” he said.
“I know,” Cam said. “But it’s a true one.”
“I was there. I know it happened.” Key’s face was neutral but intense.
Dagan sighed. “I’ll ignore the fact that you were visiting Cam in the middle of the night, Key. Maybe the village doesn’t need to know that part.”
Key blushed despite herself. “Thank you, Elder.”
“But Cam, do you really think that wolf warned you?”
He nodded. “She did. I’m sure of it. I don’t know why she did it or what she wants from us now, but the more I think about it, the more I talk about it, the more positive I feel.”
“Attacking today,” he said with a grumble. “Well, it makes sense. If they have a lot more, hit us right after they already wore us down.”
“I agree,” Cam said. “The problem is, what do we do about it?”
Dagan grunted and shook his head. “I don’t know.”
Cam glanced at Key. She frowned and looked out across the column. “Is there a better, more defensible spot we could go to?” she asked.
Dagan shrugged. “Perhaps. But I’m not sure how much that will help.”
“At least we can choose the ground,” Key said. “Find some good terrain, force the wolves to come to us.”
“And if they don’t?” Cam asked. “If they just wait us out?”
“I don’t know,” she said.
“And we’d lose more time,” Dagan added. “If we go off the path, moving those carts will be a big undertaking. They’re overburdened as it is and the horses are tired from pulling for two days straight.”
“We could leave the carts behind,” Key said.
“They have all our rations and supplies.” Dagan shook his head. “No, that’s not an option.”
“Then we’ll have to be prepared to make a stand at any time,” Cam said.
“I’m not sure how you plan on doing that.”
“Arm everyone. I have an extra spear, give it to the strongest woman we have. Arm them all, bows and staffs and spears. Any hand axes, any sickles. When the wolves come, we’ll be ready.”
Dagan let out a breath. “We can do that. But I don’t know how the villagers will take it. I don’t want people to panic.”
“They’ll take it fine,” Cam said. “You saw the women yesterday. They were firing more arrows and killing more wolves than we were.”
Dagan smiled at that and nodded. “True enough.”
“Arm everyone. And I think I have an idea for what we can do when the wolves do attack.”
He let out a breath and laughed. “Of course you do. So much like your father.”
Cam couldn’t help but smile at that. He felt a brief stab of pride, but forced himself to push it away. This wasn’t about him or his great ideas. It was only about saving the village, no matter the cost.
“Arm the people and send me a few warriors from each sentry post. I’ll explain my plan to them and let them explain to all the others.”
“I’ll get it done,” Dagan said. “Let’s just pray to the Urspirit that we still have time.” The Elder moved off, shouting orders at some nearby men.
Cam watched him go then fell into walking with Key. The column continued its slow march, though shouts moved down the line, and Cam could tell people were getting nervous.
“What’s your plan?” Key asked.
“I’m still working on it. But did you notice yesterday in the fighting, the wolves could get in under our spears?”
She nodded. “They were small, agile targets. Once they got past the line, they did a lot of damage.”
“Exactly. We need a solution to that, and I think I have an idea.” He hesitated. “How many sickles and hand axes do you think we have?”
“I have no clue,” she admitted.
“Let’s hope enough.”
She gave him a look then shook her head. Axes and sickles weren’t typically used for fighting. They were made from cheap copper, good enough for slicing through wheat and stripping small tree limbs, but not sharp enough to fight a man.
But they weren’t fighting men, Cam reasoned. They were fighting unarmored wolves, and a sickle or a hand axe could cut through fur and flesh just as well as tree bark or wheat. Their reach was shorter, so they could still be effective when the wolves closed ranks.
He only had to figure out exactly how they’d use them.
Key moved closer to him and leaned her shoulder against his. “Dagan didn’t seem to mind,” she said.
Cam glanced at her, frowning a little bit, then let out a little laugh. “You’re right.”
“In fact, he didn’t even seem surprised.”
“I’m not sure what you’re getting at.”
She shrugged. “I don’t know. Do you think the whole village thinks like he does?”
“I’m not sure it even matters anymore,” Cam said. “I think the village is more interested in not dying than they are in whatever we do at night.”
She snorted. “Not as if we’re doing anything.”
Cam took her hand in his, and it seemed to surprise her. There were people around, people that might see their exchange, but he didn’t care. “Come to me later,” he said, leaning down to whisper the words in her ear. “You know I’ve wanted you for a long time, Key.”
She stared at him, surprise on her face, although she shouldn’t have been shocked. He pulled away, a little smile on his lips. It felt good to finally say the words, like a burden had been lifted. And nothing melted away, none of his feelings disappeared. His desire for her was still a coal burning in his chest, the heat growing with every passing moment.
She blushed again and he loved it. She looked forward and nodded once. “If we live through the day,” she said.
“Good.” He squeezed her hand then heard his name shouted from back down the line. “I should go.”
She looked up, and for a moment he thought she might panic. But he pulled his hand from hers and smiled again.
“Yeah,” she said. “Good luck.”
“I’ll see you soon.” He turned and walked back against the column’s flow, leaving Key up toward the front, still walking forward.
He knew he needed to get himself straightened out. He couldn’t keep thinking about Key, not when the wolves we
re on the verge of attacking. None of that mattered with her, not right then, not truly.
Except it did, even if he thought he was selfish for it. Knowing that Key wanted him, would come to him after the fighting, would strip off her tunic, her breeches, and let him taste her body, knowing that made him want to fight all the harder.
He had so much to protect. Key, Theus, their parents, the village itself.
And all of it was worth his life.
20
Cam spoke with each warrior in turn, explaining his idea, and slowly the plan began to form. The men passed along the new formations as Dagan, Kraed, and a few others handed out as many weapons as they could. Men that hadn’t held a spear in twenty years were given hand axes. Older boys that were too young to fight in better days were given sickles. Women strung their bows and prepared themselves for what was coming.
The day was hot and stifling and the feeling around the column was tense. Cam took his position toward the back of the column, watching their rear with Kenden and several others. The group continued along the cart track and around a large bend, skirting the forest shadows.
Around midday, when the sun beat down on them like rocks from a cliff, Dagan slipped from between the carts and waved Cam down.
“I had a thought,” Dagan said.
“What is it?”
“The path here turns toward a spring. It’s a large one, and it skirts the path for a while. There’s a clearing up ahead, wide enough for the carts to circle up, with that spring right along its edge.”
Cam frowned slightly. “That would be a good spot to stop.”
“Not so protected that it would scare off the wolves. But the water would add a bit of protection, and the clearing would give us a better line of sight.”
Cam nodded and touched Dagan’s arm. “That’s good. That’s really good. Let’s stop there for an hour and see if we can draw them out.”
Dagan smiled and moved back off. Cam felt a strange elation in his chest, like just maybe they’d have a chance. Between his new strategy and their halfway decent positioning, maybe they could make this work.
The column rounded the bend and Cam could hear the spring flowing nearby. Sure enough, after another half hour of walking, they came to a wide clearing as the cart path moved closer to the spring. The forest still pushed toward the right of the column, but it had been cut back and receded along the side of the spring, growing unruly on the far bank but sparse on the near. It must have been a welcome spot for travelers taking the path up to the Mansion during normal times, a nice place to sit by the water and take a break before resuming the long trek.
The villagers circled the carts and settled in to wait. There was at least eight yards between the water and the forest’s edge. The spring made sure they wouldn’t be surrounded, or at least any attack from the back would be greatly slowed. It wasn’t deep, but the water moved fast and was freezing cold from the mountainous icecaps.
Dagan ordered the warriors to stay alert, but he didn’t have them all up and ready. Shields were placed in easy to grab spots, ready to be thrown over an arm, and bows and arrows were hidden all around the carts. Children ran to the water’s edge and played in the spring, and a few of the men took great gulping palms full of water, letting it trickle down their beards.
They were bait. They were all bait: the warriors, the villagers, the old women, and the young children.
Cam felt uneasy as he leaned up against a cart, his father’s sword on his back, the spear in his hands. His eyes scanned the forest and he saw nothing as the village tried its best to rest.
But he could tell the people were as anxious as he felt.
Minutes slipped past, slow and thick. Sweat beaded and rolled down his back. Theus joined him, though neither of them spoke. Cam could sense how tense Theus was, and he knew his friend sensed the same in him. After a while, Cam tilted his head slightly toward the man he’d grown up with his whole life.
“It’ll come soon,” he said.
“You’re sure?”
Cam shrugged. “I don’t know how, but I’m sure. We’re an easy target out in the open. They won’t resist it.”
He nodded and sucked in a deep breath then slowly let it out. “Better now than later. Better get it over with.”
Cam put a hand on Theus’s shoulder. He held it there for a long moment and looked at his friend. “We’ll get everyone through this,” he said.
Theus nodded once, his face tightening up. “We will.”
Cam dropped his hand and leaned back to wait. He caught Dagan’s eye not long later, and the Elder just nodded as he moved past, inspecting the men, speaking soft words to a few here and there, trying to keep their spirits up.
Cam reached for the calm he’d felt the last battle. He tried to drop down into that dark meditation, into that flow state. It was there, just on the edge of his awareness, but he couldn’t seem to slip inside completely.
Maybe it was the buzz of anxiety in the air. It crackled on his skin. He could see people around him, shifting foot to foot, bodies tense, faces hard.
The moments before battle. And this was a fight none of them expected to survive.
He clenched his jaw and leaned forward on his spear.
A cry went out. A woman on one of the carts, he thought it might have been Theus’s mother. “Wolves in the forest!” the voice shouted.
That was enough to get everyone moving. Cam snatched up the nearest shield and marched forward toward the tree line, Theus on his right hip, Kenden on his left. They formed a line and Cam stared at the woods, his body alert, sweat slowly sliding down his back. He thought he felt Kenden trembling beside him, but he was heartened to see Theus staring straight ahead with a steady and calm gleam in his eye.
He saw the motion then. Just the flickering of shadows in the underbrush. The bushes shook, leaves trembled. The birds no longer called out as silence descended.
The men formed their lines. The stream formed a barrier to their back, so they took up four lines in a half moon shape, blocking the carts. More men filled in the central space, the young men and the old with their hand axes and their sickles. There were a few women scattered in the group, wearing long skirts and scarves tied into their hair. Any woman that didn’t have a bow was holding a short weapon and formed up behind the lines of shields and spears.
Cam felt a sudden moment of doubt. His plan was simple and straightforward, but he wondered if it would be enough. If the wolves broke their lines and made it into the center of the half-moon formation, the young, the old, and the women would be ripped to shreds. They weren’t trained to fight, weren’t ready to face a Were in single combat.
The leather armor chafed against Cam’s body and the spear felt like a boulder, but he forced the uncertainty away and reached for that block again.
And for a moment, he touched it as the wolves appeared in their own ranks at the edge of the forest, fifty years from their lines.
Cam sucked in a sharp breath. He heard other men whisper curses and pray.
There were so many, at least as many wolves as the first time. Maybe more than that. They were ranked deep, their bodies bristling, and they came forward at a slow walk.
“Hold the line!” Cam shouted. “Hold it! For the Ur, for the village! For the glory of the Mansion!”
More men took up the cry and shouts rang down the line. Cam braced himself and felt Kenden and Theus do the same as the wolves began to charge their position.
21
Arrows flashed out from the carts behind them as the women perched up top began to loose them. They fired as quickly as possible, releasing three volleys as the wolves tore their way across the field, their lithe bodies plowing through the tall grass. Cam dug his back foot in and clenched his jaw, preparing for the smash of bodies as the wolves continued on.
Some tripped and staggered as their companions took arrows and went down. The volleys managed to thin out the initial rush, but Cam could see more wolves spilling out behind the fr
ont line, filling the field with snarling, screaming Were flesh.
“Brace!” Cam shouted and the men on either side of him dug in. He heard Theus curse and growl something as the wolves closed the distance.
Cam rocked back and thrust his spear forward as the animals came into range. His bronze tip caught flesh and tore down the jaw of a screaming wolf, ripping through the side of its face and skull, splattering gore across the flanks of the animals behind it. Theus’s thrust struck home, spearing through a wolf’s chest. He grunted as the weight of the animal nearly knocked him back, but he held his footing.
The first wave of wolves impaled themselves on their spears, but the second line kept coming. They were slowed, and the impact against Cam’s shield wasn’t the full-on charge he’d been expecting. He tried to tear and thrust again, but the wolves had gotten too close, and their snarling, screaming mouths snapped against his shield as he leaned his weight against it, holding them back.
Theus shouted something and slashed. Kenden screamed, pushing back. Cam couldn’t see the rest of the line; the world was nothing more than wolf barks and Human screams. He caught flashes of arrows flying overhead, heard more screams of pain, as the wolves pressed against their shields, the mass of their flesh threatening to overwhelm them.
“Now!” Cam shouted. “Now, now, now!”
He felt bodies press up from behind him. A young boy, no older than thirteen, slipped into the gap between Cam and Theus. He thrust a sickle up beneath the shields and the wolf snapping at Cam’s face screamed as the weapon hit home. An old man stabbed overhead with an axe, slicing a wolf’s jaw. All along the line, the second wave of young and old villagers began slashing and stabbing and hacking at the wolves with their shorter weapons.
Cam and the warriors around him formed the shield, the barrier, holding the wolves at bay while the lighter, unarmed villagers slashed and screamed and fought.
The weight of the wolves seemed to drop back for a moment as the young boy, his long hair flying wild, his gray tunic splattered with red wolf gore, screamed and stabbed again. His arms were so spindly, so skinny, and Cam wondered briefly how he had the strength to break through the thick wolf pelt with that curved copper hand sickle.
