by K. Panikian
“I picked up the rock and I vanished, along with my cohort, and reappeared in a strange forest. I didn’t recognize the trees or the mountains. I feared that the Varangians would fall on me in my confused state, so I took my cohort away from that place. We found a cave and we hid.”
Orus bent his head further. “I sent some of the besy out of the cave to find food and to scout. Some did not come back. The azhdaya broke her chain and escaped. I took the todorats and Femor and we tracked her to a lake, where we found her blood but no body. On our way back to the cave, another huge blast shook the earth. When I reached the cave, I found it destroyed and my cohort gone. There were four humans there.”
“Varangians?” Lord Abaddon asked.
“I do not think so, sire,” Orus answered. “They were not in mail and their clothing was odd. They had lights emanating from their heads.
“At that point I decided that I had to risk returning to the place where we entered the strange forest, even if the Varangians were there waiting with more peculiar magic. We went to that space and the rock in my sword began to glow. A door opened and I returned here, just a few miles from the encampment.”
“This is a very strange story,” Lord Abaddon mused. “I must think.” He rose from his chair, his horns scraping the tent ceiling.
“Go now and recover your strength from your ordeal. I will seek counsel with the Black God.”
“Thank you, sire,” Orus said as he backed out of the tent, bowing. He caught one last glimpse of the lord’s giant bull head, before the tent flap closed.
Abaddon stood for a long moment. If he was going to call Chernobog, he would need a sacrifice.
He called back the small, hairy bes to his tent, and said, “Bring me the balachko, Femor.”
Part II
Chapter 21
Owen lay on his back on the living room floor, his clothes in tatters around him and his wolf sword by his right hand. I kicked the sword away and knelt by his head.
“Owen,” I whispered. I felt the pulse in his neck beating steadily. His chest rose and fell in even breaths.
“Julian!” I yelled in the direction of the kitchen.
“What’s all the racket?” he said, coming around the corner with a beer in one hand. “I heard a crash,” he stopped when he saw Owen on the floor, then hurried to my side. “What happened?”
“He turned into a wolf-man, and then he fainted,” I stated succinctly.
“A wolf-man? And I missed it! Darn it,” Julian answered. I gave him a flat look. “Like what do you mean by wolf-man?” he asked.
“He had the head of a wolf and the body of a man. He spoke to me in his own voice, out of the mouth of a wolf. He turned back into a man when he dropped the sword.”
Julian eyed the sword on the floor a few feet away warily and moved closer to me.
Owen groaned and we both focused on him. His eyes blinked open slowly and he stared at the ceiling for a beat, before rolling his eyes around the room. He saw Julian and me on the floor next to him.
“Did I faint?” he asked. “I felt really strange for a minute. My vision was weird. My body felt stretched or something. Then everything went black.”
“You turned into a wolf-man!” Julian answered, excitedly, and then added, “I missed it.”
Owen looked very confused so I told the story again. He looked at the sword near his foot and gingerly slid his body away from it.
I sighed heavily and then explained. “Obviously, this is your power from Mesyats. You’re a wolf berserker. Your trigger is your wolf sword.”
“What’s a berserker?” Owen asked, sitting up.
“A berserker is a warrior who fights in a frenzy of rage. Some of them turn into bears, or wolves,” I added, gesturing at Owen. “In battle they go mad, feeling no pain and striking with super strength.”
Owen started to smile, looking excited.
“They go mad,” I repeated. “They rage, they bite their shields, they howl, and they cut down everything in front of them, without discriminating between good guys and bad guys. When they pass out at the end of the battle, they sleep for days to recover.”
“Well,” Julian said, “those are just the legends.”
“Lots of legends are based in fact,” I retorted and stood. “I’ve hit my capacity for today. I’m going to bed.” I walked away.
As I left the room, I heard Owen ask, “Why would they bite their shields?”
“Well…” Julian started to answer.
I went to my room.
IN the morning, I was still trying to find my equilibrium, and mostly failing. On one hand, we’d killed ten of the besy in one strike and impressed a god. On the other hand, we had a new, impossible task to complete, to figure out a way to shut the gate permanently. Plus, we had the addition of the foretelling that more besy would soon be coming through the portal, and a teammate who was probably going to kill us all in a frenzy of insanity and bloodlust.
I practiced some deep breathing and then checked my email. I sent a message to my parents last night before I went to bed that all was well and I had a new response from my dad asking for more details.
I called the farmhouse and when my mom answered, I felt immeasurably calmer. I told her everything and, in the end, she said simply “I’m proud of you, sweetie. You’re doing an amazing job. You’ll figure this out.”
It helped. I hung up and felt like I was ready to face the day. I showered and then made my way to the kitchen. It was empty; I felt relieved. I ate a quick bowl of cereal and then snagged the keys to the rental SUV.
In town, I found a hunting and fishing store near the road that led to the national park. I went inside and bought two game trail cameras, plus a pile of batteries. The sales clerk, who thankfully spoke English, wanted to know what kind of game I was hunting. I didn’t tell him, “monsters.”
When I pulled into the garage, Owen opened the door to the house and came out to the SUV. I frowned at him, feeling anxious all over again. He grabbed the bags for me and I followed him into the house. I dumped them out on the kitchen counter and started opening the packages. Owen opened the batteries and began helping. We worked in awkward silence for a couple of minutes.
Finally, I asked, “How are you feeling?”
He answered right away, looking at me with a tentative smile, “I feel great! I slept like a log all night. You?”
“Worried,” I answered. I looked into the living room and saw the wolf sword was gone from the floor. I asked Owen what happened to it and he said he picked it up while wearing a glove and nothing happened, so he put it away in the garage.
“Next time,” I told him, “I don’t think you should touch it without giving everyone a heads up first. I’d rather not be murdered in my bed by a berserker wolf. At least if I know you’re coming, I’ll have a fighting chance to kill you first.” I smiled sweetly at him. Owen took a step back. Hmm, maybe my sweet smile needed some work.
“I didn’t feel insane last night,” he finally said. “I think we all need to keep an open mind about what this means.”
He was right. I nodded at him and we finished getting the batteries in the cameras and receivers in silence.
When we were done, I explained that I wanted eyes on the portal clearing. I got two cameras because I wasn’t sure if the magic still emanating from the center of the crater, that Zasha’s science team picked up on, would distort the camera signal. I figured we could put one camera in the clearing, focused on the gate, and the other camera a little way back in the woods, watching the main trail.
“That way, at least,” I said, “maybe we’ll get a heads up when the next group of besy come through.”
Owen thought it was a great idea.
“I don’t know if it will work at all though,” I said. “Zasha told Theo that her team tried to take a couple of satellite pictures of the crater, and none of the pictures worked. The images were so distorted, you couldn’t see anything.
“But right now, it’s my on
ly idea for getting eyes up there. Other than actually camping in the snow, which I don’t really want to do unless we have to.”
“Let’s go up now,” Owen said. “Theo and Zasha haven’t emerged yet, and Julian and I were up pretty late talking, so he’s probably still sleeping hard.”
I thought about it. My initial impulse to say I wanted to wait for Julian or Theo was childish. Owen was right; I needed to keep an open mind.
“I’ll leave the sword here,” he added, seeing my indecision.
That clinched it for me. It would be foolish to muzzle what was possibly our greatest weapon because I was nervous about potentials. So far, all of the evidence pointed to Owen being a rational, thinking creature when he transformed. I had to proceed with that evidence and not make decisions based on my fears.
I said, “Okay, let’s go. And bring your sword.”
I watched Owen pick up a pair of gloves from the mudroom, slip them on, and then go out to the garage to strap on his sword. I wrote a note on the pad on the counter for the guys and followed him out, strapping on my knife as well. I put the two cameras in a backpack and we slid on our helmets to hit the trail.
When we got to the crater, I motioned for Owen to stop while we were still in the trees at the edge. I crouched in my snowshoes and waited. I wanted to look first for any new tracks. I could see the trail coming out of the northern side of the clearing, where the group of besy walked out of the woods last night. I didn’t see any other tracks that looked new.
“Okay,” I stood up and turned to Owen. “Do you see any trees with nice, low branches?”
We found one tree on the east side of the clearing that had good sight lines into the crater bowl, so we set up one camera there. The other we set up about a quarter-mile away from the clearing on our snowshoe path. Hopefully, it was close enough that it would pick up that blue pulsing light while also staying out of range of any interfering magic.
As we walked back to the snow machine, Owen fell in beside me on the trail. The pommel of his sword, with its snarling wolf face, was right beside my gloved hand. I took a half-step away. Owen saw me do it and his face looked hurt for a moment, and then went blank. He paused and motioned for me to step ahead again.
“It’s not that I don’t want to walk next to you,” I told him quickly. “I’m nervous about the sword.”
“You think if you touch it, you’ll turn into a wolf too?”
“I don’t know. This entire situation is unfamiliar to me. It makes me really nervous to be around unknown magic.”
“I think that’s a little close-minded, Very,” Owen responded. “And short-sighted,” he added. “I should be experimenting with this power so that we can use it, not hiding from it. It’s a gift from a god!”
“Have you read any Greek myths?” I retorted. “The deceptive gift is a very common plot line. Pandora? Midas? Gifts from gods come with strings.” My voice had risen and I tried to temper my tone back down.
“I’m worried about you and I’m worried for you. I would just like you to be more careful, I guess,” I finished. “Please, no more surprises for a little while.”
“You’re worried about me?”
Of course, that was all he heard.
“I’m worried that you’re too reckless. I think you’re acting like you have something to prove and you’re taking big risks.”
“Big risks lead to big rewards,” he countered. “I feel like now I can be an actual asset in this fight.”
“And what if that’s all you are now? A weapon? What if you can’t control this? What if you go insane?”
“That’s a lot of what-ifs,” Owen sighed. “Okay, what if you whistle at me the wrong way and set me on fire? Being with someone special means taking risks. I think you’re worth it.” We walked in silence for a moment.
“I hope you’re worth it,” I finally muttered back.
“I like that you’re worried about me,” he answered and smiled down at me. We started walking again and he grabbed my gloved hand in his own.
BACK in the kitchen, we turned on the receivers for the cameras. They both seemed to be working. In one we could see straight into the center of the crater and in the other, the snowy trail through the woods.
“Where is everyone?” I wondered aloud after we were done playing with the receivers. It was pretty late in the morning. I checked my note on the counter and saw Julian added a line about going for a run.
I peeked down the hall and saw Theo’s door was still shut.
“We need to have a council of war, but I guess it can wait,” I said to Owen. “Do you want to go in the backyard and experiment with your sword?”
“Yes,” was the emphatic response.
A few minutes later we were in the back. I was in my coat, hat, and gloves and Owen was stripping and shivering. His toes looked blue in the snow.
“Let’s check your clothing and foot sizes when you transform,” I said, “so we can get you clothes that won’t rip apart.”
“Yeah,” Owen answered, teeth chattering. “Good idea.”
I sat on the steps of the deck, my saber in my lap, and nodded at him. “Ready when you are.”
Owen bent down and picked up the wolf sword. He held it loosely in his right hand. Nothing happened. He stood there for a few more moments before looking up at me on the deck. “Ideas?”
“What were you thinking about last night when you transformed?”
“I guess I was a little bit mad, maybe worried too… Um, a little disappointed.”
We waited some more.
“Did you say anything out loud? Touch anything specific on the sword?”
“I realized I was still wearing it and I went to unstrap it. I reached down, gripped it just under the crossguard and then changed my grip to the pommel.” He touched the wolf’s head and, in a flash, transformed.
He grew about a foot in height and wider all over. His arms and legs became muscled to the level of almost-grotesque. There were lots of veins. His shoulders in particular were massive and thick.
His head had dark gray fur that extended down his neck—his ruff? —all the way to his upper torso where it turned into skin again. His skin was gray though, all over.
His eyes were yellow and his ears swiveled this way and that. His mouth opened, sharp teeth gleaming, and said, “How do I look?”
“Extremely scary,” I affirmed. “How do you feel?”
“I feel like myself.” He paused. “I’m not cold anymore.”
“Maybe instead of clothes we get you some armor for your chest, and a kilt, like Anubis, so when you transform it won’t rip,” I mused. “Your feet are definitely bigger. Take one big step into that snow there,” I pointed to a pristine patch, “and we’ll measure it later.”
He stepped and then started moving around the yard, stretching his arms, swinging his sword. “I feel really strong,” he said, “like I could chop a tree in half.”
“Are you feeling urges to chop things?” I asked.
He bared a wolf grin at me. “Not yet.”
“I want to see what happens when someone clashes swords with you, but I don’t want to do it alone. Let’s try that later with Julian. You’re probably similar strengths now.”
“Okay,” the wolf answered. He started jumping in place really high, then dropped to do push-ups. He sprang to his feet again and then did a handstand for a long moment. Show-off.
“Do you have stronger senses? Can you smell better? What about your hearing?”
Owen paused and let his eyes go distant. His ears swiveled again and he inhaled deeply through his nose.
He took a giant stride toward me, “You smell delicious,” he growled.
I jumped to my feet. “Like food?” I asked backing up a step.
“No, not like food,” he answered, still growling, but he stopped moving forward. He cocked his head and said, “I can hear really well too. Theo is snoring.”
“Okay, I think we’ve experimented enough for now,” I sai
d and Owen instantly dropped his sword. He morphed back into a man in a blink and dropped to his knees in the snow, head bowed.
I hurried to his side and he waved me off. “Just give me a second.”
I waited nearby and after a few minutes, he stood again, shivering. He looked pale. I handed him his clothes and his boots and he slowly got dressed, staggering a couple of times. I pulled him up onto the deck and pushed him into a chair; he sat, tilted his head back in the sun, and closed his eyes.
His breathing evened out and he looked peaceful. I wasn’t sure if he was asleep or not, so I stayed quiet. We sat together for a while. I looked down into the snowy river valley and imagined what it would look like in the summer. I bet it would be breathtakingly green.
I turned to look at Owen and thought about what he’d be doing in the summer. Maybe getting ready for college, far away from me.
I stared at his handsome face for a long moment and his full lips curved into a smile. “See something you like?” he asked and opened his eyes.
I licked my lips and his eyes blazed in response. He pulled me out of my chair and into his arms. He skimmed those lush lips across my cheek and then kissed me. I parted my lips and dissolved into the sensation of his mouth on mine. He growled and crushed me to him, deepening the kiss. I curled my body into his and slipped my hand under his sweatshirt, running my fingers along his smooth skin and then gripping the muscles of his chest. I licked my way into his mouth and twisted my body, pulling him even closer.
He slipped his hand inside my shirt and rested it against my stomach, his thumb brushing the underside of my breasts. I gasped.
He broke the kiss, “That’s it.” He stood and hoisted me into his arms. He carried me into the house and down the hall. Theo’s door was, thankfully, still closed. He pushed open the door of my bedroom and dropped me into the middle of the bed. He stood there, breathing heavily, and said, “Yes or no?”
“Yes,” I said and he shut the door.
A little while later, as I traced patterns across the warm skin of his back with my fingertip, I asked, “What happens in battle if you get disarmed? You’ll transform back to a man and pass out.”
