by Gunhus, Jeff
Daniel .
He looked up at me but his grin disappeared when he saw the expression on my face. Suddenly he looked nervous. Really nervous. He could tell that his name was the one I was hoping for. Nothing could have made me happier than to have the chance to go one-on-one against him.
“In that case,” I said flatly, “I accept. Let’s do this.”
“You shouldn’t do this,” Eva said. She had walked me off the field back into the dorm, Will and T-Rex right behind her. I pulled out my armor from my travel bag and started to put it on.
“I know,” I said. “But your boyfriend didn’t leave me much of choice, did he?”
“My boyfr…is that what you think?” Eva stammered. “Anyway, that’s not the point here, is it?”
“What is the point then, Eva?” I asked. “Because if there is one, I’d like you to get to it because I’m about to get my butt kicked by the biggest jerk in this school. Even though I never put my name in, by the way,” I said, directing the comment at Will. I struggled to tie the straps that held my armor in place down my side.
Will had hovered around the edge of the conversation until now. He stepped up and pulled the straps tight for me. “You mean you really didn’t put your name in?”
“Of course not,” I said. “For the same reasons I asked you not to do it.”
“Then why are you going through with it?” Eva asked.
“Because I said I would,” I answered. And because I’ve wanted to take a swing at Daniel the moment I saw him put his arm around you, I wanted to say but didn’t.
Will pulled the last strap tight and handed me my helmet. “Sorry I doubted you like that,” he said. “Won’t happen again. I promise.”
I clapped him on the shoulder. “Just make sure to pick up all the pieces of me when we’re done.” I turned to say something to Eva, but when I looked over at her, she was already gone. “I hate it when she does that,” I said.
The entire Academy gathered around the front gate. Daniel arrived, flanked by Darter and Midge. He was dressed in a loose winter camouflage over black body armor and was equipped with an arsenal of weapons. A sword at his side, a bow and quiver of arrows on his back, and a heavy, barbed spear in his hands. I looked down at my solitary sword and suddenly felt naked.
Daniel walked up to me until he was so close I could feel his hot breath on my face. “Are you ready, Smith?”
“The name’s Templar,” I said. “Yeah, I’m ready. What are the rules?”
“The only rule you need to know is that the better man always wins,” Daniel said only loud enough for me to hear. “Always.”
“Do we fight here?” I asked.
Daniel laughed. Raising his voice, he played to the crowd. “No, out there,” Daniel said, pointing beyond the walls. “This is a special trial of my own making. Are you ready for it?”
The assembled hunters yelled and cheered. Daniel basked in it.
“All right,” he shouted. “Here it is. The first hunter to track and defeat the targeted monster and return to the Academy wins.”
Eva stepped forward and spoke low enough so the younger hunters couldn’t hear. I was close enough that I heard every word. “Aquinas would never agree to this if she were here. She doesn’t want him in harm’s way.”
“But she’s not here, is she?” Daniel growled. “And I’m in charge until she returns.”
“Exactly, so you shouldn’t leave the Academy unguarded,” she said.
“I’m not,” Daniel smiled. He turned to the assembled crowd. “Eva will be in charge while we are gone.” He turned to me. “Unless you’ve had a change of heart?”
“Not a chance. What’s the targeted monster?”
Daniel bellowed, “The targeted monster is Tiberon, King of the Black Wolves. Neither of us can return until he is eliminated as a threat.”
The crowd roared in delight.
“No…that’s not what…” I said.
“You can still withdraw, Smith,” Daniel hissed. He leaned into me so no one else could hear. “You’ll be branded a coward for the rest of your life. You can serve mashed potatoes with your Ratling friends and wash the dishes of real hunters. If you don’t have the stomach to do what must be done, then you can just quit.”
“You set this all up, didn’t you? Ever since you found out I had contact with Tiberon.”
Daniel leaned in closer. “Are you in or are you out?”
“Out. I’d rather be called a coward than be part of this.”
“And how about Eva?” Daniel whispered. “She vouched for you. If you refuse the trial, she will be punished along with you. Are you willing to see her stripped of her ranking?”
“Why are you doing this?” I asked. “Why is this so important to you?”
“Last chance, Jack Smith!” Daniel shouted for everyone to hear. “Are you in or are you out?”
My mind whirled. I tried to see all the angles at one time, but every thread I pulled led to a terrible outcome. Withdraw and hurt Eva. Compete and lead Daniel to Tiberon. Even winning the trial meant killing Tiberon. There was no solution, so I chose the option that simply gave me more time to think. “I’m in,” I said. “I’m in.”
The crowd cheered as Daniel hefted one of two already packed backpacks onto his shoulders. I walked up to the other and hefted it onto my back. Whatever was in there was heavy. If it was food, it seemed as if we were expected to be gone for a while.
When I turned around, Will, Eva, and T-Rex were standing in front of me. By the looks on their faces, I decided I might be in more trouble than I originally thought.
Eva spoke first. “If you’re doing this for me, don’t. I’m asking you to withdraw. Do you think I care about my ranking?”
I shook my head. There was no way I could do that to her.
The crowd cheered louder as Darter led two horses out from the stables. A massive black Percheron mare, the same horse that I’d seen Daniel ride before. She looked majestic with her shiny coat and glistening silver armor. From behind her stepped a swaybacked pony that looked as old as the Academy itself. Apparently my horse for this quest.
“No, wait,” Eva said. She ran from the group and returned leading a saddled Saladin by the reins. She handed them to me. “Make certain you bring him back,” she said.
“I promise,” I said.
“I was talking to him,” Eva said, cocking her head toward Saladin.
“But I thought you were the only one who could ride him,” I said.
“We had a little talk about that, didn’t we, boy?” Eva purred. Saladin nodded his head up and down, his mane flying. “We agreed just this once it would be all right.”
I nodded and patted Saladin on the nose. He snorted as if annoyed by the whole thing. The crowd cheered and the gates rolled open.
“Stay in the trees at night,” Eva said, suddenly serious. “There are provisions in the pack for three days. Five if you stretch out the food.”
“Judging by how many wolves chased us on the way in here, I don’t think I’ll need to worry about food lasting for five days,” I said.
Eva looked like she wanted to say something, but decided against it. She put her hand to her chest, then extended her arm in the hunter’s salute. “Hunt well, kill swiftly. Do your duty, come what may,” she said.
Will walked up, hand outstretched. I shook it and he pulled me into a tight hug.
“Try not to die out there, OK?” Will asked.
“Yeah, that’s the plan,” I said, trying to sound braver than I felt.
“Then just stick to the plan,” T-Rex chimed in, big tears running down his cheeks.
I gave him what I hoped was a reassuring look, then put my foot in the stirrup and hefted myself up on the saddle. Without asking him, Saladin reared up and whinnied like a warhorse before tearing out of the gate. At least he was ready for the adventure ahead of us, because I sure wasn’t.
Chapter Nine
We made our way on horseback down the snow-covered trail t
hrough the woods. Neither of us said anything in the first few hours since we left camp. It had taken a mile or two before Saladin stopped tossing his mane and snorting because I made him walk behind Daniel’s horse. He was accustomed to being in the lead, even if it was just walking down a trail.
I had no idea what was supposed to happen next. Since it was a competition, it made sense for me to break away from Daniel and head out on my own. But the thought of wandering through the forest by myself didn’t seem like a good idea to me, so I stayed right behind Daniel.
All I could think about was how to get myself out of this mess.
“You never answered my question,” I finally said. Daniel ignored me. “Why do you hate this wolf so much?”
Daniel adjusted the backpack on his shoulders and quickened his pace. I stopped in my tracks and Saladin and I stood in the middle of the road. Daniel was twenty yards away before he stopped and turned around to face me.
“What are you doing?” he asked.
“We don’t need to stay together,” I said. “I mean, that’s the point, right? To do our own thing?”
Daniel turned his horse and walked back to me. “No, the point of this whole thing is for me to kill the werewolf. Whatever connection you have to that creature, I intend to use to my benefit.”
“I’m the bait,” I said.
“And Eva said you weren’t very bright,” Daniel said. Even though I knew he was just trying to get to me, the comment still stung. “Yes, you’re the bait. Now come on. There’s a good camp we should get to before sundown. Wolves aren’t the only thing in this forest we have to worry about.”
We marched on through the afternoon. I followed behind Daniel, walking in his footsteps in the snow. I kept an eye out in the woods on either side of us, waiting for the telltale flash of movement between the trees.
The forest was still. Snow hung on the towering pines around us. Periodically, a pile of snow would come loose from a bird landing on a branch, cascading down the tree in a waterfall of powder. Small tracks of deer, rabbits and squirrels crisscrossed the trail. At one point we came across a small waterfall that had frozen in place, the ice glowing a deep blue in the cold, winter sun. I found myself enjoying the ride through the forest and had to remind myself that serious business lay ahead.
Somehow, I had to find a way to end this challenge without Tiberon being killed in the process. The more I picked at the problem over the hours of riding silently through the forest, the more impossible it seemed. The answer, if there even was an answer, lay in getting Daniel to see that Tiberon, werewolf or not, wasn’t the evil creature he thought him to be. But how to accomplish that feat? I had no idea.
We arrived at the camping spot near dusk. It was a deep draw with a decent elevation so we could see what was happening below us. We tied the horses and each of us cleared the snow away from a small area where we could sit.
“Are we going to start a fire?” I asked, hoping the answer was yes. Even with the additional cloak and gloves, it felt like the cold had seeped in through my skin and found its way into my bone marrow. I was too proud to admit it to Daniel, but I was freezing.
“Not a chance, Smith,” Daniel said. He meant the name to be a slur, but I actually didn’t mind it. After all, I had gone by Jack Smith for the first fourteen years of my life, so it felt pretty normal. But the fact that he thought it bothered me was enough for it to bug me.
I watched him pull a small shovel from his backpack and snap a second beam in place to lengthen the handle. I dug through my pack and found the same tool and put mine together as well. By the time I was done, Daniel was digging a long shallow hole in the dirt, about as long as he was tall. These were to be our beds for the night.
I cleared a larger area of snow and dug in. The top layers were frozen solid so it was hard going at first, but it became easier a bit further down. As we worked on our sleeping holes, Daniel and I inevitably eyed each other’s progress, judging who was doing better. We worked faster and faster, trying to be the first to finish. Soon, we were both grunting from the exertion, sweat pouring off of us, clods of dirt flying through the air. Seconds before I judged my hole was large enough, Daniel, huffing for breath, threw down his shovel.
“Done,” he said.
I put my shovel down. “Done. And you had a head start.”
“Whatever,” Daniel said. He set about gathering handfuls of pine needles from under the snow. Having no idea how to survive in the wild, I did the same. Soon there were two huge piles of needles stacked in front of us.
“Let’s eat and then get some rest,” Daniel said. ”I’ll take first watch.”
“I can do first watch if you want,” I offered.
“I said I’ll do it,” Daniel grumbled.
I shrugged and pulled out a sandwich with thick slices of cheese and ham. I remembered what Eva had said about making the food stretch out over five days and decided to only eat half of it even though I was famished. Daniel ate quietly, standing at the edge of our little camp, lost in his own thoughts as he looked down at the forest below us.
“So, are you going to tell me why this wolf is so important to you?” I asked.
“No,” Daniel said softly, his voice sounding hollow, like he was miles way. “I’m not going to tell you that.”
“Why not?” I asked.
“Because it no longer matters,” Daniel replied, an edge coming back to his tone. “All that matters is that he dies.”
The night passed without incident. Following Daniel’s lead, I lay in my shallow hole in the ground and covered myself with pine needles. At first I was freezing, but as the needles trapped my body heat and because I was below any breeze, over time I warmed up somewhat. It wasn’t exactly like staying at a five-star hotel with room service, but it wasn’t bad. The only time I was cold during the night was when it was my turn to keep watch over the dark forest. It didn’t matter whether I sat curled up in my cloak, or if I paced back and forth across the camp—I just couldn’t get warm. When the eastern sky finally lightened, I was more than ready for the meager warmth the winter’s sun provided.
We ate breakfast without conversation and broke camp just as the sun broke the horizon.
“We have a long journey today to make it to our next camp,” Daniel said. “It’s in a cave so we can have a fire tonight.”
As great as that news was, I didn’t want Daniel to think I was overly cold, so I tried to play it cool. “If you say so,” I said. But deep inside I was shouting for joy. The idea of rubbing my frozen hands together next to a fire was almost too much to bear. Turns out that disaster would strike us well before that ever happened.
The attack didn’t come until nearly dusk on that second day. And it had nothing to do with wolves.
The screaming came first. Daniel had just turned to me and pointed to a rocky outcrop ahead of us. The cave. That meant a campfire and a chance to eat something hot. Just as Daniel turned, a black shadow streaked out of the treetops, emitting a deafening shriek that only stopped once it smashed right into Daniel’s face.
In what seemed like slow motion, a splatter of blood arced through the air and landed in a pattern on the fresh snow.
Daniel spun around on his horse, and Saladin reared on his hind legs, nearly knocking me off his back. I looked over at Daniel and saw something attached to his face—a creature with pale grey flesh and wiry hair. About the size of a large rat, it was so emaciated that its skin looked like only a thin casing stretched tight against its skeleton. Adding to this bony appearance were thin, papery wings that were wrapped around either side of Daniel’s head, holding on while the creature’s mouth gnawed on his face.
I put my hands to my ears as the forest erupted with the same maddening shriek, but now in a chorus. Judging from the ear-shattering volume, there had to be dozens of them. I knew exactly what these things were, remembering them from one of my classes. These were shriekers, members of the Lower Creach. Not overly dangerous by themselves, but deadly when they hu
nted as a group.
I caught movement out of the corner of my eye and looked up into the trees. At first I thought I was seeing things. The low light and the wind rocking the trees had created a bizarre dance of shadows, confusing my senses. But as I watched, I could discern dozens of dark forms gliding through the shadows.
Shriekers.
Everywhere.
Screeching and spitting.
Picking their way toward us with their stubby feet and their bat-like wings.
I could see their faces now. They were small, with pointed noses that reminded me of a ferret or a weasel. Only these guys had mouthfuls of pointy teeth that protruded out from elongated jaws.
The shriekers nearest me saw that I’d spotted them and they opened their mouths wide and hissed at me. They launched themselves off the trees, falling in an ungainly, barely controlled descent.
Saladin reared again and this time I couldn’t keep my grip tight enough. I fell off the saddle and hit the ground hard. Instinctively, I rolled to one side.
Thump.
Thump.
Thump.
The creatures landed in the snow where I had been seconds before.
I climbed to my feet and drew my sword, struggling to block the shrieking from my ears as Saladin ran into the forest.
Daniel’s horse reared, and seven or eight shriekers latched onto her back and sides. Daniel tumbled to the ground, still wrestling with the shrieker on his face. His screams became more urgent. As if attracted to the blood, the shriekers on the ground that had missed me clawed in the snow toward Daniel. Two of them reached the blood-covered snow near him and hungrily gulped it down.
I looked back up and saw three more of the creatures flying through the air toward me. I braced myself and swung my sword as they approached. I sliced through two of them, unleashing a spray of putrid black blood all over me. The rotten stench almost made me gag.
I looked down and saw a shrieker attached to my thigh. It burrowed through my armor trying to get to my skin.
