by Tora Moon
“Because you were told to do it by your alpha,” Dehali ground out before Rizelya or Aistrun could say anything.
“She’s not my alpha.” Keandran folded his arms in front of him in a challenge that screamed, ‘Make me’.
“Shut your frigging mouth.” Dehali’s eyes glowing bright yellow in anger.
Rizelya felt the breath in her lungs being pulled out as the air gathered around Dehali. Rizelya took a deep breath and decided to wait and see what happened. She’d stop Dehali if Keandran was in danger of dying.
“We were given a choice to come on this mission with them as our squad-pack alphas,” Leistral said sternly, coming up to the side of Dehali and glaring at Keandran. “No one forced you to be here.”
“I didn’t think … Histrun’s daughter … would be … so stupid.” He gasped and grabbed at his neck like he was trying to loosen something strangling him. His eyes bulged as he dropped to his knees.
Rizelya waited until he started turning blue. “Dehali, enough.”
Dehali made a flicking motion, releasing Keandran, who heaved air into his lungs.
“I suggest you keep your thoughts to yourself,” Rizelya said mildly. “You might not survive. I don’t know how they do it in the Andranlair Clan, but here we obey our alphas and treat our pack mates with respect.” Keandran had the sense to lower his head.
“Get your horse saddled like you were told.” Aistrun’s cold, hard voice left little doubt he would haul Keandran onto his feet if he didn’t get up on his own power. Her squad let out a collective sigh of relief when Keandran stood up, head still lowered, went back to his horse, and threw on the barding saddle blanket. Everyone turned back to putting tack on their horses.
“We’re in Strunell Territory,” Rizelya said to Keandran in an exasperated voice as if she were explaining to a particularly slow child. “The barding will let the Strunell scouts know we are on official business.”
It didn’t take long for everyone to be ready. “Let’s go,” Rizelya said as she stepped into the saddle. She looked up at the sky and felt some satisfaction that even with the Keandran episode it wasn’t long after dawn.
They rode for several octars without seeing or meeting any Strunell scouts. Rizelya became worried they had monster problems. Sensing the anxiety of her pack, she slowed their pace to a fast trot.
It was late afternoon when Aistrun signaled for them to stop as they reached the bottom of a hill. His senses were better than hers. She looked back and saw Eidstrun looking around intently. Something was wrong. When the clatter of hoofs quieted, she could hear the noise of a monster battle being fought in the distance, not too far to the north.
“Should we go help them or keep going?” Aistrun asked.
“Go help,” Rizelya said. “We need to see if one of those strange janacks is in the nest.”
“Hey, Eidstrun, go track for us,” Aistrun ordered.
Eidstrun was one of the best trackers in Strunland Keep. He nodded, tossed his horse’s reins to Dehali, and slid off his horse. He moved away from them in the direction of the battle. He squatted down examining the ground, and then headed into the forest. A shimmer, and he was in his wolf form. His pale gold pelt was mottled with darker brown. He looked like a shadow flowing along the forest floor. Without checking to see if they were following, he took off.
Rizelya let Aistrun and Keandran go first. She didn’t expect them to wait for the women. The fighting instinct would take over when they smelled the monsters. They’d tie up their horses when they reached the site and shift into their warrior forms and join the battle.
Leistral and then Dehali followed behind her. They kept low to their saddles avoiding tree branches as they crashed through the forest. The sounds of battle increased. Rizelya heard a familiar howling roar; Aistrun had joined the battle. Another deeper howl sounded like Eidstrun. She listened but didn’t hear Keandran howl his fury at the monsters like the other men. The women reached the trees where the men’s horses were tied. She didn’t have time to worry about Keandran now.
She tied Kymaya tight beside Jezhan, grabbed her helbraught off her saddle, and stepped to the edge of the trees. A loud humming like angry jacklewasps assaulted her. She gritted her teeth. At least the janack wasn’t screaming at her. Hopefully she wouldn’t pass out. Looking over the battle from her vantage point she could see a huge janack with a strange protrusion, just like the one she had fought. It might be even larger.
“Damn, they have one too,” Dehali said, coming to stand next to Rizelya. “Look, they haven’t surrounded it with a fire-ring yet.”
“What are they waiting for?” Leistral commented, standing on the other side of Rizelya.
“I don’t know.” They stood watching, getting a feel for the battle flow. The warriors could go in slashing with their fangs and claws and not hurt anything but the monsters. The women had to be careful where and how they added their fire magic to the other Reds fighting. If they crashed in, someone could get seriously hurt.
“Look!” Rizelya pointed. “The Reds can’t get close enough to form a fire-ring. A group of brechas are attacking them.”
As she watched, three Reds ran toward the new janack, their helbraughts glowing. Before they were even close, another janack’s tentacle crashed down in front of them. One of the Reds didn’t jump back fast enough and only her helbraught jamming into the tentacle saved her from being crushed. She pulled hard on it, but the helbraught was stuck fast. A warrior, with a red and green striped pelt, rolled under the tentacle just in front of her, his long claws cleaving strips of flesh from it. Apparently the Red had fed more fire magic into her blade because the tentacle abruptly burst into pieces, freeing her helbraught. The janack shuddered before collapsing. Immediately behind it were six brechas who attacked the group.
Two warriors ran side-by-side toward the strange janack. The brechas blocked their way. As they fought, another group of Reds and warriors tried to slip past them. Just like in their battle, six brechas broke away from the nest where there shouldn’t have been any left in it. The fighters were being harried by the janacks and brechas to keep them from closing in on the strange janack.
Aistrun had stepped back from the fighting, pacing. Eidstrun’s huge form stood preternaturally still. She couldn’t see Keandran.
Rizelya concentrated on the huge janack in the center. Its protrusion followed the battle and wherever it pointed, the monsters attacked the Posair fighters. She suddenly had an idea. “Dehali, did Eiden tell you what I had her do?”
“What?” Dehali paused thinking. “Oh, the cold air thing?”
“Yes. Can you do it? Can you form a cold-air shield around me?”
“Let me try. I was working on it before we left the Keep. Stand still.”
Rizelya felt a tingle and then cold air surrounded her. “You did it! How far away do you have to be to keep this up, and can you do one for Aistrun at the same time?”
Dehali thought for a moment as she played with the streams of air. Rizelya could feel the air moving. “I can’t be too far, about ten feet. I think I can split this to cover Aistrun too.”
“What are you thinking, Alpha?” Leistral asked.
“We can get close to that janack if it can’t sense us. The cold-air shield should do that. Leistral, you guard us. When we get close, enclose Dehali in a fire-ring and make sure she can concentrate. Eidstrun will help you.” At least Rizelya hoped he would. She wasn’t certain they had been a pack long enough for mind-speech to work. She and Aistrun had been able to mind-speak with each other for years. “Aistrun will go in with me.”
The women fed fire magic into their helbraughts and dashed to the battlefield toward Aistrun. As soon as she was close enough, Rizelya mind-shouted, *Aistrun, Eidstrun get over here!*
She was gratified when both their heads snapped her direction. They raced to meet her and the other women. Crossing her fingers, she sent a visual to Aistrun of what she had in mind. Sometimes visuals were easier to send than words. Thi
s was one of those times.
*It should work,* he agreed.
They ran toward the battle. Luck was with them. None of the monsters sensed them; the Strunell Keep fighters were keeping them otherwise occupied.
*Now,* she mind-sent to Dehali when they were fifteen feet from the nest site. Rizelya mentally cheered when cold air enveloped her. The pack connection was working. Aistrun nodded and mimed shivering.
Rizelya placed the blade of her helbraught on the ground and then sent fire magic down through the blade and into the ground. A thin trickle of fire encircled the nest with the strange janack still in it.
*Remember we have to destroy the protrusion as fast as we can,* Rizelya mind-spoke to Aistrun. *Dehali can’t keep our cold-air shield up long.*
*I’ll distract, you destroy.*
They stepped over the thin line of fire. As soon as they did, Rizelya added more fire magic to it and it blazed twenty feet in the air cutting off the strange janack from the other monsters. Aistrun and Rizelya raced to the janack. Aistrun cut to the front of the head, slid under it, and shredded a swath across the entire width of its body with his claws. The janack waved its tentacles in frustration; its protrusion flipped from side-to-side. The cold-air shield was working. It couldn’t sense them.
The humming, which had been a background noise for Rizelya, suddenly grew louder, almost deafening. Rizelya was prepared and ignored it. Using the same technique that worked on the last strange janack, she used her helbraught to pole-vault onto the top of a tentacle and rushed up it toward the head. She could feel the air warming around her. Dehali’s spell was weakening. She wouldn’t have the advantage of not being sensed much longer. She fed fire magic into her helbraught until the blade glowed orange and small flames ran along its surface. As she jumped onto the head, she swung the blade severing the protrusion along with most of the sensor stalks. A scream of anger filled Rizelya’s head. She was ready for this too. She blocked the sound and drove the flaming blade into the head, feeding more fire magic into it.
She remembered what Histrun had said about burning debris. The fire shield Naila had taught her would contain the fallout. With a thought, a dome of fire magic formed above the fire-ring.
*Run! It’s going to blow!* She saw Aistrun sprint to the edge of the fire-ring. Pulling her helbraught from the janack, she leaped in his direction, landed, and ran. She reached him just as the janack exploded. She flung a shield around them both, and they huddled together until monster bits stopped falling on them.
Rizelya could still hear the screaming through her block. It was getting louder. Darkness began to fill her vision. She grabbed Aistrun by the ruff of his fur. “Did you see where the protrusion landed?” She wasn’t sure if she was screaming along with the protrusion.
“Yesss,” he hissed through his fangs as he turned to go get it.
“No! Don’t touch it.” Using her helbraught, she stood up. She was shaky, but not as much as the last time. “Help me get to it.”
She should have expected it. Aistrun picked her up.
“Put me down!”
He grinned at her. “Not my alpha.” He jogged with her in his arms to where the protrusion lay. Using the claws on his foot he moved some smoldering monster bits covering it. As soon as it was uncovered, the screaming knocked Rizelya unconscious. She woke up, still in his arms, to Aistrun patting her face, growling, “Wake. Wake.”
“I’m awake. Put me down,” she growled back. When he set her on her feet, she crumbled to the ground. When he tried to pick her up again, she batted away his paws. “No, Wolf! I’m fine. Where’s my helbraught?”
“Not fine.” Aistrun growled back unhappily, but he handed it to her anyway.
As soon as it touched her hands, the blade burst into flames. She remained sitting so she wouldn’t have so far to fall when she passed out. She touched the blade to the protrusion, remaining conscious long enough to see it burn to ash.
This time when she came to, she heard Leistral calling to her. At first it was muffled and she couldn’t make out the words, then she realized Leistral was trying to mind-speak to her and the mind-block she had used to keep the janack out of her mind was still in place. With effort she dropped it and finally heard what Leistral was saying.
*… the shield. Rizelya, drop the fire shield.*
“Oh!” She had been unconscious twice and still managed to keep the fire shield in place. She’d never realized before she was such a strong Red.
She dropped the shield and immediately Leistral rushed to where she lay, followed by several strangers. Only then did she realize her head was in Aistrun’s lap. His furry lap. She sat up quickly, groaning. Her head pounded.
“Who are you? How did you do that?” one of the strange women, obviously the platoon alpha, shouted at her.
Rizelya held up her hand to stop the woman. “Quieter, please; my head feels like it’s going to explode.” She looked at Leistral. “Where’s Dehali? Is she all right?” Dehali had used an incredible amount of magic to keep the cold-air shields up for as long as she had.
“Safe. She’s tired,” Leistral responded. “Damn, Eidstrun’s strong. He killed a janack by himself! He’s fine too, helping with the mop-up.”
Rizelya could hear the Strunell alpha huffing with impatience. She could wait until Rizelya found out about her pack. That meant all of them. Rizelya sighed and asked, “And Keandran?”
“Haven’t seen him. Do you think a monster got him?”
“Leistral!” Rizelya chided. She turned to look up at the alpha. The woman was old. Her copper hair had faded, and wrinkles lined her dark brown eyes and face. “I’m Rizelya de Strunland. This is my squad-pack.” She pointed to Aistrun who hovered over her protectively. “He’s my co-Alpha, Aistrun.” She’d wait to give the names of the rest of her pack after the alpha had introduced herself.
When Rizelya didn’t say anything more, the older alpha sighed, and said, “I’m Keshanal, Strunell Keep Alpha. How did you know how to destroy that thing? This was the first time we’ve seen one like it.”
“Fought one a few days ago,” Rizelya said. “Histrun’s venom wasn’t even touching it. I had to explode it to kill it. Our fighting-packs saw four others, and they all had to be exploded.”
“Four others? That would be four nests in less than a chedan.” Keshanal sat down, stunned.
“I thought we had another day before we reached the keep.” Rizelya was confused. “Why are you this far from the keep, Alpha?”
“We’ve had larger than normal nests the past chedan. I wanted to see what we were facing.” She shook her head. “I didn’t expect anything like this.” She looked sharply at Rizelya. “Four in Strunland Territory, huh?”
Rizelya nodded.
“That’s bad. Are we the only territories?” Keshanal wondered, more to herself than to Rizelya.
“That’s what my squad-pack and I are trying to find out,” she answered. “Not to be rude, Alpha Keshanal, but do you have anything to eat? I’m starving after the magic I just used.”
“Good gracious, my poor manners. Yes, yes, I’ll have one of the girls bring you a travel bar.” Keshanal stood up, looked around, and shook her head. “A fine mess you made, Rizelya. A fine mess.” She strode off, giving orders for the remains to be burned.
Leistral helped Rizelya to her feet. “You ought to change,” Rizelya said to Aistrun. “We’re safe. And you need to find our absent pack mate. No one has seen Keandran since you took off in the forest.” She watched Aistrun find Eidstrun and together the two warriors went off to find a private place to shift. A Brown who seemed to be Rizelya’s age approached them.
“Squad Alpha,” she said, bowing her head, “Keshanal sent me to see to you. Are you hurt?”
“No, just starving. Did you bring anything to eat?” The woman handed Rizelya a cake of trail food, full of dried fruit. “Ugh, do you have anything without fruit?” She knew she was whining, but after what she had just gone through, she didn’t want to put up with d
ried fruit.
The woman took back the bar and rummaged in her bag. “Here, try this. We have a few here who share your dislike.”
If there was any fruit in this bar it was well hidden. Rizelya scarfed it down, barely chewing. “Do you have another one?” she asked between gulps, “and something for a headache?”
“You’ve a headache?” the healer asked.
“Bad. The damned protrusion screams loud.”
Leistral and the healer looked at her, with the same disbelief on their face.
“It screams, okay? I don’t know why I’m the only one who hears the freaking thing.”
“How’s your magic?” Leistral piped up. “Kaieli said last time your magic was drained.”
Rizelya glared at Leistral, who only shrugged. “Fine,” she spat.
“Show me.” The Brown sounded almost like Kaieli.
Rizelya held out her hand. A small flicker of flame danced on her palm. “See, I’m fine.”
“When we’re at the safe house for the night, I want to examine you more closely,” the healer said. “For now, there are more serious patients I need to care for.” She handed Rizelya another trail cake, a flask of taevo, and a small packet of herbs before she left.
After eating and drinking, Rizelya felt much better. She stood up with Leistral’s help. After a few moments the shakiness left her legs. She looked around. “We need to move so they can finish cleaning up my mess.”
“Yeah, you did make a fine mess,” Leistral imitated Keshanal’s voice. “I think Dehali is where I left her.”
“Lead the way.”
When they arrived, all of the men were there. Rizelya didn’t want to make a scene in front of the Strunell pack, so she didn’t comment on Keandran’s absence during the fight. Dehali still looked drained. Without comment Rizelya handed the uneaten trail cake and the remaining taevo to Dehali. A quick examination revealed that no one was injured.
“Eidstrun and Leistral, go retrieve our horses, will you? We have an escort to Strunell Keep by the Keep Alpha herself.”
Eidstrun and Leistral sprinted up the hill where the horses were tied off.
