by Tora Moon
Saehala and Saehalstrun went into the Keep House to talk to Sujeen first. They thought it would be safer than for Sujeen to be surprised by Rizelya’s presence. Laynar went with them to add the power of her testimony and that of her grandmother’s in an effort to get Sujeen to listen to Rizelya.
They didn’t have to wait long. A few short milcrons after the trio entered the Keep House, a bellow of anger rattled the windows. The twins and Laynar rushed out of the house with an old woman, still spry and deadly, chasing them. Sujeen’s helbraught was glowing and began to spit globs of fire at their retreating backs.
Fearing for her half-sibling’s life, Rizelya didn’t think, she just reacted. She threw a fire shield between her friends and the enraged woman as the flame surged toward them. As the flame reached for them, they flung themselves to the ground.
The flame licked the shield and then was absorbed by it.
Furious, Sujeen fed more fire into her helbraught. Rizelya drew this new flame into her shield as well, making it even stronger. She hadn’t known she could do this. A part of her mind perked up. If others could do this, it would make their shields against the monsters even more effective.
“Who the hell do you think you are?” Sujeen yelled at Rizelya. Her face was screwed up in fury and as red as her hair had once been. “How dare you interfere in my business?”
“I dare because you are wrong,” Rizelya said, her voice cold. “You will not harm my friends because you’re angry at someone who has been dead for nearly twenty years.” Rizelya sat up straighter in her saddle and glared back at the ugly woman. She didn’t drop her shield but instead extended it around herself and the rest of the fighters. She felt Leistral and Dehali add to it, continuing it until everyone in the courtyard was protected.
“Why, you impudent, arrogant, little pip-squeak! You’re just like your mother, butting in where you don’t belong.” Sujeen fed more fire into her helbraught until it glowed with the deep orange that preceded the explosion of a monster. She lifted the helbraught up and, leaning over the porch railing, thrust the helbraught blade into the shield with all her strength.
Rizelya rocked back in her saddle as the force of the blow connected with her shield. Frantically she reached out and pulled on the energies from Dehali’s and Leistral’s shields and blended them into her shield. Cracks slithered up and around the shield, but it held.
Sujeen’s helbraught disintegrated in a flash of fire. She screamed as the flame burned her hands. While the fire from a Red’s own power wouldn’t burn her, the fire of another Red could. A large man rushed to her side, cradling her as she curled around her burned hands. When he lifted his eyes up to Rizelya’s, hate burned as hot as the flame that had destroyed Sujeen’s helbraught.
“You’ll pay for this,” he snarled, and stood up, his hands in fists. “You saw her hurt the alpha,” he yelled at the fighters. “Kill her!”
No one moved to follow his order.
“Kill her, I said!” he screamed.
“It was self-defense, Teraposan,” Saehalstrun said, striding to stand nose-to-nose with the larger man. He was careful to not touch the fire shield still glowing and sparking. “We,” he emphasized the word, “do not murder people. You have just demonstrated you’re not fit to be the Keep Alpha. I challenge you, now.” Saehalstrun’s voice rang out with authority. He was surprisingly calm for someone whose mother had tried to kill him moments before.
Rizelya looked around; none of the people she could see were upset over the challenge, although they had been plenty upset when Sujeen tried to fry her children. She dissolved the fire shield now the challenge had been issued. Saehalstrun would need to fight Teraposan soon.
Saehala stood next to her brother and stared at her mother. “You’re no longer kin,” she said to Sujeen. “You’re not fit to lead this keep. You have demonstrated your insanity. I remove you as alpha.”
This pronouncement caused gasps of surprise. There were a few instances where an alpha could be removed rather than challenged for the position; insanity was one of them. Saehala had just told Sujeen she was not only incapable of being an alpha, but unworthy to even be challenged to a fight.
Sujeen sputtered with rage, spittle flying from her mouth. Her eyes nearly glowed. She looked quite, quite mad. She leaped from the ground, her helstrablade clutched in her burned hands. With a cry she lunged at Saehala, blade flashing. Saehala spun out of the way and pushed Sujeen, who landed flat on her face and slid down several stairs of the Keep House porch.
“Stay down, old woman. I don’t want to kill you,” Saehala ground out. Sujeen didn’t listen and was up, surprisingly fast for one so old and hurt. She swung her helstrablade again. This time Saehala met it with one of her own and with her other hand punched Sujeen in the face. Blood poured from Sujeen’s broken nose. She wiped it off, and with a mad cackle leaped for Saehala again. This time, Saehala’s knife connected. Sujeen hung for a moment on the blade and then slid off, her eyes glazed in death.
Saehala looked at the body, tears sliding down her face. “I didn’t want to kill you, Mother.”
A roar of anger broke the tableau. Rizelya looked away from Saehala to see Teraposan shifting to his warrior form as he leaped toward Saehalstrun. Shouts of dismay rose from the crowd. Alpha challenges were fought in their human forms, not in their warrior forms.
Saehalstrun ducked under Teraposan. A back claw caught him across the chest. He roared in pain, and before Teraposan could land and turn, he had shifted to his warrior form.
Everyone scrambled to get out of the way of the battling men. Rizelya had never seen anyone shift so fast and she urged Kymaya up the stairs and onto the wide porch of the Keep House. Aistrun had jumped off his horse and was standing next to her. Most of the others had dismounted as well and shooed their horses into the pasture by the stable.
Saehalstrun stood up and opened his jaws wide to roar again in challenge. His ten-foot-tall warrior form towered over Teraposan. The warriors circled each other, swiping with their claws, snapping at each other. They clashed and then moved away. Blood dripped off both their pelts from various wounds although none looked to be life threatening. Suddenly Teraposan ducked his head and bowled into Saehalstrun, knocking him on his back.
Saehalstrun’s longer arms held Teraposan’s jaws away from his throat. Teraposan snapped and saliva dripped onto Saehalstrun’s chest. Curling his legs, Saehalstrun managed to get his feet with their long claws under Teraposan. With a growl he ripped Teraposan open from his neck to his groin. Blood and guts splashed out, covering him in gore. Teraposan collapsed on top of him.
Aistrun and several of the other men raced to pull Teraposan off Saehalstrun before he could be crushed by the heavier man. Saehalstrun wiggled free and lay panting. Teraposan’s corpse began to shift back to his natural form. The devastating killing strike was even more evident without all the fur.
“Saehalstrun, talk to me.” Saehala ran to him, terrified. “Are you all right?”
Saehalstrun slowly nodded and began to shift. It took longer than usual because he was tired and hurt. Several of his wounds were deep enough he’d need stitches.
“I didn’t want to challenge them like this,” he said when his change was complete. “We’ll burn them with honor tonight to send their souls back to The Mother and pray they will find peace.”
***
Strunven Keep was subdued the day after the fight. Sujeen had been the Strunven Keep Alpha for many years and, until recently, had been a good leader. The keep mourned her loss; Teraposan, not so much. He was an interloper from the Posanlair Clan and had used a heavy hand. Rizelya heard whispers how glad most people were that he was gone.
But the monsters didn’t care if the keep was wrapped in grief and had new leaders. They would continue to form, and grow, and leave their nests to devour whatever was in their path. Saehala and Saehalstrun called a meeting with the fighting-packs right after breakfast.
The doors of the great hall were flung open, letti
ng the keep residents know they could also attend. As she sat with her team, including Laynar, at a smaller table to the side of the keep alpha’s, Rizelya could see quite a few non-fighters standing in the back. There were a few Yellows and other Talents hanging around the edges with unconcealed eagerness. She didn’t think there would be a lack of volunteers here.
“If that was a fire shield you used to protect us last night, I certainly want to learn it,” Saehala said as soon as she and Saehalstrun sat down at the big table in front.
Rizelya heard several voices muttering agreement.
“It was,” Rizelya said. She clutched her hands in her lap under the table. She hadn’t spoken to this many strangers. Well, she amended, there might have been as many at Strunell Keep during their first demonstration, but she had been busy teaching and so hadn’t noticed them.
“Hey, it’s what we’re here to teach,” Aistrun spoke up. He liked speaking to audiences. “In case you haven’t noticed, we have a strange new janack and the nests are bigger than ever.”
“Yeah, we noticed,” someone yelled out.
“Why are they bigger?” someone else asked.
“Where did it come from?” another called out.
Aistrun shook his head as he moved out from behind the table and to the front of the room. “We don’t know. We saw the first control janack—that’s the new one—just four chedan ago. Our alpha wanted to know if it was an anomaly in our territory or if it was happening all over Strunlair Province. We’ve been traveling all over the province ever since. Seems like we didn’t get the only one.” He lowered his voice slightly and said almost in an aside, “Wish we did, things would be easier.” He raised his voice again. “They are now in all the nests. Our old methods of fighting the monsters aren’t up to the task anymore.”
“You can say that again!” someone said with feeling.
“But along the way, we’ve learned new ways to protect ourselves, fight the monsters”—he pointed around the room and then raised his voice and arm in victory—“and kill them.”
The whole room stood up, clapping and cheering. Rizelya shook her head in wonder and glanced over at the others at her table. They all held the same bemused look she was sure was on her face. After this, they’d have more volunteers than they needed. Aistrun let them go on for a few milcrons, grinning the whole time.
“Okay, quiet down,” he yelled, motioning for them to sit back down. When it was quiet again, he said, “This new method doesn’t just use Red Talent; we also need Yellows.”
“Now you’re just fooling us,” a woman said, scornfully. She stalked to the front, her bright canary-yellow hair indicating she was a very strong air Talent. As she got closer, Rizelya saw her eyes were a grass-green. “I don’t know how many times I’ve been told I can’t fight because I’m a Yellow and not a Red. Well, I want to fight! I want to protect my people and pack just as much as any Red ever did.” Her stance was belligerent, daring them to gainsay her again.
Dehali stood up, her strawberry-blond hair and gold-flecked eyes proclaiming her both a strong fire and air Talent. “I understand,” she told the woman. “I was lucky I had enough Red they let me fight. But now, most of my fighting is done with my air Talent, forming a cold-air shield so my pack can kill the damned control janack.” Her fist slammed onto the table.
“Show me,” the woman said with disbelief.
Dehali gathered up air energy and formed a tight shield around the woman, who shivered with the cold. Her face lost the belligerence and softened with delight as she reached out and touched the cold, hard air in front of her.
“Amazing!” she laughed. “Just amazing.” She looked at Dehali with something akin to worship. “You’ll teach me? And you’ll let her?” The last was addressed to her new Keep Alphas.
Saehala nodded and said solemnly to the woman, “It is our sacred duty as alphas to give you the tools to keep you safe. This is another tool. Gehan, I promise you’ll get the opportunity to fight, although you may regret it.”
Gehan rushed to take Saehala’s hands. “Thank you, Alpha! I’m so glad you’re now our leader.”
Saehalstrun spoke up. “We’ll need four volunteers with strong Yellow Talents and four strong Reds to learn the new shielding techniques.” He raised his hands to quiet the clamor. “You must be strong Yellows in order to hold the shield when facing a nest full of monsters. As we become more proficient, we’ll teach others.”
“Let’s go learn!” Gehan said excitedly. She grabbed Dehali’s hand and dragged her through the crowd which parted with good-natured laughing to let them pass. Gehan and Dehali led the procession out of the meeting hall and across the courtyard to the practice arena.
Amused, Rizelya followed after them once the hall cleared. She was still limping, although not as bad. She rolled her injured shoulder, feeling a slight twinge. She didn’t need to hurry to the practice arena. Leistral and Dehali were becoming skilled teachers of the new method. She chuckled to herself; maybe the method should be named after them. That would be much better than naming after her.
With this in mind, she changed direction, returned to the Keep House, and found her way to the infirmary. The keep healer looked at her wound which seeped blood from the jostling of the hard ride from Strunheim Keep. Tsking at Rizelya’s recklessness, the healer cleaned the wound and used her healing magic on Rizelya’s leg. When the healer allowed Rizelya to stand up, her leg was much stronger, her limp less pronounced.
By the time Rizelya reached the practice arena, it was a hive of activity. Leistral and Dehali had finished the demonstration and the trainees had divided up to practice. A group of eight Yellows worked on one end. Rizelya inwardly cheered to see so many women had volunteered. Considering the losses this keep had sustained, she wasn’t surprised at the double in number of Reds who practiced on the other end. She climbed to the top of the stands, where she could observe the entire arena.
In the middle, Aistrun and Eidstrun worked with the men. They had developed their own technique for harassing the control janack. Rizelya watched with interest. She was usually so busy trying to find an opening to leap onto the control janack that she never paid attention to how the warriors fought. She admired their elegant beauty as they moved in synchronized rhythm, flowing through the forms as Aistrun led them.
The warrior form was magnificent—a beautiful and deadly blend of man and wolf. Men who stood six foot were over eight-foot-tall as warriors. Both front and back paws were tipped with razor sharp claws and the warriors’ jaws were elongated to hold fangs that could rip apart a brecha. The pelt was the same color as the man’s hair, except quite a few pelts were striped, spotted, or otherwise marked. The eyes remained the same in either form.
Eidstrun’s golden-brown form stood more than a foot taller than everyone else, except one. A golden-red warrior with flecks of green on his pelt was almost a foot taller—Saehalstrun.
Rizelya pulled her attention away from the powerful men with difficulty. Dehali’s group of Yellows stood several paces apart. The fierce Gehan scowled in concentration as she worked on the spell. She gave a whoop of jubilation when it formed correctly. Glowing with pride, Gehan admired it for a few moments, then made the gesture to release it. Immediately she concentrated, made a gesture, and the cold-air shield reappeared. Rizelya was impressed. It usually took time for people to make the spell work. Another whoop and Rizelya saw another Yellow form a cold-air shield. She smiled at their pleasure. She hoped they could do as well when a real monster was in front of them.
A flare of light coming from the other end of the arena caused Rizelya to turn toward it. A fire shield burst into being. Saehala grinned triumphantly at it. The other women glanced at it, then turned their attention back to their own spells. Soon all of them had a fire shield blazing around them. They didn’t stay up long before they were banished and a new one formed. Here there were no whoops or excited dancing, only a solemn determination to perfect the shields. These women were fighters. They knew w
hat they were up against and were eager to take back control of the fight.
The groups practiced separately for another octar. Then Leistral partnered the Yellows with a Red and two warriors. Saehala and Gehan were partnered with Saehalstrun and another warrior. Dehali formed the illusion of a control janack and had each group attack. Rizelya wasn’t surprised to see Gehan fling herself with gusto at the janack. It didn’t take long for them to it put down.
Seeing the number of groups, Rizelya sighed; her break was over, she was needed. She limped down to the arena and joined Dehali in creating the control janack illusion. She had practiced this spell enough over the last few chedan she could split her attention to yell corrections at the teams hitting her janack and still keep control of the illusion.
When Leistral called a halt several octars later, Rizelya slumped to the ground. Her legs wobbled and her eyes blurred with fatigue. She wasn’t alone; other fighters sagged to the ground where they stood. A few hearty souls made their way wearily to sit in the stands. Rizelya dropped her head to her hands, bracing her elbows on her knees, and sat there for several long milcrons.
She heard movement and a young woman stood in front of her, handing her a small jug. When she looked up to take it, she was startled to see the girl’s navy blue hair and clear blue eyes. Blues tended to stay far away from the fighting Reds, especially strong ones like this young woman. The violent, passionate emotions of the Reds were usually too much for the gentle Blues.
As soon as Rizelya took the jug, the Blue left to give one to the next fighter. While Rizelya drank the cool water, she looked around to see several other young Blues and Greens making their way around the arena.
A cool breeze swept through the arena. Rizelya glanced over to see the large doors were flung open. Several Blues were making gestures, and the breeze followed the direction of their fingers. A middle-aged woman stood in the opening. “We have refreshments ready for you,” she said.
