by H. D. Gordon
The Erl Queen must’ve sensed this. “As if there was any way to stop me from taking it right now if I wanted,” she replied. “You don’t even know what you’re holding, do you, moon child?”
I raised my chin a bit, bristling at the condescension in her tone while being tempered by my more pragmatic side. Insulting her in return would do me no favors, and the others were depending on me.
“Adriel told me to come here,” I said. “To bring it to you.”
The Erl Queen eyed me curiously, her tentacles furling and unfurling against the stones of the bridge. “Adriel is a clever little devil,” she said slowly. “He always has been… I will provide a safe haven for you and the others for the time being, and in return, I will take the stone from you.”
“Thank y—”
“As a down payment,” she added, and a terrible grin spilt her odd face into duel rows of razor sharp fangs.
My jaw clenched. “I don’t have anything else to give,” I replied slowly.
The Erl Queen clicked her forked tongue and crooned, “That’s exactly where you’re mistaken, moon child.”
I knew a trap when I was in one, and I was in one now.
I wanted to shift into my Wolf form and leap at the Erl Queen’s throat, or whatever strange piece of her I could get a hold of, and tear until the taste of her cursed blood coated my tongue.
Then, I remembered the people depending on me. Goldie and Amara, Adriel and the people of Mina. Whatever sense of pride or ego I had, I would not let it get in the way of securing a chance of safety for them.
I honestly didn’t care too much what happened to me. I’d been in enough pain for a while now that passing onto the next existence didn’t seem like too raw a deal. But the others needed me, so I would do what needed to be done, just as I’d promised Adriel I would.
“What is it you want?” I asked the Erl Queen, aware that my own words deepened the hole I’d fallen in to.
It was all I could do not to squirm and shy away as she approached me. Her slick, black tentacles moved her across the bridge, closing the gap between us, as though she were some deep-sea creature that had found itself washed up on land. Her tentacles slapped at the stone beneath her and propelled her body forward, and those sticking out of her polygonal head writhed as if they had minds all their own.
I am not someone who trembles. I likely would not have survived as long as I had if I were, but as the Erl Queen got closer and closer, I could barely keep from quaking in my boots. I clenched my fists against the urge and somehow managed to hold her stare.
“What I want is for your kind to stay out of my realm, to stick to their own territory, but that doesn’t seem to be possible as of late,” she snapped.
I held utterly still, ready to bolt, block, or lash out if necessary.
“My kind?” I said. “Do Wolves wander into the Dead Forest often?”
The Erl Queen cast me a disdainful look, as though I were the hideous creature. “Don’t be so ignorant, moon child,” she told me. “Wolves, Vamps, Fae, Shifter—these are all social constructs. All supernaturals derive from the same magic, from a single source. The elements that compose you all are exactly the same, but you all break yourselves up into races. You should ask yourself why that is.”
“Okay,” I said, when she only twisted her lips at me, revealing once more those razor sharp teeth. “So you hate my kind, you don’t want us here… I get it, but what is it you want from me?”
The Erl Queen slid even closer, so near now that I could feel the warmth of her breath against my cheek. When she leaned in and whispered her price, I forced myself to hold still, not to quake under her commanding presence and unwanted vicinity.
At the time, it didn’t seem like that big of a deal, not something I cared too much about giving up, as I’d never thought about using it in the first place. I’d never thought I’d get the chance to, hadn’t imagined it being in my cards.
So I agreed to the Erl Queen’s request, shaking on it to make it official, and cooperating fully as she whispered an incantation and claimed her toll just then. It wasn’t painful; not right then, anyway.
Then, I removed Adriel’s scarlet stone from around my neck and handed that over as well.
After she wrapped her reaching fingers around it, the gates of the Erl Queen’s castle swung open to me, and I looked to see that the Queen herself had transformed from her hideous tentacle-having form to that of a beautiful girl.
“Come in, Rukiya Moonborn,” she told me, her voice now as smooth and sweet as her face. “You must be starved.” Pausing, she turned back to meet my eyes, the glittering gown she was now wearing shifting at her delicate, bare feet. She held a manicured finger up into the air. “And one more thing, for future reference… Keep your paws off Adriel. He’s spoken for.”
18
The Erl Queen had vanished after that final, unwarranted warning about Adriel, and her silent male guards, ever brandishing their spears, had taken me to the west wing of the castle.
We’d travelled through several cold, dark hallways with portraits of hideous creatures on the walls and carpet that smelled of mold and decay, up a long set of stairs that spanned the gorge to another adjacent island of rock, down a few more hallways, and finally, we reached the west wing.
The entire castle was a dark, gloomy maze, and I was sure this was intentionally so. I wouldn’t be leaving here until the Erl Queen allowed it. Even with my good sense of direction, there were so many branching pathways, hallways, staircases and doorways that I would easily become lost.
I kept reminding myself that Adriel would not have sent his people here if he hadn’t thought it was safe, or at least safer than staying in Mina when it was overrun with Hounds.
I was reunited with those people after my trek through the castle to the west wing, having been instructed to wait in an overly large sitting room. To my surprise, there were three fires blazing in fireplaces against the walls, warming the space, and plush couches and armchairs were set about along with tables sporting lamps and straight-backed chairs.
There were also bookshelves filled with tomes in languages I couldn’t begin to guess at. I wandered among these shelves, eyeing the books curiously and telling myself to be cool about the fact that I was trapped in this hell-realm while the world beyond it erupted into violent chaos.
I nearly tackled Goldie to the floor when I was reunited with her. The duel doors that opened into the room had been thrown wide, and Goldie was the very first one through. We collided in an embrace that lasted long enough for Asha and Amara to enter the room as well.
Amara ran to me and wrapped her arms around my waist as I smoothed back her hair and gave her a smile. Asha gave me a curt nod, which I thought was generous considering her normal way with me.
“Where are the others?” I asked Goldie.
“The Erl Queen has given us quarters in this part of the castle,” she told me. “They’re settling into rooms right now. They’re pretty exhausted.”
“Where were you guys?” I asked. “What happened after the forest?”
Goldie let out a short, tense laugh. “You mean when the damn ground opened up and swallowed us whole? I have no idea what happened. Everything went dark. Then, I woke up on a bridge surrounded by a bunch of oafs with spears. They brought us here.” Goldie paused. “What happened to you? I almost attacked one of those guards when I saw you weren’t with us. Asha held me back.”
Asha plopped down into one of the armchairs and kicked her feet up onto a coffee table. “You’re welcome,” she said.
“Any word from Adriel or the others?” I asked, ignoring her.
“Like you care,” Asha mumbled.
I threw my hands up. I was too tired and rattled for her attitude. “What the hell is your problem?” I snapped.
Asha removed her boots from the coffee table and sat forward to glare at me. “You, obviously,” she replied. “You are my problem.”
“Why? What did I do to you? I don’t ev
en know you.”
Asha stood and approached, stopping just out of my reach. “No, you don’t know me. But I know you. Everybody knows you. You’re the reason the Hounds are here, the reason the whole operation is now blown. I really don’t understand his infatuation with you. I don’t see what’s so special.”
“Whose infatuation with me?”
“Never mind.”
“None of that was my fault,” I shot back. “I couldn’t help what happened. I didn’t ask to be a slave.”
“None of it?” Asha challenged. “So someone forced you to climb into bed with that bastard Hound? Ryker, right, that’s his name? Did Ryker rape you? Is that what happened?”
I had barely processed these words before Goldie struck out and slapped Asha hard across the face. The sound of her hand striking Asha’s skin was such that one could hear the pain it inflicted. Silence followed that sound, during which Asha reached up to cover the part of her face Goldie had struck with her hand. For a moment, I was absolutely positive that a full-blown fight was going to break out. The tension in the room was thick enough to bite into.
Then, the doors opened again, and Yarik and Yarin entered, followed by Bakari, Aysari and Eryx.
Finally, behind them, Adriel entered as well, and he offered me a tired grin before accepting the welcomes of the others.
Asha ran to him and threw her arms around his neck, followed by Goldie and Amara, whom I had nearly forgotten was in the room with the heated exchange between Asha, Goldie, and me. I stood watching as the group embraced each other, and the Erl Queen’s words came back to me.
“Your people?” she’d asked. “Since when did they become ‘your people,’ moon child?”
As I looked at Adriel, at Goldie and Amara, at the way they’d all become so familiar with each other in my absence, my heart ached a little at the question. Goldie had always been my best friend, my sister, really, but I’d never had a people, same as I’d never had a family or a home.
For whatever reason, the idea that these things might no longer hold true scared me terribly. Perhaps more than anything had ever scared me in my life.
For once, it felt as though, all of a sudden, I had a great deal to lose.
The west wing of the Erl Queen’s castle was vast, dark, drafty and gloomy.
The ceilings in the long hallways were so tall that the torchlight along the walls did little to illuminate them. There could be any manner of creature perched up there in the shadows, ready to swoop down at any moment.
There were enough rooms to house all the residents of Mina, which I learned was just shy of five hundred. It seemed Adriel and the others had been more successful in liberating pups slated to be Dogs than rumor had projected. What’s more, a head count told us that everyone had gotten out of Mina alive.
The bad news was, the Hounds now roamed and controlled the town, and reinforcements would be on their way sooner or later, once the Pack Masters figured out how to land another anchor and open another portal.
All of this was discussed in a marathon. Adriel and his lieutenants sat around talking occurrences and strategies, and various others wandered in and out of the great sitting room to listen in, maybe ask a few questions, and then wander back to their individual quarters. Part of me wanted to do the same, to leave what would happen next up to Adriel and the others, but I remained where I was. I sat in one of the many armchairs near one of the fireplaces, staring into the flickering flames, absorbing the conversation, but not joining.
Adriel was silent most of the time as well. He sat utterly still in one of those straight-backed chairs, his hands folded neatly together in his lap, and his black shirt unbuttoned at the top. His ebony hair was attractively messy on his head, as though he’d been running his hands through it. I’d never seen him look so tired. Though his face was the ever-serene mask he always wore, I could see the fatigue in his eyes. I felt it, too.
“How many?” Goldie was asking. “How many Hounds are in the town right now?”
“Two, three hundred, by my best estimate,” Bakari answered.
“And how many fighters do we have with us?”
Bakari barked a humorless laugh. “Including everyone in this room? Thirty, maybe.”
“Shit,” Asha mumbled, and shot what seemed like the millionth glare at me, which I thoroughly ignored.
“We could take them out,” Aysari argued. “We just gather them all in one spot and destroy them in one swoop. It’s our Gods damned town. We should be able to manage it.”
Everyone looked to Adriel, but he said nothing. He raised his eyebrows, asking others to chime in without speaking a word.
“It could work,” Bakari relented.
“We’d have to be clever, and quick,” Eryx agreed with a nod, “but, yes, it could work.”
“We could work up a spell,” Asha said, sitting forward, her dark eyes gleaming, “lure them all to one location and unleash it on them. Clean and efficient.”
“Just kill them all,” I mumbled, and didn’t realize I’d spoken out loud until all the eyes in the room fell on me.
There was a tic of silence. Then, Asha said, “Yes, kill them all. They’re Hounds… Do you have a problem with that?”
I didn’t get a chance to respond before a small voice in the corner of the room chimed in. “I have a problem with it,” the voice said.
The attention left me as all heads turned toward the speaker. I was surprised to see the child from the square, the one with the silver-blue eyes.
“I have a problem with it,” she repeated. “I don’t think you have to kill all the Hounds. I think some of them can be reasoned with, redeemed, even.”
No one spoke for a few beats. Then, Yarik gave Adriel a nudge and a grin. “See, brother,” Yarik said. “This is why you don’t go teaching children to read.”
It was meant to be a joke, but everyone in the room was too tense to laugh.
Speaking more gently than I’d ever heard her, Asha said, “They came here to kill and capture, Malayah. They have to be put down, or we won’t be safe.”
The male child who’d been with Malayah in the square stood and joined her. The two children exchanged sad smiles and clasped hands.
“Those Wolves had no more control over their life station than Rook had over hers, or me over mine,” the boy said, “I’m with Malayah. I’m not sure we have to kill them all. Maybe we should give them a choice instead.”
Asha scoffed, and the other adults in the room mirrored her skepticism. “What choice would that be? Surrender your loyalty to your Master and join the resistance, or die?”
The two children glanced at each other, tilted their heads, looked back at Asha, and nodded.
“Sounds good,” Malayah said.
“Why not?” asked the boy.
Asha threw her hands up. “Because we don’t have time for diplomacy. You’re children. You don’t understand that.”
Malayah tipped up her chin. “We should get a say in things. As children, we will be carrying on the torches. We’ll be handed whatever messes you old people can’t manage to clean up.”
Silence fell again. Then, Asha surprised me by bursting out into good-hearted laughter. “Yarik is right,” she said between chuckles. “We should not teach any of the other children to read.”
Further arguments soon ensued. No one could agree on the right course of action.
Gods only knew how much time had passed since we’d begun the conversation, but finally, Adriel called an end to the meeting, insisting that a decision was better made when the deciders were well rested.
After a day of fighting and running for our lives, there was little argument from the gathered. People departed to find places to rest their heads. Goldie kissed my cheek and told me to get some sleep, and then it was just Adriel and I in the gloomy, cavernous sitting room.
I swallowed hard, summoning words that were so illogically difficult to utter. “I’m glad you made it here,” I said.
Only six words, but the
y felt much bigger somehow.
Adriel was still sitting in that straight-backed leather chair, his posture relaxed but poised. His dark hair fell over his forehead, his eyes closed as he leaned back against the headrest. The firelight flickered over his pale skin, dancing along his strong jaw. When one side of his mouth turned up in his characteristic half smile, I admitted to myself for the first time that Adriel was extraordinarily handsome, that his appeal was almost primal.
Even now, as he sat exhausted in that chair, the power he wielded rippled off him, affecting profoundly whoever should venture near it. It took effort not to let my gaze drift down to where his black shirt was unbuttoned at the collar, and further down still.
Keep your paws off Adriel, the Erl Queen had told me. He’s spoken for.
His smooth voice pulled me out of these thoughts. “If I didn’t know better, Rukiya dearest,” he said slowly, “I would say you were worried about me.”
Because I was a coward, I found myself backtracking. “Well… the people of Mina, they need you.”
He opened one red eye and raised a dark brow at me. “Just the people of Mina?” he asked, his voice barely a whisper, but more than loud enough to my Wolf ears.
Not knowing what else to do, I bid him good night and slipped out of the room.
19
Ryker visited me for the third time that evening, the beach in Marisol setting of his dream riding now familiar.
“You’ve got some nerve,” I told him as he came striding urgently toward me.
“Thank the Gods you’re okay!” Ryker said with a heavy sigh of relief. He reached out to touch me.
I jerked away. “Don’t touch me, you murderer,” I spat.
Ryker’s hands fell to his sides and his shoulders slumped. If I didn’t know better, I’d say the sorrowful expression he adopted was almost believable. Almost. But not quite.
