by Tonia Brown
“Lelanea, you don’t have to-”
“I was promised to a man ten years my senior,” Lelanea said over him. “My father had bartered my hand to the Earl in return for a sizable amount of land and livestock. But I was headstrong. I didn’t want to marry the Earl. I couldn’t marry him because I was already in love.”
Lelanea shifted, lowering onto her belly as she sighed.
Dodger waited, giving her the space she needed to get it all out.
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Chapter Seven
A Lady and a Wolf
In which Dodger hears a terrible tale
“He lived alone deep in the forest surrounding my village,” Lelanea continued, “and only came into town to trade furs or deliver firewood. The townsfolk said he was a recluse. My father called him trouble. But I was fascinated by him. He was big and strong and so handsome. I took to walking through the forest alone; just to see if I could run across him. I did, several times, and he was always kind to me. He would offer to lead me home or just sit and speak with me for a few minutes before he went about his lonesome way. He always had a smile for me. His name was Daniel, but that is all I knew about him.”
“He sounds like a fine man,” Dodger said.
“He was. But my father was correct, he was trouble. More than I could possibly imagine. One late night I overheard my parents whispering in their bedroom, and learned they had promised me to the Earl. I did the only thing I could do. I ran away … to him. I foolishly thought he might secretly be in love with me.”
“He wasn’t.”
Lelanea shook her head as she looked away. “Not only that, he was furious that I sought him out. He said I was lucky he found me before something else did, though at the time I insisted it was fate. Daniel took me back to his home, and bade me to remain there until he could fetch my father to retrieve me. I was devastated. Not only did the man I love not love me in return, but he wanted to throw me back into the life my parents had planned for me. So I ran from him too, right into the dark of the woods.
She stopped in her tale, and Dodger got the sense she was gathering her courage, that the next bit was going to be the most difficult for her to say aloud.
“You don’t have to finish,” Dodger said.
“I was young and foolish,” she said. “The forest is a dangerous enough place for a young woman during the sunlit hours. At night, it is a terror to behold. I knew what was out there, but I was blinded by my rage and walked right into it anyway. Specifically, I came across a wild boar and her young. She gored me before I even knew what was happening. I remember the sound of her moving in the underbrush, and then I was face down in the pine needles, bleeding to death.”
“I’m sorry.”
“Not as sorry as I was. I should’ve died there on the forest floor. I should’ve bled to death with a lesson well learned. But I didn’t. Daniel found me.”
“He saved your life.”
“No. He damned me to this one.” Lelanea finally raised her head to face Dodger. Tears glistened in the soft light. “There was a reason he lived deep in the woods by himself. Because he was … well I’m sure you have figured it out by now. He infected me with his curse and yes it did heal me and keep me alive, but he didn’t do it to save my life, or because he loved me. He only did so because he worried everyone would think he had killed me.” She let out a soft laugh. “Daniel was smart to do so, because when he went to my father with my broken body dangling from his arms, they immediately accused him. They put him in the stockade, and set the following night to execute him.”
Dodger wondered at the idea of someone using a stockade. Just how long ago did this story take place?
“Lucky for him,” she said, “I recovered consciousness in time to explain what really happened. The town apologized to Daniel, and my parents offered him anything he wanted in return. He asked for my hand, and they gave it to him because I was no good to them anymore. I had ruined my chances for the life they had planned. The Earl didn’t want a scandal as his wife. My parents were ashamed of me. No one wanted me.”
“Daniel did, surely.”
“I admit he was kind enough to take me in when no one else would, but he owed it to me. Daniel was responsible for my new condition. He turned me into this thing, and he was honor bound to teach me how to control it. Over time, I learned the ways of his people, and they became my people.”
“And he learned to love you?”
Lelanea looked up to Dodger with a gasp. “Who told you that?”
“You told me by the way you talk about him. Your Daniel must’ve been some fellow.”
“He was. We lived together for many, many years. More than I care to admit. Eventually he died of natural causes.”
Dodger narrowed his eyes to suspicious slits. “You’re telling me a werewolf died of old age?”
“Our kind lives an unnaturally long life, but we are not immortal. In the end we are vulnerable to the ravages of time, as well as physical ailments. Daniel was lucky enough to go peacefully, in his sleep. He was almost two hundred and fifty years old when he breathed his last.”
“Two hundred and fifty?” Dodger asked. He mulled over the figure, and the mention of the stockade. “How old are … I mean to say when did you first … I don’t want to pry but-”
“I am currently one hundred and twenty.”
Dodger tried his best not to overreact to that, lest he anger the wolf or the lady. He bit his lip and scrunched up his face, pondering the implications of Lelanea’s advanced age. “And the doc? Are you related to him at all?”
“Yes. He is my great nephew, many times over.”
“Is he?”
“It took a tremendous deal of searching, but I discovered Hieronymus was my last remaining relative. I intended to meet with him just to see how much the family line had changed, with the cover story of being his niece of course. When he learned I was recently widowed, he was kind enough to offer me a place on the train without further question. It didn’t take long for me to confess everything, especially with Feng aboard. It is quite a task to keep anything from that man.”
“You can say that again. But still, doesn’t traveling with the doc kind of put you in the thick of things? Why choose such a dangerous life over the safety of obscurity?”
“After Daniel passed away, I spent years living by myself. Over time I found I couldn’t do it. Where Daniel thrived on solitude, I could not walk such a lonely path. I needed contact with other humans to remind me of that side of myself, least the beast take total control.” Lelanea smiled; an unnerving sight, all things considered. “Besides, you know how hard it is to argue with Uncle.”
“He means well. He has good soul.”
“That he does. A good soul but a busy brain.”
“Both of those are gonna get him dead one day.”
“I know. I just hope we aren’t going to get ourselves dead now.”
“Come on, it could be much worse.”
“Dodger, we’ve been kidnapped by a dozen insane dwarves in the middle of a child’s dream with no foreseeable means of escape. How could it possibly be worse?”
“You could be tied up with Ched.”
The wolf gasped. “Oh, you do have me there.”
“I for one couldn’t think of a better partner to find myself tied to.” Dodger considered his words, as well as recent events, before he added, “Again.”
“That’s right. We have been here before, haven’t we?”
“Yes, ma’am. I told you I find myself in this kind of position all of the time. Something about me just makes folks want to tie me up. At least it’s to a pretty lady.”
“Please, Dodger. Flirting won’t make me feel any better about looking like this.”
“Then tell me what will.”
“You owe me an answer.”
He knew Lelanea was just changing the subject, but Dodger couldn’t fault her for it. “Do I?”
“You
know how this goes. Story for a story.”
Dodger nodded as he cursed himself under his breath. He should’ve seen this coming. “Go on, ask away.”
“Who are you?”
“I think you know enough about me to guess the rest-”
“No, who are you supposed to be right now? Whose face do you wear? Because from your reaction, I’ll wager it isn’t someone you want to be.”
“Ah, I see. Yeah, it’s someone I’d rather not think about. Though, at one point in time, I would’ve gladly given my life to be just like him.”
“Who is he?”
“Tyler Crank.”
She tipped her head to one side, as if weighing the name. “The government man that arrived at the reservation?”
“He was also my first partner. The man that showed me the tricks of the killing trade. He was the one that broke me from all of Al’s good lessons. Crank taught me that a man’s life is only worth the price someone puts on it.”
“If this is a man you despise, why do you take his appearance?”
Dodger looked away. “I don’t know.”
“Perhaps it’s an attempt at your psyche trying to disguise itself? Perhaps it knew, somehow, that Sir Rodger was here? No, that doesn’t seem likely.”
“I told you I don’t know.”
“But certainly you could’ve looked like a million other-”
“Why are you a wolf?”
Lelanea’s jaw clicked shut at the question.
“It kind of seems obvious,” Dodger said. “Don’t it?”
“I see,” she said. “You come to Sarah’s dream as such because you think you’re this man at heart.”
Dodger shrugged.
“Oh, Dodger.” The wolf sighed with a sweet whine as she lowered onto her belly again. “I wished you could see what I see when I look at you.”
“I would say the same, but I reckon we are both just wasting our breaths.”
“I suppose so.”
Before Dodger could wax philosophical on either of their overly complicated lives, a soft whisk sounded from the trees to his right, followed by a thunk against the post to which they were both bound. Dodger glanced down to the post between them, surprised to see an arrow partially buried in the wood.
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Chapter Eight
Clean Getaway
In which Dodger finds a little unexpected help
Dodger eyed the tree line and waited, counting the heartbeats rising in his throat. One. Two. Three. Thankfully, a hail of arrows failed to follow the single, well placed shot. Dodger looked back down to the arrow, and the sharp edge protruding from the post.
“Are we under attack or not?” Lelanea asked.
“Whoever he is,” Dodger said. “I think he deliberately missed.” Dodger twisted back, as far as he could, to get a good look at the camp behind them.
The dwarves had settled down completely. Too completely for a group of traveling thieves. Each dwarf lay in a collapsed heap, all across the camp, snoring their little heads off. None kept watch. No one maintained the fire. It was as if they fell asleep where they stood or sat.
“They are all asleep,” Dodger said.
“The porridge,” Lelanea said.
“I would guess. Someone else must’ve spiked the whole batch, not just our helping.” Dodger leaned away from the post and lifted his arms behind him, rubbing his bindings against the metal tip of the arrow. In a few motions, he could feel the rope slipping away. He pulled his hands out of the twists of hemp, and rubbed at his raw wrists.
“Quick, undo me,” Lelanea said.
“Yes, ma’am.” Dodger picked at the complex knots that held the wolf in place. The dwarves had taken extra care to bind Lelanea tight, lest she gnaw through it before they returned. It took longer than he would’ve liked, but soon enough he had her free as well.
The wolf stood to her full height and shook out her fur. “That is so much better. Thank you.”
“Don’t thank me,” Dodger said. “Thank our mysterious liberator.”
Lelanea looked to the trees from which the shot came. “Where do you suppose he is?”
“With luck, he’s helping Sir Rodger and Boon escape.”
“Shall we go and see?”
Dodger nodded and motioned for Lelanea to go on first. This wasn’t a cowardly move, sending the lady into danger ahead of him. It was common sense. She could see far better in the dark than Dodger, and he trusted her heightened sense of smell to lead the way. Lelanea took his hint, and headed out in an arc around the camp proper, a clever move to keep from tramping straight across the sleeping dwarves. Dodger fell in behind her, making an effort to keep his footsteps as silent as possible, though he still came off like a herd of elephants compared to Lelanea’s delicate steps. The pair of them picked their way around the slumbering crowd, the wolf sniffing the air and ground, until they spotted their goal. Sir Rodger and Boon were bound to another post on the opposite end of the camp.
Boon rocked back and forth in place, whispering, “He said I would know when. Is this the when? I just don’t know.”
Sir Rodger didn’t answer his post mate. Instead, his mouth hung open with his chin resting on his chest and drool running down the length of his flannel shirt as he snored loudly.
“Boon?” Lelanea whispered.
Boon snapped his face up to the wolf. “Lelanea? Are you all right? Did they harm you?”
“I’m fine. Now, hold still so Dodger can untie you.”
“I see our valiant knight ate the porridge,” Dodger said as he worked on Boon’s ropes.
“He did,” Boon said. “I warned him not to. But he wouldn’t listen.”
“You knew it was poisoned, though.”
“I wasn’t sure, but I was suspicious.”
“Good call. I was lucky enough to have Lelanea to warn me. She smelled it right away.”
“That’s not-” Lelanea started.
“But I knew you’d figure it out,” Dodger said over her.
Rubbing his wrists, Boon asked, “How did you two escape?”
Dodger let Lelanea tell the tale while he set to untying the sleeping knight.
“Do you think he is still here?” Boon said once Lelanea was finished.
“I hope so,” Dodger said. “I want to thank him for-”
“Speak of the devil,” Lelanea said.
“And his imp shall appear,” Boon said. He motioned to the tree line behind Dodger.
Dodger turned about to see the outline of a short figure accompanied by the large shadow of a horse, presumably Sir Rodger’s nag. The man raised a hand, waving the others toward him.
“What do you think?” Dodger said. “Can we trust him?”
“I reckon we owe him some thanks,” Boon said as he stood, stretching his long legs and cracking his back. “After all, he could’ve killed us when he had the chance.”
“What do we do with him?” Lelanea asked, nodding to Sir Rodger.
Boon answered by lifting the knight and heaving him over one shoulder.
“Come on,” Dodger said. “Let’s not keep our guest waiting.”
Lelanea headed up the group, slinking away from the camp in almost silent steps. Dodger followed, trailed by the larger and less quiet Boon. Though, to be truthful, they probably could’ve sung a couple of rounds of How Dry I Am and not have woken a single dwarf from the sound of the little ones’ loud snores.
Once they reached the stranger, Boon tossed the knight onto the horse’s back. Sir Rodger wallowed about a bit, groaning and mumbling something about the sorry state of beds in the castle, before he settled down and returned to his rhythmic snore. Boon made to say something, but the stranger hushed him into silence, then motioned to a canvas bag hanging from the back of the saddle. Boon opened the sack and peeked inside. With a grin he pulled out Dodger’s gun belt, followed by his own, as well as the few odds and ends the two of them were carrying. Once this was done the str
anger turned the horse about and walked away without a word to the other three captives.
“Should we follow him?” Boon asked.
“Her,” Lelanea said.
Boon glanced to the retreating figure slipping into the shadows. “Are you certain?”
“I am and I think we should follow her. We are strangers to this land and she is the closest thing we have to a guide right now.”
“True. Either way, we need to get as far away from those dwarves as we can before they wake up and realize we are gone.”
“I can solve that,” Dodger said as he slipped a blade from his boot. “I’ll make a round of the camp, and slit their throats while they’re sleeping.” Dodger stared out across the immobile bodies and licked his lips, the promise of so much death whetting his hunger for destruction. Feeling the pressure of eyes on him, he looked back to the other two.
Lelanea and Boon stared at him, saying nothing. They didn’t have to speak. Their revulsion was palpable.
“What?” Dodger asked. “If we kill them now, they won’t be able to pursue us. Problem solved.”
“Geesh, Dodger,” Boon said. “Ain’t that a bit, I don’t know, harsh?”
“I … I just thought …” Dodger stopped and looked down at his blade. What was he thinking? He was thinking like an assassin, that’s what. Defending yourself during an open attack was one thing, but slitting the throats of a dozen unarmed sleeping men was another. It was the old Dodger speaking. No, it was more like Tyler Crank. Dodger pushed the blade back into the small scabbard inside his boot. “We best catch up with our friend before she leaves us behind.”
“Aye,” Lelanea said. “That we should.” She turned her nose to the task of finding the stranger’s path.
The three caught up with the mystery woman about a mile down the road. She stood at a crossroads with a lantern in one hand, raised up to the signs. Now that they were away from the shadows of the campfire, Dodger could see just how feminine she was; slight of build, slender at the waist and standing a little less than five feet. The woman dressed in a simple pair of cotton trousers and a matching tunic. She also sported a cowl complete with a deep hood that masked her face as she turned to greet the approaching three. As she turned Dodger noted just how slight of build she really was, for she barely bore any bosom to speak of.
