Under the Wolf’s Shadow
Other Books by A. Katie Rose:
Saga of the Black Wolf Series
In a Wolf’s Eyes, Book One
Catch a Wolf, Book Two
Prince Wolf, Book Three
The Unforgiven
Coming Soon:
The Kinslayer, Saga of the Black Wolf, Book Five
Under the Wolf’s Shadow
A. Katie Rose
Under the Wolf's Shadow:
Saga of the Black Wolf, Book Four
Copyright © 2012 A. Katie Rose and House Anderson Publishing
All rights reserved.
Cover Copyright 2016 Kit Foster Designs
The author is hereby established as the sole holder of the copyright. Either the publisher, House Anderson Publishing, or the author may enforce copyrights to the fullest extent.
This book is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This book may not be resold, reproduced or transmitted by any means in any form or given away to other people without specific permission from the author and/or publisher. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each person you share it with. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to your book retailer and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.
This is a work of fiction. Any resemblance to the living or dead is entirely coincidental.
Print ISBN: 978-0-9904275-9-9
E-Book ISBN: 978-0-9904275-8-2
Dedication:
Ninetta and Roger
For truer friends were never born
Life is to be fortified by many friendships. To love, and to be loved, is the greatest happiness of existence. ~ Sydney Smith
Friends are those who believe in us and who want to help us whatever it is that we are trying to achieve. ~ Aung San Suu Kyi
The best friend is the man who in wishing me well wishes it for my sake. ~ Aristotle
Contents
Chapter One: Of Boys and Dogs
Chapter Two: Li
Chapter Three: From Out of the Blizzard
Chapter Four: Beloved of the Gods
Chapter Five: Comes a Hero
Chapter Six: North
Chapter Seven: The Tears of a Unicorn
Chapter Eight: Rygel’s Payback
Chapter Nine: Winter’s Ghost
Chapter Ten: White Death
Chapter Eleven: Busted
Chapter Twelve: Kael
Chapter Thirteen: Attack of the Dead
Chapter Fourteen: A Veil of Tears
Chapter Fifteen: Keeper of the Sacred Flame
Chapter Sixteen: Ananaya
Chapter Seventeen: The Fight for Darius
Epilogue
About the Author
Under The Wolf’s Shadow
Of Boys and Dogs
Chapter 1
“Wake up,” Darius said.
Flowing on the banks of the poison river, I coasted, unable to focus on his voice. He spoke as though from a great distance, vague, trivial, gone from my mind the instant his words died away.
“Do you hear me?”
“Um,” I replied, drifting.
The darkness called to me, far more inviting than Darius’ annoyance. The mammoth draft horses pulled my body on the sled made of boughs, bouncing over rocks and logs. They wended their way among the heavy forest with its low-hanging limbs, around dense tree trunks, and ducked around thickets of scrub oak.
Voices, uncomfortably loud, forced the deep dark to recede. I blinked in the faint light as the drug-induced stupor loosened its grip.
“Too damn slow,” muttered the sergeant. “At this pace, we’ll reach His Majesty by this time next month.”
“We’ve no choice, sir,” replied another, a soft-spoken soldier. “This is rough country. We must go slow or we’ll kill him.”
“His Majesty might have a few things to say about that,” muttered another. I knew he rode beside me, for my dim sight watched his bay’s legs stride and I heard his low voice directly above me.
“Listen,” Darius said. “Find your anger. Let it help you.”
“I can’t.”
“You must. Rouse your fighting spirit, fight it.”
Heeding his advice, I tried to raise my friend the daemon. I sought my rage borne of rape and helplessness, my trusty companion who rose to my rescue on more than one occasion. Rage might burn away the poison in my blood, the drug Ja’Teel created that held me prisoner.
I called on him, demanded him, pleaded . . . dammit, help me. I need you. Once my friend, turned now into a lazy, despicable sleaze, he ignored my urgent call. My daemon slept, impotent and ignorant of my desperation. At my feeble mental urging, he grumbled, twitched and fell back into deep slumber.
“Your magic can burn away this poison,” Darius said. “Focus your will. Find the fire that once before burned poison from your blood. You can do it again. Seek your magic. Find your inner fire.”
I tried again to focus my will, to wake enough to bring it to bear on my own body. Sleep’s sweet seduction carried me down, down. I drifted, my body sliding and bumping over rocks and dead trees, painful and bruising, yet so very unimportant. Only the dark void beckoned with the temptation I couldn’t resist.
I floated, dreamless, comfortable, happy.
“Raine!” Ly’Tana screamed.
Startled, I woke.
“Raine! Help me. Please!”
Ly’Tana struggled in the merciless grip of Tongu hunters. Brindled hounds snapped and snarled without sound, leaping about their masters, fangs gleaming under the foam slicking their jaws. Tattooed Tongu hands ripped her leathers from her slender body. Her sword, clanging, fell to her feet. Naked, she screamed again, calling my name, pleading, panicked. In the hands of those who would fling her down and take her without mercy, she fought, tears streaming down her high, almond-colored cheekbones. Alone, frightened, she faced her enemies unarmed and undefended.
The cursed Tongu struck her across her brow. Half-conscious, her head fell forward, her filthy hair cascading over her face. Naked as the day she was born, she lay in the dirt, battered, bruised, defeated. The Tongu, grinning in his lust, his bald head tattooed with serpents, thrust his trousers to his ankles. He fell upon her bare, wriggling body. His mates yanked her legs apart. Ly’Tana screamed, her panic raw in my gut.
My rage boiled over. My daemon woke with a roar.
I tried to rise, to slay those that dared harm her. My paws twitched, spasmed, but hadn’t the power to raise me up. Kill them. Kill them all. I snarled, biting at the vision; my fangs snapped through a smoky haze and found no mortal flesh to bite. Yes, damn you, yes, get up off your lazy ass and save her. Only you can save her. Get up, you mangy, flea-bitten hound. Kill them!
I fell back, panting, growls of suppressed fury emerging from behind my bared fangs. Blind to all save the sight of Ly’Tana screaming, I fought to rise, to slay those that dared lay cursed hands upon her. The drug in my blood laughed at me, forced me into turpitude, beckoning me into quiet sleep and sweet oblivion. I yearned such sweetness, craved to answer its seductive call.
And Ly’Tana would die.
Get up, I screamed. Get up, you stupid fool.
Despite my silent curses, my body failed to respond to my commands. Ly’Tana thrashed under her tormentors, those that raped her as I watched, furious and helpless. Yet, oddly, I ignored Darius’ voice that urged an action that might yet keep my love from harm.
“Gor,” I heard a voice exclaim, “is he waking up?”
“Raine,” Ly’Tana screamed, still fighting while pinned under the hard body of the Tongu
. “Help me! Use your fire. Burn the poison. Help me.”
Her head fell back, her red-gold, silky hair cascading around her shoulders, a shining liquid pool of molten silk catching the sunlight. The grinning Tongu seized a handful of its glossy mass and yanked her head back, baring her throat. His vile teeth sank into her vulnerable neck, drinking her blood like a starved animal.
Sluggishly slow, fire rose at my command. Its potent heat burned, withered, flared like coals offered fresh wood to consume before shrinking into nothing. Not enough. Not nearly enough. I need more. I called on my inner flames once again, gathered it into my fist.
My daemon howling in the background, I sent what little fire I managed to collect into my blood. Running, seeking, my magic found tiny bits of the poison and burned it out of existence.
My willpower replenished itself. Strength returned to my body and my fury doubled. Yet, it’s too slow–far too slow. Time stood still. Ly’Tana flailed and wept, crying my name.
“More,” Darius urged. “You must do more. Think of her.”
Rygel’s magic from the gods answered my call. I poured more fire into my blood, my brain, my tissues, burning the evil and skipping past the essential I needed to survive. More poison died under my assault, its death offering more me strength. Stronger by half again, I called on the powers granted me. I burned away more of Ja’Teel’s venom, cleansing myself of its tenacious grip.
Ly’Tana screamed for me. I fought on, but it wasn’t enough, not yet. Under the despicable body of the Tongu, Ly’Tana thrashed and cried, tears and blood rolling past her cheeks.
More, I need more.
What will returned to me, I used. My inner fire, whipped into a frenzy by my vision, burned yet more poison and my own blood along with it. Now I could raise my head, though I couldn’t see anything save my love suffering. I snarled, my rusty voice challenging the foul Tongu. You are sooo dead.
“Sergeant,” a panicked voice warned. “I think he’s waking up.”
“Grab the bloody cordial. Dose him, quick.”
My fire fled along my veins, burning anything it didn’t like. My senses returned with a rush. I lay on a pallet made of pine boughs. Ja’Teel had drugged me. Horses and Khalidian soldiers surrounded my wolf’s body. Ja’Teel, in his endless pride and stupidity, had ridden off and left me in the care of men who had no clue of what I represented.
Ly’Tana, in the throes of violent rape, screamed, crying, begging. My soul cringed while my daemon raged. I did this. I caused this.
Fire borne of magic and fury cascaded though my body, burning the entire evil drug in its path.
The vision, if it was a vision, of Ly’Tana’s rape at the hands of the Tongu coiled in upon itself and vanished with a distinct plop.
My eyes snapped open.
A human form, a silhouette against the bright sunlight, knelt beside me, upending a small flask over my snarling jaws and bared fangs.
Never again.
The soldier had time enough to squawk in brief panic before I lunged upward. Off the idiot contraption Ja’Teel devised, my free and unhindered body surged with open jaws and naked fury. My daemon controlled me now. The rage borne from my hallucination hadn’t departed with it. Though they hadn’t violated Ly’Tana, I didn’t care. They were in the wrong place and messed with the wrong wolf.
I slammed my fangs on the trooper’s lower face and throat.
He tried to scream, throwing himself backward, his hands slapping ineffectively at my ears. His warm red blood gushed over my jaws, spilling down my ruff in a flood. Arterial blood sprayed my muzzle and eyes, drenching my face, burning my nostrils with its thick, cloying scent. I hung on, and felt his body die in my jaws. His spirit departed at breakneck speed to his gods.
Another one bites the dust.
With a contemptuous shake of my head, I hurled the dead soldier from me into the scrub oak thickets.
I leaped to my feet, roaring in rage and hate, facing my enemies–ready to kill more foolishly brave soldiers. Front paws to the north of the rig, hind legs to the south, I snarled; my bloody fangs dripped human gore. Ja’Teel’s boys gaped in horror; their faces paled to a pasty shade. Their horses skittered sideways, eyes wide and white and nostrils flaring red.
Free of the once confining drug of Ja’Teel’s magic, I, in my daemon’s powerful grip, lunged toward the sergeant. Panicked, he tried to spur his horse away. But his mount half-reared, and jumped out from under him. He tumbled from his cavalry saddle, his lips a wide ‘o’ of surprise and shock, and landed with a heavy thud onto the needle-strewn soil.
As the horse bolted into the woods, he tried to struggle up, floundering in the dirt and loose pine needles. He screamed, his dark eyes bulging from his head when I sprang toward him. His hands beat ineffectually at my face as I snapped my jaws over his vulnerable carotid. I tore his throat open, his anguished body falling to the dead leaves, needles and twigs of the lofty, indifferent range.
Spinning away from his corpse, I rapidly scanned the surroundings with my hearing and instincts. None threatened my rear or my flanks. My enemies, four Khalidian soldiers and three Tongu, fought their panicked mounts for control. Their hands sawed hard on reins, foam and blood springing from their horses’ jaws. Their hounds cringed behind the leaping horses, chuffing, their hackles up and tails tucked between their legs.
Unfamiliar with riding, a Tongu overbalanced and tipped sideways out of his saddle. He fell hard to the ground, his breath departing his gut in a sharp whoosh. Kicking, his horse galloped into the trees.
His fellows, inexperienced with fighting from horseback, jumped down, their mounts following on the heels of the first. Drawing their cudgels from their belts, one helped the fallen one to his feet while the other stood between them and me.
The cavalry soldiers expertly controlled their snorting horses, left hands on their reins, rights hovering over sword hilts. One young man with straw-colored hair reined his horse toward me, his right hand slowly rising from his blade to hover over his head.
“Easy there, Prince Wolf,” he said quickly. “We had nuthin’ to do wit it. Not our call, understand? We only obeyed orders. You knows orders, right?”
His friends exchanged frantic glances, closer to panic than the one who spoke. Clearly they knew their duty: take me down. They also knew such a task quite impossible. Only weapons beyond their knowledge and abilities could take me prisoner again. Now their new leader offered a possible solution. Could I be bargained with?
“Please listen, Prince Wolf, sir,” the blond boy begged. “We was on our way to Arcadia, the sergeant and us. Beggin’ yer pardon, sir, we meant to desert, we did. We wanted nuttin to do with the King’s war between yer Lordship and yer wolves.”
Another boy barely out of his teens spoke up, his fiery red hair bouncing atop his freckled face. “That’s right,” he said. “We was part of the King’s army that fought your wolves and lost. That dark man that left us, he found us two days past and ordered us onto this detail. We didn’t want to go, but if he knew what we was planning . . . he’d have done kill us.”
“Ssstinking cowards,” the forward Tongu grated, hissing through his cut vocal cords. “We will ffflay hissss hide for him. Attack!”
I lunged forward, snarling, growling, halving the distance between us. The cavalrymen reined their spooking horses away, neatly separating themselves from the three hunters. The Tongu flinched, raising their clubs, bunching together for protection. “Attack!” the man hissed again.
Tongu hounds growled and backed away with hackles high, their stiff tails curving over vulnerable genitals. The Tongu, in a panic, commanded their hounds to charge in hissing voices as they urged their frightened mutts to fight their battle for them.
Whining, ears flattened, the huge dogs cringed and hid behind their masters’ legs. Shifting their panicked gazes between their once ferocious canines and me, the assassins hefted cudgels, trying to both threaten me and urge their protectors into protecting them. The hounds’ l
oyalty to their masters slackened under their terror of me and refused their orders.
My will answered me when I called upon it. I changed into my two-legged form. The fury of Ly’Tana’s vision rapidly faded, falling in upon itself. It left behind a new heartache and a new fury. Whipping my sword from its sheath, I pointed its deadly tip at the soldiers and Tongu.
“Get off your horses,” I snarled.
Instantly, the four soldiers slid to the ground, expertly wrapped fists with leather reins and kept their skittish horses tight to them.
“Drop your weapons.”
Four swords slid from sheaths and were tossed to the ground at my feet. Crossbows followed with a clatter and quivers of bolts fell to the dead leaves and twigs.
“Never,” hissed the Tongu leader. Snapping his bow from his back, he nocked an arrow from the quiver at his belt.
I raised my lip in a half-snarl, half-grin. “Go ahead,” I said softly. “Do it. Do you feel lucky?”
He brought the bow and arrow up, drawing the string to his ear under the filthy fall of his oily hair. I stared deep into his furious, fear-filled dark eyes, the tattoos scrawled over his face and naked skull stark against his pale, sweating skin.
“Come on,” I said. “You may even kill me.”
The string twanged sharply. The arrow flew straight toward my chest.
I raised the tip of my sword slightly. A thin bolt of yellow flame burst from the steel and met the arrow midflight. Catching fire instantly, it burned under my super-heated magic, turning to ash in less than an instant. The steel-tipped head dropped to the ground, the wooden shaft and its feathers retaining a vague shape of an arrow in midflight suspended halfway between us.
My fire continued its course, leaving the arrow-shaped dust to drift, caught on the light breeze and spread. The Tongu gaped, his jaw slack, as my bolt of flame sped toward his heart. He tried to run at the last second, ducking and twisting. Caught on the legs of his own hound, the man screamed, stumbling, trying not to fall.
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