Under the Wolf's Shadow

by A. Katie Rose

  He and Arianne had obviously arrived at an understanding. Arianne smiled as Kael nodded to her, his handsome lips quirked. With a quick flick of his wrist, he snapped the serpent’s spine. He dropped it to lie–a flaccid, drooping corpse, a dark silver coil against the purest white snow. Kael reached his now empty hand toward me. His fingers brushed my cheek with love, with affection. He smiled at me; his lips pursed in a swift air kiss.

  “Kael,” I began, but his semi-solid finger brushed my lips. Silenced, I watched as he shook his head in sorrow, yet his eyes gleamed with love. Nodding once more to Arianne, he turned to walk away from me. No footprints followed him across the pristine snow.

  Kael turned one last time, his hand raised in a farewell wave. Bending at the waist, he bowed low. His smile, both sad and happy, reminded me sharply of our youthful days together so very long ago. I lifted my hand in a come-back gesture, but he shook his head. Walking away, he vanished from my sight.

  All that remained of him was his smile winking at me from the snowy mountainside.

  “What the hell happened?” Kel’Ratan shouted in my ear.

  Stunned, I ignored the ruckus around me, staring at the trackless snow where Kael had been. Raine’s massive hands on my arms turned me to face him, his weird grey eyes cold and dreadful to behold in his worry. “Ly’Tana, what’s wrong?”

  Still numb, I barely registered Darkhan as he barked and jumped up, his front paws brushing my shoulders. Tashira and Shardon galloped toward us, loose snow flung into fine clouds behind their hooves. Bar’s voice inside my head coincided with his shrill shriek as he screamed past overhead. Hearing my panic in my mind, he’d obviously flown back on swift wings. I glanced up as he banked up and over, to circle in tight rings several rods above me. “Are you all right? What happened?”

  I worked my mouth trying to find the words to express what the hell had just happened. My shock at my close brush with death and my encounter with Kael’s ghost dislodged all brain to mouth connections. As from a dim dark distance, I saw Tor nock an arrow and search the sunlit valley for something, anything, to shoot. My boys crowded around, hands on weapons, yet finding no threat to fight. Rygel put his arms around Arianne, huddling into his leather jacket. Little Bull didn’t have to lift his head much to lick her face. Despite the protection around her, Corwyn hovered over Arianne with his sword bared.

  “Ly’Tana?” Raine’s soft, mild voice pushed past the noise of everything else.

  “Um,” I began, trying a smile, brushing my hair from my face. “We, er, were eating and–”

  “What’s this?”

  Turning around, I saw Kel’Ratan holding the corpse of the small snake between his thumb and forefinger. In Rygel’s arms, Arianne twisted about to also peer at the dangling, dead serpent, her grey-blue eye stunned and distant. I suspected encounters with dead men who saved our lives threw her for a loop, too.

  “Ly’Tana?”

  “A snake?” Witraz muttered. “In this climate?”

  “It’s a snow serpent,” Rygel said, his voice low. “They aren’t even supposed to exist.”

  “The hell you say,” Kel’Ratan snapped, “here it is, existing. Dead, but it exists.”

  Leaning forward while still keeping his arm around Arianne, Rygel peered at the limp form in Kel’Ratan’s fingers. “They’re a legend, at best,” he said. “A creature from ancient mythology. It venom is so powerful, none can survive even the most minor of bites. This creature can kill swifter than a blade to the heart, and more efficiently. No one can actually account for seeing one, yet they are included in old tales. I’d say, and this is a guess at best, it’s Usa’a’mah’s latest attempt at killing Ly’Tana.”

  “Number seven, I reckon,” Raine growled.

  “Then who killed the snake?” Kel’Ratan asked, bewildered.

  Raine’s arms crept around me from behind, pulling me hard into his massive embrace. I relaxed against him, feeling the creeping chill finally leech from my gut. I smiled up at him briefly.

  “Kael killed it.”

  Kel’Ratan rounded on me, furious. “Kael? Kael is dead.”

  I chuckled. “He is that.”

  “Have you lost your effing mind?”

  “I don’t think so,” I replied soberly, my brow furrowed. “No, it’s still here. Thanks for asking.”

  Kel’Ratan, by the red color of his cheeks and bulging blue eyes, appeared ready to explode. His mouth worked, but no sound emerged. Yet, anyway.

  I glanced around at my warriors, who, with the exception of Tor, knew of my history with Kael. Hands held swords and bows, surrounding me should any threat present itself, they cast worried glances over their shoulders. Their wolves growled, hackles raised.

  “Kael is dead,” I admitted softly. “His ghost has haunted me since that day.”

  Sheathing his sword, Kel’Ratan walked slowly toward me, undeterred by Raine, Darkhan and a snarling Tuatha at my feet. “What’s this?” he asked, his voice as soft as mine.

  Struggling from Raine’s arms, I picked Tuatha up and hugged him tight to my breast as I walked out from the center of the crowd. Meeting Raine’s mild eyes, I tried another smile. This time, I felt it slip a bit. “I murdered two men.”

  “Oh, for–” Kel’Ratan snapped, furious, waving his arms as he stormed toward me. “Please for the love of all the gods tell me you are not still carrying that load around.”

  “Kael’s crime had nothing to do with you,” Witraz flared, his one eye as fierce as Kel’Ratan’s. No one cuffed him for his lack of manners.

  “It had everything to do with me.”

  “Ly’Tana, just you shut up about–”

  “I should like to hear this.” Raine’s soft voice cut through the angry babble of my boys. The wolves ceased their growling and sat at heel, waiting. Darkhan, flanked by Ghost, sat beside me with his hackles raised. Still, he made no sound.

  Bar shook his neck feathers. “You did the right thing.”

  “Did I?” I asked aloud despite the knowledge only I heard Bar’s comment. “Kael killed Breen out of love for me and I killed Kael.”

  “Kael killed Breen because he was a cold-hearted, murderous bastard,” Kel’Ratan snarled. “And he paid the price.”

  “I don’t suppose I might hear it from the beginning,” Raine said, his arms crossed over his chest. Like a judge–or a king.

  “Not so very long ago,” I said, smiling, ignoring my cousin’s rant and my boys’ collective irritation, “a warrior named Kael loved me. I knew of his infatuation, and gave it little consideration since I didn’t love him the same way.”

  This is tougher than I thought. I walked about, cuddling Tuatha, unable to meet anyone’s eyes. “My father chose a husband for me; a man named Breen. I couldn’t abide my father’s choice. After he informed me of his decree that night, I stormed from his apartments in a fury. I hated Breen, and refused to marry him. I said something bad. Something wrong. Something so very wrong.”

  “What did you say, Princess?” Tor asked, braver than any.

  I smiled. “I said, ‘I wish he was dead.’”

  “Uh, oh,” Tashira muttered.

  “I thought I was alone. Kael heard me, as he must have followed me when I answered my father’s summons. I’m guessing he lurked in the shadows, beyond the light of the torches. As he loved me, and me his future queen, he took my words as an express command. At court the very next day, he came face to face with Breen. He cut Breen’s throat. Swift and emotionless, he might’ve sliced a side of bacon. He murdered a man in front of many witnesses, myself included no less. I’d no choice.”

  “Kael was a misguided idiot who’d no thoughts outside what mattered to him,” Kel’Ratan stormed, pacing, his blue eyes lit with fire. “There was something wrong in that boy’s head. Anyone could see it.”

  “I didn’t,” I admitted. “I knew Kael loved me, but I didn’t think of him. I thought only of my anger and my selfish misery. My father’s choice infuriated me; it also disgusted
me. Breen came from a good family–he was the heir to a very powerful duchy and an earl in his own right. My father wanted the alliance with Breen’s royal father. But I found Breen’s advances repugnant, he was ugly, he–”

  “He couldn’t fight worth a damn,” Witraz added with a quick shake of his head, his strawberry hair dancing. “He certainly wasn’t worthy of her.”

  “Yet, he’d stand beside me as Prince Consort at my coronation,” I said slowly, “and that filled him with greed. He didn’t want me. He wanted the title and the power that goes with it. When Kael killed him–”

  “You found relief?” Arianne asked.

  I smiled. “That and horror. For I’d caused it.”

  “You bloody didn’t,” Alun snapped, furious. “Kael wanted Breen out of the way. With Breen dead, he was free to court you.”

  “They’re both dead because of me.”

  “Kael was executed by hanging after a fair trial and sentencing,” Kel’Ratan snapped. “He knew the consequences.”

  “I also knew what I’d done,” I confessed. “I provoked it. Then I enforced the law.”

  “You condemned him?” Raine asked.

  I half nodded. “Furious, my father demanded I stand as Kael’s judge. Given the evidence, I’d no choice. I condemned him to death for murder. Breen’s family was, of course, deeply angry and vowed revenge.”

  “Foolishness,” Kel’Ratan growled.

  “After Kael’s funeral,” I went on. “My father swore I’d never marry a man unless he outranked me.”

  “Only Brutal filled that requirement,” Kel’Ratan snapped, his anger growing. Blue eyes flashing, he stomped the snow into icy paths as he paced. “He sent her away to her new bridegroom, unwilling to recognize the absence of reason in his choice. He was determined to forge peace with the Khalidians and their mad government.”

  “So why would he haunt her?”

  Raine asked the question everyone wanted to ask, but didn’t dare. Arianne lifted her soft voice in answer. “He had a task to perform.”

  All eyes turned to her, silent, perplexed and angry. No longer afraid of being the center of attention, she shook her hair back from her face. “He needed to tell her something. Thusly, he returned from the afterlife.”

  Arianne’s glorious glowed as she smiled at me. “You couldn’t hear him, Ly’Tana dear,” she said. “I could.”

  “What did he bloody want?” Kel’Ratan snapped.

  Arianne ignored him. Her huge eyes captured mine as she reached for my hand. “He needed to tell you he forgives you.”

  My chest tight, I turned away and rudely spurned her gesture. I faced the rugged mountains we needed to cross and held Tuatha so tightly he squirmed in protest. Tears stung my eyes but I refused to let them fall. Kael, you shit. I don’t need your bloody forgiveness.

  “He also said you should forgive yourself. You did what was right.”

  My eyes lost their grip on my tears. Damn him to hell. Damn you, Kael, I hate you and always have.

  “Why would he forgive her?” Kel’Ratan demanded. “He brutally murdered another man because Ly’Tana in a snit said something she didn’t really mean. Kael wanted him dead to clear his path to marriage. What he got was hanged. I hope he’s rotting in hell right now.”

  “He was my sin,” I choked.

  “That’s bloody enough, Ly’Tana,” Kel’Ratan shouted. “You didn’t put the knife in his hand, you didn’t command it of him, but you’re taking all the responsibility. If not Breen, then Kael would've killed someone else. He liked killing and he liked killing in cold blood.”

  “Everyone knew he’d die in a noose,” Witraz murmured. “We all did. ‘Twas just a matter of time.”

  “He even made a jest of it once,” Alun said. “He said he knew he’d not die in battle, but on the gallows.”

  “That’s why he came back,” Arianne said, her voice rising. “He dishonored her and the warrior code. He murdered her chosen betrothed and disgraced her. In his own eyes, that was more shameful than death by hanging. If he could make it right again–”

  “He did make it right,” Raine murmured. “He saved her life. Now he can find peace.”

  “So you’ve been carrying this load of foolish guilt all this time?” Kel’Ratan, his voice an octave below a bellow, went on. “You’ve been seeing his ghost all this time and you never said anything? You’re so stupid, girl. You’re about as idiotic–”

  “That’s enough, m’lord,” Witraz said, his voice emanating from behind me. “You should just relax now.”

  I lifted my face, tears blurring my vision as Witraz, Rannon and Alun ringed a red-faced, furious Kel’Ratan. Though their hands rested on sword hilts, I prayed that’s all they’d do. Threaten. Through silence, they demanded Kel’Ratan cease and desist with his hot demands and see reason. Or else.

  Hardly intimidated by this show of loyalty and force, Kel’Ratan spun about with a raised fist. “Don’t tell me–”

  “We are telling you,” Alun replied firmly. “Back off.”

  “Now,” said Rannon. “M’lord.”

  Raine watched the drama, bemused, though my swift one handed gesture to request calm caught his attention. His somber expression lightened and he smiled. He winked.

  “Want me to transport them all into a snow bank?” he asked, his tone mild. “Cool them off?”

  I snorted laughter, unable to breathe as I choked on my tears. I gulped, coughed and laughed some more. Tuatha whined, struggling upward, licking the salty wet from my cheek. Raine stepped around the knot of annoyed warriors to lay his heavy arm over my shoulders.

  “I can drop buckets of water over their heads,” Rygel offered helpfully. “Tempers running a little hot, eh?”

  Arianne giggled.

  “I can kick their butts,” Tashira said.

  “Empty threat, my lad,” Raine advised, stroking my hair. “You haven’t kicked mine.”

  “Your time is coming, old son.”

  Red-faced, Kel’Ratan glared around at my warriors with a touch of humor quirking his upper lip. “Disloyal bastards,” he commented.

  “Oh, we’re quite loyal, m’lord,” Witraz replied, rocking back on his heels and grinning. “To her.”

  “Leave off, Kel’Ratan,” I said.

  “Why didn’t you say something?” he asked, his anger draining away like water from an icy mountain stream. “Why carry this burden of useless guilt alone?”

  “I earned the guilt,” I replied tiredly. “As for Kael–”

  I glanced around at all the faces, smiling faintly. “Why didn’t I speak of Kael?” I half shrugged. “Well, that should be obvious.”

  “It isn’t.”

  “You’d all think I’d lost my mind.”

  The flickering glances of guilt between Kel’Ratan and Witraz brought no end of amusement to me. I kept my laughter shut behind my teeth, however. No need to fuel these flames and crank them higher, I guessed. Their consciences struck them deep already.

  “I’d believe you,” Bar said from his spot at the edge of the crowd. “I knew something was bothering you all this time. I just didn’t know what.”

  “The snake almost bit your hand,” Arianne went on. “The only exposed part of you that wasn’t covered in thick leather and fur. Perhaps Usa’a’mah sent it in that direction on purpose.”

  I raised the appendage she spoke of, my right hand I lowered to set my uneaten lunch beside my rock. Had Kael not acted so swiftly, I’d be dead and now Usa’a’mah would crow his delight at my demise.

  “Makes sense,” Rygel said, his tone lowered in thought. “He’s tried weather, earthquakes, me, Illan, an avalanche, all violent attempts on her life. Those hadn’t worked. Thus he tries the subtle approach. Silent stealth by the world’s deadliest creature. Whether the snow serpent really exists or he created it on the spot out of the old legends, we may never know.”

  “None of us could have saved her,” Raine rumbled. “We’d never see it coming, or prevented it.”
>
  “Perhaps I should retract what I said,” Kel’Ratan commented with a grin, his blue eyes finally twinkling.

  “What?” I asked, curious.

  “About him rotting in hell. Where ever he is now, I wish him nothing but the best.”

  He patted my shoulder. “Next time you’re haunted by murdering bastards, promise you’ll tell me?”

  “Only if you promise not to think I’m crazy,” I replied.

  “After this–” He sighed dramatically. “–I’ll believe anything.”

  Taking the warriors with him, Kel’Ratan strode away across the snowy meadow, quiet wolves at heel. The drama over, Tuatha yawned in my arms, his pink tongue curling at the end. Seizing a nearby skin used for this purpose, I wrapped him up in it. With Raine’s arm dropping over my neck, sheltering me, I walked back toward my rock with Rygel and Arianne in tow.

  I set Tuatha down at my feet as Raine hunkered at my side. “Nap time,” I said.

  Despite his protesting grumble, Tuatha snuggled deep inside the fur and closed his eyes. I glanced at the dead snow serpent near the fire where Kel’Ratan dropped it. “Can we get rid of that nasty thing?” I asked.

  “If you don’t mind, Princess,” Rygel said, picking it up as Arianne watched with a noticeable moue of disgust wrinkling her lips and brow. “I’d like to study it. I’d be the first man to actually do so.”

  I flapped my hand. “Just do it where I can’t see it. That bugger turns my stomach.”

  Little Bull followed Rygel and Arianne, leaving only Raine, Darkhan, Ghost, Bar, Shardon, Tashira and I beside the fire. Ghost thrust her way back under my arm, seeking attention. I stroked her fine white ears, marveling at their softness, their absolute pure color. The snow seemed dirty by comparison. Ghost sighed, content.

  “You’re the only one,” I said, my face turned downward, my voice low.

  “The only one what?” Raine asked. His big hand warmed my neck.

  “Outside of Brutal and the six year old heir to the Arcadian throne,” I said softly. “The only man who can meet my father’s demand.”