by Anna, Vivi
The canopy above parted. The night sky was still starless and moonless. This forest should have been pitch black yet there was plenty of silver light. I looked around for the source.
“Nina!” Severin shouted as he came stumbling from the path. “It was like a maze back there. Fortunately I had you to guide me.”
“I guided you? How did I did I do that?” I wondered if he had followed my scent like a wolf.
“You don’t know? Have a look.”
There was a small pool next to some rocks. I gazed down into it.
The light wasn’t coming from the moon or the stars. It was coming from me. My skin was beyond porcelain now. It was literally luminescent with a silver glow. My hair was blacker than pitch and my eyes were a blue so bright they glowed. My wings stuck out of the back of my shirt. They were delicate as crystal and shone with their own radiance. Purple and gold played upon their gossamer surface. They were so beautiful I wanted to cry. I remembered how weeks ago I had fought them, tried to keep them buried inside my flesh. I’d been so afraid of them and what they represented. Now I just wanted to stare at them.
I tried moving them. They fluttered at a thought. I ran my fingers along their sides. Tingles rushed over my back. I beat them some more, thinking of the insects and humming birds that buzzed around my garden. I had a sudden desire to be like them; to float among the trees and flowers freely. I beat my wings harder and harder, but I stayed rooted to the ground. All I managed to do was create a breeze.
“What are you doing?” Severin asked.
“Trying to fly,” I said sheepishly. I had the wings, why couldn’t I fly?
Severin laughed. I noticed he had changed as well.
His hair was shaggier. There was more of it on his arms. His fangs were now prominent and his hands ended in claws. But when they stroked my chin they were still somehow soft and warm.
“You are radiant.”
Heat filled my belly. Although I was pretty sure this was the wrong time and place, I wanted to have sex. It was almost painful the way my thighs clenched. But he knew as well as I that we weren’t safe in these woods. Eventually someone would come for us.
I stretched on my toes and kissed him. It wasn’t the long, deep kiss I desired, but it would have to do for now until we were safe.
We got back on the path, determined to do what we came to do.
“Do you know where we’re going?” I asked.
“I think Nightfall Palace is the place to start,” Severin said. “All of your answers are in there somewhere. There are just two problems, getting in and getting out.”
“Oh is that all.”
We walked a little further. Now that I had time to digest my new surroundings there were some questions that wouldn’t go away.
“I never expected you would be friends with Stettler,” I said.
Severin didn’t answer right away. “The man’s hardly a friend. He’s been a thorn in my side for a long, long time.”
“Yet you trust him,” I said. “Enough to give him an important assignment. Enough to take over the pack while you’re gone.”
The thought of Stettler in charge of the pack made me uneasy. I had seen the pack, or a large part of it at their private retreat in the woods, the big house Stettler now had the run of. It was a large and powerful group.
But Severin said, “It’s precisely because I don’t trust him that I sent him undercover.”
“That makes sense.” The sarcasm dripped from my voice.
Severin said, “Think about it this way, infiltrating SEMA was the most difficult and dangerous mission I could give to any of my Pack members.”
I nearly stopped in my tracks. “You were hoping he’d get killed?”
Severin went on. “More like there would be an upside in case of failure. No, I wanted him to succeed. I needed him to. Regular mortals fear us greatly. They created SEMA for their protection. But the organization could easily become a weapon against all werewolves. By placing Stettler inside not only did it give me insight to SEMA and what it knows but it also neutralized a potential threat to my leadership. See this job is so dangerous that he answers to me and me alone. It’s hard enough for the two of us to get together. It takes considerable work on my part to make it happen. He can forget about trying to meet with any of the other pack members behind my back.”
Suddenly it made a lot of sense.
“I see. It sidelines him. It’s pretty brilliant. But what about leaving him in charge?”
“It’s the same idea. SEMA still thinks he’s one of them. Remember what he said. They think he’s taking two weeks leave to go hiking up in the mountains. If they find out he’s still in Vancouver it’ll be very difficult for him. If they discover he’s at the Pack’s house, it will be a bloody disaster. If Stettler wants to stay alive he can’t set foot out of the Pack’s compound. The other pack members will keep their distance because he’s red hot. So all Stettler will be able to do while I’m gone is sit in the compound and make phone calls. It’s the next best thing to having him under house arrest.”
I remembered the stern warning Severin had given Stettler before we left. SEMA was an arm of the police department, but it was manned by people like Officer Coates who thought werewolves ought to be hunted down and exterminated. Coates wouldn’t hesitate to go gunning for Stettler if he knew the truth and he’d have plenty of help.
“So it’s sort of like the old mafia saying, keep your friends close and your enemies closer,” I said.
As I said that I felt a sudden chill. That’s how he deals with his enemies. But then how close am I to Severin?
I tried to dismiss those thoughts. Severin and I had been through a lot. He was risking his life to help me find my father. I had to trust him. I had to.
Severin suddenly stopped in his tracks and sniffed the air.
I didn’t have to ask what it was.
Severin growled, “Trouble.”
Chapter 6
Severin and I got off the trail and sought some kind of shelter. The forest path was now as wide as a city street. I silently wished the woods would close in again making it easier to hide. We ducked behind a moss covered boulder. I heard the loud beat of horses’ hooves approaching.
“Nina, hide your glow,” Severin said.
My skin was still throwing off silvery light. It would make hiding a problem to say the least.
“How?” I asked. I had never had to worry about light radiating off my body before.
Severin’s voice stayed calm and level. “Just think about it. The power is within you. It responds to your thoughts and desires.”
I took a few deep breaths and thought about darkness, deep enveloping darkness. The light immediately faded. It was like my body was on a dimmer switch all of a sudden and I turned the knob.
The sound of horses grew louder. I bit my lip as pebbles and small rocks on the path vibrated and jumped. I kept thinking about my glow. I pictured a starless night. The light around us faded and the woods around us plunged into total darkness. The blackness covered Severin and I like a comforting blanket.
As the horse hooves came closer, a bit of a ghostly orange light pushed aside the new dark. The light came from small lanterns and it reflected off the armor or the riders as they rode into view. There were at least twenty of them and they all rode huge beastly horses with black hides and red eyes. There was a uniformity to these animals that was unnatural. No two horses, even those from the same sire looked exactly alike yet all twenty of these mounts were identical from what I could see. That unnerved me more than the riders themselves, although they were not a comforting sight either.
Their armor was like nothing I’d ever seen or had read about. It was form fitting and inlaid with wild flame-like designs. The helmets had metallic spikes shaped like tongues of fire around the crowns. A large grill covered the face of each rider. Nothing like this had been produced in the Middle Ages or even the Renaissance. It was more like something a Hollywood costume department
would churn out. Even at this distance I could tell it wasn’t made of iron. That meant the riders were fae.
There was another strange detail. The breast plates were so form fitting it was obvious that half these riders were women, including their leader. They all carried long spears with silver points. Four of them held the lanterns that gave off the orange light. Their leader rode slowly down the center of the wide path while the rest of the company split into two groups, each checking a side.
The boulder Severin and I crouched behind seemed like poor cover but their lanterns gave off very weak light. I thought, hoped really, they would pass us by if we stayed quiet and still. Severin’s hand found mine and gave it a comforting squeeze. But then I jerked my head up.
“Severin!” The leader shouted. Her voice was sweet but tinged with steel. “We know you’re out here wolf. Come out now.”
I swallowed hard. How did she know his name?
The leader went on. “Did you seriously believe that you of all people could come back to Nightfall and we wouldn’t know? Didn’t you learn anything from the last time?”
Last time? I thought. What did she mean? Then I realized Severin had been here before. Why didn’t he tell me before we went through the portal?
“Come out and you won’t be harmed,” the leader promised before adding, “much.”
My heart thudded as the riders approached the boulder.
The leader said, “If you continue to play this game I can’t guarantee anything.”
I tried to calm down but all of these new questions played in my head. When had Severin been to Nightfall? Why didn’t he tell me? Was he truly here just to help me? Or did he have ulterior motives?
I wanted to see his face to gauge his reactions, but he was covered by shadows. My eyes strained and I saw his features become clear. He looked tense and kept his eyes focused on the path. Then he stared at me, his eyes widening by the second.
“Nina!” he whispered.
His face was clear now. But it wasn’t because my eyes had adjusted.
It’s my glow! It’s come back!
In an instant I lit up like a full moon. I tried to supress it but it was too late.
“There!” one of the riders shouted.
Severin bolted to his feet and handed me the bow and arrows.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Run!” And with that Severin shifted into wolf form and leapt out onto the path to meet the riders now charging towards us.
For a moment all I could do was stand and watch as Severin loped towards the riders and their silver lances.
Without thinking I nocked an arrow and drew back the bow. As I did, a surge of power flowed through my body, into my hands and into the weapon it held.
A while ago I got angry at Severin and I struck him but not with my hands or anything like that. Inside me was a burning fire and I let part of that fire out. It shot from my hands like a beam in a sci-fi movie. Now when I drew back the bow, that same energy filled the arrow. Somehow the ancient weapon was focusing that power and amplifying it. I was almost afraid to let it loose.
I saw the riders bearing down on Severin. They would impale him in seconds. Without another thought, I shot the arrow at them.
I watched it shoot through the night sky like a flare. I hadn’t been aiming. I didn’t have to. It landed among the first wave of warriors and exploded in bright blue and red light. The attackers were tossed aside as a wave of energy expanded outwards. Riders were thrown from their horses and landed in the woods nearby. I sensed that none had been killed but they all had been stunned.
Severin had been just short of the blast. Still in wolf form he wheeled around and growled at me. He was telling me to run and escape. When he turned back to face the riders, their leader was on top of him.
She and her black mount dashed past Severin. She threw something over him as she passed. It was a silvery net and it tangled Severin. The leader wheeled around and paid me no attention. She rode back towards Severin who laid howling and writhing in the middle of the path.
The rest of the riders joined their leader and circled Severin. He was trapped.
None of them looked in my direction. I had a chance to run. With my bow and arrows I could easily beat back any who tried to pursue. But where would I go? How would I find my mother or my father? I knew nothing about this land. I didn’t know where to go or how to get there. At best I would wander around for days without a clue, without food or shelter. I would likely die.
That wasn’t what I came here to do.
I needed to find my father. I needed answers. And it didn’t look like I was going to accomplish any of that by hiding in the woods.
I raised the bow over my head. “I’m coming in.”
I heard Severin howl loudly. I was sorry to disappoint him.
The leader turned her mount and trotted towards me. She stopped just short, towering above me on her great black horse. She raised her lance in a form of salute, then used the weapon to pluck the bow out of my grasp.
“Princess N’Lina, my name is J’Tara, captain of the royal guard of Nightfall. I welcome you home,” she told me.
Well, I guess Severin wasn’t the only one they’d been expecting. And calling me princess no less. That was interesting I swallowed hard and hoped for the best.
Chapter 7
J’Tara removed her helmet and shook out her long sandy brown hair. Her face was unusually long with a pointed chin and high sharp cheekbones. They jutted out like triangles on her face. She was very beautiful despite that but had a cruel twist to her mouth.
“We knew you were here too, Princess N’Lina,” she told me.
It was hard to miss the condescension in her voice.
I said, “Well you did send Ralph Donnelly to my place of work then turned him into a tree. I assume there was some planning involved.”
Severin’s growls caught my attention. He was still in wolf form and still struggling in the silver net.
“Don’t hurt him,” I yelled.
“That’s entirely up to him, princess,” J’Tara answered.
It hurt me to see him struggling. “Severin! Please, stop it.”
He stopped thrashing and turned his great wolf head towards me. The wolf still had his eyes. They were angry. But when he looked at me the anger faded a little. Severin stopped thrashing and snarling. His great wolf head dipped. One the riders snapped a metal collar around his neck. Then they took off the silver net.
“Thank you, princess,” said J’Tara. “That ought to make him easier to handle. I assure you he will be safe. I fully intend to see him stand trial.”
I watched them pull Severin away. He put up no resistance. He must have seen how pointless it would be.
J’Tara then motioned one of her riders to come forward. He did, leading one of the huge black horses behind him.
“It’s a long way back to the palace,” she said. “We brought you an extra mount.”
I shuddered at the thought of riding the huge beast. It made no sound at all and hardly moved which made it seem strange. Unnatural even.
“I’ve never ridden before,” I confessed.
J’Tara laughed. “That hardly matters. These are not like your earth horses. They have no wills of their own. They are more like those vehicles, what do you call them?”
I thought about my bike back home. “Motorcycles?” I offered.
“Yes motorcycles,” said J’Tara. “But one that obeys your every whim.”
That explained a lot about these creatures; their identical appearance, the way they stayed quiet and still. Despite J’Tara’s assurance I approached the great horse carefully. Mounting was not easy. The saddle was so high it was almost like a rock wall climb to reach the top. Somehow I managed to climb up and preserve a bit of my dignity. The horse didn’t budge the whole time. That was good until it was time to go. I dug my heels into its sides and it made no movement at all.
“No need to spur it on,” J’Tara explai
ned. “This beast will go where you want it to when you want it to without any complaining.”
“So where’s the starter?” I asked. “For that matter where’s the steering wheel?”
J’Tara pointed to the black and red reins.
“Grab hold of those and simply think your commands.”
I grasped the reigns firmly in my hand and thought forward. The beast lurched suddenly. Instantly I thought stop and it almost threw me. I let out a surprised gasp. It was a long way to the ground.
“It takes a while to get used to,” J’Tara said with a barely disguised chuckle.
I calmed myself, took a firm but gentle hold of the reins and tried again. I went forward, backed up, and even went sideways. It didn’t take long for me to get into it. This horse was easier to control than any bike I ever rode. I began to feel powerful on top of its high saddle. Just as I started to enjoy myself I cast a glance over and saw Severin. He was still in wolf form. Now he was sullen and silent with the metal collar around his neck.
“You can release him. He’s my friend,” I told J’Tara thinking it was worth a shot. Although I knew it wouldn’t persuade her.
J’Tara replied coldly, “He’s a criminal.”
The word criminal made me uneasy. I wanted to deny it but how could I? What did I really know? Severin had been to Nightfall before, that was obvious. That was something he left out back in Vancouver. I had to admit there were parts of his past that I didn’t know. And I didn’t know these things because Severin hadn’t told me. Perhaps he hadn’t lied to me but at best he had only told me part of the truth.
“What did he do?” I asked.
J’Tara scoffed, “It would take too long to list all of his crimes and we must get back to the palace. Word of your return has reached Lord Wolfstriker and he will want to welcome you back himself.”
