by Jan Stryvant
"All iron injures them, even that in steel," Caerwyn said with a nod, "but cold iron hurts them the most."
"Is there anything that flat out kills them?" Roxy asked.
"Faerie swords," Sean said.
"Like those big ones your uncle Maitland and your cousin Ruth have?"
Sean nodded. "Exactly. When we get back to Reno, I'm going to see if I can get him to train us how to make them or see if he can at least supply us with some."
"You don't think we're going to run into more of them, do you?"
Sean gave a small shake of his head. "I hope not, but I'd rather be prepared in case we do. So, Caerwyn, any idea of just how long it would take to get these?"
"I'll talk to some of the smiths and see what they've got. Fortunately we turn up a lot of magnetite in our operations, so I know we have a fairly large store of it. The hard part is working it without melting it."
Sean nodded. "Well, let me just finish up here, and I guess we'll see about meeting up with Steven and Jonas."
#
"I'm not exactly happy with our situation," Chad grumbled as they sat in the back of the diner and waited for the others to show. One of Luke's people, another werecougar, owned the place, so it had been deemed 'safe'. Roxy and Cali were also with him, while Jolene and Peg kept watch outside with several of Chad's men.
"What don't you like?" Sean asked.
"We're running a two-front war, three if you count the home front back in Reno."
"Maitland can take care of Reno."
"Which is why I'm not too worried about it," Chad agreed. "He's been in combat and run armies before. But I'm worried Art may be out of his depth if anyone should think to attack Sacramento, and I don't think he's got the chops to actually launch an attack beyond Sacramento."
"If it comes to that," Sean said, after thinking about it a moment, "I'll send Maitland and Ruth to Sacramento. I'm not worried about Oak being able to hold Reno, he's got a fair deal of experienced people around him, as well as a lot of allies. And," Sean grinned, "if worse comes to worst, we can always draft Steve."
"Steve knows how to lead an army?" Roxy asked, surprised.
"Steve's motto is 'fake it until you make it'," Sean said with a chuckle.
"And he's way too good at faking it," Chad sighed, "but he's a quick thinker and totally unorthodox. A real general would probably see right through him."
"But the enemy doesn't have any real generals," Roxy pointed out.
"We hope." Chad nodded. " I know it's what I've been counting on. But getting back to my original point, after we take Portland, we must move on to Seattle, and we'll need to deal with the minor councils in Bend and Spokane, as well. I think we can leave Vancouver alone; I don't think anyone up there will be willing to attack across the border."
"Why do we have to move on to Seattle?"
"Because I don't want to have an active two-front war!" Chad shook his head and sighed. "Honestly, I wanted to take California first, because the Gradatim's headquarters are there, and the sooner we beat one of the major councils, the sooner we can secure the west coast. Plus a big victory over them will go a long way towards engendering morale."
"You don't think taking Portland and Seattle will do that?" Sean asked.
"It'll help," Chad said, "but it's still not the big leagues. Until we take on and beat one of the big three opposing us, we're just a small issue in most people's eyes."
"But once we deal with Gradatim, then the real trouble starts, right?"
Chad nodded. "And that's when I'm going to put together a second army and stick Maitland in charge of it, and we'll both head east."
"Two armies?" Roxy said, looking surprised.
"I'd do three if I thought Sean here could pull it off!" Chad said with a grin.
Sean shook his head. "Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence!"
"Anytime, buddy! I think our guests are here."
Looking up at the door, Sean saw Jonas enter with another man he didn't know. Surprisingly, both Terry and Luke followed them in as well.
"Did you invite the others?" Sean asked.
Chad shook his head. "No, but it'll help having them here."
Jonas saw them in the back and headed directly over to them.
"Sean, Chad, this is Steven, the head of the wolf pack to the west of Portland and the surrounding area. Steven, Sean is the lion in charge of all this, Chad is his general, and is also in charge of the packs to the west of Reno."
"Hello, Sean," Steven said, shaking hands with him, "Jonas has told me a lot about you." Steven then turned to Chad and shook hands with him. "What happened to Michael?"
Chad smiled. "Sean fired him."
Steven blinked and cocked his head slightly to the side to look back at Sean.
"Obviously Jonas didn't tell you everything." Sean sighed.
"Oh, he told me, I just wasn't sure I believed it. The two women are your wives?"
Sean nodded and introduced Roxy and Cali to Steven.
"I've never met a dark elf before. I've heard rumors there are some in Seattle, but nothing more than that, I'm afraid."
Cali smiled. "We'll find out when we get there."
"I hope you don't mind that Terry and I decided to come along," Luke said as Jonas and Steven sat down.
"No, it's fine," Sean smiled, "but now we can't say bad things about you behind your backs."
"I had to come out here anyway," Terry said, "to pick up the folks you rescued."
"Have you had the chance to talk to any of Dawn's people yet?" Luke asked.
"I'm going to leave that to Terry and Jonas, for now," Sean said with a sigh, "I just don't have the time to spare on it. They're probably going to need a new alpha from outside to come in and take over. Odds are, her seconds were just as controlled as she was, or too weak to challenge her on it.
"It might be better to just drop a whole new pack in there and tell the others they either join it or leave," Luke said.
Jonas nodded. "Harsh, but you're probably right, Luke."
"Well, let's get to the whole reason for this meeting. Steven, what can you tell us about Portland?"
"The Eruditio's lycans are actually members of my pack; they employ a dozen of them, mainly as security and housecleaning. Sapientia's just joined my pack, and they now employ twice that, almost all of whom are security. They actually have more lycans there now than they did before they freed them. They told me that they were worried about the Vestibulum after something that happened in Sacramento, when they asked to hire actual pack members."
"How many wolves do the Vestis have?" Chad asked.
"Twenty-eight. Two assault teams, and the other eight are domestic staff."
"How many Vestis are in Portland? Do you know?"
"Not many, less than fifty, and that includes all of the family members that we know of. The Ascendance has less than that, and they have only ten lycans, six for security and four domestics."
"Why are there so few?"
Steven smiled. "We've been buying them. It's a small market, and we pay enough that it's cheaper and easier to hire a cleaning staff of mundanes to come in."
"You're buying them?" Sean said, surprised.
Steven nodded. "Most lycan dealers don't like to come to Portland, lead allergies you see." Steven winked outrageously when he said that. "Those that do, come here rarely, and one of the members of Eruditio has been kind enough to front for us and always buys up whatever stock's available. On top of that, he's also constantly making offers on those lycans held by the individual Ascendants, Vestibulum, and Gradatim members."
"How do you afford it?"
Steven looked a little embarrassed. "Umm, my wife inherited a fortune."
"I didn't know there were any rich werewolves?"
"I ummm," Steven looked guilty, "I bit her. She used to be a mundane."
Sean felt the First sit up and take an interest suddenly.
"Why did you do that?" Sean asked softly.
"Because
she asked me to do it, and I wanted to," Steven said, staring back at Sean. "I won't apologize for it. Not now, not ever."
"Oh, in that case," Sean shrugged, "just don't make a habit of it."
'He shouldn't have done that.'
'Well he did, and he just challenged me over it. And guess what? I'm not calling him out on it, either.'
'Still...'
'Dad?'
'What?'
'Shut up.'
Sean felt the First snort and then settle back down.
"What about the Gradatim?" Chad asked. "You haven't mentioned them yet."
Steven sighed and nodded. "There's probably a thousand of them in Portland, including their families. They've got close to a hundred lycans, eighty-seven to be exact. But only thirty of them are security. All the rest are domestics, of one sort or the other."
"Sex slaves?" Chad asked with a distasteful expression.
"Of one sort or the other," Steven said and nodded. "Because the other councils here are all so much smaller, they really don't need that much security, so they're a bit more willing to indulge their baser natures. Honestly, I think all the rain brings out the worst in some people."
"Sounds like we're going to be doing a lot of door to door on this one." Chad looked at the others. "Okay, how many troops do each of you have for this operation? And let me be frank when I say, if I think you're holding back, I'll sic Sean on you."
Sean leaned back in his seat and put an arm around each of the girls, making it clear to everyone that Chad was now running the meeting.
Steven offered fifty people but made it clear only half of them were really trained. Luke offered a dozen but made it equally clear they were all highly trained. Terry had a hundred that were trained and could gather another eighty who weren't, but would listen to orders if necessary.
Jonas had four hundred.
"Four hundred?" Chad said, looking surprised.
Jonas nodded. "All trained. I can get more, but it'll take a week."
"You must have a pretty big pack."
"It's not just my pack. I'm the leader of the Northwest Alliance. So I started calling people when Sean said he was coming here. Two hundred of them are mine, the rest are coming from the other leaders, and they're only sending me half."
"So, five hundred and sixty of yours, and we've got almost three hundred of our own." Chad looked over at Sean. "I'm gonna send most of our folks back home tonight. We get too many people moving around, we're going to start attracting the wrong kind of attention."
"Keep the team we got from Claudia, and pick some of the teams we liberated from the Vestis," Sean said.
"Actually, I was planning on keeping some of my own boys. Let me work on team building some more."
"Then just keep Claudia's team for the assault, Travis' team for my security, and sort the rest out however you want."
Chad nodded. "Sounds good. Oh, I told John to send you the bill; I'm keeping him for the duration. Those damn drones of his are just too effective."
"So what's the next step?" Steven asked.
"The next step is you and I go for a ride around Portland, and you tell me everything you know about the places we're going to attack," Chad said. "I'll have you show me on a map first, but it's always best to get some first-hand intel before going in."
"When are you thinking of attacking?" Jonas asked.
"As soon as I can get everybody where I want them. They have to know we're coming; we took out Eugene, after all. So the longer we wait, the more we allow them to prepare. Right now, let's plan on Saturday morning, an hour before sunrise."
"That's a little less than forty-eight hours away!" Steven said, surprised.
"Yup, and if it surprises you, I'm sure it'll surprise them even more. We're gonna need a place to practice tomorrow. Somewhere big, and far enough out of the city to be away from prying eyes. Anybody know of a place?"
"I do," Terry said, "it's about ninety minutes southeast of Portland. We can easily drive up from there."
"Great. I'll need a map. For now, everybody send your people there. Tell them to bring some camping gear, while you're at it."
Steven, Terry, Luke, and Jonas all nodded.
"Okay, now let's get going; I got a van outside and we can go over the maps while one of my people drives. Sean, you coming?" Chad asked, looking over at him.
Sean nodded. "As long as you have room for Roxy and Cali."
"Bring Peg along, too, in case we need to cast some illusions."
Sean nodded. "Got it."
Keep it in the Family
Sam Wilston looked around the council grounds in Portland. He had to admit, the folks up here really had style. They were up in what was called the 'West Hills', and it really was beautiful. The city was only minutes away, but the grounds were in the middle of a forest, with a park on one side. After all those years in Reno, it really was quite a difference.
"So, Rupert seems pretty positive we're next on this lion's hit list," Owen, the right-hand man of Ethan, the council's local leader, said.
Sam nodded. "The kid must have figured Eugene would be an easy win, and that he could use it to impress his allies and gain support."
"Well he's going to be in for a bit of a surprise then, isn't he?" Owen said with a laugh.
Sam tried not to roll his eyes. He was a little annoyed that Ethan had foisted him off on Owen, but not annoyed enough to let it show.
"Don't be so quick to discount him. He's already cleaned out Reno and Sacramento. All the other councils in Portland are small and weak. We're the only tough nut he's got to crack. But if he sticks to his previous M.O., he'll hit us last, after he's gone for all the low-hanging fruit."
"So we'll have a warning then?"
Sam nodded. "Yes. Typically he's picked on a single council at a time, but with the Vestibulum and Ascendance being so small up here, I wouldn't be surprised if he hit them both at the same time."
"What about the minor councils? We've got a fair number of those up here."
Sam shook his head. "He'll wait till he's done with us, then he can hold it over their heads that he's the big tough guy and they either go along willingly, or else."
Owen nodded. "Makes sense."
"He may be a kid, but he's got some smart people pulling his strings; he's just a figurehead, after all. But he's the figurehead the entire rebellion is based on. We kill him, it all falls apart."
"That's not what Eruditio's saying. They told all of us that if this lion dies, another one will take his place, and they'll just keep going."
Sam snorted, and this time he did roll his eyes. Why were people so dumb?
"Do you really believe that? Eruditio has been on the side of the animals for how long now? Of course they'd push that myth out to the rest of us. I suspect they're backing the kid just as much as Sapientia is! Even if they're not, with the whole 'free the lycans' campaign they've been pushing for the last two decades, it's not hard to see which way they're leaning."
"You actually believe they'd lie?" Owen said, looking surprised.
"Would we lie to the other councils if it helped us gain power?"
Owen chuckled. "I see your point."
"Exactly, so we kill this Valens character, and we kill the rebellion."
"What about those silver protection amulets?"
Sam shrugged. "What about them? Sooner or later our enchanters will figure them out, and then we'll all have them. There are other ways to control lycans, after all, it's not like they're really all that much more than animals."
"Of course," Owens agreed. "So, where do we start then?"
"We need to put surveillance on both the Sapientia and Eruditio council houses. They're his strongest allies; Sapientia may even be the ones behind all this. So it only makes sense that he'll visit one or both of them when he gets to town."
"And then?"
"Then the moment we find him, we strike."
"We follow him?"
"No, we call in as many people we can g
et, as quickly as we can get them, and we attack. Right there, broad daylight."
"What about witnesses?"
"What about them?" Sam said, looking at Owen. "If there's only a few, we kill them too; if there's too many to kill, we just buy off the police and the press. Have it declared a gang shooting, or a drug deal gone bad. We do what we need to do, and we don't leave anything to chance. Killing this kid is a lot more important than anything else."
Owen thought about that a moment, and then nodded his head slowly.
"Rupert did say we needed to listen to you."
"One other thing," Sam added.
"Yes?"
"Don't send out any lycans. They all believe in this 'lions are our gods' myth. You send them, he'll take them. Send out our own people."
"I'll have to talk to Ethan about that," Owen warned.
"Then talk to him. But we need to move on this now, right now. For all we know, he could be in the city at this very moment."
#
"So where exactly is everybody?" Sean asked, looking over the map with Chad and Steven as they got close to the city. All three of the girls were sound asleep, and honestly Sean would have liked to have joined them; the ride up here hadn't been all that exciting.
"Well, Eruditio and Sapientia are to the west, out past Beaverton. They relocated about forty years ago, when things started to grow up here. The Vestibulum are down in Lake Oswego not far off of the interstate, and the Ascendance is in the same general area. The Gradatim are to the west of the city, up in the West Hills, where all the really rich people used to live."
"Where do you live?"
"Further west, in Hillsboro. I don't really come into the city that often myself. We all tend to avoid it, when we can."
"Is that because of the magic users?"
"Nah, it's the traffic. Rush hours around here are just nasty."
"All the more reason to strike on the weekend," Chad said. "Jace, get the cameras ready, and take lots of pictures. I don't want to have to drive by any of these places a second time."
"What about aerial views? Are you gonna have John come up here with those drones of his?" Jace asked.
"Google Maps should be good enough. These guys are the small fry; the Gradatim are the ones I'm really worried about. I'll ask John to come back up here tonight and take a bunch of shots of their place after the sun's gone down."
