by Sam Hall
The noise got louder as she opened the door, directing me down a dark corridor that led into a serving area. Women loaded their arms up with big platters of various delicacies. I nodded when I looked at it, they were bigger than I was used to, but I’d learned the fine art of carrying six plates at the same time long ago, so one or two of these couldn’t be too hard. Then I saw the women returning from serving.
“They’re feral today,” one woman snapped as she entered the room. She was tugging the pieces of her pinafore back into place, using the waist tie to secure it, but I could still see the raking red marks along her neck and shoulders. “Poor Annie… We’ll have to break the news to her mother.”
“She knew what she was doing, sending her daughter to work the banquet. The money’ll help her dry her tears,” the original woman said, passing her another platter. “Well, new girl, ready to earn your hazard pay?”
Was I? I didn’t need to do any of this. This woman was human, she didn’t have the strength to compel me to do anything, and anyway, a quick check in with Adam would have set her straight. I looked to the open doorway the other women entered and disappeared through, heard the waves of raucous noise coming from it, and wondered. We’d talked about the Volken, seen them in visions, plotted and planned our way around them, but apart from those we saw at the gate and passed as we walked to the kitchens, I’d seen little of them. Who were these people that threatened my home? Why were they like this? The guys had taken point all the way here, but now it was as if all my experience dealing with dickhead customers at the diner had come to this. I could use my skills as a waitress to deliver some platters and get some real information to report back to the guys. I reached over and grabbed the nearest platter, hoisting it to my shoulder.
The woman who’d dragged me here nodded grimly, then pointed a finger to the door. “Take that to the nobs at the high table. That’s several thousand marks of fish eggs on there, though the gods only know why anyone would pay so much for it. Be careful not to drop it, and be in and out, no matter what you see. You tarry, you’re next. Lizzy, show her where to go.”
There’s a curious kind of unreality that comes from watching films like Schindler’s List. There’s the black and white thing, and the differences in people’s dress and speech, but mostly it's the conflicting awareness of watching something that should be the fare of some kind of gore-porn film and knowing it actually happened. People’s brains blown out for arbitrary reasons, using others as target practice, hauling kids away to be gassed, people hiding in latrines full of piss and shit to avoid it, all both completely terrifying and somehow prosaic as it happens. Over and over, people’s lives are ruined or ended, and for what? What did the Nazis achieve with this completely wanton massacre?
There was something of that feel when I walked in. The first things I noticed were the noise and the many, many bodies, sitting at long tables complete with pristine white tablecloths and shining metal cutlery. Great gleaming tankards were at every place setting, and large bottles of wine and spirits were scattered all over the tables. Volken, each in their best armour, every single piece gleaming with the kind of dull, well-oiled look of conditioned leather, drank and filled theirs and their comrades’ cups with gusto.
Nothing too untoward about that. People get boisterous at feasts.
Then there were the crystals. Great clusters, like those we had pulled from the ruins only to be taken by the Uldariel, were mounted on elaborate plinths. They marked each quadrant of the room, glowing softly, as did the many smaller ones the men wore. The largest was in the centre, carved into the form of Lonan, his head thrown back, frozen mid howl.
But in contrast with all this food and drink and geologic formations and art were the screams and the specially designed tables.
“Come on,” Lizzy said, giving me a nudge. “You stare, you might be next.”
I snuck looks at them as I walked to the far end of the room, past row after row of Volken. There was a large dais with bigger tables, more elaborate glassware, and what must be finer wine decanted into bottles, and the Volken that sat there had many small silver insignias to indicate whatever special rank they possessed. I drew on all my previous experiences in hospitality and kept on walking quickly and efficiently towards my target, as serving women were hauled over to what looked like specially designed tables to be tied down and raped.
I admit, I flinched a little as I heard the sound of fabric ripping. Which was weird, since I had heard one screaming her pain since I walked in. I'm not sure why that caught my attention, but it did. Then the other woman’s screams joined her sister’s as they moved to tie her down, her cries mostly muffled by the Volken’s shouts of encouragement and suggestions of what to do to the victims. I regretted my curiosity. If ever the saying ‘curiosity killed the cat’ applied to anyone, it was me.
I kept walking as the surreal nature of what was happening hit me. It wasn’t just the two of them that were being raped. There were quite a few of these tables dotted around the room, each occupied, the crystals flaring dully red in response to the women’s cries and the men’s thrusts. They looked like the eyes of the smoke wolves we’d seen through the portal to Wolflantis, watching me as I passed. If I’d seen just one of the men carrying on like this, I'd have known what to do. I’d have stepped in, crushed the fucker’s throat, and then snapped his spine with all the Tirian given strength I possessed. Instead, I kept walking, because I was blank eyed with shock, because my Tirian paced restlessly inside me but offered no counsel, because there was so fucking many of them and I had no idea how far my strength would carry me. But mostly this—I was surrounded by a culture that absolutely and completely endorsed this behaviour. I scanned the crowd as I walked, seeing but not seeing the looks of amusement, interest, enjoyment. Like predators on a thrill kill, the spectacle of taking away someone's bodily autonomy was wallowed in with gluttonous rapacity. I saw women that were untied slump to the ground—either passed out or dead, I couldn’t tell—but paid no more attention to than a tossed napkin.
“Move it, new girl,” Lizzy said. “Stop dilly dallying. No one spends any more time here than is needed. So get that food to the table, and then run back to the serving area.”
My heart broke into a thousand pieces as I did just that. All of a sudden, my attention was wholly and solely on the rapid slap of my slippers as I walked, the swish of my pinafore. Volken turned to see me pass and reached out, but then let me pass when they saw what I was toting. I did not earn any consideration in myself, but the food of whoever the elites were here did. I followed the unspoken rule here and moved up the steps with my head down, avoiding all eye contact as I moved swiftly across the stage, my footsteps echoing louder on the hollow wood structure, and then zeroed in on the largest available space on the high table, right in the centre.
“So, you really think this attack is going to do the trick? I heard that the blasted women have withdrawn all their minions behind that bloody portal of theirs. What on earth is our target if it’s a whole dimension away?”
My ears pricked up as I deposited the platter without a sound, then started removing empty platters and consolidating the contents of the others to create more space.
“Dear boy, you lack faith. We have never really attempted to broach the thing in any major way. I find it highly unlikely that whatever puny magics the bitches have mustered would withstand the full force of the Volken host and our lord. No, we’ve let them be for some time—a mistake if you ask me—and they have spread like any other vermin. Sourcing the nest of a pest always takes work, but I do not believe it beyond our capabilities.”
“Well, we will see, Lian. Once the Grand Rite is at its end, faith or not, we will know how strong the women’s powers are.”
I slid the empty platters onto my arm and then turned to leave.
“Wait!”
He didn’t specify who needed to wait, but I could only assume it was me, since the other serving girls were up at the other end of the dais. I
stood stock still and did as I had been told—don’t move, keep my eyes down, only speak when spoken to.
“How may I serve you, m’lords?”
The words came easily for something that felt like ash in my mouth. I could dimly hear the women’s screaming trail off into a gurgle, but my own ragged breath overrode it all, filling me with shame. I stood still and was a good little girl, because I’d been dumb enough to walk into the wolf’s den.
“Well, well, it seems that Maud has finally started instilling some manners in her girls. What do you think, gentlemen? This one to ring in the new year?”
As my eyes scudded over the table’s surface, I saw it. Not rough and ready like the other stocks they had downstairs, here instead, the polished mahogany surface was broken by finely wrought wolf’s heads at four points. One of the men’s hands moved, the crystal glowing as it did, and the jaws snapped open. I could see then the sharp metal teeth that would no doubt clamp down hard on the wrists of the captured. Their hollow throats would be useful, capturing the blood that would flow and funnelling it off to god knows where. I tried to slow and deepen my breath, but it kept coming in faster and faster.
“Too blowsy for my tastes. I prefer something a little more…streamlined.”
“The boys come after, Gerald, you know that.”
“Well, have at the little piece if you wish, but by the smell of her, she’s already had a seeing to by some of the men. Fairly stinks of Tirian.”
“Hmm, perhaps not then. Girl, return to the kitchens and ask Maud to send…what was her name? The slight one with the delightfully tiny tits? I want to say Agatha.”
“Arden, I think is the one you’re looking for, Lian. Though you’re sure? She was quite fun the last time we played. Be a shame to end that.”
“Only the best for our lord,” Lian replied, and a rumble from the earth came, as if in agreement.
“Very good, m’lords,” I said, and bobbed a curtsey before turning on my heel and walking back.
I focussed on the heavy weight of the trays, welcoming the way the large ovals of metal felt almost like shields as I went, though they would have done little to help me. The crystals began to hum as I went, lights flaring in each of them as the sound grew louder. I skittered back as Volken throughout the hall got to their feet, holding out their cups and their tankards, their voices joining with the sound.
It was like some motherfucking men’s choir, but this had way too many notes of pain and abuse and subjugation to be pretty. Instead, it was the music of sheer fucking horror. They stood and sang, completely oblivious to all around them, perfectly unified in their mistreatment of others, glorying in it, no less. This was a call to arms, to commit more atrocities, to indulge in any kind of self-serving violent act they pleased, as a sign of solidarity with their brothers. They hadn’t come for Sanctuary before because they hadn’t needed to. They’d stuck together, rained down hell, and no one raised a hand to them, with only the faltering in their number enough to finally make a dent in that. Red light shot around the room, connecting each crystal to the other, then fanning out to lock on those that the men wore. It was this massive web, and I’d been stupid enough to walk into it.
When the door appeared, I was almost sobbing with relief. I ran past the servery, straight into the kitchen, past a bemused Adam, and into the spit room.
“Jules, what the fuck?!” Finn said, rushing to my side.
“Where the hell have you been?” Aaron said. “We took our eyes off you for one minute!”
I couldn’t answer them as I fought to take a breath, but my lungs wouldn’t cooperate. Their questions sounded like they were coming from underwater, muffled and from a long way away. My eyes stared blankly at the room, the view of the women being raped playing over and over now that I wasn’t actively trying to shut it out. Their brutality and my lack of action hammered at me like blows. When I finally did focus, I saw only one set of eyes—Sylvan’s. His stared into mine, and then once he was convinced by what he saw there, he nodded.
There was no solace to be had there. He knew this was what it would be like, and from the memories I’d caught from him, he’d been on the receiving end.
“Gimme a bucket,” I groaned. “I’m gonna be sick.”
25
Once I’d sat down and got my breath back, I recounted my experiences. The guys went white, then red, and I watched their bodies tense and their fists ball, and I worried. While what I’d seen was horrible to someone who’d grown up in the human world, for matriarchal Sanctuary, it was an anathema. I watched them pace the floor, my voice getting quieter and flatter as the tension built.
“We can’t do anything about it,” I said.
“The fuck we can’t,” Slade snapped.
“We can report back, then bring the troops. Develop a real battle strategy,” Aaron said. “We can use some of the gold and get some serious hardware and take the fucks out once and for all, but that’s not gonna happen with just us and some handguns. It fucking kills me to say it, but we need to focus on the mission and get the fuck out. The matriarchs need to know about this, and about the White Wolf and Branwen. We’ve got to protect our families, or they’re next.”
“But what about those women?” Hawk said. My heart broke to hear the ragged rasp in his voice as he forced the words out. “We’re just going to leave them to get fucked to death?”
“Not just women,” I said.
“No, not just the women,” Sylvan said. “The thing you need to remember is this place doesn’t run on sex, it runs on power. That’s what this is, all a demonstration of power.”
He wove his hand and revealed the crystal burning bright there.
“What the fuck is that?” Jack said. “You’ve shown us a few times. It looks like the crystals from the ruins, like the one Jules and the Volken fucks are all wearing.”
“Your link with the White Wolf is tenuous. She just turns up sometimes and does her thing. Like, you couldn’t summon her now to lay waste to this place?” A note of hope crept into his voice, unbidden by the look on his face.
I shook my head. I could reach for my Tirian, but the Great Wolf? I let my eyes go unfocussed and saw the green lines tying my pack together, but that didn’t summon any wolf gods.
“Well, the Volken have no such problem. The crystals are their conduits to Lonan’s power. The elites get the bigger or purer crystals and more power, which comes with the greater ability to inflict your will on those around you, including other Volken. That’s the dream, to get the biggest crystal. There’s been assassinations and all the other shit you’d expect, trying to get access to it.”
“Why not waltz into the dining room and grab one of those?” I asked.
“Them? They’re Lonan’s. He draws from us as much as we draw from him. Blood, pain, death, destruction, anything that destroys feeds Lonan. Anyone stupid enough to try and take one of them would bring down the whole city.”
“Well, that sounds like a fucking brilliant plan,” Jack said. “Let’s activate the auto destruct sequence on the way out. No need for any of the soldier boys to get involved.”
“You don’t understand. Lonan is kept satisfied by what we bring him. You let him out of his cage, he’ll eat the world. This world, yours, all worlds. There is no stopping him. He is the destroyer. You’d be responsible for the massacre of all living things,” Sylvan said.
“Well, fuck.”
“We stick to the plan,” Finn said. “Jules, have something to eat. Yeah, I know you’re not feeling it, but it's been a few days of sparse meals and little sleep. Just eat and rest, for me. Adam said we need to start prepping the evening meal, so that’ll keep us busy here and away from what’s happening out there. No one goes out alone, y’hear me? No one. You go for a piss, there’s someone coming with you to hold your dick.”
“Ooh,” Jack said, giving Hawk a wink. “I like this plan, though I am wondering who’ll be holding your dick, Prince Perfect?”
“I trust any of my mates wi
th anything of mine, including my dick,” Finn shot back. “And considering I’ve seen quite a few of them in various states, including inside my other mates, the time for coyness is over.”
“Oh, OK.”
“I spoke to Adam and we’ll be going down to the cells for the evening meals. It’s when the men are returned from the breeding pens. We’ll take a look, but we might need to make a break for it tonight. We shouldn’t have come for the Longest Night. Adam talked about the festival, about what’s planned for the next few days. What’s happening in the banquet hall will only get more and more debauched in deference to the Black Wolf.”
I grabbed at the bucket, feeling my guts lurch at the memories of what had gone down in the banquet hall, but there was nothing left to come out.
Everyone’s eyes strayed to where Sylvan sat against the wall.
“What?” he snapped, meeting the gaze of each one of them, one by one. “You think I wanted to be here? I’m the conduit for that fucking thing downstairs, so I feel all the things those bastards do. I thought I had this all planned out, that I’d never have to feel that shit again, unless I was asleep. To go through Longest Night again…”
The seer’s eyes closed, and he rested his head back against the wall, his eyes quickly tightening.
“I’ve been the one caught between those wolves’ jaws on the main dais,” he said. “Each one of those fucks used me to unload into, over and over and over, until I wanted to be dead. And I’ve been the one doing the unloading. This place is fucked up beyond all recognition. I’ll get you and yours out, and then I’m gone from here. None of this is turning out the way I thought. Fuck the visions, fuck this place, and fuck Lonan most of all.” The ground rumbled underneath us, sending us leaping for something to grab onto. “I just want out.”
