by H. D. Gordon
That had been over an hour ago, and I was losing my Gods damned mind. My gut told me something was wrong, that I should be hopping through the nearest portal to the Between Realms and Mina.
But the gravity of the situation demanded that I stayed.
Akila’s Harpy daughters had been scouting the realm, and word was that the four remaining Pack Masters were indeed gathering forces for an attack. The Harpy Warrior had been the real general here in Dogshead, even if I was somehow the reluctant face of the revolution. I knew nothing about warfare. My knowledge went as far as how to shift, fight, and survive.
Akila had scouted the countryside, flying over the sea of lavender wheat with wings that stretched more than twice as wide as I stood tall. She’d laid out a map on the table between us and used small wooden Wolf figurines to show where we should place our forces, and how we could keep ourselves protected despite being surrounded on all sides.
As she spoke, I thought only of Adriel. Perhaps if I snuck off for a little bit, just for a few hours, I could check on him and return in time to lead the Wolves into battle.
“Rook, are you even listening?” Asha snapped.
Akila stopped whatever brief she was giving, glancing at the Demon with unveiled annoyance.
“Lay off, Ash,” Goldie replied.
“I’m so worried about him,” I mumbled.
“We all are,” Asha said. “But it’s all for naught if we don’t pull shit together here, so I’d appreciate it if you’d focus, and stop entertaining the thought of sneaking off to Mina. There isn’t time and you know it. The Pack Masters are moving their forces as we speak. Who knows what those bastards will throw at us?”
I glanced around the table at the various females gathered, trying to syphon some of the strength they all seemed to wrap around them like armor. In all my days as a Dog, I’d never felt quite as helpless as I did now, quite as weak.
Perhaps the difference was that now I had something to lose. I had so much to lose.
I shook the thoughts away and was not as successful with the emotions, but I leaned forward over the map nonetheless, nodding at Akila.
“I’m sorry, continue, please,” I said. “Tell me how we’re going to take these bastards down.”
The Harpy pointed at the edges of the Rho Mountain pass. “We need Wolves here and here,” she said, “If I was leading an army to Dogshead from the North or East, those are the paths I would take.”
“How many Wolves do we have?” I asked.
Akila snorted softly, her head cocking in a birdlike manner. “Right now? A few thousand, but more are arriving all the time. Others are leaving. The pups and some of the working ladies, mostly.”
“Where are they going?” Goldie asked. “Where in this realm is safe from the Hounds right now?”
“Some are taking to the mountains, others to the forests… and others are going to Mina,” Akila answered.
Asha’s head snapped up. “Who the hell agreed to that?”
Akila gave the Demon a level stare. “Adriel, of course. And Yarik and Yarin are only taking pups and females that they’re freeing from the Slavers’ wagons, so cool your horns.”
Asha’s eyes narrowed before she sighed and slumped down a little in her chair. We’d been gathered here for hours, making plans, giving orders. We were tired from battle and over thinking. We needed to rest, even if just for a single hour.
When I said as much, no one argued. We rose from our seats and stretched, agreeing to a few minor details before departing the smoke shop to take our brief reprieves. Goldie and Asha stayed behind with me as the others filed out.
The Dog, the Demon, and the working lady. Who would have thought?
The same pondering seemed to be crossing through their heads.
“Tell me the truth,” I said, my voice quiet enough not to be heard beyond the thin walls of the room. “Do you ladies think we have a shot at winning this thing? At taking out four Pack Masters and their armies?”
Goldie held my gaze, but Asha glanced at the map Akila had left atop the table, staring at it for a while before scattering the Wolf figurines so that no one else could wander in and see the plans.
“It really just depends on how many Dogs come to fight alongside us,” Asha said. “The slaves outnumber the Masters and their Hounds, but the only chance we stand is if we fight together. They have the power, the money, the influence. Our only advantage is our numbers.”
“But is it enough?” I asked.
“No,” said a deep and familiar voice from the doorway. “It is not going to be enough.”
Goldie, Asha, and I turned toward the speaker, and the air caught in my chest as I took in the Valac Warrior.
“Vega?” Asha said, echoing my surprise. “What are you doing here?”
The massive warrior removed the helmeted mask from his head, revealing his handsome face and golden hair. But his dark eyes were as serious as an undertaker’s. “I’ve broken my oath to come and warn you,” he said.
My stomach dropped with the words.
“The Valac Warriors will fight alongside the Pack Masters at the command of my queen,” Vega said. “Together, they are building an army larger than any this realm has ever seen, and they will descend upon Dogshead in less than a week’s time, where they’ve been ordered to show mercy to none.”
Silence held for a tick as I stared at the Valac Warrior, wondering what he had sacrificed to be here and shaking at the gravity of the news.
Then, in true Asha fashion, the Demon said, “Well, isn’t that just fucking peachy?”
“No,” Vega responded very seriously. “It’s not fucking peachy at all. It’s fucking terrible.”
Not even Asha had a response to that. Because he was right; if our odds of defeating the Pack Masters were thin before, they were emaciated now.
Though I’d demanded the others rest, Vega and I strolled along the edge of a lavender field on the southwestern tip of Dogshead. Time was short, but sleep would not find me, and so I asked to know the circumstances under which he’d left the Dead Forest, what had made him leave his queen’s side.
Around us, the Wolves were busy. As per Akila’s orders, everyone was working together to erect walls, dig trenches, and fashion weapons. They stared at me as I passed, and when I nodded at them in acknowledgment, they would hurry back to their tasks, as if the feel of impending battle were floating on the air.
“You don’t have to tell me,” I said, “if you don’t want to.”
“I thought I could go back,” Vega said, his voice low enough that even with my Wolf ears I had to strain to hear him. “But after going to the City of the Seers, after everything that happened…”
He fell silent, so I finished for him. “You just couldn’t. Something had changed. You had changed.”
Vega sighed, gazing out over the wheat fields as if he could see the Erl Queen’s realm in the stalks. “Despite the oath I made, I couldn’t stand beside her while she helped to burn your world to the ground, to turn Wolf against Wolf, and then to swoop in and profit from the smoldering ashes. Oath or no, I could not do it, Rukiya Moonborn.”
The way he said my name shook me, because it was the same way Wolves had been uttering my name since I’d returned to Dogshead. There was an amount of reverence, of hope, that felt too heavy a burden for me to bear. I was not some deity who could swoop in and save these people. They were going to need to help save themselves.
A glance around at the Wolves still working made me wonder again if it would be enough.
“What will happen?” I asked. “What will she do to you?”
“She will do what she always does,” Vega replied, “show no mercy.”
“And what if I kill the bitch?” Asha said, falling into step beside us. “Then what becomes of your broken oath?”
“The Erl Queen is immortal,” Vega said. “She cannot be killed.”
Asha snorted. “Even Gods can be killed.”
“Thank you,” I told the Valac Wa
rrior. “No one expected this of you. It’s more than anyone could have asked.”
“Make use of it,” Vega replied, deep tone grave. “You need more than the freed Dogs to fight this battle with the Valac fighting alongside the Hounds.”
He glanced around at the long stalks of lavender wheat as they swayed in the wind. “They will fall upon this place like a plague, crushing everything in their path. Of that, we can be certain.”
17
Adriel
I was in a dream, though the pain was real.
Very real.
In fact, I only knew it was a dream because my mother was there. And my mother was gone, had been gone for many years now. Long enough that I’d nearly forgotten her face.
But I knew her as soon as I saw her, as some things even time cannot erase.
She opened her arms to me, and I moved into them, sinking into the embrace as though I were just a boy again. Her boy.
“My precious Adriel,” my mother said, and her tone, her scent, were exactly as I remembered them. “You shouldn’t be here,” she added, pulling back from me, deep brown eyes meeting mine. “Not yet. There is work still to be done, so you must fight a little longer.”
I didn’t understand. Or maybe I just didn’t want to understand.
Glancing around, I realized we were in Mina, standing in one of the gardens, the Suna Mountains abutting the western horizon. My mother wore a dress of pale yellow, her ebony hair cut short around her pretty face. My chest ached at the stark knowledge of how much I’d missed her.
“What work needs to be done?” I asked.
My mother’s pink lips pursed in a knowing look. “You are a breaker of chains, my special boy. Why do you think the Gods chose to bless you with such power? Mixbreeds are as rare as true Blood Moons. The blend of so many different Magics is too much for most mortals.”
“It’s as much a curse as it is a blessing,” I told her, meaning to think the words but speaking them instead.
Her smile was like a sunset, beautiful and fleeting. “As are all great things, but your friends are coming, my son. They have what they need to save you. You only need to hold on.”
Turning, I saw that there was a pearly archway where the entrance to the garden should be. Beyond that archway, the world was undecipherable, and I found that I could not stare into it for too long.
And that it was tugging at me, as if a hook had been cast into my soul from the other side and was attempting to pull me through.
Whisperings filled my ears, and I took a step toward the archway before a vise grip locked onto my arm.
“Not yet,” my mother snapped, her voice taking on the sharp tone I’d forgotten she could adopt. “It is not his time.”
The whisperings quieted, and the hook in my soul eased its pull. I took my mother’s hands, sensing that my time with her was short.
“I miss you so much,” I said. “Everyday, every hour.”
Her cool hand rested against my cheek, the way she used to do when I was not feeling well as a child. “We will meet again, my special boy,” she said. “Of that you can be sure.” She pulled me into a hug that filled me up while also breaking me down.
When she released me this time, it was an effort to let her go. “Your loved ones need you,” she whispered. “I’m so very proud.”
She took me by the shoulders and turned me in the opposite direction from the archway, where the whispers and tugging had begun anew.
A gentle shove, and I forced my feet to carry me, holding Rukiya dearest’s beautiful face in my mind’s eye, like a north star guiding me home.
My body ached all over, my stomach threatening to spill whatever was inside.
I tried to open my eyes, but the lids were so heavy. They fluttered, and a voice spoke beside me.
“He’s waking up,” the voice said.
“Oh, thank the Gods,” said another.
Several other voices joined in a chorus of activity, but there were too many to make out.
Finally, I peeled my eyes open to find warm green eyes staring back at me. Appah, Mina’s most knowledgeable healer, touched my cheek with her cool hand, and the sensation brought thoughts of my mother, a dream I couldn’t quite remember.
“Adriel,” Appah said gently. “How do you feel?”
Like every atom of my body had been shattered and scattered and refitted again. The only thing that didn’t hurt was my hair. Gritting my teeth, I pulled myself into a sitting position, seeing that I was in the infirmary, though I didn’t remember coming here. The movement made my vision blur, my stomach turn. I closed my eyes and waited for it to pass.
It was hard to remember much about recent happenings. I kept thinking of my mother, almost seeing her face before her features eluded me as they’d been doing these last long years, but other than that…
“I’m fine,” I said, realizing Appah was still waiting for an answer.
The old healer gave me a look like I wasn’t fooling her, but she hurried off at the insistence of another. I saw now that the infirmary was bustling with activity. The rows of beds were filled with mostly young Wolves who looked underfed and dejected, and the volunteers who’d stayed behind in Mina to assist just such arrivals.
It took too long for me to remember the spell, and the fact that Rukiya and the others were currently in Dogshead, or at least, I hoped.
“You’re awake, brother,” said a deep, velvety voice from the corner of the sterile room. I twisted to see Bakari sitting upon a bench near one of the windows, an old tome cracked open in front of him.
“Rook was successful,” the Angel said, reading the panic and questions as if they’d scrolled across my forehead. “She killed the reining Alpha of the Midlands, and the Hounds in Dogshead either died or fled.”
The air rushed out of me in a whoosh, and I swung my legs over the edge of the bed, trying to stand, but the world spun, and I dropped back to the cot on which I’d been resting.
Bakari looked up from the page of his book to scan me. “Had us worried for a minute.”
The image of a pearly archway flashed through my mind, but it was so out of place in the moment that I dismissed it. “I guess I’ll live,” I said, thanking Appah when she got me a glass of water. I drained it in three gulps, my mouth as dry as a desert.
Something else occurred to me slower than it should have. “Where are Aysari and Eryx?” I asked, glancing around the infirmary and seeing only the other patients, volunteers, and healers.
Something dark flashed across Bakari’s face, and my stomach twisted.
“They were here a moment ago,” he said. “They were successful in getting the River water. They poured it down your throat, and if what Appah says is true, they weren’t a moment too soon.”
There was something he wasn’t telling me, so I stared at the Angel until he added, “Give them some time. They’ll tell you themselves.”
I had no idea what that could mean, but I certainly didn’t like the sound of it. After swallowing some bitter tea and food Appah brought me, and drinking about another gallon of water, I decided to go look for the Fae couple, to see what had happened in the Fae Forest.
But they were nowhere to be found, and after an hour of hobbling around looking for them, my body howling at me like winds from the peaks of the Suna Mountains, I gave up, knowing they would find me when they were ready.
On top of that, Mina was bustling with new arrivals from the Wolf realm. Yarik and Yarin were gathering as many pups as possible and bringing them in through portals. Everyone was scrambling to prepare meals and beds for the refugees, and the diligence with which they worked made my aching heart swell.
I found Bakari waiting for me in the meeting hut out on Suna Lake. Yarin was there as well, and they filled me in on what had happened while I’d been incapacitated.
Apparently, Rukiya and the others had indeed taken Dogshead. Just thinking of her made pride bloom in me, and a burning desire to be with her that I felt in my bones.
“I should be with them on the front lines,” I said, not bothering to join my brothers at the round table, which was painfully empty with most of our comrades away. I did not have the strength to portal across the realms just yet, but I would replenish myself and go as soon as I was able.
Yarin, the Halfbood who was the sterner half to Yarik’s fun-loving nature, met my eyes with a look that I knew predated bad news.
I sighed. “Tell me,” I said.
“The Erl Queen,” Yarin said, “word is she has aligned her Valac behind the Pack Masters. They are on the move toward Dogshead as we speak.”
It took a moment to process this. “Why? To what end?”
Yarin snorted. “Who knows why that crazy bitch does anything?”
“Power,” Bakari replied. “In the end, it’s always about power.”
“Someone is working with her,” Yarin said. “We’re just not sure who.”
“The Erl Queen has always had a strange obsession with you, Adriel,” Bakari added. “We should not underestimate her.”
I nodded, gripping the back of a chair rather than sitting in it. My body was still screaming with pain, but I could feel my strength gathering, and I wanted to get to Rook and the others.
“So the Packs are all converging on Dogshead from the north, south, east, and west, and they’re going to be joined by the Valac warriors… How many slaves stayed behind to help fight?”
From the looks on my comrades’ faces, I knew the answer was not enough.
“Who else could we convince to join us?” I asked.
Again, their expressions answered for them.
Images of Rook and the other Wolves trying to fight off the five armies coming to crush them flashed through my head, and I had to swallow twice before I could speak past them.
“If either of you has any bright ideas that could help us tip the scales back in our favor,” I said, “now is a good time to let me know.”
Bakari and Yarin glanced at each other. “Actually,” the Angel said, “We do have an idea. It’s a long shot, and we might die just in the attempt…” A smile pulled up Bakari’s lips. “In fact, it was your beloved who pointed out the possibility.”
