by J. E. Keep
So it was that she saw him, crouched in the hidden nook, almost back to his old self, health wise, savouring the rather unimpressive fare.
Sometimes she felt like they’d somehow switched roles. That she’d gotten hard where he had become more needy for affection, but she knew it wasn’t true. It was just another barrier she’d erected to try to get herself through this time.
She’d so quickly given up on revenge, now that she had something to live for. Someone to protect.
Caslian was sure that Levek couldn’t live without her. That he’d only lived because of her, and she wasn’t willing to force him to risk that.
Instead she smiled as she came around him, sitting cross-legged. Her festering facial wound burned, but she ignored it. The pain was so constant it was hard to do anything but live with it.
He smiled up at her, bright and sunny despite it all. He didn’t see what was done to her, even the wound that lingered on her face. He just seemed enlightened and inspired by her presence, as if she were the same old Caslian.
“I was thinking...” He glanced back towards the two exits through the little shelter of coffins. “I know a guy on the kitchen crew. I could bribe him with some cigarettes, and he could drop a package of good, easily carried food into one of the refuse bins.” He chewed another mouthful, grinning pleasantly at the thought.
“Will he get caught?” She settled in and began picking at her food, though she wasn’t hungry. She just didn’t want him to worry. She was back to thinking of others first. Her inherent goodness was so hard to quell, but when she was alone, the rage would overwhelm her. He was her safety net.
He shook his head.
“Stuff goes missing all the time. Impossible to pin it on any one person. Unless it gets out of hand the COs just shrug their shoulders. Not worth their time.” He let his fork rest on the plate as he stared down at the small remaining bit of food. “Cas... we should go. Tonight.” He hesitated, but added, “They are gonna send me back out again soon.”
She just nodded. He’d already convinced her, though not with his words. It was her seeing how broken he was, how much she knew he was afraid. For her.
He had long ago given up on himself, but never on her. Not for a moment.
“I’ll get the food and then... then I can come meet you here.” He looked over to her, a mix of hope and fear in his eyes. She knew he didn’t want to ask his next question. “Can you get a first-aid kit from the medical tent to take with us? We... we don’t know what might happen during our escape. It could save our lives.”
She simply nodded once again. They were already risking their lives by even talking of escaping. Truthfully, it didn’t frighten her like it once had. She wanted to keep going, but only for him.
She smiled through the dark thoughts. “Leave it to me. If I’m not back, leave without me.”
“Ain’t gonna happen,” he said, forking up the last of his pork and beans into his mouth as he gave her a big, goofy grin. Though there was no doubt that he meant it. “If you aren’t there on time, I’ll come for you. Wherever you are.” He shrugged. “If you get caught taking a med kit, you explain that a soldier in the alleyway asked you for help. You lead them there if they wish, and when there’s nobody there... you explain you must’ve been conned.”
“I’ll get it.” The least of her worries was getting caught. Every time he’d seen her she’d forced herself to seem stronger, but she never went anywhere without her knife. She never stopped hearing their voices in her head. She never stopped feeling them over her body.
She never stopped being afraid.
“C’mon, the faster the better,” she stated with finality.
Chapter 38 – The Matron
Aleena helped lead the makeshift alliance, standing side by side with the leader of the shifters, Britus. Her two Kron followed behind her, lingering close as her devoted bodyguards.
A hush was through all those gathered, for though the lost tribe of shifters were more than her three, they were far less than what the Kaliak huntsmen could field.
The other man that had opposed her aiding the attack watched her suspiciously the whole while.
“What? Do you have a problem?” she said, sick of feeling his eyes bore into the side of her skull.
“Yes,” he said simply, standing tall and thick like a bear of a man. “You put your trust in the wrong sorts. And now we have put our trust in you. It is a mistake on both of our parts,” he said, not angrily, merely in quiet resignation.
“Save the doubts for after the battle is done, huh?” she said, focusing her gaze back ahead.
“I am Vicalus, and the well-being of my people rests with me. Doubts are almost all I have now,” he said in a morose tone.
Aleena arched a brow at the man curiously.
“If you’re the leader, then why is Britus in charge?” she asked.
“Because he is the war chieftain. And war is all we know anymore.”
“Tough gig,” Aleena said, the group of them moving through the snow as they approached the Kaliak village.
Britus gave the hand gesture to come to a halt and everyone stilled. It was night, and there were no sounds of birds or life of any kind. Only the sound of life extinguished, as one of the forward scouts took out a Kaliak guard.
The dead man gave a cry, but it was only short and carried not far enough to reach the village.
The stage was set then, and Britus turned to them, the group huddled about, numbering only a couple dozen.
“We strike fast, hit them hard. No prisoners, we light their barracks on fire and get out. With any luck, we’re done before their main forces return from their patrols.”
His hard gaze travelled along the assembled.
“It has been a long time since we gambled this much, my kin. Let it not be in vain. Go with caution,” he stated.
Aleena and her two Kron thought it hardly a worthy war cry. All the same, it began the battle.
The group moved in on the village, their nimble feet moving over the snow covered ground quickly and relatively quietly. Dawn was still an hour off from full breaking, the blue hour still casting its haze, and they were set to make use of the dimness.
To the pine-log wall they went, and down toppled one of the guards at the gate. Then the group of attackers surged forward.
It was not Aleena’s battle, not really, but after the betrayal she was excited for a bit of revenge. Her and her two Kron shared more in common than either realized.
Separating from the pack, Aleena and her men took a different route, catching another patrolman before he could sound the cry. Her daggers made quick work of him with but two plunges.
As the door to the outhouse swung open, a shocked woman gasped as Ramtok struck her in the belly and winded her, right before finishing her off.
It was not a glorious battle, but that wasn’t what it was all about.
Revenge had little to do with honour.
The three of them continued their circuit along the interiors of the pine-wall toward the barracks of the Kaliak when a loud shriek sounded into the night, alarming the locals. Things had instantly got more desperate.
The trio moved quicker, rushing towards their destination, arriving just in time to meet with Vicalus, leading his people.
“Where’s Britus?” Aleena asked.
“He’s dead,” Vicalus said grimly and without hesitation. Just like that, and an ally had fallen, with no time to even pay a moment’s respect to the dead. That would come later, for their people.
“We must hurry,” he added, “and light the barracks aflame. We are out of time.”
His statement was quite true. Saghar and Ramtok watched as lights lit up the windows of the houses and doors began to open. The village had at least four hundred people, and even without their guards, they would easily be enough to destroy their raid.
“Britus has the torch and tinder,” Aleena said.
Suddenly Vicalus looked mortified, as if he’d done something quit
e wrong.
“We are running out of time,” Saghar gruffly informed them, pulling out his own flintstone as his brother tore off some fabric and began to form a torch.
Vicalus snarled and pushed into the barracks with his people, the dozens of shifters making haste inside.
“What are you doing?!” Aleena hissed at the leader, watching as the locals gathered makeshift weapons, mainly ice picks and spears for hunting. “You’ll trap yourselves in there!” she said, though Vicalus paid her no mind.
Ramtok and Saghar looked to her, continuing with their work, lighting the torch and appearing perturbed.
“Inside you two!” Aleena cried, knowing their escape was likely already cut off.
No sooner than they rushed for the door, the shifters were quick to shut it behind them. They slid the bar across and locked it.
“Just the two were in here?” Vicalus asked one of his recruits coming from the second floor.
“Yes. The lookout post above is clear. I can see no way of escape,” reported the shifter to their new war chieftain.
Aleena saw that in addition to the two guards killed in the barracks, however, that one of the shifter’s laid dead too. An inauspicious start already.
“Dammit! We’re trapped here! There’s no way out,” Aleena said, storming past the shifters towards the stairs.
“We’ll find our way,” Vicalus said with a sneer. “Where are you going anyways?”
“To look for myself,” Aleena said, climbing the wooden stairs and on up to the ladder above.
It took her no more than a moment to climb to the top and up out of the hatch, looking out at the village and the snowy fields and forests beyond. True to the report received below, she saw no way out.
The pine wall was too far from the barracks to make it in a leap, and already the townspeople were clamouring around. By the hundreds.
Chapter 39 – The Rebels
Rosa had spent a great deal of time trekking through the woods and wilderness the rebel, Marin. Trying to outpace her pursuers and hide their tracks, it had made for a great initiation into her new chosen career path, she was realizing.
Following after the large, bestial Faze wasn’t too different from chasing Marin, except in a few crucial aspects.
“What’s the difference between bein’ hungry an’ horny?” Faze asked with a broad grin on his face, another one of his jokes on its way.
Being a courier-messenger seemed to lack the grace she imagined being a raider would have. Though she had to confess that Faze was far more personable than Marin had been, which was impressive, seeing as he was a wolfkin. Or wolven, as they preferred.
Whatever he was, he certainly wasn’t what she expected from one of his kind. Though that never stopped her from being guarded with him at all times. That was just playing it safe, she assured herself.
Rosa rolled her eyes at him, but it was good natured. At least he smiled, and laughed. That was more than she ever got from Marin, certainly. And definitely more than she got back with the other human nobles.
“What’s the difference, hm?” she prompted him.
It was obvious that the large, furry man-beast found his joke absolutely hilarious because he wouldn’t stop grinning like a fool.
Faze let the moment drag on long before he spat it out. “Where you put the cucumber,” he remarked at long last, his mouth hanging open as he let out a guffaw of great amusement.
Her brow raised, but she couldn’t help but try to hide her smile. She wasn’t used to such crassness, but somehow he made it almost endearing. Perhaps it was his own enjoyment that gave her such delight.
“Come up with that one yourself?”
“Nah,” he confessed without hesitation. “Heard it from one of the bar wenches back in town,” he remarked. “Pretty good though, huh?” he asked as he led the way, the sky overhead turning orange as evening approached.
“Yes, well. I just had no idea you were into that type of thing,” Rosa replied with a flip of her blonde hair over her shoulder.
Ever in good spirits, the beast-man chuckled.
“Wasn’t sure what a cucumber was at first, we don’t eat that vegetable stuff if we can help it. But then she offered to show me,” he explained as he stomped along with surprising quiet for his size. That was, aside from his noisy guffawing.
Before she could retort, he stopped, lifted his muzzle to the air, and sniffed around. It was a curious sight, seeing that beast, so much like a man, yet in so many ways exhibiting behaviours like the wolf his fur resembled.
She knew better than to continue on ahead and instantly grew quiet. Whether he simply needed to find a new way or he found trouble, she wasn’t about to chance it. There were too many dangers in the world, and simply thinking about that which had terrified Marin so made her tremble.
She never wanted to run into whatever they were ever again.
Faze took his time but then headed off in a different direction.
“Gotta watch out,” he remarked to her over his shoulder, speaking much quieter. “There’s all kinds of mischief you can run into with this sorta work, I’ll tell you. Luckily a good nose helps,” he said with a wink and a tap of his snout.
“Yeah, well, good I have you along, isn’t it.” Her shoulders were tensed, and she forced them to relax. They could take care of themselves, she reassured herself as she followed after him.
“You’ll have ta learn how ta do this on yer own though,” he cautioned her. “But don’t let that trouble ya none. A keen sense a smell might seem like an advantage, but it just means you’ll have to rely on other senses more. Besides, ya won’t be yappin’ out here by yerself like ya are with me, so ya won’t be in so much trouble if you do get close to some soldiers or… trouble.”
The trouble went unnamed.
“Yeah,” she whispered, barely audible even with their silent movements. “How much longer will I have you with me?”
Faze looked back at her, opened his maw to speak, but then froze. He sniffed at the air again, though looked far tenser.
There was barely a breeze at all, so he bent down onto all fours and sniffed at the ground. It was then that Rosa looked around suspiciously and noticed a curious series of gouges in a nearby tree.
She inched towards them, both of her hands clasping her daggers tenderly, like a comforting blanket. Her leather didn’t even creak with how supple and well-crafted it was, but her breath held instinctively. She forced herself to breathe out her lungful of air as she studied the strange marks.
They were too big to claw marks. Or so she hoped. The gouges deep and wide. The furrows that were raked into the tree didn’t seem to resemble the mark of a blade or axe though, so… something natural?
She pondered it until something finally dawned on her: one of the noble crests she remembered from her days in the Court was of two fighting elkeer. Mighty beasts that resembled elks, they were savages that used their great horns and crushing hooves to hunt all sorts of prey unlike their more docile cousins. It was said they marked their territory by tearing apart trees and rocks with the antlers they bore.
Rosa stepped backwards towards Faze, her eyes darting around them urgently as she moved to tell him. She’d never seen one in real life, and truthfully, she didn’t hope to start today.
“Elkeer,” she murmured under her breath, looking at her companion intently. He’d definitely know more about them than she.
The crouched wolven lifted his head and looked about to question her on it, but then his eyes fell on where she had just come from. He saw the markings, and looked quite surprised. No, shocked.
“Oh shit,” he muttered. He grabbed her shoulder, gave her a light shove, and began to run with her. “Let’s go!” he hissed to her.
She didn’t question it, or him, simply sprinting at his side. Apparently he did know more about them than she...
It terrified her, the thought of being alone in these woods with their unknown monsters lurking within them, but she’d never admit
it. Not to him, not to Marin, not to anyone. Even as she ran for her life, she knew she’d never back down from this challenge.
When the bellowing cry of the elkeer called out, however, everything felt shaken.
It seemed to make the whole forest rise up in terror. Great flocks of birds could be heard ascending into the skies, and she swore she could hear other soft footpads coming from all around where before had been silence.
Though once she heard the heavy pounding of the elkeer itself, there was no noticing anything else. It was like the march of hell’s armies itself was after her, and the ground shook beneath her feet.
“Don’t stop, whatever you do!” called Faze to her, the large wolven running half like a man and half like the wolf he resembled, intermittently using his clawed hands to help propel himself along with his loping gait.
She was so grateful for the “practice” she’d received with Marin, but even then she remembered that he’d had to save her. Help her into the tree...
Yet with those marks, with the rumours and myths she’d heard, she knew a tree couldn’t protect her. Not from this beast.
Her lungs felt like they’d explode as she pushed herself faster, her legs burning in agony. Yet still she ran, the forest passing her in a blur.
Rosa had not dared to look back. The ground-quaking stomps of the beast behind them were enough to let her know it was too close for comfort. The bellow of its cry sent the trees about her shaking, causing a shower of pine needles to fall down upon her, like a million pinpricks against her skin.
Night was falling fast, though it seemed to take so long with her heart-pounding race. Though as the blanket of darkness descended, she swore she could detect some odd noise in the trees, like a sort of unearthly chittering.
“Do you hear that?” asked a panting Faze.
Rosa thought she might simply faint, but she wouldn’t allow herself the pleasure. “Up a tree!”
She would rather take her chances with the elkeer sending her tumbling to her death than to see those terrible, terrifying things that had scared Marin so.
