The War Priest

by Ann Aguirre

  Behind her, the bears spoke in worried growls; that much she understood, though she didn’t grasp the actual words. She couldn’t even reassure them, and sometimes she left the group, ranging ahead to ensure that the path was clear. The third time she did, the babies were crying, audible over some distance. Babies cried, because they were aggravated or scared or hungry, and she couldn’t even let the parents pause to comfort them. Crying wouldn’t kill these little ones.

  But it might get us caught.

  No, don’t think like that.

  Her whole body burned with exhaustion, and her head was starting to feel strange, sort of sparkly and distant. That’s probably not good. Spending long hours in cat form without eating or resting was a recipe for disaster, but Joss held on. As a scout, she was their best hope of getting to Burnt Amber safely.

  Joss relaxed a little when they reached the forest. The trees offered some concealment and there ought to be enough distance behind them now that they didn’t need to worry about the Gols finding them. She eased her pace a little, moving with more confidence. I’ve gotten us this far. I can do this. I must.

  Around the halfway mark, she let them rest, and the mothers shifted to nurse their young. Joss kept a sharp watch the entire time, circling the perimeter in bobcat form. If she changed now, she might not have the energy to go cat again.

  “Thank you,” a woman said. “I’m Callie by the way.”

  She was the same one who had been waiting for her mate. Joss didn’t know if the woman had ever shown up. It wasn’t the time to ask. She moved a paw and canted her head, hoping that her meaning was clear.

  “Ah, right. She says we need to get moving.”

  The babies were none too thrilled about going back into the slings, but this would be over soon. Callum had said there were empty rooms after the bombing at Ash Valley; these people would fill them.

  With sheer determination, Joss pushed on, running through weariness and terror until she started recognizing landmarks. We’re close. It was damn near noon now, and the sun was so bright and cheerful that she couldn’t bear to imagine what it must be like in Bright’s Landing right now.

  Then she froze, calling a halt by her lack of movement. Sounds up ahead, lots of movement, and they were big, coming fast. Oh no. I’ve led them into a trap. The Gols must have left—

  But a few seconds later, bears broke through the undergrowth, and the one in front, she would recognize anywhere. Callum. The thought came with dizzying relief and without even meaning to, she fell out of cat form, landing on her knees as he reached them. The other bears shifted as well, revealing a cohort of monks with Andar among them.

  “It’s been a hell of a night,” she said.

  Callum’s glance swept over her to the ragged group of survivors, who were shifting back as well. “I can see that, kit. Seems you’ve a story to tell. But let’s get you home first, love, then I’ll hear everything.”

  And then, without a moment’s hesitation, without seeming to care what any of the onlookers thought, he swept her up into his arms.

  Thank the goddess.

  With every step, Callum blessed the fact that Joss was filthy and tired, but in his arms. He had no idea how she’d come to rescue fifty bears, and he was grateful for her boldness and bravery, but mostly, he wanted to weep because she’d come back to him. Crying would probably be a step too far, considering that he still hadn’t been officially released from holy orders.

  The Bright’s Landing bears had clearly been through hell this night, so he went straight to the main gates, avoiding the mines with a surety that came from long hours of studying the maps. At his bellow, the guards opened up and allowed the stream of refugees to pour into the courtyard. Thankfully, Andar led the brothers in offering food and reassurances, carrying water jugs around and finding clothes for those who had arrived with nothing more than what they carried. Joss must know exactly how they felt, for she’d done the same.

  It hadn’t come to blows with Andar, though it had been close. In the end, the monk stood down and offered to rally a small group of monks to form a quiet search party. If nothing else, the ones who’d taken vows of silence wouldn’t gossip. And gods but he could have lit every candle in the chapel when he caught Joss’s scent in the wind, along with a bunch of unfamiliar bears.

  Jere arrived just then and Callum grabbed them. “I’ve been putting it off because it was always in the back of my head that I might be leaving, but no longer. I’m offering this to you formally now. Will you be my second?”

  Beren’s second had passed before him, and the old bear had been in no hurry to appoint someone else. Past Callum had hoped he would soon be returned to his old life at the monastery, but that wasn’t even what he wanted anymore. Joss made a surprised sound, and he shushed her by snuggling her against his chest.

  “Truly? But I can’t continue as security chief if I step up as second,” Jere said.

  “I’m aware. I’ve someone else in mind for that job too.” Two someones, actually. Trini and Emilia would work well together, and they balanced each other perfectly.

  “I would be honored.” Jere inclined their head, the slight gesture not hiding their obvious pleasure in the promotion.

  “Then your first task as second is to bring some order to this chaos. Show them to the bathhouse, assign them to empty rooms, and rustle up some supplies. Can you handle it?”

  “Certainly.”

  “Excellent. Because I need to talk with Joss. Once we’re finished with the debrief, I’ll check in.”

  “Understood. I’ll take it from here.” If Jere had any private doubts about that ‘debrief’, they didn’t show.

  Reassured, Callum left the courtyard in great strides, carrying Joss all the way to her room. She wrapped her arms around his neck and snuggled closer, warming him from the inside out. He took her straight to the bedroom, but she pushed back then.

  “I need to wash up. Let me do that, then we can…talk?” That was clearly a question, as she didn’t seem certain of his intentions.

  “I’m not about to ravish you, kit. Not with the Bright’s Landing bears waiting and a whole host of matters to attend. I just…need to hold you for a little while. Damned if you didn’t take ten years off my life last night.”

  “I’m sorry. I did the best I could, but I’m sure you were worried. In all honesty, I was too.” Her words were muffled but still audible coming from the half-bath.

  When she came to his arms a few minutes later, he thought there was nothing more he could ask from life. Groaning, he settled her close, pulling her between his thighs, with his back resting against the headboard. She rubbed the top of her head against his bearded chin, against his chest, just all-over claiming like the cat she was, and he couldn’t get enough. Desire snarled like a leashed dragon, tugging on its chains. Soon, he promised that hunger. Just a little longer. Goddess but he might devour her when he finally let his lust go.

  “Tell me everything.”

  In the softest voice, she did. And when she finished her tale, he could scarcely credit her amazing valor.

  Callum closed his eyes. “It would’ve been a massacre without you, kit. I don’t know what I did to deserve you, but I’ll be lighting candles for the rest of my days. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for saving my people.”

  “They’re mine too,” she said.

  A fist tightened on his heart. It was so obvious that she meant it—that she drew no lines between Ash Valley and Burnt Amber. That was a loyalty that couldn’t be obtained through a peace treaty; it had to come from pure sincerity.

  Callum leaned down and kissed her, first on the forehead, then her nose and cheeks, adoring her with every brush of his lips. When she turned her face up for a proper kiss like a flower to the sun, his entire body responded with a vicious ache that went soul deep. He hadn’t known it was possible to yearn for someone in body and spirit before. She opened for his tongue, kissing him back, tasting with such hunger that he shuddered, pulling bac
k to muffle a moan in her hair.

  “I want you,” he whispered. “The waiting may end me.”

  “The abbot will make a decision soon, won’t he?”

  “Goddess, I hope so. Because I’ve fasted and done the penance. I’ve done everything but write an apology in blood.”

  “I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be.”

  Sighing into his shoulder, she said, “I wish I could’ve done more in Bright’s Landing. I was afraid to wait any longer, the violence was escalating. The fire—”

  “You did your best,” he cut in.

  Callum could well imagine the infernal scene and it chilled his blood to picture her there in the thick of it. Soon, he must leave her and go be the clan chief. There were decisions to be made regarding Bright’s Landing, and he should comfort the survivors, but for now, he needed Joss.

  Just five more minutes.

  He counted those moments down, and in that time, she fell asleep in his arms. It nearly destroyed him to leave her, to gently ease her into bed and pull up the covers. “The next time I take you to bed, kit, I won’t leave for days,” he promised.

  Then he hurried to his quarters to get dressed and face the damage below. He spent hours listening to sobbing accounts, though none offered more detail than he’d already gotten from Joss. She’d been tracking the Gols all night, after all.

  It troubled him not to find his cousins among the survivors, though. Surely Phelan wouldn’t stay to fight with so many small children relying on him?

  He also conferred with Trini and Emilia, confirming that they wanted to share the post of security chief, then he set them to work checking drone footage for travelers from Bright’s Landing. More might come, and they would need guides to get inside the hold without triggering the mines.

  “We’ve got movement here,” Trini said, a few hours later. “Definitely bears. Should I send someone?”

  Callum nodded. “I’ll lead the patrol myself. Can you predict their travel route based on the speed and direction they were traveling?”

  “On it,” Trini said.

  Soon they had an estimate, and for the second time that day, he went out, this time searching for fleeing bears, not a lost wildcat. There were only fifteen this time, a fearfully small number, considering that there were two thousand in Bright’s Landing. Or there had been.

  What’s the situation? he asked, leading the group toward the hold. He wondered if there was any hope for Bright’s Landing if he sent warriors for a surprise assault.

  The town is lost. Such despair in that growl, the like of which he’d never heard from a bear before.

  Phelan?

  Gone. His house burned in the first wave. Everyone is gone, Callum. The ones who fled early on…and us, we’re the only ones left. I’ve never seen anything like it, that destruction. I don’t understand. They didn’t take prisoners. They cut us down as we ran for our lives. And why? Silence fell after that impassioned cry. Not even the forest animals stirred, as if in respect for the bear’s overwhelming grief.

  Sickness boiled inside him as he grasped the Gol intent. Scorched earth. Tycho Vega was setting an example, hoping fear would force his enemies to surrender: Kneel and pledge fealty, or be eradicated.

  21.

  Seventy-two souls.

  That was how many survived the slaughter at Bright’s Landing. In the days following the attack, those she had led to safety called Joss a hero, but someone else might have found a way to save the town. Joss hadn’t done enough, not nearly, and she couldn’t stand the grateful looks. She dove into her music and tried to ignore the chaos swirling all over Burnt Amber.

  That proved impossible, however.

  Especially when the refugees sought her out at every turn, even slipping into her rehearsals at Nayan’s club to listen silently while she sang. She expected Nayan to object, as the older woman would view those free shows as a profit loss, but she was kind in her quiet way and instead served food and drinks to those who came, knowing that they had nothing.

  On her way back to her quarters, Jere intercepted her. “This has to be for you. I hope it’s a message and not a machine malfunction.”

  Her heart more hopeful than it had been in days, she took the paper with shaking hands. It’s our code. Quickly, she translated the apparent nonsense: Sorry it took so long, guard almost threw your message away. Bethel sends her love. What’s happening? Comms down.

  Finally. We have a way to contact the outside world that the Gols can’t intercept. Sometimes low-tech offered the most inventive solutions, but Joss would be damn grateful when the wireless came back.

  Jere waited with ill-concealed anticipation. “Well?”

  “It’s from Pru. Is the device still hooked up?”

  “Place of honor in the conference room. Would you consider teaching me the code? In case we get an urgent response. It would also allow us to make contact in case…” Jere trailed off, likely not wanting to articulate the reasons why Joss would be unavailable.

  But in wartime, it would be negligent not to prepare for that eventuality. “It’s not a complex cipher. We used it when we were children. All the letters are reflected. Just use the opposite on the other side of the alphabet.”

  “Of course! It’s so simple that the enemy might well overlook that solution.”

  “Even if they do decipher it, I won’t give away our battle plans.”

  “Understood.”

  When they reached the conference room, Joss drafted a suitable reply, showing Jere how to encode it afterward. Bears embattled, situation dire, Bright’s Landing lost. Call Alastor. Call Thalia and Raff. SEND EVERYONE. Joss hesitated, then just in case this was the last message she ever sent, she added, Tell Mom I love her.

  Tears slid down her cheeks as she keyed in the message, letter by letter. The Gol army might not be able to breach Burnt Amber’s walls, but they would go after unprotected towns until Callum faced them on the field. That, or they found the factory on their own. Deep in her bones, she understood that the bears couldn’t win without external support.

  When she stood, Jere was facing away, giving her privacy for her grief. She really liked them a lot, and she made a fair amount of noise getting herself together, sending a wordless signal that she was okay.

  Well, maybe that was the wrong word. Coping might be a better one.

  “All set,” she said briskly.

  “Thank you. I take it Bethel is your mother?”

  Joss nodded. “We lost a lot of people in the Ash Valley bombing. She must be so worried about me.”

  My little wildcat, her mom used to say, with a patient fondness, no matter what nonsense Joss got up to.

  I hope I get to see her again.

  The tears threatened again, and she ducked her head, hurrying out of the conference room as quick as she could. Memories threatened, old horrors married to new ones. Never would she forget what she’d seen the night she ran from Burnt Amber to Bright’s Landing and back again. The smell—

  “Where are you heading in such a hurry, kit?” Callum caught her by the shoulders, as she almost slammed into him face-first.

  Gently, he pulled her into his arms and shielded her with his body from curious onlookers. For a few moments, Joss simply cried, not caring who saw. He stroked her back, her hair, with the gentlest hands in the world. Just by looking at him, you’d never guess he could be so careful and tender, but that was just one of the many things she loved about him. Not least because this care was reserved for her alone. With nearly everyone else, he was all snarls and scowls, visible warnings not to get any closer.

  “I’m just relieved,” she finally managed to say.

  “Something good?”

  “You could say that.” Quickly she told him about getting a reply from Pru at last. “I taught Jere the code, and we sent a reply, asking for reinforcements. If anyone can get us more forces, it’s Pru. She knows I wouldn’t ask if the situation wasn’t…” Joss paused, wondering if using that word was the
best idea.

  “Dire,” he finished. “You did well. Maybe your contacts can save us because I’m out of ideas.” He scrubbed a hand over his beard. “Drone footage shows the Gols are camped near the ruins of Bright’s Landing.”

  “They’ll move soon,” she guessed.

  “If their scouts are any good, they’ll find the factory soon. I have two choices here, neither of them good.”

  Joss wasn’t a strategist by any means, but she suspected she knew what those were. “One—you turn on the wireless and tell the workers to set charges and evacuate. That means wrecking the economy. Two—you muster every available warrior and go to war.”

  Callum nodded, but his eyes were shaded with weariness and grief. “One we can’t win. But I can’t square staying within these walls while my people die out there.”

  “Your people,” she repeated.

  “What of it?”

  Gently Joss touched his cheek. “Before, you talked about them as if you stood apart, as if they had nothing to do with you.”

  “Hell. You’re right, kit. I suppose I’ve accepted that I’m the shepherd of this flock, like it or not.”

  “In that metaphor, you should have a dog to help you herd them,” she said, trying to smile. “Not a cat.”

  “Without you, nobody would have gotten out of Bright’s Landing alive. I’ll keep my brave, beautiful wildcat, thanks.”

  “I’m so sorry,” she whispered. “Your cousin… I heard that—”

  He set a fingertip against her lips. “Not your fault. If anyone’s to blame, it’s me. I should have foreseen that they wouldn’t be content to die to our mines forever. This just… it’s evil on a level that no decent person can fathom.”

  “The orders, yes. But the soldiers carrying them out, they sound just like us. That’s the most horrifying part of this. It doesn’t require special villainy, just a fear of making waves. The Gol soldiers fear Tycho Vega too. I heard them talking…” She sighed. “They didn’t want to kill civilians, but they weren’t brave enough to refuse.”