“Now,” hissed Dash in Mathilde’s ear.
Mathilde gestured to the group to put their left hand on the tunnel wall and waited a few seconds for the message to get to the back of the group then stubbed the torch out on the ground. When she began to walk again she did so more slowly than before but, as no-one bumped into her, she assumed that everyone else had naturally chosen to do the same. Her steps were small and short and they walked in darkness until Mathilde felt a cold draft on her face. She almost panicked, fearing the ice breath of a wendigo was on her, until she smelt the air and realised that the fragrance was not one of blood and rotten meat but a mossy, wet scent. A few steps more and a dim light appeared shining on a wall in front of her. The end of the tunnel was just around the next corner.
Mathilde walked around the corner then reached back and tapped Dash’s hand, hoping that he would remember their plans and pass the tap backwards to alert everyone that they had reached their destination. The plan soon proved to have worked as Mathilde felt her back warm at the presence of five bodies. Moving forwards she walked around the final corner then stopped.
Standing in the mouth of the tunnel Mathilde now stared down into a huge chamber, one hundred feet below them, down a steep slope. It was exactly as she had seen in Dash’s memories. The whole area was a grubby mixture of greens, yellows and grays. Animals decorated the walls with the natural formations of lichen and sediment creating scarily realistic textures on their bodies. At the far end was a second entrance, which Mathilde guessed must be the one which led to the cells of the captives. Next to that entrance was a large, stone throne, behind which was a huge painted representation of the Grim Reaper. Around the room were countless wendigo, all looking agitated and most either moving jerkily around the room or tearing at meat which Mathilde knew must be human. On the throne sat Zhu.
Zhu was exactly as Mathilde had seen through Dash. First and foremost he was definitely more human than wendigo, though there was enough of him which appeared to be wendigo to assert his half breed status. A half cowering man stood behind Zhu. Like Zhu he was a half breed but he looked more like a trapped, nervous animal than a wendigo or a man. Gein, Mathilde assumed. Looking back to Zhu Mathilde could see that, even when sat down, his upper torso and the length of his legs meant that he must be a lot taller than a normal man. He was bony with gray, leathery skin. He snarled at a wendigo who had dragged some meat too close to him and Mathilde saw that he had several rows of thin, sharp wendigo teeth. The people standing directly behind Mathilde pushed forwards slightly to look into the chamber and one person gasped. It was so quiet that Mathilde only just heard it but Zhu’s head whipped up and he stared at them with deep set, ice blue, red rimmed eyes. He stood up slowly and a grin spread across his face.
“Friends, we have company,” he said in a loud, clear voice and a hundred pairs of wendigo eyes shot towards the Protectors. The wendigo snarled and started towards them in terrifying, jittery, running and leaping movements.
“Stop,” Zhu commanded and, to Mathilde’s surprise, the wendigo froze. They looked at Zhu and back at Mathilde, seeming unsure of whether to follow their instincts or Zhu’s command, then one-by-one they made their way back down into the chamber. Zhu looked up and addressed Mathilde.
“A woman...no, a girl and the little prince too. How amusing. I can see you have at least five with you but I sense there are more – I can hear them breathing,” he said. Mathilde hoped that he was referring to the army behind her and not to the group led by Seb which would just be reaching the end of the tunnel leading to the captives. She just had to keep Zhu’s attention for ten minutes to give the more vulnerable captives time to escape.
“So, little woman, what brings you to my home?” Zhu stood up and struck a dramatic pose as he gestured around the chamber as if showing off a palace.
Mathilde cringed at the way he spoke to her but tried to hide her annoyance as she replied. “I have come to negotiate. Prince Dashiel has told me of your offer to his father and I have come with him as an ambassador for the Romanian people.”
“Oh, thrilling,” said Zhu. “So what are your terms? What do you want in exchange for your dregs of society? Keep in mind when you speak that I would like to begin a civilised existence for my wendigo friends but I do not need you. If we want we have the might to keep taking your people. Do not test my patience with any unreasonable demands.”
Mathilde nodded in acknowledgement. In reality she had no more intention of making a deal than she did of offering herself up on a plate as a snack but she didn’t want to sound too eager and arouse suspicion. She had been prepared for this and hoped that she would sound as compelling in negotiations as possible so as to be able to create the necessary distraction.
“We will give you our elderly who offer to come as a sacrifice for the better good and we will give you our criminals but we will not provide you with unwilling volunteers just so that you have breeding stock.” Mathilde held her breath, hoping that she had sounded demanding enough to seem to be genuine.
“Ah a good stance to open with,” said Zhu, smiling, “but of course it is not the deal I am looking for.”
“We will not give you innocent victims for you to breed and slaughter like beasts.”
“Beasts – what an interesting choice of words. Are we not all beasts of some kind? You may think yourself so human, so civilised, but here you are offering me your people as food. Who is really the beast?”
Mathilde forced herself to look ashamed and unsure for a moment before speaking again. “I offer you only the willing and the criminal. They will come of their own accord.”
“That is all I ask for my dear girl - which is why I give you a counter offer. Give me ten women and ten men of child baring age. Tell them they shall live like kings and queens. None shall harm them. I will provide them with food and comfort and with a beautiful palace in which to live. They shall never have to fear the wendigo again. They will never be short of food again. They will live in luxury they could never have imagined.”
“What will be the benefit to you?” Mathilde knew the answer but wanted to buy just a few more minutes as she saw a flash of movement at the other entrance and Seb’s face appeared. All eyes in the chamber were on her and she wanted to keep it that way. She assumed the weaker captives were now free and safe but she wanted to give Seb a bit longer to choose the right moment to attack.
“Surely you can guess. We will have our breeders. As long as they agree to hand the children over as they are born for them to be raised by us then we will have an endless supply of food without ever again having to attack your people in your settlements.”
Zhu sat down on his throne and looked self satisfied, obvious in his arrogant belief that Mathilde would accept his offer. Mathilde met Seb’s eye and nodded.
“We will never accept that or any offer from you,” Mathilde said, smiling at Zhu. Lifting her arms high she shouted “ATTACK” and there was a surge of bodies from behind Seb as around sixty grubby but well fed looking captives ran at the wendigo with sticks, some sharpened, some on fire and chunks of rock. They were followed by Seb, Louisa and the other three members of their group. The wendigo looked about wildly, trying to figure out what was going on then leapt at the oncoming captives. Zhu looked just as surprised.
“Get the others too. Get the girl and the little prince,” he shouted and half of the wendigo jumped to his command, starting up the slope towards Mathilde again.
“Hold your positions,” yelled Mathilde. “Let them come to us and we can control their numbers.”
The group held their positions, the archers and strongest fighters at the front and the rest lined up back into the tunnel, ready to instantly take the place of anyone who got injured. Mathilde and the archers shot arrow after arrow at the wendigo. Though they managed to slow their ascent they only felled two of them; one with an arrow through the heart and one with an arrow through the head. As the wendigo reached them Mathilde saw a flash of movement to her rig
ht and shrieked as she saw Dash run past her and down the slope.
“No,” she called after him.
“Zhu is escaping, I have to save Suzanna,” he shouted back.
The wendigo were almost upon Dash. Mathilde thought through her options in a split second and, knowing that she was following her heart instead of her head but unable to stop herself, she flew down the slope after Dash. Mathilde shot arrows and hit two wendigo as she ran, the arrows puncturing their skulls and poking out of the back of their heads. One fell down dead instantly but one kept on running to the cave entrance until it met with Jewel who slashed at it with her newly sharpened sword and sliced its head almost completely off. It hung from the wedigo’s neck from a thread of flesh and the wendigo’s body crumpled.
“Hold the line, Get them as they come, I’ll join the other group” cried Mathilde over her shoulder as she ran.
“No!” shouted Alan as she ran straight at the wendigo but Mathilde didn’t stop. It was as if a red mist had fallen over her and suddenly all that she felt was hate and anger for all of the people the wendigo had taken from them, for Jack, for her mother and at how her life had been mapped with the wendigo at its very core; cheating her of a normal life. Most desperately Mathilde felt a passionate need to protect Dash, even though she could hear her father’s voice lecturing her poor decision in her mind.
As Mathilde ran through the throng of wendigo they leapt at her but Mathilde’s rage was now unstoppable. She slung her crossbow across her back with its strap and drew two swords from her belt. Holding them far from her body at each side she wind-milled and swished, slicing open necks, stomachs and faces of the wendigo who crowded around her. As one whipped out with its hands to claw at her face Mathilde crouched down and spun in a circle close to the ground. Her arms held her swords out at right angles and as she span wendigo crumpled around her, their stick thin ankles severed. As they dragged their bodies towards her Mathilde jumped over them, trampling over the wendigo who got in her way. Dash had somehow made it through unscathed and she saw him disappearing through the entrance through which the captives had come. Zhu was nowhere in sight.
“Forward,” she heard Alan shout to the troops and they finally left the safe control of the tunnel to run forwards, taking advantage of Mathilde’s vicious attack to finish off her victims. Mathilde ran on towards the main area of the cave. Below her was a scene of chaos. Wendigo were warring against Protectorate and captives who attacked with full force. Brotherhood members span and flew through the air, proving that they were good enough for this fight even without the serum. There were dead bodies slowly building up but Mathilde thanked God that the bodies seemed to be those of the wendigo with very few humans among them. Their new tame lifestyle and constant supply of food seemed to have dulled their natural instincts and, though vicious, they did not seem as desperate as the wendigo Mathilde had seen in the past. Perhaps Zhu’s ego had rubbed off on them and they assumed that the victory would be theirs.
Mathilde reached the bottom of the slope and looked around wildly for Zhu and Gein but neither of them were in sight. She paused for a second to decide whether to fight or to follow Dash but the pause proved to be a mistake as she felt a cold slice in her arm which instantly took on the burning ache of frostbite. Turning quickly with her sword held strong she came face to chest with a wendigo which towered above her, grinning and snarling like a rabid hyena. Before she could lunge with her sword the wendigo had knocked her to the floor. Her head crashed onto the hard uneven cave floor and she saw flashes of silver light dancing before her eyes and the cave roof and walls spinning around her. A heavy weight brought her to her senses and she looked up to the teeth and chilling human eyes of the wendigo as it pressed her body hard against the rocks, claws digging deep into her flesh and piercing the skin on both arms. Mathilde froze, suddenly back in her nightmares and feeling like she was three years old and helpless again. The wendigo let out a cackle then licked her cheek. Mathilde closed her eyes and willed herself to move then with a heavy jolt the full weight of the wendigo was on her body. Mathilde opened her eyes and stared into the eyes of Seb. He grinned at her and tossed his large silver axe between his hands before kicking the now headless body off of her. Mathilde took a deep breath with the weight now off her lungs then jumped up and flew at Seb, sword outstretched, missing him by just inches to plunge her sword into the wendigo which had appeared from nowhere and launched itself at Seb’s back.
As Seb looked alarmed then turned around and realised what was going on, the wendigo slumped in a heap. Mathilde pulled her sword clear of the body then grinned at Seb. He laughed his booming, familiar laugh and Mathilde felt a sudden surge of love for him before mentally shaking herself back into the urgency of the moment. Looking around to see which way to move Mathilde saw that the situation was no longer as urgent. The last few wendigo had given up the fight and were running towards the exit following the shouts of the unseen Zhu. The captives made to chase them, the anger of months of atrocities shining in their eyes, but Mathilde called out.
“Stop. Let them go, everyone to the main tunnel, it’s time we made our escape.” Turning to Seb Mathilde spoke quickly. “I have to go after them, Dash is down there.”
“Leave him Mathilde, he knows the plan. Don’t risk your life for him.”
“I have to Seb – I’m sorry,” Mathilde said as she began to run away. As she ran into the opening that Dash and the wendigo had gone through Mathilde looked back and saw that the captives and army were now moving into the tunnel but Seb still stood where she had left him. She shot him an apologetic look then went through the entrance.
As she went into the dim light of the tunnel she grabbed a torch off the wall. Swishing it from left to right she saw darting shadows in the distance and ran towards them, sword still drawn. As she got closer she saw that the shadows were wendigo and they were disappearing one after one into a hole in the tunnel wall. She waited until the last one had gone through then ran to the hole and slowly poked the torch inside. Inside the hole was a staircase which spiralled up into complete darkness. Mathilde turned around and was almost knocked over by a wendigo as it barrelled towards the staircase. She quickly stabbed forwards in silence as the wendigo noticed the small human standing in front of it. As the wendigo fell and snarled Mathilde pulled out her sword and thrust again, this time into the wendigo’s mouth and angled upwards towards its brain. Its weight settled on the sword and Mathilde had to use her foot to tug the sword from its skull. Stepping over it she went off in search of Dash, hoping that he hadn’t been killed or carried up the staircase by the wendigo.
Mathilde continued down the tunnel until it widened and opened up into the cells in which she had seen the captives held in Dash’s memories. The floors were crusted with rotting food and human faeces. The ammonia smell of urine made Mathilde’s nose and eyes sting. Moving past the empty cells Mathilde found another tunnel lit with torches. As she neared the end of it she heard sobbing and followed it to a large room made from one of the many caverns which dotted the Polovragi caves.
Mathilde slowly edged into the room. She saw a figure crumpled and sobbing on the floor. It took her a second to realise that it was Dash. Mathilde put the torch she was still holding into one of the free sconces on the wall and ran towards him, collapsing onto the floor next to him and throwing her arms around his shoulders. Dash’s sobs slowly eased and Mathilde heard his muffled voice coming from between his arms. “She’s gone...her clothes are still here but she isn’t. I think he took her with him.”
“Dash... I know you don’t want to hear this but she could be dead.”
“No!” Dash lifted his head quickly and almost hissed the word at Mathilde. His pale face was blotchy and wet with tears. His eyes looked wild and he glared venomously at Mathilde. She moved back a bit in shock.
“She is still alive. I just need to find out where Zhu went. He took her with him, I’m sure of it.”
Mathilde stared at Dash for a few moments, tr
ying to decide what to do, then she spoke quietly. “I think I know where he went. I’ll show you.” Her heart sank as she spoke, half fearing that this would mean that she lost Dash forever. As they began to walk back down the tunnel she wondered if it was normal to feel so unsettled when you were in love. She had half expected love to feel more secure and... well... happy. Surely it wasn’t meant to be all pain.
“Here it is,” she said as they reached the hidden staircase. “They went up there. Zhu probably went first.”
“With Suzanna,” said Dash, staring up the staircase. Mathilde didn’t answer.
“Are you coming with me,” asked Dash, grabbing Mathilde’s hands and smiling hopefully at her as he stared deep into her eyes. Mathilde stared for a second, struggling to keep up with his mood swings.
“Mathilde,” Seb’s voice echoed down the tunnel.
Mathilde looked to pinpoint where the noise was coming from just as Seb came into view. He bounded towards her and Mathilde heard Dash sigh in annoyance. “Come with me,” Dash said, more desperately this time.
Mathilde looked from Dash to Seb, now almost upon them, and back again. Dash followed her gaze then half tugged her towards the stairs. “Please Mathilde...I love you...I need your help.”
“Mathilde,” Seb boomed with an air of relief as he finally reached them. “Come on, we need to get out of here and to start to head towards the monastery before it gets too dark. We need to clear the mountains and get to open ground.”
Wendigo Wars Page 17