Astrid sighed. I suppose that I should do something, she thought. She checked the wind. It was coming from the southwest. Good, they would not smell her and she would have some cover for the sound of her approach. Moving with increased caution she proceeded, looking ahead for sounds of life, but checking her sides and rear to make sure that there was nothing stalking her in turn.
A wolf became visible about three hundred paces away, just glimpsed through the trees. It was as black as night. That explained it. Of all the wolves only the large black ones attacked Humans on sight and they regarded people as their favourite food. Many hunters had been lost to a pack of them. They were not the same as normal wolves and it was said that they would even take losses from their pack in order to kill a person.
Astrid kept going, moving from tree to tree, and trying to see more of what was happening. Eventually she was rewarded. Around a hundred paces away four wolves sat or lay under a tree and two were pacing around it, all watching the tree. There was someone in it.
Astrid propped her spear against a tree before taking off her pack. Next she took off her quiver and placed eight arrows point down in the ground in front of her. Looking up she saw that the wolves still had not noticed her. Good.
Astrid took another arrow from her quiver and put it in her longbow, a stave her own height, a full fathom long. One of the sitting wolves bayed. She drew back her bow, took aim and fired. It struck the wolf, the one that had just bayed, in the head and it fell dead. As one the wolves looked in her direction. She fired again. This time she was not so lucky. It struck a wolf, but only wounded it. She fired a third shaft as they bounded towards her. This time she killed a beast, striking it full in the chest, the shaft buried up to the flight feathers in its flesh.
Arrows four and five killed a third wolf, the next nearest. Six and seven dispatched the next. Arrow number eight hit the fifth in the leg, slowing it. There would be no time for the last arrow. Astrid dropped her bow and grabbed her spear. She just had time to prepare, grounding the butt and dropping to one knee as the wolf closed. She had just one chance. The wolf leapt, jaws agape, attacking the figure crouching before it. Astrid raised her spear and the wolf struck its point. The long wide blade entered the wolf’s chest and it ended its leap and its life, slumped against the crosspiece immediately behind the blade.
Astrid rose and struggled to clear her blade for the last, wounded wolf that was approaching. She was able to get it clear, but was unable to bring the point to bear. She had to desperately fend off the attack with the spear clutched in both hands as a staff. The wolf’s fangs brushed her shoulder as it went past and there was a small stab of pain. The wolf landed clumsily as Astrid took a better grasp on her spear. Both recovered and faced each other, each trying to stare the other down. The wolf raised its muzzle and howled.
Distant howls answered it. Astrid desperately lunged at the wolf’s extended throat and was rewarded. She met the resistance of flesh, but it did not go far enough in. The wolf was moving back. It moved sideways and feinted forward. Astrid just tracked it with her blade. It moved the other way and repeated the move. Again Astrid showed no reaction. It moved sideways and looked to be doing the same, but this time the attack was real. Astrid reacted a little slowly, a step back caused the wolf to pass to her right, but she did not have time to bring the point of her spear to bear.
Instead of impaling the wolf, she had managed to bring the blade against the wolf’s side and as the keen blade knocked it further aside it opened up the wolf from shoulder to flank. As she turned to her right she saw the wolf lying on the ground, its guts spilling out onto the ground but still trying to rise. She drove the butt spike down into its ribs, shattering them. It shuddered and died. Looking up she saw the wolves intended victim awkwardly getting out of his tree onto the ground, almost falling flat as he did so, unbalanced by a large pack on his back and made even clumsier by the cassock and sandals of a cloistered monk that he wore as his garb. She had to move quickly. By the sound of it the others would be here soon.
Chapter XVI
Father Christopher stood on the ground near the body of the first wolf to die. Approaching him was a beautiful young girl. She was dressed in a man’s clothes but, from the way the low-laced neck opening was filled, was very obviously female. She was a pale ash-blonde and wore her hair in braids rolled up near her ears. Her eyes were dark-green. Her clothing was a jerkin in dark-green with trews and shirt in brown. In her left hand she held a long hunting spear, its large blade bloody. Over her shoulder was slung a long bow—very long—and she looked to be a bit taller even than he was. With her right hand she was pulling arrows from dead wolves as she walked. She stopped to check that each one was truly dead.
Nervously he made ready to greet her. He didn’t have much experience with women, and what is more, most of those he did know were either elderly or sick or both. Now he had to greet an attractive woman who had probably saved his life—in the wild and with no chaperone. He muttered a few words of prayer and asked himself if he was safe.
As she came closer she smiled and Christopher found himself nearly panicking.
Dear God, he found himself thinking, she has fangs like a beast! Has she saved me from those beasts only to eat me herself? No, that is unworthy. Something connected—animal teeth and blonde, braided hair—she must be from Wolfneck. The people there were even Orthodox in belief. He decided to test this by trying out his Darkspeech on her.
“May the blessings of God be unto you, young lady, and my personal thanks to you as well. I am Father Christopher from Greensin. I was able to make the wolves sleep, but could not bring myself to kill God’s creatures.” He looked around at the bodies. “This may have been an error. I was not sure what to do next. I thought that they would leave if they could not have me.”
~~~
Astrid moved towards the man. He was not unhandsome, with a beard and an unworldly, or was it just confused, expression on his face. He must be either a priest or a monk. His cassock showed signs of travel with stains and many small tears and one big one. As she moved closer she noticed that he had a tonsure growing out—a new priest then. He had a very large backpack, obviously with something bulky in it. Around his neck hung a crucifix of silver and a flat rectangular wooden object—the sort that usually opened to reveal an icon. His sole weapon seemed to be his staff.
My God, she thought, how had he survived this long to be this far from a village? Despite his beard he was only young, older than her by only a few years at most. It looked like her freedom was about to be quickly curtailed. Someone had to look after him. He looked like he belonged in a monastery and knew nothing of the world. Oh well, at least, if he was still thinking like a monk then he wouldn’t be interested in her as a woman. Travelling with him should keep at bay most men, or at least put them on to being of good behaviour in front of him. She prepared to greet him and put on her friendliest smile. Not too far in the distance wolves howled.
“Greetings Father,” she replied in the same tongue. She was going to give a different origin, but her speech and teeth betrayed her and besides, it was probably a sin to lie to a priest. “I am Astrid, of Wolfneck, and I doubt much that these are the creatures of God, more the creatures of the Adversary. Now we should put off any more theological discussion about them until we deal with the rest of the pack.” She waved her spear in the general direction of the approaching howls. “These are black wolves. They delight in killing people and even other wolves. They are evil creatures, not really natural at all. My people kill all of them we find. Now, do you have any way to defend yourself?”
The priest sounded eager when he replied, sort of like a retriever dog in willingness to help. “If they are truly evil, then I can ask God for some protection for us,” He continued, sounding happy as he did. “But apart from that, although I have never used them in anger, I have a little skill with both a sling and my staff.”
“Unless there are more of them than there seem to be, that should be
enough. From their noise they are at least ten minutes away. Please make any preparations that you may need—but make them quickly.”
Christopher nodded and, moving to a clear patch of bare dirt, began to make marks on the ground with the end of his staff. Astrid cleaned the arrows she had used and began to check that they were all still suitable to use again, placing them point first into the ground once she was done. She noticed that Christopher made only a simple circle with a few lines in it and then spent a few minutes praying before he motioned Astrid over to stand inside the circle with him. She quickly did that and he took her hand. With his other hand he took a small book out of a pouch and opened it and, still holding Astrid’s hand, he recited what Astrid presumed was a prayer. Her Latin was very poor, but she thought he said something about evil—but was malus ‘evil’ or ‘apple’—it couldn’t be apple.
After he had finished, the priest nodded at her, Astrid also said amen and he motioned her to move out of the circle. The howls closing on them as Astrid moved over to near a tree where she had her arrows. She realised that the priest was following her lead. When she leant her spear against the tree and readied her bow, he did the same with his staff, and readied a sling.
“Stand a bit behind me please Father,” said Astrid.
The priest obeyed her.
Presently the pack came in sight. Astrid noted that this time the pack was much larger. Perhaps two smaller groups had joined and two hands of black wolves were loping towards them. Astrid began to fire and she heard the sling whirling soon after. Wolves began to fall, mostly from her arrows, but sometimes it must have been from the priest. The wolves kept closing—she wondered if something was pressing them on. Surely they wouldn’t normally keep on coming like this. If she was lucky she would kill them all. If only they were not dodging to choose their path behind bushes and trees if they could.
When three were left Astrid decided it was too close for a last shot. She dropped her bow to the side and behind her and leapt for her spear. “Take your staff,” she cried. “Keep behind me.” She impaled the first wolf as it leapt towards her, at the same time trying to sidestep another. It shouldn’t have missed her, but it did. The protection must be helping. At the same time she heard a thunk, as Christopher’s staff hit the third wolf. Unless he hit something vital, this would not stop it.
The next few seconds were filled with snapping jaws and two quickly moving weapons. Astrid dispatched the second wolf, but not before it had briefly latched onto her leg in a painful bite. She turned. Christopher had his back to the tree and was simply using his staff to fend off the animal, focussing only on defence. It was intent on getting to him but, between the protection and the staff, had not yet succeeded. It didn’t even notice as Astrid placed herself behind it and slew it with a thrust into its spine that first made it drop to its haunches as it lost the ability to stand and then followed up with a thrust into its body that made it scream in an almost Human fashion as it died. Christopher went to say something, but Astrid held up her hand, listening. No more howls were audible and there was no sound of rushing animals. There was an almost complete silence around them. Even the other animals of the area had gone quiet.
“Now we recover our missiles,” said Astrid. Taking her spear in hand and regaining her bow and putting it over her shoulder Astrid started to move towards the first dead wolf. “One of yours,” she said. “Are you using bullets or stones?”
“Lead bullets. Why?” asked Christopher.
“Because if they are bullets you will need to dig them out in order to reuse them,” she said.
“Dig them out?” said Christopher. His voice sounded bemused.
“Yes. It is hard to replace them in the forest and you will need to glean them. We even need to look and try and find those that missed. Any that you lose now may be needed later. You never know what may happen out here.”
Christopher approached the dead wolf, obviously at a loss as to where to start and looked up at Astrid with an expression on his face that said ‘What next?’
“Here, let me.” Astrid sighed before producing a skinning knife and digging out the bullet. She paused briefly and then she started to skin the wolf.
“Why are you doing that? Is it a shape shifter? Will it rise again with its skin on?” Christopher asked.
Did he always sound bewildered about such simple things? “I do it because the pelts are valuable and, even if you don’t, I need the money. I have to support myself. Now, please stand watch while I do this.” Astrid felt quite happy. Not only had she gotten rid of the wolves, but although the skins were heavy, and would slow her down a lot, even with the damage they had taken they would sell for a goodly sum in most towns.
“You are limping.” He grabbed her hand and led her over to the circle he had drawn. He looked at it briefly before putting them both inside and praying again.
When he had finished, Astrid gave a slight start and looked down at her leg. Her pants were still torn above her boot, but the bleeding had stopped and her flesh, although still sore and red, seemed whole again and she felt a little better, more whole, although a little weak and tired. She gingerly felt the wound with her fingers. The skin was unmarked and smooth. She had never been healed that way before. Thanking Christopher she resumed her tasks.
As she worked she noticed the priest looking all around and almost jumping at each bird song. She hoped that he had the sense to call her if something real appeared. Astrid checked each arrow as she removed them. She had only missed once, and she found that one as well. It turned out that the priest had missed four times, but she even found two of them, so he had lost two bullets. Eventually she was finished and had a pile of bloody skins and bloodstained hands and a knife. Astrid removed leather string from a pouch on her belt and quickly bundled the skins, fur on the outside and, with Christopher’s aid, hoisted it onto her back on top of her pack. He strained at this. He may be a man, but it looked like she was far stronger than he was.
Astrid next led them east in search of water. “We need to get the smell of blood off everything and be as far away from the carcases as we can be before the light goes.”
They travelled for around half an hour before coming to a small stream. Astrid dumped her bundle and started cleaning herself and everything with blood on it, even washing the pelts. “Can you cook?” she asked. Christopher shook his head. “Then how have you been feeding yourself?” she asked.
“I have lots of preserved food: hard bread, cheese, olives, pickles, some smoked and dried fish and salami. It is more than enough when you are used to the normal fare of a monastery.”
“Get me some firewood please. It is a bit late to light a fire and cook properly, but at least we can make ourselves something warm to drink.” Astrid busied herself gathering some kindling and starting a fire. By the time she looked up Christopher had gathered enough for a small bonfire. She laughed. “Father, that is far too much. We only want to heat some water.”
“Won’t we leave it alight? The woodsmen I was with briefly did so. There are two of us and one can sleep and the other can stand watch. That way we can sleep on the ground.” It seemed to her that he was quite eager for this to happen.
“No Father, listen.”
He cocked his head.
In the direction they had come from she had heard some low growls and other noises. From the expression on his face he had now heard them as well. She continued when she saw his face change. “The wind will carry the smell of the bodies past us. Scavengers will come through here to feed during the night—and perhaps other things as well. We will climb high tonight and sleep in the trees. We will still keep watch. We are far enough south now. Perhaps one of the many giant killer lizards will come and we cannot fight off one of them with just the two of us.” Astrid boiled some water and, getting his wooden goblet from the priest, added a dark powder with lumps from another pouch to it, giving half to Christopher. He sniffed at the liquid, as if unsure what it would be. Astrid knew that it sm
elt good. He may have salami, but a lot of her trail food was things like this beef soup with lumps of cooked and dried peas and carrot.
They finished their meal and, putting the fire out as the light went, climbed high into a large tree. Astrid helped the priest climb. She had to get him to go higher than he wanted to. When she allowed them to stop, they each found a place to perch; she settled Christopher nestled into the junction of tree and branch, while she went further out. Astrid spent her watch scraping the skins clean in the moonlight with a sharp knife. She regretted that she was leaving small bloody scraps under the tree, but it would all reduce the weight of the pelts and made it easier to preserve the skins and stop them going off.
~~~
Christopher woke her as a booming growl came from below. Below her she could see a large bipedal shape—one of the giant killer lizards. Its body was held nearly parallel to the ground and its head moved from side to side. She could see the huge eyes of this night-hunting species peering all around. It stopped to sniff at the remains of their fire, giving a surprisingly small sneeze as some ash went into its nose. It moved to beneath the tree and stopped; it seemed puzzled. It sniffed the ground, obviously at the scrapings, and peered around for a bit and then, finding nothing substantial, moved off to the west. As it left she heard a sigh from the priest. He must have been holding his breath. She guessed that he had realised that, if they had stayed on the ground they would now be dead. Astrid returned to sleep and noticed that, as Christopher returned to keeping watch, he was silently telling his rosary and looking nervously about.
~~~
The next morning, after prayers and a cold meal they set off to the east. They were travelling by day and roosting in trees at night. After another night in a tree Christopher complained mildly to Astrid that he was starting to long for the hard bed in his cell. At least it was flat. Astrid grinned and explained that the hunters of her village often slept in trees.
Intimations of Evil (Warriors of Vhast Book 1) Page 21