Imperium Lupi

by Adam Browne

  “Sir,” Tomek Usenko acknowledged.

  Pulling Scuttle after him, the young Watcher gave Rufus a sideways glance in passing, before averting his eyes to the floor, perhaps frightened that he might incur his superior’s wrath a second time.

  The wrath came from elsewhere.

  In a split second, faster than Rufus could fathom, the Chakaa hyena at the back of the carriage dashed forth and locked a mighty arm around Tomek’s throat.

  “Gaaagh!” the Watcher howled.

  Wordlessly, brutally, the hyena slammed his second paw into the Watcher’s cloaked back. With a loud and blinding explosion of imperious fire the wolf was blasted forth and ejected tail over head from the carriage, landing heavily on the pebbly ground outside, a crumpled, smoking heap of mantle and armour.

  Shaking his smouldering paw, the hyena laughed as hyenas were wont to do. He glared triumphantly at Rufus, his unnaturally bright violet eyes alight with fire.

  “Want some, Howler?” he woofed, brandishing a fist.

  Rufus remained silent and seated.

  “Usenko?” the older Watcher yelped. “Tomek, lad!”

  Scuttle rushed past on her six segmented legs to be at her fallen master’s side. The red ant felt Tomek with her antennae like a mother frantic over his condition, as if she could feel concern, this mere bug.

  Blowing a whistle and leaping into the carriage, the grizzled Watcher Captain whipped out his sword and snarled at the grinning hyena, “Bastard! They’ll stake you out in the wastes for that, I’ll see to it myself! You’re ant-food!”

  “Come on, wolf,” the hyena beckoned cockily, big paws spread wide, his mere life of no concern to him. Like any hyena warrior he wanted to die in battle, Rufus knew, not rot down a mine. That’s what this was about. It was this fellow’s last chance to die with a modicum of hyena dignity.

  Whilst the other frightened prisoners ducked into corners of the carriage, the Watcher Captain slashed at the hyena. For all his obvious strength, the stocky Chakaa was nimble enough to whip his body back, dodging the initial slash and the follow-up thrust. Grabbing the wolf’s sword arm he pulled him round, punched him in the side of his helmeted head and swung him deeper into the carriage, relieving him of his sword in the process.

  The hyena twirled the dazed Watcher’s imperium sword and beckoned him a second time.

  Not bad, Rufus thought.

  The growling Watcher drew his imperium pistol, took aim at the prisoner and pulled the trigger.

  The fearless hyena bared his mighty chest, ready to receive the pellet and death.

  Fssss!

  A dud charge!

  “Grrrfgh!” the hyena huffed, disappointed that he wasn’t walking amongst the ancestors by now, and that this fellow wasn’t skilful enough to send him on his way. He could send the wolf on his way, though, and stepped forth with a mind to do just that.

  Crack!

  The hyena, indeed everyone, flinched as a pellet ricocheted around the carriage, leaving a colourful trail of sparks. The shot came from behind, from the door and Watcher Tomek.

  “Cease and desist… in name of Republic Lupi!” he wheezed, stepping aboard, sword drawn, pistol in paw. Had he missed by accident, or fired a warning shot?

  Either way, the hyena whirled on the next wolfen challenger with abandon. Whipping his arm through the air and clashing his stolen sword with Tomek’s, he all but knocked the breathless youth off his feet. The hyena was going to kill him.

  No, Rufus decided, that won’t do at all.

  In a flash, the Howler leapt to his feet and slapped a ruddy paw against the hyena’s immense spotty back, just as the hyena had done to Tomek

  Pfzaack!

  “Oaaagh!”

  And in much the same fashion, he too was ejected from the carriage amidst an even more spectacular plasmatic explosion, flying past Tomek and rolling in the dust and pebbles.

  Rufus slowly lowered his throbbing, steaming right paw.

  “You all right?” he asked Tomek.

  “Yes,” Tomek gasped at length. “Thank you.”

  Within seconds reinforcements arrived from all over the facility and half a dozen Watchers piled on the smouldering hyena as he tried to rise. They quickly restrained the snarling beast, tying his paws with wire and giving him a good kicking, until he was subdued.

  Rufus was next. Three of the helmet-clad, cloaked Watchers clambered aboard the carriage and singled him out from the other cowering prisoners, grabbing his arms and forcing him against the wall.

  “Wait! He help me!” Tomek explained. He turned to his superior for support, “Captain, this prisoner, he help me.”

  At length the older Watcher sniffed, “Carry on, lads.”

  “But, sir-”

  “He’s a troublemaker, Tomek! I can see it in his eyes. Best to finish him off quick, not send him to Gelb. It’s a kindness, believe me.”

  “You not do that. Is not right!”

  “We’ll shoot him, lad. Firing squad. He’ll have a soldier’s death. Not like the hyena. It’s for the best.”

  ‘Schmutz,’ Rufus thought, as his paws were tied, ‘I’ve gone and done it now.’

  One of the bigger Watchers grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and roughly marched him from the carriage, down onto the pebbled ground outside. The white-imperium crystal floodlights were blinding and Rufus could make out nothing of the compound around him save the looming shadow of the Lupan Wall, gateway to the Ashfall and the wider world beyond Lupa – a world Rufus was never to see again, by the looks.

  ‘No, I’ve got to say something,’ he thought, ‘I can’t go out like this.’

  “Tomek!” he shouted, twisting free of his escort and running over to the surprised youth. “Tomek, get on the phone and call ALPHA,” he growled. “Ask for Prefect Janoah, or Silvermane, tell them what’s happening. Tell them it’s Rufus.”

  “What?”

  “Just do it, please! I’m a Bloodfang like you. Help me. You owe me that much!”

  Before Tomek could so much as nod, the Watchers fell upon Rufus and dragged him away.

  “Please hurry!” he cried.

  *

  Brrrrriiing! Brrrrriiing! Brrrrriiing!

  With a growl of annoyance, Amael Balbus finally rolled over in bed and snatched the phone. “Yes?” he grunted. “By Ulf’s fang’s, Boris, it’s three in the morning!” he complained, blinking at his ornate alarm clock, its glowing imperium-infused arms and numerals lighting up his grizzled, grey-furred face. “Rufus?” he growled. “What do you mean? Just put her through.”

  There was a click as Boris switched over.

  “Jan?”

  “Amael, they’re going to kill him!” the phone crackled.

  “What’re you talking about?” Amael growled. “Who’s going to kill who?”

  “The Watchers. I don’t know the details; it was something about a fight. They pulled Rufus and a hyena out of a carriage when they stopped at the Lupan Wall.” A moment’s pause, before Janoah shrieked, “Are you listening to what I’m saying? You have to stop them!”

  Amael woofed back, “Are you insane? I can’t!”

  “Of course you can!”

  “For Ulf’s sake, wolfess, be reasonable!”

  “Reasonable? Reasonable!”

  “Think!” Amael explained. “How would it look if I interfered on Rufus’s behalf? I can’t sully my reputation defending a condemned beast, let alone poke my nose into the affairs of the Elder Watcher. It’d be an insult. I need the Elder Watcher’s vote as much as anyone’s.”

  “I see,” Janoah said, in her calmest and yet most venomous tone. “And do you think Ivan and Uther will still help you after this? It’s Rufus they’re fighting for, not you.”

  “They’ll not know he’s dead until it’s too late,” Amael said, matter-of-factly.

  “Yes, but they’ll find out you let Rufus die eventually. Then no force on Erde will stop Ivan killing you in your sleep, you can be sure of that.”

  Am
ael gulped.

  Janoah offered a solution, “Send Vladimir.”

  “What?”

  “Send him down there to stop the Watchers,” Janoah explained, the answer formulating in her mind even as she spoke it. “The death warrant has to be signed, that won’t happen until the Elder Watcher gets up. You can deny you had any involvement and say that Vladimir acted out of his own regard for Rufus – he’s known as being sympathetic on account of their shared beliefs, it’ll stick. You can grovel to the Elder Watcher later.” With a sharp breath Janoah added, “Does that satisfy you?”

  Amael thought it over, scrutinising that voice for some sign of malignancy, some trick.

  The malignancy was there sure enough.

  “If you allow this to happen I will wash my paws of you, Amael Balbus-”

  “All right!” the Elder snapped. “All right, if he matters so much. By Ulf you’d think he was the perfect husband the way you carry on. Ridiculous wolfess.”

  Switching away from his lover and councillor, Amael returned to Boris’s line. “Boris!” he grunted. “Put me through to Vladimir. Yes, I know he’s in bed, go wake him yourself if you have to!”

  *

  As dawn’s light turned the polluted sky gold, Rufus, his paws still bound behind him, was taken from a cell and led into a grim, bricked courtyard by the very Watcher who had kindly decided he might as well die quickly by imperium pellets than worked to death – he had a point, honestly.

  It can only have been an hour or so since the ruckus in the carriage, just long enough for the warrant to be prepared and signed by the Elder Watcher. Not for the hyena, mind, no warrant was needed for lesser races, but for a wolf, even a condemned one, there were protocols to follow, however perfunctory. The Elder Watcher had probably signed Rufus out of existence over a fine cooked breakfast without a second thought, him and many others besides.

  Rufus was pushed against a wooden stake and tied up. He was surprised to be joined by the hyena, who was dragged past and set up against the next stake along, his fur matted with blood. It appeared the Watchers had settled for giving him a sound beating and then shooting him. Rufus liked to think someone around here had been merciful, but staking a hyena out in the Ashfall for imperium-fuelled bugs to find and devour was probably too much effort.

  The executioners filed in, ten Watchers armed with imperium rifles – one of them was Tomek. The lad had probably shot quite a few prisoners, Rufus supposed.

  “Blindfold?” gruffed the Watcher Captain, offering it to Rufus.

  Rufus gulped, “I’d rather not.”

  “As you will.”

  “Could you perhaps spare an ember?”

  The Watcher waited a moment, mulling over the request. In the end he couldn’t deny the last wish of a fellow wolf and produced a silver case from his cloak.

  “Red, please,” Rufus said.

  “I ain’t got any reds left. I got orange.”

  “Oh bother. Couldn’t go find a red one, could you? Strawberry’s my favourite.”

  The Watcher simply broke out the orange ember and twiddled it in front of Rufus. “Take it or leave it, Howler.”

  Rufus nodded a little.

  The Watcher snapped the ember and popped it between the condemned wolf’s lips. Leaving him to puff nervously away, he walked over to the raw-looking hyena. For a moment, the watching Rufus foolishly thought the Watcher was actually going to offer the hyena a blindfold, an ember even.

  “If only I could line up every scum-sucking hyena against this wall and shoot ‘em,” the Watcher growled instead.

  The bound hyena’s bloody nostrils flared, but he said nothing, choosing only to stare at the Watcher until the wolf blinked and looked away with a huffy snort.

  A noble riposte, Rufus thought.

  The Watcher walked across the courtyard towards his wolves. “Let’s get this over with,” he said, raising a paw. “Fire on my mark.”

  As the Watchers raised their rifles, Tomek included, so Rufus raised his ruddy face to the sky. He breathed deep, trying to prepare himself. The hyena stared ahead, fearless as ever, confident as to where he was headed after this final trial, across the Eternal Plains to meet the Ancestors.

  “Hold it,” the Watcher Captain said, stepping forward. “Lower your rifles! Lower ‘em!””

  Baffled, Rufus looked about. The Watchers were all saluting smartly, including their captain.

  Out of left field marched two impressive wolves, one clearly the Elder Watcher of the Bloodfang share of the Ashfall, looking as resplendent in his cloak as any other Elder from the inner city districts, but with subtle additions to his uniform to set him apart, most notably some black beetle carapaces serving very nicely as shoulder pads. The suburban Watchers were a little closer to nature and its bounty than the city-dwelling Howlers and used, or abused, the wilds accordingly, even if those wilds were ravaged by ashen rain from the city.

  Accompanying the Elder Watcher was a recognisably large and lofty Grand Howler.

  “Vladimir?” Rufus gasped, his ember mercifully clinging to his lower lip by way of a little dried saliva despite his jaw dropping.

  The Elder Watcher walked over to his subordinate. “Captain, return these prisoners to the train,” he said simply, as Vladimir lingered behind.

  “But sir, they assaulted us!” the Watcher Captain protested.

  “I’m aware of that. However, Grand Howler Vladimir here informs me that this wolf is Rufus Valerio, a notorious scoundrel and traitor who has brought unbearable shame on our pack. He’s not getting off so lightly. The hyena is a member of THORN and is also deserving of a proper fate. They will work off their debt in Gelb as they were sentenced to, is that clear?”

  “Yes, sir.”

  Vladimir headed over to the bound Rufus, armour rattling, and cupping his paws before him said airily, “An admirable attempt, Rufus. However, you will be punished accordingly and serve your sentence in full. I came down here especially to make sure you get to Gelb alive, you and this THORN terrorist.”

  “Much obliged,” Rufus grunted, trying to piece things together – had Jan done this, had she sent Vladimir?

  Well done Tomek!

  “Doubtless you were in league with each other,” Vladimir proclaimed haughtily, looking between Rufus and the hyena as if they were naughty cubs. “What was your plan? Did one of you set out to cause a diversion so the other could escape, hmm? Or did you both agree to try and end it all quickly?” He walked over to the hyena, “We meet again Madou. Tell me THORN’s plans. This is your last chance, Chakaa; save yourself from a lingering death down the mines.”

  Madou turned his face.

  Whilst Vladimir sighed and shook his head, the Elder Watcher moved things along.

  “Put these wretches on the next train to Gelb,” he instructed. “Keep them away from the other prisoners and collar them so they can’t channel the imperium; the hyena’s a Chakaa.”

  The Watcher Captain saluted, “Yes, sir, we know. He blasted young Usenko right in the back, sir.”

  “Did he, by Ulf?” the Elder Watcher said, looking at Tomek. “How predictably dishonourable.”

  “Luckily our Tomek’s a tough nut, sir.”

  “Glad to hear it, Captain.”

  On that note the Elder Watcher extended an arm from under his cloak, beckoning Vladimir away. “My wolves will take it from here, Grand Howler. Now, will you join me for some refreshments? I’ve a bottle of decade-aged Felician brandy waiting for such a distinguished guest.”

  Not even winking at Rufus, Vladimir took his leave. “I would be honoured, Elder Watcher,” he said, walking with his host. “Though, I am far from distinguished.”

  “Nonsense! I’m a great admirer of your work, Oromov.”

  “Work, Elder?”

  “Your botanical papers.”

  “Ah. Then I am honoured.”

  *

  Back to the tracks, bundled into a carriage, the other prisoners removed to make way for the Howler and the THORN
activist alone.

  “Collar ‘em!” barked the Watcher Captain.

  Rufus was forced to kneel, his head pulled back. Unlike the nearby Madou he didn’t spit or struggle, that would only make things worse.

  In came a Watcher armed with what looked like a giant pair of mechanically-powered pliers with pipes trailing out the back of them.

  “Hold still,” the Watcher advised gruffly.

  Slipping the monstrous pliers around Rufus’s neck, the Watcher pressed a button with his thumb. Amidst a hiss of gas and pistons, the jaws snapped violently round the Howler’s bobbing throat, making him yelp in alarm despite knowing what was about to happen. His world was instantly enveloped by a cloud of noxious ash as the perverse machine pressed home, venting waste imperium in all directions, choking Rufus like a mechanical murderer.

  As quickly as it started, it was over. The vicious clamping mechanism was withdrawn, ripping out a carelessly-snared tuft of Rufus’s neck-fur in the process. The pain of some fur being torn from his hide dampened the immediate sensation of being strangled. It was only afterwards Rufus perceived a tightness lingering around his neck.

  He couldn’t see it, nor reach up to feel it with his paws bound behind him, but he knew it was there – a wretched imperium-weave collar.

  The Watcher with the clamp reloaded his dreadful contraption with a simple, broad metallic ribbon, threading it through the mechanism with disturbing deftness. The ribbon was dark grey, yet a subtle swirling rainbow of imperium played on its surface, like a film of oil on a polluted Lupan puddle.

  Placing the clamp around the hyena’s neck, the Watcher did his work. The clamp closed, somehow stopping short of choking the hyena to death despite him possessing a thicker neck than Rufus. Doubtless the clamp boasted some ingenious automatic breadth-measuring mechanism, designed by someone, sometime, somewhere, who likely never envisaged it being abused for such a cruel purpose. Amidst a pall of ash, the imperium-weave collar was instantly moulded and sealed into place. There was no buckle, no lock, not even a seam of weakness to exploit or pick at, just a perfect, faintly-coloured band pulled snug around the hyena’s neck, like some beautiful adornment.

  Gulping under his own newfangled collar for the umpteenth time already, Rufus noticed Tomek and his pet ant standing outside, at the fringes of the goings-on.