Imperium Lupi

by Adam Browne

  Everyone knew that rightmost shaft was mined out and showed no signs of replenishing. It was dormant, if not dead; the imperium-laden waters had shifted elsewhere for some geological reason nobody could know.

  Still, and despite a worried glance at Helmut, Madou followed his Prince’s example and sent his cart down the same rail, right, right and right again.

  If any other teams took note, they couldn’t follow, for Madou’s gang was the last to pass today.

  As they approached, Madou spied a Gelb hog lingering near the otherwise deserted shaft entrance. When Noss passed him the apparent stranger tipped his yellow cap at Noss, who nodded back.

  Strangely cordial that.

  When Madou’s gang passed, the same hog just stared and said nothing. Not even a rude word or mocking comment was aired over their apparently suicidal decision to dig in a dead mine shaft.

  The pig may not have cared, but Madou burned with a desire to catch up to Noss and air his grievances over this madness. However, the prince of the Jua-mata Tribe had fared well in Gelb and was as strong as ever, charging ahead into the throat of Mother Erde, imperium lamps casting darkness aside. Even with Helmut’s help pushing the cart, Madou was unable to catch up until Noss physically stopped and waited.

  “Come on Madou,” the prince cackled, breaking out an ember. “Don’t you want to be free?”

  “My Prince?” Madou panted, letting his hefty arms flop to his sides, mighty chest heaving. Putting Noss’s comment down to the rot, Madou continued, “My Prince, this shaft is mined out. Can’t you feel it? There’s no imperium in the walls.”

  “The lad’s right, Noss,” Helmut seconded. “I’m not even afflicted, but even I can tell this shaft is stone cold n’ bone dry. There’ll be no imperium here.”

  Whilst a grinning Noss puffed away, Zozizou and the others in both teams made similar complaints to him, all except Tomek, who stood silently by, cap askew as always. Usually the first to voice his opinion on anything, Madou was struck by the wolf’s silence now.

  Tomek merely looked to Noss, expectantly, as if he knew things, secrets.

  My imagination surely, Madou thought. Prince Noss wouldn’t confide in some wolf before me.

  Noss raised a black-fingered paw to silence everyone and declared, “We don’t need to mine any imperium, because we’re not going back.”

  “Eh?” Helmut snorted.

  Grabbing a lantern from the side of the empty cart, Noss walked further into the dark mine. Following the tracks a fair way he veered off down a narrow passage and out of sight of the others.

  He didn’t return, nor beckon anyone to follow.

  Shortly thereafter, distinctly hyena grunts and growls echoed around the corner, accompanied by the unmistakable xylophonic clatter of falling wood.

  Madou and the others exchanged baffled glances before hurrying round to see what Noss was up to. They discovered him tearing planks of wood from a doorway set in the living rock, the long nails fastening them proving no impediment to one of his imperium-augmented strength. Any stubborn planks Noss happened across were blasted with a snap of imperious plasma, heating and softening the very nails and causing the wood to smoulder. Despite his imperious exertions the prince’s collar didn’t appear to bother him when it ought to have choked him into submission.

  “Careful, my Prince!” Madou rasped, hurrying to aid his indomitable leader. “Mind your collar.”

  Noss merely grunted back.

  Tomek arrived, only too eager to dive in and start peeling the wood from the door as well, as if he too were a Jua-mata hyena loyal to his prince.

  Helmut, like the others, was less enthused. “What’re you doing?” he asked, standing aloof.

  “Leaving!” Noss cackled.

  “Leaving? What… going off into the caves, you mean?”

  “That’s the idea.”

  “Huh! Are you out of your mind?”

  Noss shrugged his massive shoulders, “So beasts say.”

  “But… but nobody’s got out of Gelb via the caves; they’re a death trap! They go on for miles and miles in all directions. You’ll die before you see daylight.”

  Turning to throw some smouldering wood aside, Noss huffed, “Then stay here, pig.”

  “I will!” Helmut professed, muscled arms folding.

  After some time, and some thought, the burly pig realised there must be more to Noss’s strange turn than mere madness.

  “So whatcha got, a map or something?”

  Noss confessed, “Half a map.”

  “Half?”

  “It’s the best Tack had. It still cost me dear.”

  Helmut threw his arms wide, “Half a map’s no good, you daft hyena!”

  The daft hyena spoke soberly, with the clarity and surety of one who was anything but daft. “It’ll get us as far as we need to go, which is out of Gelb. The Warden won’t search for us or raise the alarm because nobody gets out via the caves, do they? We’ll be presumed dead, lost in the caves, like so many other desperate fools.”

  Noss finished with a slightly manic laugh, which hardly set Helmut at ease.

  “Aye, so we get out of Gelb,” the hog scoffed. “But then what? Sit in the dark n’ rot?”

  Glancing at the other inmates behind Helmut, Noss pulled the last of the wood from the door. “If you stay here you’ll rot for sure with your hefty sentences.”

  “Tomek won’t,” Helmut said. “He’s got a light stint. He’ll be out in a few months, won’t yer Tomek?”

  No reply.

  “Lad?”

  “That’s no matter any more,” Tomek said simply. “I get out of here now, Helmut.”

  And that was that. Indeed the young wolf obediently helped Noss and Madou yank the ancient doors open without protest, without question, as loyal to Noss as he had been to Rufus before him.

  Whilst Helmut pondered matters, Tomek, Noss and Madou eked the long-abandoned doors open, inch by inch, tug by tug. Strange sounds accompanied every combined heave, like sheets of cotton being torn, a crackling, soft white noise that pricked the ears and alarmed the ancient senses.

  Something other than rust had stiffened the doors – they were sealed with silk!

  Madou released the door and almost fell on his tail in his haste to scoot backwards. “Ugh!” he woofed in disgust, wiping his paws on his stripy breeches.

  Prince Noss reproached, “It’s just web, Madou,” holding his lantern up to the dark, web-lined void. Strands of silk clinging to the door frame wafted in the humid breath of the Erde, pointing back to the relative safety of Gelb like the withered fingers of forewarning ghosts. Ignoring their counsel, Noss stepped forth, his flickering lantern lighting the way, knowing that all it would take to spoil everything is for some Gelb hogs to wander down here and check on them now. The sooner they were away and too deep into the caves to find, the better.

  He turned and appealed to his doubtful followers, “You have to trust me-”

  “Look out!” Tomek yelped.

  In a flash the Watcher leapt forward and pulled Noss from the door. Not knowing why Tomek should, but that he must have good reason, Noss instinctively span round and took on the defensive poise of a trained Howler, feet spaced, paws ready to box, lantern discarded.

  The lantern clattered to the ground, the imperium within it mixing, flaring brightly, and reflecting eight-fold in the many-eyed glint of a giant spider the size of a bear!

  “Waaaah!”

  “Run!”

  Despite the cries of the others behind, Noss and Tomek remained firm in the face of the spider. The creature dangled from the ceiling, its legs curled up on themselves to form a hairy cage.

  “Is just skin!” Tomek announced, standing up straight and laughing, even whilst his heart secretly pounded. “Is only shed skin, look.”

  The young wolf tramped fearlessly over.

  “Tomek!” Helmut piped in alarm, yanking the sides of his own cap down over his head.

  “Is all right, Helmut,” Tomek
reassured, pushing on the giant crispy skin with a paw. It swayed to and fro like a horrifying paper lantern, crackling with the sound of autumnal leaves as it brushed against the cave walls. Even without Tomek’s input the lifeless, dried husk continued to move, its legs agitated by the passing breeze.

  How Tomek could stand there and poke that disgusting thing was beyond Helmut’s comprehension.

  “Don’t touch it!” the pig seethed, his skin crawling.

  Noss explained, “It’s just an empty exoskeleton, Helmut, discarded by the spider as it grew,” sounding like a teacher of nature, complete with lame pun, “An ex-exoskeleton, if you will,” he cackled, retrieving his lantern. “Come on, there’s no time to waste-”

  “If that’s just a skin where’s the real thing?” one of Noss’s gang piped up – the hyena prince didn’t clock who amongst his followers it was, the wolf, the cat, the other pig, someone or other, he didn’t care, his response would’ve been the same.

  “Are you little beasts now?” he mocked, throwing them all one last purple-tinged glare. He saved his most withering look for the beast he expected the most from. “Madou?”

  Raising his chin, and seeing Tomek wasn’t afraid, the stocky Madou hurried over and knelt by Noss, “I go where you go, Prince of the Four Winds.”

  “And your cousin?”

  After a quick snarl from Madou, the skinny Zozizou steeled himself and joined Madou at Prince Noss’s feet, like a good hyena should.

  Noss clenched a fist, “Better for a Jua-mata to die trying than cowering in fear!”

  Madou nodded, whatever his misgivings. Death was one thing, but death by spider? Paralysed and bound in silk, waiting to be sucked dry, perhaps for days; was there anything in this world more horrific? Breaking a black-imperium capsule against one’s teeth would be a blessed release in comparison.

  Whilst Noss and the hyenas struck forth into the caves, Helmut stayed put with the remaining members of Mosquito and Scarab as they muttered their misgivings and debated whether to follow the questionably sane Noss.

  “I ain’t going in there if there’s spiders.”

  “They’re dead beasts.”

  Only Tomek dared join the escapees without a second thought.

  “Tomek, don’t go!” Helmut pleaded. Trotting to the door he seethed through his tusks. “Don’t do this, lad. What’s the point? You’ll be getting out in no time!”

  With every word the pig glanced worriedly at the spider husk wafting above, as if worried he might yet wake the empty skin from its hollow slumber.

  Tomek turned around with a lantern held up and urged cheerily. “Come on, Helmut.”

  Helmet’s lower jaw quivered. “I… I can’t, lad.”

  “Is all right. Trust me.”

  The big pig shook his head and stepped back.

  Tomek looked ahead to Noss – the hyena was waiting for nobody.

  “I come back for you,” Tomek promised hurriedly. “I come back when it all over. I say Helmut helped me. They get you out. You see.”

  “What? What’re you on about?”

  Tomek raised a finger to his lips, then tipped his wonky cap and took off after Noss. “Goodbye, my friend. Thank you for helping me through this place.”

  With that he turned and chased after Noss.

  “Aye,” Helmut sighed, doffing his cap as if Tomek and the rest were dead already. “Good luck, lads.”

  Chapter 39

  Ivan Donskoy slipped through the undergrowth, his rapier half pulled from its scabbard, his roaring imperious corona suppressed to a whimper.

  Think of nothing, Rufus had instructed him all those years ago. Calm your mind, fold in on yourself and relax. Your corona will soon disappear.

  Easy enough to achieve when reclined on a sofa, but somewhat taxing when stalking one’s prey, heart racing, mouth dry. Still, Ivan supposed he must have managed it, for the Hummel Watcher yawning beside a tree remained unaware of their approaching doom.

  Drawing his blade and touching it quickly yet gently to the surprised wolf’s neck, Ivan released a blast of imperious energy, flashing down the sword and into his victim.

  K-zapft!

  With barely a yelp the Watcher hit the tree and collapsed in a heap of cloak and armour.

  Ducking down lest he was seen, Ivan dragged his quarry away into a thicket just as Uther and Gunnar advanced through the trees to join him.

  “Is he dead?” Gunnar whispered, with a gulp.

  “Does it matter?” Ivan replied, sheathing his blade.

  “He’ll be fine, mate,” Uther said with intent, even as he checked for a pulse. “Aye, just knocked out is all.” He glared at Ivan, “We’re not here to kill anyone but Vito, right?”

  Ivan said nothing.

  “Right?” Uther growled.

  “I make no promises,” Ivan huffed, “Nor should you.”

  “Well if I can help it-”

  “You won’t. Not in the heat of the moment. Not when your life depends on a clean kill.”

  Whilst his elders bickered, Gunnar looked the stunned wolf over. He was enrobed in a sage green cloak pinned by a golden brooch marked with a bee, its legs and wings spread. The bee was rendered in solid white-imperium. His armour too was white, albeit not made of white-imperium – no pack, no wolf even, was that wealthy.

  “He’s a Hummel ‘en he?” Gunnar surmised.

  “Yes, they guard the springs year-round,” Ivan said, stealing ahead through the trees. “Come on.”

  Uther and Gunnar followed.

  The trio were a long way from the springs and their target deep in the woods, but they had spied the Bloodfang Elder Train from afar and knew that Den Father Vito always partook of a dip in the supposedly healing waters here if ever he was passing this way.

  That’s what Amael had been counting on, what he had planned months ago, him and Janoah.

  Now the moment had arrived.

  *

  Whilst Den Father Vito soaked in the private woods out of sight, the rest of the Bloodfang delegation stretched their legs in the fields surrounding the Elder Train or paddled in the cool shores of geyser lake, depending on their disposition.

  The ALPHA contingent kept their distance, setting up a flimsy array of new-materials tables and chairs by the waterside and enjoying tea and sandwiches served on plain white ALPHA tableware, not the decadent, highly decorated porcelain provided.

  The Alpha supped his tea with Janoah, Horst and Duncan, guarded one and all by a colossal black-cloaked wolf looming nearby, a wolf Sara surely recognised.

  She daren’t believe it true, and yet here was another giant wolf of the same stature and colour as Bruno.

  Coincidence?

  She watched from a safe distance as Olivia attempted another pass, wandering within a few feet of the ALPHA group and her target.

  The big wolf looked at her, but nothing more.

  “I can’t feel anything familiar,” Olivia whispered, returning to Sara’s side.

  “Nothing?” Sara whined.

  “Not from him, just… them. The Alpha, especially. He’s some wolf, that one.”

  “But that makes nae sense. He’s their bodyguard, he must be an imperium wielder. Right?”

  “I know,” Olivia sighed, theorising, “Well, maybe the Alpha’s just overwhelmingly strong. Or… or maybe it’s the imperium roundabout interfering with my senses.”

  Sara frowned, “Does that happen?”

  “Oh yes, all the time. It’s foggy round here. You can feel the energy in the air, crackling and… popping.”

  “Ah see.”

  Olivia waved a paw, “It can’t be Bruno. I’d feel him.”

  Sara clasped her paws together, “Could ye not try once more?”

  “I can’t.”

  “Please. Just get as close as ye can.”

  Olivia indicated towards the Alpha and his cronies with her snout. “That red wolfess sitting with them is watching me. Her eyes are like daggers that one. I daren’t push my luck. Linus to
ld us to stay out of trouble.”

  Sara heaved an enormous sigh.

  “Ah should’ve stood up for him,” she all but whispered. “Ah should’ve swallowed mah pride and gone tae mah mother. She could’ve done something for Bruno. She’s a Den Mother, beasts would’ve taken notice if she’d asked questions. Ah should’ve never signed those papers, it was nae even Bruno’s body.”

  “Sara-”

  “It was nae him, Olivia! It was nae. Tristan made me do it. He did it tae protect me, Ah know that, but… but ever since that day Ah’ve felt guilty. Guilty that Ah let them take Bruno away and never asked after him or told anyone.”

  Sara cupped her muzzle in her paws and fought back a surge of grief.

  Olivia patted her back, “Oh, Sara.”

  The little black wolfess sucked it up. “Ah’m all right,” she dismissed, looking at the giant of a wolf standing over the Alpha. “It’s nae him. I mean, it can’t be. What’re the odds he’d turn up here? Ah’m just seeing what Ah want tae see. Every big, dark wolf Ah pass in the street is Bruno. Ah always look. ‘Tis pathetic.”

  Sara’s self-denying rant appeased nobody, least of all Olivia. “All right, one more try,” she decided. “Just back me up if they get shirty.”

  “How?” Sara snuffled. “What do Ah say?”

  “I dunno. We’ll work it out. Stay here.”

  Meanwhile, at the Alpha’s table, Janoah peered over the lip of her teacup, through the rising steam, past the Alpha dabbing his lips with a napkin and beyond the unmoving rock that was Rafe, to that nosy Bloodfang Cub.

  “Here she comes again.”

  Horst’s white ears swivelled on Janoah. “What?” he said between mouthfuls of cucumber sandwich fingers, looking all about. “Who?”

  Janoah both sipped her tea and placed it down before deigning to reply. “That Howler Cub; she’s buzzing around us like a wasp after a jam jar.”

  The laid-back Duncan had evidently already noticed, since he didn’t even look. “Och, she’s just curious of the great and noble Alpha,” he said, spreading a big black paw. “Cubs will be Cubs, Janoah.”