Imperium Lupi

by Adam Browne

  Nodding, panting, his throat dry with adrenaline, Tomek leant out the window and aimed at Madou’s cloaked back. He hesitated, his mind flitting back to the day Madou had saved him in Gelb’s infamous Pit.

  Madou’s not an unfortunate prisoner tied to a stake anymore, he’s a free terrorist out to help THORN murder thousands. This is no time to aim high, Tomek Usenko, nobody else will shoot him if you do not.

  It’s up to you.

  Tomek fired, he was certain, yet heard nothing. The ash from his pistol was instantly whipped away by the rushing wind and Madou jolted forward, swerved wildly in front of the truck, nearly going under its deadly wheels altogether.

  Recovering, he accelerated to safety and glared back at Tomek with wide, purple eyes.

  With a gulp Tomek ducked inside again. Before he could inquire after a reload, Madou and his monobike slowed down and came alongside Casimir at the driver-side door. The rabbit dared not ram the hyena, for to do so would be to consign the barely driveable truck to a ditch, or a tree trunk. Rather than risk it Casimir tried to speed up, pressing his paw to the imperium gas, but Madou stayed with him easily.

  Suddenly the burly hyena stood up on his bike, which stayed right and steady as only a gyroscopic mono could, and like a circus performer he leapt bravely, if not madly, from saddle to cabin door!

  “Jua-mataaaa!”

  Madou slammed into the truck door, latching on, and with all his imperium-fuelled might put a spotty elbow though the window, showering Casimir with glass and residual bolts of plasma. The little rabbit imagined he would be pulled from his seat and tossed into the woods like a rag doll; instead a determined Madou leant in and grabbed the top of the steering wheel in a big paw.

  He pulled.

  The truck lurched to the left, leaving the road and rolling to the right. The cabin instantly transformed into a tumbling cacophony of breaking glass and crumpling metal. Dirt, stones and fern leaves flew past the yelping Tomek, with no up or down, no rhyme or reason. Light, dark, light… dark.

  Motionless.

  The engine crackled and smoked, choked and died.

  Silence.

  Dazed and hurting, Tomek blinked hot stinging blood from his eyes and twisted in the cabin, trying to right himself even though he knew not which way was up. Piecing the world together he came to realise he was lying on the mangled passenger door, which was flush to the ferny ground – the way out was the driver-side door above.

  Casimir was nowhere to be seen, nor was Madou. Had they been thrown clear?

  Tomek had more sense than to call out for help. Grunting and panting, the strong young wolf pulled his way through the twisted cabin, much like the awful Gelb caves he had endured for months, only sharper. Up over the wheel he climbed to the broken driver door window and freedom.

  He leapt down into the ferns, looked about – the trees ended sharply just feet away, the open fields of Everdor, and perhaps some scant hint of civilisation, began.

  Run for it.

  What about Casimir?

  Leave him, the Republic comes first.

  No.

  Quelling the debate in his head, Tomek searched around the truck, the ditch, the road, staying always in the ferns.

  Madou’s monobike chugged by, the gyroscope within keeping it upright as it rolled to a halt like a giant penny; it sat there, trembling, inviting Tomek to leap on its back and go.

  “Tomek!”

  Casimir rolled out of the ferns into the ditch, his white fur muddied and bloodied.

  “Go, lad! Hurry!”

  As quickly as Tomek ran towards Casimir an imperious presence grew, butting up against Tomek’s own like two ethereal barges on a canal. The Watcher stopped halfway to the citizen rabbit, expecting trouble, which sure enough emerged from the ferns in the cloaked form of Chakaa Madou.

  The thickset hyena was dripping blood, his leg armour stained with rivulets of red.

  “I… was starting to think I could trust you, like Rufus,” he seethed. “After everything we’ve been through I thought maybe I was wrong to look sideways at you.”

  Tomek said nothing; he just stared, taking in Madou’s obvious wounds.

  Did I hit him?

  “Our own Prince is a traitor,” Madou growled, laughing for a moment. “Don’t deny it! I saw you all whispering in the tent with him. You took advantage of his madness, didn’t you? You twisted his mind whilst I was in the Pit, even after I saved your life down there. Filthy backstabbing wolf!”

  “Madou… Nurka is going to kill many thousands,” Tomek breathed, stepping backwards as Madou advanced on him, step by metallic, armoured step. “He is the mad one, not Noss. Nurka want to drop black-imperium from a balloon; spray it onto Hummelton and the fields. Everyone will die. Innocent beasts will die, not just Howlers. And all the bees that pollinate crops too! Without Hummel to run plantations everyone in Lupa will starve. Even the Hyenas will starve-”

  “Lies!”

  “Is truth!” Tomek barked. “Yes, Noss is here to stop Nurka, but that his decision, not mine. THORN goes to far, even for you. I know you’d not want to kill innocent citizens.”

  “What do you know about me?”

  “I know you’re good beast! I know wolfkind has wronged your people, I know this, I see it every day at Lupan Wall, but more killing will not fix it-”

  A snarling Madou lunged to the attack. Tomek scrabbled away onto the road and skidded into a wrestling pose, hunched down, tail flicking, paws spread, ready to deal imperious blows.

  “Hahahaaa! Let’s see what you’re made of, Chakaa Tomek!” Madou laughed, stepping onto the pebbly road in the same manner and circling his prey, like a crab. “We’ll fight like true warriors, then. Only a fool trusts his life to a weapon, that’s what Prince Noss taught us before you sneaky wolves turned him!”

  Tomek replied, “What about Rufus? Did he turn him too?”

  “Red-mist is one of us!”

  “You really think so? I feel sorry for you if you think Rufus is murderer like Nurka!”

  “Shut uuup!”

  The fight was on, Madou closing the distance in a cloak-billowing bound and striking Tomek in the ribs as the young wolf tried to duck sideways and evade him.

  Tomek yelped as Madou’s imperious blast tore through even his tough Howler body, sending him rolling across the road. He righted himself neatly, staggered back in pain, and only just recovered his wherewithal in time to receive Madou’s follow-up assault. The hyena barrelled into the wolf and together they tumbled off the road into the ditch near Casimir, exchanging kicks and punches all the way.

  The rabbit looked on in horror as Madou laid into Tomek, punching him with flashing plasmatic fists, knocking his helmeted head left then right and paying no mind to his own bleeding, smouldering knuckles.

  Casimir climbed up the ditch in a bid to escape whilst he could. At the lip of the ditch he hunched his back.

  It was no use.

  Bounding over in defiance of his gammy leg, Casimir Claybourne planted his white paws on a baffled Madou’s shoulders.

  “Get off him!” he cried, his arms channelling a bolt of plasma worthy of any Howler or Chakaa.

  Bffzzzt!

  Now it was Madou’s turn to fly, leaving the ground and Tomek behind he slid backwards through the slick stinking mud of the ditch.

  “Come on, lad, get up!” Casimir begged, tugging on Tomek’s cloak, dragging the dazed wolf along a little. “There’s his mono. I can ride it, just hop on with me. Come on!”

  “Go!” Tomek spluttered, levering himself up, blood dribbling out from under his helmet grille. “I stay.”

  “He’ll kill yer, Tomek!”

  “No. I stay… finish this; is what I must… do. You go, quickly.”

  As Madou rolled on all fours, Casimir looked between Tomek and the monobike. The pops and cracks of approaching bikes filled the forest – more hyenas? Sure enough Casimir could see them approaching on normal two-wheeled bikes, with Themba at their head on his own
mono.

  “Lad-”

  “Go!” Tomek snarled, pushing the rabbit away. “Get away from here!”

  Nodding, Casimir hurried across the road to Madou’s plain-looking monobike and clambered aboard. To Tomek’s relief and amazement, the little beast twisted the accelerator and sped down the road. He wobbled wildly for a stretch, but soon regained control and sped away.

  Thank Ulf.

  The moment Casimir crossed into the fields was the moment Tomek felt Madou’s huge spotty-furred forearm lock around his neck and pull him back into the one-sided fight.

  “It’s over, Tomeeek!” Madou declared.

  With a last plasmatic blast to his spine, the outmatched Tomek flew head over tail and collapsed in the ditch, smoke rising from his trembling, heaving body.

  It was indeed over.

  “M-Madou….” Tomek spluttered, as the stocky hyena stood over him shaking a smoking paw. “Let C-C-Casimir go. Please. He just… little beast; he can’t do anything. But I am right. You will see. Ask Nurka… I am telling truth.”

  The panting Madou said nothing.

  Themba and several hyenas arrived, pulling up by the overturned truck. “Madou!” Themba called, running over and jumping into the ditch with a tinkle of piercings. “What is this?”

  “I took care of it,” Madou sniffed, kicking Tomek in the ribs and levering the paralysed Howler onto his front. “He won’t be getting up.”

  “Traitor?”

  A nod, “I knew something was up. I’ve been watching him ever since Gelb.” Looking left and right and nursing his wounds, Madou eventually added, “Casimir’s dead, Themba.”

  “Dead? Where?”

  “He… was dragged under the truck when it rolled over, along with my bike.”

  Themba made to check.

  “Don’t bother,” Madou grimaced, “it’ll be a mess.”

  Themba grunted, “Humph. I cannot believe it; Casimir was with us so long. Nurka will be very upset.”

  Madou nodded.

  “I’d better finish this one,” Themba said of Tomek, wielding his hammer.

  Madou stayed his brother hyena’s paw. “No, let’s bring him back with us. We can execute him later; if he’s lying I’ll do it myself.”

  “Lying?”

  “Prince Noss needs to explain a few things to me, or maybe Nurka does. Depends.”

  Themba frowned, “Madou, what is all this?”

  “Did Nurka tell you his final plan whilst I was in Gelb?”

  “Yes.”

  “All of it?” Madou pressed.

  “Well… no,” Themba admitted, squirming under his cloak and claims. “Not all of it,” he rowed back, adding with cub-like eagerness, “but he will tonight. We will all know.”

  Madou nodded, dipped his chin, sniffed back blood. He looked up at the lesser hyenas lingering at the edge of the ditch, peering in on him and Tomek like curious beasts after a playground brawl.

  “You’re wounded,” Themba observed.

  Madou lifted his cloak enough to check the graze torn in his hip. “A scratch,” he grunted, “the wolf missed more or less. He fought well though, for a treacherous Howler.”

  Themba silently shepherded the wounded Madou away. “Tie the wolf up,” he growled at the others.

  The hyenas dutifully jumped in the ditch and wired Tomek paw and foot.

  *

  Linus lifted his heavy, helmet-clad head and shook the stars from his eyes. Slowly the dim cabin returned to focus, as did an a dark wolf with a ghost-white face.

  “Uther?”

  As Linus made to rise, Wild-heart used a rapier to push him back onto the bed. “Ah ah ah.”

  Linus twisted his arms, quickly discovering they were bound behind his back with a belt, one from his own wardrobe perhaps. Anything short of Howler-wire would hardly hold a Linus a minute, but that was long enough to leave him at another’s mercy.

  As he lay back, he contemplated shouting for help, but the cabin was in near-darkness and the station quiet. Evening had come, everyone else was probably settled at Hummelton Den since a curfew would soon be in effect; shouting for help with an unhinged murderer holding a rapier to one’s throat was perhaps less than wise even in a crowd.

  “What do you want?” Linus asked instead, looking Uther over and adding, “Come for revenge, is that it?”

  “Puh!” the Wild-heart snorted, whipping his obviously stolen sword away – his whole kit was stolen, an ALPHA Prefect’s mantle to be sure. “Listen to you! Think very well of yerself, doncha? High n’ mighty Linus, hanging out on the Elder Train with all his important new friends. It’s gone to your head already.”

  “How’d you even get here?”

  “It weren’t easy, I tell you that-”

  “Kill someone else to acquire that kit did you?” Linus accused, sitting up a little.

  Uther’s nostrils flared, “Oi! I stopped Ivan killing you back at the springs. I’m not a murderer like him.”

  “Not a murderer? You shot Den Father Vito!”

  “He deserved it!” Uther snarled, pushing Linus down with his sword tip again. “He had it comin’… he did,” the Wild-heart sniffed quietly. “I never thought it’d be me, never thought I’d get that chance, but I’d do it again for what he did to me and who knows how many others! Rufus saved me from that life and I had to do something. I had to get him out of Gelb. You’ve no right to judge me, Linus. No thumping right! You’ve had it all good, you have, not like me. Not like me.”

  Linus frowned, “I’ve had it all good?” he repeated. “My parents died of rot when I was a cub and my whole hometown got sick and withered before my eyes! Oh, yes all good here Uther. Ideal childhood for me!”

  Surprised at Linus’s sarcastic wallop, Uther withdrew his sword and looked at his feet like a contrite cub, “I… I didn’t mean it like that. You don’t understand.”

  Sighing, Linus flicked his chin, “Then tell me. What did Vito do? Tell me why you and Ivan did what you did. If it wasn’t for Amael then what was it all for?”

  Uther looked away, then back again, “Rufus.”

  “Rufus?”

  “He’s alive, mate.”

  “What?”

  “He’s with the hyenas, with Nurka n’ THORN, him and that Prince that tried to kill him. Noss was it?”

  “But… but Rufus was executed, and Noss too-”

  “No, no, no, it’s all fake, mate. All of it.”

  “Fake?”

  Wild-heart sat on the cabin bed. “Rufus was sent down as part of Janoah’s plan. THORN had to think he was gonna turn, didn’t they? So ALPHA faked his arrest and everything, made it look like he had nothing to lose so he’d be willing to join THORN. Vladimir sent that mad Noss down the same way; Josef didn’t kill him, they packed him off to Gelb to keep him from Amael so he could testify against the conspirators later. It was all kept secret, see?”

  Linus scoffed, “But Vladimir told me you and Ivan were in league with Amael!”

  “Aye, we were! We helped him get into power so he could pardon Rufus; that was the deal. Only he got Rufus out of Gelb early and didn’t even send word. Jan didn’t plan that. She tried to have us recalled, but Amael didn’t wanna know. He let us kill Vito anyway so he could become Den Father. The sneaky git used us, mate.”

  Linus waited; a captive audience in every sense.

  Uther suddenly stood up and swished the air with his rapier. “I wanted Vito dead, aye, but I thought I was getting Rufus out too. That’s what Jan thought, and Ivan – that’s the only reason Blade-dancer said yes.” Wild-heart shook his head and marvelled, “All I’ve really done is make Amael stronger. Still, ALPHA’s just waiting to bring the whole lot down; Amael, THORN, all the conspirators. Jan’s got everything covered.” Pinching the air, Uther added, “‘Cept one thing. Me and you Linus, we got to go help Rufus. That’s what Jan told me. We could be Lupa’s only chance, you know that? Me ‘n you, heroes she said. Hahahahaaaa!”

  Linus’s brow twisted this wa
y and that as he tried to make sense of Uther’s rant. Whatever his score with Vito, Wild-heart wasn’t telling – his pride wouldn’t allow it.

  Shoulders rolling with chuckles Uther turned, presenting his back and with it a chance to escape. Linus’s own pride wouldn’t allow him to lay here bound a moment longer.

  “Grrrragh!”

  Simultaneously kicking Uther in the rump with both feet, Linus blew apart the belt restraining his wrists with a snap of paw-scorching, bed-burning plasma.

  Pffzzzat!

  His blood up, he bodily dived on Uther, dragging him to the floor of the cabin. With ingrained wrestling skills honed in the Howler Academy and the strength gained from a year of all but living in Riddle Den’s gym, Linus twisted Wild-heart into a hold, forearm locked to throat, rapier prised out of paw, snarling and grunting all the way down.

  “I should snap your neck!” Linus seethed in Uther’s twitching ear.

  “Go on then… Woodlouse,” he croaked. “But I could’ve killed you three times over lately. I didn’t though, did I?”

  After much nostril-flaring, Linus released Uther with a push and stood over him.

  “Two times, at most,” he corrected, chin raised.

  “Hahaha! You keep telling yerself that if it makes you feel better.”

  Linus angrily snatched the rapier from the floor and pointed it at the criminal kneeling at his feet. “All right, Uther, I’m listening,” he said. “Start from the top and tell me exactly what’s going on. Take it slow.”

  “There’s no time.”

  “Make time-”

  “Linus! For Ulf’s sake if I just wanted to escape I’d be halfway across the Teich by now. I got a mission to do. I came to you because nobody else is gonna believe me. Janoah can’t come back me up; she can’t take off across Everdor, she’s gotta keep up appearances or Amael might get spooked. I’m her only chance. You’ve gotta trust me, mate.”

  Linus heaved his chest, “What is this mission?”