They exchanged a long look and then Aiden nodded slowly.
“You're right. We have to do whatever we can to save our people. But you do realize that, if the others see us transform, some of them might freak out, right?”
“So we do it out of sight. Come on, Aiden. Time is ticking here and the sun is going down.”
They both turned to look toward the west. Sure enough, the sun had begun to turn red as it descended toward the distant horizon.
“Okay, we'll give it a shot,” Aiden told him. “But we'd better let Tamara know what we're going to do. At least we know that she and the other mages won't be frightened by your idea.”
“Hopefully. Tamara!” Malcolm called out.
The mage looked over at them and the big man motioned for her to join them.
“What is it?” she asked as she hurried over.
Malcolm quickly explained his idea to her and Tamara was nodding before he had finished speaking.
“That thought had crossed my mind, but I didn't want to bring it up just yet. I thought that it should be attempted as a last resort.”
She looked at each man closely.
“Are you both sure that you want to try this? We may have put out the story about your lycanthropy to the castle's population, and told them that you had it under control, but actually seeing you in action might change some people's opinions of you. For the worse, not the better.”
“Yeah, we thought of that,” Aiden told her. “So we'll wait until we're out of sight before we transform ourselves. I assume that you and the other mages will be Gating the others back home? Okay then. We'll hold off until you are gone.”
“If you're both sure, then you have my blessing,” Tamara said with a fond smile. “And my best wishes. I'll keep an eye on you via Magic Mirror and, if things go south, I'll Gate back and pull you out.”
“Thanks, Tamara,” Malcolm said gratefully. “But by the time you could do that, whatever is going to happen will happen. But watch us anyway. If we do fail, then you'll know it and you and the others will have to formulate another plan quickly.”
“Tamara!”
The three of them looked over as they heard Sebastian's shout.
“It looks like those things decided to pay attention to us after all,” he continued as his sister hurried over to him. “Look, they're coming back!”
The mage was right. The giants had stopped in their tracks and were just turning around to face the hilltop. A moment later and the monster closest to the hill took a long slow step toward them.
“It looks like whatever is controlling them has decided to counter-attack,” Chase exclaimed.
She set an arrow to her bow, drew and fired in one smooth motion. All of her archers copied her and a flight of arrows hissed across the sky to pierce the eyes of the giant. Thin watery blood ran down its face from the many wounds, but the monster didn't flinch or slow down. It just advanced menacingly step toward them.
“Time to leave, sis,” Sebastian exclaimed loudly as he watched the giants advance.
“Right. Everyone, hurry up and gather around whoever Gated you here. Quickly, quickly!”
“There's isn't enough time,” Dianis said calmly as she stared at the monsters. “They will reach us in mere moments.”
“Go, go, go, Tamara!” Malcolm exclaimed. “We'll buy you the time you need.”
The mage watched as both Malcolm and Aiden bent over quickly and slipped off their chain-mail tunics. She nodded grimly, realizing what they were doing.
“Everyone hurry up,” she yelled to the group.
There was a mad rush to get organized, but some people, humans and elves alike, dragged their feet a bit as they watched the two warriors curiously. What were they up to and how were just two people supposed to slow down giants?
Malcolm unbuckled his sword belt and kicked off his heavy boots, ignoring the onlookers. He had bigger things to worry about. When he was done, he glanced at Aiden, who had copied him. Both of them were just wearing their heavy leather pants now.
“You ready?” he asked as they felt the ground shake beneath their feet.
“Let's move, big guy,” Aiden replied with a grim smile. “No time to chat.”
The two of them raced directly toward the monsters and, as they reached the steep edge of the hilltop, leaped off without a moment's hesitation.
The crowd watching them gasped.
“Are they mad?”
“They'll be killed for sure!”
“No,” Tamara assured them just before she cast the Gate spell. “They won't.”
Chapter 20
As he vaulted off of the crown of the hill, Malcolm felt a fleeting stab of doubt.
What if it didn't work and they couldn't transform? Or even worse, what if it did work but he and Aiden couldn't stop the giants?
He pushed those fears aside angrily and reached for the wolf inside of him, the beast that was constantly waiting and watching, eager to be released.
As he plummeted toward the ground, a wave of pain coursed through Malcolm's body as his bones and muscles altered and grew, rearranging and twisting themselves into a new lupine form. He howled in agony as he fell and heard his own voice deepen into an animal roar.
He slammed into the ground, but his pain had already passed and he landed on his feet. He heard a heavy body drop beside him and growled as he looked over to see Aiden's hulking form.
For a moment, Malcolm's enhanced senses threatened to overwhelm him. He could hear the birds in the trees hopping from branch to branch. Squirrels chittered and squawked at each other. Foxes slipped through the underbrush, running away from this unknown threat.
He could even hear the others from the group high above them on top of the hill frantically trying to get organized and Gate to safety. Several people were demanding to know what had just happened to the two warriors and Tamara was telling them that they would discuss it later.
But it was Malcolm's sense of smell that made him pause as a thousand scents flooded his nostrils. The forest was so thick with smells that he wanted to simply stand there and try to identify each one individually. But there was no time for that indulgence. There was a battle to win.
“Hey, it worked,” he said, trying to form words from behind his long fangs.
Aiden stood up as tall as he could and stretched with animal-like pleasure. His thick fur rippled over bands of new muscle.
“No time to celebrate,” he growled. “Let's deal with those giants first.”
The lumbering brutes were about a hundred yards away. Two or three more steps and they would be close enough to smash the hilltop where Tamara and the others were frantically trying to form up and retreat.
“Hamstring 'em,” Malcolm snarled. “I'll take the right legs, you take the left ones.”
“Got it.”
They crouched down like runners on the starting line of a race and then sprang forward together, moving so fast that they reached the first giant in seconds. With perfect coordination, the werewolves used their razor-sharp claws to slice deeply into the ankles of the monster, cutting through the tendons behind its broad feet. Before the giant could even react, they had leaped away to attack the second behemoth.
As they executed the same attack again, the ground beneath them rolled and twisted and an ear-splitting rumble tore through the air. Both Malcolm and Aiden raced away from their foe to reach a safe distance before turning around to see what had happened.
The results of their attacks were even more spectacular than they could have hoped for. The first giant had collapsed in a heap, creating the small earthquake that they had felt, and the second one was falling over as they watched.
“Well, what do you know?” Aiden exclaimed, his glowing green eyes wide with wonder. “It actually worked!”
“I never doubted it,” Malcolm replied as he gave his partner a wicked smile.
“Yeah, right. You weren't even sure that you could transform yourself,” Aiden scoffed.
“I just said that so I wouldn't get my hopes up too high. But we did it! Now...”
“Oh damn. We're not done yet.”
“What?”
Malcolm looked back at the fallen giants and snarled angrily. They might have lost the ability to walk, but they hadn't been defeated just yet.
Both monsters were turning away from the hill, which was now empty of people and, as the warriors watched, the giants began crawling slowly, inexorably back in their original direction, straight north toward Nottinghill.
“God damn it!” Malcolm exclaimed angrily through his glistening fangs. “They're moving to attack the castle again.”
“Well, what did you expect?” Aiden said as he glowered at the monsters. “The dark gods created the damned things, so I guess that they want to get their money's worth. As long as they can move, they'll be a threat.”
Malcolm crouched down again and glanced at Aiden.
“Then we'd better finish the job, don't you think?” he asked softly.
Aiden's thick brown fur rose up in a line down his back as he glared at the nearest giant. He crouched down as well, his lips pulled back in an evil grin.
“Let's do this,” he growled.
The rest of the engagement wasn't a battle; it was a slaughter. The giants' main advantage was their size and strength but, unable to stand, they moved so slowly that the werewolves could attack at will. By the time that they were done, Malcolm and Aiden had all but cut the monsters' heads from their bodies. It was only when the creatures stopped writhing that the werewolves ceased their attacks. They left the bodies to bleed out on the lonely seashore.
Both Malcolm and Aiden were covered in blood and gore, so they took a few minutes to jump into the sea and wash themselves off before climbing back up the hill to reclaim their clothes. Once they had reached the summit, they paused to look down at the remains of their enemies.
“If I thought that they'd had any minds at all, I'd feel sorry for them,” Malcolm remarked as he stared at the fallen giants.
“Yeah. They were just pawns to the dark gods. Disposable like everything else those evil bastards use in their stupid war,” Aiden replied.
Malcolm glanced at him and was surprised to see that his partner had already transformed back into human form.
“Hey, you've changed!” the big man exclaimed.
Aiden grinned at him.
“So have you,” he replied as he walked across the hill and picked up his boots.
The big man looked down at himself. Sure enough, he had returned to his true form. The alteration had been surprisingly painless.
“Huh. What do you know?” he said in wonder. “I didn't feel any discomfort at all.”
Aiden tossed him his chain-mail tunic and he caught it deftly.
“I doubt that we'll feel any pain if we transform again,” Aiden told him as he slipped on his boots. “That first one seems to have loosened up our muscles and joints and accustomed them to the process.”
“Let's hope so,” Malcolm said as he raised his arms and slid his tunic back on. “That hurt like hell.”
“Tell me about it.”
Just as they had finished getting dressed, a flash of light and a loud crackle of power made them jump.
“Looks like our ride's here,” Malcolm said with a relieved grin.
“Good. I feel like I could sleep for a week,” Aiden replied tiredly.
Tamara appeared several yards away, a wide smile on her face.
“You did it!” she exclaimed with obvious delight. “Just the two of you took down those monsters. Amazing!”
“Thanks, Tamara,” Malcolm said as he pushed back his hair. His braids had unraveled again. “But it wasn't really us. It was the beasts inside of us that enabled us to stop those things.”
“Semantics,” the mage said breezily. “You two are the brains behind the beasts. Raw power is useless unless it is properly directed. Your tactics worked perfectly.”
“You were watching us?” Aiden asked her as he strapped on his sword belt.
“I was, along with the other mages and the Elders. We dismissed the archers though,” she added with a small frown. “Some of our people were...disturbed by your transformation.”
“And the elves?”
“Oh, you know them. They've seen too much and lived too long, even the archers, to be bothered by much of anything. The humans though, well, we might have some trouble there.”
Malcolm frowned down at her.
“Wait a second. Are you saying that, after we saved the castle and their lives, some of our warriors are...what? Frightened of us now?”
“Are you surprised?”
The big man looked over at Aiden's comment.
“You're not?” he asked his partner.
“Not really, no. Mal, it's human nature to fear the unknown. Sure, they may have heard stories about our unique abilities, but seeing the real thing is a lot different than just hearing about it. It may take them some time to adjust, that's all.”
“Let's worry about that another day, shall we?” Tamara interjected. “You both look exhausted. Time to head home for some well-earned rest.”
“Sounds good.”
“And food,” Malcolm said firmly. “Lots and lots of food.”
The three of them laughed together and a moment later Tamara whisked them away.
The wind blew over the lonely hilltop and, far below, a shape appeared out of the shadows to contemplate the remains of the giants. It stood still for a few moments and then faded quietly into the darkness again.
The story of the battle between the giants and the werewolves spread like wildfire through the castle. By the time that Malcolm and Aiden got up the next morning after the fight, everyone seemed to have heard about it.
As they made their way through the halls toward the kitchens to get some late breakfast, they passed at least a dozen people. Some greeted them warmly with smiles, but a handful gave them dubious looks and one man actually scowled at them.
Malcolm was still half asleep and seemed not to notice, but Aiden did. He greeted those who looked friendly and ignored those who didn't, but by the time they had reached the kitchens, his mood had darkened considerably.
At least Chef Mario was his normal cheerful self. He served them up a huge breakfast of fried eggs, venison and thick slabs of fresh toast with butter and jam. It was all delicious and helped to improve Aiden's mood at least a little bit.
The two men sat at one of the small tables in the kitchen itself and ate quietly while the staff bustled around them. Mario ran a tight ship and his people moved with practiced coordination, getting ready to serve lunch to several hundred people. It was a marvelous operation to watch and, after they had devoured their food, both Malcolm and Aiden sat back and watched the workers do their jobs.
“My God, I never realized just how crazy this place constantly is,” Malcolm said in wonder as the staff worked.
The kitchens were actually a large series of rooms, each one with its own use. One room held the immense cast iron stoves and was as hot as a sauna all year round. Another was set aside just for food preparation; peeling potatoes and carrots, slicing and dicing vegetables and putting them into pans for frying or baking. And on and on.
Through all of the madness, Mario Mazzanti was the one person in complete control. A slight, soft-spoken man with a tiny mustache, the chef's staff loved him and followed his orders to the letter. He always knew what was going on everywhere, at all times. He directed his staff of a dozen people calmly, assigning work, answering constant questions and putting out consistently remarkable food three times a day, day in and day out. And he seemed to love it.
“I don't know how they would operate if it wasn't for Mario,” Aiden added as he watched the organized chaos. “He never raises his voice or gets mad, but he's the undisputed king of his domain. How does he do it?”
“Experience, I suppose,” Malcolm replied as he watched people moving quickly from one room to the next. “Aft
er all, he was the head chef of some famous Parisian restaurant before the world fell apart. He definitely knows what he's doing.”
“Yeah, I guess so. I'm just glad that we don't have to eat in the dining hall. That place is so always loud. Anyway, let's get moving. We should go talk to Tamara and see if the mages have spotted any other threats approaching the coast.”
Malcolm got up slowly and stretched, his joints crackling as he loosened up.
“Good idea. Those two giants were just the first wave. There has to be more coming, probably sooner rather than later.”
The two men thanked the chef again and he accepted their gratitude with a large grin and told them that they were welcome back into his kitchen any time.
“Well, at least one person still likes us,” Aiden commented as they left the bustling kitchens behind.
“Meaning what?” Malcolm asked him curiously.
They passed other people in the wide halls, some of whom smiled at the men while others avoided their gaze. It was a new experience for Aiden and he didn't like it.
“Meaning that some of our fellow citizens seem less than friendly since our little adventure yesterday,” he replied dryly. “Apparently having a pair of werewolves wandering around makes them a bit uncomfortable.”
Malcolm seemed puzzled and began paying closer attention to the people that they walked by as they headed toward the meeting hall. He and Aiden assumed that Tamara would probably be there making plans as usual.
By the time the pair had reached their location, the big man was frowning to himself. As they entered the conference hall and saw Tamara and Sebastian sitting at the long table, Aiden had to nudge his partner to get his attention.
“Don't dwell on it, Mal,” he said under his breath as they walked toward the mages. “Some people just don't trust anything different, that's all.”
“But we saved them,” Malcolm replied in a strained voice. “No one got hurt and the castle is safe. What more could we have done?”
He looked more sad than angry now and Aiden gave him a sympathetic smile before he greeted the siblings.
“Morning, folks,” he said to Tamara and Sebastian with forced cheerfulness. “How are you both doing today?”
The Werewolves of Nottinghill Page 26