by Tora Moon
***
The forest road became a path ahead of them as it passed through a narrow gorge. Only a few could pass through the opening at a time. On the other side of the rocky outcropping lay an old nest site. It was so close to the rocks it rarely produced monsters. But with the unusual monster activity, a scout had been sent ahead to check anyway. They now waited for his return.
Rizelya looked at her expanded squad-pack. During the testing last night, a couple of warriors had attached themselves to each of her new squad members. Aistrun and Eidstrun hadn’t had to say much when the men found out with whom they would be teaming up. The girls had made quite an impression during their first fight.
Rizelya would have been happier if the warriors were from her own territory, but then she remembered her new girls were all from Strunven. They would be more comfortable with men they were familiar with and had grown up around.
Each woman now had a warrior riding at her side, Saffren had three men, and much to Raeleen’s surprise, a man rode on either side of her. She believed herself unattractive because of the scars on her arms and face from her stone working. The men smiling and talking to her as they waited didn’t seem to even see the scars.
Pounding hooves heralded the return of the scout, “It’s active! It’s active!” He shouted as he drew up in front of Saehala and Saehalstrun. “Alphas, it’s active.” The scout and his horse panted.
“So we heard.” Saehalstrun put a hand on the scouts’ horse, calming both horse and rider. When they both quit gasping, he asked, “What stage and how many?”
“Adult. I’m not sure why they haven’t left the nest yet. There’s two janacks I could see, each with six brechas.”
While the scout reported, Rizelya rode to the edge of the stone outcropping. From the opening she could hear a low humming; when she moved back, she couldn’t hear it any longer. A closer look at the rock revealed it to be sheadash stone. It was blocking the hum of the control janack.
“Um, there’s more than that in the nest,” she called out to the others. “There’s a control janack. I can hear it. There will be more brechas protecting it.”
“Damn,” Saehala swore. “It’s been over a year since that nest was last active. That’s why we came this way, and because it cuts a day of travel to Strunlair Keep.”
Saehalstrun looked up at the sky, then back at the defile. “Why haven’t the monsters left the nest yet? It’s almost midday.”
“You don’t suppose they’re waiting for us, do you?” Laynar asked. She seemed appalled at the thought.
“Hey, the way the monsters have been behaving lately, they just might be,” Aistrun said.
Rizelya rejoined the group of alphas. “I think now would be a good time to test some of our new ideas. How far is the nest from the pass?”
“Not far. We can leave the horses here and walk, or run, to the nest,” Saehala answered.
“Hmm,” Rizelya mused aloud, “the curtain of ice Saffren showed us should protect us as we move through the opening.”
“Put one of the women who can work at a distance,” Laynar said, “like Gehan or Saffren, in a different team. They can help take out the janacks.”
“Good idea,” Saehala agreed. She looked at Rizelya and Aistrun. “Your team will attack the control janack, as you have more experience. The rest of us will fight the brechas and guard the perimeter as we usually do. We don’t want to try too many new ideas at the same time and have them backfire.” Everyone nodded in agreement. “Let’s go.”
The leaders went to their respective groups and told them the plan. Those going to fight took their horses to the makeshift picket lines. A group of warriors and a young Red, barely out of her teens, stayed behind to guard the horses. The rest made their way to the stone outcropping marking the pass. All the men had shifted into their warrior forms.
Saffren stepped forward, her warriors behind her. Four warriors and a Red waited to follow after them into the pass. Saffren took several deep breaths. Her helbraught began to glow an icy blue, and a thin sheet of ice shot out of the end of it. She walked forward slowly and carefully, a thin wall of ice forming where she walked. The warriors and the Red followed. As soon as they were near the nest, the Red would form the traditional circle of fire around it. Saehala waited a few heartbeats, then nodded for the next group to go through.
Rizelya caught Gehan and Raeleen’s eye and gave them an encouraging nod and smile. They gripped their helbraughts tight and then it was their turn to go through the pass.
On this side of the stone outcropping they could hear very little. Rizelya couldn’t tell if the plan was working or not. Grazeen waved excitedly and Maellyn nodded as they went through. Saehala and her brother were in the next group. In just a few milcrons, only Rizelya and her original squad-pack waited to cross into the fighting. The control janack was always the last to reveal itself in the nest. She counted to twenty, and then led them through.
The battle was different than anything she’d seen before. It was more spread out than usual, with pockets of concentrated fighting. A Red surrounded each monster individually by a fire-ring while her team of warriors fought the brecha. Seven of the brechas were already down. Another two brechas exploded from the nest to be immediately surrounded by fire and warriors. The two janacks were being fought with more than fire and claws. Rizelya saw a burst of lava melt off a tentacle as she ran to the center.
Dehali had the cold-air shield already up. They were able to run directly to the control janack. It knew something strange was happening, and was screeching with anger and frustration. Leistral tried a new trick, using her helbraught to form a spear of fire, which she flung at one of the brechas. It pierced the brecha, burning it. Leistral drove the remaining three brechas away from the nest and the control janack.
The resulting scream of fury in Rizelya’s head made her drop to her knees. Clapping her hands over her ears did nothing to stop it. She found her own anger and used it to push the shrieking out of her mind enough she could function, as she did she became aware of the fighting again.
Dehali and Leistral had lured the control janack out of the nest and had it surrounded with both a ring of blazing fire and one of freezing air. Rizelya hadn’t realized Dehali could form just a ring of cold-air. Aistrun was on one side of the janack while Eidstrun was on the other. Their claws slammed into its tentacles over and over, throwing bits of tentacle in every direction. The end of Aistrun’s tentacle flew through the air and he ran to attack another one. Eidstrun roared as he jumped from a thrashing tentacle; it missed him and he leaped on it with the claws of his right hand extended. He went all the way through the tentacle with the one swipe.
Dehali saw Rizelya was up and moving again and surrounded Rizelya with a layer of cold air. She didn’t have time to be surprised Dehali could split her Talent in such a way. She ran to the control janack and vaulted onto its head, but instead of cutting off the protrusion, she tried something new. A tongue of flame flowed from her helbraught to the protrusion. She smiled in satisfaction as the protrusion blazed like a candle. The woman’s scream was cut-off as the protrusion crumbled into ash. Thrusting her helbraught deep into the head Rizelya fed fire magic into it and the head began to glow and pulse from the heat.
“It’s blowing!” she shouted as she jumped, trusting Leistral would throw up a fire shield to catch the debris. She sat where she landed, twitching as burned monster bits fell near her. She wasn’t sure burning the protrusion while it was still attached was a good idea. She hadn’t passed out, but she had a colossal headache and felt limp and exhausted.
After sitting with her head on her knees for several milcrons, she looked around. All the monsters were dead. The janacks were misshapen lumps of cooling lava and crumbling stone. There was general celebration as the fighters realized their new ideas had worked.
She noticed Grazeen out wandering the battlefield with the Reds. The bits she touched with her helbraught turned bright green, then turned to rot, and finally
the garbage grubs appeared and there was nothing left of the monsters. It seemed to take longer than burning them did, but as she watched, Rizelya realized it was only just a bit longer.
A man in wolf form loped back through the gorge, and a short time later the guards returned with their horses. It didn’t take long for the monster remains to be disposed of and then it was time for Rizelya to crawl onto her feet. She swayed.
“Got you, Little Red,” Aistrun said as he caught her in mid-sway. “You’re not going to pass out on me, are you?”
“No, I’m not,” she grumbled. “I just have a bad headache and I’m exhausted. Why am I the only one the stupid things affect like this?” She could hear the whine in her voice.
He shook his head. “Don’t know. You’re just special.” He bent down.
“Oh, no, you don’t!” She stopped him before he could pick her up. “I can walk.” She took a shuffling step forward. He put an arm around her and she gratefully leaned into his solid support. “Anyone injured?” she asked as they walked.
“No, no one too bad. There are a few scrapes, cuts, and burns, nothing serious though. Eidstrun’s idea of working in teams did make a difference. I saw one warrior’s back where a brecha swiped him, but because he was working with a Red, she was able to get it off of him and held it off while the other warrior on his team dragged him out of the way. If they hadn’t worked as a team, he’d be dead.”
Leistral and Dehali caught up to them and walked with them. “It was a good fight. What happened to you?” Leistral asked. “You were kneeling on the ground, screaming, and with your hands over your ears. You hadn’t formed the fire shield yet, so I did.”
“The one bad thing about breaking them up like we did is it makes the control janack furious,” Rizelya told them. “It’s shrieking almost knocked me out. Why am I the only one who can hear the damned things?” she complained, again.
“I don’t think you’re the only one,” Dehali said after a moment. “I think Saffren can as well. She had a pained look on her face once the control janack started hissing.”
The call had been intense. Rizelya wondered how Keandran had fared and looked around for him. “Where’s Keandran?”
Everyone in her group looked surprised for a moment, then looked around. “There,” Eidstrun pointed at the far end of the battlefield. Keandran sat near the edge of a small swamp, only a hundred feet in diameter. He had his head on his knees, and Saffren stood over him with her hands on her hips. Rizelya’s group hurried over to them.
“What happened?” Rizelya asked. Saffren’s mouth was in a tight line of anger.
“The fool was answering the control janack’s siren call,” Saffren sneered. “I had to knock him out to stop him.”
“The bitch is lying,” Keandran accused.
Outraged gasps preceded the loud crack of Aistrun striking Keandran across the face. “Watch your mouth, cur,” Aistrun growled. “There will be no insulting the ladies.”
“But she’s lying,” Keandran sputtered. “I was coming over here to relieve myself.”
“In the middle of the fight?” Saffren scoffed. “I don’t think so. You heard the call, didn’t you?”
“I don’t know what call you’re talking about!” Keandran squirmed in front of them. He seemed frightened. “Back in Strunheim Keep the priestesses did something to me; maybe their meddling is causing me to black out.”
Rizelya saw Saffren shake her head slightly. Keandran was lying, but there wasn’t anything they could do about it at the moment. “The others are waiting for us. Let’s go. We’ll deal with this later.”
Aistrun helped Keandran up. Rizelya could see his fingers tightening in warning on Keandran’s arm. Keandran grimaced in pain but didn’t fight to get away. Aistrun marched him to the horses and stood watching while Keandran mounted.
*We need to watch him carefully from now on,* Aistrun mind-spoke to Rizelya as he helped her onto her horse. *I don’t trust him.*
Rizelya agreed with him. The binding the White Priestess had put on him seemed to be unraveling. Another day of travel and they’d reach Strunlair Keep. Perhaps the priestesses there could help him more. And if they couldn’t, then he’d be left behind, and the Clan Alphas could deal with him.
That is if they reached the Clan-Keep before something else happened.
Chapter 15
The pass marked the entry point into Strunlair Territory. Down in the valley the crushed sheadash stone of a wide road shone in the sunlight. The road promised quick and safe travel to the Clan-Keep. They should arrive ahead of schedule even with all the delays they’d experienced. It seemed to Rizelya she hadn’t rested at all during the last four chedan and she was exhausted. She looked forward to going home after the Clan meeting.
Saehala and Saehalstrun guided the party down the path and out of the mountains. They hadn’t ridden more than a few measures when the horses started snorting and tossing their heads. Aistrun’s nostrils flared. He slid off his horse, tossing the reins to Rizelya.
“Shift!” he yelled. “Monsters coming!” His last word was more of a howl as he began his own change into warrior form.
Rizelya spun her horse in a circle, trying to get a sense of where the monsters were coming from. A flight of birds, screeching in terror, alerted her to the danger. She whipped Kymaya to the left, already feeding fire magic into her helbraught. She had enough time to see a janack and three brechas pour out of the forest.
The teams fought as if they had been together for years rather than days and the fight was shortly over.
As Rizelya watched the younger Reds burn the monster remains, she turned to Saehala. “Where did they come from? The map doesn’t show any nest sites around here.”
Saehala looked as confused as Rizelya. “I don’t have any idea. There aren’t any nests. The roads avoid them.”
“Remember that weird nest in Strunheim?” Aistrun rubbed his chin. “This seems to be like it.”
Rizelya blew out a breath and explained to Saehala, “It appears some of the nests can now form a single janack and a few brechas.” She held up her hands as Saehala sputtered. “I know. It was impossible. But the rules regarding the monsters no longer apply.”
Rizelya sent Eidstrun back along the trail of the rogue monsters. The rest of the group continued on.
A while later Eidstrun caught up to them. “The nest was several measures away.” He rubbed his face and ran his hands through his hair. “It looks like they waited to ambush us.”
“They don’t have the mental capacity for an ambush.” Saehalstrun’s face pulled in disgust. “What’s going on?”
Rizelya shrugged with the rest of them. They continued forward, sending scouts ahead. A number of men, Aistrun included, stayed in warrior form running along the outside of the group. Helbraughts were carried across saddles, hands gripping them ready for trouble.
As they rode, Rizelya thought about the gaunt gray woman in her dreams, urging her pets. She was sure now the woman had something to do with the strange behavior of the monsters. When she arrived at the Clan-Keep she’d talk to the White Priestess there. Maybe she knew who the woman was.
By the time Rizelya and the platoon reached a safe house for the night, they had fought six battles with marauding monsters where there shouldn’t have been any. After the first attack, each monster swarm included a control janack. The next day was even worse.
On the third day, Rizelya was sure the monsters were trying to keep them from reaching Strunlair Keep. They hadn’t traveled more than a few measures. A one-day journey had turned into a grueling four-day test of endurance. At this pace, Rizelya doubted they would arrive in time for the clan meeting.
Kymaya’s head drooped and she walked with a hitch from a splotch of monster ichor burning her hindquarter. Rizelya rubbed her cheek and winced; she’d forgotten the wound on it. Her leg burned anew from the constant fighting. Aistrun limped beside her, his red-gold pelt dulled. Blood oozed from a cut on Eidstrun’s bicep. No one w
as without some sort of injury. Grief hung over the group, during the last battle a Red and two warriors had been killed. They continued to trudge on knowing safety lay at the end of the road.
Rizelya slumped in her saddle dreading the cry of warning she knew was coming. When it came, she drew herself up and forced tired muscles to move. When she called on her fire magic, only a flickering of her helbraught answered her. Eyes wide, she pushed away her terror and exhaustion, dove deep into her inner well where her magic resided, and dragged it up her core. The resulting flame seared the brecha reaching for her. Leistral lifted an eyebrow at Rizelya’s lack of control. Shrugging, Rizelya kicked Kymaya to avoid a questing janack tentacle. This time when flame shot out of her helbraught blade it, she directed it at the janack. The flame sped up its tentacle and covered its head. At the same time, Aistrun slammed his claws, dripping with venom, across its beak. The janack’s shriek reverberated in Rizelya’s head as it collapsed. A tentacle jerked in its death spasm and struck a young warrior across his back, crushing him as it slammed into the ground. Tears pricked Rizelya’s eyes at the young man’s death. She blinked them away; there’d be time to mourn later. Not long after the janack’s death the rest of the monsters were killed and the group pushed on.
That night at the safe house, the young man’s body was burned. Wounds were treated while several people, including Leistral, made a hot meal of beans and rice accompanied by flatbread. Too tired after eating to do more than sit and sip on her hot taevo, Rizelya surveyed the room. Dehali, Gehan, and Maendy were sitting at a table quietly talking. Saffren and Eidstrun had set up a keshe board, with just two players the game wasn’t too complicated. As her eyes roved around the room, she noted all her new friends. She smiled to herself and then sat up straighter. She hadn’t seen Keandran. Frowning, she pushed herself from the table and strolled around the room, then checked the stables. but she still couldn’t see him. When she went back into the house, Aistrun saw her.