Garda winced as he pushed himself to his feet, his knees popping like a knot of wood in the fire. 'Another reason I'm happy to follow,' he said. 'Hard enough keeping my body in one piece without worrying about you lot.' He gestured for her to follow him. 'Time to forget Vinak, eh? Either he'll catch up to us or the Wolves will. We don't have the bodies to worry about them all. First we deal with Talak, and then we think about the rest.'
They moved to the north side of the hill, where the rest of the hunting party had ducked amongst the snow-covered boulders and wind blasted bushes, watching the path north. Below them, the trees gave way to a vast ocean of snow; the open steppes of the Whitelands, glistening silver in the faint measure of moonlight slipping in through the cloud cover.
'Anything?' Garda asked, slipping in to sit amongst them.
'Nothing,' said the hard-faced Ingram, hawking and spitting. 'Though it's hard enough to see anything in this damned light.'
'You think they're out there already?' asked Jian. 'Or back here, in the trees?'
'Radok?' Garda scratched at his beard thoughtfully. 'He's seen the same things we have. He knows it's too open down there to move in daylight. He would have been waiting for this. This is his moment.'
'And Talak?'
Garda shrugged. 'I doubt even the Seven know what that crazy bastard will do next. He wants Radok though. If we find Radok, we find Talak.'
'Look!' Talgar jabbed a finger at a clearing in the trees to the west, where a figure briefly appeared, heading towards their hill.
Jian leaned forward, squinting, but the figure was gone as quickly as it had appeared, lost beneath the snow-capped trees below. 'Who was it? Did you see?'
'Some big bastard!' muttered Pican, who had the best eyes of any of them. 'Moving too fast though.'
'Radok?'
'Hard to say. It wasn't that scrawny prick, Talak, that's for sure. And who else would be out here?'
The man-wolf had been a big bastard too, Jian remembered, but even if Vinak had failed in holding them up, there was no chance they would have gotten so close so quickly. It has to be Radok!
Jian's heart began to beat more wildly. They had been sent to kill Radok, but Jian was starting to hope there might actually be a way to save him. She owed him more than enough to try.
'We can cut him off,' she said after a moment. She looked at the faces of the men around her, and at Tess who had slipped to her side. They looked tense, but could see the same hope she felt in her own heart. 'Stay close to me. Once we find him, try not to kill him. Maybe we can talk him down.'
'And if he doesn't want to talk?' Garda asked softly.
Jian hesitated for just a moment. 'Then we do what has to be done. Talak is all that matters now.'
✽✽✽
Radok's strength was failing him. In truth, it had been failing him for months now, ever since the coughing began. Somehow, he'd always managed to battle through it, to find an edge just when he needed it most. But things were different now.
He'd been on the move for less than a minute when the pain started to take its toll. His arms and legs grew heavier with every step, turning to weights of stone that he struggled to drag along with him. Every breath was a battle. The frigid air stung at his nostrils and hacked at his throat, but it was the lungs that hurt most of all. Despite the cold, they burned with fire.
Radok could hear the beast closing in behind him, shattering the silence of the wood as it rumbled after him like thunder; a giant, crashing force following in his wake, sweeping trees and rocks aside with effortless ease. Squawking birds took flight as their shelters were shook to the core, or else torn up by the roots entirely. There were moments when the beast seemed so close Radok would have sworn he could feel its breath on the nape of his neck…
As he ran, sucking in painful gasps of air, his knees beginning to quiver, Radok risked a glance over his shoulder. The kragan was charging on all fours, shouldering trees aside and throwing up dirt and snow in his wake. Lines of saliva and spit flew out from a mouth full of sharp teeth, some long as daggers, and when his cold, black eyes met Radok's, the beast let out a blood curdling roar.
Radok turned away from him and felt his stomach tighten. He had seen this monster before, he was sure of it. It was the same beast that had mauled Jorn all those years ago, the one they called the Old Bear. Patches of white fur were missing from the left side of his face, the exposed flesh left blistered and twisted - proof of the flaming torch driven into his maw. Radok would have laughed if not for the terror gripping his heart, if not for the sheer exhaustion. The Will had always had a wicked sense of humour, and sending this monster to finish him off was all the proof he needed.
Focusing back to the road ahead, Radok glimpsed two trees off to his right that were growing closely together near the base, their trunks forming a v-shape. He angled his run towards them, slipping slightly on a sheet of ice but somehow staying on his feet. Radok flinched as the kragan's claws whispered past his left ear, brushing the fur of his trailing cloak.
He leapt through the gap between the two trees, landing softly on the other side. Radok kept moving, wheezing hard now, legs ready to buckle beneath him. He'd hoped the beast was close enough behind him to follow him through the narrow gap and take some damage… but this wasn't the kragan's first hunt. Sighting the two trees, he pulled up short and sidestepped the obstacle, unleashing another terrible roar before powering on after Radok. The dance had slowed him by a second or two, but nothing more.
Radok was beginning to fear the worst. His lungs flared painfully with every breath, his stamina all but spent. He knew his legs were ready to buckle beneath him, but he was almost ready for it. When the beast's jaws closed around his head, finally bringing an end to the suffering, Radok thought it might actually be a relief. At least the girl is safe. At least I did that much right…
Using his arms as a shield, Radok pushed himself through a thick wall of foliage and burst into an empty clearing. He took two strides across the virgin snow before movement caught his eye up ahead. A girl had exploded into the clearing opposite him, and when their gaze met they both staggered to a halt in shock.
For just a moment Radok forgot about the pain of breathing… forgot to breathe at all, so lost was he in the vision of the woman. My woman, if the Will had only deemed it so…
Jian was well suited to her surroundings, daubed as she was all in white. Her close-cropped hair was dyed white to match her furs, and the top half of her face had been painted in chalk. Only the band of black paint across her eyes offered any break in the camouflage. That highlighted those eyes in stunning clarity and Radok was lost in them.
It reminded him of the day he'd fallen in love. He had found Jian surrounded by all the powerful of the Grey Crow, her hands dripping red with blood. Having lost her babe in childbirth, she had killed her man in self-defence after he turned grief-mad. After that, she would have lost her own life, if she'd let them take her. But Jian was a different kind of woman, and Radok had known it that day, when he first looked into those stunning hazel eyes. She stood her ground against the baying mob, and Radok stood with her.
Jian was staring back at him, her panting breath smoking in the frosty air. Radok thought again about all the chances he'd had to tell her how he felt. But how could he, given everything she'd lost? Would there ever be a right time to tell her?
Now, perhaps?
Even as the thought struck, Radok remembered where they were, and why, and the moment passed. She's here for me. She's here to stop me.
She was about to speak, but Radok, who wanted nothing more than to hear her out, spoke first. 'I'm sorry,' he told her, before hurling himself into the underbrush to his left. Behind him, the kragan burst from the trees into the clearing, and his mighty roar shattered the quiet of the night.
✽✽✽
Jian's blood ran cold as the kragan's roar thundered out. He was standing on his hind legs, stretched to his full height, chest puffed out, the sound powering out from de
ep within him. Jian winced in pain, the noise was so loud. He was a monstrous beast, twice as tall as a man and almost four times as broad.
And he was hungry. Despite his thick white fur, Jian could see the shape of his ribs as he stretched and bellowed.
All at once the beast dropped to all fours and began charging in Jian's direction. His face bore a terrible scar, fur all burnt away, flesh blistered and pussy, and it twisted with savage relish as he closed the gap between them.
Before Jian could even register the threat, the Grey Crow moved to intercept. An arrow flew over Jian's head and buried itself in the kragan's shoulder. The beast didn't flinch, just kept pounding on towards Jian, snow and debris kicked up behind him. Then Pican and Talgar were there, Ingram and Garda, hacking at the monster with their swords. The kragan roared his frustration, then swung at this new prey with vicious claws, giant arms swinging left and right.
The youngster, Pican, was the first to die. The kragan's right paw swung back and connected fully with Pican's head, snapping the boy's neck like a dry twig. His broken body flew through the air and crunched sickeningly against a tree to Jian's right.
Talgar, Ingram, and Garda continued to dance around the beast, their swords nicking and slicing at him, turning patches of his coat a dark pink where they drew blood.
Another arrow appeared in his flank, but that only seemed to anger him. Ingram lingered a bit too long within reach, and the kragan's claws sank into his flanks. Drawing him into a crushing hug, the beast sank his jaws into Ingram's shoulder, tearing the flesh from him right up to his neck, blood gushing everywhere.
Ingram screamed as his life was torn from him, the sound of it rousing Jian from her awe-stricken trance. She realised she was offering nothing to her friends, two of whom were already dead; men she had promised to lead. You can't lead the dead, she told herself. And then she drew her sword and made to charge…
A hand grabbed her by the shoulder, spinning her around to face Tess. A look of terror gripped the young warrior's face as she leaned into Jian. 'Run!' she hissed, shoving Jian back into the trees and away from the beast. 'Everyone, run!'
Jian had no idea if the others escaped or not, but she followed Tess through the trees, back towards the hill. Jian stumbled through the snow and ice, the rocks and foliage. It was brighter now, the sun beginning to rise somewhere over the trees, so that Jian could see where she was going.
As she ran, Jian's mind was a jumbled mess of thoughts. Radok was first and foremost amongst them. He had stood before her, mere feet away, and the sight of him had broken her heart. Pale and withered, he was a shadow of the man she had ridden with to the farmstead near the wolf city. He had been her rock in the dark days, something to cling to when the storm was at its worst, but it looked like all the strength was gone now and he was the one that needed holding.
I'm sorry, he had said, moments before the kragan descended upon them. What was he sorry for, Jian wondered? Did he bring that thing down on us? Did he do it knowingly?
Pushing those questions to one side, she tried to focus on the only thought that mattered right then: survival. They needed to stop Talak, and she needed to see Radok again, to talk to him. And to do that she needed to live.
Tess crested the hill and spun around, Jian catching up to her a second later. The pair of them stood with their hands on their hips, sucking in deep breaths of cold air.
'What… now?' Tess panted.
Jian moved to the vantage point they had been using earlier, when they first spotted Radok. She swept her gaze over the trees below, hoping for a sign of movement. But there was nothing.
'I can't believe they're dead,' said Tess. 'I've never seen anything like that.'
'We have to kill it,' said Jian absently. 'He has our scent now, and a taste for blood. He won't stop hunting us until we're dead.'
'How can we kill that thing?' Tess looked scared. It was the first time Jian had seen her show fear for anything other than the Ashan Tay or the Far Eye.
Jian gave her arm a squeeze. 'Everything dies, Tess. You just have to stab it in the right place.'
A scream sounded out from below, shattering the silence, but there was nothing to be seen down amongst the trees.
'By the Seven…' muttered Tess. 'It sounds like he got another one.'
Jian's frustrations boiled up. These men had voted her leader, and now most of them were dead, or soon would be. They had barely taken their first steps together and already she had failed them.
That was when she screamed. She was too sad, too bitter, too angry to hold her emotions in check, so she let them go in a long, primeval cry of anguish. The sound echoed out across the empty foothills below, washed away with the southern wind.
It did not take long for the kragan to answer. His roar was full, deep, and drawn out. And then he was moving. The trees towards the Velga started swaying in a wave towards them, like the trail of a fish cutting through water.
'Fuck,' muttered Tess, swinging her bow from her shoulder and notching another arrow.
Jian glanced around. The hilltop was bare, save for a handful of trees on the southern slope and a few rocks littering the ground. There was a boulder amongst the smatterings, almost head height. Jian waved Tess towards it. 'Get up there. I'll keep him distracted; you fill him with arrows.'
'I'm not sure there are enough arrows in the world,' said Tess, but she tossed her bow on top of the rock and began to climb. Fairly nimble, it didn't take her long to swing her trailing leg onto the rock and take up position. Crouching low, she drew back on the bowstring and took a calming breath.
Jian tested the weight and balance of her sword, stretching her arms and loosening the muscles. She had always felt cumbersome fighting in furs, and today was no different. They might keep you alive in the cold, but in a fight their weight and bulk were just as likely to get you killed. Can't take them off, she thought. Not enough time. Hell, even if there was, there was a good chance she'd freeze to death before getting them back on.
'He's here,' said Tess, just as the kragan's head appeared over the crest of the hill. The beast was moving quickly, charging on all fours, strings of bloody saliva dangling from his snarling, bloody teeth.
The earth trembled beneath Jian's feet as the monster bore down on her, yet she did not run. She held her ground, her sword gripped tightly in one hand, and waited.
Tess loosed her bowstring with a dull twang, and the arrow soared over Jian's head. It was on course for its mark until the kragan threw up an arm and swatted it from the air. With a cry of rage, the monster leapt the last few feet, his huge paws balled up and raised over his head.
Jian sidestepped the attack, hair fluttering in the breeze as his giant fists crashed down into the snow where she'd been standing. Even as she dodged, Jian slashed her sword across the beast's side. The blade bounced harmlessly from his ribs, nowhere close to cutting through the thick hide. She dodged two more attacks while the beast towered over her, then threw herself into a forward roll, narrowly avoiding a left hook. She sliced at the kragan's hind quarters as she rolled by, but the cut lacked the strength to draw blood.
The snow slowed Jian's roll just enough for the kragan to catch her before she could regain her feet, clubbing her across the back and sending her sprawling into the snow.
She came up dazed, the blurry figure of the kragan towering over her, ready for the killer blow. Another arrow punched into the beast's shoulder, just short of his throat, and with a roar of pain and outrage he turned from Jian and charged at the boulder where Tess was standing.
He hit the rock shoulder first, the force of the impact enough to shift the giant stone under Tess's feet, throwing her off balance. She fell hard, cracking her head on the stone and falling limply to the snow below.
'No!' screamed Jian, forcing herself back to her feet. Before she knew what was happening, she had drawn the knife from the sheath in her boot and hurled it at the monster's back. It was a poor throw and it struck the kragan hilt-first, just below
the left shoulder, from where it fell harmlessly to the ground and sank deep into the snow.
Poor, but effective. It did enough for the kragan to forget all thoughts of Tess and turn his killer's gaze back to Jian.
'Come on then, you shit!' Jian taunted him. 'I'm right here.'
The kragan's roar bellowed out in reply, the sound of it stinging Jian's ears. Run, that roar said. Run for your life.
But Jian had never run. Not even when the mob came for her after Grava's death.
Glancing down, she saw her sword lying at her feet, and she grunted as she bent to pick it up, her back still aching from the blow she'd taken. Her vision had started to clear, but it wasn't entirely comforting given the sight of the beast bounding towards her for a second time.
Jian's hand tightened on the sword hilt, the creaking leather drowned out by the kragan's thunderous charge. She shifted her feet, ready to spring clear at the perfect moment. Jian smiled then, a deep calm settling on her. She couldn't run even if she wanted to. Tess's screams would haunt her to the end of her days. And if this was how it ended, then so be it.
The kragan's gaze drifted beyond Jian and his charge suddenly faltered. Much to Jian's amazement, Talgar and Garda ran past on either side of her, roaring their own battle cry. She followed without hesitation, falling in alongside them, not just holding her ground but joining the attack.
The kragan stumbled to a halt, stunned by the sudden turnaround. The three Grey Crow hacked at him in a blur of steel, every sword stroke followed by a curse of some description.
'Die, you whoreson!' screamed Talgar, his blade biting in above the kragan's hip.
'The Black Wind rides for you, bastard!' cried Garda, blade slicing through the flesh beneath the kragan's right arm.
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