Asylum

by Kit Bladegrave

  “Was that necessary?” Forrest asked in an undertone.

  “I will not be ordered about by my second.”

  “He’s just protecting you.”

  “We are not dragons,” I stated fiercely. “We are a pack and the moment I let my second order me about, or anyone else for that matter, it’s a sign of weakness as an alpha. You are king by rights, Forrest, but anyone could challenge me and take my throne. That is how my world works.”

  I walked away before he could say anything else about it.

  The other races had it so much easier than wolf shifters. The pack mentality was inbred into us. It was how we functioned, how we ruled. There was no changing it. Not anytime soon.

  Two tense hours passed before the scout finally awoke, and I was summoned to the infirmary.

  Lucy was there, helping tend to the wounds that covered his chest. They were still covering them with a thick, greenish salve as he ground his teeth, shuddering in pain.

  “What happened?” I asked him softly. “Just take your time.”

  He bobbed his head slightly and let out a shaky breath. “There was nothing. We scented nothing, and then suddenly we were in a stone maze of columns and walls with strange markings,” he muttered through gritted teeth.

  I’d never heard of such a place, but Lucy’s brow twitched.

  He continued, “The place felt old, ancient really.”

  Sabella’s words came back to me, about a maze. She’d told us Craig and Kate were in a tower in a castle, in a maze with no end. Was this really it? “And you were just there?”

  “We stepped in, and then we couldn’t figure our way out, so we followed the path the best we could. And then we saw it.” His skin grew paler still, and he started to shake.

  Lucy and the physician held him steady.

  “What did you see?” I pressed. “I need to know.”

  But the words that came out of his mouth next were nothing but mad ramblings. Nothing made sense and I growled in frustration, wanting to shake the answers from him, but I couldn’t.

  Our first true lead into this nightmare and I was stopped by yet another wall.

  “I might be able to help.” Sabella.

  I turned slowly.

  She stood a few feet behind us, dressed in fresh clothes, but still barefoot. What was it with her and boots? Her hair was pulled back from her face, but I wished it wasn’t. This made her look too serious, like she might never smile again. Not that I’d seen her smile much yet anyway unless she was mocking me.

  “How?” I frowned. “I don’t want you pushing yourself too hard.”

  “You need to know what he saw,” she said, hurrying forward. “And I know seers only see what comes to them, but maybe if I touch his hand? I might be able to see the past? Or at least see if whatever attacked him is coming for anyone else?”

  “Are you sure this won’t harm you?” I glanced from my wounded scout to Sabella; she appeared to be fine, but I wasn’t sure what this would do to her. She was fragile in my mind; she said it herself she wasn’t mentally stable. “What if you get trapped in another one of these visions of yours?”

  “Then I get trapped, but if there’s a chance I can see something that helps you, that’s why I’m here, right?”

  “That’s not reassuring, Sabella,” I growled.

  She smirked. Actually, smirked at me. “As nice as your worry is, rather than your threats, you don’t have a choice. You want to find your friends, right? I think I know how to find some better answers for you, maybe give a bit more insight.”

  She stepped next to the scout and started to reach for his hand but stopped short.

  “Tristan? Do you mind?” Her cheeks blushed as she said it, holding out her hand other for mine.

  I felt Forrest’s and every other set of eyes watching me closely as I took her hand without thought. A strange calming sensation filled me, and I squeezed her hand as she rested hers over the scout’s. He let out a deep, steady breath as she closed her eyes, scrunching her face. I had no idea how this would work, never having witnessed a seer touch someone to get a vision, but then she bent over double and her grip on mine constricted enough to hurt.

  I didn’t let go, moving closer to hold her in case she collapsed completely. I held my breath, waiting.

  The seconds ticked by and I was ready to try and pull her out of it, but Lucy shot me a stern look.

  “Interrupting her might make it worse,” she warned, and I took a deep breath to steel my nerves.

  Then the air grew heavy in the room, and it became hard to breathe.

  Whatever happened in those few seconds drew a scream from Sabella. Then she was thrown back into my arms, taking us both to the floor in a heap and the air returned to normal. Her eyes fluttered open as I held her face, waiting for her to glare at me, anything.

  “Sabella? What happened?”

  Her mouth worked, but no sound came out, not at first. “He, uh… I’m not even sure what I saw.”

  “What do you mean?” I asked, getting us both back to our feet.

  “There was a maze of stone. And the writing, it was weird, but then there was a… a statue? Its eyes were red and it came alive,” she whispered, closing her eyes as if to try and remember more. “Then it gets fuzzy, and he’s running through the trees to try and get back to you. And the screams,” she added, trembling. “I heard them dying.”

  “Thank you for doing this,” I whispered, and she barely managed a nod. “Lucy? Can you see her back to her room?” I turned to Boris and Forrest. “We’re heading out, one hour.”

  “Wait, you’re leaving?” Sabella snapped. “To go there?” No, you can’t. Are you insane or do you just have a death wish? You can’t leave. She looked at Forrest. “Don’t listen to him.”

  Clenching my jaw, I reminded myself how little she knew of this world, but that didn’t make it any better.

  “We don’t have a choice,” I argued, knowing everyone watched us. “Come with me.” I grabbed her arm and dragged her out of the room, into a more private alcove. “And you cannot challenge me like that in front of my people. Do you understand how dangerous that is?”

  She rolled her eyes. “Seriously? Tristan, I’m not telling you that to challenge you or anything. I’m trying to save your life.”

  “It’s my duty to go. There’s no arguing this.”

  “Did you see those wounds he had?” She grabbed my hand to drag me back when I started to walk away. “If you go, that could happen to you. Is that what you want?”

  I tugged my hand free. “No, but if Kate and Craig are there, if they’re being harmed by this beast who killed my scouts, they’re running out of time. I will not bring back their dead bodies because I was too scared to face this danger.”

  “Scared? What are you getting at? I never said you were, but maybe you should be.”

  I scoffed, backing further away. “I’m happy you seem to be doing better, but you have no idea what you’re meddling with.”

  “Of course, I don’t, you idiot. I just found out I was a damned seer and that all of this exists. Where are you going?”

  I didn’t stop, didn’t reply.

  Seers. They were always trouble. No matter what I thought I felt for her, at the end of the day, all that mattered was getting back Craig and Kate, as well as protecting my own. If Sabella got in the way of that, she’d find herself locked up in that room for good. Two people challenging me in one day made my hackles rise, and I was in the mood to find something to tear apart with my claws.

  “Let’s go,” I growled as I passed the infirmary. “Hank, you’re to keep an eye on our guest while I’m gone.”

  Hank bowed his head as Forrest and the others going with me exited the room.

  I waited to hear Sabella yelling after me again, but she remained silent. It would’ve been nice to have someone see me off on such a dangerous quest, but I’d survive. That’s what I did. Held onto my throne and survived.

  “What did Sabella have to say?”
Forrest asked as we mounted our horses, preparing to leave.

  “Nothing important.”

  “From the lines on your forehead, I’d say she’s got you all twisted around.”

  “She’s challenging me in front of my pack.”

  Forrest looked like he wanted to laugh, but thought better of it. “Look, she’s new to this world. She doesn’t understand what your pack is or how it functions. Give her a chance.”

  “I am,” I muttered, flicking the reins of my horse to get us moving. “She’s no longer chained up.”

  “Not sure that counts,” he began, but we were moving and whatever else he wanted to say or was saying was drowned out by the thundering hooves of the horses.

  Our group rode out through the gate, and I forced myself not to turn back and look to see if Sabella watched. She could do what she liked while I was gone. Hank would stop her from leaving, or at least from getting into trouble. Maybe she’d see something else that could help us, aside from another vision of Craig behind bars, or Kate screaming in pain.

  I trusted Hank not to let the situation with her get too out of hand. The last thing I needed was the entire realm to hear about a seer at the castle. I’d have more challengers than I could count before I could properly explain why she was there and why I was working with her. It was hard enough for me to agree to work with her without assuming the worst would come of it.

  She might not be working with or for this new enemy, but until she figured out her place in this world, she was still an unknown.

  I didn’t do well with unknowns.

  10

  Sabella

  Don’t challenge me,” I mumbled, storming down the hall of the castle, not even sure where I was headed. “Challenge you, I’ll challenge you all I want. Stuck up furball.”

  I got a few sharp looks from the guards I passed but I smiled at them brightly. Tristan told Hank to watch me, but I had no idea where he was, and frankly I didn’t care.

  Lucy was in the infirmary, seeing to the wounded scout. Those injuries, I couldn’t see a sword causing them, and apparently that was the main weapon used in this world. Realm, whatever they wanted to call it.

  “Not that you even know what a sword wound would look like,” I reminded myself.

  I must’ve walked through the entire second floor of the castle and not seen a single bit of modern technology. It was weird, considering they spoke like I did, acted like modern day people. So why not have modern advances to go along with it? Everything was fires and swords.

  Probably terrible health, too. I was going to catch something. Then I’d be the crazy, infected seer running around terrorizing everyone instead of just being crazy.

  Though lately, I was feeling less and less crazy. Stable, actually. It was odd. I worried the moment Tristan left the castle, I’d fall apart again, but it was like I built up a tolerance of some kind to the visions every time I was around him. As if a bit of him lingered around me, kept my head on straight.

  I took a right at the next hall and found myself down the same one where my room was. Being in there just reminded me of that fact he had the nerve to chain me up. And that chain was still in there, waiting like a snake to sneak up around my leg again.

  Nope, not going in there.

  Humming under my breath as I focused on anything but Tristan riding off straight into danger and getting himself killed, I wandered further down until the corridor split again. I made another right, then a left, letting my feet guide me. It was weird, as if I followed some unseen path on the floor.

  I finally came to a stop when the hall ended at a set of dark wood double doors. Without even touching them, I knew what was beyond.

  “Tristan’s rooms,” I whispered, glancing around to make sure I was alone.

  I’d been a snooper back at the asylum, but half the time I thought I was searching for magical trinkets and drinks that would allow me to fly up to the stars.

  I smiled sadly, thinking of all those days spent locked up when my visions could’ve been helping people.

  Dr. Tim and Nurse Beth were probably freaking out right now, wondering what happened to me. Would I ever get to see them again? Should I send them a message and let them know I found my place? Sort of?

  “Be nice if I’d found my people when coming here,” I mumbled, running my hand along the door. “Should I, or shouldn’t I?”

  There were no guards in sight, and how else was I supposed to get to know my captor—I mean my new friend—without doing a little snooping? He said it himself, I didn’t understand how this world worked. He was so worried about his people seeing him scared, or having someone talk back to him, there had to be a better reason than that; he was the king, right?

  My hand traveled to the wrought iron handle, I expected to find it locked, but when I pushed down, the door opened a crack.

  I was about to go inside when I heard steps hurrying up behind me.

  Quickly, I pulled it shut again and rushed to stand by the nearest window, hoping it looked like all I’d been doing was innocently admiring the countryside.

  The man, or wolf I guessed—Hank?—spotted me and frowned, rushing to my side.

  “Sabella, what are you doing up here near the king’s chambers?”

  “Huh?” I looked around me, pretending I was confused. “Oh! Sorry, I didn’t even realize where I was. Just trying to figure out my way around, got a little lost.”

  “Yes, well, why don’t you come with me and I’ll take you to the hall,” he suggested, gently pulling me with him and way from Tristan’s rooms. “We’ll be eating soon, and I’m sure you’re famished.”

  “Yes, yes, I am.” I smiled brightly as we walked, admiring the old tapestries hanging on the walls. Each depicted a great wolf, just like Tristan. Some were of a whole group, howling together at the moon. I giggled a bit. “Is this true?”

  “Which part?”

  “The howling at the moon?”

  We paused to stare at the tapestry together, and his lip twitched. He appeared young, maybe younger than Tristan which seemed odd since I was having a hard time believing he was around my age and the king.

  “We are shifters, wolves,” he said as if that explained everything. “What I mean is, we are a pack, and our realm, the one Tristan is king of, is made up of several other packs. The howling at the moon? Not true, at least, not usually,” he added with a laugh. “And we obviously don’t have to wait for a full moon to shift.”

  “So, you’re not werewolves?”

  Hank scowled at me, and I tried not to laugh.

  “No, we are not those monsters from human lore, though regrettably that is where they got the idea from.” He ran his hand over the tapestry before turning and motioned for us to keep moving. “I understand how strange this is to an outsider.”

  “I grew up in a very, very isolated place,” I explained. “I could barely navigate the human world, let alone a pack of wolves, or dragons, or whatever else might be here.”

  “Elves and demons,” he supplied helpfully.

  I sighed.

  “You’ll get the hang of it.”

  “Yeah, sure,” I said, trying to picture him and all the others in a pack. I stopped mid-step as a light bulb went off inside my head. “That’s why he got so grouchy. Huh.”

  “Grouchy?” he asked in a tone that indicated he would never get caught calling Tristan grouchy.

  “Yeah, I was trying to warn him about heading out before he understood what killed those scouts, but he—uh, he got a little testy with me. Thought I was calling him a coward.”

  He sucked in a harsh breath. “You never challenge him, not in front of others.”

  “I’m starting to get that, I think.” We reached a set of stone steps, and I shook my head. “Nope, I don’t get it, not really.”

  “Tristan is not just a king,” he explained as we descended the steps. “He is our alpha.”

  “Bit young to be alpha,” I mused.

  Hank shrugged. “Eighty-seven i
s young to some, but it’s not unheard of—what? Sabella?”

  I stuck a finger in my ear and wiggled it. “Sorry, thought you said he was eighty-seven.”

  “I did. He will be eighty-eight next month, unless of course, he gets himself killed on this quest of his.” He smiled up at me from a lower stair. “He’s young though. Shifters live to be hundreds of years old, thousands if they’re lucky.”

  That was certainly new information. So, he was an old man furball. I enjoyed that I had something new to give him crap about. “And seers?” I asked curiously. “What about them? Me?”

  “That is a question for a seer, or a witch. The sorcerers might know, perhaps,” he suggested. “Sadly, I do not.”

  “Right, so Tristan is the alpha,” I repeated back to him, his age helped me understand his hard-ass attitude versus the attitude someone who looked twenty should have. “And he what, had to fight someone else to get the throne?” Sounded harsh, but I thought that was how it worked.

  At the landing, we went left, and I tried to remember where we’d come from, but then Hank was talking again, and I didn’t want to miss anything he said.

  “Sometimes, but Tristan’s parents were able to step down and handed over the throne to him. It’s been in his line for generations. He did have challengers in the beginning, but he managed to prove himself a good alpha for us all.”

  “He what, fought them in hand to hand?”

  “Tooth and claw and sometimes, regrettably, depending on the challenger it’s to the death. It’s how it’s done,” Hank stated proudly. “But as I said, he won out every time there has been another wanting to take control of the pack.”

  I remembered the scar on Tristan’s shoulder, the one where he had no fur in his wolf form. “How many times has he been hurt during these fights?”

  “A few, some of them have been severe, but he’s strong.”

  “Yeah, I got that much figured out.”

  The rest of the walk to the hall was silent; I was wrapped in my thoughts about Tristan fighting off other wolves who thought they would be better rulers. Hank seemed content to watch me closely, as if afraid I’d suddenly take off on him, or try to attack him.