by Amelia Jade
Unspoken, they all increased their pace from that of a jog to a long, loping run, covering round with huge bounds. It was imperative that they get the warning out as soon as possible.
“Lance Corporal Ruttager,” he called. “Full speed back to camp. Have Major Eidelhorn assemble all command staff immediately. Code Black, my authority.”
“Yes, sir!” The shifter didn’t pause to salute, but instead leaned forward and took off in a flat-out sprint, quickly leaving the rest of them behind.
Aksel regretted not being able to move faster, but Nina had the information they needed, and she couldn’t move on her own.
The question running through his mind was: just how long did they have before Fenris was able to use that information?
Chapter Fourteen
Nina
“…and now they know where the entrance is,” she finished, looking out over the assembled command team.
“Well shit,” one of them muttered.
“Exactly,” Major Eidelhorn said. “Shit indeed. Sound the recall, get as many men back here as possible. We’re heading out in twenty minutes, not a second later.”
He turned back to her and Aksel. “I need you to show me the entrance and end-point of the shaft.” His arm extended, beckoning to another. “Andrew, get over here.”
Andrew Raskell, the gryphon shifter who had rescued her and Aksel from the first ambush, stepped forward from the back of the room.
“Why me?”
“You’re going to send word back to Cadia, just in case they don’t sense the urgency of my phone call,” he said. “Now, where is this thing?”
Nina turned, looking at the large map of Cloud Lake, Cadia, and the surrounding area. She moved east of the human town to the chain of mountains, known as the Quicksilver Range. Following the ridge she dredged up her memory of the entrance to the shaft.
“Here,” she said, pointing at a particular mountain, about a third of the way up. “It’s here, hidden by rockfall. The only way we found in was by climbing up and around, and then rappelling our way into it. Coming down the mountain you can see the hole, but going up it, if you didn’t know it was there, you’d never see it.”
“And where does it terminate?” Andrew asked.
Nina looked at the map of Cadia. It was far more detailed than any she’d ever seen of their homeland, but the spot on it she needed was easy to find.
“Right here.” She stabbed her finger down on a little clump of trees and squiggly lines marking a rise in the terrain level.
“Holy shit,” Andrew said. “That’s in our backyard.”
“It is. Now, get flying, full speed. You must warn them. If they break through, they’ll be inside the town within minutes, well before we can mount any sort of response. I doubt they’ll use it for a full-scale invasion, but an extremely powerful raid could end this war before it truly begins.”
The gryphon shifter took one last look at the map, and then fled from the room. There were shouts and more than one body hitting the wall as it sounded like he bulldozed his way outside.
“What do we do now?” she asked.
“We assemble the men, and we get there in time to prevent Fenris from succeeding,” the major said. “Lieutenant, see to your team. They’re in charge of protecting Miss Palerno here. Understood?”
Aksel bristled. “Sir, she’s still healing from the injuries inflicted on her, and she doesn’t know the first thing about combat. She should be staying here.”
Nina opened her mouth to reply, but Captain Klein interjected first, even before Major Eidelhorn.
“Think, Aksel. I understand how you’re feeling. I truly do, believe me,” the captain said, and Nina got the distinct impression he was talking from recent experience. “But pointing to a location on a map is good enough to get us to the right area. It is not good enough in a situation like this, and you know it.”
Aksel looked unhappy, but he couldn’t argue.
“At least she’s under your protection, so you can stay with her the entire time,” Captain Klein said. “Now, Lieutenant, take Miss Palerno, and get your squad ready.”
“We’re ready now, sir. They were with me the entire way. What can we do to help?”
Captain Klein paused, looking at the map.
“Take the next squad to be ready, and head out under Nina’s guidance. Scout out the way. Leave a man from the other squad every mile and change to guide us in. Wait for backup before doing anything stupid, such as attacking anybody. Is that understood?”
“Yes, sir,” Aksel said, and turned to her. “How are you feeling?”
“I need food,” she said bluntly.
“Come on. We’ll get you some ration bars to eat as we run. My men and I will take turns carrying you until you’re feeling up to running with us. It’s going to seem like a grueling, insane pace to you, but to us it’ll be normal. Once you start to run, you’ll understand what I mean.”
She grinned as they left the room, his hand automatically finding hers as he pulled her along. It still pained her a bit to walk now, but she was getting better at a rate that astonished her.
***
“Okay, let’s move out!” Aksel said to the twenty-four men that formed his new team.
Nina tried to hide a proud look as she realized her man—and there was no longer any doubt between them that they belonged to each other—was moving up the ranks before her very eyes. He was a good leader, and she was glad to see him being recognized for it.
The way his squad looked at him now, she could tell they were proud of their “Boss” as well.
Aksel took her in his arms even as she bit down onto another of the bland, but energizing ration bars. When she’d finished the first one, the burst of energy that had begun to move through her had been shocking. Nina had never felt this alive. She’d asked if this was how Aksel felt on a normal basis, and he’d told her that she was just getting started. Several more in her system would begin to show her the true reality of being a shifter.
One hand helping hold herself up around his neck, she let herself be carried out through the streets and into the countryside beyond.
She just hoped they weren’t too late already.
***
Aksel
Aksel slowed the pace as his forward scout held up a hand and came to an immediate halt.
All around him, the remaining members, now only fifteen strong including Nina, also came to a stop. By now she had been walking on her own, able to keep up with them at that speed. Running was still a bit too much of an impact for her, but walking she was managing easily. The ration bars had done wonders for her energy, and he smiled once more as he recalled her initial wonder at the changes going on in her body as it recovered.
He moved forward to where his point man was now crouched. They were moving cross-country, and had been for the past mile and a half as they closed in on the base of the mountain.
“What do you see?” he asked, not saying a word as Nina came up alongside them as well, the three of them peering up over the ridge.
“I think you should see for yourself sir,” the scout, one of the men from the other squad, said. His voice was taut.
Aksel raised his head just enough to see beyond, and felt his throat grow dry.
“How the hell did we miss all this?” he cursed.
Beyond them lay the remains of a camp. A very large camp. Trees had been taken down and space cleared under the canopy. Shifters didn’t need tents, but there were cooking fires easily visible spaced throughout it, and other facilities as well.
“How many do you think, three hundred maybe?” he asked.
“At least. If I had to put my life on it, which I guess I do, I’d say maybe closer to four?”
Aksel swore.
“What is it?” Nina asked.
“Our entire contingent within Cloud Lake is three hundred at best, and maybe only two hundred of those are trained combat shifters. With the hasty departure, I doubt we can get more than two hu
ndred and fifty here in time to do any good. Are we far from the entrance point?”
“No, not far. They must have known it was around here somewhere,” she said. “But how?”
Aksel thought for a moment. “You said you went out there with two others. Perhaps they got one of them?”
Nina shook her head. “No, they’re both still back in Cloud Lake. I talked to one of them just yesterday. Charlotte didn’t mention anything, and Carl wasn’t the type to share. I don’t think he even knew what we’d found. He was just there to get us in and out.”
“Well, they must have found out somehow. Right now, that doesn’t matter,” Aksel said. “We need to keep moving. I don’t see any sign of activity down there. I think they’re gone.”
“Agreed,” the scout said.
Aksel motioned for the rest of the squad to come forward, and together they crept down through the camp, careful to keep an eye out for any guards posted to watch the rear areas.
The ground started sloping upward, and the men slowed their pace even more, until they were creeping through the trees and other undergrowth that dotted the mountainside.
“Are we close?” Aksel said, speaking into her ear so that the sound wouldn’t travel.
Nina nodded, and he felt her breath wash over him as she put her lips to his ear.
“Just past these trees, it should open up into a big clearing. Whenever the mineshaft was built, the people cleared out a lot of area around it.”
He nodded, motioning his team to a stop, while he and Nina and the other scout eased their way forward, eyes sharp for any signs of sentries.
Aksel froze as he saw movement, going immediately still. Through the trees he could see a figure walking slowly through the snow, his eyes sweeping around as he surveyed the terrain.
Beyond him was a pile of rocks. To the left of them, a path had been worn into the snow, beaten down by hundreds of shifters.
They were too late. The Fenris force had already found the location and moved inside.
Shit.
All of his instincts screamed at Aksel to get in there, to slow them down. But he only had fourteen people at his command. He’d left another one back at the camp. Until reinforcements arrived, his team was so badly outnumbered it wasn’t funny.
He desperately wished he knew that word had gotten to Cadia in time. If it had, then the Guardians would have summoned dragons and would have them ready to wipe the Fenris shifters out of existence when they breached ground.
Which meant his team here could have killed the sentries and caused a cave in, trapping the entire force underground.
But he didn’t know that, which meant he had to sit back and wait.
Cursing silently, he ordered his team to retreat a safe distance, where they could wait for Major Eidelhorn and the rest of the Green Bearets.
Analyze Twice, Fight Once.
That was the motto of the Green Bearets, and Aksel knew that this wasn’t a fight he could win on his own.
He would have to wait for reinforcements.
***
The rest of the Green Bearets from Cloud Lake weren’t far behind.
Less than twenty minutes after his team discovered the cave entrance, Captain Klein arrived at the head of his company, with word that Captain Korver and the Second Assault Company were mere seconds behind them.
Five minutes later, Major Eidelhorn and the reserves arrived.
It was time to begin the assault.
As he and his squad had been the first there, and were the most intimate with the area around the mine entrance, Aksel was tasked with leading the assault.
“Good luck,” Nina said, leaning in and giving him a rather sensual kiss on the cheek.
He tried not to smile as several of the others cast jealous looks his way. She was all his, he thought.
I am all hers.
“I’m coming back to you,” he promised fiercely, though they both knew that the realities of combat meant there was a decent chance he might not. Aksel was good at what he did, having been through the best training program in the shifter world.
But there were a lot of shifters down that hole, and he had no idea what was going to happen to him. The odds were not in the Green Bearets’ favor, but neither could they abort. Cadia was in danger, and they were the closest reaction force.
By that time Andrew, flying at full speed, should have reached the Guardians’ Headquarters within Cadia, warning any and all available about what was coming, but whether they would be able to assemble a reaction force in time was unknown. The Guardians were essentially the joint command for the elite shifters of all races, dedicated to protecting Cadia and patrolling its borders. Much of its strength was not centered in the town itself.
Fenris had caught them with their pants down, and the situation was rather more dire than he cared to admit to her. All that aside, however, there were still certain things that had to be said before one went into battle, and telling the woman he loved that he would come back to her was one of them.
Nina would be staying back with the rear guard, thankfully, so he wouldn’t have to worry about her in the brutal close-quarters fighting that was to come. In the mineshaft their bears would be more of a hindrance than a help, due to their size. So the fight would come down to hand-to-hand combat.
A lot of shifters were going to die that day.
“Move out,” he ordered quietly, and his two squads—the men he’d left behind had rejoined him as the main body arrived—moved forward through the thinning underbrush, seeking out the sentries they had located earlier.
With hand motions he indicated he wanted his second squad to circle around to the right, while his squad would go left, fanning out until they formed a giant arc.
Two minutes later, he charged from the underbrush and across the open distance at the startled sentries.
All around him other shifters burst forward, and the guards that Fenris had left behind were simply overwhelmed with targets, unable to react to what was going on as twenty-four irate Cadian shifters came at them like a solid wall.
“Clear!” he called out behind him, even as his squads reformed around him and began to proceed into the mineshaft.
Behind them the sunlight faded. They didn’t descend into complete darkness, however. It would appear that the invaders were extremely prepared. Flashlights hung from carabiners every twenty or so feet, pinned to the ceiling by pitons normally used for climbing the cliffs outside.
With the way ahead of them clearly visible with their enhanced vision, his team moved quickly. The tunnel floor sloped downward at a twenty or twenty-five degree angle, moving them swiftly into the bowels of the mountain even as they began to move toward Cadia itself.
Aksel marveled at the impressiveness of what the Fenris shifters had accomplished. Although he wasn’t sure how long a head start they’d had after getting the information they needed from Nina, it couldn’t have been more than an hour, two at absolute max.
In that time, however, they’d not only found the mine entrance, but also moved their entire force into it, while pausing to light the way by driving hundreds, if not thousands, of flashlights into the ceiling.
Whoever was in command of this was one organized leader.
He vowed to ensure that whoever it was did not go free. Cadia didn’t need that sort of military leader opposing it any longer.
“Faster,” he urged, and his men began to run. The shaft was almost laser straight, with very few twists and no outright turns in it. He could see a long ways into the distance thanks to the markers left behind, but there was still no sign of their quarry.
“How fast did these guys move through here?” one of his men asked, clearly thinking along the same lines.
“No idea, but I think the fact that we still haven’t caught up to them is a bad sign indeed.”
“Why?” another shifter asked from behind them as their feet pounded heavily on the ground.
If they weren’t spotted as they came on, it
was certain they would be heard well before they came upon their foes. That was okay with Aksel though. In fact, he was encouraging it by not keeping quiet. The more noise they made the better. He wanted Fenris to think a veritable army was charging down on them, not a mere 221 shifters.
“Because it means that they’re coordinated and efficient. They managed to get three or four hundred shifters through here without issue,” he explained, trying to instill into his men the need for them to think critically about what they saw, not just make plain observations.
Without warning the mineshaft ended and the two dozen shifters poured out into a massive cavern.
Aksel looked around, momentarily awed by the sight. Spotlights illuminated the roof, far above, where huge stalactites the size of school busses hung down, some of them tapering to a point mere feet from the ground.
Others ended higher simply because of the stalagmites that jutted up from the floor of the cavern to meet them, forming a sort of hourglass shape.
The walls sparkled as they reflected the light, and it took Aksel a second to realize that they weren’t alone.
“Look sharp!” he snapped as his eyes focused on the far side of cavernous area.
Dozens of heads were slowly turning to look at them as it became clear the newcomers were not friendlies.
Aksel swallowed hard. There were a lot of shifters out there. From their body shapes and strides he saw plenty of bears, but also wolves, leopards, and even some tigers mixed in. No heavies, thank goodness.
“Forward,” he said, his voice a growl as behind them the main body came charging down the tunnel, pouring out into the cavern and spreading out, enlarging the Cadian line.
As shifter after shifter came through, Aksel felt his confidence begin to grow. They could do this. Captain Klein stepped up alongside him, his huge presence, like Aksel’s, standing just a bit above their comrades.
There was a shuffle of dirt, and Major Eidelhorn appeared on his other flank.
Aksel bared his teeth at the Fenris shifters. The odds were turning. They were still vastly outnumbered, but Aksel knew his men were worth two of Fenris’s best any day, and the First Assault Company under Captain Klein were some of the best of the best the Green Bearets had to offer.