‘No, sir.’ The captain kept his eyes away from Winter’s gaze, at least this captain was covered in blood and sported several battle wounds. The last captain arrived before Winter without a drop of blood on him. Well, not until the Winter Tiger slit his throat.
‘The next Tiger who comes before me un-bloodied will be hung, drawn and quartered by me personally in this stinking hole. Do you understand!’ he had roared, failing to mask his rage. What good was a victory if he couldn’t revel in it over his enemy? He had ordered Star be taken alive, but the battle had descended into madness and very soon the notion of handpicking one Wolf was impossible. Winter knew that but wasn’t prepared to let his Tigers know how he understood the chaos of war sometimes took hold of even the most fastidious warrior.
‘Shall we keep looking?’ the captain had asked, shuffling away when Winter growled.
‘Still,’ the Winter Tiger strolled through the mushy streets of blood, mud and snow, ‘forty thousand dead in one night. Half their forces gone.’ Hitback had fallen in line beside him. ‘You played your part beautifully, dear friend. The Bear acted as instructed?’
Hitback nodded as he wiped a white rag around a gash on his left forearm. ‘It was as you said it would be.’
‘Excellent.’ Winter patted Hitback on his back. ‘You’ve truly proven yourself a worthy right-paw Tiger. Your loyalty and skill are beyond repute.’ Winter stopped walking and stared Hitback in the eye. ‘You have nothing to fear from me in future.’ It was a lie of course, but one that seemed to please the slightly taller Tiger, Hitback. ‘Now give me the gory details.’
‘He secured a half dozen tunnels away from the celebrations, ones he knew no one would find. Once he stormed out of the Bear’s hall he came and found me and before the scum knew what was happening we burst out of the tunnels.’
‘It sounds delightful, such a pity I didn’t arrive in time. I believe you have some more good news for me?’
Hitback nodded. ‘We have captured a few high-value targets for you.’
‘Fabulous, take me to them.’
Before the crumbling ruins of the former House of Bears stood no less than two hundred Tigers, a large circle, weapons all pointed inwards at the captives who had been bound together. The Winter Tiger immediately recognised the Red Lion, despite the blood and gore cake all over his once resplendent armour and mane. Tied up beside him was a dark Wolf whose muzzle was set in a snarl, but his tearful eyes gave him away, one of Star Wolf’s friends, Winter couldn’t recall his name. He did however recognise the lifeless old Wolf tied up next to the younger Wolf, Ash, and judging by the smell of him he’d perished since his captivity.
And finally, a stunning young Wolf with a gruesome shoulder injury that had been shoddily patched up.
‘A female no less?’ Winter uttered as he moved forward to examine her.
‘Her name is Sky,’ said Hitback, the name was familiar to Winter. ‘She’s Star’s mate if Kodiak’s reports are true.’
‘You leave her alone!’ the Red Lion struggled with the iron fetters and thick rope binding him to the dirt. ‘She needs help! What kind of monsters are you?’
‘You’ve gone soft, Red, I think your memory is failing you. How did you treat your prisoners back in the Apex days?’ the Winter Tiger pressed.
‘We didn’t keep any!’
‘Exactly.’ The Winter Tiger edged closer, just out of reach of a flailing boot. ‘So, tell me who is the more barbaric species; the one who kills? Or the one who allows the possibility of a future?’
The Red Lion pursed his lips but remained silent.
‘That is Star’s wench!’ Kodiak’s clumsy steps had given him away a good thirty seconds prior to his arrival. Winter couldn’t fathom at such an oaf being a legendary warrior, and to think some circles regarded this buffoon as a match to Winter’s prowess. Fools.
‘Indeed.’ Winter turned toward the Bear. ‘Congratulations, Kodiak. All hail our treacherous friend!’ The circle of Tigers chuckled, Steelclaw, Oakenclaw, Hitback and Blackfire had joined the group and all hovered a few metres behind Kodiak. Winter’s death squad were always ready to pounce, and the majority of them craved the request to do so. ‘How does it feel to have betrayed your own kind? To have betrayed those that named you in their Band of Breeds?’
Kodiak snarled, squaring his shoulders. He winced a little on account of a nasty-looking gash on his upper arm. His armour was coated in scratches and scorch marks, the Bear had taken a beating from someone. The Red Lion most likely. ‘I have saved my own kind.’ The Bear bellowed, spinning to address every Tiger, such a foolish move, ‘And as for the Band of Breeds, I spit on them,’ he hacked up phlegm onto the wet ground, ‘they are nothing to me. You, the Tigers are my brothers and the army I chose to join and fight alongside.’
‘Who said anything about joining us?’
Kodiak spun around and Winter got a final glance at the Bear’s idiotic wide eyes before he severed the Bear’s head in one rapid swish of his Serpent’s Blade. Kodiak, the Great Bear incarnate was dead before he even saw the pulsating, glowing red blade decapitate him. The Winter Tiger picked up the bulbous head and tossed it at the Red Lion’s feet, ‘a teammate of yours I believe.’
The Red Lion’s tear-filled eyes showed a broken legend.
‘Now,’ the Winter Tiger roared triumphant, ‘find me Star Wolf!’
THE GENTLE RIPPLE OF death was kinder than Star had anticipated. He floated along on a raft made up of nothing more than twigs and long strips of fur, Bear from the smell of them. Strange that a raft taking him to the underground world of the House of Lupus, the resting place of all dead Wolves, should be made up of Bear hair and not Wolf.
And the punter of his raft was a Badger no less.
‘This makes no sense,’ Star muttered.
‘Ssshhh,’ the Badger put an index claw to its mouth, ‘we’re not away from the House of Bears yet. Get some rest Star Wolf.’
Star had wanted to fight the request but was too tired, too cold and too heartbroken to disobey the strangely familiar Badger ferrying him off to the afterlife.
Notes
I hope you have enjoyed the latest novel in my series, Songs of Star & Winter, as much as I have writing, creating this world and telling the story. There is much more to come...
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The Winter Tiger Page 19