Under the Wolf's Shadow

by A. Katie Rose

  Tenzin’s expression darkened. “Kill them!” he screamed.

  Somehow Alun’s arrow did miss. As though struck by a high wind, the shot veered off to Tenzin’s left and vanished. Alun cursed, but I saved my breath. No one had to tell me his god-king deflected Alun’s incredibly accurate bolt. In a silent horde, the Tongu and their mutts raced downhill. From behind the daemon’s wings, ugly, tattooed men and their uglier hounds ran down to meet us.

  Seizing a handful of Mikk’s mane, I vaulted aboard. At last, Tenzin realized his crucial mistake. We didn’t need saddles or bridles to fight from horseback. From the hilltop, he shouted his commands. My glee soared as my boys, mounted on the broad, bare backs of their stallions, exploded in every direction. Riding hard, they ripped into the ranks of men on foot. Shrill yipping, strangely reminiscent of Li’s tribal war-cries, filled the winter morning. Tor, aboard his grey mare, screamed like a wild man, his heels pressed hard into the grey flanks. The mare, while not battle trained, knew enough by now to respond to him and raced alongside her larger brothers. His hands, silver lightning, nocked arrow after arrow and felled every Tongu he aimed for.

  Corwyn, with no bow and only his sword, charged his ugly roan into the fight, slicing heads from necks, arms from shoulders, cutting and slashing. Age held no power over sheer skill. All the years of training the best gladiators in Khalid showed as Corwyn swung his blade and slew. Blood drenched his gelding from eyes to withers. White Fang’s white fangs dripped red with the gore of both men and mutts.

  In a swift attack, my boys fired arrow after arrow, dropping Tongu assassins in their snow-bound tracks. Their wolves outraced their horses, slamming into the slavering hounds like boulders rolling down a hill. Hounds yelped in shrill terror as their necks and backs split asunder under the glistening fangs. Even outnumbered, every wolf killed at least three hounds. More limped or crawled out of harm’s way, critically injured. As many tattooed assassins bled from sword or arrow strike, screamed for aid that never came.

  The first rank of Tongu and dogs died under our assault, or took themselves from the battle. The others fell back, regrouping, heeding Tenzin’s orders to reform their lines. I’d no need to thus order my boys. To a man, they turned their horses and galloped back a hundred rods. In a loose group they nocked arrows to bows, flicked blood from the edges of their swords.

  With their knees, my boys wheeled their mounts to charge again. Yelling, screaming war-cries, they galloped hard. My turn. I think Tenzin and I should meet face to face. I’ll certainly enjoy telling him a thing to two. I kicked Mikk, sending him forward into battle. Rather than lunge forward, he reared, his front hooves flailing.

  What the– Almost unseated, I seized a handful of his mane before I slid unceremoniously over his rump. Raine, in human form, stood directly in his path. Unwilling to charge over him, Mikk climbed high. Dammit, Raine, get out of my way.

  Raine’s weird, cold grey eyes looked at me, looked into me. His handsome lips smiled.

  “Protect my sister and my son,” he pleaded, his tone soft.

  I want to fight, I wanted to say, my hair in my face as I spun my head to look at an all but defenseless Arianne. Tuatha, still tightly clasped to her small belly, filled Rufus’ withers. While he may fight for her, he was but one stallion. I glanced up, seeing the many Tongu assassins and hounds yet unfought. Despite our improved odds, they were still stacked against us.

  “The fight will come to you,” Raine said softly. “I promise.”

  I jerked my head once, in a nod.

  “Darkhan, Ghost,” Raine barked. “Digger, Thunder. You all protect them. Tashira, you too.”

  At his command, those four summoned instantly wheeled, breaking off the attack. They ran toward us, muzzles bloodied, heavy ruffs dripping. Ghost, more red than white, shook blood from her face and neck in a feminine need for cleanliness.

  “But–” Tashira began.

  “Do it, brother,” Raine asked, his voice soft. “And I count us even.”

  I met Tashira’s liquid eyes, dark red in battle readiness, fierce and proud. Go on, I wanted to say, I’ll be fine. Yet the words choked me and I said nothing. ‘Twas Tashira’s decision, not mine.

  “Very well,” he said. “Save some for me?”

  “Promise.”

  “Shardon, stay with Rygel. If he doesn’t need you, well, do what you do best.”

  “Humpf,” Shardon snorted, miffed. “That was clear.”

  “Is this clearer? ‘Kill anything that isn’t on our side’.”

  “Much better,” he replied, rolling his eyes. “Very precise. Your will is my command, o fearless leader.”

  Raine flashed a quick grin, there and gone, and saluted Shardon. He, with Silverruff at his side, changed forms once more. Like a tremendously huge black shadow, he galloped up the eastern bluff, his intent clear. He wanted Tenzin.

  “Dammit if he wasn’t right,” Rygel fumed, on foot, no sword in his hand.

  “What?” I asked, rattled by Raine’s request and the appearance of four deadly wolves to gather around us.

  “Tenzin,” he snapped, running his hands through his snarled mane of yellow hair. “I’ve been trying every magical trick I can think of and nothing has worked.”

  My spit dried to dust. “No magic?”

  “Nothing that I can use directly.” Rygel grinned up at me. I swear I saw a viper smiling at me. “That’s not to say I still can’t kill them.”

  “Now you’re confusing me.”

  “Hold onto your horses,” he ordered tersely. “This calls for dragon fire.”

  I gripped Mikk’s mane, albeit unnecessarily. Rygel’s red-brown hawk swooped into the air, wheeling and diving, rising high into the early morning light. Midflight, he changed. Where a small raptor I could hold on my wrist dipped and circled, a dragon now flew. His immense shadow darkened the bright morning sunlight into deep shadow. Ice and snow melted instantly under the fierce heat of his flames as he roared his challenge. I stared in wonder and no small envy as Rygel banked up and around, yellow-orange flames belting from his throat. Jaws agape, his rank upon rank of backward curving teeth glistened under the sunlight.

  Who said the Tongu were brave? Almost half of Tenzin’s men stood in shock and gaped at the sight wheeling low overhead. Rygel, true to his decree that he not kill with magic, killed with sheer panic. Men and hounds saw him coming and scattered in every direction. His lethal breath set afire trees and melted the ice and snow underfoot. They hadn’t any knowledge that Rygel was forbidden to kill them in this fashion. He drove them like sheep onto the arrows and swords of my Kel’Hallans.

  Fire belched from Raine even as he galloped, taking down hound after hound, slaying every Tongu within reach of his fangs. Where Rygel’s flames merely incited panic, Raine’s power burned every living thing before him.

  An entire rank of Tongu assassins and their dogs vanished.

  My joy warred with my disappointment. Crap. At this rate, I won’t get to fight anyone.

  “I’m off to kill things,” Shardon said with a toss of his silver mane. “Watch your back, brother.”

  “You, too.”

  The pair touched noses briefly. Whirling on his toes, Shardon raced across the bluff, his tail flagging high, to join Kel’Ratan, Corwyn and my boys in their killing spree. Between Raine’s fire and Rygel’s dragon, there weren’t many left to kill. Shardon chased a trio of Tongu over the hill as Tor’s busy hands shot arrows into those mutts who hadn’t yet fled. Several surviving Tongu banded together, raising their cudgels and committed suicide by charging into the knot of Kel’Ratan, Witraz and the twins.

  Tenzin vanished. Raine and Silverruff, under the assault of at least six or seven courageous hounds, fought and ripped through throats, broke bones, and smashed skulls. Near silence descended on the hilltop. Either dead or fled, no hound or hunter sought to engage either of them–for the moment. Raine, panting harshly, looked around as Silverruff trotted amongst the dead with his nose to the torn earth
, no doubt searching for any fakers.

  The daemon didn’t scream. In eerie silence, its wings lifted its huge, serpentine body into the sky. A dark cloud of roiling, oily smoke gathered in its wake. Despite Rygel’s assertion that such small wings could never carry it in flight, it rose ponderously at first. With altitude, it discovered grace and plunged low over the battlefield. The storm behind it intensified, green lightning no longer flickering, but stabbing downward to strike the ground. Snow burst up in showers.

  My heart seized in my chest as it beat toward Rygel, who yet stooped on panicked men and chased them over the hills. Lady have mercy, I thought, my throat dry. Can Rygel kill a daemon?

  Rygel broke off his flaming attack of the Tongu and banked up and over, his huge spade tail trailing behind. He’d seen the Tongu daemon-god and answered its silent challenge. His broad wings beating in swift rhythm, he hit the daemon with flame, talons and incredible courage. Surely no curse would follow him for slaying a daemon with his magic-induced form.

  “Ly’Tana?”

  Bar’s weary voice filled my head. I spun Mikk with my heel, kicking him toward my friend. I knew Rufus followed after and Tashira behind him as I listened to the hooves beat in a rhythm matching the rapid pace of my heart. “Bar? Are you all right?”

  “Can’t say.”

  Bar rose from the snow not far from our still flaming campfires, his wings dragging the ground. Though his four limbs kept him upright, his eagle’s head drooped on his neck and his once-fierce eyes were dull with shock. His proud lion tail dragged behind him, thumping against his hocks. His black-tipped ears lay slack against his head. “Feels like I’ve been hit by an avalanche.”

  “I can relate.”

  “Now I know how it feels. What happened to you.”

  “Quitcher bitchin’,” I snapped. “You’re alive, aren’t you?”

  Amusement glowed as he cocked a raptor eye at me. “Oh, you aren’t rid of me that easily.”

  My returning laughter died as I caught sight of the charging advance of Tongu hunters and their nasty, huffing hounds. Swords and cudgels clasped in their fists, their ugly mutts dripping saliva, I counted at least twenty that emerged from behind the nearest hillock and headed towards us. With Rygel occupied with their daemon god, their forces regrouped and made rapid plans. Beyond them, another swarm of assassins raised bows and sent a flight of arrows hissing into the cluster of my boys.

  “Arianne,” I warned, nocking my bow. “Hang on. Grab that mane and never let go.”

  Whether she obeyed me or not, I dared not look behind me to find out. I let arrow after arrow fly into the faces and throats of the approaching enemy. One by one they dropped to the bloody snow and didn’t rise, but I didn’t dare express triumph. Too many replaced those I shot and I’d only a few arrows left. My lightning-swift glance informed me my boys had also used their last arrows and fought the Tongu with swords and stallions, plunging deep into the midst of the massed force and churning the red-stained snow into mud.

  Darkhan and Ghost, side by side, broke right and charged into the faces of the menacing hounds. Tongu hunters raised clubs and swords, thinking a good solid clout or a swift stab would end the wolf attack. Digger ducked under a wild swing and took the Tongu down, his front paws on his chest and his fangs biting deeply into his throat. His tail low and his hindquarters bunched, he spun instantly, catching the next Tongu with a savage bite to his groin. Arterial blood spurted as the man staggered away, trying desperately to staunch his fatal wound.

  Thunder, slower than the others yet no less impressive, lunged at an assassin and brought down not only that one but the one behind him. Both died gasping, trying desperately to breathe through rent throats. Ghost may not be as big as the other wolves that followed their Chosen One, but she knew how to fight. Small and nimble, she dodged gaping muzzles of the hounds to spin on a toenail. Her sharp fangs and strong jaws broke hounds’ necks before they turned to bite her. She cut through throats and soft bellies of the enemy as though she held a razor in her paws. A Tongu sought to belt her across her unprotected back, only to find she wasn’t there on his downward swing. As she might hamstring a deer, she efficiently cut the man’s legs to pieces. He died with a short cry, his skull crushed under her powerful jaws.

  Darkhan followed after, almost clumsy in appearance as his mate’s savage attacks left him floundering in her wake. Not as quick as she, he still moved faster than either hounds or men on foot. By sheer weight alone, he broke the backs of three hounds, leaving them screaming silently and writhing in the bloody snow. He single-handedly slew two hunters, avoiding their slashing swords with a swift leap. His returning jump, aimed at the legs of the next pair of attackers rather than their chests, brought both down at the same time. Almost leisurely, he snapped their necks.

  As in any battle, some of the enemy broke through the first ranks of defenders. I almost sighed with boredom as the lightning fast hooves of Tashira met their attack. Like a black devil, Tashira plunged and kicked, bashing in one head after another with his deadly hooves. Men and hounds died in rapid succession, broken skulls and bodies bleeding into the once-pristine snow. How can anyone even think to harm either Arianne or me? Between Tashira and the four huge wolves, I fretted that I’d finish the battle without killing anyone else.

  Two did get past Tashira to my utter delight. His black-tipped ears flat, Mikk charged before I asked it of him. He reared, lunging forward, his hooves slashing downward. One black hoof crushed the skull of the Tongu and dropped him in his tracks. However, the other artfully dodged him and came at me, cudgel held high. His scarred and tattooed face a mask of fury and cold intent, he swung. My sword blocked his blow and hurled the club from his fingers. He stared up at me and blinked in utter surprise just as I stabbed him through his right eye.

  I yanked my blade from his skull, watching with no small satisfaction as his corpse slid into a heap at Mikk’s feet. I whipped it up and around, spinning blood and bits of brain from it.

  “Nice,” Bar remarked.

  “Thanks.”

  Taking a breather with this break in the attack, I swept my hair from my face and glanced about. My heart sank, instantly. Tenzin returned to his hilltop. With gestures and shouted orders, he sent yet another wave of Tongu and hounds down from the hill. I suspected we’d faced at least fifty men and hounds, by the numbers launched at the first attack wave. Most fled Rygel’s dragon fire while my boys and the wolves killed off the rest. He’d planned well, that evil bastard. No doubt, he anticipated we’d kill off his men. Thus Tenzin launched his reserve.

  Twice that number poured down from the hills, men charging into battle with swords, clubs, no few pausing to fire arrows before running on.

  “Where did he get so many men? And where did he hide them?”

  “Not a clue,” Tashira replied grimly. “Things will get interesting now.”

  My Kel’Hallans managed a respite just as I had. My heart sank further as they regrouped, ready to repel the next wave with empty quivers. My own held two remaining arrows, not nearly enough to combat those many enemies who yet ran toward us.

  Raine paused in his own break from the fighting, his tongue lolling and his grim eyes on Tenzin. By the number of dead around him, he’d killed at least a dozen hounds and ten men. Silverruff dispatched a wounded Tongu, slicing his throat open and killed a hound who, yelping silently, tried to flee. Even from a distance, I read Raine’s intent: kill the leader. Without him, the rest may quit the field. While I silently encouraged that idea, my heart knew the Tongu would fight on without him. For their king and god still commanded their lives and loyalty. As long as the daemon remained present, the assassins would fight to the death. Tenzin’s life mattered not.

  I glanced up, half-hoping to see Rygel chasing the snake across the sky. Unfortunately, the aerial battle waged on. Locked in combat, the dragon and the winged serpent tangled together in one mass. Like tomcats fighting one another for dominance, they twisted and tangled together, cl
awing, flaming, biting one another. If Rygel’s dragon flamed his enemy, his fire bounced off the serpent’s scaled hide. The daemon’s fangs failed to penetrate Rygel’s tough dragon skin. While they seemed equally matched, I knew Rygel would eventually grow tired and the daemon wouldn’t. Even as I watched, they dropped lower to the earth, their combined wings not enabling them to remain airborne. Within moments, the battle would be on the ground and not above us.

  “Pay attention,” Bar snapped. “They’re coming.”

  “I see them.”

  “I can fight.”

  I glanced over my shoulder. “Can you fly?”

  Bar’s beak widened in a griffin grimace. “No. My wings are wrenched but good. But I can slash and bite with the best.”

  “Pity,” I murmured. “An airborne attack might give us an edge.”

  “Don’t make me feel worse than I do.”

  “Not your fault,” I said firmly, nocking my second last arrow as yet another bunch of Tongu broke away from the pack and ran towards us. “Arianne, you good?”

  “I’m good,” she replied. “You’re not letting Rufus have any fun and he’s getting irritated.”

  “I’m thinking he’ll have plenty to kill this time around.”

  As Tashira flanked Rufus and Bar jumped toward me, his injured wings spread wide, Thunder, Digger, Darkhan and Ghost raced to meet the attacking Tongu and brindled hounds. Saving my limited ammunition, I stabbed and slashed those fools who eluded Mikk’s savage teeth and hooves with my sword in one hand and my dagger in the other. Occasionally I caught glimpses of Raine and Silverruff on the hilltop guarding one another’s vulnerable flanks. Like one being, they romped through the mass of men and mutts as though they slew large fish swimming slowly in a tiny, shallow pond. Raine appeared a huge dark moon with a silver-grey comet at his side.