Dustin and Rupert came into sight, obviously being what the bear had seen. They were still on the far side of the river and warily watched the other bear closely. Now the remainder of his pack were accounted for Freddie visibly relaxed. Unfortunately it wasn’t yet safe for them to cross.
It was dusk so Natalya performed the spell to rid the cabin of its infestations, keeping the magic use as minimal as possible. Freddie watched her and hastily stepped aside as several rats rushed out the door, almost over his toes, along with a cloud of assorted insects. Eww.
‘A spell?’
‘Just a small one and now’s the safest time to do it,’ she defended.
Freddie merely nodded; she was the expert. While he began to bring in wood to set the fire, he gestured towards the pail to Johnny who nodded wordlessly. Natalya had caught them a fresh trout each for dinner and a very welcome sight they were. The fish just needed gutting and cooking. Johnny headed out to do that at the river, where he could rinse them clean whilst keeping an eye out for the remaining bear and Dustin and Rupert.
Freddie took the cleaned fish indoors and set them to cook while Natalya prepared the small assortment of vegetables she’d found earlier. He smiled at her, relishing the simple domesticity after an exhausting day scouting.
When the fish was cooked Natalya went outside. She scowled at the pesky bear still blocking her pack from returning. She transformed into her tiger and stalked towards the pool, her gaze fixed on the bear. With a deep growl vibrating through her throat and every tooth on show, she had the bear’s complete attention. The bear growled in return but the tiger didn’t even slow her approach. Abruptly the bear began backing up before scrambling out of the pool on the far side and disappearing into the forest. He had already caught a couple of fish so wasn’t hungry enough anymore to take risks. Only then did the tiger cover her teeth and cease growling.
‘What was that all about?’ Freddie asked her, his eyes wide. There was no way a bear would have backed up from his wolf. His mate was amazing, but also a trifle scary at times. ‘The bear wouldn’t have stayed much longer anyway.’
‘I’m hungry and the food was getting cold,’ she said simply and with a flick of her tail, went back inside to resume her human form.
***
The following morning, Dustin checked the trap Natalya had set and found a couple of large crayfish that did admirably between them for breakfast. After a swift tidy up, ensuring nothing looked disturbed, at least from the exterior, they closed up and left.
They had completed the scouting of the Castle District yesterday, ensuring no-one was in any of the most likely areas. Now it was time to check out the Berwick Valley, which was not only the source of the hot tip, but was also the area most likely to have been re-settled since it was more hospitable terrain.
Rather than travel openly where people might be expected to walk, they’d avoid the path. Staying high on the valley’s walls and going around would be more difficult and slower but safer because there was cover. Jogging at a ground covering pace where possible, they made good time despite the rough rocky ground and awkward slope. Remaining in the forest, where their wolves were most at home, they could better detect any scents that would flag a warning. Plants and animals living here would also aid their senses for anything out of place.
Slowing, as they reached the brow of a hill, they warily peered over, keeping low to the ground so their profiles weren’t clear against the skyline. The valley had done a dogleg, hiding the way ahead from view. Peering over, they could see it now opened up into a wide expanse, very different from the previous narrow and high walled valley.
‘Is that Whitfield? It’s very open,’ Natalya asked softly, her gaze on the large village in the valley below. It stood on the banks of the river they’d been following throughout the day. Unlike all the other villages they’d passed through, there were hardly any trees down there.
‘Yes. Looks quiet but there are certainly some people living there on the left side of the village,’ Freddie said thoughtfully. All the men had sharp animus vision and could see the signs of life in the muddy tracks between some of the buildings. There was a small paddock with some milking cows and a few chickens scratched nearby.
‘I don’t see anything that looks like a prison. There’s no building big or secure enough,’ Dustin said in sharp disappointment.
‘Maybe it’s not here after all. Damn,’ Freddie growled.
‘There’s something behind the village, up on that small rise. Don’t you see it?’ Natalya asked and glanced at the men to find puzzled looks in the negative.
‘What do you see?’ Freddie asked quickly, peering where she was indicating but couldn’t see anything more than rocks and rough grass. She reached out a hand to him and he grasped it. A moment later he realised she was letting him see through her eyes. A strangely indistinct squat grey stone building stood there that he hadn’t been able to see at all. How had he missed that? Several stories high, it dwarfed the village cottages in its scale and seemed to overpower the valley landscape. ‘Why can’t we see it?’
‘It’s cloaked. Probably some kind of shield’s in place around it. I’m guessing, because I really don’t want to start poking at it in case I get us noticed. We shouldn’t get any closer.’
‘Is this it?’ Dustin asked eagerly. It disturbed him to see nothing, but what she said made sense as to why its location had remained a mystery. ‘Have we found the prison? Is this where our people are?’
‘It’s a solid fortified building, certainly. But we need to be sure this is it, rather than some garrison outpost,’ Freddie said. ‘The wind’s in the wrong direction to give us any clues as to who is there. We should circle it, check it out better.’ He glanced away from the fascinating, but blank walls to meet Natalya’s eyes. If not for her senses, they’d not only have missed it but might have walked into that village and into plain view. If it was the primary animus prison, they’d probably have been attacked and captured. ‘How wide do you think the shields go?’
‘Probably not far, but I don’t know. They might have ordinary lookouts though.’
‘True,’ Freddie responded, considering the local geography. ‘Keep an eye out for tripwires too. The inquisitor squads seem to love those.’ He ducked back behind the ridge and they began a wide circle.
It took several hours to circle widely enough to reach the other side of the valley walls. With no trails, slippery shale covered slopes and sheer rocky sections it was a difficult climb up the steep hillside. Unfortunately, it was their only option if they were to remain out of sight.
Breathing hard and with fingers abraded from grasping and scaling gritty rock, they eventually reached the crest of the valley wall. Creeping to the edge on their bellies, so as to keep a low profile, they warily peered over. They were high above the suspect building, looking over its rear. To their surprise, a wide hole, covering several acres, had been delved into the land behind the building. Hidden behind the natural hillock the prison itself sat on, it was not only invisible but inaccessible. The hole was completely covered over with a grid of steel bars. Whilst they were too far away to see any detail, there was certainly movement beneath that barred roof. The men breathed in the scents that, whilst well diluted by distance, were clear enough to their sensitive noses. Natalya scanned with a passive magic sweep she hoped would not trigger any alerts to back-up their findings.
‘Jack was right. We’ve found it.’
20. Warrior Class Challenge
After lunch Natalya walked up the track to the training ground with Jason. It had felt rather odd this morning to be back in a classroom and have to concentrate on the normality of studies. It felt slightly frivolous to be doing this when she now knew for sure where abductees were being kept in a secret prison. How they were being treated she really tried hard not to think about. It had been a dangerous, serious and exhausting scouting expedition, over the weekend, but had definitely been worth it. It was scary to know that if she hadn’t been
with them, with her wizard senses, that the pack would not have seen the prison and might have blundered straight into a magical trap.
The pack itself had returned to Féarmathuin this morning to do further scouting in other, hopefully safer, directions. She wished she could be with them to help forestall any magical mishaps, but her absence would lead to questions from clan members and her teachers. Whilst no one blinked when she went out with the pack on a weekend, taking time off school was more difficult to justify unless the truth was known. Doing that would raise suspicions no one was ready to answer.
Jason was her best friend and also a member of Clan Green Bear. He knew about the Portal and Féarmathuin. Yet she couldn’t tell him what they’d found. It was such an important discovery and news that everyone was waiting for. To know friends and family were imprisoned only a day away, via the Portal, would be too much of a temptation for some to resist. So, she had to pretend she’d done nothing of note, merely saying she’d gone over to the castle and done some exploring when anyone asked, since people would have seen her there. Whilst she really hated lying, keeping quiet was in everyone’s best interests for now, when they couldn’t yet act.
‘Wonder what Derek’ll have us doing today,’ Jason remarked, breaking her from her train of thoughts. ‘Hope I’ll actually be able to take part this time.’
‘He’s still finding out what each of us can and can’t do,’ Natalya reminded him, but agreed with his sentiment. During the last practical lesson the animus students had merely been targets or props for the wizards to aim at and test themselves on. ‘I don’t think he’d ever worked with animus before he came here.’
‘Mm that figures. Oh, he’s already here and he’s looking at our score board.’
‘Good, that’ll help him figure out our skill levels,’ she responded dourly knowing how low she ranked.
‘He’s also taking note of who we’ve come to class with,’ Jason remarked, watching their teacher closely. Derek was scanning the groups of classmates already here chatting, as well as those still arriving and who the laggards then went to stand with. ‘I wonder why.’
‘Guess we’ll soon find out.’
‘Ok,’ Derek called them to attention when all had finally arrived. He then read off the names of the people who currently topped the leader-board in the six different primary disciplines.
Natalya watched her classmates step forward. Whilst she was rising steadily, she was still quite new to the class and thus her skills were not too advanced yet.
She’d also lost time, since she’d been here, because of the serious injury Nathaniel had caused her. Whilst she had been able to return to the tactics and spell-casting classes quite quickly and so they hadn’t appreciably suffered, she’d been forced to miss more of the physical classes. It didn’t help that she was already at a physical disadvantage. Firstly she was a woman and therefore physically weaker than the trainee warrior men, especially the animus ones. Secondly she had far less practical experience than the majority of her class.
This was an advanced class and whilst it was where she belonged, with her warrior wizard ability, she’d been expected to work extra hard to catch up and remedy her knowledge gaps. Most of her classmates had been in warrior training for over a year already and had earned their right to be placed in this class. Her experience lagged far behind and they all knew it, yet she could mostly keep up.
The other problem, slowing her advance, was that she was pregnant. It was still early days yet, but she tried to avoid exercises where she could be pummelled, might have to fling herself on the floor, or allow an opponent to do so. Unsurprisingly therefore, she was not one of the six new team leaders.
Jason however, had successfully reached the top of the archery discipline. She was pleased to see him receive this recognition; he’d earned it. She watched him take his place in the line Derek specified, his back straight and face composed. Whilst she was becoming good with the long bow, she hadn’t had as much time learning the short bow, or indeed the cross-bow, so her overall archery scores had been let down.
She was rapidly learning the art of swordplay and already knew her instincts were sound. She was quite high now on the board for that, so no longer felt embarrassed in class. She was however up against animus opponents, some of whom had been taught from childhood and were far more skilled. They were usually stronger and faster than a wizard too. She found she was particularly good at throwing daggers however and working with knives, where nimble speed and accuracy was the key requirement.
She had only recently started learning to use a staff defensively. There was quite a skill to turning a heavy, unwieldy and blunt instrument into a true weapon, but she’d watched a demonstration of what could be done with one, in amazement. In truth this was a weapon better suited to a large powerful man rather than a woman. No one expected her to excel in it. The battle-axe and polearm disciplines were likewise particularly difficult for her to compete in against strong men. However, throwing spears and light lances she could do well at. She was utterly relieved to avoid being ungraded in an entire discipline.
Again, the unarmed discipline was a mixed bag. In consideration of the baby, she was now avoiding serious wrestling, in which she had fared badly against the men anyway. She did not have their brute force strength unless she called on her tiger or indeed her magic. The stealth and assassin skills, where she was allowed to shift were one of her better areas. Able to have the option of her wolf, or her tiger, for lightning fast strikes or athletic manoeuvres, meant she could be versatile and fast.
The final discipline covered offensive spell craft for the wizards and martial skills, whilst in animal form, for the animus. This was a new discipline, which in theory she should excel in, but only once her lack of formal knowledge of spells was remedied. So, whenever it came up she tended to join the animus, shifting into whichever animal she thought best suited the exercise or opponent.
‘Today, we’re going to work our way through a little challenge and obstacle course I’ve put together,’ Derek announced, scanning the students for their reactions. Most were a mix of excitement and wary trepidation. This would be no simple run in the park. ‘We’re going to split you up into six teams. You six, in recognition of your top of the leader-board success, will each be a team leader. Right, in turn, choose a team mate.’
Natalya was relieved Jason chose her to be in his team. They got on well together and she trusted him. However, as she noted the rest of the team he chose were entirely animus, her heart sank a little. Jason had not picked another wizard to be on his team, although he had tried to get someone good from each discipline. She glumly knew there was bound to be some kind of test that only a wizard could undertake. Whilst she knew she had plenty of magical power; that very strength meant she had to be extra careful of how she fashioned it into spells. One mistake, or stray thought and things could go very wrong, very fast. With her strength came added responsibility and disaster was only a momentary lapse away.
‘This way everyone,’ Derek said briskly, once each pupil had joined one of the six teams. He led the way up the field towards the horse obstacle course and they could see additional objects and little sheds had been placed there. What they were they couldn’t yet discern. The land undulated quite a lot where Derek was pointing, which was why it wasn’t used much. It appeared that the course would be quite lengthy, if the new line of white flags, disappearing over the hillock, was any indicator. They hadn’t a clue what to expect.
‘Right, the rules are simple. The whole team needs to get around the course together. The route is marked out by those white flags and is a loop starting here and ending just there,’ he added pointing to a timber arch just a few yards away. ‘At each challenge the team must appoint a team member to undertake it. Only once that challenge has been met can the team move on. If you fail anything you’ll be given penalty points. Each challenge will be marked for accuracy or skill. When a green flag pops up you can consider the task complete and move on.
Each team will be timed, so the quicker the course is completed the better.’
‘What happens if we don’t know what we’re meant to do?’ One of the wizards asked. ‘It looks like most of the course is out of sight from here.’
‘Each challenge is monitored by people in the field and of course judged. You should also be aware that short cuts will be penalised too. Put these sashes on so the judges know which team you belong to.’
Jason took the sashes he was handed and as he gave them out he grinned at Natalya. ‘I wonder why he chose to give us purple. I bet he’s heard of your exploits with wizard Vako and the purple paint.’
‘That was a fun day. I wonder if Vako’s one of the judges out there today.’
‘Probably. Should we shift, do you think?’ Jason murmured noticing several members of the yellow team ahead of them doing so.
‘No. Most of the challenges will probably involve testing our weapon skills and we can’t do them with paws. We’ll be quick enough running in our human form.’ She pulled the sash over her head to sit diagonally across her front where it was less likely to get in the way. The guys in the yellow team ahead now found it a bit awkward to keep the sash on a shifted body because it was too big and would likely trip them. Some realised this and immediately reverted back to human. She watched their wizard member put a knot in one for a dog since it dragged on the ground and he’d be tripped and tangled in no time.
Derek counted down and then called go. The yellow team sprinted off and Derek turned the first of the sand timers over. He wrapped a yellow ribbon around its base even while watching the team rushing off.
Natalya watched the yellow team running, until they paused at what must be the first obstacle, aware they’d be next. Derek had already tied a purple ribbon about the next timer, although it hadn’t been set going, and then tied red, green, blue and orange to match the sashes of the teams due to follow. When the yellow team had cleared the first obstacle, which seemed to be something to scramble and climb over, Derek counted them down and then they were off.
Forging Alliances: Wizards of White Haven Page 28