World of Darkness - [Time of Judgment 02] - The Last Battle

by Bill Bridges (epub)

  “You said reinforcements were coming, ” Evan said. “How soon? ”

  Albrecht looked around. It was impossible to tell the time in the gloomy snowfall. “I don’t know. I think we need to move on; they'll track us. We need one of the Wendigo who knows this area. ”

  “We’ve got to tend to the wounded in the Umbra, too, ” Evan said. “Some of them might still be alive. "

  Albrecht sighed. “All right. Find some spirit-seers among the living and step over there and get them. With Mari in the lead. ”

  Mari nodded. “Come on. ” She turned to the Silver River Pack. “Julia, we could use you. " She looked at the group of other Garou who followed them. “Loper? Is that your name? ”

  The shaggy, unkempt Bone Gnawer nodded.

  “You’re a Theurge, right? Come with us. " Mari walked away, gathering her group, Evan with her.

  Albrecht looked at Mephi. “Any ideas? ”

  Mephi shrugged. “I’m not a full-moon warrior, but I know a lot of stories about last stands. I think this might well be the last of the last. ”

  “Could be. Or not. That’s not for us to decide. Our job is to fight until the last breath—and beyond if need be. ” Mephi nodded. “You’re the right one to lead this, you know. The Margrave and Queen Tvarivich... they were incredible. But me, I’m glad to add another chapter to the glorious saga of King Albrecht. ”

  “Flattery will get you nowhere, ” Albrecht said, smiling. “You know, you could cut out back onto those Roads of the Dead. You don’t have to fight this. ”

  Mephi frowned, his jaw set. “Yes, I do. The roads offer no escape. I can’t walk them again, not without permission. Not until I’m dead. ”

  “That may be all too soon, ” Albrecht said with a sigh. He walked back to the center of the camp. Mephi bent down over another dead body and began mumbling.

  Albrecht surveyed the situation. Nearly a quarter of the original war party was dead, most of them killed by other enraged Garou. Twice that number were wounded; about half of those were bad enough that they required spirit healing. The rest of the original army had made it out okay, relatively unharmed. They consisted mainly of the young kids who’d come with Evan and Mari from the Finger Lakes, along with a few Wendigo.

  “King Albrecht, ” said a voice from nearby.

  Albrecht turned to see a Native American man, tall and broadly built. He had a fresh, jagged scar across this throat but it had been healed.

  "I am Painted Claw, ” he said. “War Chief of the Wendigo. ”

  Albrecht offered his hand. “I’m glad you made it. We're going to need you. ”

  Painted Claw looked back at the scattered Garou, most of whom—the living, at least—were now waking up. “And I am glad you are here. ” He stepped forward and took Albrecht’s hand. “I was overcome by the Talon’s power. I could not lead. ”

  “Nothing to be ashamed of, ” Albrecht said. “If I’d been here as long as you had, I’d have succumbed too. I think it was so busy fending off Evan and enraging you guys, it didn’t have enough power to spare for me. ”

  Painted Claw nodded, staring at the Silver Crown on Albrecht’s brow. “Perhaps. I am searching for Heals-the-Past, but I cannot find him. ”

  “He’s in the Umbra, tending to the wounded there. ” Painted Claw gestured across the field, toward a group of Wendigo gathered around Aurak’s body. “Aurak has awakened. He asks for Evan. I believe he wishes to see you also. ”

  “That’s some good news for once, ” Albrecht said, heading toward the old shaman. Painted Claw followed him.

  Aurak sat up when he saw Albrecht coming. Two Wendigo bent down to let him lean on them. He was still very weak.

  “King Albrecht, ” he said. “I am very pleased to see you. "

  “Feeling’s mutual, ” Albrecht said, stooping on his knees so he was closer to eye level with the elder. “I was worried about you. It seems you’re coming through, though. ”

  “The poison is gone. The Heartsplinter’s power is dead. I saw it all from my trance. I could do nothing, but I witnessed its form. It was as Evan had said, a mist. A mist that crept through us all. ”

  “Well, at least it’s gone now. One Wyrm threat down, a thousand more to go. ”

  Aurak nodded. "I have been told about the Malfean army and the lost battle. But the Heartsplinter’s defeat is a greater victory than you think. Our rage is our own now. The Wyrm cannot use it against us. ”

  Albrecht shook his head. “I don’t understand. What does that mean exactly T

  “Look into your heart, at your anger. When you heard the news of the Margrave and the Queen’s fall, think of your reaction. Was it different than it would have been before the Heartsplinter’s destruction? ”

  Albrecht thought for a minute. “Well, I was angry, but now that you mention it, I wasn’t as outright pissed as I might have been before. I mean, not fighting pissed. More like cold, hard anger pissed. ”

  Aurak nodded. “Already, our rage becomes more ours. Easier to control. No less powerful, no less stoked by news of calamity. But less wild, less out of control. ”

  Albrecht nodded. “Yeah, I guess that seems right. Hard to tell. I’ll wait for a real fight before I know for sure. That’ll be the test. ”

  Aurak shrugged. “When Heals-the-Past returns, will you tell him to see me? ”

  Albrecht smiled. “As soon as he hears you’re awake, nobody will be able to keep him away. ” He stood up. “You get some rest. We’re going to need your insight. The war party’s hunt is not over yet. ”

  Aurak nodded and relaxed. The Wendigo eased him back down.

  Albrecht walked over to where Eric Honnunger stood with other Silver Fangs, watching over Hardtooth as he saw to the wounded.

  “What’s our status. 7” Albrecht asked.

  “We have many wounded, " Eric said, resting his hammer on his shoulder. “Hardtooth can’t heal anymore and he’s used most of his talens. Once the reinforcements arrive, we should be able to heal them all. ”

  “Good. I need everyone we can get. ” He noticed a group appear out of nowhere near the center of the camp. “Mari and Evan are back, and they’ve got some wounded with them. ”

  He walked over to meet them. Out of the eight Garou they had fought with, only four still lived, each standing weakly beside one of the shamans. The Fianna was among them, now missing his left arm, and the other three were Wendigo. Albrecht felt bad about having killed one of the Wendigo, but casualties were a fact of life for Garou.

  A Native American woman stood next to Evan, tears streaming down her cheek. She walked away as Albrecht approached, trying to hide her tears behind her arm.

  “That’s Quiet Storm, ” Evan said. “She was good friends with Flint Knife. He didn’t make it. "

  Albrecht nodded. “At least some of them are alive. By the way, Aurak is awake. He wants to—”

  Evan was already running over to the elder. Albrecht shrugged his shoulders and looked at Mari. “You see the respect a king gets around here? "

  Mari frowned sarcastically. “Smallest violin, Albrecht. I can’t hear it over the wind. “ She paused, looking out past the camp. “I thought of a place we should go. ”

  “Yeah? Someplace defensible? ”

  "I don’t know. I’ve never been there. ”

  Albrecht cocked his head, waiting skeptically for details.

  “Gather everybody around. I’ve got something to say. ” • • •

  Every member of the war party sat around the newly kindled fire. Many could only sit, for they were too wounded to stand. Mari stood by the fire, looking out at them all, making sure they were all present and paying attention.

  She took a breath and began speaking. “The Silver River Pack and I chased the ferectoi leader of the Pentex commandoes back to an oil refinery. Just as we got there, the place blew up. Something hit it before us, and hit it hard. Everyone there was dead. I finished off the fomor and we scouted around, looking for whomever had taken out a whol
e base full of fomori and banes all by themselves. ” She paused, looking into the fire. “We found her. She was wounded and dying. She’d used up the last of her reserves hurting the Talon. ” She looked back at the group. “She was called the Most Ancient of Bears, the oldest living shapechanger. She’s dead. "

  The group broke into a collective gasp, punctuated by growls and whines. Aurak buried his face in his hands and his shoulders shook.

  “Before she died, ” Mari continued, “she charged me with her dying wish. ” She pulled the tooth amulet from under her shirt. “This is her tooth. She said it would point the way to where we must go. ”

  She let the tooth hang loose. It dangled in the air, twirling, and then began to float upwards until it hung perpendicular to the pull of gravity. The tooth’s tip faced northwest.

  “We must go northwest, ” Mari said.

  Albrecht stood up. “We leave tomorrow morning. I’ve assigned guard duty already. Everybody else, get some rest. It could be a long march.

  Evan looked at Painted Claw. The proud warrior gazed into the fire, his face expressionless. He had no reaction to Albrecht’s taking charge of the party. Nobody else questioned it.

  • • •

  At dawn, they broke camp and departed, marching across the tundra. Snow had covered the tracks from yesterday’s fight and mantled the bodies of the fallen. There was no time to dig graves in the hard, cold dirt or gather stones for a caern. The bodies would feed the ravens, something no wolf begrudged.

  They walked for three days, leaving a trail marked by talens, short-lived fetishes created by the shamans. The talen spirits would alert and guide the reinforcements along their trail, which would soon be erased by snow.

  They stopped every hour to check the tooth and make sure they still traveled in the proper direction. There were few landmarks on the open tundra and even the Wendigo were unfamiliar with the territory, farther north than their sept was used to roaming.

  On the afternoon of the third day, they came to a pine forest, thick and untouched by human development. The Wendigo marveled at such an anomaly so far north, and many wondered why no tale had told of it and no hunter had discovered it before. The tooth pointed through the forest, so they arranged themselves in a loose line and wove through the trees. It slowed their pace but many were glad to see trees again.

  That evening, as the full moon took to the sky, they came to a cliff face, a tall rock wall reaching at least a hundred yards high. The tooth pointed past it. They worked their way around to the right and came upon a tight passage between rock walls. Following its winding curves, they entered into a valley, barren of trees and covered with snow. Huge rocks lay in rough formations, resembling the megaliths of Stonehenge or some other European sacred site.

  Albrecht called a halt once everyone was in the valley. Mari stood in the center; the tooth pointed down.

  “I think we’re here, ” Mari said.

  Albrecht sent scouts to all comers, looking for other passages. “This is a gem, Mari. Perfectly defensible. High walls and only one entryway—a tight one at that, about three men wide. We can hold off a lot of trouble from here. ”

  Aurak walked around the rocks, rubbing snow away here and there. He called Evan over.

  “Look, ” Aurak said, pointing at a large rock, taller than he was. “Pictograms. "

  Evan peered at the rock. He saw faint markings, slightly discolored. "I can’t really read them, ” he said, his brow furrowing. “They’re ancient. ”

  “I do not think they are human or Garou. I think they are Gurahl. ”

  Evan nodded. “Like the Most Ancient of Bears. This must be the remains of a Gurahl caern. "

  Aurak looked around. “I sense power. It may not be dormant. "

  He gathered a group of Theurges and began to scour the place for clues, seeking a pathstone or some other sign of a way they could use the caern. Aurak and a few shamans stepped sideways but didn’t come back immediately. They reappeared a while later, walking in through the main passageway in the material world.

  Aurak approached Albrecht and Mari. “This is a strange place. It is protected by great power. The Gauntlet leaving the valley is low; even an untrained cub would have no trouble stepping over. But not even I can pass back over. I had to leave the valley before I could pierce the Gauntlet again. No spirit or bane can penetrate this place without coming down the passage in this world. ”

  “More and more this place seems designed for us, ” Albrecht said. “It’s kind of eerie. ”

  “There are spirits here, ” Aurak said. “In the rocks and in the snow-buried grass seed. They slumber deeply—too deeply to awaken without a long ceremony. It is possible that the power in this place makes them sleep. ”

  Mephi Faster-Than-Death came up next to them, chewing his lip thoughtfully. “I’ve been checking this place out like the rest of you. I think I’ve heard of it before, though I don’t know if I’m right or not. It’s real obscure, more legend than fact. Garou have always claimed that the Silver Fang caern in the Urals was the first. ”

  “I can attest to that, ” Albrecht said. “I just got back from there. It reeks of the primordial. There’s a tree there older than God. ”

  Mephi smiled. “Could be true. But. The Gurahl had caerns before the Garou. It’s something Garou don’t like to admit, ‘cause it steals our thunder, but the evidence is out there. ” He opened his arms and gestured to the valley. “I think this is the first caern. This is the first place the Gurahl dedicated to the spirits. ”

  Albrecht looked around. Aurak seemed to consider the idea and nodded, apparently accepting it.

  Mephi continued. “This legendary first caern has a name among the Gurahl. It’s called the Womb of Gaia. It’s said that this is where Her first children gestated before they were bom into the world. The Gurahl watched over them at the Dawn of the world. ”

  Mari sighed and closed her eyes. “I wish we could ask the Ancient. But at least she led us here. We might find out its true nature soon enough, once the fight comes. ” Albrecht called out and ordered scouts to leave the valley, searching for the reinforcements.

  “Okay, ” he said. “Let’s get ready to make our stand. ”

  The stars burned and fell from the sky, tearing flaming holes in the fabric of Creation.

  Altair silently witnessed their screaming deaths while his septmates wept. The Stargazer stood on a moon path surrounded by his septmates, who watched in honor as the universe came apart.

  “This can’t be happening! " Canopus cried, raising his fists.

  “The Apocalypse begins, ” Moon-Sister whispered. “So long foretold. ‘All who are living today shall be the last. ”'

  Altair peered into space, into the vast distances. From the sept’s vantage on the moon path, they could see the whole of the deepest reaches of the Aetherial Realm. Looming in the distance, growing ever larger, the Red Star approached, preceded by fiery destruction.

  Meros’ demesne—the planet Pluto—had already crumbled, knocked from its orbit and shattered into a thousand shards by the great red entity as it stormed past the outer barriers of the Near Umbra.

  Altair looked at the falling star, a swirling, massive, molten shape wreathing the black hole in its center, sucking in all debris. The star crawled ever forward, aiming for the planets and devouring their Incarna spirits and servitors. He watched as Neptune shook and tumbled from its orbit, scattering water throughout the heavens.

  A great being arose from the planet, half-human, halfoctopus, trident in hand. She stabbed the black maw but could not withdraw her trident. She struggled with it for a moment, frozen in a tug of war, then stumbled and fell into the maw, disappearing from sight.

  “Shantar! ” Moon-Sister cried.

  “The dragon ate her! ” Canopus cried.

  Altair frowned. Dragon? He looked at his septmates. “There is no dragon. Only an endlessly devouring mouth. A black hole. ”

  Canopus and Moon-Sister looked at him as if he
were crazy. The others also looked at him strangely.

  “Can’t you see it? ” Canopus said. “It’s a huge dragon, its tail stretching back into the farthest reaches, past our vision. ”

  Altair nodded. He understood now. “You see with the eyes of hope. Your vision is clouded by reliance on forms. Forget what you know and see clearly. See the entity for what it truly is: a cosmic force of Uncreation. ”

  They nodded slowly, barely comprehending. They were powerful Stargazers, but they had not yet learned to see past all the illusions their minds foisted upon them. When faced with the unimaginable, their minds sought to give it form, even if it was the very manifestation of formlessness.

  “What does this mean? ” Canopus said.

  “The Wyrm is loose, ” Altair said. “It does what it does. It destroys. ”

  “No, ” Moon-Sister said. “The Wyrm, once freed of its prison, is a force of balance. It is supposed to destroy only those things which are out of balance: the Weaver that chokes the universe. ”

  Altair gave them a wry smile. “In a perfect universe, this would be true. But in a perfect universe, there would be no imbalance. The Wyrm is not truly free. It is loosed from its cage, but it is leashed to the will of its own corrupt children. Do you now see the dilemma of believing an illusion rather than the truth? The Wyrm has succumbed to its own lies, a story it told to those it hoped would set it free. Now, like so many beings, it is trapped by its own story. ” “How can you be so damn cold? " Canopus yelled. “That thing is destroying all we know and love—the very planets themselves, damn it! And you sit here philosophizing about it! "

  Altair raised an eyebrow. “What would you have me do? Fight it? To what end? It acts from ignorance. The cure is truth. How would you administer it? ”

  "I don’t know! All I know is it’s wrong to just sit back and... and think about it! We’re Garou! It's our job to defend Gaia. To fight for her with our last breath. ”

  “Fighting is not always about fists. ”

  The black hole—the dragon—kept moving, approaching the orbit of Uranus. A huge shroud spread out from the world, like a cloak stretching across the sky. Ruatma went to war.