by Kamryn Hart
“I’ll stay close to you, and I won’t get in the way,” I told him.
“Right,” he said uneasily. “I apologize.”
He took off down the hall, and I kept right on his heels. He kept looking over his shoulder as we advanced like he was worried I would fall behind. He led the way through a couple different halls that were empty.
“It seems Prince Charles made the mistake of grouping all the castle guards together. He’s making this too easy,” Caspian commented as he looked over his shoulder at me again for the fiftieth time.
He tapped the glass face of a broad rubber and metal band on his wrist. A bluish light beamed out from it. I almost leaped back in surprise, but the light coalesced into an image, and I moved closer. It was a semi-transparent map. I swung my hand through the air to see if I could touch it. My hand passed right through.
“What is this?” I asked, mesmerized. I tried one more time to touch the map, but I couldn’t. All I could do was disrupt the image.
“Do you mind?” Caspian remarked as he moved his arm and, consequently, the image away. “In answer to your question, it’s the castle’s layout.”
“What are those little moving lights?” Everything else on the map stayed the same, but these two lights were moving slowly.
“My squad. We’re going to meet up with them in a moment. This way, Princess.”
I followed Caspian to a wall that didn’t look like anything special. It wasn’t polished though. This whole wall resembled the state of the dungeon below, rough and unrefined gray stone. Caspian was running his hands along it as if he was inspecting it for something. What that could be, I didn’t know.
“Wasting time,” I muttered.
“Ah, there it is.”
Caspian’s fingers hit a button on the wall I didn’t see. A rectangular slab of rock screeched as it rubbed against the rocks next to it and sunk into the floor. This werewolf was a master of sneaky technocraft. Sort of sneaky.
I covered my ears in distress. “Why not announce our presence to everyone inside the castle?” I asked.
“We’ll be gone before they get here,” Caspian said. “And I don’t think Paws Peak uses their secret shortcuts much anymore. I dare say they forgot about them. That’s how I got in here.” He gestured to the new doorway. “Wereas first.”
I scowled at him but moved forward. I wanted to get out of here more than I wanted to fight about all this ridiculous werea business. I had to crawl inside of the secret passage since it definitely wasn’t large enough to stand in. It was cramped, damp, and full of spiderwebs. I barely ducked out of the way of a huge web as a spider the size of my fist came out to hunt. I heard the screech of rock again and the wall closed back up, leaving me in complete darkness.
I looked over my shoulder to see Caspian holding a metal torch with a ray of light shooting out from its head. The light shined on that big spider, now near Caspian’s face. He ducked, repeating my maneuver, and bumped into me. His chest touched my butt and my lower back, and my mind flashed back to Charles pressing down on me in his bedchamber. I froze.
“Apologies in advance,” Caspian said as he laid his palm flat against my butt and shoved me forward, “but I really don’t want to get up close and personal with that hairy eight-legged behemoth back there. Could you please get moving?”
He was practically on top of me again because I was frozen in place. He reached forward and stole my journal, replacing it with the metal torch. “I’ll hold on to this for you,” he said.
I pinched the skin on my elbow to clear my head. Then I pushed the awful memory of Charles aside and crawled forward, guided by the light of technocraft. Once I was moving, Caspian allowed as much personal space as was possible inside of this narrow tunnel.
It was all more of the same for minutes that felt like hours. I thought I might die of claustrophobia when we reached a dead end. We were going to die trapped inside of a castle wall. I imagined my bones sitting here, joining the spiders and their webs, never to be seen again. Just when I thought I’d fall into hysterics, Caspian reached past me and pushed another hidden button. Stone moved. The night and houses outside of the castle opened before us. I took in a relieved breath of fresh air as I scrambled out into bushes that were partly concealing the entryway. I wanted to stretch my limbs but stayed low as guards passed by on the road a few feet ahead.
Caspian dropped down into the bushes beside me and closed the wall once it was quiet again. But it didn’t stay quiet for long. The grating stones turned heads and there were many more guards out here, in many more groups, than what we had seen inside of the castle.
Caspian touched his ear again after checking his map made of blue light. This time, I noticed there was something sitting in his ear. It looked like a pebble. He spoke. “Faster, Phantom Fangs. We’re not going to get out unnoticed at this rate.”
A siren blared into the night. It was joined by four others. Then a voice spoke out across the entire kingdom. “Intruders. Intruders have infiltrated Paws Peak. Red alert.”
“Damn it, Rodrick. Was that you?” Caspian said as he continued pressing a finger to his ear and grabbed my arm with his free hand. He succeeded in moving me a few steps before I ripped out of his grasp again. “Sorry, Princess,” he said, clearly agitated. “I really need you to keep up though.”
“I’ll keep up,” I assured. “Why lug around extra weight when there’s absolutely no reason to?”
He sighed and conceded. “Follow me.” He pressed his finger to his ear again. “Todd, get ready to roll out.”
CHAPTER 11
SORISSA
I HAD MANY QUESTIONS, like who were Rodrick and Todd, but I kept them to myself as I followed Caspian. He weaved his way past guards and through the houses clustered closely together. We didn’t have to go through many before nearing the kingdom’s large wall. At this end, it was almost right next to the castle. I wondered if Caspian would use technocraft to open up more secret entryways because I didn’t see any gates and the wall looked pretty much impossible to scale—at least without my moonlight form.
Before Caspian and I cleared the last of the houses, I saw two figures running ahead, also headed for the wall. Not just the wall, a specific area. There was a long rope ladder dangling down the side. It looked flimsy, but it must have been strong enough for Caspian and his “squad” to get inside. The sight would have been a relief if I hadn’t seen the soldiers marching across the top of the wall. They spotted the ladder too, and now it was a race to see who could get to it first.
“Get ready to climb,” Caspian said.
The two figures, werewolves according to my instincts, I saw running ahead reached the ladder before the soldiers. I didn’t have time to take in their features, but I did notice they wore the same black uniform as Caspian. They climbed fast as some of the soldiers on the wall aimed knives and others held up small metal sticks to their eyes. One of the sticks exploded. Something shot out of it and hit the ladder just as the two werewolves reached the top and took out metal sticks of their own. More like hand-cannons. Loud bangs filled the air, competing with the droning sirens.
Caspian tugged on the ladder once we reached it. It was barely hanging on by two ropes. The left side looked precarious. It was weakened by the blast that came from that destructive technocraft hand-cannon. It would snap if we climbed it.
“Wereas fir—”
“Yeah, wereas first,” I said, cutting Caspian off.
My hands were clammy as I gripped the ladder and lifted myself upward. It jiggled with my weight. I would have to be very careful. If a gust of wind came in too strong, that would be it. It was ripping more and more by the second.
“Climb, Princess!” Caspian shouted from below me. “They won’t let us fall.”
As if to answer him, one of his teammates, braided blond hair and lake-blue eyes, did something to reinforce the ladder. The right side was no longer taking on extra weight for the left. It was stable.
“Get your asses up he
re!” a werewolf with long brown hair pulled back in a ponytail and rough facial hair that somehow screamed “warrior” bellowed. He also had black markings all over his skin.
I climbed like I never had. My muscles combusted with the effort, but it was worth it when I made it to the top. I watched in awe as the warrior werewolf held up his hand-cannon and pulled back a trigger with his finger. An object shot out from the nozzle. It moved so swiftly I lost sight of it. I stared lamely in the direction of soldiers where it must have landed. Then red bloomed out from the yellow paw-print insignia on a soldier’s uniform. He gurgled, and blood dripped down his lips just before he hit the stone ground with a hard thud.
“Keep moving, Princess,” Caspian said as he gave me a firm push on the back. “Climb down the other side.” He whipped out his own hand-cannon and shot more deadly projectiles.
I did what I was told, finding another ladder like the one I used to climb up here. I began to descend. If I made it down this one alive, I’d be outside of Paws Peak. I’d be in free land.
A blue light I was intimately familiar with flared from above me. Someone, or multiple someones, was using moonlight. Howls pierced through the bangs and sirens. A werewolf in moonlight form latched his big, canine teeth onto the ladder and yanked his powerful wolf head back. I held on for my life as the ladder fluttered like a flag in the wind and came crashing back against the wall with my weight. I yelped upon impact. I got some new scrapes and bruises, but I was still hanging on. I was alive.
The warrior werewolf with the ponytail roared. He was emitting moonlight as well, but he stuck to his base form. He wrapped his arms around the wolf that tried to shake me off the ladder and threw him in the opposite direction. I realized he probably just catapulted him off the other side. I could have done all that and more if I had moonlight to spare. I had to admit it was amazing to see others like me, seeing what they could do with a power I felt was solely mine.
I kept moving.
When my feet touched solid ground and grass, my heart soared for the first time since leaving Babaga’s woods. I took off running into nearby trees and was soon accompanied by Caspian and the other two werewolves who helped us. The blond one was quiet but visibly relieved. The warrior wore a toothy grin and a wicked gleam in his green eyes. Caspian was smiling tentatively and searching ahead.
“Almost there,” he said.
Almost where? These werewolves did just help me escape Paws Peak, but I wasn’t keen on going anywhere with anyone after what I had been through. Caspian did something with my journal, stored it in his pack probably, and I wanted it back.
A familiar growl rumbled in the trees and branches snapped. Then a roader burst out of the foliage. Its four eyes cast bright beams of light right at us, and its wheels were squealing. I was sure it was going to plow us down. I was ready to dive to my right, but Caspian picked me up, sweeping an arm under my legs and catching my back with the other. The roader came to a complete stop in the same instant.
“Let me go!” I screamed and kicked. I pummeled my hands against his broad chest, but I was too exhausted and hurt to put up much of a fight. My body was growing heavier by the second, and that bite was throbbing.
“Once we’re inside the roader,” he replied. “It’s too dangerous to stay out here.”
So, for the first time since I met Caspian, he forced me to do something. He forced me inside of the roader, onto the backseat. This was starting to get too familiar.
He didn’t get in back with me. The blond and the warrior did, sandwiching me in the middle like Den and Nash had. There was another werewolf with extremely pale and freckled skin wearing a black cap at the wheel in the front of the roader. Caspian got into the seat next to him, and the roader roared to life. It looped around, taking us in the direction opposite of Paws Peak.
It was a bumpy ride since this roader was carving its own path, through bushes and small trees while turning away from large trees, instead of following one. The growl of other roaders joined in. They were a good distance behind, though.
“Don’t stop,” Caspian ordered.
“Wasn’t planning on it.” The werewolf wearing a cap jerked the wheel, and the roader flew out of thick foliage and off the side of a mountain. We were airborne. My body became weightless. I scrambled for something to ground me and strapped myself in with a seatbelt.
“Shit!” the blond werewolf to my right exclaimed as he grabbed a handle above the window to his right. “Todd, are you trying to kill us?!”
The warrior to my left howled and exclaimed, “Hell yeah!” as we touched down on rocky ground.
The roader almost somersaulted, but the back wheels managed to ground themselves as we continued on a steep descent.
“You wanted to lose them,” Todd, the werewolf at the wheel, said calmly.
“Yes,” Caspian murmured. He was holding a handle too, muscles tensed. “I’d also like to live to see another day.”
The descent was steep for only a few minutes. Then we were on somewhat flat ground again with a clear shot to a dirt pathway. That leap was pretty crazy, but I doubted anyone from Paws Peak would be able to catch up to us now.
I was impressed.
“Well, Todd, you never cease to amaze,” Caspian said, releasing his death grip on that handle.
“I didn’t know you had a thrill-seeker side,” the big warrior to my left commented. He was still grinning, practically exuding adrenaline.
“I just do what needs to get done.”
“By the way, guys, this is Princess Sorissa va Lupin of Howling Sky,” Caspian announced. “Princess, this is Todd, our fearless driver. The big guy with the tattoos to your left is Rodrick.”
“And the killjoy to your right is Aerre,” Rodrick chimed.
“Can’t you two ever get along? If it’s not one, it’s the other.”
I rubbed the bite in between my neck and right shoulder. I wasn’t hurt badly or beyond repair anywhere—I didn’t think. If I did have a serious injury, it was this bite. It sure was persistent about calling my attention to it. I was doing well more or less ignoring every other ache in my body.
I caught the blond, Aerre, staring at me in my peripheral. He didn’t stop when I met his gaze. His lake-blue eyes were glued to my bite, and I suddenly felt self-conscious. I rested the palm of my hand flat against the bite to hide it.
“Right, and I still have something that belongs to you,” Caspian remarked as he pulled my mother’s journal from his pack. He reached it out to me, and the roader hit one last bump before landing on the much smoother trail. Caspian almost hit his head on the ceiling. “Thank the Gods for seatbelts.”
“Thank the werewolves who first made roaders,” Todd countered.
I took the journal from Caspian’s outstretched hand. “Thank you.” I looked around the full roader, at each individual. “All of you.” They were an unlikely pack somehow. None of them really fit together. They looked nothing alike. Caspian’s skin was the darkest I had seen yet, nearly black. Todd, on the other hand, was almost as pale as Den. Aerre wore a flawless golden tan, and Rodrick’s skin was an even brown almost hidden by all the black tattoos. From the short time I had been with them, they also acted nothing alike. I doubted they were related.
However, there was one thing they had in common. I didn’t feel threatened by their presence. I didn’t exactly feel lesser either. Yes, Caspian had still made some comments about wereas I would have preferred he hadn’t, and Aerre was giving me an odd stare, but it was different. I didn’t think Caspian was trying to make me feel lesser, and Aerre wasn’t giving me a hungry look. Their actions were different too. They gave me their names up front. But that wasn’t enough. This was just like when Leer had taken me away from my woods.
Clearing my throat, I added, “But you can drop me off here.” Whether they treated me “better” or not didn’t matter. I wasn’t going with them.
“We can’t,” Caspian said after a pause. “We have to take you to Wolf Bridge. You’ll b
e safe there.”
“It wasn’t a request,” I retorted.
“She’s got the ‘boss everyone around’ part of being a princess down,” Rodrick mused. “Doesn’t look much like one though. Is what you’re wearing supposed to be a dress, Princess?” His intense green eyes dipped to my breasts. My nipples were barely covered after the beating the dress went through. What was left could hardly be called clothing at all, but I didn’t care. I was just glad Charles cut through the back of that corset so I could breathe.
“I’m not bossing anyone around,” I argued. “I was stating my rights as a living being with free will to make my own decisions for myself. I’m not doing this again.” I bared my teeth and growled. “I’m not going to another kingdom where I’ll just get locked up. I’d much rather be out there in open land, out on my own in the wild. That’s something I know, where I belong.”
The roader was moving fast as ever, but we weren’t careening down a steep mountainside, and my chances of landing without breaking a bone were good enough for me. I moved fast. I unbuckled my seatbelt, locked my mother’s journal in my teeth, and leaped for the door on Aerre’s side of the roader because he was smaller than Rodrick—not that he wasn’t still a hard body of muscle. My options were limited.
And I chose right.
Aerre had been staring at me, but he didn’t see this coming. He froze in surprise just long enough for me to open the door and tumble out of the speeding metal beast. I hit the ground, back first, rolling around in the dust. That contact with solid ground reminded me how cold it still was, like winter was determined to linger. More pain exploded across my body, but I ignored it. Before I stopped spinning, I dug into my nearly empty reserves of moonlight. It was a drop of cold water splattering against the back of my skull. I had one tiny burst I could use and now was the time. It might be enough to zip me to a thicket of trees where I’d be able to hide from these werewolves.
My body hummed. Blue light of all shades steamed out of my pores. My body morphed. My bones were first; they grew, shrunk, and rearranged themselves to form my other skeleton. My organs followed suit, and my skin was pliable putty. The dress I was wearing officially gave up the ghost at this point. It blew away in the wind as pieces of dirty yellow and once-white undergarments. I kept my mother’s journal carefully locked between my jaws, and my paws caught the ground. I was running. Black fur sprouted and coated my entire body. My shift into a wolf was complete.