The Shadow Watch

by S. A. Klopfenstein

  The Rulaq shook itself off, stood, and roared. Ren brought a tree down on the beast’s head. It was still for a moment—stunned—and then charged again.

  “Get that boy out of here!” Ren cried. He flew toward the Rulaq, keeping it distracted, drawing his saber and attacking with incredible courage. Tori sprinted up the path cut by the Watchtower sleigh only an hour ago, jerking Fallon along after.

  The poor boy was shaking. “W-what is—”

  “Shut up and run!” said Tori.

  “Up there!” shouted Mischa, pointing to the cliffs towering above them. There was a small ledge a hundred feet up. “We’ll fly him up there!”

  “Y-you’ll what?” cried Fallon.

  “Right,” said Tori, ignoring him. She gripped his arm, and Mischa took hold of the other. Together, they leapt from the earth. Tori did not have time to think the process through; her body reacted, and the three of them landed safely on the ledge moments later. Fallon collapsed. The shock of flying had the effect of the wind being knocked out of him.

  Another shriek pierced the night. In the clearing below, Ren was facing off with the creature. It thundered toward him. At the last moment, Ren flew to the side, swinging his saber.

  “The boy’s safe!” shouted Ren. “Now help me!”

  “Y-you can’t leave me up here!” cried Fallon.

  “Sorry,” Tori muttered. And together, Tori and Mischa leapt from the ledge, leaving Fallon alone. They landed in the trees behind the Rulaq, and Tori marveled at how easily flight came to her now. Ren drew the Rulaq close, then weaved between the attacking heads, swinging his saber as he flew. But the blade did little damage against the creature’s matted fur and thick skin. We’ll never beat this thing with blades, Tori thought. An idea came to her. It was crazy, but it was worth a shot. They needed to be quick. Tori could tell Ren’s strength was low because he had stopped using magic.

  Tori and Mischa sprinted through the woods and hid behind the trees at the far end of the clearing—the ones that got the most sun and bore no lingering snow on their branches.

  “When Ren lands, set these trees into the biggest fire you’ve ever set!” Tori said.

  Ren shifted, mid-flight, and headed straight toward them.

  “Tori, I’ve never set a fire that big all at once!” said Mischa.

  Tori grabbed her wrist. “You’re a Fieri, Misch! You can do it!” Ren landed and ran straight at them. The creature galloped after him, roaring. “NOW!” Tori screamed.

  Mischa closed her eyes, focusing with all her might, and she struck the flints around her wrists together. Instantly, the spark exploded and flames shot forth. A dozen trees lit up, forming a wall of fire. Ren leapt through the lapping flames, and Tori concentrated all her power on the trees. The Rulaq reared up at the flaming wall. Tori ripped the trees from their roots with her Conjuri power and sent them crashing down on the creature.

  The Rulaq collapsed beneath the weight and writhed in the searing flames. The air stank with burning hair and flesh. But in the midst of the violent thrashing, the creature managed to free one of its necks. It picked up a flaming tree between its jaws and flung it aside. Ren cried out and flew toward the inferno. Mischa withdrew the flames at the last moment, and Ren stabbed his saber through one of the eyes of the beast’s pinned-down head, submerging the blade up to the hilt. Blood spewed, and the Rulaq lurched in pain, sending Ren flying into a nearby tree. He did not stir.

  Tori’s stomach roiled. She wanted to fly to him at once, be sure he was alive. But there was no time. The Rulaq’s free head latched onto another felled tree, no longer ablaze, and heaved it aside with ease. It snatched another, then shook its whole body free from the remaining logs. It removed the sword from its eye and roared as it cast the blade away.

  Mischa leaned against a rock, breathing heavily, her body weakened from the expiration of so much Fieri power at once. Tori feared her own power would deplete soon as well. Ren lay unmoving across the clearing. There was nothing but the holes where the uprooted trees had been between Tori and Mischa and the Rulaq. Tori grabbed Mischa’s arm and they sprinted, dodging the charging beast. Tori reached out with her sense, and Ren’s sword flew to her hands. She handed it to Mischa.

  Tori gripped her arm. “Are you strong enough to fly?”

  The Rulaq stood at the center of the clearing, its massive necks swinging violently.

  “I-I think so.”

  You’ll have to be or we’re both dead. “Distract those heads, Mischa. I’ve got to get close to the body.”

  “Tori!” Mischa shouted. Her hands were shaking. “If I die, I-I need you to tell Vashti that I’m sorry!”

  “Sorry for what?” Why is Mischa worried about Vashti at a time like this?

  “Just tell her, okay?”

  Tori nodded, then squeezed her hand tight. “You’re not going to die, Misch!”

  Together, they leapt from the earth and flew straight between the Rulaq’s heads. Mischa swung the sword, grazing the creature’s face, and flew on, but Tori veered and landed on its back. Her fingers latched onto thick, fibrous fur. The Rulaq reared back, but she held tight. It reached with one of its swinging heads and snapped at her—missed. She was just out of its reach, but the force of its movement nearly sent her flying. I can’t hold on for long. Come on, Misch!

  Mischa was back, swinging the sword at the Rulaq head with two good eyes, and Tori focused all the energy she had left on the beast’s heart. If she could start Ren’s heart by applying the right pressure with her Conjuri sense, perhaps she could stop the Rulaq’s.

  One of the heads shot around like a whip, trying to knock Tori free, but she was just out of reach. Her heart felt like it was catapulting off her rib cage. Mischa flew past, slashing at the neck of the other head, but suddenly, the creature lurched back.

  Mischa collided with its skull and plummeted to the ground.

  Oh gods, oh gods, oh gods.

  The Rulaq shook itself and reared up again. Tori felt her grip slipping. Then the beast pitched backward, ready to crush her beneath its own weight.

  This is it. Kill or die. Tori focused all her strength on her sense. She felt the beat of the Rulaq’s heart, felt the muscles contracting, felt the fibers that formed each chamber. She reached out, with every bit of magic she had left, and ceased their movement.

  The heart stalled.

  The Rulaq landed on its back, but Tori dove free before impact and rolled away in the snow.

  The creature thrashed on the ground, but its heart did not recover. The Rulaq’s writhing grew slower, its shrieks fainter. And then the beast stopped moving.

  Tori rushed over and helped Mischa to her feet. The body of the dead Rulaq was like a snowy hill beside them. As she stood, Mischa held her head and moaned. “I-I’m alive.”

  Tori’s breaths were sharp, rapid pangs in her chest, but slowly, they calmed. “Y-yes. We are.” Tori collapsed in the snow by her friend’s side and gripped her hand. “You’re all right?”

  Mischa nodded, and her gaze moved to Ren. He had still not moved. “The captain!”

  Together, they hobbled past the looming mountain of white fur. Tori’s hands shook, and each step jarred her stomach. Please, be alive.

  Tori knelt beside him, felt at his neck. It was cool to the touch. His breathing was slow but rhythmic. He had been knocked cold by the impact with the tree.

  “I’m sorry,” Tori murmured, cupping Ren’s head in her hands. Blood ran down his cheek, and she wiped it away. If only they had returned with the others. If only Tori hadn’t fooled around with Fallon.

  Ren stirred. “N-no, I’m sorry…” His voice was weak, but he still managed a grin, and Tori nearly cried with relief. His eyes cracked open.

  “Oh, thank the gods!” said Mischa.

  “Why are you sorry?” Tori whispered, brushing the bloody, matted hair from his face.

  Ren turned over to gaze back at the clearing. The Rulaq’s dead eyes were dark chasms, nearly big enough to crawl inside.


  “I’m sorry I didn’t see you kill that damn beast.” Ren chuckled, then coughed. He held his forehead and groaned. “Gods, that thing packed a punch.”

  They laughed. It felt good to laugh after nearly dying. But there was still much to worry about. No one has sighted a Rulaq in three hundred years, Tori thought with trepidation. It seemed impossible for one to appear out of nowhere. “Ren, where did that thing come from?” Tori’s voice was the only sound. The three of them stared wordlessly at one another. Ren shook his head.

  “EY! OH!”

  The frantic cry echoed through the mountains. All three of them shot to attention. The cry echoed again.

  “Oh gods,” said Tori, chuckling with dark relief. “Fallon is still up on the cliff.”

  Ren did not laugh. “Tori, why was that boy following you?” The tone of his voice was deep and steady.

  “He was… the true reason I missed the sleigh with the others.” Tori hated to admit it. It sounded so foolish. Like something one of the noble girls in Osha would have pulled to get an academy boy jealous of her. “I met him in the taverns, and…”

  Ren sat up, his eyes fierce, a grimace at his lips. Tori wanted to crawl beneath a boulder. She would give anything to take it back now. She hadn’t realized just how stupid it was until she had to explain herself to Ren.

  “He’s just a boy,” Tori said, rising from the ground, her lips tensing as she pictured herself kissing Fallon back in the tavern. “But at least he didn’t die.”

  “He saw us,” said Mischa darkly. “Our magic.”

  Ren still hadn’t met Tori’s gaze, and she hated it. “Well, bring him down, and we’ll figure out what to do with him.”

  Tori and Mischa leapt from the ground while Ren struggled to his feet and retrieved his saber. Fallon was trembling, standing with his back clinging to the face of the cliff. Tori landed beside him. “Y-you’re no monks! Y-you’re g-gods-damned witches!”

  “I told you all this was a mistake,” said Tori.

  “Th-that thing…” Fallon pointed at the dead Rulaq’s body in the clearing below. It looked like a mangled white ship had been smattered on rocks and dropped into the forest.

  “It’s what you think it is.”

  “Come on,” said Mischa. “We’ve got to go.”

  The girls took hold of Fallon’s arms and jumped. The Ytalan boy cried out like a child as they flew him to the ground. They landed beside Ren. The moment Fallon’s feet touched the ground, Ren had him gripped by the neck and thrown up against a tree. “What did you see?” Ren growled.

  “Ren!” said Tori. “What are you—” But Mischa held her back.

  “I-I-I saw that thing—th-that creature,” Fallon stammered. “And—”

  “Wrong!” Ren shouted, slapping the boy’s face, peering deep into his eyes. “What creature are you talking about?” Fallon didn’t know what to say. He glanced over at the dead beast and then back at Ren.

  “Ah!” Fallon moaned. “Y-your witch priest is going to k-kill me!”

  “Don’t you get it?” said Tori. “You can’t tell anyone what you’ve seen!”

  “What is in the clearing, boy?” said Ren.

  Fallon looked over again. Ren did not follow his gaze, but looked deep into the boy’s eyes. “N-nothing! I see nothing!”

  “Correct.” Ren shoved the boy away, and he fell in the snow. Tori was going to help him, but Mischa held onto her arm.

  “Let him handle this,” Mischa whispered.

  Fallon scrambled to his feet. Ren stood tall, with his hands at his belt. “Do not breathe a word to anyone, boy. Or I swear to the gods, I will kill you.”

  “Y-yes, sir.”

  “Now, go!”

  Fallon nodded frantically. He turned and ran, stumbling over a charred tree branch. When he reached the edge of the meadow, the boy turned back.

  And that was when Ren let his dagger fly.

  It hit Fallon squarely in the chest, soaring with a flare of Conjuri charm. The Ytalan boy slumped to his knees and collapsed in the snow.

  30

  Tori’s scream echoed off the cliff walls. The sound seemed to come from all directions, as though it had come from outside of her. It was like the ghosts of Ghen, suffocating her, wrapping their hands around her throat. Murrrdererrr!

  Ren’s face was like ice, and Tori wanted to shatter it, but she didn’t have the strength to punch him. Perhaps it was the strangling guilt, or perhaps it was because her body was spent from the Rulaq attack. Ren strode across the clearing toward Fallon’s body.

  “W-why did you do that?” Tori shouted, finally finding her voice. “He wouldn’t have t-talked!”

  Ren stopped and turned. There was no remorse on his face. His eyes burned with fury. “That’s not what I was worried about!”

  Tori tried to hold back tears, but she could hardly believe what Ren had done. “It was stupid to hook up with him, I know. But he wouldn’t have—”

  Ren’s face hardened. “I don’t care that you hooked up with some village rat. I care that you put our entire revolution in danger!”

  “He was just a stupid boy!”

  “Come with me, Tori!” Ren had never used such a cold tone with her before. Suddenly, he did not seem the same warmhearted captain she had grown close to these past couple months.

  “Why did you kill him?” Tori demanded.

  “Just come,” Ren said again, this time more gently, and Tori followed him to Fallon’s body.

  The Ytalan boy was bleeding all over the snow, but his chest was still moving with tepid breaths. He wasn’t dead. Tori didn’t know if she should be relieved or horrified that his death was not over yet. Fallon’s eyes cracked open, and the boy laughed, blood spurting from his lips.

  Tori felt chills at the sound.

  Ren looked her in the eyes. “I did it because this stupid boy led that monster straight to us.” Ren dropped to his knees and held his blade to the boy’s throat. “Reveal yourself, or by the gods, I will let you die slow and in agony.”

  Fallon’s eyes flickered, his pupils turning narrow like an animal’s, and then his body followed—he morphed into the warg-like form of one of the chancellor’s wingless Metamorphi. Tori could not believe it. Fallon was still chuckling, a seething purr.

  No, Fallon was a lie, Tori thought. He never even existed.

  “Do your worst, Ren,” the Morph growled. “They’re coming.”

  Ren cried out and slit the beast’s throat. Blood gushed out in a torrent, and Fallon gasped his last Morph breaths.

  The clearing was utterly silent. The pale light of the Sisters seemed to hang in the stillness. Horrified, Tori could not take her eyes off the Morph. The Morph she had kissed, and then brought straight to them. I nearly killed Ren and Mischa. I nearly led the Morph straight to the Watchtower. Slowly, Ren rose and wiped his blade off on his trousers. He didn’t say a word.

  “Ren,” Tori finally managed. “I’m sorry. I-I didn’t—”

  Ren would not meet her gaze. Tears were streaming down her cheeks, biting her skin in the cold. How could I have been so stupid?

  There was a loud rustling in the forest. Ren drew his saber, Tori pulled her dagger, and Mischa readied her flints to strike flame.

  Dajha sprinted into the clearing, nearly a blur with the speed of his Enduro power. His face was twisted with terror. At the sight of the dead Rulaq, he slipped in the snow, launched himself back up, and scrambled toward them even faster.

  “Ren!” Dajha shouted. “We’re under attack!”

  Ren closed his eyes slowly, then opened them. “What happened?”

  “Rulaqs, a whole herd of ’em! They’re destroying Ytala!”

  “Oh gods!” said Mischa.

  “The chancellor is looking for the Watchtower,” said Ren. “We’ve got to be gone before they find it! If we fly, we’ll lead them right to us. We’ll have to run!”

  Ren led the way, hurrying down the mountain path, trudging through the deepening snow. Flurries wer
e coming down harder by the minute. Tori, Mischa, and Dajha followed, struggling to keep up with Ren’s brisk pace. Tori’s head was throbbing from the lingering gnasch and the expended energy from the Rulaq attack. A whole herd of Rulaqs. How is that possible? Where did they come from?

  After some time of hard running, they reached the entrance to the narrow canyon the Watchers called the Birth Canal. Tori feared it was not quite narrow enough, though. A piercing shriek echoed up the valley.

  “Shenzah!” said Ren.

  A second shriek followed, then another, and another. The night filled with the cries of the hellish beasts, resounding off the alpine summits like a horde of banshees. The snow began to fall harder, stinging Tori’s eyes. The ground trembled as the beasts neared.

  “A herd of them,” said Tori. “They’ve found us.”

  “W-what do we do?” said Mischa.

  “The three of you fly back to the Watchtower,” said Ren.

  “B-but that’ll lead them straight—”

  Ren cut Mischa off. “It’s too late for that now. They know where we are. Find Sahra and tell her to take everyone out through the catacombs.”

  Tori didn’t know what the catacombs were, but Mischa nodded without question.

  “What about you?” said Tori, though the knowledge of what he had planned was already gnawing a hole in her gut.

  “I’m going to give you time,” he said, looking out on the field of jagged boulders below. The shrieks were rising up from the forest beyond. The sound was piercing, sending shivers through Tori. The ground thundered beneath her feet. The first creature emerged from the trees, bringing a pair of trunks down with a crash. “I’m going to let them get close. And then I’m going to bring this entire mountain down on those bastards.”

  Dajha nodded solemnly. “We’ll get everyone out safe, Cap’n.”

  Mischa and Dajha headed down the tunnel. Ren held Tori back.

  “Ren, I—”

  “Don’t.” Ren squeezed her hand. His other hand drifted to her face and touched her cold skin lightly. “You’re not the first to be fooled by the chancellor.”

  A sense of understanding seemed to pass between them, and Tori knew he was talking about himself, the days he and Scelero had vied for the chancellor’s graces. She gripped his hand. “Promise you won’t die.”