by B N Miles
He nodded and kissed Key’s hair. “Thanks.”
“We believe in you.” Felin lingered in front of him, her wide eyes staring up into his. “You big idiot.” She leaned against his chest.
He laughed and kissed her hair. “Thanks, Fel.”
Brice stood a few feet away, watching them with a strange look on her face. Cam hugged his girls then caught Brice’s eye and tilted his head.
“You can come join us, you know,” he said. “There’s always room for more.”
Key shifted over and gestured at Brice. “Come on,” she said. “Get in here.”
“I don’t want to intrude,” Brice said. “This is… for you. I’m not really a part of it.”
“You slept with him, didn’t you?” Key asked.
Another blush. “Yes,” she said.
“And you felt the magic?”
“Yes.”
“Then you’re one of us.” Key grinned and waved her over again. “Come on, sister in love. It’s warm and cozy and feels good.”
Cam raised an eyebrow at Brice. “You don’t have to if you don’t want to,” he said. “We won’t be insulted.”
Brice dropped her arms and stalked over. She pressed herself into the gap Key left and Cam kissed her cheek.
“Atta girl,” Key said.
Brice snuggled against Cam’s arm and he pulled his girls tight.
Three days. That was all he had before the world ended. Three days to be with his girls, to train Theus, to get the army ready.
Three days before he finds out if everything that he’s done up to this point mattered at all.
Three days to save the world.
And right then, in that moment, with his girls against his body, feeling their breaths against his skin, he thought he might be able to do it.
Maybe, if these women could love him, maybe Cam could pull it off.
32
Cam sent an extra division down to work alongside Key’s rearguard as the wolves stepped up their harassment. They reached a bend in the nearby river and set camp that first day. Before the sun went down, the wolves attacked in the twilight, but not in force. Key’s men were able to form a shield wall and hold them back long enough for Brice to bring her armored infantry along their flank.
But as soon as the armored division arrived, the wolves melted back into the forest.
Cam wasn’t sure what their goal was. But the night was left stinking with wolves, and half of his army was forced to clear the corpses away from their source of drinking water or else disease would run rampant. The men were exhausted the next day, but he kept the march going, determined to reach the pass on time.
The wolves had other plans. They hit them throughout the day, almost as if they knew Cam planned on cutting them off. Key fought bravely and admirably, but running battles were not their strong suit. The wolves were fast and mobile, they could hit at will then reform where necessary, but the shield wall was a tricky and immobile thing. Cam sent another division under Theus’s leadership to reinforce the rearguard, but that only slowed them down further.
They lost half a day’s progress and were forced to camp at the top of a small hill that night.
The wolves didn’t come. Cam sent scouts out to check the surrounding area for traps or wolf movements, but the morning brought nothing but silence. The scouts reported that the wolf host remained about ten miles to their south, well within striking distance, but far enough off that they weren’t an immediate threat.
Cam couldn’t stop thinking about Lycanica floating in mid-air, power rolling from her perfectly formed body like mist in a forest.
The next day brought more hard fighting, but they were close to the pass. The wolves seemed almost desperate, and twice Cam had to halt the army’s march to reinforce Key. By the time evening fell, they were within half a day’s march to their final destination.
But the wolves had pulled up within five miles of his encampment. That night, he swore he could hear the animals growling and howling in the night.
Sleep seemed far off.
Cam found Theus in his tent. Cam rustled the tent flap then pressed his head inside. Theus sat with his back propped by a pile of blankets, his hands behind his head, a single lamp glowing on the table a few feet away.
“Can’t sleep?” Cam asked.
“Can’t sleep,” Theus said. “What’s the General of this army doing wandering around in the middle of the night?”
“I thought we could do a little work,” Cam said.
Theus laughed. “I spent most of the day fighting. I’m so tired I could fall over dead right here and now. And you want to do more work?”
“Come on,” Cam said. “You look bored.”
Theus grunted and climbed to his feet. “Might as well,” he said.
Cam led them out into the evening. A guard member named Miks stood a few feet away, trying to be as invisible as possible. He was a young man, stubble on his cheeks and chin, bags under his eyes, and fluffy dark hair. Cam gave him a nod and kept going with Theus by his side.
“Those guards don’t let you go anywhere alone,” Theus said.
“It’s their job,” Cam said. “I could ditch them, but Arter would throw a fit and blame the poor bastards. So I let them follow along most of the time.”
“That’s nice of you.” Theus gave him a tight smile.
Cam watched his friend closely for a second then gestured with his head. “Come on,” he said. “Let’s go for a walk.”
Theus hesitated. “Is that an order?”
“It’s a request, friend to friend.”
“Fine,” he said. “Not like anything fun’s happening in here.”
They stepped out of the tent together and walked into the cool night. Miks hung a respectful distance away as Cam led Theus through the camp, going slowly.
Fires were banked and dying. Tents rustled with bodies. Snores came from canvas. Some men were still awake, those that couldn’t sleep, those that didn’t need it. The night people, the dreamers and insomniacs, staring up at the star filled heavens and wondering what’s beyond their world. Cam nodded to them, made small gestures toward them, but never spoke.
Speaking would break the illusion that they were all alone.
Cam took Theus away from the camp then, toward Felin’s outpost. He slipped between a spread of trees and came to a slow stop near a large, half-broken boulder.
“What are we doing out here?” Theus asked.
“I thought we could try something.” Cam turned to Theus. “One more lesson before tomorrow.”
Theus groaned. “Cam, I’ve been meditating every spare second. I’ve been trying to picture those images you told me about, and I haven’t made anything. I haven’t felt anything. I just—”
“Hold on,” Cam said. “I’m not going to make you meditate. And I’m not going to kick you.”
Theus grinned. “Promise?”
“Promise. No kicking tonight.”
He laughed. “All right. Fine.” He walked over to the boulder and leaned next to Cam. “What are we doing then?”
Miks lingered nearby, arms crossed, back against a tree trunk, wreathed in darkness.
“I want to show you.” Cam reached out a hand and summoned a small amount of flame. It flickered into being just above his palm, floating in the air, no bigger than a candle.
“I’m not impressed,” Theus said. “You’ve done bigger.”
Cam smiled. “I’ve been thinking a lot lately about magic,” he said. “About where it comes from.”
“Yeah? And what do you think?”
“I don’t know any more now than I did before this all started,” Cam said.
“Useful.”
“But I did think of something that might help.” Cam closed his fist and extinguished the flame. “Remember the first day I used magic?”
“When we were fighting for our lives,” Theus said. “Near that bend in the river.”
“Our backs were to the stream and the wolves we
re spilling through the trees. I thought we were all dead. I mean, we were losing, and we would’ve been dead if it weren’t for the Elves.”
“That’s when you met Miuri.”
“Yeah, it is.” Cam smiled at the fond memory of Miuri pulling him into the trees. “But I touched the priori before that, when I was still desperate. I think you might need a little push, Theus, something to make you see past the veil of all this and find the thing that’s beyond it all.”
“Cryptic,” he said.
“I just mean, magic’s lingering out there…” Cam stretched out a hand, fingers curling in the air. “It’s always there. I can almost feel it. When you feel it, you’ll understand what I mean.”
Theus was quiet for a moment, his eyes focused on something far off. “Remember when we were kids and we’d play fight with Key?” he asked.
“Of course,” Cam said. “Key would kick your ass.”
“She kicked all our asses. But back then we were just… I don’t know. It felt so much easier, so much freer. And now?”
“Now people depend on us.”
“The weight’s a lot. I’m just a General, I don’t even know how you feel.”
“Some days it’s hard,” Cam said. “Some days, I’m doing whatever I have to do. On those days, I’m not thinking.”
“Not thinking,” Theus echoed. “Must be nice.”
“You need to try it,” Cam said. “That’s when the magic’s easiest to find, when my mind isn’t doing a thousand things at once. When it’s slow and quiet, when I’m slow and quiet, I can feel the magic pulsing at the edges of my awareness.”
“Do you feel it now?”
“I feel it,” Cam said. “And you will too.”
“I’m starting to think I won’t.”
“You will. It took me years. You’ll touch it in days.”
Theus smiled but there was no joy. “You want me to find it during the fighting, don’t you?”
“I’m going to assign you to the front lines,” Cam said. “I want you to lead the center.”
Theus sucked in a deep breath. The center was the most important part of the army. In theory, if a wing fell, the army could swing to the side and reform, or at least make a fighting retreat. But if the center couldn’t hold, the whole army would be broken into pieces and whittled away to nothing.
Cam knew he was giving a big responsibility to Theus. He also knew his friend could handle it. They were closer than brothers once, before all this madness started, back when they were still children in the village.
Now they’d drifted apart. Cam had his girls and Theus was just a minor player, only in the game at all because of Cam.
But Theus was capable. He was shrewd and strong, one of the best fighters to come out of Medlar in generations, second only to Cam.
Cam needed this. He needed Theus to step up and do something big. Part of him thought this would be the push Theus needed to finally break through whatever barrier was holding him back.
This would be the shove he needed to find magic.
“I’ll do what I have to do,” Theus said. “But are you sure? Key wants it.”
“Did she tell you that?”
“She doesn’t have to. You know Key.”
Cam smiled. “Yeah, I do. She’ll take the right flank. I’ll give the left to General Stavar.”
“When do you think the fighting will start?”
“Tomorrow maybe,” Cam said. “If not tomorrow, then the day after. We’re close, Theus. What happens next will determine… everything, I guess.”
Theus nodded and patted a hand on the boulder. “I’ll do it,” he said. “I won’t let you down.”
“I know you won’t. And if things look bad, you’ll wade into battle and start using magic, right?”
Theus grinned. “Right. It’ll be easy.”
“Just remember, if you fail, we all die. So, no pressure.”
“You bastard. You’re trying to make me snap, aren’t you?”
Cam shrugged with his hands. “A little bit.”
“Come on,” Theus said, standing straight and pushing off the rock. “I need to get some sleep if I’m suddenly expected to have some real responsibility tomorrow.”
“That’s probably smart.” Cam hesitated and watched his friend. His eyes moved down Theus’s burn scars and a wave of shame rolled through him. He embraced the shame and reveled in it.
“I’m sorry, you know,” Cam said.
“For what?” Theus asked.
“Everything,” Cam said. “Your face. Dragging you into this. Making you learn magic. Growing apart.”
Theus took a deep breath and looked up at the sky. “It’s just the way of things,” he said. “Just how it’s gone. I don’t blame you for any of it. Well, maybe for the magic thing.”
“I still feel like we’ve lost something.”
Theus nodded. “I know what you mean. But there will be time to be friends again when this is all over, right?”
“I hope so,” Cam said.
But he wasn’t so sure.
“We’ll work it out. We always do.”
Cam smiled but felt no joy. “Come on. Let’s go get some sleep.”
Theus reached out a hand and Cam took it. Cam let Theus pull him to his feet, and the two of them walked back to the camp with Miks as their shadow.
33
They marched before dawn that morning. Cam only got a rough few hours of sleep and felt himself drag. Men grunted in the pre-dawn stupor but the camp was disassembled quickly and the road churned with wagon dust and stomping boots.
Cam marched in the vanguard that morning, leading it up through the pine forest toward where the mountains narrowed and formed a pass about ten miles wide. It was the entrance to their small world, and beyond that pass was a deep, dank forest that practically crawled with wolves and possibility. The bulk of the army reached the pass around noon that day, sooner than Cam expected, and he called a halt.
Preparations began. Cam had them dig two layers of trenches: One set out before them where the main wolf army would appear, and one set behind them, where any stragglers or reinforcements might harass their rear. Cam assigned a small division of light infantry to guard the rear along with whatever camp followers had managed the march so far.
Scouts streamed back in waves. “The wolves were spotted ten miles to our south,” a young man with a hooked nose said. “They’re coming straight for us.”
Cam nodded and leaned over the command table. He stared down at the maps, but the maps were not the territory. He wished he could float in the air like Lycanica and see the world from a bird’s perspective. Then he’d know the terrain, the roll of each hill, the placement of each tree.
But for now, he sent orders out to each General assigned to the three main sections. From there, those orders would pass to Captains, from Captains to Lieutenants, and down into the ranks of soldiers that would shoulder the burden of death and fear and blood.
“You look tired,” Brice said. She sat in the corner of the tent, her legs crossed, chewing on a fingernail. She wore a tight tunic and long dark pants tucked into heavy boots. Cam knew they were the clothes she wore beneath her armor. Her whole division was ready to dress and fight as soon as the call went out.
“Didn’t sleep much last night.”
Brice clicked her tongue. “You need rest. We’re going to need you in good shape when the wolves come.”
“I know,” he said. “I’m usually good at stilling my mind, but last night…” He gestured helplessly.
“Should’ve found me,” she said, her words almost studiously casual. “I could’ve done something to ease your burden a bit.”
He grinned. “Look at you. We sleep together one time and now you’re throwing yourself at me.”
She blushed crimson. “Don’t be an asshole,” she said. “Miuri and Key and Felin basically welcomed me into your little… what do you call it?”
“I call it a family,” Cam said.
Sh
e smiled a touch at that. “Well, they practically welcomed me into your family. So I think I have a little leeway.”
“Fair enough.” Cam slumped back into his chair.
“You haven’t given me an assignment yet, you know,” she said.
“I know. I haven’t been able to make up my mind about the heavy infantry.”
“What’s the delay? Put me right in the middle. We’ll break a space down their throats and save all your asses.”
Cam tapped his fingers on the map. “Something’s been bothering me,” he said.
“Oh, you mean, aside from practically everything going on in this camp?”
“The wolves aren’t acting right.”
Brice made a grunting sound. “I know what you mean.”
“When we found Lagon and the wolves attacked, they stopped when things got bad, right? But before, they would’ve kept coming until they were either all dead or too wounded to go on. But that day, they hit us, realized they were going to lose, and withdrew. It was…” He trailed off.
“Rational,” she said. “Controlled. They were organized.”
“Organized,” Cam said. “That’s it, they were too organized. Key reported something similar. The wolves have been acting too organized.”
“You think it’s Lycanica,” Brice said. “You mentioned this before.”
“That’s my theory,” he said. “And now I worry what that means for this fight. I’ve been setting it up in my head as if the wolves were going to act like they have before, but there’s no promise of that.”
“No, there’s not,” Brice said. “But what else can you do?”
“I can think of some tricks of my own,” Cam said. “You’re one of them.”
“You have others?”
“I hope so.” He let out a breath. “What are the chances they’ll come today?”
“I don’t know,” she said. “Are you sure they’ll attack at all?”
“Not when we’re behind trenches and stakes,” Cam said. “But if I marched the men out into the open, I think they would.”
“Why?”
“Lycanica wants to end this. I think she has bigger plans and we’re slowing her down. She was angry when I saw her, really angry. I think she wants to crush us, and if I offer her a battle, she’ll take it.”