The Red Rider

by Billy Wong

  Red limped to Herbert, who had come up to sniff at Lunarch's severed hand. She put an arm about his waist and rested her head sadly against his shoulder. "We really only have one choice. We go back, and keep searching for a cure to this accursed, um, curse."

  #

  Lunarch landed in a flaming heap hundreds of feet from the dome, having been blown out its roof by the vessel of ascension's explosion, and rolled in the snow to put himself out. He had lost a hand in the blast, and been burned to the bone in several places. Yet it didn't hurt quite like it should have, and already his injuries healed with uncanny speed. He wasn't sure how much of the lunar energy he had absorbed, but felt godlike in his vitality as he already regained enough strength to rise up like a canine phoenix. He looked back at the ruin where his enemies no doubt still were and grinned. Let them think him dead. Soon he'd build a new army with the newfound power within him that longed to be used, and then even as formidable as he admitted the Red Rider and friends were, they would be helpless to stand against him.

  #

  Red and company journeyed back south, not even making fires in camp during the nights so as to avoid drawing attention. They traveled slowly, tired and pained by their wounds, and during once stretch Tonya sneezed and coughed when she got sick thanks to being weakened by her injuries. Red knew she couldn't keep taking Herbert around with her in their homeland even if he was harmless, as it would provoke too many undesired conflicts, but she had a bit of a plan. She would need somebody else to cooperate, but hopefully appealing to that person's pride would be enough to get the better of their reservations.

  When they had just entered Leviathan Valley from the north, Herbert despite being in human form tensed and bared his teeth in a snarl. Maybe he smelled something amiss, or otherwise sensed it. Steps later, Red heard a scraping of boot on dirt to her back and right, and spun to catch a crossbow bolt aimed at her skull. "You again?!" she snapped. "A little better aim this time." Chaser's nephew had stepped out from behind a shed, and now dropped the bow he had shot at her with. While villagers stared, he charged drawing his scimitar and raised it over his head.

  Before he could swing it down, she darted inside his range, and his eyes bulged as he couldn't figure out what to do fast enough. She grabbed him by the throat and tripped his legs out from under him, slammed him down on his back. "Tell me now why I should spare you again."

  "I-I don't want you to spare me. It was a fair fight this time, or more than fair, and I failed. Kill me and be done with it."

  She stood up off him, leaving him to lie blinking in puzzlement. "I don't want to kill you. Chaser did something terrible that you don't even approve of and paid for it. Even if that means he won't get into heaven, will 'avenging' him on me change that? You need to carefully consider whether continuing to pursue this will be worth it. This is your last chance. The next time you aim a weapon at me or my friends with murderous intent, I'll end your life."

  "She means it!" Tonya added, perhaps none too helpfully.

  Her would-be assassin seemed to think about it, but before he could make any response Herbert jumped on him and started beating him savagely with his fists. Red wasn't sure if he was agitated by the threat to his companions, or in fact wanted to eat him. She pulled him off the young man with some difficulty, his enraged mass tough even for her to restrain, and stood in front of him with a palm out. "No, no," she told him, and heard his victim scramble to his feet and run stumbling away. Looking back, she saw a couple teeth left behind on the bloody ground.

  "I guess he might not be that safe to have around for others besides us," Tonya said softly.

  Red frowned. "I know. Which is why I'm going to try and put him somewhere he won't do any harm."

  Some time later after they reached the noblewoman's castle, Red and Leviatha stood opposite each other in the lobby where they had once fought. "Why should I accept what you propose?" the giantess asked while her brother and Tonya watched. Herbert also sort of watched. "What have you done for me that I should do this for you?"

  "Well, I did keep you from sacrificing all of your people's trust and give you the chance to see a werewolf king dead," Red said. "But if that isn't enough, don't do it for me. Do it for yourself, to show the world you're that confident and fearless. You've killed werewolves in droves before, are you really so afraid to keep one in your home?"

  "I'm not afraid."

  "Then why don't you take up my challenge? I'll pay for his feeding, of course."

  "Feeding him won't cost me much." Leviatha looked towards Herbert, now sniffing at Lane who tried to lean away, and sighed. "I know what it's like to lose someone you really care about, and can see you really don't want to lose him. Fine, I can hold onto him for a little while."

  "But sister!" Lane cried. He paused. "You know, it could be pretty interesting, actually."

  "Don't you do anything to Herbert you wouldn't want done to you," Red warned him.

  "Ah, don't worry, I'll keep my brother in line. Not that he'd dare to offend you nowadays, anyway."

  Red waited with Herbert while a cage was set up in Leviatha's basement. She led him sadly into it, and her eyes grew moist as he looked at her in confusion when she shut the door. "Don't be scared," she said in a meant to be soothing yet choked voice, "this is for your own safety. Just rest a little while I find that cure for you, and you'll be out of here in no time." She stuck her arms between the bars to hold his face in her hands. "This I promise you."

  "He doesn't understand," Lane said behind her. "He's just a mindless beast right now."

  "No he isn't. He can still feel, and have concern for others—he may not be able to think like he used, but there are still qualities to admire."

  "No more than in a loyal dog."

  She scowled. "Think what you want. But don't you hurt him, or I swear I won't let you go."

  Leviatha chuckled. "He won't do anything. He's scared shitless of you."

  "I am not. I just didn't want to trouble myself with helping that boy."

  "Wait, what boy?" Red asked.

  "Some foreigner who wanted my brother to help him kill you," Leviatha said with a shrug.

  "Did you get his name?"

  "No, he never bothered giving it."

  "Huh. Then I guess if he's smart, we'll never learn."

  #

  Aidan swayed drunkenly in his chair while the other guests watched with looks of sadness or contempt. He knew somewhat that he was making a fool of himself at his cousin's dinner party, but couldn't bring himself to care. "But you have to help me!" he said, pointing at Duke Carrol nearly causing him to slump over. "Leviatha and Bluestone are still under me. We must press on, to bring back our one, true... country."

  The duke, a small-featured and handsome man of middle years, shook his head. "They're under you in name only. Your leadership is in name only. When's the last time either of them offered to help you attain this fantasy of bringing the land together? There's no room for high ideals in these times—I wanted to think there were, but your failure put a nail in the coffin of my belief."

  "You're weak!" he replied, stumbling up from his seat. "You give up too easily! And what do you mean my failure? You cut me off before it could ever be seen if I would fail or not."

  Duke Coward said something in response, but Aidan couldn't make out the words as he turned and lurched out of the dining hall. Sometime later, without memory of how he'd gotten there, he found himself sitting in an alley off a street far from the manor. He wondered if he should regret losing his temper, but decided he probably shouldn't. It wasn't like being polite would make Duke Coward more likely to change his mind. Maybe Aidan needed to do something impressive to reignite his cousin and everyone else's faith in him. But what could he do, without the funds to lead an army out again? Most of his troops had gone back home, leaving him with only his few trusted guard. He doubted many local rulers would even take his offer of protection seriously now.

  "I will not fail!" he shouted at himself, mak
ing a vagrant dozing opposite him open his eyes and regard him impassively for a moment before closing them again. "I will not accept defeat! There must be a way..."

  "There is a way," a voice said from his right, "but you must not be afraid if it comes from an unexpected place."

  He looked to see a pale, muscular man with white hair standing in the mouth of the alley. "Who are you?" he asked, an unexplainable chill running through him at the oddly shirtless stranger.

  "I am Lunarch, God of the Moon. You want the power to take back the nation? I can give it to you."

  Chapter 12

  Red and Tonya spent the next few months wandering the continent, talking to people and exploring ruins in search of the knowledge of a cure. Red's relationship with her father seemed to improve, as he now at least sometimes replied to her letters. They got no closer to curing Herbert's condition, though, and Red began to grow discouraged. She worried over how he must feel, all alone in that cage, with probably no idea what was going on. Leviatha's castle had become something of a tourist attraction, as a captive lycanthrope drew people's curiosity, and at Lane's insistence the siblings milked it for all it was worth. Red didn't like it, but what could she do? She wouldn't likely find anyone else willing to hold a werewolf for her.

  One day, she and Tonya had just finished another unfruitful trek into a ruin and were just leaving the town nearby when they spotted a force of armed men marching past. Their number wasn't great, maybe about a hundred, but the unusually large wagons bringing up their rear and the fact they carried Prince Aidan's banner demanded attention. The women caught up to the head of the column, only for Tonya's face to brighten as she got a pleasant surprise. Eric and Jon sat up front on horseback, wearing shining armor like that of Aidan's elite guard.

  "Guys!" Tonya beamed. "It's been so long—how are you doing?"

  "We got promoted to co-captains," Eric said. "So, I don't see how the answer could be anything but 'great!'"

  "Eric even finally got a girl to kiss him," Jon added, making him turn red. "What about you, you holding up okay with your delicate frame? I see you've gotten some nice manly scars. Girls love those."

  Tonya self-consciously touched a pair of recent marks she'd received on her cheek, but smiled. "I'm fine. I'm not that delicate."

  "Oh, we know that, it was a joke! Just riding with Red here and still being alive lets us know you're tougher than most men."

  "Eh, not particularly. She does the heavy lifting when it comes to fights."

  Red slapped her back. "Don't be so modest. You impressed me a lot up north, and that was when you were less experienced."

  "So are you guys still hunting werewolves?" asked Eric.

  "Sometimes. We've been focusing lately on finding a cure for them, though."

  "A cure? I wouldn't have expected that considering how much you hate them, but I did hear about Herbert..."

  She exhaled. "There is that, but we were already looking for a cure when it happened to him. There's only so long you can hold on to hate, especially against a whole group rather than one person, and I figured it was time for me to let go of it."

  "That's wisdom," Jon said.

  Eric nodded. "That's our old lady Red!"

  "I'm not an old lady."

  "Just teasing ya, old lady."

  She looked towards the back of the column, where the two huge wagons loomed. "So what's in those oversized carts?"

  All of sudden, Eric looked nervous. "Uh..."

  "Our secret weapons," Jon put in for him.

  "Secret weapons?" Red grew suspicious and walked towards the wagons, the men staring after her before dismounting to follow. Despite a soldier asking her to stop, she hopped up on one vehicle, pulled up the cloth tarp, and recoiled. The tarp covered a massive iron cage, still barely big enough for its inhabitant... a warof with white fur. She felt uncertain the cage could even hold it, yet it didn't try to escape. "What the hell?!" she asked, turning on Jon and Eric. "Where did Aidan get this, and is there another in that one?"

  "Yeah, where did you get it," Tonya whispered, "you shouldn't be messing with that..."

  Jon shrugged. "We don't know. All we know is the prince gave them to us to help persuade Lady Dunen to join."

  By scaring her? No wonder the "persuading" force required fewer troops. "Is Prince Aidan around somewhere? I think I need to have a talk with him."

  "No, he's back at base," Eric said. "Ever since he gained his new ally, he hasn't seemed to feel the need to go out himself as much."

  "New ally? Who is that?"

  "We don't really know. But he must have met someone who gives him these monsters, and can control them. There's also a rumor Duke Carrol has a new guest."

  "Can control them?" Red was getting a real bad feeling about this.

  "We have them in cages now because we were afraid they would turn on us, and begged Aidan to lock them up. But when they first arrived... they walked around freely and admittedly didn't hurt anyone, as if they'd been ordered not to."

  Rarely would something not hurting people be considered a bad sign. But what else could command a thing like a warof but its sire, and if they had white fur...

  "Do you think it could be him?" Tonya asked.

  Red shook her head. "Most likely, dammit. He must've gotten blown out the roof instead of being disintegrated like we thought, and..."

  "What are you talking about?" Jon asked.

  "We think we know Aidan's ally. A talk is definitely in order—but first, let's see how this 'persuasion' thing is handled nowadays."

  Red and Tonya went with the soldiers to Lady Dunen's estate surrounded by rich farmland. Thankfully no violence was used, nor the warofs even brought into sight, though that could probably be attributed to the lady's predisposition to allying with the prince's cause. They returned to Medoe, where Red tried to gain an audience with Prince Aidan at Duke Carrol's manor. But when she was announced as his visitor, he refused to see her. So naturally, she snuck around and climbed up to his balcony overlooking the ocean. Parting the smooth pink curtains, she stepped into his room.

  "I knew you wouldn't be deterred," he said as he heard her enter. He sat by his desk, a cup of red wine in his hand. "I can't say I don't admire your spunk."

  "At my level, I don't know if it's still just called 'spunk.' You've allied yourself with Lunarch, haven't you?" His averted gaze confirmed it, and she snapped, "Do you know what you're doing? This creature is only out for his own kind, and will surely betray you once you've outlived your usefulness. He even told me he planned to let his kind continue feeding on us humans. Hasn't what happened with Chaser made you realize the hazards of taking on dubious allies?"

  "First of all, I still could have salvaged my reputation if I had him punished after that incident, if you hadn't driven him to kill himself. Second, don't you think I know that? Maybe it's unfamiliar in your simple world, but in politics, it's common to form alliances with dangerous people. If he wants to backstab me later, fine. We'll see who ends up with a dagger in the kidney."

  "I've allied with those I didn't completely trust." She was kind of doing that now with Leviatha, and especially Lane... "But you don't understand. Lunarch isn't even human like you or me—he's a werewolf, and driven to raise up his kind. Even if you're good at understanding people's motives, there's no telling how differently one like him thinks. You can't predict him. You're playing with fire."

  He took a long sip from his cup. "A werewolf, you say? He told me he was a god—more precisely, a wolf god."

  "And you put any trust in this madman... mad wolf?" But she also wondered what powers he had gained to call himself that.

  "Like I said, I know he'll betray me. Do you not think I can keep alert, though? I make sure to carry a silver weapon these days—I'm not so stupid as to not realize he's probably werewolf-like—and I'm hardly helpless."

  "See, that goes to show what you don't know. The last time I faced Lunarch, silver didn't even hurt him anymore. He just healed from it like an
ything else."

  That got Aidan's attention, as his eyes widened. "So how can he be killed?"

  She shook her head. "I'm not sure. I'd assume complete destruction of his body like we thought had happened would kill him, but to get him in that position might not be easy—and doubly so if you're going to wait for him to make the first move against you."

  "But I need his help! It's because of his monsters helping me find new success that my cousin has agreed to fund me again. Without them, I don't know if I'll be able to continue."

  "What's more important, rushing to achieve your dream or preserving your life? If you wise up now, you can still look for other ways to reach your goal later. But if he kills you..."

  "How can I strike first, though, if I don't know how to kill him?"

  That was an issue. "Maybe try to capture him, and then figure it out? I'm sure if he's restrained, it won't be impossible to think of a way to end him."

  "I suppose... do you know what other abilities he might have beyond normal werewolves?"

  "I don't know, the only thing I've seen is healing from sil—wait, does he have one hand now or two?"

  "I have two," a familiar voice said from the door. Red turned with dread to behold Lunarch, in his pale yet robust human form though he began to transform now. He continued to speak as if he felt nothing from the change to his body while he took on the features of the white wolfman. "Prince, don't listen to that girl. Why would I betray you, when you'll always be so helpful to me?"

  "What do you mean?" Aidan asked.

  "Even after we establish our kingdom, you can continue helping me improve the standing of my race among the people."

  "Ah, I see."

  "Don't listen to him!" Red said. "Why would he care about what we think once he has control? Even if he keeps you alive, it'll just be as a figurehead so we don't rebel."

  Lunarch looked at her. "Control? Who says we seek control, you? There's no reason our races can't live together in harmony and share this world."

  It was obviously a show for Aidan, as he'd already told her his intentions before. "Except, the vast majority of your kind have an irresistible hunger for manflesh. So that would naturally make it hard for us to coexist as equals. I'm not adamant about killing you. Tell me the cure, take it yourself, and we can live as one."