The Red Rider

by Billy Wong

  "But why should I do that when I am already a werewolf god, and squander my potential?"

  "See, Aidan? He-"

  Lunarch's eyes glowed blue for a split second, and she instinctively drew her knives to defend. Twin beams of azure energy fired from his orbs. She got her blades up in time to block, but though they didn't hit her directly, the force lifted from her feet. She flew backwards through the curtains and across the balcony. Her thighs hit the railing, then she was tumbling over it, plummeting towards the ground..

  #

  Aidan ran to the edge of the balcony and looked down. He was aghast to see Red lying on her back upon the paved street, a red puddle spreading beneath her while passerbys gathered around to stare. "Lunarch!" he yelled, looking back at him. "I didn't want to you to kill her."

  The werewolf came to stand by him. "I haven't killed her. See for yourself, she's already gone."

  He looked again and found she had vanished, the crowd gawking no doubt after her. "So she is. Tough girl."

  "You should send some men to detain her before she tries to interfere with us again."

  Aidan glared at him. "Imprison her? No! You were the one who attacked her first when she was trying to talk. If anybody should be detained, it's you."

  "But then, how would I continue to grant you my help?" Lunarch asked with a smile.

  He turned away. "I know I can't do that. But I won't harm her for your sake, either."

  "You won't? Then in that case, I might just have to take care of her myself."

  "No, don't! Fine, then—I'll capture her, but you're not allowed to touch her."

  At that, Lunarch only smirked.

  #

  After peeling herself off the pavement, Red hastened to the alley where she had told Tonya to wait for her. She'd known her meeting with Prince Aidan might not go so well, and made appropriate preparations. "Are you okay?" her friend asked. "You're limping... and your hair's all bloody."

  "Just busted my scalp, nothing too bad. We better get out of the city quickly though, in case Aidan sends people after us."

  "Is he sending people?"

  "I don't know yet, but better safe than sorry. We can come back later if need be."

  She changed clothes and put on a wig, though that wouldn't hide her face veins if she was seen from the front. Tonya had already changed, and they set out on their preplanned escape route. After making it far enough outside the city, they stopped on a wooded hill to take a breather. "Now what?" Tonya asked, Red having explained what happened.

  "Now, we wait for Jon and Eric's info as planned." It hadn't taken much convincing to get the boys to help, as they along with most of the other soldiers were already terrified of the warofs and wanted no more dealings with were-beings. Thus they'd agreed to keep a tab on Lunarch's activities for Red and Tonya, so that they might find a suitable time to ambush him or otherwise meddle in his plans.

  "So did you find out anything else about his abilities, besides the fact he can shoot eye beams?"

  "No, only that. Nothing about what it'll take to kill him, if that's what you're thinking."

  "Maybe complete dismemberment will still work, like it does for other werewolves even without silver."

  Red shrugged. "Maybe, but that would be an instantaneous kill if it did, and I don't think I want that. I would prefer if he got a chance to tell us about the cure."

  "So you'd rather capture him first? Is that what you had me get all these chains for?" Tonya lifted a section of chain out of her pack, which contained enough to restrain a typical werewolf twice over.

  "I'd like if we could capture him. Even that might require weakening him enough to do it, though. I wish we could learn more about how to harm him... but if we can't, we'll just have to pray our skills and the gear we have will suffice."

  #

  They hid in the wilderness outside the city for the next week, watching its gates for the signal they awaited. Finally, Eric exited wearing the red cape that indicated they were to meet him. They approached him on the side road he turned onto and Tonya greeted him. "Hey! Come here behind these trees and let's talk."

  He scurried over and they discussed things amongst the brush. "So I assume you've learned something given you came?" Red said. "First of all, is Prince Aidan looking for me?"

  "Yes, he hasn't told us much as to why, but he does have men out searching for you."

  Crap. So he would stand by his questionable ally after all. "And what about Lunarch, do you have news of him?"

  "I can't say for certain this is true, or necessarily related to him. But lately there have been rumors about increased wolf noises in the forest west of the city."

  "And Lunarch himself, do you know if he has any plans to leave?"

  "He leaves the city every few days, but quickly comes back. We think maybe he's going out to check something? He should be leaving again in the next couple days, if he stays on schedule."

  Perhaps he went to check on whatever was making those increased wolf noises. "Thanks, Eric."

  "Yeah, thanks," Tonya added. "We really appreciate you taking this risk for us."

  He laughed nervously. "Eh, someone has to put an end to this wolf invasion before there are so many around they decide to eat us."

  And if not them, then who? Red nodded. "I hope we can do it. Take care, and we'll be waiting for more news from you after we check out this western forest if nothing comes of it."

  They headed in the specified direction, and soon found the talk of unusually prolific wolf noises to be true. Even before they reached the place Eric had mentioned, Red could already just hear what seemed like distant wolf howls, sounding oddly muffled. "You hear that, Tonya?"

  "I think so, a little. Why do they sound so sad?"

  Sad? Red hadn't thought of that, but listening again, maybe... They crept towards the source of the sounds, knowing the area would likely be watched by guards human or otherwise. Soon eight chain-clad men appeared to block their path, four with swords, two with axes and the last two spears. Red guessed they must be werewolves, but choose not to transform due to having some skill with weapons.

  One of the men, a long-haired yet balding bruiser with a sword, spoke. "The master will be pleased with us when we kill you."

  "Stay close to me," Red said to Tonya. She didn't want to let the girl be attacked in concert by too many foes at a time, and would need to keep an eye on her to prevent that.

  The men rushed. Red threw two daggers, killing one spearman and causing an axeman to slow as he grabbed the hilt sticking out of his shoulder. She dodged a spear thrust, trapping the pole at her side, parried a sword and then slashed the spearman's throat. A kick to the swordsman's stomach knocked him into two of his comrades, tangling them all up. She glanced towards Tonya, saw her block a sword and jump back from a horizontal axe cut. Slicing a swordsman's wrist after stopping his blade with her other knife, she abandoned her own battle momentarily to help her companion. Tonya's swordsman dashed after her as she retreated, but before he could strike while she was distracted by the axeman, Red's blade through the back of the neck severed his spine.

  She turned to meet the injured swordsman, who had switched his sword to his left hand. She deflected one clumsy blow, then stepped in plunging her knife into his gut and ripped it across. He fell to his knees grasping at his intestines, and a stab to the temple finished it. Three more foes approached. Red threw another dagger into the eye of the one who already clutched her knife in his shoulder, dropping him. She parried a sword slash, ducked another and hamstrung the first attacker. The second grazed her arm with a swing, but she ripped his face open and then stabbed him through the heart in return. The first man sat up, only for her to stab him in the neck.

  Red looked to see how Tonya was doing. She had caught the axe under its head on her spear, and now deftly twisted it out of its wielder's grip. But the man punched her, knocking her on her back. He dove at her; she kicked him in the face mid descent, and he landed next to her stunned. Before h
e could recover, she drove her spear sideways through his neck.

  "Nice moves," Red said, helping her up. "Jaw okay? That looked like a hard punch."

  Tonya massaged it. "I'm a girl. Girls are tough."

  "You know, I was mainly attempting to rouse your fighting spirit when I said that." She smiled. "But yeah, we sure can be."

  They continued on through the forest, the mournful howls growing louder in their ears. At last they saw the reason why they sounded muffled, as they laid eyes upon a cave deep within the wood. "Are the wolves in there?" Tonya wondered. "But why do they sound so piteous, if they're of his kind?"

  Walking inside, they saw the reason. The wide cavern they entered was lined with hundreds of cage, each of which contained a female wolf—not werewolves, but natural lupines. Many were visibly pregnant, some with bellies so unnaturally distended they could barely move, and Red shortly deduced the purpose of this place. "This is a breeding ground for warofs."

  Tonya paled. "So he impregnated all these? But how long, and how many tries would that take?"

  Red's eyes narrowed. "I suspect that moon energy increased the potency of his seed, too. Now he's using it to build an army."

  "So what do we do?"

  She looked around and paused. "I suppose we'll have to kill them all."

  "Are you sure that's right? These wolves didn't do anything, why can't we wait until the warofs are born and just kill those?"

  "That isn't practical. They won't be born at the same time, and we don't know that we'll be able to keep watching over them until they all are. I know it's not that nice, but these aren't people, and when human lives are on the line, being merciful to animals can't take priority."

  Tonya gave a small nod. "All right, do what you have to." She turned away while Red went around the room, spearing wolves dead one by one. She killed even those that weren't obviously pregnant, since she couldn't be sure whether they were or not, but did feel bad about it. Stabbing to death creatures that couldn't fight back left a sour taste in her mouth, and she hoped to soon punish the one who forced her to do it. "So what now?" Tonya asked after she finished the bloody deed.

  "Now, we wait and see if Lunarch comes to check on his kids." Her expression grew serious. "If he does come himself, and doesn't send an underling which is possible, I want you to stay out of the way. He's too dangerous with those beams, silver immunity and gods know what other enhanced powers he has—I don't want you to risk yourself unnecessarily."

  "But I want to help, I don't want you to face that danger all by yourself! I know I'm inexperienced and not skilled, and might only be a burden to you if I faced him head on. But isn't there some way I can help, maybe in an opportune moment?"

  Red touched her chin. "Hmm... well, if you're sure you don't mind the risk, maybe..." She leaned closer to Tonya.

  #

  Lunarch walked towards the cave, his face already worried no doubt because he'd found his men dead. Before he could reach it, Red stepped out from behind a bush by its mouth. She carried Herbert's shield to deflect his eyebeams and, since a single knife wouldn't go so well with the big shield, his sword as well. If she wanted to inflict enough damage to slow him down despite his healing, she'd probably need a bigger weapon too.

  "Too late," she said, tapping the flat of Herbert's blade against her shoulder. "Your poor babies are already dead."

  "You bitch!" Lunarch snarled.

  "I bet you and your cronies have killed and turned your share of human children in the past, and you would've used your army to harm plenty more. So you have only yourself to blame for the death of your brood."

  He drew a long, slender but sturdy-looking sword, transforming into the wolfman as he did. "Where is the other girl? I would rather see the both of you dead today than just one."

  "I sent her elsewhere. She isn't ready to fight you."

  "And you think you are?"

  "Do you forget my name?" She charged. "I'm the Red Rider, who rides upon waves of werewolf blood!" His eyes glowed blue, and beams flew forth. They glanced off her rounded shield, kicking up dirt from the ground into which they were redirected. She whipped Herbert's sword down at his skull. He parried, fired beams at her face. She leaned aside, knocked him off balance with a shield butt and slashed his gut open. Immediately, before his entrails could even drop out, the wound healed.

  "Kill me?" Lunarch taunted, firing more beams she sidestepped. She blocked a thrust with her shield, laid his arm open with a counter he laughed at. "You cannot even hurt me!" They exchanged rapid blows, Red having to dodge many eye blasts between sword strikes. "You can slash me all day, that's fine with me." He got his first hit in, a stab to the upper chest that made her pull back gritting her teeth. "How about you?"

  "I can't take that many, even if I am tough. But how about if"—she ducked a slice and cleaved through his leg—"I take away your limbs?"

  He fell clumsily on his side, but right away his stump began to gain length. "You'll find it hard to keep them away." She struck down, chipping the edge of his sword when he blocked, but was then thrown back by eyebeams to her sternum. Landing fifteen feet away, she staggered up, her chest feeling cold and tight where they'd hit. Darn, she hadn't wanted to find herself that far from him. He stood up with a brand new foot, shooting beam after beam at her. Red ran diagonally towards him, leaping and rolling to avoid them. She jumped, kicked off a tree and chopped through his shoulder into his ribcage. He fired a beam her shield deflected, then pushed her back with a kick to the sternum, dragging the sword out of him. Her chest throbbed badly, and taking advantage while she slowed, he cut her repeatedly before blasting her in the stomach. Lifted from her feet, she landed on her face and drew herself painfully to her knees. Her front was a dizzying mixture of sensation, the penetrating coldness where she'd been been hit by his beams contrasting with the burning of her sword wounds.

  His eyes glowed again, but before anything came out, she hurled a dagger into his solar plexus. Lunarch grinned. But his grin disappeared as his healing didn't push out the blade, and his face changed color as if he couldn't breathe. "What," he sputtered, "did you..?"

  "That's my barbed dagger," she said. "Your diaphragm is pierced. Might not kill you, but I bet you'll soon be too weak to get up again."

  "Ha! As if you could stop me!" He grasped the hilt and ripped it out, taking a chunk of his chest with it. He choked for a moment, but the hole rapidly started to fill in. She dashed at him. "I have unlimited power!" Energy lanced from his eyes at her legs, but she dove over it, and rolled up. As he thrust at her, she spun behind him. Stabbing backwards, she rammed the sword through his spine. "Eh?" he asked while he tried to turn, but his legs wouldn't obey. Red grabbed the back of his head and pushed him down. She sat on his back, holding onto the blade which nailed him to the ground. He looked back and tried to hit her with his eyebeams, but failed to reach her as he could only project them straight forward.

  "And yet all that power avails you nothing."

  He pushed at the earth with his arms, a great surge of his superhuman strength throwing them both into the air. But she plunged the barbed dagger into the back of his neck, severing the spine there as the impact slammed him back onto the ground. She pulled the sword out of his back, for there was no need for it there anymore; he could no longer move anything besides his facial features. "How could you do this?" he whined. "You're just a person. My powers..."

  "Made you overestimate yourself." She rubbed her chest and abdomen, trying to get warmth back into them. "You must have Prince Aidan fooled pretty well, getting him to send men after me. Too bad you won't have that army you were planning to use soon to overthrow him."

  "Soon? No, not at all. I would have let him lead for a long time, until the whole country was secure. Then I might have let them eat him."

  "I've heard enough," Prince Aidan's voice said. He stepped out glowering from behind some trees with Tonya, the "risk" Red had her take being to contact him offering proof of Lunarch's treachery. "My a
pologies for not listening to you, Red. Looks I should trust pretty girls more, after all."

  "I told you so! Next time you ally with a guy like this, I'm really going to blame you."

  Aidan hung his head in shame, and she believed that this time, he really had learned his lesson. "Then I'll make sure there isn't a third time that's the charm."

  "Tricky whore..." Lunarch muttered.

  She smiled. "You promised before that if I stopped you, you'd tell me the cure. We've stopped you, utterly. Well?"

  He scowled, but then his expression became resigned. "If I tell you, will you promise me a quick death?"

  "I'm not even sure how to actually kill you." Maybe drowning would work, or blowing him apart? "In any case, I don't find pleasure in the pain of others, even such as you. So I won't seek to prolong your suffering needlessly."

  "I suppose spiting you would be hollow. The cure is to eat silver and wolfsbane together under a full moon."

  "Does this work only on turned werewolves, or born ones too?"

  He hesitated. "To my knowledge, both."

  "What if he's lying," Tonya asked, "and what he's saying will actually kill Herbert or something instead?"

  Red replied calmly. "We'll know. Because first, we're going to test it on him."

  They carted the immobile Lunarch back with them to Leviathan Valley. "Another one?"Leviatha asked when they arrived at her castle.

  "Yup," Red said, "he's a novelty too, what with his half-and-half form and being a werewolf 'god' and all. Why don't you use him for the main attraction now, he's a lot more deserving of the heckling than Herbert. Don't put any body parts in front of his face, though, since he can shoot energy from his eyeballs."

  Lunarch was imprisoned near Herbert while they awaited the next full moon, Lane pleased to have him since he inspired even more curiosity than a plain werewolf. The barbed dagger they left in his neck, preventing any attempts to escape.