Brace For the Wolves

by Nathan Thompson

  "Huh," Breena said. "Five different types of grain?"

  "Yeah," I nodded. "We're only really gonna need one or two, but I have some suspicions and I want to be prepared."

  She cocked her head at me.

  "You're thinking beyond the people here, aren't you?" she said thoughtfully.

  "Yes and no," I admitted. "You told me before how there was some trade between worlds, though it was really small and confined to only a few groups. And that the traders had to take specific routes and not just teleport all over the place."

  She snorted.

  "That would have been impossible even if it was allowed, but continue."

  "I'm thinking that one: in addition to dealing with the Malus Members and all the Trials and Tumults, the loss of that small amount of interplanetary trade is making a bigger impact than everyone realizes. And I suspect we might be bringing more refugees back here, because there's no way Rhodes confined all of his trafficking operations to just this stop."

  "Okay," she said, following. "Let's hear your reasoning for why you needed five types of superfood."

  "Because with elves, dwarves, humans, and all of the other races, dietary needs are still going to be just a little different, no matter how 'super' I make that grain. And if a culture doesn't have any experience with said grain they won't know what to do with it. Now yes, they can still just pop it in their mouths but if they already have recipes for the type of grain I'm providing then their chances of survival should be so much greater. This way, I can provide rice to the Spirit Kingdoms and know they'll make full use of it, then provide oats to the Woadlands without worrying if they'll distrust it too much. And there's going to be some nutritional benefits to eating ideal versions of each."

  "You're thinking of making Avalon a nexus for meeting emergency needs," Breena nodded.

  "It's gotta be, now," I nodded back. "This is the one place that's Horde and Malus-free. Or it will be, shortly," I finished. "Avalon, you can still talk while you're working on that ritual, right?"

  "Affirmative."

  "And there's still a lot down here that we haven't explored, but I'm assuming if you could detect further hostiles nearby, you would have already alerted us."

  "Affirmative. The warded areas are still outside of surveillance but seals show no sign of deterioration. Reinforcing seals on all rooms with potential hostiles. Disabling all traps for hostile-free rooms. Reactivating the assisted movement wards on the exterior tunnels."

  "Assisted movement?" I asked. "Are you saying the tunnels I am looking at right now allow for faster travel?"

  "Affirmative. Recovered data shows that earlier tunnels served to quickly move supplies and soldiers before the shelter's conversion into a containment space."

  That was another thing I'd spend time looking into. But right now I didn't have to spare.

  "Avalon, just to be completely clear, we can use these tunnels to travel to different locations?"

  "Confirmed, although all openings still lead to within the radius of the sheltered zone."

  "Can you confirm the size of the sheltered zone now?" I asked.

  "Improved surveillance shows the shelter contains an area of over one hundred square miles."

  "One hundred—" I sucked in a breath. I didn't even know how that was possible. We hadn't even begun to scratch the surface of this place. "Are there hostiles all along our perimeter?"

  "Negative. Hostiles remain concentrated near the Challenger's initial entrance to the shelter. At least fifty percent of the shelter's full boundary is unguarded."

  "So we could conceivably pop up closer to the other side and escape the perimeter? And they'd never know?"

  "Affirmative," the mists answered me. "Be advised that the current hostiles have shown an unusual affinity for tracking the Challenger across great distances outside the shelter. Sustained concealment is unlikely."

  "Noted," I replied. "But that's still good news." I turned to look at everyone around me. "How tired is everyone?"

  I got a chorus of answers back.

  "Very."

  "A little on the sleepy-from-all-the-constant-violence side, personally."

  "I could use a very long nap."

  "My last nap was maybe ten or a hundred thousand years ago. But I'm good."

  "Wes, do you remember how I made a rule near the end of your training for no more than one Challenge a day?"

  "And normally I'd like to respect it, Breena," I replied. "But Guineve is still out there. And those Horde Pits are getting stronger every day. So here's what we need to do. Let's get everyone acquainted with the resurrected ghosts, see if we can find better shelter for them. Then we take an hour’s rest and hit either a Horde Pit or Guineve's lake."

  "I'm not sure that's a good idea, Wes," Breena cautioned. "I'm pretty sure the monsters outside are close in strength to what we've battled down here below. And their numbers are much greater."

  "Sooner or later we're going to have to find out," I replied grimly. "And if they're Horde, they're growing in power from the local pits daily. We're not." I thought for another moment. "Unless I'm missing something, our options are to either open one of those other magic doors I saw and continue exploring down here and hope we can keep getting stronger, force a confrontation with them outside right now and give them the advantage, or strike a more vulnerable location and maybe rescue Guineve. Because staying here with our heads down, while several other worlds might be ending soon, is out of the question. Unless Guineve can recover fast enough and break free on her own. Anyone have any other ideas? Avalon, that includes you."

  While several people shook their heads (or skull, in one case), Avalon answered from the mists.

  "The warding around Lady Guineve is beginning to diminish faster than her estimated recovery. Extraction may soon prove necessary."

  "Okay, that confirms that," I replied. "What about getting stronger down here?"

  "Challenger's power is insufficient to begin the next Rite."

  "Okay then," I sighed. "That clarifies everything. Let's get our people moved deeper into the shelter, get an hour of rest, and then get ready to move out."

  Chapter 12: Give Me Your Doomed, Your Dead, Your Damned

  We led Talitha back to the group, had everyone exchange names, and then departed again. They had been relieved to see us, grateful to hear that the nearby area was now safe, and a touch unnerved to hear how we would be getting 'new' people. Talitha seemed to set them at ease, being so young and harmless. It was all I could do for now. Avalon directed us to a set of buildings in slightly better repair and closer to some edible plants. I'd have to find a way to get more permanent structures for them but again, that could wait.

  I didn't bring Virtus with me because I didn't want them all to lose it at the sight of a giant walking skeleton. I went ahead and explained that some of the dead would rise not as citizens but as warriors, and that they would be our deathless, fleshless guards.

  They took that far better than I expected. Which meant they didn't start screaming and asking a bunch of questions I couldn't answer.

  Emalee thought Talitha was adorable and asked if she could keep her. Talitha jumped at the idea. She had been wanting a mother for almost an eternity, she said.

  I chose not to ask what had happened to her first set of parents.

  I didn't have time to talk to Valerie, Kayla and Samantha. I only had an hour to rest and I knew our talk would take longer than that. And I didn't want to gain their trust just to risk losing it by dying again, and for good, an hour or so later.

  Maybe that was cowardice. When I looked at myself I couldn't tell for sure.

  After Guineve, I decided. Get everybody saved, and then you can apologise. Then you can ask for the right to be their brother again.

  After an hour's rest, we were back underground.

  The ghosts from earlier still lingered in the tunnels.

  “He goes again,” one whispered.

  “He travels to the world we now know to
be above.”

  These were older ghosts. I no longer heard child-like voices whisper in the mists. I had even asked the spirits why. The old ones said that they would be last, so that they could be my watchers. I didn't know what that meant.

  But at any rate, something about these tunnels took away our fatigue and made running almost as easy as lying down. Stone walls flew by me, and Avalon led the way by lighting blue tiles ahead of us.

  It completely took away my worry of running too fast, tripping, and planting my fleshy nose and forehead smack-dab into the middle of the unloving, rocky floor. That was probably a bad thing, given the number of years my parents spent encouraging me to look where I was going. Nonetheless, I was determined to take advantage of it as often as needed until I could make sure that nobody died.

  “Will he save the others? Is that his goal?” an old woman rasped beyond the wall to my right.

  “He is hurrying, is he not?” a male voice rasped from the mists along the other wall. “No doubt he hears their cries.”

  Damn it.

  “Whose cries?” I shouted. I barely resisted my urge to slow down and listen to their explanation.

  “The cries of those above,” the second voice said simply, as if I had any reason at all to be up to speed with all this nonsense. “As they drift down below.”

  “Who is crying out above?” I demanded as we ran. “Avalon, confirm whether everyone inside the shelter is still safe.”

  “Status of local non-hostiles is unchanged,” the mists rumbled.

  “But those beyond the Ward scream even louder than we once did,” the first voice persisted. “The ones claimed by the not-things.”

  “Not-things,” I sputtered. “Do you mean the Horde? Do you mean monsters?”

  “They have teeth and claws,” the first ghost answered.

  “They howl and rage,” the second ghost supplied.

  “They seek to kill the traitor-prince,” a third voice whispered.

  “Avalon, confirm if there are any captives in any of the Horde Pits.”

  “Confirmation not possible,” the planet intoned. “Surveillance capability is still insufficient for anything more than a one-time mapping of the terrain.”

  I swore again. I decided that today must be a Monday, and that Mondays on Avalon sucked.

  “Eadric,” I snapped. “Karim. Weylin. I need to know if the Malus Members took anyone to the Pits.”

  An uncomfortable silence greeting my question.

  "We don't know," Karim admitted. "They would take the captive men and the older boys out, and we would never see them again."

  "We had hoped they merely killed them," Eadric added quietly.

  But they wouldn't have, I realized. The Horde Pits gained power from having sentients dragged into them. That might have been how the three Pits here had grown to such strength.

  "They live," the first ghost insisted. "But they regret such life."

  "They suffer," the second ghost added.

  Something between an oath or a growl escaped my lips.

  "Where are they?" I tried not to shout. "Which Pit?"

  "Most writhe in the prison near the Lake," the first ghost answered. A chorus of voices chimed in.

  "Their captors seek the Lady within."

  "They hate her."

  "They covet her."

  "They fear her."

  "They seek to corrupt her rest."

  Right, I remembered. These things are gross.

  I need to kill them all.

  "So the Pit with the most captives is also close to our primary target," I said out loud. "That almost counts as convenient."

  "How are you going to rescue the captives?" Weylin asked as we ran. "They're already in the Pit."

  "That wasn't a problem last time," I said. "I'm going to try and just pull them out."

  "That legend is true then," Eadric huffed. We were all just now starting to get a little winded, despite the fact that we had been running for almost thirty minutes. Then one of the runes on the floor glowed brighter, and our weariness vanished.

  "They all are," Breena said softly, though I didn't fully agree with her. "Wes was made for the impossible."

  "Anyway," I huffed. "I'm thinking we should clear the monsters near the Pit first, then hit the Lake, get Guineve, then go for the captives in the Pit, because I don't want to enter a second battle with a bunch of recovering rescued prisoners hanging off of my back."

  "Are you sure you still want to hit both?" Eadric asked cautiously.

  "Yeah, I'm afraid so. We have the element of surprise right now and if we don't take full advantage of it we may never live to regret it. I also have no idea how long Guineve will take to recover, so I don't know if we can count on waiting for her to recover before we start taking down Pits. But if it looks too well defended, we will pass on attacking it." I gritted my teeth as I said that. There were too many difficult decisions to make right now. And unlike the games I had played ages and months ago, I couldn't just reload to a save point and try again. I had to remind myself of one of Dad's old lessons: there is never a perfect plan, only one better than the rest of your crummy options.

  I just hoped that I wasn't picking the crummiest option without realizing it.

  Finally, we found the hole leading to the surface. We came out into yet another wooded, misty area with rocky outcroppings. There were no Horde in sight and Avalon quietly reminded me that we were still in the shelter's borders.

  There was a disagreement when they heard my plan of attack.

  “I thought we were rescuing the lady at the lake first,” Weylin asked me.

  “We are,” I nodded. “But the Pit is close enough to the lake for both groups to reinforce each other. Guineve’s lake is going to be a more dangerous location for them, so I'm expecting more forces there. I want to get the drop on the force at the Pit first. They’ll have to fall back to defend and we can use that to our advantage.”

  “What if the Pit is more secure?” Karim asked.

  “If we find out in time, we hit the lake first instead. If we don't, we’ll have to bite the bullet and launch the attack anyway. Speed is the key here. We need to hit as hard and fast as we can or our enemies are just going to keep getting stronger.”

  I could tell they didn't like our choices any more than I did, but now wasn't the time to worry about that. Spells were recast as Weylin softly began singing his travel song. It wasn't nearly as effective as the tunnel's magic had been, but everyone's speed had increased since the last time we used it, so we should still obtain a fair bit of surprise.

  Especially since Avalon's surveillance improved the closer I got to the Pit. By the time I was within a mile's radius, I had a pretty good idea of the number of guards, as well their positioning and patrol routes. By the time I was half a mile away, I had a rough idea of which species of Horde we would be facing as well. The numbers seemed low, all things considered. There should have been hundreds more Ilklings and other monsters to encounter here. I reminded myself that since Avalon had previously been a staging area, the Horde raised here was probably sent to reinforce other areas.