Ravenwild: Book 01 - Ravenwild (82 page)

Stefen emitted a low growl. Jacqueline, fearless, did the same.

“Both of you,” barked Brutus. “That is enough. And you are wrong, Stefen. This
is
our fight. It became our fight when we took these two in as one of us. Did you think that was a charade? A pretense? Jacqueline is right. You should be ashamed of yourself. To answer your question, Cinnamon, there are seven thousand, one hundred and fifty-eight of us at last count, depending on whether or not any early pups have been born. This is the time of year when our mates are preparing to give birth, which they do in the southernmost part of our land.
Our
land,” he repeated with emphasis, looking first at Stefen, then Cinnamon, then Jacqueline. “So they are unavailable to us for the obvious reasons. But the rest, the males, are roaming to hunt.

“This said, here’s what we’re going to do. Hannibal, Dillon, have some bird. Compliments of the most successful hunter in the pack today.” He nodded at Cinnamon. The two Wolves ate their snacks in a couple of bites, each remembering to thank her.

“All right,” said Brutus. “Michael, Harvey, Roly, Franklin, Hannibal and Dillon, you will leave now. Stefen will remain here with me. There are some things that we need to straighten out.”

He glanced sharply at Stefen, who glared back at him.

“Round up the rest. All that you can muster. Bring them to Clearwater. We will meet you there.”

“Brutus, how are we to feed our mates if we take on this fight?” It was Stefen. All present could feel the anger radiating from him like heat from a fire.

“That sounds pretty close to a challenge to me. Is that what you want?
Are you challenging me
?” A low rumble followed his words and a menacing growl came from his throat as he stood with deadly looking fangs bared.

Stefen lowered his head.

“All right then. No harm done,” said Brutus. “Be smart, Stefen. Make no mistake about it, there is going to be a fight. One way or another, there will be more food than we have seen all winter.”

“Sounds good to meeee … ” Roly called over his shoulder as the six of them loped away.

Chapter 28

In the King’s tent, Rolan, Jared, and Diana sat and enjoyed a brief respite from the horrors of the war that had now officially begun, for them at least. For the King and the rest of his army, today was no different than any other day of battle. Food was available thanks to the advance preparations of Turman Pandieth. The wounded had been sequestered and were being cared for by the Ravenwild healers. The dead had been buried. Tomorrow’s strategy needed to be finalized by the leadership and the proper orders given out. On it went.

“I must ask you now, or I might never get the chance to ask you again, and I must know,” said Rolan to Diana. “Why did you leave?”

“Father, I had had enough of the never-ending war, the killing, the destruction. Ever since I was a little girl, it seemed that all of those that I had come to love... they all died. Uncle Sean, Uncle Matthew, Uncle Benjamin, Uncle Yohan, most of my cousins. The list is too long to remember … Imagine that. The essence of your life reduced to a list of the dead that is too long to remember.

“It was easier for Erik. He, at least, was allowed to fight. I, despite all the training in swordplay and bowmanship, was never allowed to be part of the fight. I was left alone. All I could do was grieve.” She paused, stroking her hair back away from her face. “I couldn’t take the pain anymore, so I went away to live in the woods. I wanted to be alone, where I wouldn’t have to hear any more news of my friends and loved ones dying.”

“I can surely understand your reasons,” said the King. “I always thought that I had failed you in some way.”

“Oh no, Father. It was not you, nor Mother. It was this crazy, mixed up world that we live in. Take today. How many Ravenwild wives will now live out the rest of their lives in sadness without their husbands? How many Ravenwild children will do the same without their fathers? And not just on our side, but on the side of the enemy as well. Does it matter any less to the Troll wives and the Troll children? Will they miss them any less than we, because they fight for the other side?”

The silence that filled the tent was deafening.

“But now, I am of a mind that we need to fight this war to the end, and we either win it, or we lose it. Either way, the killing will finally stop. Maybe that’s the whole point, to just stop all the killing.”

There was another long silence in the tent as her words settled over them like a dense mist.

The King broke it with, “Jared, I want to thank you for what you did today. We surely weren't expecting that attack, and it might have been an entirely different outcome had you two not shown up when you did.”

One of the guards outside the King’s tent stuck his head inside. “Wizard Paulimas would have a word with you, My King.”

“Of course,” said Rolan.

Paulimas entered, ducking his tall frame to allow him access to the inside.

He spied Diana, and his mouth dropped open. “Princess Diana,” he beamed. “You are
alive!
” They embraced warmly as his eyes filled up. “This is the best of news.”

“Thank you, Paulimas. This is my dearest friend, Jared.”

They shook hands. “I am told you would be the one responsible for those interesting tactics against the Trolls today. I heard about it as I rode in. I would appreciate it if we could get together before I leave, so that I might learn more of how you did this.”

“Of course,” said Jared.

“And the shrouding spells, My Lord. Did they hold up? Were the troops truly hidden when they burst forth to have at the backs of the Trolls?”

“They were perfect,” said Rolan. “Well played, wizard,”

Paulimas studied his King. He saw the weariness, the lines of stress, the grief over the never-ending litany of death. He too very much wanted the killing to end, so that all the peoples in the three lands could live in peace, free of the ever-present dread that today might be the fateful day when you and your entire family were wiped from the face of the planet at the hands of the enemy.

Such a simple concept: No enemies.

But for now, they had a wall to repair.

“My King,” he said, “as you know, it has always been the plan, ever since we decided to take the fight to the Trolls in King’s Port, to use the wizards to help with their counterattack from the north. We know this is sure to happen as soon as their northern commanders learn of our presence in the south of Vultura. May I sit?”

“By all means.” The King knew his wizard well enough to know that something was amiss.

Paulimas took a seat at the small table in the tent.

“My Lord,” he said. “The magic is failing.”

Rolan’s face paled. “What?”

“There can be no doubt, My King. The six of us have all noticed that our ability to conjure has diminished daily now for several days in a row. Not drastically, mind you, but the diminution is
real.
As real as we are all gathered here. It started with some of the more powerful shrouding spells we were laying down in anticipation of the counterattack. Now, a complicated shrouding spell is by no means a simple feat, but would normally be easily accomplished by a wizard-of-the-first-school. We managed to lay them down, but only by combining our talents and executing them together. Now some of the simple spells are proving difficult, and while I believe we could still be of some assistance in the next few days, my fear is that if we delay our return to Belcourt, we will not be able to assist in the repair of the Great Wall. And without the Great Wall, no matter how well we fight, the remaining citizens will all be hunted down and killed. We need to repair it, My Lord. It is the only hope our peoples have of surviving. What, after all, will be the point of a military victory if the only survivors are the warriors themselves? Our peoples have proven extremely resourceful at evading the constant searches in the wild by the Troll war parties, but they are running out of places to hide.”

Rolan’s face took on the determined look of a leader who must take control of a situation that, if handled well, might succeed, but if handled poorly, could doom all.

“There it is,” he said. “You will depart for Belcourt immediately. It was always the plan to have you return there as soon as we had launched the great ship and retreated, but it appears we now have no choice but to carry on without you.”

Paulimas stood and bowed. “I am deeply sorry, My Lord.”

“Wizard, please. I will not have you apologizing for something that is not your fault. Go now, with haste. Repair the Wall. And be sure that the word is spread for the citizens to return as soon as it is structurally sound. We too will need it intact when
we
return.

“You know where the food stores are in the catacombs. And those of the armaments.” He smiled. “You spelled them.

“One question, though, before you leave. Do you have any thought as to the cause of this mysterious waning of the magic?”

“No, My Lord.”

“All right, go then.”

Paulimas quickly embraced the Princess that he had bounced on his knee when she was a little girl, and took the hand of Jared in his own. “It appears we will not be able to speak about this new weaponry,” he said, “but as soon as time affords … ”

“Of course.”

He left without another word.

“If I might speak, My King.”

“Of course, Jared.”

“As you know, Sire, books have always been an illegal thing here in Ravenwild, since long before any of us was born. But know that my father dedicated his life to collecting these illegal things, and with his passing, I took them all and went to the woods to live. My reasons were somewhat different than those of the Princess but … Well, anyway, I have dedicated much of
my
life to committing the words of some of them to memory. One was on Prophecy, and if I may quote it.”

He closed his eyes. He went back in time.

“
'There will come a dark time when the Trolls will be led by one with a heart as black as the darkest night. Under his command they will subjugate the Gnomes. The Gnomes will then fight with them as the only means to their survival. Together, then, they will try to eliminate every remaining Human, Elf, and Dwarf from our world, and they will never stop until this they have done. Nothing done by those that survive the first assault will matter, except to forestall the inevitable, for the force that hunts them will be too great. The final attack will come in the spring after the fall of the Great Wall. Left to themselves, all will perish.

“
But from beyond the stars there will arrive a lost girl, on the verge of womanhood, in the great reaches of the Ravenwild forests, who can be their savior if she is herself first saved. She will travel to the Enchanted Northland, spelled since the time of the Great War by twelve great wizards, whose bones will have long since turned to dust, but whose sorcery will never weaken nor fail. There she will match wits with the Dukkar, a creature given life from lifelessness by the power of those same twelve wizards, and if successful, she will come to possess a talisman that will give her more power than has ever been seen on this world, since even before the Great War.

“
If she fails, all is lost.

“
But if she prevails, and masters the eight commandments of the Bindu-ward art of magic and spell under the watchful eye of the Dukkar, she will then journey to the Lost City of Elves. There she will learn to draw upon the power of the earth, the sun, the wind, and water. Stronger and stronger she will become, and as her powers grow, magic will begin to fail.

“
She will be recognized by those who save her by the blood-red gemstone that she wears on her neck, on the finest of golden chain. It will be in the shape of a heart, and two serpents will wrestle at its center. Take great care with this precious stone, for it will be how she finds her way home.’”

“You never said that other part,” said Diana.

Jared nodded. “Sorry,” he said. “It didn’t seem relevant at the time.”

“Well,” said Rolan. “Let’s hope it lasts until our fine wizards are able to repair the breach in the Great Wall. Before it fails to the point that they are unable.”