Shieldwolf Dawning (14 page)

"What didn't you do?" Cassian stopped in his tracks. "You're always dragging me into things. This isn't like home. Painful things will happen to us here if we don't do what they say. Do you think this is a game?" His nostrils flared. The tips of his ears turned hot and crimson.

"I'm trying to get my bearings."

"No you're not." He poked her in the shoulder. "You're just playing around like you always do."

A Shieldwolf patrol stopped to stare. Samarra ignored them.

Cassian lowered his voice. "You're selfish."

"I'm not selfish!" she yelled. "How can you say something like that? I spend my time looking out for you."

"No you don't. You're always looking out for yourself. Plus, you think you're tougher and smarter than everyone else. Well, guess what?"

"What?" Samarra flinched like a beaten animal at every word.

"You're not." Either Cassian was oblivious to her pain or he was ignoring it. "You keep making stupid decisions. Look at what you've gotten us into this time. The Sairfangs might not have been the greatest, but they still looked after you, and they would have never forced me into a war."

"No, but they would have made
me
do it if they could." Samarra could feel her head getting hotter and hotter.

"You know what the worst thing is, Sammy?"

"What?"

"We're stuck here."

"And?"

"And if we hate it, what do we do? Where do we go? Who will look after us? We can't go back because this is a one-way trip."

Samarra couldn't think of an answer that would make him happy, so she said nothing and kept her eyes downcast in guilt.

This time when Cassian stormed off, she let him go. He would cool down eventually like he always did. She watched him forlornly until he had almost reached the training field. When he sat down in contemplation, Samarra broke into a jog. Seconds away from her unit, she saw Shieldwolf Longmane duck into the armoury. Tavani chased him in, dragged him out, and pointed at Samarra. His body language was telling; the usually stoic battlemaster was furious. Samarra groaned, unable to believe her luck.

"Great," she mumbled and ran back to the training field, thinking about the symbol on her staff. Maybe she was a little hot-headed after all.

Friendship

"I wasn't doing anything bad. All I wanted was to go to the bathroom." Samarra threw the scrubbing brush into the wooden bucket. Cloudy water splashed on her face. "Great!" She spat out soapsuds and wiped her mouth on her sleeve.

"Well if you had to go, you had to go," said the platophibian boy working on the other half of the large mess hall. The two were only now meeting in the middle of the room.

"At least you understand." Samarra was grateful to have found a sympathetic ear.

"Shieldwolf Longmane
was
gone for a long time, and it
was
unreasonable of him to expect you to wait for his permission to… well, you know…" The boy pushed his horn-rimmed glasses up his snout. "Wee."

"Wee?" Samarra chuckled.

The boy blushed.

"I've been scrubbing the mess hall for more than six hours. I thought I'd left this kind of thing on Gaia," Samarra muttered. "I can still see the smug look on his face. He was like: 'You are expected to obey orders without question. As this is your first offence, you will spend the day scrubbing the mess hall from corner to corner until it gleams. Now drop and give me twenty. When you are done, give me twenty more.'"

The brick fireplace at the end of the hall burst to life. A fire salamander emerged from the thick of the heat to check on the commotion before it fell asleep by the stone grate. The fire subsided and burned low. Samarra watched the creature for a while. All her anger was forgotten, but not for long: "He's so in love with himself it makes me see red!"

"You'll have to get used to it," the boy said. "We have to report to him directly until we transition to auxiliary." His black-and-brown slitted eyes were focused on her face.

"It's not fair."

"My mother says that life's not fair."

"That's no help." Samarra reached into her pocket and readjusted the diamond sphere digging into her thigh.

"Maybe not, but it's true."

"Not to mention depressing."

The boy shrugged. "Oh well."

"You know, Shieldwolf Longmane could have let me go with a warning."

"Look on the bright side. At least he didn't send you to the hotbox."

"You're right. I wouldn't want to be in the hotbox over something like this." Samarra shuddered at the thought and scrubbed the floor with renewed purpose. "You're Brin, right?" she said after a while. "Kin name, Ril'mok?"

He nodded.

"So, Brin, why are you here?"

"Who, me?"

"Yes, you."

An awkward silence. "I can't tell you." Brin concentrated on his circular scrubbing motions.

"Why not?"

He wouldn't look at her. "You'll laugh."

"Come on, tell me," Samarra coaxed. "I won't laugh."

"You promise?"

"I promise."

"Okay." Brin cleared his throat. "I was watching Tavani Croak brushing her hair in the bathroom."

Samarra gagged. "Eww. I don't know which one's worse, the
thing
you're doing or the
who
you're doing it to. Why her? Why not someone … umm…" she feigned concentration. "Nice?"

Brin put down his sponge. "I can't stop thinking about her." There was a faraway look in his eyes. "The way she switches her tail from side to side when she walks gives me the shivers. Her black-and-yellow eyes remind me of bloated bumblebees and her fangs are so sharp and awesome. Our kin have been friends since they were swains themselves. I've known her my whole life." The bands on his brown cheeks darkened considerably with his confession.

Samarra struggled to hold back her laughter and snorted. "There are so many of them around here and you pick her?"

Brin hung his head in shame. "I shouldn't have told you anything."

"I don't think I can talk about this, anyway."

"Please don't tell anyone?" he begged. "Please?"

"I won't."

"Do you promise?"

"I promise." Samarra drew an invisible x on her chest. "Cross my heart and all that stuff."

Brin let out a deep sigh of relief. He inspected his clawed hands and leaned closer to the floor to rub out a scratch. With a "One, two, three," he growled out a song.

Samarra wondered if all platophibians were tone deaf. She tried not to cringe at his singing voice and focused on scrubbing the floor. The song was interrupted when an archeop darted into the mess hall.

"Who's that?" Samarra asked. "I've forgotten his name."

"I don't remember his name either." Brin frowned and whacked his spiked tail into the floor with heavy beats.

"What's wrong?"

"I don't like archeop," he muttered. "We have different views on almost everything."

The archeop's large, helmet-shaped head bobbled around on his way to Samarra. Most of his face was covered in black feathers that blended into his thick white neck. He looked like he was wearing a mask. The rest of his round body was grey. When he spoke, he deliberately turned his back to Brin. "Shieldwolf Longmane has been summoned to an urgent meeting." He puffed out his chest with a sense of over-importance.

"Another one?" Samarra furrowed her brow. "Things must be getting serious."

The archeop watched her unblinkingly. He took a deep breath and delivered the rest of his message in such a rush that Samarra found it hard to tell when one word ended and the next began. "Once you complete this task, you will both walk the grove and contemplate your actions. You will meet Shieldwolf Longmane on the training field at 1600 hours." The archeop spun around and ran back the way he had come. His narrow, fork-tipped tail was so long that it trailed on the ground behind him. He stopped in the doorway, glanced at them over his large wings, and hopped outside.

"Did you hear that, Brin?" Samarra grinned. "We have free time on our hands. We can go exploring."

"I know, but…" Brin hesitated for the briefest moment and broke into a toothy smile. "Ok."

Samarra jumped up. "So tell me… archeop, what's the story?"

"Well…" Brin leaned back on his whip-like tail and sprung into the air. "Archeop think they're always right because they can see things from above. We think we're right because we see things from below."

"That's dim. Nobody can be right all of the time." Samarra put her brush and sponge in the bucket and stood up. "What's everyone right about?"

"A vision, mostly."

Samarra gasped.
"
The
Vision?" she asked as they went outside to empty their buckets.

Brin nodded. "Aletheia Hibou-Ra and Imeron Wolfrunner were the first Shieldwolves. Aletheia's vision was passed orally from Elder to Elder for hundreds of years until it was recorded in the Book of Living. The most I can remember is this:

The
hidden son rises

and all flux is purged.

A hero in battle

is the shepherd of wolves.
"

He shook his head. "There's more to it, but I forget."

"What's the part you disagree on?"

"One word."

"Which one?"

"Hidden."

"Hidden?" Samarra cast a curious glance at him. "Why hidden?"

"Archeop think it means a son who is hidden and rises from the ashes like a phoenix. We think it means a son who is hidden and rises from the waters like a water dragon."

"What do the gaians think?"

"Gaians have only recently been granted permission to enter the debate. Merganser is the first gaian Elder in the history of Kairuhan. She interpreted the word as hidden on another planet."

"I didn't know that."

"Now you do."

The pair put away their cleaning tools and made their way back to the mess hall for lunch. After taking a seat at a table near the fireplace, they gobbled down a simple meal of rice and beans with yellowgrass salad. Before long, a small battlegroup entered the room. After they had served themselves, a few sat down at a table behind Samarra. They discussed securing the towers in northwest Kairuhan. Samarra paid close attention to what they were doing and saying.

"The Ikajarri have regrouped in a push to take Northwest Towers," an archeop said. Her face distorted in anger. "That mishmash of flux lovers is proving to be more resourceful than we originally anticipated. To think they were once Shieldwolves."

"Yes, these new developments are troubling. We must not delay and send more support for our friends in the field," said the only male gaian in the group.

"I agree with you, Dane." The platophibian at the head of the table was sombre. Her saurian eyes darted around the hall as if she was searching for something or someone. "The Elders cannot delay for much longer or we will lose control of the towers. If the Ikajarri secure the area, they will have direct access to Mirabuka Landing via the underground tunnels."

Four more Shieldwolves joined the group. An archeop sucked a worm out of his apple with a quick slurp. "When does Longmane return from quorum?"

"He will be gone for the afternoon, Shrike," Dane replied. "He protects Elder Ravenhair as she meets with the Green Woman. It comes as no surprise that the Green Woman is being unbending with her demands."

"What does she want now?" Shrike asked. "We do not have time to waste on diplomatic nonsense."

"She wants our protection," Dane said, "but she refuses us passage through her forest."

The platophibian threw up her hands in exasperation. "It has been a week since our return from the front lines. Our friends fight on with limited support. This disruption has dragged on for too long. If the Ikajarri push through to Northwest Towers, they will be that much closer to waking Eshgranna. What then?" She laughed almost hysterically. "It took an entire army to defeat her in the Battle of Hokken Sol. Our numbers are low. We are at the weakest we have ever been. This is not the time for pandering to the whims of a self-serving forest queen."

"Temper your passions, Vior'li Singh," Dane warned. "Aletheia's Vision is unfolding. Elder Ravenhair has retrieved the hidden Son in time. He will lead us to victory in battle."

"But he is only a child," Vior'li reminded him. "He knows nothing of battle."

"Then he will have to learn," Dane said. "And he will have to learn quickly."

Samarra gasped. Vior'li cleared her throat and nodded Samarra's way. The Shieldwolves ate the rest of their meal in silence.

"I'm done." Samarra pushed away her plate. She had lost her appetite. "Shieldwolf Longmane won't be back for a few hours. Let's get out of here and do something fun."

Brin nodded. He was picking yellowgrass from between his sharp fangs. "But what?"

Samarra stood up. "Follow me." They cleared away their plates and headed outside to the trapdoor. "I found this yesterday." Dropping to her knees, she cleared the area of vines. "You want to check it out?" She opened the wooden hatch and peered into the hole. "Woo…" she called into the dark like a ghost on a haunting.

"Hurry up." Brin poked her arm with his tail. "There are Shieldwolves headed this way."

"I can't see inside."

"Just go in."

"It's dark."

"Have you been in before?" Brin leaned over to see for himself.