Dustfall, Book Three - The Baying of Wolves Read online

  Sasha collapsed to the ground, dropping the knife and leaning against the trunk of a tree. Keana and Gideon rushed to her side while Solomon stood motionless. Shouts and screams came from the trees near the road, and within fifteen minutes, Solomon’s warriors marched the remnants of Gerth’s men back to the middle of the camp, their hands bound at the wrists.

  Sasha stared at them. They wore long capes and used masks and paint to hide their faces. Solomon’s men pushed them to the edge of the fire pit.

  “We had to kill one.”

  Solomon nodded at his warrior and then turned to Sasha. “What of them?” he asked.

  She stared at each man and then looked over her shoulder at the tent.

  “Why did you not pillage with your chief?” she asked.

  Gerth’s men remained still. Silent.

  “You hid on the edge of our camp. Why?”

  Solomon stepped toward the three captives and bent down to stare into the first man’s face.

  “Cowards,” said Solomon.

  “They’ll be coming for Gerth. They’ll want his body,” said one of the men.

  Sasha looked at the captive who was the only one of the three to speak. “Who?”

  “The fucking demons, bitch. The ones that live under the city—or did. They’re not scared of the day anymore, it seems. And they’re coming,” the man said. “We saw what they did to Shykar, and we weren’t about to follow Gerth. But what the hell were we gonna do? Can’t go back to Eliz. Got no road now that the earth been swallowing it. So, we followed him here. We didn’t have nothing to do with it, but we were gonna wait til he finished his business. We were gonna leave when the pissy little kids called us out.”

  Solomon brushed past the captives and whispered into Sasha’s ear. “What should we do?”

  Sasha closed her eyes and thought of Jonah. She wasn’t sure why Solomon was deferring to her or why the men had confessed to following Gerth to their camp. More children gathered at Nieve’s feet. She saw Leta and Keana there as well. Gideon had moved closer to the fire, his eyes fixed on his mother.

  I am not chief, she thought. But I am strong. I can make this decision.

  “Nieve,” Sasha said, taking a step away from Solomon. “Your children alerted us to the attackers. They have saved lives.”

  Sasha bowed, and Nieve did the same in return.

  Sasha turned back to Solomon. The captives did not move, and the man who had spoken no longer appeared compelled to talk. His chin stuck to his chest and his eyes were closed.

  “We will wait for Jonah,” said Solomon.

  “No,” Sasha said. “I can make this call in his absence. The man was coming for me, Solomon.”

  Solomon nodded at Sasha and took a step back. He winked at her from beneath his wild, frizzy hair, barely contained by a soiled bandana, a simple gesture that said do it.

  “Execute them,” said Sasha. “If we do not, they will continue to rape and murder other innocents, even if they had nothing to do with this tonight. I know their sort.”

  “So says the chief’s wife,” Solomon said, spinning so everyone crowded around the fire pit could hear the proclamation. “Death to the invaders.”

  Sasha turned to face the sound of rattling leaves coming from the north side of the encampment, the area bordering the vast, wild plains of Eliz. The late-winter wind blew through the camp, but that alone was not responsible for the chill in her bones. Sasha clenched her teeth instinctively and reached for her children as the white demons slowly pushed through the trees and toward the fire pit.

  Chapter 9

  “Oh, my god.”

  Sasha watched as the Valk appeared to emerge from the trunks of the trees. Their white skin seemed to glow and pulse in the first light of day. She felt Solomon grab her arm and Sasha heard his breathing, a rattle coming from deep within his chest.

  “The Valk,” he said.

  One of the demons walked up to Sasha, a sardonic grin creasing his hairless face. Black charcoal covered his eyes with thick lines extending from the corners of them to the corners of his mouth. His lips split to speak and Sasha stepped back. The odor that spilled forth was like that of a wet, decomposing rodent. Solomon stepped between them before the man could get any closer, his axe gripped tightly, a warning that was not lost on the Valk.

  “We only come for them,” said the Valk, nodding toward Gerth’s men. His voice was a low hiss that sent shivers down Sasha’s back.

  Solomon looked at Sasha and then at Gerth’s men who, until this point, had been standing with their backs straight and their eyes focused on the horizon. But now, they collapsed to their knees, and Sasha swore she could hear them sobbing.

  “They must face their sentence. Hanging,” said Solomon.

  “Yes,” the Valk leader said, waving a single finger back and forth in front of his face. “We come for the bodies of the vanquished foe. Though these are not yet vanquished and must be so.”

  Solomon turned his head sideways and Sasha squeezed his arm back.

  They want the bodies, she thought.

  “And will we start by taking the one that has already passed into the darkness.”

  Sasha looked at her tent and noticed Nieve had been staring at her with silent tears running down her face.

  “Take it,” Sasha said before Solomon could respond. “Get him out of my tent.”

  The Valk leader turned to one of his men. He used his eyes to point to Sasha’s tent. The creature walked past the fire pit and into Sasha’s tent, returning a moment later. He dragged Gerth’s body back to the Valk leader by its heels.

  “We will. And we want them, too.”

  Solomon nodded, and Sasha thought that the lumbering giant now understood what these vile monsters wanted.

  “You want the flesh of warriors,” he said.

  The Valk leader smiled again, this time wide enough to display the three rotten teeth left in his mouth. “It is so.”

  “If we give them to you, you must promise not to follow the Elk clan on the road. You have no right to our warriors.”

  Sasha saw a fleeting image in her mind’s eye, the Valk gathered around Jonah’s body, devouring him like animals. She shivered.

  “So be it,” said the Valk leader. “We can always seek others.”

  “Then go, and let us tend to our justice. We will deliver their bodies to the edge of the road at high noon.”

  One of Gerth’s men coughed but they remained still and did not speak.

  The Valk leader smiled at Solomon one last time before turning his gaze to Sasha. He stared and she could not look away. Sasha felt herself being pulled into those eyes, like they were the light at the end of a dark tunnel. The Valk leader turned and walked back toward the trees, breaking the spell.

  “I can deal with this. You do not have to watch,” said Solomon. “I think you should do something that your husband would approve of.”

  Sasha shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. She put her hand on Solomon’s forearm as the people who had gathered for the spectacle began to turn their attention back to their own carts and worries for the road. Leta and Nieve had not moved; Gideon and Keana stood near them.

  “The children. Nieve’s kids,” said Solomon. “They may have saved us from much more bloodshed. Saved some of us from the invaders. They have no men, and we are leaving the plains of Eliz.”

  “You think I should bring them with us,” said Sasha.

  “Yes. Let Jonah bring them into the Elk formally—as the chief should. But you can invite them to come with us.”

  Sasha turned from Solomon and looked at Nieve. The woman’s face cracked and she could not help but smile at Sasha.

  “He brought Leta into the Elk.”

  “I know,” Sasha said. “I don’t need to be convinced. I agree with you that it is the right move. I will tell her personally.”

  “And them?” Solomon asked with a whisper. “I think I should take care of them and honor our deal with the Valk.”

&n
bsp; “Yes, yes,” she said. “Do whatever must be done to keep them as far away from us as possible.”

  “Very well, Sasha. I will do my duty as right hand to the chief of the Elk. May I give the call to pack up and get us on the road? I don’t think we can wait for Jonah to return from the crossing. I think we need to get on the road. Now.”

  “Agreed,” she said. “Please take Gideon with you. He needs to understand what it means to be a leader of men.”

  Solomon smiled at Sasha’s light compliment, but his expression changed as soon as he turned to face Gerth’s men.

  “It is time for you to hang. Take them to the trees,” Solomon said.

  Several Elk warriors grabbed the men by their elbows and dragged them away.

  “What do we do on the road?” Sasha asked. “I trust you like a brother, Solomon. But how are we to lead the clans away from Eliz and toward safety without Jonah?”

  “I don’t know,” he said. “I guess we follow the path that Jonah said we should, even if we are days early. We have little choice. We cannot stay here.” He turned and left Sasha’s side while Leta and Nieve remained near the fire pit, staring at her.

  Chapter 10

  “We can take them,” said Jonah. Declan, Rav, Gunney and Briar were hunkered down next to him, still hidden among the trees that overlooked the bridge. So far, they had remained undetected, and Jonah hoped that they could launch a surprise attack. He had risked that somewhat, by stepping out of the forest alone, but the Cygoa weren’t to know he wasn’t a lone stray.

  “I don’t see any other option,” Gunney said. “Though it could be nasty if they have a shitload of arrows.”

  “Yes,” Jonah said. “That could be an issue if we don’t close the gap fast enough.”

  Rav and Declan nodded in agreement.

  “We have to go full on,” said Rav. “Down the slope and hit them before they have the chance to muster and get their bows on us.”

  Jonah turned to Briar. “What of you and your men? Can you help?”

  Briar nodded. “Yes, we can help.”

  “You’re hunters. Not warriors,” said Rav.

  “Then we’ll hunt,” said Briar, grinning. He notched an arrow and his hunters did the same.

  “Okay,” said Jonah. “Give us cover until we get close enough to go hand-to-hand. If you stay in the tree line they won’t be able to hit you unless they get very lucky, and by the time they are firing, hopefully we’ll be on them. Then, when we take this side of the bridge, you can join us and provide cover fire when we go for the crossing.” He looked at the other men huddled close, “Sound like a plan?”

  Briar nodded with the others. “Sounds like a plan.” He made a gesture with one hand. His hunters followed him back up to the road, across it, and into the woods on the elevated side.

  Jonah returned to the edge of the trees with Gunney, Declan and Rav at his side, as the rest of the Elk warriors gathered behind them.

  “We move swiftly,” Jonah said, keeping his voice low. “The road is the flattest ground, easiest to run on, so we go out that way and as fast as we can down the hill. It’s a hundred yards at full sprint. We keep it quiet until we get close.”

  The Cygoa didn’t notice Jonah and his men until they were already half way down the road and thundering toward them.

  Jonah was at the front, and he felt, more than saw, the other warriors just inches behind him. He would be the one to hit the defenses first, but he knew that if he slowed, his men would sweep past him. Did he have to be at the front of the charge? No, if he was in the middle, or even following behind, not a single man would speak against it, but he remembered the charge into the Cygoa months before, when they had chased the warband down to rescue some children the enemy had taken, and he remembered the feel of leading from the front. More than that was the memory of his father; Judas would have said a good leader always leads from the front.

  He picked up the pace even more, breaking from a fast jog into a run. The other warriors followed. Jonah heard their feet pounding the asphalt, accelerating with the heartbeat inside his chest. Ahead of him, the first Cygoa spotted the charge and called out, but as the Cygoa scrambled to retrieve their bows, Jonah saw the flash of arrows descending upon them. Several of the Cygoa fell under the shower, and a few others took to cover. And then the line of bags and debris that was the Cygoa defense call was thundering closer.

  The Elk swarmed upon the Cygoa, following Jonah over the short barricade, outnumbering them three to one. Jonah swung his axe left and right, felling two of the enemy before they could even raise their weapons in defense. He turned to face a third defender. The man raised his club to strike, but Jonah ducked the first swing and came up again, catching the Cygoa warrior underneath the chin with his axe.

  He didn’t wait to see the body fall. Instead, he spun and buried his axe into another defender’s shoulder, severing the man’s arm with one clear strike. The warrior stood for a moment, almost motionless with shock, looking at his missing arm before passing out and falling backwards.

  Screams of war and death came from all directions, sounds like dying crows fighting over a bloated carcass. Jonah could smell the blood in the air, the copper tang now on his tongue as well. He turned in a full circle, taking a quick count of who was on their feet and who was not. He saw Declan and Rav standing over still bodies while several Elk warriors chased Cygoa running back to the bridge in a hasty retreat.

  “Fuckers,” Rav said to Jonah, a smile creasing his bloodstained face.

  “Those on the other side are going to come next,” said Jonah. “Grab as many shields as you can and set up a line, and quickly. We still have the element of surprise. They will not be ready to fight back.”

  Gunney nodded and immediately bent down to pick up a Cygoa shield. Several other Elk warriors did the same.

  Jonah looked back, expecting to see Briar and his hunters approaching on the road. Instead, he saw their quivers as they retreated into the forest, away from the battle. Jonah didn’t have time to ponder Briar’s move.

  “Look.”

  Jonah followed Gunney’s eyes as the man held out one arm and pointed to the slopes on the other of the bridge.

  More fucking Cygoa.

  “Two more warbands coming,” Gunney said, continuing to point at the Cygoa. “We have twenty, maybe thirty minutes before there are too many on the other side for us to take it. If we can take out the other side right now, we may be able to hold it. If we can steal their defenses.”

  Jonah raised his axe and screamed to the sky.

  Chapter 11

  Seren stumbled through the tree line and into the clearing, reaching for a nearby tree to steady herself as she took deep, heaving breaths. How many miles had she run from her pursuers? Thirty? Maybe forty? She glanced about, looking for signs of a road or path but finding none. Endless brush, weeds and trees extended in all directions, and to make it worse, the ground was uneven and sloping upwards, away from her, making every step forward all the more difficult.

  She pushed herself away from the tree, frowned, and started forward again, not running this time. She could still hear the distant noises made by her hunters as they followed her, stupid animal calls they seemed to think were secretive but were a dead giveaway to someone who had never heard them before. No creature in these lands made such noises. Though maybe they might here, she thought. She was deep into the forest now, miles from the roads and the ruins, probably far enough that few, if any, people had roamed this ground for years.

  And where is that damned wolf? she thought as she rounded a large rock and started up the slope between two large trees.

  Then she stopped, staring at the gap between the trees. Her stomach ached, and she couldn’t place why. She had eaten while on the move, and not long ago, and she had drunk when she could, so it wasn’t that. This was something different, some instinct that made the hairs on her arms prickle.

  There was something wrong with this place, she thought. It was there, n
iggling, in her mind. Something wrong even though she couldn’t sense what it was.

  This path hasn’t been trodden for decades, maybe longer, but there is something wrong here, isn’t there? she thought. But what is it?

  The weird animal noises chirped across the forest behind her once more, reminding her that even now, a second day into her pursuit, she was not away from them. They still somehow managed to keep on her trail, even though she had tried many times to disguise her passage through the forest. None of it tricked them. She started forward once more, fearful. One of them was close, moving quickly toward her, louder and louder as he came.

  Stupid, stupid, stupid, she cursed under her breath, rushing forward. These hunters were much faster than she had given them credit, and several times they had honed in on some sign she had left behind, closing in on her, only for her to slip away before they caught her.

  But if you’re stupid, and careless, they will catch you and then what? Assault? Death? Slavery? Probably all of those. They were tracking her to capture her, that was for certain, and they wouldn’t have followed her all these miles if they weren’t determined or didn’t have good reason to do so. A young woman, alone, easy prey to them, she thought, and maybe she’d fetch a good price if that was what they wanted after they had finished with her. Seren was not so naive that she was unaware of the things men could do to women if they were brutal enough.

  She had to lose them, break the trail, somehow. She couldn’t outdistance them. That much had become obvious in the last hour as she trailed through the forest with them on her tail, always just a few hundred yards behind. They had spread out again, like they had after that first initial race, when she first burst into the forest and was out of their view. She spotted them occasionally, alone in the trees, at a distance, and heard those calls. They had cast a wider and wider net to catch her, then closed in when some sign was found.