14.
“I should’ve realized.” Thalia kept her voice gentle, but she smelled the blood, cloying in the gloom. “Thank you.”
Too conscious of his warm weight leaning on her, she used a hand torch to check his pupils for potential concussion. Thalia leaned in, peering at his eyes. Raff’s face was smeared with red and she spotted myriad cuts and bruises, but the broken bone seemed to be his most serious injury, and she’d already set that as best she could.
“I know I’m handsome, but the light hurts my eyes. Do you mind?”
Quickly, she clicked it off, drenching them in darkness. “Sorry. I can’t see much of anything without it. Did you happen to encounter Ferith on the way in?”
She was supposed to have my back.
“I pushed her clear of the collapse. She should be working to free us on the other side. Sorry, I didn’t know this was a sting.”
Thalia winced. “No, I should have told you. There are no excuses, really. I’m just…not used to being part of a unit.”
“You’re a lone wolf who wolfs alone?” Despite his obvious pain, he was still trying to make her laugh.
She did let slip a reluctant smile. “Isn’t that ironic? When you’re the actual wolf.”
“We don’t, though.”
“What?”
“Wolf alone. We’re pack animals who thrive on social interaction. I suspect that’s true of you as well. You’ve just never had much opportunity.”
“You make it sound like I was raised by a witch in an iron tower.”
“Not what I meant. It just seems like the Eldritch have a stronger sense of hierarchy than we do among the Animari. I’m packmaster, but nobody hesitates to tell me when I’m full of shit. I’ve noticed that your people treat you with a particular reverence.”
“What about it?” Thalia wondered why she felt defensive.
“That makes it tough for intimacy to develop. They serve you, but other than Lileth, it didn’t seem like you socialized with anyone.”
Regret and sorrow warred within her. She missed Lil, but she still didn’t grasp what he was driving at. “What is your point?”
“Don’t ice me out, Lady Silver. If I’m wrong, I am, but I’m just saying—I don’t see you playing cards or drinking with anyone. No friendly sparring matches or trips to the city. That’s what friendship is all about, and people need that. You may not be alone in this fortress, but you must be lonely.”
“Not anymore,” she said. “I have you.”
The words came out before she reflected on them, but that lack of consideration made them no less true. He drew in a soft breath, one she felt against the side of her throat when he let it go in a long puff of warmth. “Even if I mess up your careful plans?”
“Ferith might’ve been killed without your intervention. This is certainly an attempt to isolate me and the consequences could be dire, especially if the enemy is waiting on the other end of the tunnel.”
“I suspect that’s a generous view of my interference, but…thank you.”
Thalia reached for his hand and found it with an accuracy that seemed faintly surprising. “I’m grateful that you came running because I might be in danger. But…I’m starting to suspect that marriage to me might be hazardous to your health.”
His fingers were warm when he wrapped them around hers. “I am notoriously hard to kill. Many have tried. None have succeeded.”
“That makes you uniquely qualified for your current role,” she said with mock gravitas.
Raff sounded serious when he went on, “I think about it sometimes, exactly how much catastrophic damage is required to take me out.”
At first, that seemed like an odd thing to say but sorting through, she found a mutual memory that might be troubling him. The bear clan leader had died at Ash Valley, killed instantly in the first explosion. “Is that because of Beren? It seemed as if the two of you were close.”
Long pause, in which she wondered whether she had overstepped. Finally, he said, “We argued a lot. Drank twice that much. But yeah, I’d say we were close. He gave better advice than my father.”
Why didn’t you look to the bear clan for an alliance then? Thalia almost asked. She didn’t, largely because the question sounded too much like, why did you marry me? And his reasons didn’t matter—or they shouldn’t, if the wolves kept up their end of the contract.
Instead she said, “I’m sorry for your loss. You must miss him.”
“I do. I also miss living with the protection of the Pax Protocols. His death represents a much larger problem…the fact that the world as we know it has changed.”
Once, such an acute observation would have surprised her. Not anymore. Raff only pretended to be a hapless rogue.
“And not everyone wants peace,” she said softly. “Some would rather profiteer and sell secrets.”
“It’s one thing to defend your home, quite another to feel as if you deserve to take what someone else has.”
“I agree. This probably won’t come as any great shock, but Ruark Gilbraith is every bit as dangerous as Tycho Vega.”
“Gathered that when he killed Lileth and tried to take out the entire head table at our wedding. No worries, Lady Silver. We’ll get him. Once I’ve rested a bit, I’ll be ready to wreak some havoc.”
How could he be so confident all the time? It didn’t seem like bravado, either. Thalia found this wolf disturbingly hard to read. Maybe his physical prowess gave him the conviction that all enemies could be bested eventually?
“That is so perplexing.”
“What is?”
“In a few days, your leg will have healed? I don’t understand how it’s possible.”
“An Animari physician could explain it better. I just know our enhanced senses and healing kick in after the first shift.”
“What’s that like?”
“Shifting?” At her nod, he seemed to consider the question carefully. “That’s hard to put into words too. Nobody’s ever asked me before.”
“Other Animari wouldn’t need to.”
“That’s not entirely true. Latent Animari probably do wonder but they don’t ask.”
She thought she understood why. “It would be like a wingless bird asking how it feels to fly.”
“Yes. I’m going to sleep for a bit. Keep watch?”
It was mind-boggling the way he just switched off. His weight sagged against her and Thalia had to wrap both arms around him to keep him from toppling across her legs like felled timber. She cocked her head, listening, but the tunnel was eerily silent. It would’ve been nice to hear scraping from the other side of the blockade.
Maybe Ferith is still trapped?
Best not to imagine worst-case scenarios. If the traitor had laid a trap, they might investigate why she hadn’t stumbled into it yet. It seemed likely that the cave-in was meant to separate her from Ferith and drive her toward the exit in a panic. Since theirs was a political marriage, the enemy couldn’t have planned for a meddling wolf. Who was apparently willing to put himself in harm’s way for her.
Repeatedly. Thalia had mixed feelings about that.
In any event, she wasn’t the sort to panic, even when her plans went south. This time, she’d come ready to fight, fully geared with shock bracers and both knives. She also had five different poisons and twice as many antidotes in her pack, but any conflict had to wait until Raff could walk properly. Down here in the silent chill, she might’ve been cold if not for his body draped over hers.
Though she’d had lovers before, brief moments stolen for physical pleasure, nobody had ever given themselves over like this. The implicit trust was daunting. What if I don’t hear them coming? Thalia half-wanted to turn on her light, but that would give away their position, and they were trapped with the blockage behind.
Stay calm. This isn’t how it all ends.
She sat in the dark and held him and breathed.
No telling how long Raff had been resting, but he snapped awake instantly, his muscles tense. Movement in the tunnel. How many?
He tested his leg. It still hurt, but it was fused enough to hold his weight. Gently, he touched Thalia’s shoulder. She probably didn’t mean to sleep but staring into the dark was monotonous. Raff had counted on his ability to hear an intruder from a long way off, and these trespassers weren’t even trying to be quiet. Eldritch from the smell of them, but he couldn’t distinguish between the houses yet. In time, he’d be able to tell where they came from, based on the olfactory clues.
Not soon enough to help us.
It took a second shake to get her attention. She snapped upright, and he silenced her instinctive question with a press of his fingertip against her lips. Raff set his mouth against her ear, barely making a sound.
“We have company, let’s greet them. I’ll take point.”
Ignoring the twinge from his bad leg, he stripped swiftly. In this terrain—in the dark—he’d do much better fighting as a wolf. It would help his balance too since a wolf could move better on three legs than a man could dragging one. Thalia didn’t question his decision; she was on alert as she scooped up his clothing and stowed it in her pack.
Helpful, that.
Over the years, he’d lost lots of garments, the price you paid to be Animari when the shit hit the fan. Since Thalia wasn’t a shifter, she could keep up with all the clothes he discarded, and he’d have something to put on later, after the fight. It was such a little thing, but it felt good to realize that this mixed marriage wasn’t all doom and dire portents.
He slid into wolf form—like diving into cold, deep water—and stretched, testing the strength of his injured leg. Better now. Raising it still let him prowl ahead smoothly, breathing in the nervous tang of the enemy’s sweat. Closer, he heard the whisper-light scrape of leather soles against the dirt and loose stones of the tunnel floor. Thalia was quiet as a Noxblade behind him, more skilled than the Eldritch creeping toward them.
Eighty meters and closing.
Raff wished he could warn her, but she wouldn’t understand even if he tried. He rushed, leaping at the nearest enemy and tearing into the Achilles tendon. Wolves in the wild normally didn’t hamstring their prey because they hunted as a pack, but he didn’t have any other wolves at his back today. The Eldritch went down, his leg buckling, and Raff tore out his throat in a sticky-sweet rush of blood.
Different than the Manwaring strike team. Why is that?
He circled, dodging the slashing knife strikes that told him the Eldritch didn’t see as well in the dark. A blue lightning arc crackled in the dark and the second target juddered in place, then dropped his weapon. The stench of charred flesh and burning hair filled the tunnel, so he hacked a breath and backed off. He saw it clearly when Thalia finished her opponent with a knife, a quick thrust and twist to the kidney.
“I think that’s all of them,” she whispered. “At least the ones who came in the tunnel. There are probably more outside.”
A reasonable assessment. For obvious reasons, he stayed quiet.
She switched on the torch and said, “I won’t leave this on, but I need to ask some questions. Reply with a nod or a shake of the head. Shall we continue?”
Raff nodded.
“Do you want to lead?”
Another nod.
“All right then. I don’t like leaving the bodies here, but we can’t take them with us. They’ll slow us down and we’ll probably need to fight again.”
That seemed likely to him, too. He trotted off, setting a pace she could keep up with.
Her whisper reached him a few seconds later. “They’re not used to fighting Animari. It almost seems unfair, how fast we killed them.”
It’s kill or be killed, princess. And I won’t let them hurt you.
Raff couldn’t say that, of course, and maybe that was just as well. Her regret was natural. If harming her own people didn’t trouble her, she shouldn’t rule them. Something he’d read in old history books came to him, along the lines of ‘those who seek power are not worthy of it’.
The tunnel sloped downward and stretched on for quite a while. There was no further opposition, and eventually, the darkness diffused with a trickle of daylight. A cold wind blew through his fur, and Raff rushed toward the promise of freedom. Caution reined him in at the last minute as he recalled there were probably more Eldritch hunting for them. Their recourse now depended on why they’d collapsed the tunnel. Was it meant as an attack on Thalia or an attempt to cover someone’s tracks? Without knowing that, it was tough to be sure how to proceed.
He waited for Thalia to catch up. She stepped out of the cave mouth to shade her eyes against the winter-pale sun. To Raff, it looked like they had tapped into a natural cavern system with that secret passage into Daruvar.
“Let me get my bearings,” she said.
As she fiddled with her phone, he oriented himself by scent. Mountains to the west, forest to the south. There was rain or snow in the air, a heavy storm threatening. He tipped his head back to study the clouds. It will hit soon. We don’t have much time.
“We’re farther from Daruvar than I realized…”
With a bad storm threatening and an Eldritch hunting party on the move, they couldn’t linger. He growled and pawed her leg.
Thalia glanced at him, one fine brow arching. “What is it?”
Like I can answer. Shifting to reply would burn energy he couldn’t spare, so he stared at her, ran a few paces south, and growled again.
“You know the way back?” she asked.
He nodded. Not exactly, but we can’t stand in the open like this. It was a miracle that they didn’t have to fight as soon as they left the cave.
To his vast relief, she fell in behind him and even increased her pace to a graceful lope when he ran faster. There was old smoke this way, the remnants of a fire, and that probably meant shelter. The precipitation he’d scented earlier dropped on them in a wet wave, half-rain, half-sleet, and it iced the ground. He had less trouble than Thalia, who slid and cursed behind him.
“I don’t think this is right,” she called as a tree branch slashed her cheek.
Raff snarled.
Nearly there.
From the forest proper, he ran into a clearing that held a small hunting cabin. There was no visible smoke, but he could smell the remnants of the fire, doused a few hours ago or so. He dropped out of wolf form, and the shift left him shivering, between the sudden cold on naked skin and the expenditure of energy. Raff didn’t expect to find a lock and he was right; the door opened easily.
“I thought we were going back,” Thalia snapped.
Before answering, he got his clothes on. “My concern was getting us out of the weather. Don’t you see that ice?”
“I do, but—”
“It will kill us, Lady Silver. Freeze us to death before we reach Daruvar. We don’t have winter gear with us or the necessary provisions. We have to wait it out and hope that Eldritch strike team doesn’t find us before I recover fully.”
“But Ferith will think we’re dead!”
He sighed at her outrage. “Better than being actually dead. Help me get a fire started and see what the last tenant left us to eat.”