The carcasses of fifty wolves hung by their necks across the walls. They’d been flayed and eaten, stripped of flesh and dignity. But there was no doubt, it was Marcus and all the other Whiteclaws. He himself hung front and center.
Howls of anger and pain went up. My own the loudest.
I didn’t care what Melania had said, that the prophecies were wrong, I was going to kill Lady Skol, not Feyra.
I leaped at the enormous wooden gates, climbing the vertical wooden slabs and then the walls themselves with my claws digging in. The wolves alongside me did the same. The guards at the top were taken by surprise before their quick deaths.
Cut the wolves down,I called.We will bury them later!
I leaped down from the wall onto the path towards the city and was sprinting as the first drops of rain began to fall. The full moon that had been shining when we were at Moondaj had been covered by clouds.
I felt in my fur that they were unnatural. Magical. From sorcery. That it was Lady Skol’s doing.
I seethed, foam fell from my mouth in a lather. The wolves beside me bristled with the same anger.
What are we doing?Locke asked.
I am going after Lady Skol. You may do as you wish! But do not harm citizens, they are not guilty for surviving under tyranny.
They should be though!Locke spat.They’ve allowed us to suffer.
Leading is not about causing suffering, it is about giving opportunity,I said. The words echoed up from the depths of my mind.If we begin with violence, we are no better than her,I said.
Locke replied, but I didn’t hear it. I was gone. Back to the memory in my mind. I was at the Pools of Prophecy as a young man.
Marcus stood leaning against the wall. I had been in the Pools, trying to hear more of my prophecy.
“I’m sorry,” I said. “If Roman was here, he’d–”
“Do not apologize,” Marcus said. “And Roman would say the same. We cannot force anything upon you, or your path. We can only provide the space to learn.” He stepped towards me and put his arm around my shoulders. “You will learn as a leader that it’s not about the tyranny of power. You will have to learn that leading is not about causing suffering. You do not want to rule by fear. If you do, then you have surely sealed your own death. You must give opportunity. You must give responsibility to others and allow yourself to lead others. You cannot do everything. People shouldn’t expect you to. But if you can govern, and help them to lead themselves? Then you will never have death haunting your shadows.”
He paused, staring down into my face. A million things passed behind his eyes, I felt his wolf sense searching. But then he smiled. “But that’s far off. For now, just give yourself the opportunity.”
We came out of the farming fields and were among the squat buildings and merchant stalls. We bounded onto wagons, roofs, walls, suddenly every wolf was covering the rooftops of the outer city. The moon returned and we began to shine. My fur was a blinding beacon. I began to howl, and the rest answered.
The immediate cry of the merls went up, followed by the screeching tune of the Siren Singers, but we were unaffected. The talisman around my neck continued to hum and to stop the music.
We ran on with the fury of every wolf having ever been born boiling in our veins.
We came to the Inner City walls and cleared the guards' look outs, breaking through the wooden gates themselves that closed off the working class. Guards fell before us in ease. Blood flowed through the streets and were washed away with the rains. The merlsdescended but never rose. The smell of copper continued to increase in the air. People ran screaming, surprise was on every face we saw.Wolves in Lassig.But we were unstoppable. We were–
An explosion went off far above us at the great castle. Green and expanding, shining brighter and brighter.
Feyra!I called.
A second, much bigger, explosion went off above.
I felt the pain of Feyra.My lung feeling as if it were deflating.
I stumbled as I finished the trail that wound up the slopes that led to the castle and its many turrets. I stopped in front of the moat, the gate was up and it was quickly filling with the rains.
A roar echoed in the night.
I roared in reply and jumped the moat, landing vertically on the wall and beginning to clamber upwards. The rain fell and the lighting snapped even with the moon pulling downwards into my talisman. Every wolf howled behind me.
But now I was alone. I was on the scent of death. I had to protect mymate.
I climbed the sheer walls with my claws ripping chunks of stone from the walls. Great slabs fell and crashed below, guards screamed and fell as my claws ripped flesh from bone and voices from throats. Anybody that came face to face with me either died or fled.
