Page 51 of Between Wrath and Mercy

Therestoftheride passed with no problems. Dinner was stew once again, and since I was less hungry when it came time to eat it, I did put more thought into what kind of meat it was. I didn’t think it was as bad as Lavenia assumed, just rabbit, and I was used to eating that to supplement everything my father provided. Opting to take the next morning off, I spent a small amount of time sparring with Dewalt. Dickey and his friend, a stocky boy with honey-colored hair who I’d learned was named Sam, came to watch. Both boys taunted their captain until Dewalt let out a warning growl that sent them running to do some unnamed task. I had to stop for a moment because I couldn’t stop giggling. Dewalt’s smile was grumpy at first, but he soon joined me in my laughter. Later, Lavenia and I shared a tent, and I went to sleep feeling fulfilled and tired enough I didn’t have time to devolve into terrifying thoughts of Elora or confusing thoughts about Rainier.

Hours later, I woke up to the thundering of heartbeats around me. None were racing or unanticipated, but it was strange and startling to hear over fifty hearts at once. It wasn’t often that I heard hearts by accident, generally only occurring when I was tired or stressed. In slumber, I must have let my guard down. I struggled to stifle the sound, wanting to return to my dreamless sleep, but it was like a storm in my head. Lavenia was snoring softly, and I heard coughing nearby from one of the soldiers. Between the cacophony in my mind and the sounds around me, it wasn’t likely I’d fall back asleep anytime soon, so it only made sense that my bladder would add to my annoyance. With a quiet groan, I slipped out of my pallet and pulled on my breeches, boots, and cloak before I made my way out of the tent.

One of the things Rainier did both times we made camp was dig holes downwind for everyone to utilize. It wasn’t something I looked forward to having to use, and I was eager for my own private toilet I’d have access to the next night. I passed a few sentries and nodded to them on my way, quietly slipping past tent after tent of sleeping soldiers. When I’d finished what I came to do and was buttoning up my breeches, I heard a howl. Every hair stood on end when it split into two octaves, the call of the tírrúil. And it was close. When other voices joined in on the baying, I raced back to camp. The sentries had heard the sounds and were busy rousing soldiers and ushering them south, the direction the horrifying noises came from. I went straight to my horse, hitched with Lavenia’s behind our tent, and climbed atop with my bow in hand. I led him to the large fire in the center of the encampment. Tírrúil were afraid of fire.

“Why am I not surprised you’re one of the first ones out here?” Rainier’s voice was low and chiding as he approached. Disheveled from sleep, it was unfair how handsome he looked.

“I wasn’t sleeping.”

“Really? I figured you’d be tired.”

“Exhausted. It was the heartbeats. Normally I can tune them out, but,” I shrugged, “I had to pee.”

Rainier chuckled. “Fair enough.”

A scout came running to the fire, panting with breath. “Donya saw eight or nine, Your Highness, all coming from the south.” I wondered if the lone tírrúil had somehow led her pack to us. Rainier had said she ran off before they could kill her.

“Shit.” Rainier’s facial expression mimicked the unease in his voice. Eight or nine tírrúil could easily cripple the guard.

He put two fingers into his mouth and let out a series of whistles which clearly meant something to everyone around us.

“You should go back into your tent.” He didn’t even turn his head when he said it, but when I glared at him in response, he finally locked eyes with me. “Or not, that’s fine.” I watched his cheeks darken as he peered up at me, but his facial expression was still wary.

“I’ll stay here with Clyde next to the fire. Don’t worry.”

Everyone around us was in motion. The horses were corralled near the large central fire, no small feat considering all of them were on edge. I suspected my own steed had some hearing loss because he only became tense when he could tell the horses around us were unnerved. I saw Lavenia with a group of soldiers to my right, and Dewalt with a group in front of me—the southern group. The way they moved was seamless, a sense of purpose and camaraderie taking over that had been earned over the years. It was fascinating to watch, and I couldn’t help but feel almost reverent.

Rainier walked over to speak with a soldier to our left. She was tall, with olive-toned skin and long, blonde hair, the sides swept back in small intricate braids meeting in a ponytail at the crown of her head. She was easily just as tall as him and looked every bit a warrior. She seemed to push back against something he was saying, and I saw her grip on her ax tighten. Something about the way she talked to him gave me pause, and I made a mental note to seek her out, wanting to know more about her. Dickey and Sam and a few of the younger soldiers were behind me, running around trying to keep the horses from bolting. The thundering of noise in my head had reached a level not unlike boulders crashing to the ground, and it was causing my own heart to race. Under all of it, I heard, no,felt, a low rumbling and turned toward Rainier to see his hands fisted and his eyes closed.

“A trench around us. If one falls in, the roots will take care of them.” He answered the question I hadn’t asked yet as he walked back toward me. Dewalt let out a low whistle, and we both snapped our attention to him. It was too dark for me to see the trench, but I could see eyes glinting in the distance. Three sets of eyes in the dark, slowly circling the camp from the southern edge. I watched as the trees on either side of the path slammed down, somehow narrowly missing every set of those luminous eyes.

“If I knock any more trees down, they’ll just serve as a bridge.” He sounded resigned as he watched the beasts approach, picking their way over the trees or around them. One of the sets of eyes blinked slowly and then raced to the edge of the trench. The animal that went flying over the gap was enormous. Easily three times as big as the average wolf, it was a mass of black matted fur, and teeth as long as my hand. When it jumped, I saw one of Dewalt’s archers let an arrow fly, and, while I knew one arrow wouldn’t kill it, we all heard its screams as it fell into the trench below.

“That’s not going to work a second time. We aren’t near a stream or else I’d just set this whole area on fire and put it out when they were dead.” He walked back over to his men to my left, pulling his sword from its sheath. He glanced at me over his shoulder and nodded before he barked out orders to the guard surrounding him. This was my first time seeing him as a commander, and I was shocked at how well fitted he was to the role. His presence demanded respect from his guard, and those around him seemed eager to fight beside their prince.

As if encouraged by the howling of the fallen tírrúil, the rest of the horde moved at the same time. Growling and screaming surrounded me as they jumped over the trenches from every direction. From what I could tell, at least one more fell into a trench on the side where Lavenia was posted. She and I were separated by the fire, but I made sure to watch her the best I could. I was keeping a mental tally of the fallen devils. I erred on the side of caution and assumed there were nine in total. With two in the trenches, that left seven.

As I scanned for Lavenia, I saw she was closer to the fire, surrounded by a few soldiers. The rest of the guard on her side were hacking away at two creatures in their midst. I watched helplessly as one man fell underneath a dark brown mass of fur. I realized what Lavenia was doing when a large grey blur slammed into the dark brown tírrúil and they rolled, a pile of matted fur and gnashing teeth. She was compelling one of them to attack its own. I was surprised; I didn’t know her divinity could work on something inhuman. I couldn’t imagine having to infiltrate the mind of a beast. While the two masses of teeth and fur fought, the dark brown one kept lashing out at the soldiers in the vicinity, and they surged forwards to help the compelled tírrúil, working with it to attack its own brother. I wondered if Lavenia would loosen the compulsion before the soldiers had to take down the grey one. I knew part of her consciousness shifted into whomever she was compelling. She’d be cognizant of the pain if she maintained the connection until its death.

A flash of light caught my attention from the south, firelight reflecting onto a sword. Dewalt’s soldiers had already taken one tírrúil down while a second one, much bigger than the others I’d seen, danced out of the way. That left three unaccounted for.

A scream from my left pulled my gaze in the direction of Rainier and his soldiers. One of the monsters had the blonde warrior’s arm in its maw. I notched an arrow in my bow and was about to fire it off when Rainier and a few others overpowered the creature. I would’ve hit one of them with my arrow had I released it. I let out a long breath when I saw the blonde woman stand back up. She clutched her arm up to her chest but was still wielding her ax from her other hand. I realized then I’d have my excuse to meet her if she’d let me heal her. A gleam in the woods across the trench caught my eye. The predator, much smaller than the rest of the pack, was watching the soldiers, growling and pacing. If I counted this juvenile, there was still one beast left.

Clyde jolted forwards, and I looked down to see the horses around me pushing south, away from the fire. That’s when I saw them. There were two tírrúil prowling quietly through the tents toward the fire, toward the horses. One broke away, moving behind tents and out of my sight. They had to have circled around the encampment and jumped the trench from the north. I grimly noted Donya’s count was off at the same time I saw a shock of ginger hair.

“DICKEY!” I saw the boy and his friend on the other side of the fire, attending to a horse trying to pull them through it. Dickey gaped up at me right as the monster lunged. I couldn’t get a good angle from where I was seated on Clyde, so I pulled my legs out and stood. I hoped that with all the horses pushed so closely together, Clyde wouldn’t be able to move much, and so far, he didn’t seem to care I was standing on his back. I couldn’t see Dickey or Sam from where I was, but I could see the beast, another black one, attacking them. I pulled my arrow back and released it, launching it through the flames of the fire. The creature stumbled, telling me my aim was true. I finally saw Dickey’s head, and it seemed like he was dragging Sam with him. I set off three more arrows, all hitting the creature, the last arrow landing true, right in the eye, and it fell. As much as I wanted to run for the boys, I searched for the other predator that had been prowling with the one I killed. I’d lost track of it, and the soldiers wouldn’t expect to be attacked from the interior of camp.

I scanned Lavenia’s group. They were killing the one she had compelled, and she was sitting on the ground, head in her hands. Based on the limited fight it was putting in, Lavenia was wholly focused on maintaining the mental link she had with it. She wouldn’t risk any soldiers getting hurt. Dewalt and his soldiers were still dancing around the biggest one, but it was surrounded and wounded. It wouldn’t be long. Clyde was getting pushed a bit, and I was struggling to maintain my balance.

Finally, I turned back to Rainier. The smaller juvenile that had been on the other side of the trench had finally found its courage and decided to join the fray, so his soldiers were focused there, not paying attention to the tírrúil coming up behind them.

“RAINIER!” My voice was hoarse from my scream to Dickey, and I thought maybe he hadn’t heard me. I turned and dipped my arrow in the fire before I shot it off, right as Rainier’s eyes found mine, wide in shock. My arrow hit it in the shoulder, and its soulless black eyes turned to look at me before letting out an earth-shattering howl which sent the horses around me moving. Clyde, bless him, planted himself. Maybe it was the knowledge his rider was standing atop him, maybe it was fear, I couldn’t know. But no matter how strong and stubborn he was, he wasn’t a match for the frightened horses that surged forwards when the tírrúil I’d shot came flying over them, mouth open and teeth bared. As even Clyde went hurtling away, I fell backwards toward the fire, down to the ground right on the edge of it and threw my arms over my head. The horses, gratefully, stayed away from the fire, and, although I felt like I was melting and it was hard to breathe, I counted my blessings. I pulled my arms down as two horses came screeching to a halt, screaming because of the monster that prowled in front of them, growling at me. This one had an intelligence to it I wouldn’t have expected. The eyes that met mine weren’t bloodthirsty but calculating.

I knew keeping the fire at my back might be an advantage, depending on how afraid it was. I also knew if it decided to be brave, I’d get thrown backwards into the flames. I grabbed my dagger from its sheath, knowing it wouldn’t do much, but it was still better than nothing. My gaze was drawn to Rainier, who argued with the tall warrior beside him, her injured arm still tucked up into her chest. His soldiers had all gathered around him, the juvenile dead behind them. I readjusted my grip on my dagger as the tírrúil prowled slowly toward me. I needed Rain to make a decision, but it was clear he didn’t want to attack the walking nightmare in front of me and have it knock me into the fire. Though I couldn’t make out the words, I could hear him shouting at the female soldier, and he seemed angrier than I’d ever seen him, a vein in his neck bulging. I breathed a sigh of relief as he startled, a dumbfounded look on his face, and he opened a rift in front of him. My relief faded as nothing appeared next to me. He closed it and rubbed a hand over his face and tried again. Again, no rift.

He couldn’t do it.

I was out of time as the beast in front of me lowered its head—fangs bared, and its hackles up—ready to attack me at any moment. I didn’t want whatever happened to be on his shoulders, no matter the outcome, so I took it out of his hands. “I’m going to run this way,” I shouted, pointing to my left, toward the edges of the camp. Rainier’s arms were at his sides as he stared at me, helpless. His rifting had failed him again, but I could get out of this situation at least. “Once I’m over—” I didn’t have a chance to finish as the predator’s ears flicked, and I started running, not hesitating a moment longer.

---