The Wolf and the Maiden

Chapter 9

After climbing to the apex of the hill, the scene laid out quickly. For one, the obvious fire hadn’t been a small affair. Its flames licked high, dancing within the thickening smoke and at its base gathered at least a dozen people, horses, and a carriage. With the thunderous sound of their horses’ hooves mounting and descending the prairie hill, a majority of them scattered further into the glen below before Rían and the others could reach them.

Immediately greeted with the metal gleam of short swords and knives, the gnarly crew of men and women took defensive stances once Rían pulled his hose to a halt within five feet of the blazing bonfire. It was then he smelled it. There was no mistaking what the stench was, and he had to hold his breath to relieve his senses from taking too much of its stench in.

Burning flesh. Someone was in that fire.

Since the burly bodies formed a quasi-line in front of the blaze, Rían couldn’t exactly see what was going on behind them. Are they purposefully blocking me from seeing something?

Still, he saw everything else around them. With a quick inspection of their dark yet kempt clothes and capes, brandished weapons, the broken carriage with a chest beside it that spilled of shining coins, it appeared to be a highwayman's heist. Where was the owner of the carriage? His heart sank as the harrowing stench swirled again in his nose, fearing they had come too late. The woman they heard must be the one burning to death? These assholes weren’t only thieves, but murderers!

Rían tried again to look around the wall of robbers to catch a glimpse of what was in the roaring fire behind them, but it wasn’t possible yet.

“This isn’t any of your business!” one of the men said, pulling Rían’s focus back to the closer threat. He was the bigger one of the bunch, wearing a leather studded tunic that barely contained his bulging form, and a shining bald head tattooed in a faded green ink. The leader? Or the group’s brute? “We’ll mess you up, too, if you don’t get out of here!”

Mess him up? With only a sword and a few tough words?

His brother guessed at his intentions, “Wait! We can’t do a full-on shift,” Rory hissed under his breath at Rían. “We don’t want those asshat clerics reigning down on us.”

With his eyes firing gold, Isak hushed, “Who said we needed to fully shift?”

Chaz chuckled, his own eyes flashing yellow. “And here I thought our dragon had a stick up his ass…”

“You boys need to keep your noses clean!” Brett scolded. “Don’t engage.”

“Ah there he is,” Chaz rolled his eyes, landing on the ranger, “our token stick up the ass.”

“Princes, please---” Brett began, but Rían cut him off with a raise of his hand. The human obviously didn’t know they could handle this! And as for the Karanlık, it was time to see what sort of s**t they could do if they showed up.

Eyeing the bald brute, he growled. “Sounds like a threat?” Upon hearing the low rumble vibrate from Rían, the highwaymen started to waver where they stood, shifting uncomfortably while their eyes widened. Yes! Piss your pants, you pansies! “You probably shouldn’t yip at strangers like that!” With a triumphant smirk, Rían dismounted and hit the ground running toward the man. Likewise, Rory, Chaz, and Isak fell from their horses and engaged with the other highwaymen, escalating the commotion into a brawling shítstorm.

After easily dodging baldy’s sword, Rían’s bestial claws raked over the guy’s midsection and chest, and the fight was over just like that as his opponent cried like a wuss and fell face-down into a slosh of mud with his innards oozing out.

As soon as the man was out of his way, Rían assessed the scene quickly that he had been deprived of earlier. Dead: two well-dressed guys near the carriage, stabbed to death and lying in their own bloody m******e. Three others slumped against the carriage, also dressed nicely, though different than the other two, more like guardsmen, bearing a banner of a ram’s head, colored in blues and whites. The doors had been ripped off the opulent carriage exposing an empty cab, plush in cerulean-pillowed upholstery. Four chests, one opened revealing fine clothing, the others had yet to be looted, one still full of gold coins.

His eyes quickly moved over the crest on the side of the carriage. Its ornate symbol was also that of a crescent moon and a ram’s head. Royalty. The markings weren’t from King Joel’s kingdom.

Rían spun around to the seven-foot pyre of wood and flame to his left. The fire was devouring two bodies: their clothes and skin melting in the scorching heat.

We are too late!

But not too late for everyone!

Next to the bonfire, a woman cuffed in shackles fought and screamed as a man started to pummel her repeatedly with a thick wooden branch. The branch was blackened with soot and smoking on top as if he had just pulled it from the fire, charcoaling the girl’s already marred face.

How long had he been beating her?

Oblivious to the fighting around him, his full concentration was solely on this girl. His anxious, wide eyes kept her in his sight as he delivered blow after blow to her head, each strike preceded by the man’s hysterical shrieks.

Rían came up behind the attacker and grabbed the skinny log just as the guy prepped to land another strike on the girl. Turning his head, he flinched before frantically looking around. His panicked gasps deepened as he noted that he was the only one currently alive with Rory and the others standing amidst a hoard of corpses.

His mouth dropped open as his eyes swept over Rían and the others, who were still bearing the look of their beasts. “Siyah!” He screamed as he reached for a dagger on his belt. But since he was human, he was much slower, and it wasn’t difficult to disarm him. With a thundering fist, Isak busted in from the side and slammed the man’s temple, sending him face-planting into the ground next to the baldy.

Notably dazed, the man continued his tantrum as he scrambled along the dirt until he found a large rock. His eyes were open wide, wild, as he seized the stone and then rushed back to the battered woman preparing to smash her with it. Why was he still attacking her? She’s obviously not a threat anymore? The girl wasn’t even moving anymore. Dead?

Jetting through the air, Chaz leapt and tackled the guy, landing on his back as he fell again into the muddy ground. The faerie’s talons ripped across the back of his neck, gouging in deep. The highwayman finally collapsed within a gurgle of blood that gushed from both his mouth and neck; the rock slowly rolled from his grip.

Rory wiped some blood from his brow as he quipped. “What was he yellin’?”

“He was yelling bleeeh!” Chaz laughed, mimicking the death-throes of the man as he wiped his hands on his pants.

Rory chuckled, “No, before that, you ass!”

“Siyah!” Brett cursed. “He said siyah!” Currently, he stood over a man he had been fighting with, his sword still plunged in the robber’s gullet. Yanking it out, he used the bloody weapon to point at the group. “I told you boys not to get carried away!”

“What’s it mean? Siyah” Isak asked.

“Siyah is a term in our realm for a powerful witch. Ones who delve in dark, evil magic and is said to eat the flesh of their victims.” His face boiled red. “With you all showing your monster faces, I am sure he thought you were all siyah. So, you’re lucky these filth are dead or you’d be facing the Karanlık! Reckless fools!”

“Monsters?” Chaz frowned, feigning insult as he gripped his chest. “Your words are like daggers.” But his thinned lips quickly busted out a smile. “No worries, Bretty-boy. I’m not afraid of the big, bad Karanlık.”

“Are all of you witless?” Brett bayed, leering at the group.

“He’s good with his insults,” Rory smirked, nudging Chaz, before folding his arms.

Rían had been half-listening to Brett’s prattle, instead his thoughts reeled as his eyes trailed from the guy Chaz just killed, to the woman he had been bludgeoning. He found it strange that instead of coming after him or the guys with the rock, the bandit went back to her. The woman who was already dead. Squatting next to her corpse, he stared down at her broken, beaten face, which now was a swollen blob of red with strands of dark brown hair caught within the macabre crimson. No one she knew would recognize her. His eyes trailed over her body, assessing the m******e covering the silken pale green dress down to her delicate slippers.

She was someone important. With the carriage, the chests of coins, her clothes… she wasn’t a peasant by any means. Nor did she look like a threat.

Why did that guy beat the shít out of her?

His beast roiled inside him at the memory of it, his chest burning as he stared, aching that he hadn’t reached her in time to save her life. Why is this bothering me so much? I didn’t even know her. Maybe it was because he had failed someone who needed help?

Rory squatted beside him, taking in pretty much what he had already observed. Hooking a finger at the opening of the dark cloak she wore, he pulled it aside, revealing her delicate wrists shackled in a set of thick, heavy iron cuffs. “Woah, they actually cuffed her?”

“And what’s this?” Rían noticed three etchings in the metal, his finger tracing over them. One was a backwards letter ‘c’ with a “t” attached to the top. The others were various triangles, lines, and circles. “These look like runes. I wonder what they mean?”

Rory shrugged, “Well, since I don’t have my secret Vafaren decoder ring on me, I can’t help you there.” He shot a look over to Brett who, with Chaz and Isak, had been pulling bodies over to the fire. “Captain, oh Captain, we have a question for you.”

With a grumbling grunt, the ranger dropped the body he had been carrying and made his way over to them. Rory pointed to the cuffs. “This mean anything?”

Brett bent down, his eyes squinting as they fled across the imprint. “I’ve never seen that before. Maybe it’s the mark of this band of robbers?” he shook his head, shrugging. “But I do know from what I see, the crest that bears the ram, it’s the insignia of Castellan Tatiane. So, she must have come from Shonna, south of here.” He tapped the cuffs, “I wonder if they were going to kidnap her and hold her for ransom? Since she was obviously a courtier of the palace, these thieves would get a pretty good bounty.”

Chaz said, “Hey, guys…” behind them, his eyes pinned at the base of the fire, “We haven’t thrown any bodies in yet, but there’s already someone inside… I’m talkin’ beyond barbecued, too.” His eyes trailed at something that caught his attention; he slowly rounded the blaze and went out of sight. He shouted as he spoke behind the veil of fire. “Well, most of her is barbecued, anyway. One of her legs is sticking out. And I say her, because she’s wearing a girly blue slipper.”

“Another noblewoman?” Rían frowned. “Why did they choose to burn her and keep this one for ransom?”

“In any case,” Brett grunted, “we need to get these bodies back to the palace. The King will want answers only we can give, otherwise the bloody kingdoms will feud over what may have happened and start a bloody war that doesn’t need to happen.”

Rory shouted at Chaz, “Hey, can we get that body out?”

The púca made a face. “Uh… maybe?”

Pushing Chaz aside, Isak rolled up his sleeves and reached right into the fire, grabbing at the skeletal foot. After latching onto the fleshy ankle of the other leg, he pulled the body out without issue, without any burns on himself. He laid the ghastly form gently on the ground, which was now mostly a mass of gooey, charred bone with scruffs of what may have been dark hair.

When Isak noticed everyone’s eyes on him, he simply shrugged. “Dragon?” he pointed to himself, pointing out the obvious.

“Well, it’s not like you share anything with us,” Rory quipped. “How were we supposed to know you’re all fireproof-y?”

"Hey, look!" Rory directed the group, pointing to the skeleton's wrists, cuffed in heavy iron. "This chica has bling, too!"

Chaz's rubbed the back of his neck, "Why burn someone you were going to ransom?"

"Maybe the highwaymen changed their minds? Were cleaning up loose ends instead?" Isak shrugged.

"Well, in either case, we don't have time to investigate it. I'll have King Joel assign Knights to dig deeper." With a fatigued sigh, Brett continued, “As for you four, don't get wrapped up in politics while you're here. We need you focused. I want you guys to keep on going to Tereswin— keep to the quest. It’s what’s important. So, I’ll be the one taking the bodies back to Shonna and speaking to the king. Let’s toss the thieves' bodies in the fire, stack the nobles in the carriage, and then we will part ways.”

“Uh– is that going to go over well with the king of Shonna?” Chaz asked. “I mean you showing up with a carriage crammed full of dead people and then are all, like, Hey, king, here’s all your dead noblemen, stacked like sardines in this cab?”

“I don’t give a rat's ass about what King Tatiane thinks. He’s one of the bastard tyrants who are against King Joel.”

Just as Brett finished speaking, Rían felt a fierce grip strangle his fingers. Shocked, he nearly fell backwards. Looking at the hand clasping his, and then at the one striking blue eye that had opened amidst her bloated, puffed face, Rían gasped. “She’s still alive!” Her other eyelid struggled to open, but its swollen flesh failed to obey.

“Oh shít!” He heard his brother mutter across from him.

Gulping for air, or trying to speak, or both, she choked as she looked at him, her fingers constricting tighter around his own “Help m…” she struggled.

“Shh, shh.” He scooted in closer, cupping her hand, squeezing it. “It’s ok. I’ve got you. I’ll take care of you. Just relax.” The one eye keenly focused on his every movement teared up as she started to cry, enhancing the already bright blue iris. Rían couldn’t help but stare at it, fascinated with how stunning it shined and how much it reminded him of his mother’s eyes.

His beast stirred inside him again, anxious for… something. But his heart felt like it would break out of his chest at any second, and when he realized he was holding his breath, he let it go slowly as he tried to grasp the reasoning behind it. Before he could muse on this further, something else caught his attention out of the corner of his eye. When he jerked in the direction of the sudden movement to get a better look, he noticed a trio of green-robed men on horseback, perched on the far hill.

Karanlık!

Isak noticed them too, growling low, “We’ve got company.”