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It is the huge gray wolf from earlier, the one that argued with Cronin about letting us go. Apparently, he has decided to try to kill us, even though we made our deadline. He seems to be on his own, but I don’t dare look away from him to the Deep Wood to check.
None of that matters now, though. The gray wolf stalks toward us, his posture menacing. His yellow eyes flash, murder in their hungry gaze. The wolf circles me and the orcress, walking just out of easy reach of any attacks. He is clever, assessing where to strike. Fighting a wolf with just my bare hands would be bad enough, but a werewolf? They have double the strength of a normal wolf with the intelligence and craftiness of a sentient creature. A dangerous opponent indeed. I reach down and grab a handful of dirt, ready to throw in his face if he lunges forward.
Dura finds her feet again beside me, posture tense. Her blades flick out of their sheaths in her hands. She looks ready for violence. Not giving the wolf any more time to decide when to attack, shedarts forward. She dodges the wolf’s huge maw and thrusts with one of her daggers toward his jugular, the quickest death she can give him, but he twists and dodges. A paw the size of my head bats toward her, claws extended, but I loose my handful of dirt into his wolfish face over Dura’s shoulder and the paw goes wide. Dura flips backward out of reach of the wolf’s attacks, landing next to me. I duck down to grab another handful of dirt, my only weapon at the moment.
“Fall back!” She orders me. “You are vulnerable.”
“I will not leave you,” I return grimly. “Give me one of your blades!”
She doesn’t respond to me, but it is clear she will not arm me again. She doesn’t trust me. Finding her feet again, Dura sprints back into the fray, not giving the wolf time to respond, leaving me behind her. She swipes with her right blade, stabbing with the left, making the gray wolf choose what to dodge. The wolf rears backward, escaping her stab, but her swipe finds purchase, cutting across his exposed belly, though it is a shallow cut.
The wolf howls, then leaps forward, great jaws open for the kill, claws extended. Dura barely has enough time to duck so that he sails over her. Time seems to slow for a moment as he flies over the orcress. His belly is exposed to her once more, and she thrusts upward with both her knives as he jumps over her, her sharp orc-make knives digging deep into the soft flesh, before she yanks them out, blood pouring from the wounds. The wolf lands heavily with a whine and he skitters backward. The wounds the orcress has given him are death blows if he doesn’t get to a healer soon. There’s no way that she didn’t pierce some of his organs. I expect him to turn and run, but he surprises me with a growl as he poises to fight again. He would fight until his death?
The orcress changes her stance, getting ready for him to dart forward or pounce, when he does the unexpected once again. He strikes the ground, flinging dirt up into the orcress’ face, like I did tohim earlier. He catches the orcress by surprise and she doesn't react quickly enough to dodge the debris. She flings herself backward, blinking rapidly to clear the painful dust from her vision, but it is too late. The huge wolf throws himself at her, causing her to fall backward, landing heavily on her spine. Like lightning, his teeth go for the orcress’ head and she is forced to drop her knives to grab his jaws to pry them apart so her head is not crushed.
They grapple for a moment, him trying to free his jaws and her trying to keep hold of his slippery teeth, holding them open with all her strength. His forepaws are holding the orcress’ shoulders down, and she is pinned under his great bulk. She struggles to keep her grip and I know that in a matter of seconds he will be free and crushing down on her head. His belly is freely bleeding on the orcress and I think for a moment that they will die, here, together.
I consider letting this happen, but my honor won’t allow it. The orcress saved my life, not only at Fort Attis, but just now when she pulled the focus of the wolf’s attacks onto herself. I look around deliberately, until I spy a huge rock, about the size of the rock in the cave. Small enough that I can lift it, but heavy enough to be a weapon. I pick it up, hefting it in my hands. Then I turn back to the grappling pair. I take a deep breath and launch myself onto the werewolf’s back.
Once I have straddled the gray wolf, I move forward and bring the boulder down on his skull with all my strength. There’s a crunching sound and the wolf howls again, bucking backwards to get me off his back. But I have broken wild mounts before and his flailing isn’t violent enough to dislodge me. I bring down the stone on the wolf’s head again and again. My hands ache from the blows, but I keep bashing it against his skull. On my last blow, there’s another terrible, wet, crunching sound and the bone of his skull gives way, caving in. Whining weakly, the wolf falls to his side and I barely jump off in time to avoid being crushed by his giant frame.
The gray wolf breathes shallowly, painfully. The light is slowlygoing out of his eyes. The orcress grabs her knives from the ground and walks up to our fallen foe. She stabs her knife into his throat and pulls across his jugular, his blood spraying on the ground, giving him a quick, clean death. Mercy for the enemy.
“Are you alright?” I ask, coming up behind her.
The orcress stands wearily, turning to look at me. Her hands are red, stained with blood, but she looks whole and unblemished, for the most part. I must look much the same, my own hands covered in the wolf’s blood, still holding the stone I used to attack him. I let the thing tumble from my fingers.
“I’m fine,” she replies gruffly. “But we should get moving. We don’t know if this wolf was watching us alone or if others followed him and his howls may have alerted his comrades, even if they weren’t. More wolves could be on their way here.”
I nod. “Then let’s be off . . .” I hesitate for a moment, before grudgingly saying, “. . . and I’m sorry.”
“Sorry for what?” she queries. “Saving me?”
“No,” I shake his head. “Only an honorless coward wouldn’t have helped you. I’m sorry for stopping at the pond, for bathing in the first place. He probably wouldn't have caught us if we had kept moving all night.” I feel guilty that my ploy last night may have brought the orcress into danger. That was not my intention.
The orcress shrugs, brushing off my apology. “Perhaps. Or he was just waiting for us to exit the Deep Wood. He seemed determined to kill us. I think he would have attacked us anyway. I do not blame you.”
“That’s generous of you.”
She waves off my words. “Let’s get moving. I don’t want to be here when his pack shows up looking for him.”
I nod, agreeing with her and wipe my bloody hands on my cloak. We should get the move on. Kingsbury isn’t far. Safety waits for us behind the town gates. Also, I need rest, after the night’s march and the morning’s battle. Once we sell her earrings and I alert the orcs toher presence, I’ll gladly find an inn to sleep in. The thought stings my conscience a bit. Thinking of turning her in, after we fought side by side, is distasteful, but Imust. Adalind’s blood demands it.
We travel down the road in silence, me leading the way. The road is dangerous, as that’s where bandits roam, and if more werewolves follow us they could find us easily, but after hours in the forest on hard terrain, I'm not sure that I can do another march if the path isn’t easy. Luckily, we go without further incident. We pass a mile marker for Kingsbury and I thank the gods that we are almost there.
The town is barely in sight when the orcress suddenly stops. I turn to see what is the matter when she suddenly disappears. What in the Nether?
“I’m still here,” comes her disembodied voice. I feel a touch to my side and reflexively turn, but she still is invisible.
“How did you do that?”
“I have an invisibility charm that hides me from sight and disguises my scent. I’ll use it to walk through town. I’ll be right behind you the whole way, though, so don’t get any ideas just because you can’t see me.”
Fuck.I can’t turn her into the guards if she’s invisible. I’ll look like a madman gesturing at thin air and she’ll know what my game is and find some way to punish me, I’m sure.
I feel instant relief when she says, “But the effects don’t last forever, so let’s get moving.”
A temporary effect I can deal with. When she’s seeable again, that’s when I’ll fetch the other orcs. Something touches my hand, lifting it up so that my palm is level, then something drops in it. After a second, gold hoops become visible. The orcress’ earrings.
