Fell (The Sight 2) (41 page)

Fell blinked in surprise. A bear? Then perhaps Pantheos was just a Lera …

“So you left your kits to help us, Ottol?” he growled.

“Only for avile, voolf. Vile you help zees humans. You’ve found your vay I zee.”

“That we will know soon,” answered the wolf gravely, “but hurry, Ottol, hurry.”

In the palace the song of the wolf, multiplied fiftyfold by the Vengerid and Fell’s family, was lost again, but Alina WovenWord was standing now, beside her mother, in a chamber far from that prison, looking at the face of a boy. Her own little half brother.

“Come, Elu,” said Romana softly, beside them, “do you recognise your elder sister?”

“But you’re dead,” said Elu nervously, looking up at the strange changeling storyteller. Alina looked at him just as warily. But he was just a little boy, she told herself.

“No, Elu, not dead,” she whispered, taking his hand and smiling with eyes filled with tears, as she remembered the baby in the cot. “But I’ve been away a long time. I’ve been in a different country, far away. A strange country.”

“Was it a nice place?” asked Elu cheerfully.

Alina thought back to that shepherd’s hovel and dear Mia, but to Malduk and Ranna too.

“No, Elu,” she answered sadly, “it wasn’t a nice place at all. Although I had friends there too.”

“And are you our friend?”

Alina remembered the love she had felt for the little baby of her dreams.

“Oh, yes, Elu. I’m your sister and I love you dearly. I always have. I won’t let any of this touch you anymore.”

“I like your sword,” said Elu. “Will you show me how to use it?”

“Yes, I will, but first we must all go on a journey. Mother, you, and I.”

“Is Father coming with us?”

“No, Elu.”

“You’re funny. Why do you look like a boy?”

Alina laughed and ruffled the boy’s blond hair.

“Perhaps I’ll tell you one day,” she answered. “Tell you of changelings and goblins and Baba Yaga. But do you trust me now?”

The boy thought for awhile, and at last he gave a firm nod.

“Good.” Alina smiled. “Now we’d better hurry.”

As Alina said it though, they heard raised voices outside and Landu hardly had time to draw his sword before the Shield Guard burst into the chamber. Landu did not expect them to have foreknowledge of all that was happening, or to be moving with such intent, so he hardly had time to defend himself as the lead guard’s sword knocked him aside and plunged into his gut. His startled eyes went blank and lost their light entirely.

Elu cried out and ran to his mother, grasping her middle, as Alina’s sword came singing from its sheath and again her eyes flashed with wolf gold. Alina struck, cutting the attacker’s forearm, but it was too late for Landu. He sank to his knees and crashed to the floor.

“My lady … forgive …”

Alina turned, sinking her weight through her body, all her training returning to her. The storyteller was poised and her mind was crystal clear, ready to fight again, but the Shield Guard were many and she hesitated.

“If you resist us, you both die, woman,” said the soldier who had struck, coldly. “You and your mother.”

“Lord Vladeran would not allow it,” cried Romana furiously.

“Vladeran has ordered it, woman,” hissed the soldier scornfully. “And has summoned you to the great chamber. He wants his son.”

Alina WovenWord paused. A pain had come, but not from the soldier’s words. It was that ache in her head, and Alina pretended to be listening to the soldier as she heard the voice in her mind.

“I’m close, Alina. We’re crossing the river and some of the Helgra are already on your side, and entering his stone den.”

“Fell?”

Alina’s heart was racing.

“There’s fire and blood about us and has been much death. Sometimes I cannot hold my own savagery. The bloodlust is on me. On us all. Are you safe, human?”

“Not yet, dear Fell. And you and Catalin?”

“We’ve all survived. The boy is strong, and the Helgra leader too. I’m proud of them both and myself, for Catalin is important to this destiny too, Alina. And the Lera have come to help us too. To help you.”

Alina felt amazement in her heart and hope too, even now.

“Be careful, Fell. Vladeran has summoned others to his aid.”

“Where are you, human cub?”

“I don’t know, Fell, but they take us to Vladeran’s great chamber.”

“Then I shall come.”

“How, Fell? I do not know how to guide you in this place.”

“I’m a wolf, remember, with senses more powerful than yours, and I have your scent.”

The link snapped and slowly Alina lowered her sword arm.

Romana and her children were hurried through the palace by the Shield Guard, and Elu was terrified, for there was the sound of fighting everywhere now. The Helgra had begun to breach the palace. Flames licked at the rich tapestries in the chambers below and bodies lay in the passageways, while several times the Shield Guard had to strike out to defend themselves, but of Catalin and Ovidu and Fell, Alina saw nothing.

As they burst back into the chamber, Vladeran sprang from his throne and the doors were slammed behind them. His eyes blazed with hate and jealousy, as he saw that little family together, the two women and the boy, and he strode forwards and caught Romana by her cloak. With a growl he threw his wife to the ground near the throne. Elu went running after her and tried to help her up, as Romana slid on the hard marble.

“Mother.”

“My boy,” whispered Romana bitterly.

“So you know everything, Romana,” said Vladeran, glaring down at them both, “and there’s no reason to dissemble anymore, is there, my love? And you would have stolen my son.”

“He’s my son too!” screamed Romana.

Vladeran turned and looked at Alina, held there by the Shield Guard.

“I should not have dissembled then, Romana, should I? I should have killed the lying little whelp myself, in the palace, all those years ago when she failed to protect my child. Then this never would have been.”

“As you murdered Dragomir, Vladeran?” wept Romana bitterly. “As you’ve murdered my heart. Assassin.”

Madness came into Vladeran’s eyes as he saw his beautiful wife sobbing on the floor, madness and utter despair.

“No, Romana. You can love me again. All this has been for you, don’t you see? I love you, the only creature I’ve ever loved, and all shall soon be well, I swear it.”

Vladeran knew it was foolish, and suddenly he reached out and grabbed Alina SkeinTale’s arm, pulling her furiously across the room towards them. He thrust the storyteller backwards into the throne, near her mother and his son.

“Sit there, my fine Lady of Castelu,” he said mockingly, “for that’s what you seek, is it not, against all the Salic laws? Against nature itself.”

“You’re mad,” whispered Alina.

“That may be,” snarled Vladeran, suddenly pulling the dagger from his belt and jumping behind the throne, “but here you shall be sitting when
he
comes.”

“Fell’s here already,” spat Alina, “somewhere close, and my wolf shall tear out your throat.”

Vladeran put his dagger to Alina’s own throat.

“Shall he?” He smiled, pushing his brutal face into hers. “I hear them outside now. I have always known he was coming, all my life.”

“Shall we bar the doors, my lord?” asked Cascu fearfully, as the sounds of fighting rose even louder. Vladeran stood at his full height, but still he held the dagger against Alina WovenWord.

“On the contrary, Cascu, throw the doors open and welcome the wolf into my fold.”

“But, my lord. The Helgra.”

“Do it, fool, do it now.”

Cascu bowed, and fearing more and more the approach of his people and his brother Ovidu, he waved his hand and four Shield Guard soldiers pulled open the doors again. Seven bodies lay in the passage beyond, and flames were flickering against the palace walls, the shadows of candles and tapers that had been overturned by the desperate fighting in the corridor, though the Helgra who had killed these men had passed on. The corridor was empty.

The captives and their captors stood there in Vladeran’s great chamber, hearing the shouts and cries from beyond, wondering what would appear in that doorway, and waiting for Fell to find Alina WovenWord’s scent amongst the complex, confusing web of smells that filled his nostrils in the palace. Smells of earth and stone and human blood. Waiting for him to catch it like an echo and let it draw him along an Ariadne’s thread of sensation, up a stairway, round a corner, down a long, body-strewn corridor. It seemed like an age, but at last they heard it. A wild growling beyond.

ALINA STARTED AS SHE SAW FELL'S SIHOUETTE magnified against the wall in the candlelight, and even more so when that head suddenly seemed to sprout two muzzles, like some mighty dog guarding the gates of hell. Just as Pantheos and Skart had foretold. A wolf had sprouted two heads.

Cascu and the Shield Guard soldier looked at each other in horror, but they held their ground. And there they suddenly stood in the doorway, not one but two full-grown wolves. The black and a grey. The male and the female. Tarlar and Fell came side by side, and it seemed as if there was blood and fire reflecting in their glittering yellow gold eyes. Even Alina was amazed as she saw them together.

“Fell, dear Fell.”

Fell stopped and gave a low growl, as his eyes took in the armed humans around the chamber. Alina felt almost jealous of this she-wolf that walked at his side. As the Shield Guard all stepped back, Elu buried his head in his mother’s breast and started to cry.

“Alina,” came Fell’s angry thoughts, “I can hardly see you, Alina. Their damned blood clouds my vision, while the bloodlust has me.”

“But you’ve come, Fell.”

“And if I move, human, he’ll strike with his dagger.”

“Yes, Fell. He’s full of tricks and traps. Beware his men too.”

Fell’s head swung around the room, and in an instant, as if he were sensing it, he had taken in the precise number of the Shield Guard watching him. Their position in the room. Their distance from him and Tarlar.

“I have them in my eye, Alina, and they’ll pay bitterly if they strike.”

“You’re talking to it, aren’t you?” whispered Vladeran, glaring at Fell and pressing the knife even tighter to Alina’s throat. “Tell it to speak to me, girl. The real wolf.”

Alina simply smiled. “Even if you had the gift, Fell would never speak to one such as you,” she answered coldly. “He may see your thoughts if he chooses, but he will not speak to you. Any of you.”

Vladeran pressed the knife tighter and Fell snarled.

“Remarkable,” growled Vladeran, “it’s as if he acts beyond the instincts of a mere animal, and understands everything we say. Then speak to him for me, girl, and tell him that I offer him a bargain.”

“What bargain?”

“You’re a part of this bargain too, storyteller. For if the wild wolf walks to me now and stands at my side, in return I swear by the halls of Castelu that you’ll live, and the wolf shall be honoured here, as the Helgra have always honoured his kind. The forests where he hunts shall be made sacred, and the land itself that is his home shall have my protection.”

Fell was growling again, for he had looked into Vladeran’s mind and seen the pact and what it meant. Fell was looking at Alina’s half brother too, huddled there with his human mother, next to the great chair. The very human whom Fell had once called Bran, the infant Larka herself had protected in the snows, and whom Fell had carried on his back to the village below the castle. The child he had made a pact with too, and a promise to remind him of the wildness and beauty of the world, in exchange for his protection of the Lera.

Fell remembered a vision he’d had of the boy, standing tall, with two dogs at his side, ready to protect the animals. But he felt guilty, for wolves had brought a great darkness to this little human family.

“No, Alina,” growled Fell furiously, glancing back at Vladeran, “you may not trust this Dragga scum.”

“I know it, Fell, and I would rather have a curse on my head than his protection.”

“So, Alina,” said Vladeran, “will you not order these beasts?”

“I’ve told you before, they’re not mine to order.”

“Very well then,” cried Vladeran, “in my kennels my whips bend the dogs to my will, and wolves shall learn too what it is to be tame. Now!”

Vladeran had been waiting for the best moment for the trap he had laid when he had sent his men to fetch Romana, and at his cry four concealed Shield Guard soldiers came running from their hiding place behind the arras, in that recess at the top of the secret passageway. They ran straight at Fell and Tarlar, carrying a net in their arms, which they cast towards the animals, and before the wolves could react, they found themselves struggling in strange bonds made of coarse black rope.

Fell snarled furiously, and Tarlar flailed out with her right paw, but found it sliding through one of the holes in the net and entangling her even more. The net closed around the wolves, as if they were giant, furry fish, pinning their paws under them and wrapping them in a tight bundle, their snouts poking uselessly through a grilling of black cords.

“What’s happening to us?” growled Tarlar.

“Don’t struggle,” whispered Fell, as the soldiers tugged at the ends of the net. “It’ll only make it worse. I know of human traps.”

Vladeran was smiling contentedly.

“So I have you all,” he said delightedly, “as I knew I would in the end. You cannot deny true destiny.”

“Your orders, my lord?” said Cascu.

Vladeran swung his head.

“First slay that beast at the black wolf’s side.”

Fell growled, for again he had read Vladeran’s thoughts.

“Stop him, Alina.”

“No,” Alina started, “I’ll do what you ask. I’ll persuade Fell to take your pact.”

“Even if I thought you weren’t lying,” said Vladeran, “what use is the other wolf to me? We’re animals, and animals we kill.”

Vladeran pushed Alina back and, walking around the throne, gave Cascu the dagger.

“Hold the storyteller,” he ordered. “Kill her if she moves a muscle.”

Vladeran turned and walked forwards, his wolf cloak sweeping across the marble floor. He circled the struggling wolves in their net, and as he did so his back came into Fell’s vision and the wolf whimpered as he saw his sister’s pelt. Fell hated this human. In that moment he hated all humans. All but Alina. Vladeran was triumphant, feeling invincible indeed with the spell that surrounded him.

“Let our soldiers spread the word,” he cried. “Tell the Helgra, under a white flag of truce, that we have the black wolf and if they do not throw down their weapons, Alina Sculcuvant shall die instantly, and salt be sowed over her bones.”

The Shield Guard ran from the chamber, as Vladeran began to laugh.

“So then,” he cried, “let us wait and see what comes.”

Alina was looking helplessly at her friend.

“Oh, Fell,” whispered her mind bitterly. “Have I really brought you to this?”

“Don’t blame yourself, Alina. A destiny marks us all, no matter how we try to struggle against it, and I’m glad I came. Although I’m sad the she-wolf is here with me.”

“Dear Fell.”

“If I could just get loose for a moment, I’d rush him now,” growled the wolf. “The human who holds you is not so ruthless as Vladeran. I see it in his thoughts. I think he would not kill you as easily as your father’s friend.”

Vladeran turned and gave Fell a brutal kick through the net, knocking the wind from the wolf and sending up an angry yelp. Fell was struggling to breathe, and as he lay there he suddenly noticed Vladeran’s old hunting dog, watching from his place near the throne. Fell gave a low, angry growl.

“Help us, dog. Help those of your kind.”

The dog lifted his head wearily and blinked across the chamber floor.

“Help you?” he growled sombrely. “There’s no help for it, wolf, even if you were of my kind. I’ve learnt to accept their power, and to take their meat in return, with the warmth of their red flowers. Besides, there was a time when I myself hunted the wild wolf.”

“But now you’re nothing but a tame cur,” growled Fell angrily.

“Tame I may be,” said the dog, with a sigh, “but life tames us all in the end, wolf. Don’t fight against it, and it’ll be easier for you. It’s those that fight hardest for freedom who are never free.”

Fell turned away his muzzle in disgust, and suddenly there were more running footsteps. Some of the Shield Guard had returned.

“My lord,” cried the first, “your cousin’s men have come. Draculea’s soldiers. The battle’s turning, and many of the Helgra are handing over their weapons.”

Alina was at her wits’ end now.

“Fell, can’t you do anything?”

“I can’t control human wills, Alina, even their weakest.”

Suddenly a thought flashed into Fell’s struggling brain though. A thought that Morgra herself had placed there. Not man, but Lera.

“Yes,” cried his mind, remembering what Morgra had suggested. “Yes.”

“Fell, what are you doing?”

“There are other armies, Alina. I have seen them before. It’ll be dangerous, Alina, for I fear the shadows. I fear they will take me again.”

Tarlar was amazed, for beside her Fell’s black body had suddenly gone limp. His eyes were closed, and as he lay there a sound came from his throat that terrified all in that great chamber. It came low, and then rose like a ghastly demon, taking to the air, a howl like no other. Only Vladeran suspected what it was, for he had heard something like it before, and it made him tremble. Fell was trying to call the dead from the Red Meadow to come to his aid, just as Morgra had once done. The Summoning Howl.

“No,” said Vladeran, rounding on the wolf. “Stop his throat.”

The guards were not looking at Fell, or listening to their leader at all. They were staring at the font in that little chapel in utter horror. There, in the shadows, a ghastly silver shape was appearing. Romana slunk back even more, hugging Elu to her, and Alina felt a cold wash of fear through her whole body. She sat back in that chair, and suddenly, as if she were fainting from fear, the storyteller’s head went back and just for a moment her eyes became wolf eyes again, before they closed.

Fell blinked and opened his own eyes again, for his call had suddenly ceased, but there, in the arch of the chapel, in front of the font, stood a spectral she-wolf.

“Morgra,” he whispered in terror.

The scarred, silver spectre was growling, as Morgra blinked and looked about her, like a sleeper waking from a ghastly dream. Even Tarlar whimpered at Fell’s side, as Morgra’s angry growls rose, and then her voice came echoing through that hall, as the she-wolf spoke, growls mixed with human words that all assembled understood.

“So then, Fell. You use the Summoning Howl, after all, to restore the dead.”

The soldiers and the Helgra and Vladeran understood Morgra, not because a wolf had suddenly been given the power to speak in a human tongue, but because those strange words did not come from Morgra’s muzzle at all. They came from the throne and Alina WovenWord’s mouth, and Cascu stepped away in horror.

The young woman’s eyes had opened again, yellow gold, though they seemed asleep, and her body had gone rigid, as Morgra spoke through Alina’s mind, and on the young woman’s lips. A wolf was talking through a human Drappa, as Skart had prophesied.

“But the howl is not strong in you, is it, Fell?” Morgra whispered.

Fell flinched and growled back at them both.

“For the others will not come, Fell, I promise you that,” said Morgra through Alina’s voice. The spectre of the old she-wolf padded slowly from the recess towards the girl and stood beside her.

“No army of ghosts to help you and the Helgra now. But I came. You brought me forth again. Then I was keen to come, and smell blood once more, and taste it too.”

Lord Vladeran was even more transfixed than the rest of the assembled humans.

“Morgra,” he said wonderingly, not knowing whether to look at the storyteller or the she-wolf. “This grows better and better. If Fell will not serve me, we’ll work together then. My power united, not with a mortal wolf, but with a wolf of shadows and darkness, howling the howls of love and hate.”

Vladeran smiled as he stared back at the spectral she-wolf, and Cascu looked at him in awe, not only because of the ghastly apparition, but because Cascu knew that it was he himself, in his doubt, who had given Lord Vladeran these dark Helgra arts. He knew too that the power was real and that he had betrayed more than his father and brother and his own people. But the presence of the spectral wolf kept all away from Alina Sculcuvant.

“Together we’ll rule in the land beyond the forests, Morgra,” said Vladeran. “Rule the Helgra, my cousin Draculea, and King Stefan himself. You’ll show me more and more of the shadows, Morgra, and together we’ll conquer death itself.”

“Silence, fool.”

Alina had swung her head to Vladeran and cried out, and Morgra’s spectre was growling beside her, her lips curled into a snarl as she swung her muzzle towards Vladeran, who took a step backwards from them both.

“Silence? But, Morgra …”

“Did I not say silence, human, and now I command it.”

Vladeran was peering straight into Morgra’s eyes, and his hand came down to his dagger.

“Command a human? You dare, animal?”

“Yes, Dragga, I dare. And more than dare. For you think you’re invulnerable and that you’ve won, but even now knights ride towards the palace. Even now the turning Helgra see their banners, and their thundering approach from the mountains, and charge once more. Even now Draculea’s men turn away and fear turns to hope again. As it always will.”

A look of doubt came into Vladeran’s eyes, but outside he fancied he heard the distant blaring of trumpets and a great shout.