Jaleigh Johnson - Unbroken Chain - The Darker Road

“Do you feel that?” Ashok yelled to Cree as the warrior struck down his wolf again. Skagi was on his feet now and slashed at the thing’s other side.

“Feel what?” Cree said. He stabbed the wolf in the neck. It did not rise again, but its cold attack stiffened Cree’s movements. Ashok saw Cree flex his arms to try to loosen the muscles and coax feeling back into his fingers. Strangely, Ashok no longer felt the cold in his arm-or anywhere else in his body. He was away from the nightmare, but he was burning with fever.

“The bard’s spell,” Ashok said. “I feel it giving me strength.”

“I felt it for a breath,” Skagi said. “We could use another one like it.”

“Look there,” Cree said, distracting them.

Ashok looked to where Cree pointed and saw Ilvani levitating over the caravan. Her gaze was unfocused, her attention directed behind them.

“That’s not a good sign,” Ashok said. “She sees something.”

“More wolves?” Skagi said. “Let them come. They’re practically hurling themselves on our blades.”

“They’re doing it to hamper our grips,” Ashok said. The wolves weren’t so far gone that they didn’t recognize where the threat came from. If they were too cold to hold their weapons, the warriors had no chance. The beasts could pick them off at will. He could already see their warriors succumbing to the freezing breath of the winter wolves and having their bodies mauled by the packs.

The trio moved to help some of these beleaguered defenders. A wolf yanked one of the drovers off his horse. The animal fell screaming under the weight of another wolf. Ashok held his chain in both hands and teleported, reappearing beside the drover’s wolf to strike with necrotic energy dancing along his chain. He willed the shift again and raked the chain along the body of the wolf attacking the horse. The beast howled and turned to bite Ashok, but he was gone again, teleporting in a dizzying circle among the pack.

Ashok appeared again, panting, finally released of some of the energy from Daruk’s spell. Skagi and Cree covered him while he regained his bearings. The three of them moved down the caravan in a line of death while giving the crew a much-needed defense against the wolves.

A blast of necrotic energy rained down on the wolves from above. The beasts blew wild breaths of frost and scattered in all directions to avoid the killing shocks. Ashok looked up and saw the black lightning darting between Ilvani’s outstretched hands. She caught his eye and pointed to the east.

“They’re coming,” she said. “Thorm’s brigands.”

“Come to clean up what’s left of us, just like we thought,” Cree said.

“Godsdamned cowards.” Skagi grunted as a wolf hit him in the shoulder. A blast of cold issued from its mouth and struck him in the face. Stunned, he fell under the weight of the wolf.

Cree dived on top of the beast and wrenched it sideways. It landed in the snow between his body and Skagi’s.

Ashok tossed one end of his chain to Cree and fell beside Skagi with the other. They pinned the struggling wolf against the ground with the chain. The spikes dug into its flesh. The more the wolf struggled to get up, the more it mauled itself on the weapon.

It flipped over on its left side and struck out at Ashok’s face, teeth snapping wildly. Ashok grabbed its jaw and pushed its head up. Teeth sank into his palm, but the pain only made Ashok grip harder. He held the wolf’s head in an immovable grip.

“Skagi!” he cried. He couldn’t turn to see how the other warrior fared, or he’d lose his hold on the wolf. “Can you move?”

He heard Skagi curse, but the words came out slurred. The warrior rose up to his knees and plunged his falchion into the wolf’s neck. Ashok felt the creature’s warm lifeblood coat his fingers. When it went limp, he relaxed his grip on its jaw.

“My fault,” Cree said. He threw the end of Ashok’s chain back to him. “I didn’t see that one coming.”

“We’re all tired.” Skagi dug his fingernails into his cheeks to get the feeling back in his flesh. His words were still slightly garbled. “The brigands are going to hit us just right.”

“Not if Daruk’s theatrics work,” cried a voice.

Mareyn ran up to them. She bled from a shallow wound at her neck, but her eyes were still alight with the excitement of the battle. She offered Ashok a hand to get up. When he clasped her forearm, he left a bloody stain.

“Well, you’ve been busy.” She wiped the blood in the snow. “Is it time to move the caravan along?”

“Yes,” Ashok said. “Tell the others. We don’t want the brigands slamming into us from behind while we’re at a standstill. If that happens, we’ll be eaten up from both directions.”

“Stay alive then, until I return,” Mareyn said. She ran back up the caravan and signaled to the drovers.

Ilvani descended into the back of the wagon nearest Ashok and the brothers. Ashok heard the bard’s voice echoing down the line. He trotted up to Ilvani’s wagon, wand in hand. He held out his other hand to the witch.

“Ready for the finale, my lady?” he said, eyes gleaming.

Ilvani ignored his hand and jumped down from the wagon. “Make sure the others feel your song next time,” she said. Her eyes narrowed. “All the others.”

Daruk’s smile stayed in place, but it looked strained. “After you, my lady,” he said.

“Wait,” Ashok said. He went to Ilvani. The brothers fell back to cover the wagons until they got moving. “Watch him,” he whispered to Ilvani.

The witch nodded. “He’s safer with me than with you,” she said. She turned away, and Ashok hurried to help the others.

For the first time since he’d released it, he looked for the nightmare. Wreathed in red flame, the stallion wasn’t hard to spot at the head of the caravan. The wolves, many of them severely injured by the caravan crew, tripped over one another to get out of the path of fire, but the nightmare ran them down.

Ashok felt the longing to join in the chase. That strange, pounding darkness from Daruk’s spell lingered in his body, calling to him like the last notes of a song. He found it hard to resist.

A scream rent the air, pulling Ashok out of his stupor. He recognized Mareyn’s voice and ran toward the front wagons. He saw a pair of female wolves amid a whirling vortex of snow and ice that towered over the caravan. The vortex solidified into the largest wolf Ashok had yet seen. Its pelt was heavy with ice crystals, and its eyes shone a strange crystalline blue. A thick cloud of frost blew from its mouth and filled the air around where the wolves stood.

“Snowfang!” someone cried from the wagons.

Ashok looked for Mareyn, but he didn’t see her. The pair of smaller females dragged a body by the foot away from the caravan. Ashok broke into a run, but the snowfang was in his way. The larger wolf released another breath, and suddenly the air was the air of the fiercest winter storm. It blinded Ashok and everyone around him. He heard their cries and fumbling as they went down.

Behind them, the rear guard cried out that the brigands were coming fast. They would be upon them if the wagons didn’t get moving soon.

Ashok scrubbed furiously at his eyes to try to clear his vision. He kept his chain in front of him, expecting an attack from the larger wolf, but none came. When finally the cold abated, he saw the snowfang running after the other wolves. Those beasts did not appear to be in the grip of the same madness that afflicted the others, or perhaps they’d been able to shake off the effects once Ilvani was far enough away from the caravan. Now they had their prize and were fleeing.

It was the Martuck boy.

“What was that?” Ashok demanded. “It was no natural wolf.”