T Lain - Plague of Ice

The cloud of snow she had kicked up was nearly gone. Sonja leaped out at Savanak, catching his flank with her claws and tearing a red line down his ribs. When Savanak turned to snap at her, she was gone again, taunting him from the far side of the arena. When he rushed toward her, she used her speed and maneuverability to hop away to the opposite side.

Both wolves were wounded and trailing blood across the snow when they leaped at each other. Both were tired and weakened. Anger rose in Savanak. Sonja could see the change in his eyes when she stared at him from across the arena. Again they traded sides, but the druid refused to get close enough to attack or be attacked. She was no longer trying to end the challenge at all but to drag it out.

“Craven human!” Savanak growled. “Fight me! Fight or yield.” Sonja didn’t return the taunts or respond in any way. She stared at him from across the arena.

Savanak’s blood boiled. The winter wolf howled shrilly to the heavens. Summoning his energy, he sprang forward at Sonja with all the speed he could muster, teeth snapping, blue eyes flaming. Sonja pushed off the ground and only barely sailed clear of Savanak’s mighty jaws before the juggernaut stumbled through the wolves forming the arena’s outer lines.

One bold wolf, offended by Savanak’s repeated violation of the confines of the challenge, offered a warning by nipping the winter wolf on his rump. This proved a bad idea. Savanak reared back instantly and crushed the wolf’s skull with a clamp of his mighty jaws. Outraged at the needless slaying, another wolf jumped in for Savanak’s throat, hut the winter wolf struck it in the chin with a paw. The force of that blow snapped the wolf’s neck and flung the body backward into the pack. Other wolves stood their ground, jaws open, backs raised in anger, but Savanak ignored them. He turned his attention back to Sonja, who stood at the center of the arena, a lupine approximation of a smile crossing her snout.

“The lines must not be disturbed, Savanak,” she reminded him.

Rage blinded the winter wolf and all reason left him. He reared back, mouth opened wide. A high-pitched sound emanated from Savanak’s mouth, and a few cold, blue streamers began issuing forth. Instantly, the wolves on the sidelines broke ranks and rushed forward at their leader. The winter wolf’s attack was cut short by a dozen wolves’ slashing jaws tearing at his flesh. Savanak howled as they bore him down, tearing chunks of meat from his flanks and snapping at his neck to make the kill.

Sonja issued a single, sharp bark and all of the wolves stopped where they stood. Limp and bloodied herself, she struggled to her feet, then slowly transformed back to her human form.

Hennet, Regdar, and Lidda rushed to her side. She was bruised and cut, and she limped, but the glow of victory shone from her.

“You won, Sonja!” Lidda shouted. “You’re the pack leader now!”

Hennet closed his arms around Sonja. She stiffened slightly as he touched a delicate spot.

“Thank all the gods you survived,” he said. “I thought I’d never see you again.”

“How did it work?” asked Regdar. “Just because the winter wolf was about to use its breath?”

“That was a clear violation of our conditions,” Sonja explained. “It didn’t hurt that Savanak kept breaking the enclosing lines, too. I won by default. Not the most glorious way to win a challenge, but it did work.”

“You taunted your opponent into violating the rules,” Lidda said, “and that disqualified him, or it, or whatever. In halfling society there’s no more noble victory.”

Sonja smiled at that thought. “Let’s see what’s left of Savanak.” She gestured for the wolves to back off her opponent then picked up her cudgel from where she’d dropped it earlier. The winter wolf was a bloody mass. His belly still heaved, but he was completely incapacitated. Savanak would soon bleed to death, Sonja knew. She could only guess whether a winter wolf in such a state would answer questions truthfully, but it was worth a try.

“You traitorous runt!” the winter wolf swore at her in Common. “You won through deceit. Allow me the dignity of death.”

“Not yet, Savanak,” Sonja answered. “You are bested and, yes, you are dying, but you will answer my questions. How did you get here?”

“I don’t know,” the wolf spat. “A magical force ushered me here while I slept. I considered it a blessing from the gods. The Frozen Drifts of Daak were far behind me, a new pack followed me, and no others of my kind were near to compete with. Bliss.” Savanak’s upper lip curled high above his teeth.

“What destroyed this forest?”

“It was stumps when I got here. The wolves said the first blast of this cold took the trees but left them. It is strange magic.”

Sonja eyed Savanak suspiciously. “Where did you arrive?” she asked.

“At the core—the center of the area, or so I took it to be. It’s the coldest there, and there the towers of ice reach to the sky.”

“Towers of ice?” asked Sonja.

“The dragon keeps its lair there,” the wolf explained. “The white. I saw it when I arrived. It stared at me like it wanted to fight, but then it flew away. I wandered through the forest of stumps until I found this pack, killed its leader, and made it my own.”

“What has caused all this?” demanded Sonja. “Where is the ice coming from? How can it be undone?”

“I don’t know, druid bitch!” the wolf snarled. Its voice was fading. “The wolves tell me that a few humans passed through the forest some days before the ice began. Perhaps it was they who did it. Go to the towers of ice if you feel the need. Fouler things than wolves lurk there. I hope they rip the frozen flesh from your bones!”

The ice druid gestured with her cudgel, inviting the wolves to finish off their fallen leader. They rushed forward and tore into the shaggy body ferociously, swalling hunks of meat as the winter wolf howled his last.

Sonja turned to the others. “The towers of ice—that must be the zone’s center. We might still reach there today if we hurry. We must get moving.”

“You can’t travel like this,” Hennet said, wiping away blood from her.

“Don’t worry,” said Sonja. “I can heal myself more swiftly than I can heal anyone else. I’m not even that badly hurt. I made it look worse than it was for Savanak’s benefit.”

“What about your new friends?” asked Lidda, gesturing toward the gruesome spectacle of the pack devouring the winter wolf.

Sonja made a wolfish bark, and all the wolves turned their attention back to her. She uttered a few more noises until they lowered their heads in reverence and returned to their meal.

“What did you do?” asked Regdar.

“I relieved them of my rulership. It’s up to them to select a new leader by ordinary wolf means. They’ll trouble us no more.”

“I’m glad to hear that,” said Lidda. She looked around at the forest of frozen stumps stretching in every direction. “Do we even know in which direction these towers of ice lie?”

Sonja pointed. “This way. The wolves say so. I’d ask them for an escort but…”

“I think we’re doing just fine on our own,” said Regdar.

“I’d agree with Regdar,” said Hennet, adding, for once. “I’ve had quite enough of wolves for one day.”

“Have you?” laughed Sonja, smiling to bear her teeth.

“I didn’t know you could do that when we first met,” said Hennet. “I might have been a little more careful with what I said.”

“It’s not just her, you know,” Lidda told him. “Every woman is a wolf.”

The farther they traveled toward the core, the colder it became. They weren’t there yet, but Hennet could not imagine anything being much colder than he was. Pelor’s sun barely shone in the sky through the impenetrable clouds. The snow was up to his knees. He wrapped a fur around his face and looked out from behind it only to keep himself from walking into one of the stumps and falling face down in the snow. Sonja knew several spells that could increase their resistance to the elements, but the magic’s duration was short.