Warden (17 page)

Chapter 34

“What?!” Prap screamed, rising to his feet. “I did no such thing!”

“But you did,” Errol said. “Aswangs are shapeshifters, and pigs are animals they can change into. That funny little wild boar you killed – the young one that nothing looked quite right about – was her child, I think.”

“You’re just guessing,” Prap said in disbelief. “There’s no way you could know that.”

“Think about it,” Errol said. “Till tore off and ate a piece of that animal’s leg. In turn, he got his own leg ripped off. Pierce cut its throat, and similarly had his own throat viciously sliced open.”

“So it’s revenge, like you said before,” Jaden noted. “Essentially an eye for an eye.”

“Yes,” Errol said and nodded. “Exactly.”

“But how’d she know who to come after?” Bander said. “If what you’re saying is true, how’d she know who ate part of her child and who didn’t?”

“That’s easy enough, but let me start at the beginning – the way I think it happened,” Errol said. “After we break camp, the day we got to Apolos, Adversa’s looking for her child and comes upon its remains. Like any mother, monster or not, she’s grief-stricken. She pulls her hair out in anguish. She screams.”

“That sound we heard when we were riding,” Bander said. “That wailing.”

“Yes,” Errol agreed. “Furious, she sets out in pursuit of the killers. She catches up but doesn’t attack – maybe because, like Master Algim said, she’s not as strong during the day.”

“So she just follows us back here and starts picking us off one by one,” Jaden added. “Still, how does she find us?”

“Smell,” Bander answered. “Aswangs have keen senses. She likely tracked us by our scent.”

“That’s my thought as well,” Errol says. “So she goes after Till first.”

“Why him?” Prap asked, still looking pale.

“I think it was just random,” Errol answered. “I think she went to the sewers because it was an easy way for her to navigate the city without being seen, as well as hunt for us – or follow us – and somewhere along the way she homed in on Till’s scent.”

“And after she finds him, she bursts out of the sewers and kills him,” Jaden interjected.

“Essentially,” Errol said. “I think that while she’s wrenching off the sewer grate, Till sees what’s happening, that some
thing
is attempting to come in, and tries to get away. He grabs the keys off the wall and is planning to get into one of the other rooms and lock the door. But she catches him before he can get away, and in the ensuing struggle, he gets too close to the selkie’s cage.”

“So the selkie snatches the keys,” Bander opined. “She unlocks her cage while Adversa is killing Till and heads for the sewer.”

“Correct, except Adversa doesn’t kill Till right away,” Errol added. “She first uses her mind-reading trick to make sure she’s got the right person. She flips through his memories to determine who had a hand in the death, or devouring, of her child. Then she gives him the same treatment he gave her offspring.”

“So that would have given her all the information she needed on who she needed to kill,” Jaden said. “Till, Pierce…”

He trailed off, glancing at Prap but being gracious enough not to say his name.

“But in that case,” Jaden continued, “why go through
your
memories, Errol? She’d already discovered what she needed to know.”

Errol pondered this for a moment. “I think she was just being thorough. For instance, I didn’t see everything that happened concerning the animal Prap killed. I never saw Till eat a portion of it. Going through my mind was just a way for her to get additional proof – confirmation that there were only the three culprits.”

A new thought suddenly occurred to Errol, and he turned in alarm to Jaden and Bander.

“Neither of you ate part of that animal, did you?” he asked them. Jaden and Bander seemed shocked by the question, then vigorously denied even being tempted to taste Prap’s kill. Errol found himself relieved that, assuming everything he had concluded was true, they wouldn’t be on Adversa’s list.

“Anyway, back to our scenario,” Errol said. “Adversa presumably tracks down Pierce as well, and we know how that eventually turned out.”

“And the rest of us she tails here,” Bander reckoned. “Where she takes up camp in pig form right outside our window.”

“Well, I think she actually tracked the rest of us here early on,” Errol concluded, remembering that the sow had been outside the window his first morning at Wellkeep. “But that essentially brings us to where we are today.”

“So what now?” Jaden asked.

Errol shrugged. “I’m not sure there’s much we
can
do, except wait for her to show up–”

An odd whimpering sound drew his attention, made him stop mid-sentence.

Prap had started to cry.

Chapter 35

Because Wardens were lawmen to a certain extent, Errol wasn’t completely surprised that there were prison cells in Wellkeep. They took Prap to one of these in the lower levels of the building, more so for his protection than out of a belief that he’d done something criminal. In fact, the door to the cell wasn’t even locked. All of this, however, formed the rudiments of a very basic plan.

“There’s an opening to the sewers on the level with Prap’s cell, about one hundred feet away,” Bander said. “If Adversa comes for him, it’ll probably be from that direction. Otherwise, she’ll have to come through Wellkeep, and if she wasn’t willing to face four Wardens on the road, I don’t think she’ll be anxious to take on a building full of them, even at night.”

“So all we have to do,” Jaden surmised, “is put some men down there and wait.”

“An ambush,” Errol said emotionlessly.

The others hadn’t noticed, but Errol’s mood had somewhat soured since they had hatched this plan of action shortly after Prap broke down in tears. Adversa had viciously killed two men, yes, but it hadn’t been done wantonly. It had been done out of a desire for justice (if such a concept could be applied to monsters). Basically, although it came as a surprise to Errol himself, he realized that he had a certain degree of sympathy for Adversa.

That said, his job was protecting people and fighting monsters. It was what he’d been trained to do his entire life. Thus, even with someone who was – as Berry put it – a swine, he felt an obligation to protect them.

It was night now, so the attack they were expecting could come at any time. In fact, it had been dark when they’d brought Prap down to the cell. Afraid of possibly being away when the action started, Errol had decided to forego trying to retrieve his Wendigo dagger from Ad Astra and had simply borrowed one from Wellkeep’s arsenal.

Armed with a dagger, throwing knife, and his one-hand crossbow, Errol was listening to Bander state how he wanted men placed around the sewer opening when a Warden-in-training came running up with news.

Prap was gone.

*****

Bander was livid, doing his best to control his temper with respect to the two Wardens who guarded the entry to the cell area.

“Our understanding was that he wasn’t a prisoner,” one of them was saying. “His cell wasn’t even locked. That being the case, when he said he wanted to go grab something to eat and come right back, we thought nothing of it.”

In short, Prap had simply walked right out. Bander dismissed the offending Wardens with a disgusted wave of his hand.

“Apparently the idea of being bait in a trap for a monster wasn’t very appealing to him,” Jaden said of Prap.

“But where would he go?” Bander asked. “He knows she’s out there, waiting for him.
Looking
for him. And she’ll never stop until he’s dead.”

“Well, we’re making the assumption that he’s running,” Errol said. “What if he isn’t?”

“So what, you think he’s making a stand?” Bander asked. “That he’s going to fight?”

“It wouldn’t surprise me,” Errol said, remembering how Prap’s eyes had gleamed during the fight in the alley.

“But that’s crazy,” Jaden added. “She took down two of us the night she killed Pierce, and I don’t think either of us inflicted much damage on her. The only person who’s ever come close to stopping her is probably the guy who gave her the scar, and he had a magic axe.”

“Unfortunately, we’re a little short on magic axes at the moment,” Bander said with a slight hint of sarcasm. “I’ll have the quartermaster put them on his next requisition order.”

“Maybe Prap can’t get his hands on a magic axe,” Errol said, “but he does know where to get a magic dagger.”

Chapter 36

The door to Master Algim’s solar was locked from the inside when they arrived. However, they could hear odd noises coming from within – the sound of glass breaking, furniture being tossed about, and more. A second later, Bander had put his shoulder to the door, splintering wood as he forced it open.

Inside, the room was in shambles: desks and tables were knocked over, chairs were broken, and papers were strewn all about. In short, it looked as though a cyclone had torn through the place. In fact, looking to the second-floor landing, Errol could see where the doors that led to the balcony had been almost ripped off their hinges, the result of something powerful bursting inside.

All of this Errol observed and took in within seconds of entering the solar. The sounds of conflict drew Errol’s attention back to his immediate surroundings, and that’s when he saw them: Prap and the aswang, locked in battle, off to one side.

Prap had his sword drawn, and was using it to counter the reach and deadly effect of Adversa’s claws. On the floor nearby, slumped against a wall and clearly unconscious, was Master Algim.

Bander drew his sword and rushed into the fray, screaming. Jaden followed, pulling out two short swords, while Errol – holding his dagger and crossbow – brought up the rear.

Adversa, seeing new foes approaching, casually kicked a nearby table with her foot, and it went flying towards the three Wardens who had just entered. Bander dove to the side, showing an incredible amount of dexterity despite his age. Still, being in the lead, he had the least amount of reaction time, and as a result one of the table legs swiped his shoulder as it went by. He grunted in pain and curled up on the floor, gripping the injured shoulder.

Jaden and Errol, on the other hand, managed to hit the floor safely, letting the table go harmlessly by them. Then they were on their feet again, with Jaden rushing to aid Prap and Errol checking on Bander.

“Forget me,” Bander said, wincing in pain as Errol tried to assess the damage. “Deal with
her
.” He nodded towards Adversa.

Looking in that direction, Errol saw that Jaden and Prap were trying to get on opposite sides of the aswang, with one and then the other taunting her with his blade while the other Warden tried to outflank her. His dagger obviously not being of much use, Errol got as close as he dared and readied his one-hand crossbow. Unfortunately, the constant movement of the aswang and the two Wardens made him uncomfortable with taking a shot.

Suddenly, one of Adversa’s wings shot out. It hit Jaden like a fist, square on the jaw. His head snapped to the side and he went down, not unconscious but obviously dazed.

While the aswang’s attention was diverted, Prap suddenly pulled something from his waistband. With a shock, Errol realized it was his Wendigo dagger.

Drawn by the movement, Adversa looked back to Prap and saw what he was holding. At that moment, she went still, and Errol saw a look cross her face, something like terror or fright. Plainly speaking, she seemed frozen.

Sensing an advantage, Prap rushed forward with a shout, thrusting the dagger in a stabbing motion. It went into her chest right about where the heart would be in a human being.

Adversa howled in pain. Prap took a step back, smiling gleefully and clearly thinking he’d won the battle. His expression changed to dread when Adversa took a quick step forward and hit him with a backhand that sent him flying across the room.

Now that he had a clear shot, Errol fired, but suddenly the aswang wasn’t there and his bolt thunked solidly into the wall. Adversa had leaped up almost immediately after hitting Prap, gliding across the room after him so quickly that one would have thought they were tied together.

Prap hit the floor heavily, all the air audibly getting knocked out of him as he landed on his back. A second later, Adversa landed on top of him. There was a sickening sound of rent meat as the talons on her feet extended and then gripped Prap’s abdomen. He screamed and convulsed.

With a powerful beat of her wings, Adversa rose up into the air with Prap firmly held by her feet, coming down on the second-floor landing that led to the balcony. Errol, having quickly reloaded his crossbow, had a clear shot at her head. In fact, he could see a good portion of her upper torso, including where his Wendigo dagger was still embedded in her chest.

She glanced back at Errol, saw him taking aim at her, and stood there. There was a look of serenity on her face, and a sense of calm about her. No fear whatsoever.

On his part, Errol didn’t really see a monster standing there. He saw a creature trying to deal with unbearable anguish. He saw someone seeking some measure of solace. He saw a grieving mother seeking justice for her child.

At the same time, some of what Berry said echoed in his brain – something about Prap’s own kind coming for him. Unexpectedly, it dawned on Errol that this was Prap’s fate. This was what was supposed to happen. Prap had captured and dragged Adversa’s child off to be killed; just like Till and Pierce, she was treating him to the same fate he had visited upon her offspring.

After a moment, it became clear to both Errol and Adversa that he wasn’t going to fire the crossbow. The aswang turned her attention back to the balcony, squatted, and then leaped out in an arc that took her (and Prap, still gripped by her feet) out of the room.

Errol raced up the stairs. The landing at the top was covered with glass from the balcony doors. Stepping outside, he felt a light breeze that – at almost any other time – would have been enjoyable. He could see the lights of a good portion of the city from this vantage point, and he marveled at the view.

The sound of a scream, thin but discernable, reminded him of why he’d come out here. Looking in the direction of the sound, he saw something unusual: the silhouette of what appeared to be an oddly-shaped bird against the background of the moon, borne aloft by a powerful set of wings and carrying a limp form in its claws.

A few moments later, he heard footsteps approaching and turned to see Bander, holding his arm limply, behind him. It dawned on him in that moment that Bander had probably seen everything, including his failure to shoot Adversa when he had a chance.

“So, no clean shot, huh?” Bander asked after a moment.

“No,” Errol replied. “No clean shot.”