Quarter Square (16 page)

Tyac was coming, and he was coming fast. I renewed my grip on Karn’s mane.

The first attack happened so quickly that I almost missed it. There was a crash and clamour in the undergrowth as we swept past, a brief scuffle from somewhere near the back of the column, and it was over. I glanced back and caught sight of a wolf being dragged off the trail and into the bushes. Nobody stopped to help him. Our flight continued at the same intense pace.

Tyac’s second attack took out another wolf.

His third met with more resistance. Three wolves turned on him, snarling and snapping and tearing at every part of him their sharp teeth could reach. Their furious attack slowed his progress, but only slightly, and he left another dead wolf on the track behind us when he smashed back into the forest.

“They’ll all be killed,” Min panted.

I didn’t answer.
I told you so
would have been cruel and petty.

Wolves mobbed and mauled Tyac every time he attacked, but he was bigger and stronger and faster than any individual member of the pack, and he just kept on coming. The pack’s numbers fell, one by one, and casualties were left behind.

The eeriest part of this horrible experience was that the pauses between Tyac’s attacks were nearly silent, and nothing broke our breathtaking speed. Their plan was obviously to keep moving, no matter what happened, to keep Min and me out of Tyac’s reach at any cost.

I caught glimpses of him through the flashing trees as we ran. He was twice Shad’s size, and he ran upright on two legs most of the time like the monster he was rather than on all fours like the wolves who carried us. He was mad and utterly terrifying.

We thundered through the night, our progress marked by the dead bodies we abandoned and the bloody smears on trees and foliage. Our sound carried in heavy vibrations more than as noises in the air.

Even in my fear I marvelled at the discipline of the pack. Anya remained calm while she marshalled her fighters. I guessed we were about halfway back to Quarter Square when she fell back in line, while Vua and Tae took her place at the head of the column.

Min and I craned our necks to watch her filter back towards the middle of the column with several other fighters.

“I don’t like
this,
” Min said through gritted teeth.

Shad gave an angry huff beneath her. He didn’t like it either.

I didn’t like any of it, but Anya’s revised plan made more sense to me than Shad’s original one. Why lose individual wolves to the monster if a pack of them could fight him off?

And why had it taken them so long to figure that out? I suspected their famous success as mercenaries owed more to the fact that their adversaries were usually terrified humans pitted against huge wolves than from any sort of superior strategies or tactics.

Tyac’s next attack met with such firm resistance that he failed to take out a wolf. Maybe this was going to work after all.

After that failed attack, our progress continued unhindered for about an hour, although I caught sight of the monster flashing through the trees that flanked us. This wasn’t over by a long way. And I ached everywhere.

I started to recognise features in the landscape from the first day of our flight into the Wild. The return journey had taken the pack only four or five hours, and I started to hope we might make it back to civilization in one piece.

We were only a few miles from the square when Tyac attacked from above, running through the treetops and dropping directly into our path. We were on him instantly.

He flashed his maw towards me, and I punched him on the snout as we flew past. Wolves dragged him down and mobbed him. Anya and her warriors hit him in a mass, and we left a screaming carnage in our wake. The remaining wolves closed around us, and we sprinted for the edge of the Wild.

The wolf pack limped into the square on bleeding pads and scared the hell out of a pair of youngsters who were necking by the campfire. Word spread quickly, and the insiders gathered in the garden. While Min explained the events to everyone, I sat with the twenty remaining wolves, who sprawled together in a panting heap.

The dancers—Dish, Blue and Sab—crouched under the apple tree and glowered at us.

“I don’t know what their problem is,” I told Shad. “They’ve never liked me since the moment I arrived here.”

He butted the bony top of his head against my hand, and I realised I’d been stroking behind his ear as if he were a dog. He didn’t seem to mind, but he was far from relaxed. He and his wolves studied the dancers intently, and the air between the two groups quivered with hostility.

Jimmy approached cautiously and sat next to me. “I’m glad you’re okay. We’ve been worried sick about you two.” He eyed Shad warily.

“These guys saved Min and me from that bastard Tyac. Lots of them died on the way here to stop him from getting us.”

“They’re werewolves too?”

“Yes, but not like he is. These are the good guys. And if you think they look awesome now, wait until you see them as humans.”

Raised voices came from elsewhere in the garden as insiders stood in pockets and tried to come to terms with the news.

“This is crap,” Andrew insisted. “No way Queen Fiona would hurt anyone here.”

Other conversations faded as people turned towards him, and Min’s question carried clearly.

“What do you know about Fiona’s intentions, Andrew?”

His eyes darted left and right. “Well, nothing. Obviously.”

“Tell us.” There was no accusation in Min’s voice. She sounded like a Mother Confessor more than anything.

Andrew closed his eyes. His breath trembled.

Min took his hands and crooned a quiet tune to him.

People stared at one another. Jimmy and I strolled over to the main group.

Min stopped singing. “Tell us what we need to know.”

Andrew’s tear-filled eyes implored Min to believe him. “She just wanted to know about the haven. She cares. No one cares anymore.” Tears rolled down his cheeks.

Min opened her arms and hugged him. Angry mutters broke out among the watching insiders, but she shook her head at them over his shoulder and held him while he sobbed.

I cleared my throat. “They’ll be here in an hour. We’d better get ready.”

Will and I patrolled the square together, checking that everyone was okay and searching for weak points.

Holding hands and meditating, Fliss and Linda kneeled in the middle of the garden with a subdued Andrew. Their threading magic would be the backbone of our defence, and everyone knew to keep an eye out for their safety.

Five teenagers stood nearby, ready to defend the threaders and armed with sheets of heavy timber I’d fashioned into full-length body shields. I’d also made dozens of heavy spears, and each teenager had one in hand and a few more on the ground.

Will was still muttering in amazement at the magic he’d seen me perform with wood in the past hour.

Making the weapons released some kind of muscle memory in me. When I hefted the first spear, its weight and balance were perfect, and I knew I’d done this before. Not only had I made them, I’d wielded them. Anticipating the battle to come invigorated me like the promise of sex. Energy powered my limbs and fired my senses. I wanted to run out there and find the enemy now.

Tara sat cross-legged by the fire while she calmly briefed her four recruited medical assistants. She smiled as we passed by and mouthed
oak
to me.

The remainder of the adult insiders were split into two main groups and armed with an assortment of weaponry from spears to juggling clubs, knives and swords and most of my woodworking tools from inside the theatre. Big Luke headed the group at the far end of the garden, while Cindy and Debs whirled their fire ropes slowly at the front of the group near the theatre door.

Jimmy had shepherded the children into the front room of his house, where Min sang soothing songs to them. I gave him two spears.

“I’ll stay here and protect the children,” he said.

“Me too.” Delores joined us and accepted a spear.

Min came out and hugged me hard. “Be careful. I love you.”

“I love you.”

I watched her until she disappeared back indoors. Then I stretched up on tiptoe to peer over the hedge into the garden. The dancers were no longer under the apple tree, and that was probably a good thing. I’d been concerned innocent blood might be spilled once the wolves got into a fighting fury.

“They’re in our house,” Delores said. “Don’t know what’s got into those boys tonight. They’re in a horrible mood.”

“Maybe they don’t like wolves.” Will bared his teeth in a nervous grimace. “I can’t say I’m too comfortable around them either.”

“They’re here to help. Let’s go see them.” I strolled towards the gate and sensed Will hesitate before he followed.

Shad reared up onto all fours as we approached. Will edged behind me, and I hid my amusement.

“Not long now.” I didn’t know how much human speech Shad understood in this state, but wolf senses would probably make his grasp of the situation better than mine anyway.

I was scared and elated at the same time. Getting high on adrenaline. A wild grin kept stretching my face. I stripped off my shirt, threw it under the apple tree and gripped my spear.
Bring it on.

Shad’s ears pricked forward, and he spun towards the theatre. The pack rose as one. Their fur fluffed out, as if they were ready to spring at something.

Will started to say something, but his gaze wavered over my head, and his jaw hung open. I turned and looked up.

Figures were climbing into view in a line along the roof of the theatre and its adjoining buildings. They ranged out in menacing silence, silhouetted against the pale early-morning sky, and stared down at us.

So this was the Hare army. I recognised them. Not as individuals, but as a group. They looked like a biker gang. These were the men who’d fought that deadly battle I’d walked into outside the theatre the previous week. Some of them, anyway. The other combatants had almost certainly been Tin soldiers, and I wondered which family the one who died in my arms had belonged to.

They had bows and arrows. They were about to fire.

“Cover,” Big Luke yelled.

Will and I pulled up two shields each and held them vertically like a wooden wall to protect ourselves and the wolf pack. Others did the same thing all over the square, and just in time, for a heavy rain of arrows thumped into the shields. The force of the blows took me by surprise, as did the next flight, which followed within seconds.

Will grunted. “Fucking hell, this is bad.”

“It’ll be okay.” As far as I could see, everyone was huddled behind a shield wall and fully protected.

“They’ll be down among us soon, and these lumps of wood will be useless.”

“We’ve got these guys to help us.” I grinned, first at Will, then back at the wolves, and shouted, “We can take these bastards, can’t we?”

Shad howled his answer, long and low, and the rest of the pack joined him.

No more arrows thumped into our shields, but some individual shouted from the theatre roof. I couldn’t make out the words, but the tone sounded ominous. I sneaked a look around the side of my shield.

He was a thin, bald old man, dressed in a cape of feathers. He held an ornate staff at arm’s length.

“A wizard.”

“Huh?” Will peered at me from behind his shield.

“They’ve got a wizard with them. Or a witch. Or something.”

The old man’s voice took on a new note of command. He pointed his staff at the houses behind us and bellowed a single word of command.

Everything paused; then a woman screamed.

“That’s Delores.” Will spun around in a crouch.

Something heavy crashed over and through the top of the hedge. Something moving very fast. Three huge panthers tore into the wolf pack right behind us. The pack fell onto them, and in an instant our immediate vicinity became a snarling, snapping, ripping, biting, blood-splattered nightmare.

Will and I scrambled away from the melee and watched in horror, only remembering to hold our shields firm when a third flight of arrows struck from above.

Another imperious call came from the roof, but this time it was matched by a similar call from Andrew. He, Fliss and Linda sheltered behind a semicircle of shields, holding hands and boldly facing the Hare wizard. Andrew shouted something at him directly. They ducked as a storm of arrows thudded into their wooden wall, but stood tall again straightaway and glared up at the roof.

The wizard waved his staff both ways along his battle line, and the archers took aim again, but their arrows fell harmlessly only a few feet from their bows. The wizard screamed in rage, and something invisible battered into our magic team. They and their shield wall staggered back a step, but they held firm, and Andrew barked a defiant laugh.

“They’re coming down,” Big Luke shouted.

The archers had abandoned their bows. They bumped and shuffled down the sloping roofs, dropped to the ground and drew swords as they ran toward us.

The wolf pack was being ripped to pieces. They fought the panthers with everything they had, but half of them lay dead, and all of them were mauled. Shad snarled and snapped viciously as he backed away, while two of the cats advanced on him.

I dropped my shields, grabbed a spear and ran at the nearest one. It was awesomely powerful. It turned on me at the last moment in a blur of speed and drove itself onto my spear point, and I rammed hard and forced the sharp stake deep into its chest. It screamed hot spittle into my face and fell heavily on top of me.

It was like being crushed under a velvet-coated car. The fight between wolf and panther continued around me and next to me and over me. The dead cat trapped my legs, but Will dragged me clear and helped me scramble away.

“You’re fucking mad.” But he laughed wildly.

“Come on.” I grabbed another spear and rammed it into the flank of the cat Shad was fighting. Will rammed his spear in alongside mine, and we held on while the huge animal screamed in pain and rage and pushed hard against its struggles, trying to keep it away from us as much as to kill it.

Shad ripped out its throat, and it fell dead at our feet. The other wolves rounded on the remaining cat and backed it to the apple tree, where it hissed and lashed out at them with its massive paws until their combined weight bore it down. It disappeared beneath them, and its screams of rage and agony mixed with the wolves’ savage snarls.

The soldiers were among us, and everyone was fighting. Cindy and Debs walked forward steadily and spun their fire ropes faster than the eye could follow, flashing them in the faces of the Hare soldiers, breaking the assault on their group as insiders circled around and caught the invaders in a pincer movement. Big Luke led his insiders at the run and clashed against the main force.

We joined Luke’s fight, where the Hare numbers were greatest. I wielded my heavy spear as if it were an extension of my arms, which is exactly how it felt. At first I tried to club and repel rather than stab. But the Hare were experienced warriors armed with all kinds of wicked blades, and I found myself fighting for my life and killing them as savagely as they wanted to kill me.

The spirited defence had taken the invaders by surprise, but they rallied to the shouted orders of their wizard, and the ensuing violence was brutal, almost overwhelming.

Min’s voice carried across the noise. Her brief burst of song was urgent.

“Min,” Will and I shouted at the same time. We broke free from the fight and sprinted around to Jimmy’s house, where he and Delores were trying desperately to hold off twenty Hare soldiers, while Min clutched her throat and staggered, glaring mute hatred at the wizard.

We charged into them from behind. I stuck my spear through the nearest Hare back and accidentally hoisted him into the air. He screamed as he arched. I threw him off the end of the spear into a group of his brothers and stabbed them all repeatedly. One of them caught me a glancing blow off the top of my head with a club, and another sliced my forearm with his blade, but I felt only rage, and they both went down under my feet.

A brawny Hare warrior swung his arm around Min’s neck and dragged her backwards towards the garden. I couldn’t reach her. There were too many soldiers between us. I stabbed and kicked like a madman, but the big man kept dragging her farther away.

Will flew at him and used his spear like a club. It snapped across the warrior’s back, and he threw Min to the ground. Will stabbed at him, but the man grabbed the spear with one hand and pulled Will towards him while he swung his machete with the other.

The terrible blade seemed to move in slow motion. It sliced Will’s throat wide-open. His blood jetted and showered Min as his body crumpled to the ground.

Two wolves hit Will’s killer from behind and dragged him down. He screamed like an animal as they tore him to pieces. The rest of the pack ripped into the other soldiers surrounding me and killed them in seconds before streaking back into the garden to attack the remaining Hare force.

I ran to Min. She cradled Will and rocked him. I rested my hand on her shoulder for a moment. Then I left her to mourn in private and walked into the garden.

The battle had come to a bloody end once the wolves piled in. The only attacker to survive was the wizard. He pointed his staff down at Andrew in a menacing gesture before turning to disappear.

Andrew hung his head.

My legs wouldn’t support me anymore. I crumpled to the ground in the midst of the carnage.