The Dark of Twilight (Twilight Shifters Book 1) (7 page)

Finn stated, "There was an attack.  Come inside until we make sure it is safe."

It was at that moment the sun rose over the horizon.  There was a noise within the room.  Aein looked in.  The people.  The harmless, helpless people she shared the night with were gripping their stomachs in pain.  Then Finn fell onto his hands and knees, as if in terrible agony. 

"What is wrong with him?" asked Princess Gisla, panic coloring her voice as she backed away.

Aein realized what was going on.  She propelled Finn back into the chapel so she could shut the door.

"What are you doing?" shouted Princess Gisla, trying to get Aein away from him.  Aein shoved the princess back into the hall.  Finn looked up at Aein, unable to say anything as he began writhing, his back arching as if in terrible agony.  His painful cries became snarls.  His skin began sprouting hair.  His face elongated.

He and everyone in the room was turning into a wolf.

"Run," said Aein, backing away and closing the door.  She looked for something to hold it shut.  "Run!" she shouted again to the three people around her.  "RUN!"

And in that moment, the door began breaking under the weight of a dozen wolves.  One of the beasts came charging out.  Aein swiped at it with her sword.  It was too close for her long blade to be of much defense.  She felt the jaws of it wrap around her arm.  She cried out.  Its jaws were so powerful, it felt as if it might snap her arm in half.  More wolves were escaping the room.  She knew it would all be over soon.

Then beast's head fell from its shoulders. 

The princess stood to the side, a bloody sword in her hand, looking at the monster she decapitated.  "Where is Finn?" she asked.  "We have to go back for him!"

"He's gone!" said Aein.  "He is safe but he is gone!  Get yourself to safety and I'll explain!"

Princess Gisla did not look like she appreciated being told what to do, but she followed.  Together in a full sprint, they took off towards whatever safety might be available.

"Why did you push him inside with those creatures?" shouted Princess Gisla, accusation dripping from her words. 

Aein felled another beast as he made a flying leap at her.  At least these wolves did not operate in a pack.  It was every dog for himself.  Aein knew the moment they chose a leader, it would be the end.

She prayed that none of the wolves they killed were Finn.

A door stood open.  Aein pushed Gisla through it and slammed it behind them.  Aein looked for any furniture she could place in front of it.  There was not much.  The room had been destroyed.  The bed curtains were in tatters.  The mattress had been ripped to shreds.  The fabric hung in ribbons.  A wolf must have been in here, thought Aein.  But was he trapped or did he transform?  And was he still inside?

She pulled a tipped table and placed it in front of the door.  It would not hold long.  The latch to the door had been ripped from its hinges.  Hopefully, it would hold long enough.

Aein ran to the window and looked down.  The courtyard was twenty feet below, but perhaps they could climb down.

"What is going on?" asked Gisla.

"These creatures attacked during your wedding feast.  Don't you remember?"

"My what?"

"During your feast..." Aein stopped herself.

There was the sound of something heavy striking the door.  The wolves had caught their scent.  They knew there was quarry trapped within.  The table began to edge its way across the floor.  Paws and noses pushed through the crack.  Aein pulled out her sword and forced them back.

"You were there," said Aein.  "Don't you remember what happened?"

Princess Gisla shook her head in confusion.  Her eyes moved rapidly as she tried to bring back the memory.  "I was sitting down to the feast and then..."

"Darkness?" asked Aein.

Gisla nodded.  "Darkness."

The beasts did not let them continue their conversation.  Their muzzles and snouts were covered in blood, but still they came.  Aein poked at them as they tried to come through.  She had no more effect than a gnat on the arm of a giant.  She leaned up against the table, letting the combined weight push the door closed again.

"Why did you force Finn into the room with the monsters?"

"There is dark magic at work here," said Aein.  "There is something terrible that we cannot fight.  These wolves are not wolves.  They are all the people I tried to save from the wolves last night.  They are all the people who were trapped in the room with me."

"What?" asked Gisla, unable to comprehend what Aein was trying to tell her.

"They are werewolves!" shouted Aein, straining to keep the beasts back.

"These are people?" Gisla asked.  She ran over and grabbed Aein's sword arm.  "My people?"  Gisla stared at the snapping teeth chewing on the doorframe even though Aein kept slamming the door shut.  "Was the wolf who attacked you... the one that I killed... Did Finn...?"

Aein drew upon the memory of Finn's strength, of the words he had told her when she collapsed earlier.  She had to be strong enough for both Gisla and herself.  "Finn is one of them, princess, but remember they are not people now.  They are bewitched beasts.  They know not what they do and, right now, it is either them or us."

"There must be a different way."

"I am more than open to suggestions."

Gilsa placed her hand against her forehead, reeling from the information.  "Who would do such a terrible thing?"

"I do not know," said Aein.  "But I have spent a horrible night hiding from these creatures.  And with the dawn, the werewolves we were fighting disappeared and those I thought were safe transformed."

"You must go to my father," Gisla said, joining Aein to hold the table in place.  "No matter what happens, if I fall, if I cannot make it, you must go to his stronghold and tell him what has happened."

The table bounced and Aein slammed it back again.  "If we survive, I shall be more than happy to fulfill this command."

The door opened an inch more.

It was enough to snap Princess Gisla into action.  She ran to the walls, running over them with her fingers.

"What are you doing?"

"There is usually some sort of a door," she explained.  "These walls always have ears.  Always have a way for people to look in and listen.  We must find it."

Aein continued to hammer at the wolves at the door. 

"Found it!" shouted Gisla.

Aein looked over her shoulder to see what Gisla had found.  The princess was crouched inside the wardrobe.  The back opened to reveal a dark passageway.

The door opened more and one of the wolves was able to get his head and his shoulder in.  Aein tried to slam the door on him.  He gave a whimper, but it did not stop him.

Without waiting for a second invitation, Aein followed Gisla into the passageway, sliding the hidden door shut just as the wolves broke into the room.

T
hey scrambled down the dim hallway.  It was barely wide enough to let them pass.  Several times, Aein and Gisla turned sideways to squeeze through.  There were faint breaks of light through the walls.

"Where do you think this leads?" asked Aein.

"I have no idea.  You are the one who lives here," replied Gisla.  "If we can just find one that opens out of doors, we can get to my father's stronghold and he will send help."

"There is a man in the kitchen—" Aein began, thinking of Cook Bolstad.  She prayed he stayed barricaded in the larder.

"I am sorry," said Princess Gisla, her voice kind but firm, "but we cannot."

"What?"

The princess raised her hand to stop her protest. "We are under attack and everyone, not just your friend, will die if we do not get help now."

"But—"

"I am not heartless, Aein.  But if he is alive, it means he has found a way to stay alive.  If he is dead, us risking our lives to find him will not change the fact.  We must place the survival of the larger stronghold above the survival of just one.  We must continue on to my father." 

"But you are cursed, too!" said Aein, the words spilling out from her before she could think them through.  "What if we infect your father's kingdom?"

Gisla stiffened and turned away to continue walking.  "That is not true."

Aein raced up to catch her. "Princess, tell me what happened during the wedding feast?"

There was a pause.  "I don't know," she finally replied.  "I can't remember...  But that does not mean anything."

"You can't remember anything?" said Aein.  "Doesn't that seem strange?"

"What are you implying, little girl?" she asked.  Her blue eyes pierced the darkness of the hallway. 

The rage in Gisla's eyes robbed Aein of all her words.  Aein opened her mouth and shut it again, but then remembered Finn and the deep calm he seemed to always carry with him.  He would do his duty no matter the cost.  Aein had to be brave enough for the both of them.  "We need to be careful not to place your father's stronghold at risk."

Gisla kept walking, refusing to look at Aein.  Refusing to acknowledge there was even anyone with her.  The tunnel ended at a doorway.  Gisla placed her ear upon the door and listened.

"There is no sound beyond," she said, placing her hand upon the handle.

Aein reached out to touch her arm.  "Princess, reconsider."

"This is a trick," she spat at Aein.  "A filthy trick of this stronghold.  Did your traitorous Lord Arnkell put you up to this?  Did he drug me at my own wedding feast?  And then sic you on me to keep me prisoner here?  To turn me into a madwoman?  To get me to forfeit the lands I won by right?"

"Our two strongholds are now one," said Aein.  "I serve you as well as Lord Arnkell.  I am your servant, even more than I am his.  And so I must put this question to you—"

"Stop," said Gisla, looking at Aein with hatred and mistrust in her eyes.  "We are going to leave this cursed place.  We are going to seek help.  And we shall see, once the sun sets, what sort of curse has been laid upon this land.  We shall see if it is indeed magic or just some invasion of wild dogs."

"You know these are not wild dogs."

"I know that you pushed me out of the room before I could even look at one."

"You slew one.  You saw how big they were."

"Battle makes everything seem more frightening than it is.  It is only in the aftermath of their defeat that we see how small and helpless our enemies truly are."

They stepped out of the door.  It emptied behind a tapestry in the great hall.  There were sounds of screams and fighting drifting into the room.  The princess clenched her jaw in frustration and defeat.  "We shall be back with my father's forces."

Aein did not know how else to convince Princess Gisla of what was going on.  Defeated, she agreed.  "We shall."

They pushed open the front door, but that was where their luck ended.  In the courtyard, circling and hungry were a dozen wolves.

As soon as the creatures caught sight of the women, they began creeping forward, prepared to leap at any moment. 

Gisla pulled out her sword.  "You must promise me that no matter what... no matter what happens to me, you will go to my father."

"I promise," said Aein, not allowing her eyes to leave the brutes.  There was one in front of her with a gash on his shoulder.  She would go after him first.  She would pick upon the weakest.

And then the battle was met.  Without any sort of warning, the beasts leapt through the air to take on Aein and Gisla. 

Slashing and cutting, Aein forced her way through.  She felt buffeted by them, she struggled to keep her feet.  She could not allow them to knock her over.  To be knocked over would mean death.  The front portcullis was twenty feet away.  Ten feet.  She could do it. She could get across the drawbridge.  She could get into the woods where who knew what dangers might lurk, but at least they would be better than being trapped in this courtyard.  She would get to Gisla's fathers and there, his own soldiers could take on these monsters.  She just had to not die.  She just had to get away.

She heard Gisla's cry.  She saw as the woman backed into the stronghold and closed the door behind herself, leaving Aein alone in the courtyard.  The wolves leapt at the door in a frenzy, as if to be barred was worse than being able to take down the prey they had.

Aein did not wait.  She ran.  She heard the wolves behind her, drawn by her footsteps.  There was the winch which held the portcullis up. All it would take was one hit to the metal handle and it would go down.  The dogs were closer.  She knocked it as she ran and slid beneath the gate before it thundered shut.  Inches behind her, it fell upon the wolves, crushing them beneath the weight of the iron, impaling them beneath the pointed base.

Panting, she bent over, her hands upon her thighs.  She thought her heart might burst open.  More of the werewolves flung themselves against the gate, but until they learned how to work a winch, they would not be escaping through that route.

Aein looked up at the tower walls.  Gisla stood in one of the windows and saluted her.  Then the princess looked over her shoulder as if she heard something and was gone.

It was all up to Aein now.

She ran as fast as she could towards the northern road. 

She was not there to see that just an hour later, a single wolf with an injured shoulder was able to wriggle beneath the portcullis, a wolf determined to follow her and bring her down.

S
he was exhausted.  She had not slept since yesterday morning, but she knew she could not rest.  Every moment she wasted meant someone inside the stronghold died.  She had to push on to the Haidra kingdom.  It was a day's journey on fast horseback.  She did not have a horse. 

And even if she did have the luxury of sleep, she did not think she would have been able to.  The images of everything she had seen flooded her mind.  The carnage.  The death.  In the quiet of the woods, it all kept repeating.  It would not leave her.  It would not silence. 

She leaned her hand against a tree for strength before continuing on.  She knew it was the shock of what happened which made it seem like nowhere was safe.  It felt as if there were eyes on her at every turn.  She felt as if in every dark shadow something lurked.  The hair on the back of her neck prickled.  She knew the reality was that at any moment, the wolves might escape the stronghold. But she knew, too, that this impending sense of doom was her own paranoia, just her mind trying to keep her alive.