The Realms of Animar (12 page)

Suddenly the man reached toward him. He fought off the stranger’s grasp and darted toward the corner. He closed his eyes and hoped. He longed to be outside, running in the fields away from the village and the trouble he had caused. If he could only be somewhere else, somewhere away from his attacker, somewhere safe. He pictured himself running in the brown winter grass, breathing in the cool air and galloping as fast as he could away from the danger, away from death.

***

Mordigal cringed when the boy began to scream once more. Nothing audible, more of a yell to get attention. He hoped he would listen, but it was no use. There was no choice but to silence him.

It was then, in a task as simple as grabbing a helpless victim sitting just inches away, that something rather unexpected happened.

The boy vanished.

Mordigal blinked and looked around - nothing. There one second, gone the next with only a slight ringing in his ears as a possible clue to what had happened. The door was still closed. There were no other possible exits.

He heard voices yelling somewhere nearby. They had heard the screams, but where had he gone? Mordigal quickly opened the door and ran out of the room and left the house. He spotted a group of men to his right who were looking around, trying to locate the source of the scream. They saw the assassin and ran toward him.

Without hesitation Mordigal morphed into a large brown and white wolf with thick fur. His eerie, pale blue eyes searched for the best path. When he found it, he ran.

They yelled after him. He ran faster. Something landed just behind him. An arrow? No time to look. He ran faster, sniffed the air, looking for a familiar scent. Nothing. He looked farther ahead, more homes, then buildings. More people up ahead. Someone saw him and screamed. A short fat man ran away to his left. Hunger beckoned him. There was no time.

***

Lady Trussil was gathering some papers from her desk when the door to the school opened and a woman in a dark cloak peered inside. The hood shadowed parts of her face but something about her seemed familiar.

“May I help you?” Trussil asked.

The woman briskly walked into the school and closed the door behind her. She turned to Trussil and lowered her hood with a smile while her long blonde hair tumbled down her shoulders. “Why yes, I think you just might.”

The teacher eyed the stranger inquisitively, “Do I know you?”

“Not as much as I know you,” the cloaked figure replied whimsically as she walked forward.

“What do you want?”

The woman continued up the center aisle between two rows of desks. “You know, I never understood why. Years I have wondered. Years it has tormented me.”

Trussil could detect anger immediately. Contrasting the beauty of the mysterious stranger were eyes filled with hate.

“Who are you?” Trussil asked as she took a step back. “What are you talking about? I think you should leave.”

“Oh you know me,” the woman replied. “We met several years ago but apparently it slipped your tiny Avian brain. Did you know that every person has a unique scent? No, of course not. Your kind don’t have our senses do you? Too bad for you. But us, we remember every last one of them and when I fortunately stumbled upon yours as I strolled by well, it would have been just plain rude not to pop in and say hello. Don’t you think?”

They stared at one another in silence as Trussil’s mind raced for answers. Without a word the woman suddenly morphed into a sleek grey wolf. Trussil quickly picked up a chair and held it to her front.

She considered shifting her forms but then she looked to the windows. The shutters were still closed. Making matters worse, with a snarl the beast sprinted towards her, fast.

***

Mordigal, still in his wolf form, had started to pant but kept running. He darted between two buildings. Shops perhaps? Smells. Good smells. But they were everywhere. People yelling and screaming. Things being thrown at him. He heard the horn. The others must have been spotted as well. Where was the boy? Where did he go? He needed to complete his mission. Mordigal then caught a familiar scent. There it was. Then gone. Too many. Must focus. Double back. There, there again. Faster. Ellyn is close. The scent he knows. She is in danger. He loved her. It was wrong but he loved her. He knew that now. Faster. He had to hurry. Something hit him in the side. It stung. He yelped but continued on. Up ahead, just up ahead she was. Ellyn was there. He loved her. Ash would be angry. She is close.

He arrived at a large building. He smelled her inside. He loved her. The men were close. They were near the door to the building. Need another way in. No time. Windows with shutters. Have to try. No choice. More yelling to his right. Faster. The building was right in front of him. He jumped.

***

Avryn, followed by the blacksmith Guderian and a number of other men, were running towards his house when a large brown and white wolf crossed the path just a few feet in front of them. The beast paid them no attention; his focus was elsewhere.

Without hesitation, Guderian stopped, drew a finely crafted maple bow from around his shoulder and quickly launched an arrow toward the creature. The arrow whistled through the air and pierced the wolf’s left side, causing a yelp to spill forth from its gaping jaws. Without slowing the beast continued on.

***

Trussil backed up while the grey wolf scowled and lunged at her. She struck it with the chair but it was just a glancing blow. Trussil swung the chair again but this time the wolf was ready. She grabbed the chair with her jaw and ripped it from Trussil’s hands. The wolf growled and jumped for her throat.

She heard a crash to her right and splinters of wood flew into the school. Another wolf, this one brown and white, sprung into the room. In a blur, the second wolf transformed into a cloaked figure and tackled the other before it could strike. They went down in a heap, her vision obstructed by the cloak draped around them. There was a brief struggle on the floor and then she heard a loud yelp. The struggle had ended.

The door to the school burst open. Avryn and Guderian ran into the building along with a handful of other men. Without hesitation, Guderian quickly drew his bow and aimed it at the cloaked figure crouching over the dead wolf.

Avryn reached up and grabbed Guderian by the arm. The string relaxed.

The figure reached out his hand and stroked the back of the fallen wolf gently then withdrew the dagger from its throat and tossed it to the floor. He stood up and, ignoring the men at the back of the room, turned to face the teacher standing in front of him. He lowered his hood. Their eyes met.

A quiet stillness fell over the room.

Trussil’s heart leapt.

Of the men at the back of the school, all seemed confused except for Avryn. He held out his arms to keep the other men back.

Mordigal approached Trussil and gently cupped her face with his hands. For a brief instant they froze and then their lips met. A lost love had been reborn.

They kissed passionately for only a few seconds but compared to the agony they had felt apart it seemed like a lifetime. Then they parted.

Tears had formed in Trussil’s beautiful eyes. She wiped at them with her hands. “It’s wrong…we tried,” she sniffled.

“I can’t believe you came with them. I thought… I will do anything for you. My life has been lost without you.”

“How many more Mordigal?” Avryn demanded as he and the others walked forward.

Guderian peered at Avryn inquisitively. He wondered how he had known the stranger’s name.

Without turning his gaze from Trussil Mordigal replied, “Six others…well, five.”

Avryn quickly grabbed the assassin and put his drawn sword to the man’s throat. “Tell me why you came or I will end this reunion now.”

“Avryn no!” Trussil pleaded.

“Lower your sword,” Mordigal replied. He then leaned back from the blade and winced as he pulled the arrow from his side. “I will tell you everything you need to know. But first you need to find your son.”

A sound at the window caught their attention. They turned just as a hideous vulture squealed, spread its wings and flew away.

***

Fright gave way to confusion as Thane struggled to regain his balance. He had not opened his eyes yet, he was somewhat mesmerized by the pulsing lights that flashed behind his lids. He smelled grass and was cold, very cold. He could hear yelling in the distance.

Once settled, Thane looked around. He was surprised to find that he was sitting in a grassy field near the village. He wondered how he had gotten outside or where his attacker had gone. Nothing made sense.

Thane was about to stand up when he saw two shadowy figures leap over the village wall, likely from a nearby rooftop. Startled, he crouched down. From afar they looked like large dogs and they appeared to be sprinting away from the village in his general direction, but fortunately not on a direct path.

As they drew closer he could tell they were actually wolves, one grey with white splotches and another following that was dark brown. He crouched lower, hoping they would not see him. When he did so they stopped.

The grey wolf raised its head and sniffed the air. It turned toward him and peered into the tall brown grass. Thane knew he had been detected. They shifted their direction and began to head directly toward him. He wondered if it was time to run.

Before he could decide what to do he heard shouting in the distance and saw several men emerge from the village – most in human form along with a handful of horses. The wolves picked up their pace when they heard their pursuers. The lead wolf peered in Thane’s general direction but then ignored the scent and continued toward the forest line. Survival had become more important.

Shivering, the boy stood up and brushed the grass from his legs. He was safe, but had countless questions lingering in his mind. He then morphed into a white horse and sprinted toward the village, cold air billowing from his nostrils as he galloped.

Chapter 12

T
he next morning was far from ordinary. The festival had been ruined and terror now coursed through the village. Four villagers had been slain in the attack and although they had managed to kill three of the wolves, two had escaped.

During the night, and against the pleas of their friends, a handful of people had decided to leave Avryndale in fear of a larger, more devastating attack. They elected to endure the approaching winter storms and search for a new destiny elsewhere.

The majority of the villagers, however, decided to stay and the only outlet for their anger was the captured assassin who was now locked in the stockade.

Mordigal sat on the floor across from Trussil in the small stone room, staring into her eyes as daylight crept through the barred window above her head. In his wildest dreams he never could have imagined sitting with her that morning. Life was truly unpredictable.

Neither Trussil nor Mordigal had changed clothes or slept and it showed on their weary faces. They had talked during the night, reliving the time they had spent apart. At other times they had sat in silence deciphering the emotional turmoil that had encompassed them. Surprising to both, they had only been interrupted by brief visits from the guards that Avryn had posted outside the makeshift prison.

Mordigal’s side ached and his eyes throbbed. He glanced over at Trussil. She was so beautiful, even more so than he had remembered. Shackled to a wall and the fate of his brother unknown, he was still at peace with the decisions he had made. He could not continue without her.

“Don’t look at me like that,” Trussil said, blushing. “I look horrible I’m sure.” She then shyly tucked a few loose strands of hair behind her ears.

He smiled and shook his head. “Not in the morning light, not in any light.”

“Such a charmer. I’m glad at least
that
did not change.”

His smile dropped. “Nothing changed. I survived in the world I was left in. I am the same man you once loved.”

She began to reply but instead leaned her head back against the cold stone wall and closed her eyes.

“So you came with them after all?” Mordigal then asked. “You said—”

“I severed the tie with my own kind long ago.”

“You could have come back to me.”

“I am a teacher, that is what I do…what I have to do. Carnivores don’t care about school, you know that.”

“Well you have to believe that I would not have agreed to attack this place had I realized that you were here. Never.”

“I know,” Trussil replied. “So that woman that tried to eat me, I take it a scorned lover?”

Mordigal glared at her. “Hardly. She just wanted me because I was the alpha. I never caved in. My heart was spoken for.”

“Lucky for me,” Trussil mused.

“She was there the day you met my pack. I guess that is where she recorded your scent.”

“I hate that you carnivores can remember our scents like that. So is mine any good?”

“Unforgettable,” Mordigal replied with a grin.

Trussil blushed and rolled her eyes.

Mordigal then changed the subject. “So Avryn’s son,” he said. “I heard they found him.”