Windcatcher: Book I of the Stone War Chronicles (21 page)

He saw the young soldier look back to the wagon for a second.

“It’s not a weapon, it’s a—”

“Enough! I grow tired of this,” shouted Corza, in the background. He was not prepared to let Koltar know they were retrieving a dragon.

“Clearly they aren’t prepared to go quietly, men prepare to attack!”

Corza signaled his men, who immediately readied their weapons and repositioned themselves.

“Now, hold on! I’m still talking to them.” Koltar raised his voice in anger, turning toward Corza.

“You have wasted enough time, High General Wayler. I need to get that relic back to the palace as soon as possible, and I will not tolerate your idle chitchat with the enemy,” Corza sneered, impatiently.

Looking back to the group, Koltar saw part of their group had repositioned themselves already, swords and axes raised and at the ready, arrows aimed and eyes alert. But that was not all…something was not right. He saw Corza’s men had repositioned themselves strangely. Their positions did not make sense from a tactical point of view. This way, their direct line of attack would be blocked by their own men……no not their men,
his
men. It only took Koltar a heartbeat to recognize the danger; but by that time, Corza had already given the order.

Launching the attack, Corza’s men impaled the first few men that were loyal to him before Koltar’s voice was released from his throat.

“Defense rear!”

Immediately Koltar’s well-trained soldiers responded to the surprise attack, but it was clear who had the upper hand. His men had always outnumbered Corza’s troops; but, a third now lay bleeding on the ground, while the rest were pinned between two enemy fronts.

Koltar turned around to face the son of a bitch that had turned on him, only to see the stone wolf coming at him in full speed. While his vision focused on this direct threat, he saw Corza’s vague image grinning in the background. His muscles tightened, in reaction, when he saw the wolf leap toward him, jaws spread open like some razor-sharp monster from a nightmare. The image of his own soldier being shredded by those jaws flashed through his mind.

No choice, have to evade. There’s no blocking this.

Rolling backward, he pushed his sword horizontally into the wolf’s jaws, while putting his feet on the beast’s belly. Even with the weight of a stone statue, momentum made it easy to throw the wolf off him, in line with its movement. The wolf tumbled across the plateau, as Koltar scrambled to his feet and ducked below his horse to the other side.

In the meantime, Corza focused his attention on the two Darkened who had been behind him, observing everything. Four of Corza’s men engaged them, but two were struck down instantly. The Darkened were almost unparalleled in fighting skill, and Corza’s men were no match for them. Corza smashed his horse into the tumult and slashed off one of the Darkened’s hands, while it was in mid swing.

Koltar jumped back on his horse as he saw the wolf scramble to its feet. It bit a nearby, unlucky soldier in the leg, from agitation. The soldier’s flesh was torn from its bone as the wolf shook its head violently. He quickly scanned the battle and saw the other wolf, circling the wagon where the weapon was being transported.

Those beasts need to be taken care of. I need those scrolls.

He redirected himself toward Corza and launched his horse, full speed.

As Corza turned around, he saw Koltar moving toward him. Recognizing the danger of having both Koltar and the two Darkened still alive, he called the second wolf over to assist with the Darkened. It tore through the group, as the Black Death—knocking Corza’s own men aside—pushed one Darkened to the ground, ripping his head off while being pressed to the ground by the massive forepaws.

Koltar reached Corza’s position just before the Silent Shadow’s head rolled across the ground. The wolf let out a victory howl before picking his next victim. As Corza turned to block his attack, Koltar noticed just how much the march through the White North had taken its toll on Corza. The movement to block was sluggish; but as Corza raised his sword, he threw himself backward in the saddle, dodging Koltar’s incoming attack. His sword did not hit any flesh, but that had not been Koltar’s intention to start with. His sword snagged the side of Corza’s armor and cut the leather strap that secured the pouch with both the wolf scrolls in it.

Over the last view days, Koltar had observed Corza well, noticing how compulsively Corza had kept those scrolls close, at all time. The scrolls had always been important when working with the Ghol’ms; but with those murderous wolves, Corza was near obsessive about keeping the parchments close. They had to be important…he was gambling his life on it.

As the pouch tore, Koltar saw both scrolls sticking out, but they were still clamped under Corza’s armor. Pushing off from his horse, Koltar threw himself toward Corza before he could recover his balance. They both hit the ground, as he saw both scrolls bounce across the rocky surface of the plateau.

“You imbecile, they’ll rampage!” screamed Corza, as he jumped to his feet to retrieve the fallen scrolls.

Koltar kicked his leg out and tackled Corza, who slammed back into the ground with a heavy grunt. Corza’s sword came slashing backward across the air so fast, Koltar barely dodged it. Using the opening, Corza scurried forward to the scrolls.

Both wolves now noticed their lack of a master to obey and were on full rampage. The smaller wolf let out a howl, joined by the deep howl of the larger one. The master’s commands disappeared from their minds and instinct took over. Seeing that one of Koltar’s soldiers was still on his horse, its hunting behavior triggered. Running straight for the horse’s position, the wolf growled loudly. All color disappeared from the riders face, as he turned his horse, bolting away at high speed.

Outrunning the wolf proved impossible, as it overtook the fleeing soldier instantly, jumping full force into the side of the horse, its jaws closing around the soldier’s leg and the horse’s neck in one bite. The force of the attack slammed the trio into the rock wall at the side of the plateau. The panicking soldier screamed out in terror, as he lay trapped under the weight of his horse—one leg pinned and shattered by his horse, the other ripped off by the wolf. The wolf, however, did not pay him any attention, as it was completely concentrated on ripping the horse’s intestines out of its belly.

In that short time, the larger wolf completely devastated the group of soldiers surrounding it. Both Corza’s men and the remaining Darkened were nothing more than a pile of limbs and guts. Pieces of bone and flesh hung from the wolf’s sharp teeth as it regarded Corza and Koltar from a distance. The wolf watched as the two men continued to struggle. Corza slashed backward, to get Koltar off his back, in a desperate attempt to scurry forward and retrieve the scrolls.

Slowly, the wolf moved toward its previous master’s position. For what remained of its normal wolf life—remnants of feeling free, running with the pack—this single person had taken that away from it. In its base form, the wolf felt it; this being was the cause of all this wrongness, and it had to end.

Koltar panted heavily as he turned around and saw Corza head for the scrolls. The large wolf paid him no attention as it began stalking toward Corza. Koltar regarded the devastation the wolf left behind.

Total carnage…

The wolf lowered its head and shoulders, stalking low along the ground. Its tail stretched downward, its ears flattened against its head, as it slowly advanced on Corza.

At that moment, Koltar noticed that Corza could only reach one scroll in time. He jumped to his feet, dashing for the other scroll, which had landed near the edge of the ravine.

As Corza picked up the scroll, he looked up—for the first time—after being floored. The wolf that was ravaging the crushed horse and soldier suddenly raised his head and looked directly at him. Koltar heard him swear, as Corza realized the scroll in his hand belonged to the furthest wolf, instead of the one approaching him from the side. Immediately turning toward Koltar, Corza dashed for the scroll his fellow High General tried to reach.

“They’re mine!” screamed Corza.

Behind him, Koltar heard Corza shouting to the wolf under his command.

“Attack him! Kill Koltar!”

Koltar dove toward the scroll, grasping it as he slid across the ground. The smaller wolf was coming for him at high speed.

Now how do I control it?

“Stop that wolf!” he yelled.

The large wolf instantly came out of its stalk and moved to intercept the smaller wolf. At the same time, Corza jumped Koltar and grabbed for the scroll in his hand.

The wolves collided heavily into each other, less than sixteen feet from where Koltar and Corza were fighting. Koltar felt flying splinters cut his cheek as black stone shattered from the wolves’ skin. The crash made the incorrectly positioned larger wolf tumble sideways, slamming into the men with full force. Koltar made a grasp for Corza’s armor as they rolled across the plateau. He felt his grip slip on the scroll as Corza yanked it from his hands. Trying to recover the scroll, he stretched his arms toward his double-crossing fellow High General. He felt strangely light, trying to reach out…

He saw Corza, hanging from the ledge, but again something was off. It seemed surreal. He could not remember seeing Corza slide over the edge. As the distance grew wider, and more daylight was engulfed by dark rock walls, it dawned on him.

It’s not Corza that has gone over.

Daylight quickly slunk to less than a hair-thin slit as the sounds of the battle was drowned out of his world by an increasing thundering roar.

As Koltar reached the end of his fall, the sound of impact was completely washed away by the deafening roar of the water. A small salamander, clinging to the wall, was the only one that heard his thundering voice rise above the noise of it all, screaming the name of his betrayer…just before he was swallowed whole by the wet darkness…but on that busy cliff, all traces of High General Wayler were long gone.

Raylan held Xi’Lao, checking if she was okay, while keeping an eye on the soldiers. He wondered why she lost her cool like that. She must have known it would provoke them into action while they were clearly outnumbered. While supporting her and dragging her away from danger, all hell broke loose.

He had no idea what was going on, but he recognized an opportunity when he saw it. As the enemy soldiers turned on each other, he dragged Xi’Lao to her feet.

“Move! Get on your horse!” He coerced her with a strong whispering voice.

As he pushed her into the saddle, she slumped forward, still not able to fully straighten up. He grabbed the reins and pulled her horse, while running toward the wagon.

An enemy soldier moved in from his right. It happened so fast that he was unable to position himself between the attacker and the incapacitated Xi’Lao. As the soldier raised his sword to strike, a crossbow bolt pierced his neck. Checking to see where it came from, Raylan saw Stephen through a hole in the canvas. He had been following everything from inside the wagon, peering through the many holes and cracks in the canvas. As soon as he saw Raylan find his eyes, he smiled and stuck up his thumb through one of the other gaps, before quickly reloading the crossbow again.

Kevhin and Rohan both fired their arrows, taking out two of the enemy archers aiming for their group, while the remaining enemy archers were too busy fighting with the enemy’s own forces.

Coming up to the wagon, Raylan yelled toward his brother.

“Gavin! She can’t ride!”

“Switch with me! I’m a better rider than you!” urged his brother.

As Gavin took his place behind Xi’Lao and took the reins, Raylan jumped on the coach box. Richard and Ca’lek were fighting some enemy soldiers near the edge, but the biggest obstacle was still that huge stone wolf. Raylan did not like the look of that thing, at all.

It looks worse than the human rock statue from before.

Kevhin and Rohan shot off another two volleys of arrows, this time at the large wolf who had been guarding the stone arch bridge. With ease, the wolf dodged them all—except for the last one—catching it between its jaws, snapping it like a twig.

Galen and Peadar were using the spare horses as a barrier, encouraging the nervous animals to kick backward at any soldier attempting to approach them.

“Take the wagon across the bridge,” he heard his brother shout. “We need to break through.”

“How? There is no way we are getting past that wolf,” Raylan replied, immediately.

“We’ll have to ram it. The wagon is the only thing that might be heavy enough to break through. We need to make use of this chaos. Now go!” ordered Gavin.

Cracking the reins, Raylan forced the frantic horses into motion. He used all his strength and skill to keep the horses from getting out of control. It seemed futile, as the horses did not dare move any closer to the wolf. Unwilling to let the wagon pass, the wolf began to circle the wagon, scaring the horses away from the stone arc. Raylan drew his sword, following the black nightmare with his eyes. But with one hand off the reins, the horses immediately stopped obeying their master and started pulling away from the unnatural danger. Raylan now had to turn around to keep the wolf in his eyesight.

He’ll come as soon as he’s in my blind spot…