The Dark of Twilight (Twilight Shifters Book 1) (3 page)

She picked one on the opposite side of the pit.  She opened up the door.  There was a roped bed frame.  No rocks, no crawling insects.  Just a few heavy blankets, Aein thought, and it would feel better than a feather bed.

She stepped out and began taking off her horse's halter and saddle.  Lars already had the supply wagon resting tidily to one side.  The fog, for whatever reason, pooled around this hill, but it did not venture into their campsite.

"That is so weird," she said, pointing at the gray.

"It's got a mind of its own," said Lars ruefully.

"Maybe Johan and Whalter would prefer to stay and we can head back to the stronghold?" Aein suggested hopefully.

Lars was so tired, he did not even bother to respond.

As the fog continued to swirl around the hill, she thought to herself,
Not a chance
.

T
he evening wore on, but for the first time since their journey began, their conversation was stilted.  Every shadow in the swamp beyond their hill seemed to hold some sort of menace.  The summer sun was still over the horizon when Lars turned to Aein and said, "Sleep while you can.  It is going to be a long night."  He looked out into the fog.  "I may need to wake you before your shift."

She nodded in understanding, feeling that same tension in the air.  There was something out there.  "I could stay awake with you," she offered.

But Lars turned her down.  "One of us needs to be rested."

She let him win this one time.  She climbed into her little bed in her little shack, barred the door, and closed her eyes.  It seemed one minute she was awake, and then the next it was morning and she was waking up.  Her heart was pounding.  Panic overwhelmed her.  Had she heard something or was it just a dream?  She leapt out of her bed and pushed the wooden door open a crack.  The fog had rolled in and the campfire was dead.  The entire world was nothing but grey mist in the morning light.

"Lars?" she called.  There was no response.  "Lars?" she called again. 

"AEIN!" he called.  "Where are you?"

"HERE!" she cried back.

She heard splashing and then his silhouette stepped through the grey and into her sight.  He looked dirty and tired and exhausted.  He fell to the ground and rolled onto his back.  He was still wearing his chainmail and armor from the night before.

"Why didn't you wake me?" she asked, running over to him and kneeling by his side.

He waved her off.  He pointed at the campfire.  "The fog came in with the twilight and smothered the fire.  I couldn't see anything.  I called and called, but the fog ate all the sound."

She felt her throat tighten.  "I was only steps away."

He looked at her.  "I tried to get to the shacks, but the fog... it twisted everything around.  I crawled on the ground, trying to find you, but..."

"...the fog," Aein finished for him.  "It did not wish you to find me."

He ran his hand over his eyes.  "Twenty-nine more days of this," said Lars.  "Just twenty-nine more days and we get to go home."

Aein couldn't believe how stupid she was to ever have looked at this as an adventure.  Though the fog was backing away now, she wanted to scream at it, yell at it.

"And you've already done this twice this year," she said.

He nodded.  He didn't need to say anything more.

"I'll cook us some breakfast while you rest," she told him, forcing a cheerful tone into her voice.  "Something warm and wonderful that will remind us of the stronghold."

He squeezed her hand and then stood, shuffling over to the shack.  "Keep on the lookout for Johan and Whalter," he said.  "Sometimes your days get mixed up here on the border, but they should be here."

Aein pulled a pan out of the wagon and dug around for anything to dress up their meal besides hardtack and cheese.  It was then the fog parted and Aein saw the body. 

The shape was lying on the ground, twisted unnaturally.

The pan fell out of her hand.

It was Johan.  Only not Johan.  There was someone else's head beside him.  Whalter.  Their two patrols, the ones they were supposed to relieve.  The two men that were supposed to be going home.  Only, they had already gone home.  Their throats had been ripped out.  Body parts were not attached to where they should be.

Lars called from across the campground.  "Aein?"

She was unable to make a sound.  Her lips were unable to form the words.  There was dried blood all over the ground.  It looked like they had tried to climb into the cart Aein and Lars had pulled just yesterday.  There was a handprint on the wood.

"Oh gods," Aein whispered.  "Oh gods!"

Lars was suddenly beside her.  His sunburned face paled as shock washed over him.  "Pull yourself together," he said, but she knew the command was directed at himself even more than it was directed at her.

Aein's mind reeled.  Johan and Whalter had tried to come to the campground last night.  They had touched the wagon.  What animal had the fog been hiding?  How close had Lars come to death as he wandered lost in the swamp?  How close had she come to death as she lay asleep in the shack?  What other horrors were in the fog? 

Lars crouched down for a closer look at their wounds.  "They were attacked by some animal," said Lars.  "They must have come out hunting and ran into a swamp bear or a... wild boar... or... something."

Aein did not know how to tell what sort of an animal could create the gashes they were looking at, but she knew it was not a bear or a boar.  Children were told stories of the creatures in this swamp.  There had been one, a real one, in their camp.  It had ended these two men.  The stories were true.

"Oh gods," she whispered again.

Lars rose and began unloading the cart.  He started dividing up all the goods, placing Aein's belongings and his belongings in separate piles.

"What are you doing?" she asked.

"They were loyal subjects of the Lord Protector.  We must build a pyre and give them  proper respects before any other animals smell them.  And then you must return to the stronghold to tell their families and ask Lord Arnkell to send reinforcements," he informed her with cold practicality.

"I think you mean that 'we' need to return home to tell their families," she clarified.

"I know what I said."

She shook her head, dismissing him.  "I can't leave you here alone.  Look at them!  Two men, here together, couldn't fend off these beasts.  How the hell do you think you're going to be okay just..."  She couldn't finish the sentence.  The sight which filled her eyes would not allow her.

"Are you going to help me move them?" asked Lars, pretending as if he hadn't even heard her protests.

Aein came over and grabbed the leg and stump of one of the men.  She tried not to gag.  His body was still warm.  The blood was still relatively fresh.  She thought back to the moment when she woke in a panic. She had not had a single dream the entire night, had not heard a single sound, but had woken with the sun knowing something was wrong.  Was that when it happened?  Was the creature still near?

"Please come with me," she begged.

"I cannot," said Lars.

"Yes, yes, you can."

Lars and Aein dropped the body with as much dignity as they could muster beside the fire.

"You're right.  It was just wild animals," said Aein, trying to convince herself as much as Lars.  "It is not worth splitting up.  It was just animals and you and I should remain at our post until our month is up.  We will tell their families when we return." 

Lars wiped his forehead, leaving a streak of red across his pink and freckled face.  "You know it wasn't animals, Aein."  He walked over to the next body and she followed after.  "These... The jaws which created these bites... they are..."  He stopped himself.  "This is how it starts.  It is how everything on the boundary starts.  I need you to go to the stronghold and let Lord Arnkell know."

Tears pricked in her eyes, the shock fading into anger and frustration.  "Well, if you think there is some sort of imminent threat, I can't very well leave you here by yourself to face it alone."  She looked up at him, this man who had become her friend, this man whom she might never see again.

"Aein, I am the senior officer."

"Then... you go and I'll stay," she said, trying to get him to understand the ridiculousness of him insisting upon staying alone.  Perhaps if he thought about what a bad idea it would be to leave her here all alone, he would rethink. But it did not work.

"You would be dead within the hour."  He picked up the next body, keeping himself focused on the task.  Aein grabbed the end of the torso.  They would have to come back for the legs.  "I have been here on the border many times before.  I can hold it until you get back with reinforcements."

"That will be at least a month," she said.

Lars's jaw tensed and released.  His eyes became distant.  Aein knew he was thinking of what it meant to spend all that time on the border alone.  It wasn't enough, though.  He shook his head and said, "I have to stay."

"What can one person do against creatures like this?" she argued as they put the body down.  The evidence of what fate awaited him was right in front of them.

"I promise I will stay here in the camp.  I won't go wandering around into the sections of the swamp where a person is liable to get hurt."

"But how can you even imagine that I am going to be safe traveling by myself back to the castle?  I'm liable to get lost the moment the first fog rolls in."

"Just give your horse his head.  He'll see you back."

"I can't do this, Lars."

He took her face in his hands, willing her to understand.  "I cannot leave this post.  Someone always has to be here. It is why they send two of us.  In case something happens.  Something like this."

"But what if something happens to you..."

"Nothing is going to happen to me."  He swept back a piece of her hair and gathered her up to comfort her.  But he was firm as he whispered in her ear, "Trust me, Aein."

His embrace, though, told a different story.  He knew as well as she that they would never see each other again.

S
he mounted her horse.  Perhaps without a cart to pull, perhaps with only one rider to worry about, she could go faster than they had on their way here.

She paused for just a moment to look back at Lars.  He lifted a single hand in farewell, his red hair shining as the pale fog passed between them and cut them off.

She wondered how on all the gods' earth she could be fast enough to get back to save him.

And that was when she heard the creature. 

She heard his mighty paws upon the earth.  She heard his snaps and snarls.  She spurred her horse down the planked road, but it was right behind her.  She peered into the grey mist, looking for him.  She took her bow and arrow and fired where she thought she heard the sound.  There was no indication she hit anything.  At least she was leading him away from Lars, she told herself.  And that was when she heard the cries of the men and she knew what was going on.  She slowed her horse to a walk. 

It was the fog. 

It had captured all the sounds from the night before and decided to play them for her so she would know what she abandoned Lars to face.  She heard the cries of the men who died, the echoes of the animal killing them.  She heard all of their last moments, and then the fog began to play the sounds again.  She spurred her horse into a faster gait, trying to keep herself calm. 

Lars would have at least a month with the fog before reinforcements could arrive.

She pushed her horse to go even faster.

The swamp slowly faded to drier land.  The trees with their dripping moss changed to trees with their summer fruit.  And then the trees changed to the pines and evergreens and she knew she was getting close.  She pushed her horse as much as she could without causing him to drop.  It would do no good to kill him.  But she cut the time in half, arriving at the stronghold in one week instead of two.

She hoped it would be fast enough.

The watch at the barbican was quick to admit her in.  Word had obviously gotten around that she was headed for the border.  For her to be back so soon was enough to cause anyone who knew of the eastlands worry.  She leapt off her horse without a word of explanation to anyone and made straight to the petition room.

She was admitted into Lord Arnkell's presence almost immediately upon arrival.  He wore a tunic of green velvet and a band of yellow-painted iron around his head.  He was sitting on his carved wooden throne.  Several advisors stood beside him in hushed conversation, which stopped the moment she strode into the room.

Despite the heavy news she carried, her traitorous heart still skipped a beat being in the same room with Lord Arnkell.  It was the draw of him.  There was some aura, some attraction, which made a person want to yield their power.  Was the yearning love? Or just relief that finally there was someone strong enough to take this burden from her?

She bent down on one knee before him.

"Arise," he said, with a motion of his hand.  His square jaw twitched beneath his stubble.  "I received word from my lookouts you returned."

She stood.  Their eyes connected, his light brown eyes to her dark ones.

"I come bearing terrible news," she said.

He sat forward in his throne as the entire room fell to absolute quiet.  "Proceed."

"We arrived at the rendezvous point to discover the guards Johan and Whalter were dead.  They were brutally killed by some sort of animal."

There was a murmur of shock that sped around the court.

Lord Arnkell silenced them with a single motion of his gloved hand.  "We shall send our deepest sympathies to their families, but animal attacks are not unheard of and certainly not cause for one of my warriors to leave her post."

She wished Lars was here to explain it.  "It was Lars's command, my lord.  He stated the animal bites were unlike anything he had ever seen before.  He stated he needs further reinforcements... that the border needs further reinforcements.  He says that this is how it always begins when trouble crosses over.  That we must prepare."