The Dark of Twilight (Twilight Shifters Book 1) (6 page)

"Did you taste the mushrooms?" he asked, looking up at her.

"I did!" she replied, not wanting to say more.

"Good," he stated, going back to his wine and motioning to the leftovers.  "Help yourself to more."

She looked around the quiet kitchen.  Everyone was gone.  The next courses were not even prepared.  "Is there nothing to be done?" she asked.

He shook his head.  "The worst is over.  The rest can wait."

"But the dessert..." she pointed out.

Cook Bolstad waved his hand.  "It can wait.  Have a glass with me.  Eat.  Let me just enjoy these few moments of calm.  Soon the sun will set and from there on out, it will be nothing but chaos.  So sit.  Stay with me."

She smiled and went over to help herself to the scraps lying around.  It was these interludes with Cook Bolstad that were some of her happiest times.  The world ceased to exist.  There was no swamp, no missing friend, no hollow reveling.  Just her and the man who had raised her and the quiet of his own little kingdom.

S
he was lifting the spoon to her lips when the noises began.  She looked over at Cook Bolstad.  He had fallen asleep, his empty glass tipped in his lap.  Aein shook him and he woke with a jolt.  There was fear in his eyes as he heard what she heard.

"Find someplace safe," she said.

He nodded and headed for the larder.  She heard him pushing the things inside against the door.  She ran for the stairs.  The cries.  The screams of terror and panic.  She raced up the steps.  The sight which greeted her was worse than anything she had ever seen before.

Wolves.  There were wolves all over the grand hall.  They were larger than any beast in the wild lands.  They were attacking the party members.  Blood was everywhere.  People were being ripped apart.  Lord Arnkell was standing on his throne, fending off one such a creature.  His bride was nowhere in sight.  How did these wolves even get in? 

Her heart pounded as the stampede of people came at her, followed by a horde of the monsters.  There were hundreds of the wild dogs, snarling and vicious.  They were unrelenting.  It was as if they would only stop to kill. 

Aein reached for her sword and then remembered it was stowed in her barracks.  No one would bring weapons to a wedding feast.  There was nothing she could do to protect anyone. If only she could get a weapon. 

She turned and ran out of the great hall into the courtyard.  There were warriors scattered throughout, trying to take down these animals.  She watched as they stabbed the creatures again and again.  The wolves retreated, but they did not die.

She ran up stone staircase to the barracks.  Though dark had come to the stronghold, no one had lit the candles.  She noted as she ran past a window that a full moon was on the rise.  She ran faster as the sounds of screams followed her down the empty hall.  She reached her footlocker and grabbed her sword, grabbed her quiver and arrows.  She ran back where she had a clear view of the carnage.  The slaughter was as far as the eye could see.  Scarlet screams wherever her eyes rested.  Her hand shaking, she took aim at the animals attacking her people.  She tried to calm herself, though the adrenaline pounded through her veins.  She let three arrows fly.  They all struck true, but they had no effect.

"Save your arrows!" said a low voice.  "They'll not do you any good."

She turned around to find Finn guiding a group of twenty people into the room.

"I need to get these people to safety," he said, herding them as fast as he could into the barracks.  He was clutching his arm.  The blood dripped from his fingers.  "Some place with a single, strong door.  The wolves are everywhere."

Aein pointed towards the back of the room.  "Keep going," she said.  "Out the back and up the stairs.  There is a chapel.  It should hold."

She turned back towards the open arch, preparing herself for whatever might enter the room next.

"Are you coming?" Finn asked.

She shook her head, squaring her feet and gripping her sword firmly.  "I shall buy you time."

"Don't be daft," he replied, grabbing her arm and pulling her along.  "Protect us from the rear.  Don't give up your life making a stand in an empty room."

"But—" she started.

"That's an order," he commanded and then ran in front to lead the group onwards.

Aein swore under her breath and then ran to catch up, keeping her eyes open for whatever might try to follow.

It was then she heard the sound.  It was like the sound in the fog.  It was a snarling, panting, snapping sound.  It was like she was back in the swamp.

It was coming.  Whatever it was that had killed their men in the swamp, whatever it was that Lars had sent her to tell the stronghold about, it had arrived.  It was here.  It was these wolves.  The hair lifted from the nape of her neck.

"Run!" she shouted ahead.

The wolf turned the corner and stepped into the long, empty barrack room.  It saw her, fixated on her with his piercing yellow eyes.  A growl emerged from its throat as he slowly stalked towards her.  She scrambled up the steps, trying not to turn her back on him, even as her feet missed the steps and slid and fell.  Now the wolf was running.  He would be upon her at any minute.  Just then, someone grabbed her arm and hauled her up and into a room.  The heavy wooden door slammed shut just as the wolf hit it.  The door buckled against its hinges, but held.

Tears were running down her face.  Her body was shaking.  She felt someone take the sword from her hands.  She could not get her hands to stop trembling.  She could not get her heart to stop pounding.  It felt as if the wolf did not kill her, her body might.

"This was your first time facing an enemy not on a training field?"

She looked over.  It was Finn.  He stroked her blonde hair, trying to get her to realize where she was and that despite the sound on the other side, that she was alive.

"You were brave," he said.  And he meant it.

"It would have killed me if you hadn't been there," she said, her voice trembling.

"I need you to be even more brave," he continued.  "There are frightened people here with no training and I need you to show them they are going to survive.  I need you to be strong for them."

She nodded again and swallowed down the fear tearing through her body.  They had made it into the chapel.  There was only one door out and in.  They were safe.  She was safe.  Finn pointed at the pews.  "I am injured.  Can you get them to block the door?"

She wiped her sweaty hands on her fancy green pants.

"Quickly," he said.  "There will be more wolves coming."

She motioned to two of the older men.  "You.  Grab an end.  You.  Grab the other end.  Move the pews now!"

Having something to do seemed to calm everyone.  A woman offered Finn her jacket and helped him to bind his arm.  Aein looked over as he pulled up his shirt.  His skin was punctured by a bite mark wider than her stretched hand.

Finn found a match and lit the tall tapers on the altar.  Just having something to chase away the darkness, even as the wolf's claws tore at the oak door, helped.  The flat, painted faces of the gods looked impassively down upon them from the ceiling.  Their eyes were blank.

"What happened?" asked Aein.

Finn looked out the window.  "You weren’t there?" he asked.

Aein shook her head.  "I was downstairs.   I left after we talked and went... it doesn't matter. How did these creatures get into the stronghold?"

"These aren't creatures," he said.  "They are people."

The word felt like a slap to her face.  Was he joking?  She turned and looked at the ones he had saved.  None of them were denying him.  Some were even nodding.

"We were eating supper.  There was nothing to prepare us.  But people began writhing as if they were possessed.  I was sure they were going to die.  But then... they transformed.  They transformed into these monsters.  There was no pattern.  Your people.  My people.  Some sort of spell took hold and turned them into this."

Aein could not believe her ears.  She shook her head in disbelief.

"I don't believe you," she replied.  "People don't just turn into—"

Her words were cut off as the wolf threw himself against the door again. 

"It is true," he said.  "Every word of it."  His face hung slack.  "My own sworn brothers and sisters.  Fighters I have stood in battle next to all my life."

"How?" asked Aein, her mind still not able to grasp what Finn was saying.  "How?"

"I don't know," he replied.

Her mind was swimming.  There was no way he was telling the truth.  She looked down at his hands, stained with blood, at the massive wound in his arm which still wept.  She prayed to the gods that it was not true.

A
s the night wore on, the sounds of the screams slowed.  The cries of the wounded faded as they succumbed to eternal rest.

Gods be with them, Aein whispered silently.

She looked over at Finn.  The bleeding of his arm had stopped and now he was dozing fitfully on and off.  He suffered so much blood loss.  If they were free to roam, she would have brought him immediately to the herbalist for healing.  Now it was anyone's guess if he would be spared or if it would fester.

She had seen dogs go mad before.  There was some sickness which made them foam at the mouth and attack anything in sight.  To be bitten meant you had the disease.

She looked over at Finn.

But these wolves were unlike anything she had ever seen.  So strong.  So powerful.  And she had heard them before, she had seen what they did before.  If only Lord Arnkell had listened to her, she thought.  It had to be the same creatures that attacked the guards in the swamp.  But people?  She could not believe they were people.  How did they get here?  How had they followed her home?  Could it be that the fog traveled the east road and was now driving everyone mad?

Finn stirred and his eyes slowly opened.  He was not doing well.  She could tell.

"The wolves seem to have stopped," she said.  "I should go and see if it is safe."

"We cannot leave these people unprotected," he replied, shifting uncomfortably.  There was a sheen of sweat across his face.  The fever was already beginning, Aein thought to herself.

"Lord Arnkell may be out there unprotected," Aein replied, hoping if he would just let her leave, she could come back with something to help him.  "Your own Princess Gisla may be injured somewhere, waiting for someone to come and save her.  We have a duty."

Finn shook his head wearily.  "No.  They are strong.  It is a task for someone else now, not for us."

"I took an oath to protect my Lord Protector," said Aein, trying to insist with some authority.

Finn did not speak for a long time.  Finally, he said, "We may be the only survivors..."

Aein felt a coldness run through her veins, a chilling foreboding.  "Take that back."

"We do not know," said Finn.  "We were taken by surprise.  You saw the carnage.  You know that whether others escaped or not, there are still the wolves out there.  We must look after those who are alive."

Aein tasted the bitter truth of his words.  She did not want to swallow them.  She did not want to admit they might be true. The room already stank of feces and piss and fear.  They would not survive long if they stayed. "I will go out at dawn," she replied, "to find food for these people.  You stay here.  I shall go alone."

"Do not be difficult," replied Finn, leaning against the wall in exhaustion.  "I would never allow you to go out into a fight without someone there by your side."

She sat down beside him, allowing her arm to almost touch his in case he needed someone to lean against.  "You would be a liability," replied Aein.  "You would do nothing but slow me down."

Finn laughed.  It was joyless and without mirth.  "I knew there was something wrong with this wedding..."

Aein wiped her face and found herself chuckling, too.  "You know, I may have prayed once or twice that Lord Arnkell would not wed."

"Really?" he asked.  He did not have the strength to lift his head, but he turned it with interest.

Aein nodded.  "I hoped that any marriage might be a disaster.  I'm afraid I fancied Lord Arnkell for a while."

"Bah.  You could do better," he said, bumping his shoulder against hers.

"But here it is!  My prayers have been answered by the gods!"

"Since you have this special connection, would you mind asking the gods to help us survive this mess?"

Aein looked out the window ruefully.  She knew it would take much more than prayers.  False dawn had begun and she could not even imagine what horrors the rest of the day would hold.

Suddenly, there was the sound of a human voice calling from the courtyard below.  "Hello?" they called.  "Is anyone there?  Oh gods... oh gods..."  And then there was a voice in the hallway which cried, "Where is everyone?"

Aein looked over at Finn in confusion.  The both scrambled to their feet.  Aein turned to the others.  "Help me move these pews away from the door!"

It was clear in a matter of moments.  Aein looked over at Finn for permission and he nodded.  She drew back the heavy plank barring the door and opened it.

In the hallway were three confused people.

"Princess Gisla!" Aein shouted, throwing the door open.

The princess stood six feet away.  She still wore her clothes from the wedding battle.  Her hair and skin were as perfect and lovely as the day before.  The other two people showed no sign that just moments before they had been chased down by wolves.  In fact, the wolves were nowhere to be seen.  Aein looked back at the window.  The sun was just beginning to rise.  It had not yet stolen over the horizon, but the sky was still lit with its false rays.  Were they people... or was Finn right?  Were they something else?  Had the sun changed them back?

Aein realized it did not matter.  "You are safe!" Aein said, coming out into the hallway towards her.

Finn stepped forward, too. Aein did not know who looked more relieved to see the other - Finn or Princess Gisla.

The princess bit her lip nervously.  "What happened?"