Wendigo Wars (12 page)

“Keep your eyes closed.” The next words came as fast gasping breaths, “...six, five..... smell the lavender .... four, three, feel your body, your toes, your shoulders.... two, one...”

Suddenly there was silence, quickly broken by heavy breathing and a hiss, crackle of fire. The smell of lavender was no longer a memory but a reality and Mathilde felt Violette drop her hand. She opened her eyes to the warm orange and brown of the settlement hospital room. Dash sat by her, paler than ever and looking past exhausted. She let his sweat covered hand slip from hers and left him staring into space as she turned to Violette. Violette lay on the floor on her side, gasping in pain.

“What is it Violette? Where are you hurt?”

“My back,” gasped Violette. “Be better in a moment. Not a real wound. Just a memory from the spirit realm. If we had been there much longer we could have died but we didn’t. It isn’t real here. Now we are back it will heal.”

Mathilde lifted Violette’s shirt to look at her back. Though the shirt was still intact Violette’s back had been sliced open from her neck to her waist. The flesh was gaping almost an inch wide and through it Mathilde could see small white bumps of the bone in Violette’s spine.

“No, it’s real. I need to stitch it up. Where’s the medicine cabinet? Come on this is a hospital room. Where are the things to make you better?”

Mathilde had moved to hold Violette’s face as she spoke, to focus her attention. When she moved to look at the wound again her eyes widened. It was no longer as wide. The wound at the middle of Violette’s spine was now only a centimetre wide and the ends of the wound at Violette’s neck and the base of her back had already knitted together leaving a barely visible silver scar. She continued to watch as the rest of the wound followed suit and sealed itself. Within minutes the silver scar was complete, like a very fine thread of silk. Hardly noticeable at all.

Violette slowly sat up and gave Mathilde a weak smile.

“How did you know?”

“It isn’t my first spirit realm encounter. On my first visit to the spirit realm I wasn’t quite so experienced. There was a gap in my circle.”

Violette held up her sleeve so that Mathilde could see another silk thread scar on her upper arm.

“Nice. A bit tougher than you look aren’t you sis?”

“Can’t say the same for your boyfriend. That one anyway,” said Violette chuckling as she nodded towards Dash.

Dash had made his way towards the bed and was looking like a man tormented.

“I’ve seen all I need to. I will go and talk to Paul and Seb. You stay here. I think Dash would appreciate it.”

Mathilde nodded and hugged Violette before she left. Mathilde dragged the chair to the bed and sat down next to Dash. She hesitated for only a second before reaching out for his hand. It was no longer sweaty and was now powdery soft and warm. He didn’t pull away and when Mathilde gave his hand a squeeze he looked at her with a tired smile.

“Was it tough seeing it all again?”

“Yes. It is over six months since I last saw my parents and Suzanna. They looked so real.”

“What happened? After we left, what happened next?” Mathilde spoke quietly, as if speaking any louder would make it more painful. As if anything could!

“Zhu dragged my father into his throne room at least once a day to discuss his proposition. My father kept refusing to back him in his quest. Each time he would be brought back to the cells where my mother and I were kept with more and more injuries. Then one day he wasn’t brought back. Within a few days my mother was gone too. Gein came to take her away. She didn’t scream or make a fuss. She walked out with her head held high.”

“Are you sure that they are dead?”

“Yes. My father had been gone for what must have been a month when Gein came for me.”

“You are alive.”

“I have spent so long wishing that I wasn’t. This is the first time in a long while that I have had anything worth living or fighting for.”

As Dash squeezed her hand and stared into Mathilde’s eyes she felt a jolt as she realised that she felt the same. She had begun to feel something other than hate, fear and duty. For the first time in her life she felt excited, exhilarated, nervous. She felt that more time with Dash was worth fighting for. For the first time there was something that she cared about enough to fight for.

“But you are alive. Maybe they are too,” said Mathilde. Dash sighed and shook his head.

“They aren’t alive.”

“How can you possibly know? How did you get out?”

“When Gein took me from the cell he took me to the throne room and threw me down in front of Zhu. He was on the throne. He told me that he was going to release me.”

“So he let you go? I thought you escaped”

“No. He let me go. ‘Go and spread the word that the wendigo are coming,’ he said. ‘Tell them that everyone will die. Tell them that their precious King had the chance to save them but was too stupid and weak to take it.’ Then he told Gein to take me back to where he had found me.”

“Why let you go? Why give you the chance to give everyone a warning?”

“It’s the way they work isn’t it? Create fear and paranoia then strike when we are too scared and confused to put up much of a fight.”

“So your parents - how do you know that they aren’t still alive?”

“Because he told me to say goodbye to them. ‘Say goodbye to mother and father before you leave Little Prince’ he said. Gein pulled me around to face the exit of the cavern. There were two tall sticks, propped up in two piles of rocks. On the top of the sticks he had impaled the heads of my parents.”

“Oh,” gasped Mathilde, finally understanding the full brutality of what Dash had been through. “I’m so sorry, how horrible.”

“They died with dignity, for their country, but all dignity is lost when you are dead. Their faces had turned a yellow colour and there were still bruises on their cheeks and foreheads where Zhu must have gripped them. Their tongues were hanging out and their eyes were open. The spike on the stick had gone straight through my mother’s head and poked out of the top. The hair around the stick had been stained red with her blood. I wanted to vomit or scream but Gein picked me up and threw me over his shoulder.”

“And took you to where he had found you?”

“Yes”

“Why didn’t you go back to the monastery? Why come here?”

“I tried to go back there but I couldn’t find my way. I had followed my father in all of our journeys. I hadn’t paid much attention to which way to go and we’d arrived at the monastery from the other side before. I just walked.”

“You must have walked for days. You’re lucky that you didn’t freeze or get attacked.”

“I walked for long periods, until I couldn’t walk anymore. That kept me warm. When I rested I made fires. I expected to be attacked and didn’t care. I wanted to be dead, but I didn’t see a single wendigo. Not one. I suppose that was good.”

Mathilde sat quietly for a moment as she thought through the possibilities.

“I’m glad you got here safely. That we met.”

“But you don’t think that me not being attacked is a good thing.”

Mathilde allowed herself a small smile. He had made a statement rather than asking a question. He seemed to know her so well already. As he spoke his thumb had begun to trace circles on the top of her hand as he held it.

“I don’t know Romania too well, apart from my journey from Suceava to Bucharest I have never been far out of my settlement, but there is quite a distance between the Carpathian Mountains and Bucharest right?”

“Hmm”

“So that would be a lot of possible wendigo attacks.”

“Yes.”

“But you weren’t attacked once. That must mean that the wendigo are gone or that Zhu told them to stay away from you.”

“Well either option is fine by me. But not by you right?”

“Hmm. Well I would love if the wendigo were gone but that isn’t likely. What is more likely is that the wendigo were ordered to stay away and that means that Zhu has some power over a lot more wendigo than you saw in that cavern - maybe hundreds of them.”

“That isn’t good,” said Dash, finally seeming to get what Mathilde was thinking. “If it comes to a war they have more than us.”

“So we ignore them. We keep on living as we do. We train more Protectors and build bigger walls. We have fire around the settlements at all times. It’s the only option we have.”

Dash was silent for a while. He seemed to be fighting a battle in his mind, weighing up his options. When he spoke it was almost a whisper but it was determined.

“I can’t. I have to go back there. I have to try to save Suzanna.”

“Oh!” Mathilde had forgotten that Dash had not said anything about Suzanna and she had assumed her to be dead like his parents. “She’s alive?”

“I don’t know. I didn’t see her after that first day, but there is a chance. I didn’t see her dead. Surely if Zhu had killed her he would have put her head with my mother and father’s to torture me further. Right?”

Dash’s voice and eyes were almost pleading as he stared intently at Mathilde and awaited her reaction. Mathilde didn’t know what to say. She was not as sure as Dash was that Suzanna was still alive, Zhu would have no use for her, but she couldn’t let that last spark of hope die from Dash’s eyes. Already the thought of him in pain seemed to cause her an actual physical pain.

“Maybe, but you can’t save her alone. We need to make plans and get help.”

“Will you talk to the Protectors for me?”

“We can do it together.”

Dash nodded and slowly got off the bed. As they walked out of the room together Mathilde hardly noticed that they were still holding hands until they walked into the training room and Seb gave her a stony glare then turned away from her and back to the Protectors sat around the table. Mathilde quickly let go of Dash’s hand, more because it seemed inappropriate for a Protector Superior to show too much of their personal life than because it might offend Seb. Violette sat among the Protectors and was just finishing her story of what they had seen. After taking a seat it only took Dash and Mathilde a few more minutes to add to the story to the point of Dash arriving at the settlement.

“So what now? Do we build our defenses higher or do we raise an army? What do you think is our best approach Mathilde?”

Paul looked at Mathilde. It had always made her feel uncomfortable when people so much older and more experienced looked to her for advice. It bothered her now more than ever as she knew that what she was going to suggest went against all reason.

“We think that Zhu still has Dash’s sister. He has asked for our help to rescue her.”

There was an explosion of voices; angry, disbelieving, very few were encouraging. Violette and Paul were the only ones to stay quiet. Once the commotion had settled down Seb was the first to speak. “You expect us to risk our lives and those of everyone in this settlement as we run off to rescue a princess who may not even be alive? Every one of us would die and the settlement would be undefended. Why should we?”

“There is no good reason other than to help another human. To help two people in need who are the children of a couple who gave their lives for this country. If we can abandon even one person when there is still hope then what sort of humans are we?”

“You are asking us to put the lives of many at risk for the life of one. You know I will do anything you ask of me Mathilde. You have always known that. But why should these men risk their lives and the lives of their loved ones for your boyfriend?”

Seb spat the last word out with a disgust which betrayed his feelings for Mathilde in a way she could no longer pretend to ignore.

She didn’t know what to say. To begin to discuss whether Dash was her boyfriend at this table and at this moment seemed childish and pointless. She didn’t want to start that argument here. She didn’t even know if he was her boyfriend. There was something between them, something strong, but it seemed too soon, too confusing and too insignificant to formalize at this moment.

Seb hated him and felt strongly for Mathilde, that was clear, but nevertheless his question was a valid one and Mathilde had no answer to give him. It was at that point that Dash spoke up. His voice was low and commanding and everyone around the table sat silently, transfixed by the authority in his voice born of generations of royal lineage.

“There is no reason for you to help me to save my sister and I wouldn’t ask that of you. I love her and will go to find her on my own but you are right. The life of one does not outweigh the lives of many. I should not have let Mathilde ask that of you for me. It is my mistake not hers.”

Everyone at the table seemed to be nodding. It was hard not to want to do whatever Dash asked. To refuse seemed like a treasonous act, but the men and women around the table all had families and had become Protectors to protect them not to save a person that they had never met.

“I am asking you to help me not just because of my sister but because there are others there too - many, many, more people. I need your help to save the others.”

Chapter Fourteen

"What others?" asked Mathilde with surprise. She had thought that Dash had told her all there was to be told.

"You asked me before how Zhu controls the wendigo. Promises of future glories do not mean a great deal to beasts controlled by their urges."

Mathilde nodded and continued to look at Dash as he turned to address the whole table.

"In the caverns there are several chambers guarded by wendigo. The wendigo are chained up, the temptation would just be too much for them to deal with that close up, but their presence is enough to deter any escape attempts.”

“Escape of who?” Seb spat out. “Do you talk in circles just to irritate us? Get to the point.”

Thinking that Seb’s comment was just a result of his jealousy Mathilde looked around the table and was taken aback to see that there were a few people beginning to look restless and irritated.

“My apologies, I do not mean to be annoying. The chambers are full of people; old, young, very young. There are four chambers with around twenty people in each.”