30

X E N O S

➳

“Zack, zack, zack. ”

Cruel as death itself, my sword split the dozen bodies of the dark beings and prepared them a disastrous quick death that made them shriek in agony. My wolf growled in agreement, thirsting for the blood of our enemies, finally wanting revenge for all the sacrifices they had taken from us. And I let his anger and his uncontrollable thirst for blood surface, opened up to him, felt his fur already on my neck and moved even harder and faster. I slaughtered one warrior after another, running down the hall like those demons were nothing more than disgusting vermin.

I was already seeing the bluish-silver light at the end of the tunnel when suddenly someone came out of a hidden passage and blocked my way. But it wasn't just anyone.

I stopped abruptly. "What are you doing here?"

“I don't have time to explain it to you. Come on.” With that, he waved me over and disappeared around the corner.

"Wait." I hurried after him, cursing. "Where are you taking me? I have no time to lose.” Three minutes. We only had three minutes before we were supposed to get to the cells, otherwise our whole plan would fail.

He looked up at me as I grabbed his arm and stopped him from walking.

“You must trust me, Xenos. Do you trust me?"

"Naturally."

"Come on then." Now he ran down the aisle. "Fast."

"Damn it!" I ran after him, growling, my mind rattling. What was he doing here? He shouldn't be here. How did he even get here? But before I could ask him any of these questions, he stopped in front of a heavy, thick iron-hinged door, opened it, and just as I had a chance to peek inside, something heavy, hard banged against my head. My vision blurred along with the infernal agony pulsing through my skull. I felt the damp, rough stone floor slam beneath my body as hands moved across my body, opening my mouth and a cool, thick liquid trickled down my throat. Then everything was black.

➳

A R Y A

➳

It was a gallery. Thousands and thousands of sticks reaching up to the sky and stacked on top of each other. And on each floor there was cell after cell. I couldn't tell how many floors the cages were occupied on, but from what I could see there were a lot “- a lot”. I clung to the steel railing and bent over the parapet just enough to look down. But I saw neither Xenos nor Aramis. Where were you? Did I count wrong?

"Up here," came a muffled voice.

I craned my neck and looked up, squinting against the moonlight that shone through the circular cratered opening in the rock ceiling and illuminated the gallery. Aramis leaned against the parapet like me, then untied the thick, sturdy rope that was wrapped around his torso and threw it down at me.

"Is Xenos with you?" I asked as I grabbed the rope and climbed up.

Aramis accelerated the process by pulling me up towards him. "No."

I jumped over the railing and looked around the encircling corridor of his cane.

"I'm sure he'll be there any minute." He wrapped the rope around him and looped it back over his back. "Let's hurry."

He was right. Xenos was a werewolf, a soldier, he was probably just late. I pushed aside the uneasy feeling in my stomach and followed Aramis to the cells.

He cursed. "Silver!" he hissed, letting go of the bars as his skin glowed. "That snake must have thought of everything, too," he grumbled annoyed, but then stuck a pin in the lock and fiddled with the clasp with skillful, quick movements.

Meanwhile, I unslung my bow, nocked an arrow, and set about my task of covering Aramis's back and shooting any demon that darted out of the corridors before they could raise the alarm.

With soft steps I approached the parapet so that I had an overview of the entire gallery, as well as all cave entrances, leading to the cells, while I kept counting down the seconds and wondered where Xenos was.

The planned distraction of Reah, Beau, and Arrow wouldn't create enough of a stir for much longer to keep the rest of the demons away from us, and Echinda would get wind of us. If we weren't fast enough, this entire burglary could get bloody.

More seconds passed. “Where was Xenos?!”

A quick glance at Aramis, who was still busy with the lock, when something else caught my attention. I had tried to ignore the prisoners in the cages, but as I walked past the line of cells, I saw someone who shouldn't be in here.

"Rowtag?" I ran the last few steps to his cell. My heart was in my mouth when I found my childhood friend crouched on the floor. His hair was tied in a bun as usual and he was wearing his beloved leather vest. I clutched the bars and the cold steel crept into my bones. "Rowtag, is it you?"

His head came up and he froze. "“Rya?”"

I gasped. "What happened?" I asked, slightly hysterical, slipping my bow over my back and then rattling the lock.

Rowtag tried to get up, but he fell back to the ground. His leg was injured. "Arya, get me out of here!" His eyes were wide and haunted. "Please, you have to free me here."

My pulse was racing. "I'll get you out of here, I promise." Shaking, I tried again to pick the lock with nothing but my hands. “But first we have to figure out how to open this. Do you know how it goes?”

"No." Rowtag shook his head and was crawling toward me when the cell door flew open.

"“As in Gaia's will...?"“ I stared at the open lock, taken by surprise, but didn't have enough time to think about it any further as I heard a rattle of pain. Without waiting any longer, I rushed to him in the cage. The rough rocky ground ripped open my tight black cloth pants and burned my skin as I slid over them.

I shakily wiped away the sweaty strands of hair that had come loose from its bun and were now clinging to his face. "Come on up." I grabbed his arms and tried to hoist him onto me, but man, since when was Rowtag this heavy? I could see his ribs peeking out from under his leather vest in the bluish light, and although he looked emaciated, it was like trying to drag a giant out of the cell.

Panting, I had just put my hand on his hip to better balance his weight on me when three things happened at once. Rowtag darted out of my grasp, unsheathed my sword, and then shoved me backwards with such force that I smashed brutally into the stone wall. My head banged hard against the cold, wet rock and I groaned. My hands gripped my skull to finally stop spinning and the intense pain that was ripping through my brain like a blade passed. But it wasn't that easy and I had to blink away the dull veil of suffering to get a good look at Rowtag.

He had just got up and closed the gate. “click” it had done as the lock clicked. He locked me up.

➳

E C H I N D A

➳

"NOOO!" cried Echinda, smashing all the goblets off the altar in one fell swoop. "Why isn't it working?!"

“"Keep calm, Saehva."“

"Shut your stupid mouth and shut up!" she snapped at her son, then turned to face the real problem. There he lay, the notorious, powerful Werewolf King. “How disappointing” - blindly followed his packmates without being suspicious. What kind of alpha was that?

She slammed her hand on the stone slab. "How can he rebel against me, that must not be possible!" Her blood ran through his body, it should already be flowing through his veins, spreading like corrosive acid, but he stopped it. And she couldn't grab his soul.

“”One cannot claim a soul that is already attached to someone else.” “

"No. The marking is not yet complete, their bond is not yet as strong as that of the Lycan and his wife.” At the same time, as she said it, she tested her assumption. “Aee”, the king had a bond, but it was no more than a single thread that she should have been able to cut, yet it remained as strong as a pillar of steel.

Her son thought silently. “”He must have already given her his soul.”“

"You mean she's the only one holding back?" Echinda eyed the man at her feet. She couldn't understand how you gave someone your soul willingly. She thought for a moment. This tape was in the way, it had to go. "So if we weaken the bond and he changes his feelings towards her, then that thread might be weak enough to control him."

“"Should work."“ Echinda's son telepathized to her.

"At first I'll probably only be able to control his unconscious thought processes until I have access to his conscious thought pattern."

His reddish hackles gleamed in the moonlight filtering through the large, round cavernous opening behind him. “”Then come the feelings and actions. Until..."“

She smiled drunkenly. "Until I finally possess his soul, “aee”."

“"But how do you want to manage that?"“

Echinda crouched down to the werewolf and pushed his hair back from his face. 'Doubt, my darling. We cast doubt.” She had access to all his memories, knew the king's deepest wounds.

Then she straightened up and turned to her son. "See that everything goes according to plan, “Dijun”."

"“Aee”,” Saehva”."

Her son dragged the werewolf into the passage as she wound her way across the room and slithered in front of the cave mouth. Now that it was night and the big, ugly sun was no longer in the sky, she could look at the pine forest stretching out before her without hesitation, without fear that she would burn the golden sphere. The light night breeze blew over her scaly skin and she shuddered comfortably.

Her plan had worked so far. And once the tape began to flicker, nothing would stop them.

➳