Page 19 of Ravaging Red
They stood lounging on bone benches; trading clubs carved from demon femurs.Their tattoos glowed faintly in the dark, a spiral of runes around massive arms, each a seal of their purpose. I approached an Ogre with yellowed horns and scarred skin. He grunted at me in acknowledgement, and I handed him a red scale coin.
“The Blood Moon wanes above the realm,” I spoke in his tongue. “What does that mean to you?”
He sneered, Grog dripping from his tusks. “The Old Ones speak of it. A warning to all that dwell in the Hollow Realm. They speak of a new dawn, for our kind, not the humans!”
The Ogres around him hollered in triumph, always loud. Always seeking chaos and war.
“What of its pull on us?” I pressed. “What do we do about that?”
He spat on the cobblestones near my paws. “Humans wandering here are to be lured out. Never touched. Never claimed. They are not to see us.” He eyed me. “But the Blood Moon… it brings out the worst inallof us, doesn’t it? Old instincts. Why do you ask, warrior? Is your rod suffering?”
He glanced down between my legs, and I bent down to grip him by the throat. “That is none of your concern.”
He grunted again, signaling to the Ogres around us that he was fine. “You are a Veilkeeper.” He spoke in Old English, and it surprised me. Only the most elite in the realm knew the language. Unless he too, was a Veilbound.
“I am a Wolf,” I corrected. “And I seek answers.”
“We all seek answers,” he grunted. “All we know is that they are rushing to close the barriers.”
“That’s impossible,” I stated.
“That’s what has been proclaimed by the Old Ones.”
“Well, they don’t know what they’re talking about, and neither do you.” I snarled angrily.
“Take it up with the witches then. I have nothing more to say to aVeilbound,” he spat the word out as if it disgusted him.
Him. A brute Ogre.
Then again, I disgusted many, yet few who knew who I really was.
“You too are one, aren't you?”
He looked up, giving me a hard stare. “I am an Ogre.”
I glanced down at his cloth and a familiar crest glinted at me beneath his armor. “Veilbound or not. That crest gives you away Ogre.”
He stood and a few of the Ogres around us stopped their conversation.
“I at least have a pack, where is yours?” He snarled, making it clear that he had back up.
I simply gave him a smile, filled with warning. “I killed the last Alpha who overstepped his place. I've killed others for a lot less.”
He paused, giving me a hard stare. “You are Rael.“
“I am no one to you,” I snarled, taking one step forward, forcing him to sit back down.
“The Blood Moon calls out to us, those of noble blood. I don't know why, but what I've told you is true. Be careful of that pull, it will ruin you as it has me.”
I stared down at him for a minute, but we were then interrupted by a female scream in the distance, followed by a chuckle from the Ogres. We glanced at one another, but not another word was spoken between us as I turned and left, continuing on my path deeper into town.
The Market square lay ahead and in the center of it, a gothic amphitheater made of stone and iron. Its platforms were carved with webbed insignias of the Old Ones. Tonight, a crowd had gathered on dark benches, circling a wooden stage draped in blood-soaked banners. Creatures of every shape and shade murmured in the gloom.
I ascended the stone steps, pressing through the crowd, until I could see the face of the speaker. It was an elder witch, pale as bone, with long silver hair and eyes that were as black as midnight. She raised a black, carved staff, topped with sharp claws. Waving her hand around in front of her, the tips of herfingers also tainted black, announcing she was prolific in her magic.
“Tonight,” she rasped, voice echoing, “the Blood Moon bursts over us. It signals an omen. The Old Ones are speaking. We have heard their message.”
They all waited silently for her to continue.
