Page 34 of Through Battle and Blades (The Wolf Queen 2)

The strength of my arm, somehow the muscles moving harder, faster, to hack into the Reavers, strengthening rather than tiring. The sway of my body, moving to some unseen savage beat as I dodged attacks and replied with my own. The shift of my feet, shuffling, shuffling, never still, because that provided the enemy with a static target. I danced around them as the beasts lumbered about, getting up and under their guards, stabbing into their weak spots before jerking away as their bodies toppled on the ground. And when I did, they did too.

The Maidens, the dance they had taught me back at the temple, this was what it was about. We moved as one, the pack of us, performing the steps, dancing around our foes, then ripping the throats out of them for daring to stand against us. Strike for strike, blood for blood, we cut a bloody swathe through the Reavers closest to us and that’s when I caught Gael staring.

He looked at me like I was a goddess and utterly alien, all at the same time. I found my place by his side, snarling when a Reaver threatened to take my mate by surprise, dispatching the beast before he could lay a claw on him.

I watched the Reaver land like a sack of spuds on the ground, his lifeless eyes staring up into mine.

Now you understand me, that eldritch voice said inside my head. And you won’t find me as gentle as my daughters. I looked across to Pepin who dispatched her foe with a slice of her daggers, then stared at me as the blades dripped. But you’re not the only potential vessel I have. My head jerked up at the sound of a raven’s call and that’s when I saw him.

He was the face of this savage horde. Where all around him, the rest of his men wore the face of a wolf, he just wore the skin of one. Tanned grey fur made up a ragged cloak, but his black leather armour was well made and fitted him well. He smiled when I caught sight of him, something that had my guts turning when I did. But as he nodded to me, he held out a hand and with a flutter a familiar looking bird alighted.

She was a raven, but not the raven I’d seen so often in my dreams. The feathers at her crown possessed a golden sheen, one that shifted every time she moved, making the similarity apparent, but her skull was firmly situated below her feathers. And he, this… thing, he scratched the bird under her formidable beak while death and destruction rampaged around him, like a lady might her lapdog. Screams didn’t affect him, nor did his men falling at his feet, their claws desperately trying to keep their guts in. If anything, he smiled wider. Then he threw the bird up into the air to the sound of its sharp caw and we both watched it lazily fly across the battlefield.

I am an old woman, she said and at the sound of her voice, my consciousness was yanked from my body and along for the ride, but I remember what it was like, having suitors flocking to my door, bearing gifts to try and turn my head. I find I require much darker, weightier gifts now to get the same effect.

I could see what he was offering. The whole town was visible from this height as we flew closer to the manor, we could see all the vulnerable people huddled there. Children curled into the sides of their mothers, wives with their heads buried in their hands at the sounds of the battle beyond, but one old woman caught my eye. She looked up as we passed by, performing some complex little movement, as if to ward us away.

But she needn’t have bothered. We flew beyond that, over and fields beyond and that’s when I saw them.

The Reavers we were fighting? There were way too many of them, but they were just the advance guard, designed to keep us occupied while the real troops rallied. Because there in the trees massed man after man, each one with eyes that burned as they eyed the unprotected rear wall of the manor.

I’ll kill them all, I promised fervently. Every single one of them, until there’s not one Reaver left. Just leave the vulnerable alone.

Show me, was all she would say in reply, my consciousness slamming back into my own body, right in the middle of the battle.

18

“This is just a feint!” I shouted to my mates as I came abruptly back to my body. My heart went to my throat when Dane’s head whipped around to look at me. A Reaver launched himself at him, but Weyland stepped in, stopping the beast with his shield and then stabbing his sword into the Reaver’s chest before shoving him off. “There’s more,” I said, my voice breaking on the words. “So many more coming.”

“Steady,” Pepin said, appearing by my side.

“There’s masses of them on the other side of the valley. While we’re distracted here, they’re going to sweep in undeterred.”

And at that, my gaze swept across the mess before us, to the commander beyond. He caught my eyes with his, staring, smiling before nodding to me and then striding up to where his horse waited, pulling himself up into the saddle before wheeling away, his Reavers going with him, as obedient as dogs.

“When will the rest of our troops arrive?” Axe asked, his face falling, because he knew the answer, just like I did. They’d be here when they arrived, and no sooner.

“We have to fall back,” Jarvis said, wading through the mud of the churned up battlefield now. “Try to hold them off inside the manor walls.”

But the walls weren’t that high. There were so many Reavers and they’d easily sacrifice a lot of their number to either pull the wall down in spots, or find a way over. Then it would be open slaughter. The first real signs of exhaustion began to hit me, my arms shaking as I held my swords, but as I looked back at the manor, as I heard the far off howls, I knew I had a promise to keep.

“We have to kill them all,” I said.

“I understand the sentiment, lass,” Dane said, being oh so reasonable for a man covered in blood and gore.

“No, you don’t understand,” I said, my voice sharp as a whip crack, and everyone fell silent then. The survivors of the battle clustered closer and so did the Maidens until I faced down the group of them.

You know what to do, Pepin had said, and she stood there now, staring at me, willing me to work it out. I kept being put in impossible situations and everyone just expected me to find a way, but I couldn’t. So I moved then, coming to stand before her and that’s when quiet fell over the land.

“Why don’t you just tell me?” Pepin just stared at me as I snapped my question. “If I’m the one to turn the tide, tell me what to do and I’ll do it.”

“Because you’re either her or you’re not,” she replied with a flat look.

“What?”

“There are many girls walking around in Grania with some of the old queen’s blood in their veins, but you’re the most promising,” she replied, her arms crossing her chest. “That’s not enough. Strelae needs a queen, a true queen, and today, we find out if you’re her. This is a test, Darcy, one you can’t afford to fail. Live or die. Reavers or queen. If you demonstrate the capacity, I can help you, train you, but first you have to show me.”

“And if I can’t?” I asked, tears forming in my eyes, ones I hastily brushed away.

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