Greywolf - Betrayal

I whirl around. "Poisoned?"

Standing next to Lys, Karl makes a calming gesture with his hands. "It won't hurt Asena. The tribe's hunters use Wargsbane on their arrows when they want to capture an animal instead of killing it, with the poison causing the beast to become more and more tired until it stops moving altogether and passes out."

"I gave the little girl a concentrated dose," Lys adds, "which went straight into the mana nodes Asena consumed. So she is going to be out of action for quite a while."

"I'm going to kill you all," Asena roars, staggering to her feet. But then she drops to her knees. "You bastards, Titan's going to rip you apart when he learns of this."

"No, Titan is not." Asena's eyes go wide as the Ogri strides up and crouches down on one knee in front of her. "Before Lys did anything, she came to me and explained what she planned. Not only did I give her permission, but I also got approval from Khan Khingla as well. This is for the good of everyone."

Asena's gaping at him in shock. "You... you betrayed me."

Titan grabs her by the front of her armor. "I would betray you a hundred times more if that is what it takes to stop you from abusing your son."

Asena grabs his hands, trying to pull them off, but they hold her like iron manacles. "Let me go. He's my son, and I'll do as I damn well please."

"Never again," he roars into her face, dragging her inches away from his. Shite, I need to keep him from killing her. I take a step towards them.

Hands clamp down on my bare shoulders, making me wince as I'm pulled back. "Best let the two of them work it out," Dancer, the Greek mercenary, says.

On my other side, Amazonia nods in agreement as Titan shakes Asena before putting his face close to hers once more. "Bad enough that you throw him around like he was a manikin, but to have him whore for you? That is unacceptable."

What did he just call me? "I don't do anything like that."

Shite, Titan's looking at me as if he's going to squash me like a bug. "What would you call it, then? Did you care about any of the Daemo Asena set you up with, or was it all a transaction?"

I feel like I'm walking through a bog, and if I say something wrong it'll suck me down. "I liked them well enough, and they were friendly to me, but I mean they're Daemo. They don't love each other, let alone humans." Titan's looking at me as if this is my fault. "Look, the female Daemo merchants wanted me to be carnal with them because it makes them stronger, I enjoyed doing it, and Asena got gold. Everyone was happy."

"Lord Paulus sold my favors the same way." Looking up to my right, Amazonia's face is set in a grim line. "I enjoyed being given power over the sons of noblemen, using them however I chose, and they enjoyed having the tables turned on them for a night. Yet in the back of my mind I always remembered who had the power over the slave collar around my throat."

"I'm not sure what you're getting at. I mean, I've never been anyone's slave."

Amazonia raises her eyebrows. "No? What would Asena have done if you'd told her you weren't going to be carnal with anyone that particular night? Thrown you around?"

This is definitely turning into a bog. "Cuffed the back of my head, most likely. But it never came up. I mean, Daemo females are always thin and beautiful, and I enjoy being with them. I would've balked if they'd looked like regular Daemo."

"What about the merchants? Titan mentioned that your mother made extra gold by letting them watch."

The ground near my feet's a lot safer to look at than trying to meet her eyes. "Asena needed the gold."

I look up as Titan cracks Asena across the face. "How could you do this?" He shakes her again, Asena not fighting back but only glaring at Titan as he stops. "What did we fight the Daemo princes for, if not to save humanity from their corruption? And now I find that the fiercest, bravest warrior I have ever known, is selling her son to the Daemo for gold."

Asena spits out bloody froth. "What does it matter anymore? The few Oldenbloods remaining are either being pushed out like Wotan is, or else they've embraced the corruption we fought against. And don't get me started on their dual-nature children. They've become just as bad as the Daemo princes ever were, and once they begin having children of their own, this idea that they're the gods of humanity will never end." She spits out more bloody froth. "We fought and died for nothing, no matter-"

"Greywolf is the last."

"-what you say... wait, what?"

Titan sits back on his haunches as he regards her. "Greywolf is the last Celestial child that will be born upon Earth."

Asena stares at him a moment, then shakes her head. "That can't be right. Surely some of the dual-nature children have had children of their own?" Titan's shaking his head no and Asena says, "Are you sure?"

"Ghostdog is. When he visited me in the Ludus, Ghostdog said he has wandered all over the world wherever the Celestials have settled, and in over five hundred years no child has been born to any Celestial anywhere. Except to you."

Asena's gaping at him again. "But when I traveled to the Celestial kingdom, they had two children under a hundred years old, and one barely ten."

"Because on that world, the mana is strong. Before the War of the Princes, Earth had only a handful of mana sources, like the one that changed the Fae and made them Winter Mages. But when the Celestials marched against the Daemo, your sorcerers cast so many terrible spells that the earth itself began radiating magic like the Celestial Kingdom. Your race deliberately changed mine so the Ogri would become your shock troops, but inadvertently changed humans and the other races, causing alterations in their makeup that allowed a few of them to begin wielding magic as well. Eventually earth and stone radiated so much magic that, for a time, Celestials became fertile again. Though it did not last."

"What... what happened?"

"Earth abides. In time she healed the scars we gave her, letting go of the magic held by earth and stone until the amount of magic still being radiated dropped below the amount needed by your people to be fertile. And before you ask, Ghostdog was the one who told me all of this."

"Titan," the twin mercenaries say in unison, "will mages stop being born as well?"

He shrugs his massive shoulders. "Perhaps, but not for a long, long, time. The Daemo-Celestial dragon shed thousands of scales before she died, each one specific for a certain kind of magic and still strongly radiating mana even after all this time. There are also the mana sources, and ancient Celestial devices still generating mana as well. Yet none of that will be enough to restore the fertility of the Celestials here on Earth."

There's a question I need to ask, and I'm almost afraid to. "Titan, if papa is right, then why am I here at all?"

The look he's giving me is milder than before. "I asked your father the same question. He told me it is because he is of a race different than any other, including the Celestials and the Daemo, though he pretends to be human. He claims he has control over how his children are created, which is why you were conceived as a full Oldenblood, just like your mother, but with specific changes. Such as your power over the Shadowlands, where you were conceived."

He turns back towards my mother. "Asena, you are the last friend I have left from the old days, and even if you have fallen into a gutter you refuse to drag yourself out of, I remember the way you used to be. The Asena I knew would approve of what I am about to do."

She growls, "You're about to take my son away."

"I am about to make him my squire, just as I was yours during the great war. But first, I want his help in saving the young woman Muzen threatened him with."

"Muzen's bluffing."

"About Blood-Wysper taking her own life, certainly. But to remain Yun-Kax's sacrificial victim, she does not need her hands."

I don't understand what he's talking about, but Asena does, for she snarls, "He's not that depraved."

"You were right when you compared the dual-nature Celestials with the Daemo princes. According to Redhunter, an outrider of the People that Muzen believes is his spy but actually spies on him for the Great Khan, on the last night of the festival, Muzen will have Yrg remove her hands at the wrist. He will then have them delivered to Greywolf with a warning: her feet will be next."

"No!" I pull free from the two holding me back. "I can't let that happen, even if there's a chance he'll capture me."

"Nor will I allow either to occur. According to Redhunter, he has been invited to a private gathering Muzen is hosting on the last night of the festival, which Blood-Wysper will be attending. Once we have attacked the High Priest's house and engaged Muzen, you will be able to sneak upstairs and spirit her away to a safe place." Titan frowns. "I just remembered he said the floors of the upstairs rooms are made of wood."

"That's not a problem. If I move myself closer to the real world without entering it, wood becomes solid enough to walk on."

It also means I'm weaker in the Shadowlands, but I'm not mentioning that if it means I can help save her. Asena growls, "Greywolf, tell him no." I shake my head and she snarls, "Damn it, you're my son and you'll listen to me. Tell him no."

What was it Titan said? Caught between the cliff and the cavalry charge. Shite, I'm tired of getting trampled. Maybe it's time to jump. "I'm going with them and opening the way, so I can get Wysper out of the mess I dumped her into."

"Greywolf-"

"I said I'm going. It's my fault she could lose her hands, not yours or anyone else's, and I'm not going to let that happen."

"Even if you're with us, it still could." Glancing back, Amazonia's staring at me with a grim expression. "Nothing ever goes according to plan; fighting in the arena taught me that, and you need to know it as well. We could arrive to find her hands already gone, or the girl dead, or shipped back to Tesiphon the day before."

"But we could also arrive to find out she's okay."

Amazonia smiles. "That's the plan, and we'll go under that assumption until we find out otherwise."

"Then I'm in." She claps me on the shoulder as the Lycaon Fenris carries Asena's pack up the last of the slope and sets it down beside me. I point towards the pocket Asena keeps bandages in before looking back up. "Titan, if I agree to this whole 'squire' business, what happens to Asena?"

"First," he answers in his deep voice, "this 'squire business' is no more optional for you than Asena made it optional for me. Second... whatever happens to Asena is her choice. I'm hoping she will come to her senses and join us as a mercenary, but that is her decision."

"I won't abandon her."

Titan gives me an approving nod. "The old Asena I knew would've said the same thing. However, if she decides to leave, you will not be abandoning her. She," and he emphasizes the word, "will be abandoning you."

Asena's begun blinking, like she's having trouble keeping her eyes open. "You're a... Warg buggering... son of a..." Asena pitches forward onto the ground. After a moment, she begins to snore.

Titan chuckles. "Sleep well, my old friend." Dancer takes the bandages from Fenris, and begins wrapping my wounded shoulder as Titan frowns. "I was going to have you go back to camp with Karl and Lys via the Shadowlands, but if you are too injured to fight..."

"It's a bad idea right now anyway," I reply. "I got chased by three Night Hags while luring out the trolls, and they're probably still close by."

"I have a feeling they will not be a problem," Lys says, "and if they do attack, we can jump right back through. Just be sure to keep the gateway open. Now, put your armor back on and draw your sword. The Great Khan will be calling a council at any moment to discuss the raid, and we need to be there."

Dancer holds the armor out so I can slip my arms through the holes, then helps me buckle the straps as Lys says, "Give us a quarter-hour before moving the little girl, but treat her body with reverence." Amazonia touches the armor over her heart in a gesture of respect before giving orders for her men and the Lycaons to search the troll cave. Dancer tightens the last strap and joins them, while Titan pulls a makeshift sled out from behind some bushes and begins dragging Asena onto it. Lys looks up at me. "You're probably wondering why I used that little girl to deliver the poison to the trolls."

"It wasn't right to use a child that way," I tell her quietly.

"It also is not right for a child to die in great pain from the growths living inside her. I had been treating her ever since her mother came to me, begging for something to ease the child's suffering and we all knew she only had days to live. So when I told the girl what I was planning, she jumped at the chance to avenge her friends the troll had taken. All she asked was that I would not leave her body where the troll would throw it, and I gave her my word she would return to her parents. I always keep my promises."

"We should probably get moving." Karl draws his sword, and I draw my katana, Lys jumping up on his back like a small child with his neck between her legs. "If you'll sweep left, I'll sweep right, and if I see anything nasty I'll head right back out again through the gate."

Lys sniffs. "Coward."

Karl begins clucking like a chicken, making me laugh. "Alright, are you ready?" They both nod and I take a deep breath. "On three, one... two... three." The grey oval forms in front of us and we step through.

Color bleeds away as I whirl in a half-circle, Karl doing the same on my other side, my eyes scanning the shadowy hillside and sky for movement. Everything is quiet. "Looks like you can close the gate," Karl says after a moment.

I let it go, my eyes still searching for anything moving as my ears strain to hear sounds. "The Night Hags should've been all over us. I don't understand this."

Lys raps the top of Karl's head. "Turn towards the troll cave so I do not have to strain my neck." He does so and she smiles. "I thought that might be the case." I turn towards the cave as well.

The three Night Hags are there, standing at the entrance glaring at us with their claws extended, but so is the little girl. She's standing right in front of them with her arms crossed over her chest. "I don't understand. Even though the dead have power in the Grey, the Night Hags could still knock her over in an instant and chase after us. But they're just standing there."

Lys glances over at me. "In life, necromancers of any race have power over the dead, but this is the Shadowlands where the dead are alive."

My eyes go wide. "Night Hags were once necromancers?"

"I believe so. How and why they ended up as Shadow creatures is a mystery I doubt we'll ever solve, but this much is clear: in the Shadowlands the dead have power over the necromancers, and the little girl is helping us once again."

Karl says, "She deserves a warrior's funeral for what she's done."

"I will see she gets that, and more. Now," Lys rapping the top of Karl's head again, "we have a long way to travel. Let's get going."

Karl looks up at her askance. "What am I now, your horse?"

Lys grabs the braids of his hair and shakes them. "Get going, horsey!"

I snort with laughter as Karl rolls his eyes, and together we start down the hill.