Greywolf - Attila's decision

"Your father's one scary person," Attila says, riding beside me in the Grey.

Papa didn't want to wait for Kula to return with a larger company of warriors, but didn't want me torn apart by the Night Hag, either. So the moment Attila and Hypam got the Black Dragons assembled, he put me beside him next to the dead tree, with Asena and Titan on either side, a dozen archers with a clear field of fire, and opened another huge gate into the Shadowlands.

The Night Hag quickly decided following me was a really bad idea and fled. Papa then arranged everyone for the journey, with him and Hypam taking the lead, Titan and Asena walking on either side of Wysper, who was riding double with her brother Alar on his horse, and me watching our back trail. I'd ridden double with Attila until we'd spotted Rocky on the road heading north, and I'd made a gate just long enough to jump on his back and rejoin the group. Then listened to him make a fuss over being left behind as Attila laughed.

Now, I glance over at him. "Why do you call him scary? I mean, he's the most powerful Shadow-walker in the world, as far as I know, but Asena or Titan could pound him into the dirt."

Attila shakes his head. "That's not what I meant. Ghostdog couldn't see any of you, yet he watched that Shadow Raptor pass us overhead and timed opening the gate so the creature would see Wysper's abductor and attack him, letting her escape."

I give him a sour look. "Yeah, straight into the path of a hundred charging Warghorses. Asena always accuses papa of not thinking through his great ideas, and leaving the rest of us to make them work. Though she's a fine one to talk." Then I brighten as a thought crosses my mind. "Hey, forget about papa for now. I want to know how you got the Black Dragon tribe to accept you as their leader."

"Khan Huldin's dead," he replies. My eyes go wide as he grimaces. "There's a pack of Daemo monsters that are attacking the northern Horde tribes when they're weak, or most of the warriors are away. The Lords of Khor had been afraid that Timur was planning to attack them before winter began to really bite, and hired the Black Dragon warriors as mercenaries to guard them."

"But Timur's never said a word about heading north."

Attila nods. "Once Khor figured that out, they cut the mercenaries loose. But in the meantime, the Daemo pack attacked the camp and killed the few warriors guarding the others, including Khan Huldin, then rounded up everyone else and carried them off. Me and Hypam showed up just after the rest of the warriors returned."

"Did anyone escape the attack?"

Attila nods again. "Old Bone woman was in her cave, teaching the children, and was able to hide them until the Daemo had left. When we rode in, she told the warriors I'd be able to get their people back, but only if they made me khan first." A grim smile spreads across his face. "I didn't know how I was going to do that, since their tracks led to the dead, grey tree several leagues away, and stopped, meaning they used the Shadowlands to escape. But your father said he can track them through the Grey."

I shrug. "So can I, if he's got to leave again."

"He told me he's planning to stick around for a while, so you won't have to." I perk up at this while Attila goes on. "Titan agreed to help, and he told me Asena would jump at the chance to kill Daemo. He also told me he's going to persuade her that my adopting Wysper as my daughter's a good idea-"

I rear back in my seat. "Wait, what? Daughter?"

"Think about it," Attila says in a calm voice. "Making her family means you and Asena are family as well. Among the Horde tribes, Bloodguards are usually other family members, which is why adopting a stranger into your clan's an accepted way of bringing in new blood, or getting a ferocious guardian. But it also means that Wysper's fight becomes our fight."

I slowly nod. "Because she's family."

"Exactly. I need Asena to teach me and the rest of the Black Dragons everything she knows about warfare, and Alar told me he wants her to do the same for the Brittani. Wysper's people need us, Greywolf. Warghorses can't match real horses on the open plain, but in forests or hills or even on broken ground, my warriors can outmatch anything the Gauls can bring to the field."

"Not to mention real horses are afraid of them."

"Unless they've grown up with Warghorses, and even then they're nervous." Attila motions towards the middle where Titan and Asena seem to be arguing. "Alar said their people will be nervous as well, but the Picts will take to us like long lost brothers."

Whatever Titan's telling Asena seems to be working, because she's losing that familiar mulish expression of hers and actually seems to be listening. "Are you going to make Titan part of the Black Dragons as well? I mean, he's a ferocious fighter, at least according to the tales I've heard."

Attila shakes his head. "Titan's already told me he's going to become Wysper's adviser, whether the Brittani people like it or not."

I snort. "Like anyone's going to argue with an eight foot tall Ogri."

"Except he's not a true Ogri."

"What difference does it make if he's a true Ogri or not? I mean, Titan's got the wildness under control, right?"

Attila gazes at me for a few moments with a thoughtful expression on his face. "You're not one of us, so you wouldn't understand. Among our people, the old ones tell stories around the fires at night, and some are about the days long ago when the Celestials and the Daemo fought each other."

"I'd never even heard about the Prince's war until Titan showed up, and began sharing war stories with Asena."

He touches his hand to his chest. "Our people have never forgotten. According to our legends, we were not nomads but a civilized folk, with fortresses and cities guarding the north from Daemo attacks. We had served the Celestials for centuries, fighting in their war."

"Until the war ended."

Attila nods. "The first our people heard about the war ending was when the wild ogres came rampaging out of the north. They attacked without warning, swarming over the walls of our cities and fortresses, until we were overwhelmed and had to flee for our lives." He sighs. "The stories tell us that our ancestors sent messengers to the northern strongholds of the Celestials, but the strongholds were deserted."

"Because they'd already left for their own world." I suck in my breath as the pieces come together like blocks in a Xian puzzle box. "After Timur exposed Titan's secret, I asked Asena about the war while she was drinking, and she told me a good bit. She said there were actually two places where the ogres were kept; the Roof of the World, where the Ogri city of Haven is now, and another place far to the north. When the war ended, Asena said the Celestials in charge of the Roof, as they'd nicknamed it, made sure all the ogres were changed into real Ogri before most of them departed. But the stronghold to the north just unlocked the ogre's cages while the creatures were sleeping and left. She told me a lot of the Celestials were so sick of fighting that they didn't care a half-copper what happened on Earth after they were gone."

"They didn't care," Attila says in a soft, dangerous voice. "Centuries of service, all the warriors who died in their cause, and they didn't... even... care." His face has shadows that weren't there before. "None of our ancestors ever considered the ending of the war had anything to do with the wild ogres, except to suggest the Celestials had been keeping the ogres away from them."

"And now you know the truth." I give Attila a sharp look. "What happened isn't Titan's fault. If anything, he's as much a victim of the Celestial's actions as your ancestors were." Attila gives me a sharp look of his own, opening his mouth to argue.

But then he closes it as his expression turns thoughtful again. "You're right, it's not his fault, and Timur was trying to put a wedge between us. Yet I still can't keep Titan with me, even if he wanted to stay."

"But-"

"But nothing," Attila says, interrupting me. "When the Black Dragons find out he's actually a wild ogre, which Hypam will let slip sooner or later, at best they'll demand he leave at once." I start to interrupt him, but he cuts me off. "Greywolf, I'm having a hard time with this, and I know Titan. Besides," his expression turning sly, "you know Wysper needs him if she's going to become queen of the Brittani."

"Ugh, don't remind me." I shake my head, thinking about everything Wysper's had to go through. "If I see this Celestial Pan, I'm going to let him know exactly what I think of him and the whole, 'sacrificial victim' Warg shite."

"Alar told me the attack on their temple, and the theft of both the priestesses and the two dragon scales, was a real blow to Pan. He told me the Brittani now see Pan as an old, tired god whose day has come and gone."

"Maybe it's about time."

"I agree," Attila says, "though Alar won't if you ask him. He thinks Pan's the reason his people held together as a confederation of tribes."

"It still doesn't make what he did to Wysper right."

"No, it doesn't," Attila replies, "and if my people take on this fight, we'll do it for her and not for any Celestial." My ears pick up the sound of flapping wings behind us, far off, and my attention fixes on a small Shadow Raptor at least a league away from us. It rapidly closes the gap, but then veers off as it gains altitude and heads west. As I watch it leave, Attila says, "Are we safe now?"

"Until something else approaches. Papa told me to never let my guard down in the Shadowlands, and he's right."

"I wish my ancestors had done the same." Attila looks at me with eyes like twin pits of darkness. "Celestials then and now, use us, and use us, until we're no better than husks, before throwing us onto the midden heap. Well, I say no more. Greywolf, I am going to become the storm Yasataar foresaw."

I wave my arm outward towards the hundreds of Warghorse riders ahead of us. "If you're serious, you are going to need a lot more warriors than this to make it happen."

"Then I will find a way to unite all the tribal horde clans into one Khanate... and no, I don't know how I'm going to do it," he adds as I open my mouth to question him. "I only know that I'll find a way." He raises his chin in defiance. "What about you and Asena? If I assemble this Khanate, will the two of you fight with me or against me?"

"With Asena, it depends on which Celestials you want to destroy. I mean, she hates Balor One-eye and Camulos, who both rule the Gauls, and pretty much despises all the Celestials in the Etruscan empire."

"What about the Empire of the East?"

I scratch my head as I consider the question. "I think she's okay with them. Jupiter and the rest are stepping back and letting the humans run things, which Asena's told me is why the empire's more stable than any other right now, including Aegyptus. Oh, they still plot and scheme, but from what she's said, they don't throw their weight around like Celestials do everywhere else."

Attila's defiant look softens. "Perhaps they've realized their day is done."

"Who knows?" I say with a shrug. "I don't want to see Osiris hurt, considering what he's done for me and Wysper, and I'd spare Pan for Wysper's sake, if she wants. But the rest of them?" I shake my head. "They're running out of mana, and it's making them desperate to find new sources. I'm not going to be that source for them, and I'm sure as shite not going to let Wysper be one either."

"You're fighting for your survival," Attila says, "and for your freedom."

I blink, for his words ring true. "When did you get to be so smart?"

"I've always been smart," he replies, a touch of indignation in his voice. "Yasataar taught me to conceal what I was thinking so Timur couldn't use it against me... well, unless he made me angry. Which he's good at."

"Tell me about it." I turn my head, scanning our back trail as Attila's words echo in my mind. He's watching me without speaking as I realize something I hadn't considered before. "I'm never going to be free as long as there's Celestials out there scheming to make me their slave. I mean, I want to help Wysper be queen, which means working with the Brittani's Pan, but he's likely to treat us the same way Ishtar and Muzen tried to."

"Not if you're with me." I turn my head to look at Attila, who gives me a firm nod. "Once Wysper's my daughter, you're family, and there's not a warrior here that won't fight for family."

Glancing forward at the Warghorse riders, I shake my head. "I'm not sure they'll accept me."

"Help me get my people back, and you're a member of the Grey Wargs, plain and simple. The Horde clans put people in two boxes: us, and those against us. I want you in the first box."

"And I don't want to be put in a box at all," I blurt out. "However," holding up my hand to keep Attila from arguing, "I know if I want my freedom, I need to fight for it." I take a deep breath. "If you become the storm that sweeps the Celestials away, then I'll ride alongside you until your enemies are dead. Wysper's first in my heart, but once she's safe and doesn't need me anymore, I'll join you. Because she won't be safe until the Celestial's power over the kingdoms of men is broken."

"That's all I ask," he replies as he holds out his arm. Rocky moves close enough for me to grasp it, forearm to forearm, and as I do, he adds, "Besides, what's the worst that could happen?"

"They kill us."

As we let go, Attila snorts. "Timur's already tried that, and it didn't work. I swear to you that someday, we're going to ride down out of the north and destroy him, or die trying."

I give Attila a fierce smile. "And I swear to you that on that day, I'll be there."