BLOOD BANE CLAN:

I look into the eyes of Arken and Shado, eyes heavy with worry. My oldest friends and partners, together we built this clan from the ground up. We worked our way through the viscera of our people to become a trifecta of command. It has been forty long years, and everything we have worked for could come crumbling down. Our entire fate rests on a handful of fighters lost in the snow.

Their faces glow in the light of the lanterns, the orange glow creating deep shadows on their faces. The dark walls behind them flicker with their silhouettes. This room, simple but important. We dug it out of the ground so many years ago, it is hidden and secret. The only place where we can meet to plan in assured privacy.

“Arken, how are the crafters?” I initiate the meeting and attempt to ignore the tension radiating from all of us.

He leans forward and clasps his meaty hands together. “We have made many breakthroughs. The newest line will be our best yet.” His bushy brows draw down as his barrel chest inhales and exhales. “But Wikon, there is trouble. By stopping the sacking of daypeople we have no cover for our weapons and armor. Without giving it as loot to my hunters, how can we say where it came from? The crafting ring may be discovered.”

I nod and lean back pinching my chin. A problem indeed, but not an unforeseen one. The people are not ready yet to discover that secret. To learn that a majority of our weapons were made by moonrunner hands and not stolen from daypeople ones, it would create rioting. They would seek out the crafters to kill them I am sure. It is a ridiculous assumption that our crafters are weak and ergo must die, to acquire everything we need from daypeople is unsustainable and holds us back. But the horde will not see it that way.

“The clan is not ready to know yet. For now, stockpile the weapons and armor but increase your production. We will need them. Limit distribution to the banes only.” I turn to Shado and reach out to her. “Which brings us to you. Shado I need-” I pause. Her body is here but her mind is far away. I snap my fingers in front of her. “Shado?”

She shakes her head and brings her mind back to the meeting. “What is it you need?”

I sigh and tilt my head. “You were distracted, again.”

“I know.” She shakes her head. “I was, no matter. Tell me what you need, I am here.”

I purse my lips but move ahead anyway. “I need you to double bane recruitment.”

Her eyes widen before snapping into a glare. “What?! That will not work!” I open my mouth to respond but she cuts me off. “I would need all of the cold bloods in the entire clan! We cannot hide away that many people for training!”

“Find a way.” I glare at her. “We need more banes.”

She crosses her arms. “Find a way? Wikon, I remind you that those banes are mine, not yours. I work in secret, but they are still mine. I train them, I assign them, I command them. They are my responsibility. To take on that many would compromise their training and their anonymity. It could put them in danger, some could die.”

Anger wells up within me and I bark at her. “All of them will die if you do not listen!”

Silence falls upon the small dark room. Shado looks away shaking her head, her eyes are glossy with water but no tears fall. We can feel it, this is more than talk of banes. She feels guilt, fear, sadness, and so much more. She suppresses a complicated storm of emotions just beneath the surface and she is losing control.

Arken turns towards her. “You are not the only one that has a child out there Shado.”

She twists her neck in a flash to lay glaring eyes upon him. “You think I do not know that?”

He leans back away from her to give her space. “Neither are you the only one here to have lost so much. Each of us has everything we have left out there in the snow. I worry for Othin-”

“I would worry more for Rala.” She snaps at him.

Another tense silence falls over the room and now it is Arken holding onto his storm by a bare thread. His voice is deep and quiet as he looks at the dirt floor. “I accept the decision we all came to. But I do not need to dwell on it.” He stands up kicking the chair into the wall behind him, it breaks apart into several pieces. “Wikon, my crafters will be ready.”

He clenches his hand into a fist and punches it to his chest as if he’s stabbing himself in the heart. An unnecessary salute. He climbs up the ladder and hoists the hatch above us open in a fluid graceful motion. One wouldn’t look at Arken and assume grace, one would assume brutish strength. The man is a behemoth that could make a zigon think twice. I hear the creak of the hinges as the door opens, rays of morning sunlight fill the room as our friend disappears slamming the hatch shut.

I turn to Shado. “That was needless and cruel.”

She shrugs. “We are moonrunners. Cruelty is what we do.”

I sigh and reach my arms out to her. In one motion she kicks me in the stomach, flips backward, and lands across the room. There is not enough room to fight in here, but I am always up for a challenge. I push my chair behind me until I feel it hit the wall and approach Shado.

“You do not need to take your pain out on Arken. He has enough.” I swing a fist at Shado knowing she will dodge it.

She drops to the ground and spins away. “Why? Because he created a monster of a daughter? It was his vote too.”

She throws an elbow towards my stomach, I dodge to the left, spin, and kick out the back of her right knee. “How would you feel if it was Meekala?” I grunt as I send my mate to the floor. “Would it be less painful were it her we sent out to die?”

Something boils and breaks inside of Shado. She leans forwards onto her palms and shoots out both legs straight behind her kicking me hard in the chest. I fall backwards and land on my back gasping for air. She stands over me with tears running down her face and her chest heaving with shallow breaths. “We did send her out to die!”

Realization hits me as I make sense of Shado’s emotions. I push myself up against the wall with my feet and lean against it. “You know the two are not the same.”

Her voice chokes with tears as the strength bleeds from her and she sinks to her knees. “Are they? What happens if the assassination fails? Rala will know what we had been planning and she will strike back. Meekala will-”

With her fear spiraling I sit up and reach towards her. This time she falls into my arms and wraps her own around me. “Meekala is our strongest and bravest.” I kiss the top of her head. “Remember? Not only did she complete all of your training, she became bored from not being challenged enough and apprenticed to Arken. Meekala thrives on obstacles, she is a survivor no matter the danger. You know this.”

Shado is silent as she wipes away her tears with a nod. She sniffs and her voice comes back quiet but stronger. “But Rala has never been beaten, in anything.”

I smile and hold her close again. “Neither has Meekala. She’s the best bane we have.”