Rebecka Evertrue's Arc

Chapter 45 of 66

The ash of the burned braid was still under Rebecka's nails when the bay smelled the wolves and balked. She reined in on the low ground below the ridge. The ritual smoke had thinned above the scrub, but it had already done its work. Shapes moved in the dry grass a hundred paces out. Long backs. Yellow eyes. Carrion wolves, drawn by the smell of burned hair and blood magic. She counted seven before she stopped counting. Lark came up the slope with his sword drawn. The runes on the blade held a pale blue light. "They won't cross the sigil line while I'm holding this," he said. "But I can't hold it and ride." Aiyana slid down beside them. "Then we don't ride yet." Rebecka looked at the ridge. The cave was an hour up that trail. Ninka was in it. Every minute she sat here was a minute a rider on foot could close from the coast road. "We can't wait them out. Something sent them. Something wants us pinned." She pulled her pack down and set the charmed teepee stakes into the dirt in a tight ring. The cloth unfolded itself around the frame, runes waking blue along the seams. It was small shelter, but it broke line of sight and it held the horse. She led the bay inside and tied him short. "Lark. Walk the sigil out to twenty paces and hold it. Aiyana, my left." Rebecka drew her bow and set six star-forged arrows point-down in the dirt at her feet. The pack came in a rush. Rebecka's bow hummed against her palm and marked the lead animal in her sight. The kill-warning ran up her wrist. She hated it and shot anyway. The wolf dropped mid-stride. She had the next arrow nocked before the body hit. Two more fell in the grass. The bow read each one as flesh and appetite and named the shot. Four wolves broke left toward Aiyana. She stepped into them with a short blade and took the first through the throat. The second she killed with a stone from the ground. The last two turned on Lark's blue line and would not cross it. Rebecka put an arrow through the near one's chest. The last wolf ran. She lowered the bow. Her hands shook. Lark's sword dimmed. He sat down where he stood. "That wasn't a hungry pack. They came straight in." "Someone drove them." Rebecka pulled the arrows from the bodies and wiped them clean. She whistled and her crow dropped from the pines to her wrist. She whispered the cave's name to it and sent it up the trail to warn Katia. She swung onto the bay. The path was open now. Whoever had turned the wolves was already close enough to do it by hand.