Bones of the Empire (56 page)

“They farm something here,” he told Yoska, who may or may not have heard him. “I’ll take it. A lot better greeting than I could have hoped for.”

Sheathing his knives, Yoska pulled his bedroll off his back and lay it on the ground for Ceran. “You set sights too low, friend. Better greeting would have been with party and drink, not with stabbing and corpse-tossings, no?”

“I’ll take what I can get,” Raeln said, laying down to rest while he could. There was no telling when he would have another opportunity.

Closing his eyes, he tried to meditate, but found himself sound asleep. He stirred briefly when Somn came to rest beside him on one side and Dalania the other, though only enough to realize they were there.

*

“Raeln, is time to wake up. Things get weirder than usual, and this is me saying so.”

Jerking awake and rubbing at his eyes, Raeln sat up, somewhat surprised that he had fallen so deeply asleep. He had meant to rest, not sleep. Given that they were in the middle of one of the most deadly parts of Turessi, with Dorralt well aware of their presence and strange monsters watching over them, the last thing he had wanted was to be unaware of what happened around him.

When Raeln cleared his vision and saw what was happening, he instinctively dug his claws into the knife wound from the day before to be sure he actually was awake. He was happy to find Somn and Dalania still asleep, though Dalania trembled and kicked like a dog dreaming.

Standing in the middle of his army, most of whom were sitting up on their own bedrolls staring, were nearly a hundred of the strange bearlike creatures, with the white bear wildling from Raeln’s army among them. The creatures were all carrying weapons and had donned armor made from bones Raeln recognized as a mix of wolf and human. When he looked at them, the bear wildling gestured broadly at the group and grinned toothily at Raeln.

“Are they joining us or attacking us?” he asked the wildling, who glared at him. “Okay…the first thing I said?”

The bear nodded.

Apparently, Raeln’s army had just grown again, and he could not even guess why.

Waking with a yawn, Dalania sat up beside Raeln and smiled at the large group. Reaching past Raeln, she shook Somn gently, waking him as well. The two exchanged what looked to Raeln to be conspiratorial smirks.

“How…?” Raeln asked, still staring at the creatures, who had placed themselves among his own troops as though they belonged. “Are they helping us now?”

The Turessians appeared as confused as Raeln, so he turned his attention to Dalania. He saw a large feather tucked into her hair that looked identical to the ones the tribe’s shaman wore. He turned the other way and saw Somn with a similar feather tucked into the fur behind his left ear. Both of them gave him innocent smiles that did not even begin to convince him they had nothing to do with it.

“Start talking, both of you,” he insisted.

Neither said a word.

Raeln got to his feet, finding much of the strain in his legs had faded during the brief rest. He tested his weight on each paw, pleased that much of the numbness from the weeks in the winter snows had faded from his toes.

“Yoska!” Raeln called, hearing shuffling from the army.

Yoska came running, while Ceran walked more slowly, watching the exchange from a distance. “What’s going on? These two won’t talk.”

Yoska slowed as he approached Raeln, glaring at Dalania as he did. Pointing an accusing finger at her, he told Raeln, “If she does not talk, we might never know. I try every greeting I have learned across many lands, but they do not speak my words. Dalania comes along and talks in their language. Is very disheartening to be called ‘wanderer’ and have seen half known world, and girl who does not get out much speaks words of creature we never met before, no?”

“Marakeer,” Somn corrected, then winced and flipped over, trying to look like was asleep when Raeln stared down at him. A moment later, he peeked over his shoulder at Raeln before sitting back up. Reluctantly, he added, “She made me promise. Something about trying to make it look like it was your doing that they joined us. If you’re going to make a big deal about it, I can’t very well hide everything.”

Raeln turned in place to glare down at Dalania, who was nervously wringing her hands. He could not stay mad at her, and within seconds he felt guilty for even looking at her with anger. Taking a knee beside her, Raeln forced Dalania’s face up with a finger under her chin, making her look at him. “I’ve already got an army,” he reminded her, cocking his head toward the hundreds of Turessians. “You don’t need to lie to them about whether you recruited or I did. Just tell me the truth…how can you talk to the Marakeer and what did you promise them?”

Dalania reached up and brushed some of her green hair away from her face, letting her fingers linger on the feather. She pulled her chin away from Raeln, staring for several seconds at the Marakeer shaman, standing with the other filthy-looking creatures, apart from most of the Turessians. “I don’t honestly know,” Dalania said, hanging her head. “Okay, not entirely true. I should have said that I don’t know how to talk to them. Whatever the fae did to me is still getting worse and having more influence on me.”

“How much worse?”

Yoska sat down quickly with them, his earlier agitation dropping away and replaced with worry.

Dalania frowned and fidgeted a little longer. As she sat there, Raeln realized something had changed in her appearance. It had likely been subtle, happening over time, but Raeln saw thick lines in her skin. Normally her skin was green-tinted but otherwise no different from any other human’s. Now she was fully covered in bark the same coloring as his skin. As though realizing what he was looking at, Dalania hugged herself, trying to cover the skin of her arms.

“I didn’t even know I was talking their language at first,” she explained, trembling. “I…I started to panic when I knew what was happening…that they were controlling me.”

Sliding over to sit beside Raeln, Somn quickly added, “I saw the way they were eyeing her when she got scared. They’re still animals, Raeln, at least as much as you or I. They would have torn her apart. I just stepped in to help keep her calm and offer some advice as she talked. Got a hug for it too. If you want to feel jealous, feel free.”

Raeln scowled at Somn momentarily. Once he managed to move past the snide comments at the end, Raeln took a deep breath and put an arm around Somn, hugging him. “Thank you for keeping her safe when I was careless.”

Instead of the hug in return he had expected, Raeln was surprised to have Somn shove him away and look around nervously. After a moment, Raeln realized what he had just done. He checked over his shoulder and saw many of the Turessians were openly glaring at him—something that had become less frequent in the last week. The simple act of hugging someone had lost him some of their favor.

“Right,” Raeln muttered, dropping his hands to his sides, lest he accidentally brush either Dalania or Somn. “Were you able to learn anything about them, Dalania?”

Dalania beamed with pride as she gazed at the muck-covered, moldy, bearlike Marakeer group. “They are primitive socially, but they have an oral history dating back almost two thousand years. They consider the Turessians to be demons. Their legends tell of the Turessians hunting their ancestors—who I believe were regular bears—and the darkness coming to help them. It made them strong and wise, teaching them how to kill those with the markings of death. They tell stories of how those without fur will all be killed and eaten to appease their fallen ancestors and one day reclaim the lands above the mists, where wolves will no longer hunt them.”

“Why are they helping us? I’m marked, the Turessians haven’t changed, and we certainly aren’t leading them to any great destiny.”

Dalania shrugged and finally turned her face to Raeln. “After I started talking with the shaman, she explained that they had been killing Turessians to protect their land from the west. They have some kind of belief that all bad things come from a stone place a few miles outside the fog. I could hardly disagree. Remember the mention of the empire’s bones in the prophecy? They call it the Old Bones.”

“They actually want to go with us just for a chance to attack the temple?”

“It would seem so. They’ve never had Turessians come from the east before, and they hold a special reverence for wolves, given that they are the main predator and a good food source down here. When you showed up with the markings of a Turessian, they didn’t know if you were here to wipe them out or to lead them to the light. They see you as a blending of their worst fears and their greatest hopes…. It did not take much to convince them that you are the way to bridge the gap between fear and victory.”

“Please tell me this isn’t another prophecy, Dalania.”

“Not exactly. They’ve been arguing for a few generations about whether it was time to destroy the furless demons of the west. Your arrival convinced them that even demons are willing to help them crush the lord of demons. They see you as a demon that has taken the shape of something noble to challenge the other demons. A good demon, if you will.”

“Did you explain to them what we’re really doing and that it has nothing to do with gods and demons? I don’t really want to lead them into a war with them believing we’re doing something we’re not.”

Dalania’s happiness faded instantly. “No. You need them, and they will be destroyed this close to the temple, now that Dorralt knows they’re here. They either fight with us or they die alone. I explained what I could, but I’m afraid they see this as a religious war of sorts. Nothing I tell them will change that. They would rather die at your side on the field of battle than wait here for the ‘demons’ to come and destroy them.”

Groaning, Raeln rubbed his face in dismay, only to have Yoska pat his shoulder.

“It could be worse, no?”

“How? We have a bunch of barbarian zealots who think we’re going to destroy their religion’s enemy. Tell me how this could be worse, Yoska.”

“We…um…” Yoska looked around, clearly trying to find something to focus on. “Okay, I have nothing for you. I thought you just agree with me and I not have to explain. I have important woman sharing my bed. It helps me to look on good side of things. Maybe you are more positive if other wolf spends more time in your tent…I find you a spare for nights when Somn is tired, no?”

Somn laughed out loud before covering his muzzle.

“Somn is a friend. Stop trying to fix me up with people, Yoska. I’ll talk about it once we survive the war. Until then, I want no attachments and won’t even think about it. It’s better for everyone that way. Can we please focus on the warfront?”

Dalania drew Raeln’s attention away from Yoska by motioning toward the eerily still Marakeer that were waiting. “They are ready to march on your order, Raeln. Would you have me tell them to stay here? I will if that is what you want.”

Raeln looked over the tusked Marakeer, standing in formation as they patiently awaited his command. Shaking his head, he said, “No. I’ll gladly take their help…honestly, I need them. The Turessians are not a strong army for physical warfare, which is something we sorely need against the zombies that Dorralt probably has waiting for us. The Marakeer may be able to hold our line while the Turessians burn down our enemies.”

Smiling at him with an expression of thanks, Dalania turned to the gathered Marakeer and spoke to them with a mix of clicks, birdlike sounds, and soft growls. Once the lead Marakeer—the shaman from the night before, Raeln realized—had replied, she gave Raeln a ready nod. The Marakeer would follow.

After a moment’s thought, Raeln said, “Can you find out how far we are from the edge of the fog? I need to be ready. I think we have another two days down here by our last guess.”

Dalania relayed his question, getting a few odd sounds in reply from the Marakeer. “They measure time somewhat oddly, given the lack of sunlight down here. From what little I understand of their measurements, from here we can reach the border of the Maw within a day’s march. They also add that with the might we bring, even the wolves will not attack again.”