Fireborn Champion (4 page)

The alpha wolf slowly stalked between its two companions. It stood a head taller than the rest, its chest wide and rippling with muscles beneath the oily black coat. It glared at Iron down its long snout with eyes that saw far more than just a man’s bleeding flesh.

“I…have…found…you…” it growled, struggling with human words through a wolf’s lips.

Iron swallowed. The snow coating his cheeks began to melt and dripped from his jaw onto his shirt. “What in all the hells? You talk?” Iron stumbled back. He’d read much on the creatures of Urum. No books of Sander’s mentioned wolves that spoke. That left two possibilities. Either every author on the subject had forgotten to mention this terrifying fact, or these wolves were possessed of a far darker power than wild hunger.

Iron nodded as he came to a conclusion. “These animals are your vessels. I knew when you cocked your head and looked at me, it wasn’t an animal doing the looking. You watch me through the wolf. Don’t try and hide it.”
 

“You…will…come…”

An odd lime green discolored the veins around Iron’s wound. He’d hurt himself in the wilds before, and this bite wasn’t terribly deep. It shouldn’t look like that. It shouldn’t burn like he’d pressed his hand onto an oven.
 

“Or…you…die…” Its cold stare flicked to his wounds. “…Soon…”

“Like all hell I’d ever go with you.” Iron spit at the wolf. “I rode a thundersnow today. When I go see the world, it’ll be on my own time. I don’t even know who you are. For all I know you’d just take me back to gods know where and make a suit out of my skin. So no, I’m not going with you, whoever you are.”

Iron lifted his chin. He bet whoever controlled the wolf didn’t expect a kid from the lower reaches to have an ounce of courage. Well, Sander taught Iron better than that.
 

The wolf snarled, a long glob of saliva dripping from its fang and hissing on the snow. “We are…Serpent Sun…Come,
Fireborn!
”

There was that word again. The doe had said it, and now the wolf. “I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but there’s not much fire around here. It’s all snow. Snow, snow, snow. Master says in the lower reaches, a man’s ass could turn to ice before he burns it.”

Iron snickered. His arm no longer hurt, but for some reason the ground had grown less steady. He fell to his good hand and glared at the wolf with a smile on his face. “I’m not afraid of you, and I’m not coming with you. I thought I’d live a little while longer, but whatever, there’s got to be some kind of adventure I can have in the heavens. I’ll fight you with my bare hands if I have to. Sinner’s men don’t fear stupid wolves.”

The wolf’s lips slid up its jaw in some nauseating attempt at a smile. “Bare…
hand
…”

 
“Great. I get the one demonic wolf in the world with a sense of humor. Sander, you didn’t learn how to shape shift, did you? Are you in there?”

With a snarl, the wolf took a step forward. “Enough…Fireborn…”
 

The wolf snapped something at its companions. They howled in unison and came to their paws, drawing beside their leader. Iron struggled to his feet. His wounded knee buckled again, and hit the frozen dirt beneath the snow. He stared at the dripping wound on his wrist and shook his head.
 

Iron laughed. He couldn’t help it. The chuckle just bubbled out. “I just had to go see a wolf.”

“I mean really, Iron. What have I told you about playing with wild animals? And no, you cannot keep them. Probably riddled with ticks and other nasty little bloodsuckers.” Sander’s familiar voice reignited the spark of hope in Iron’s heart and sent a warm rush of energy washing through his body.

Iron shot his gaze behind the wolves as his master appeared in a cloud of smoke. Iron somehow stood despite his weak leg. “I thought you’d never get here! You know what it’s like trying to stall a talking wolf? It’s worse than your root stew.”

The man stood beside the fallen wolf, prodding the carcass with his boot more out of curiosity than worry that it might still live. He rested the flat of his blade on his shoulder and grimaced at the corpse. “Might make a good coat. Might not. I don’t think the pelt of a talking wolf will bring us much good luck.”

The three remaining wolves growled and turned to Sander in a spray of white snow and black fur. They pounced, jaws wide. Iron’s master rolled his eyes and sighed, squeezing his worn pommel.

Sander bounded into the air just as the alpha went for a killing strike. A trail of black smoke followed the man as he arced with an elegant flip, bringing his sword down like a pointed comet. He smashed into the snow, and the wolves scattered, howling. Sander tore from the drift, steel flashing in the light. He dove toward the leader, dark eyes locked and hood thrown back. As he attacked, his form split, and not one, but three Sander Hales hurtled at the wolves.
 

Their swords blurred against the white. The animals lunged and snapped, but the Sanders pirouetted, flipped, or wove between their strikes.
 

The Sander on the left kicked a wolf, striking the beast square on the nose. It yelped and flinched, turning its head. Sander’s sword buried in its neck, and the beast dropped in a spray of red. That Sander bowed and disappeared in puff of black.

The Sander on the right bent backwards as a wolf leapt at his throat. It sailed over him, his sword slicing clean through its belly as it did. The beast landed on that Sander with a whimper, and the false priest vanished in a dark cloud.

Only the alpha and the original Sander remained. The wolf howled, charging. Iron’s master twirled his blade in a circle so fast the steel became a disc. The creature halted, snapping at the spinning steel inches from its snout. Sander looked to Iron and winked. His free hand slipped into his tunic. A flash of silver darted through the spinning steel and buried between the wolf’s eyes.
 

The alpha shuddered. It wobbled, swaying as each snap at the spinning blade lost more strength than the last. With a final, pitiful growl, the alpha collapsed. Its amber eyes rolled toward Iron, and there they stayed. “
Fire
…
bornnn
…”

Stillness settled on the valley. Iron grimaced. Now it wasn’t just the wound that had numbed. His whole arm and shoulder had become little more than lumps of flesh. “You never taught me those tricks.”

“You’ll know them when you’re ready. Some things aren’t taught, they’re felt. A Sinner’s man fights like a demon to save a life not his own. How can we remind good men and women of their sins if they’re not around to see?” He sheathed his sword and shook his head. “You’re damn lucky that wolf practically chewed your arm off so I wouldn’t have to. What in the blazes of all the Suns were you doing? I told you to study and you disobeyed. You disobeyed me, Iron. You don’t disobey your master.”

Iron stared at the snow piled around his feet. “I’m sorry. I just wanted to see something different for once.”

“And you went waltzing through a thundersnow to do it. I half-expected to find my apprentice little more than a frozen cube. Well, maybe three-quarters expected.” His gaze drifted to Iron’s wound. “You’ve got a nasty bite there. Maybe that’s punishment enough. Maybe not. You owe me for your disobedience. I’ll call on your debt and you’ll repay it how I want, you hear me, boy?”

“I hear you.” Iron’s arm hung limp and dripping blood. “Whatever you want.”

“Now let me go get my knife so we can cut that arm off.”
 

“
What!
” Tears bubbled in his eyes. “No, please. It’s just poisoned. We can find a cure!”

Sander stumbled forward and gently clasped his shoulders. “I’m only playing. Sorry, maybe that went a little too far.” He patted Iron’s cheek. “I won’t let that arm go. We’ll find a way to heal it.”

Iron collapsed against Sander’s chest. “Elk’s ass.”

“I’ve taught you too many curses. You’d make a sailor blush with what comes out of that mouth.”

He sagged in his master’s grasp. “It called me Fireborn.” His body felt about the consistency of tree sap. “What does that mean? I need my books. Maybe I should study etymology tonight.”

“It’s just gibberish. Drop it. Besides, I don’t think you’ll be studying much tonight.”
 

He barely registered Sander’s grunt as the man began dragging him to the cabin. “But—”

“I said drop it, Iron. We’ve got more important things to worry about.” Sander’s voice had grown cold and edged with fury, like an Everfrost with a brewing thundersnow.
 

“Wolves shouldn’t speak, and neither should does. And what’s a Serpent Sun anyways?” Iron’s body went completely limp, and he closed his eyes. “I don’t know these serpents.”

 
Sander paused. Iron couldn’t remember a time where he’d been so comfortable.

“Not yet.” Sander’s grip tightened on Iron. “Sinner, he’s not ready yet.”

“The circle’s broken, master. That’s what she told me. I think it might have been my mom, a ghost from the grave warning me. But why forgive her? Why would I need to do that?

Sander’s head cradled Iron’s. “She’s in no grave, Iron, and she above all others needs no forgiveness. Enough of this talk. It’s time to treat these wounds.”

The cabin door creaked open, but the sound seemed so distant.
 

“She came to me. I knew one day she would…” Iron lost himself somewhere in the darkness. A strong form lifted him, and a warmth encased his body. So comfortable. It was all so very comfortable.

Six stars appeared against a field of black, swirling slowly around the void like diamonds circling a bottomless drain. Iron stared at the sky and the hypnotic, twinkling pattern. Who had taken all the other stars? A soft wind toyed with his hair, tickling his brow. The wind smelled light and fresh as if a long rain had just given way to clear skies. Its caress warmed his cheeks like a loving sigh. Living in the shadows of the Everfrosts, he’d never felt a breeze balmy as a breath washing across his neck. Yet, he knew this wind. He remembered it.

Forgive us
, the doe’s voice echoed. It reverberated through his chest like a thundersnow’s first mighty clap.

“Who? I don’t know what you mean. I don’t know anyone but Sander, and if he knows something, he’s not saying. Why do I need to forgive you when you haven’t done anything to me? Please, if you’d just explain it so I can understand…”

Forgive us
, she repeated.
He comes
. Her voice drifted as if on a sigh, losing its terrifying depth.
He comes for you, my love. The circle is broken. What have we done? Forgive us, Fireborn, for what is done and what is yet to come.

A golden serpent appeared in the east. It slithered into the sky and crossed the deep black until it reached the stars. The serpent came to the first star, and with a hissing strike, it devoured the twinkling light.
 

Pain lanced through Iron’s heart. The serpent slithered to the next star.

The circle is broken,
she said.

Iron wheeled around. Nothing but an endless plain of grass rippled with the wind of her voice. “Can you tell me anything else? Who is the Serpent? How long do I have? Where should I go? This is so frustrating! I need facts to make a decision. I can’t—I can’t just go wander off to gods only know where! Sander will hardly let me look south, let alone
go
there.”

As he finished, the serpent devoured the second star. Iron doubled over with the pain, his hand clenching his chest. Each heartbeat slammed against his ribs and pressed against his temples. He fell to a knee and looked up as the serpent devoured a third star.
 

Iron howled. His chest was fire, his heartbeat a war drum beating in his ears. He twisted and fell onto his back. He knew what would come next. A fourth star blinked out beneath the serpent’s jaws. He wept, writhing on the ground from the pain blasting his veins.
 

Two stars remained, though they barely shined. The snake struck quickly and a fifth star died. Iron never knew such agony, such awful, horrible pain. His mind was alight with fire. Something warm oozed from his nose and wet his lips. It tasted of tin.

Iron convulsed, coughing. His body numbed as he trembled on the grass. He focused on the last star, that single point of light that illuminated this hellish world.

One last star disappeared within the golden snake. Iron screamed as the serpent formed a circle, its mouth latching onto its tail in a never-ending quest to devour its own body.

Two amber eyes appeared within the circle. A wolf’s jaws melted into view, open and bearing long, glistening fangs. Unlike the wolves he’d fought, this wolf had a serpent for a tongue. The reptile rocketed through the heavens with a hiss.
 

Iron’s eyes widened. He tried moving, but his body refused his mind’s commands.

The Serpent has many forms
, she whispered, her breath soft against his ear.
And he comes for you.

“Help me,” he said, tears running freely down his cheeks.

The snake opened its jaws. He saw its eyes. He saw its eyes and knew they knew him. And then, the snake buried its fangs into his neck.

Iron woke with a gag shoved in his mouth. Sander’s exhausted eyes stared down at him, dark rings propping the drooping lids from melting down his face. His salted beard had grown longer; Iron couldn’t even see the scar. Sander had Iron’s hand gripped firmly in his own. His other hand secured Iron’s arm to his bed. Outside, a thundersnow beat against the cabin walls like a thousand thieves hungry for coin.

“I’m not taking that sock out of your mouth until you can promise me to be quiet,” Sander said. He smiled and spoke warmly, but Iron knew he the tenderness of his tone betrayed his seriousness.
 

Iron’s heartbeat slowed to a steady, painful rhythm. The arm Sander held still burned like a fire in a baker’s oven, and his wounded leg refused his commands. He closed his eyes and took several calming breaths. He reopened them and stared at the cabin rafters.