Trinity (8 page)

The remaining Wolf was on his feet
again. Nidan blocked a blow aimed at his head, sprang to his feet
and thrust his sword through the Wolf’s shoulder. He tugged the
blade free. The Wolf staggered, bleeding profusely. Nidan wrapped
both hands round the hilt and ran the sword through the Wolf’s
chest.

Exhaustion swept over Nidan. He
leant on his sword. “One left.” He looked towards the trapped
mage.

Kiana ran past Nidan towards the
mage. What was she doing? Even though Nidan had very little energy
left, he sprinted to catch up with her. She stopped short of the
horse and its pinned rider, clapping her hands to her mouth. Nidan
could see that the horse was dead; its rider was attempting to free
himself. Nidan gripped his sword tighter.

“
Help me,” Kiana
said as she moved closer.

Nidan pulled her to a halt. “We
need to get out of here before anymore Wolves come. We have to get
to Valgate.” He felt a surge of anger catch in his throat as she
ignored him. “Damn it, Kiana! He’s a Wolf. Don’t let your
compassion get us killed.”

She stopped and turned her head to
look at him. Her eyes were cold. “You’re hurt.” Her voice was
flat.

“
Kiana, we can’t stay here.”
Why won’t she see reason?

“
You’re
hurt.”

She was right. With the shock of
the fight over, Nidan felt his wounds stinging again. Quickly, he
glanced over his injuries as well as he could. His shirt was
tattered, mostly slashes on his arms and left shoulder, though he
had also been cut across his right hand side. None of the wounds
looked dangerously deep, and the black fabric Nidan wore hid the
blood stains.

Kiana shook herself from his grasp
and turned round to look down at the rider. Nidan followed her
gaze. Another Wolf. Not their saviour. Just another Wolf. The mage
had succeeded in dragging himself from beneath the dead horse and
was beginning to stand. His face was stoically blank even though
his shirt was blood-soaked. Nidan quickly took in the Wolf’s
injuries: the mage had attempted to bandage a side wound; he held
his left hand awkwardly with the fingers curled like claws; there
were dark bruises around his neck and he wasn’t placing any weight
on his left leg as he stood. He was a mess.

Nidan stepped forward and readied
his sword.

Kiana grabbed hold of his arm. “He
helped us!”

Nidan narrowed his eyes; he didn’t
care.

“
He could have
helped them kill us,” Kiana said. “But he didn’t. Maybe he doesn’t
want us… me… dead at all. You can’t kill him in cold
blood!”

Yes, I
can. Nidan tried to
pull away from her, but Kiana clung on with surprising strength.
The muscles in Nidan’s cheeks flexed, but he made no further
attempt to circumvent her.

“
I never said I
didn’t want to kill you,” the Wolf said.

Kiana’s eyes were wide as she
turned round. “But you helped us… because we saved you…”

The Wolf had limped round the
horse and was now standing, staring at them both with cold blue
eyes. Nidan couldn’t read his expression at all.

The Wolf laughed briefly, the
sound full of bitterness. “No. For that I should kill you.” The
Wolf raised his left hand ever so slightly, his fingertips
twitching as he tried to uncrumple his hand.

Nidan wasn’t going to give him a
chance. He rushed at the Wolf.

Kiana grabbed at his shirt but he
was too fast for her. “Nidan, don’t!”

Nidan seized the Wolf by the neck
of his shirt, holding him so their noses were almost touching. “I
bet I can kill you before you can work your cursed magic.” He
stared up at the Wolf, looking him in the eyes.

“
If I was going
to use magic against you, I would have already.”

Annoyingly, the Wolf had a
point.

Nidan clenched his teeth. “I
should kill you.”

“
No!” Kiana
pushed Nidan away and stepped between them. “Hasn’t there been
enough killing?”

“
There will never be enough killing for the Wolves. It’s all
they live for. To kill those who worship Miale and Pios. To
kill
you
.” Nidan could feel his sword hand quivering with
held-back anger.

Kiana turned and stared at the
Wolf. “What do you want? You obviously helped us for a reason. What
is it?”

The Wolf stared at her coldly. “I
want answers, Miale.” His voice was completely void of passion, but
his confused expression told an entirely different tale.

Kiana returned his stare. “Ask me
what you want. I don’t know if I’ll be able to respond.”

“
Of course you
will. You’re the incarnation of Miale. If you don’t answer, it’s
because you choose not to.”

Kiana sighed.

“
Not here; it’s
too open.” Nidan was ready to pick her up and carry her to Valgate
if he had to. “We have to get to the city.”

Kiana nodded. “We can walk and
talk.” She peered at the Wolf. “Can you walk?”

Nidan’s mouth curled into a snarl.
“Does it matter? If he goes within sight of the city guards,
they’ll kill him.”

Kiana sighed. “Then we’ll have to
finish our conversation before we get that far, won’t we?” She
smiled at the Wolf. “I’m Kiana.” She waved her hand at Nidan. “This
is Nidan, my Guardian. What’s your name?”

The Wolf’s brow became deeply
furrowed. Nidan smirked as the Wolf’s silence continued. Kiana
glanced round and glared at him, her eyes bright as fire. He took a
step backwards; it was a stark reminder that he barely knew
her.

Feeling chastised, Nidan looked
round for the Wolves’ horses. They were clumped a short distance
away, agitated by the fight but well-trained enough not to flee.
“We should ride.”

Kiana looked almost embarassed. “I
can’t ride.”

Of course she
couldn’t; she’d never left Blackoak Tower until the
attack.

Nidan smiled at her reassuringly.
“I’ll ride with you.”

The Wolf stayed where he was
whilst Nidan took Kiana with him to retrieve the horses. He helped
her mount and then swung himself up behind her.

“
Nidan…” Kiana’s
voice quivered in fear.

He looked in the direction she was
pointing. Between them and the city, there were more Wolves; Nidan
didn’t think the pack had spotted them… yet. He felt a sinking
feeling in the pit of his stomach. They couldn’t win another
fight.

“
We’ll ride
north,” he said decisively. “Outrun them and hide in the forest. We
can approach the city from a different direction once we’re sure
we’ve lost them.”

Kiana looked over to the Wolf. He
was still staring at them.

Nidan sighed heavily. “If you want
answers you’d better ride with us, but if you betray us, I’ll kill
you. Understood?”

The Wolf nodded and limped towards
the horses. Once the Wolf was mounted, Nidan leaned down and
grabbed the reins of a third horse; he didn’t know how far they
would need to ride.

“
Nidan! They’ve
seen us!”

A quick glance over his shoulder
confirmed Kiana’s warning. Nidan set his sights to the north and
dug his heels into the flank of the horse, urging it straight into
a flat out gallop.

*

It was amazing how long it took to
walk on a dislocated knee. It didn’t help that Berend had led
Skaric several leagues from the tower in order to kill him; the
irony didn’t escape him. Exhausted and in burning pain, he
eventually stumbled into a returning search party. With horses.
He’d muttered every curse he could think of, wishing all manner of
ugly fates on Skaric for scaring his horse away. Skaric thought he
was so clever; he always had done. Berend hated him.

He kept his anger and story to
himself as he rode back to the tower with the pack. Why hadn’t
anyone been sent to look for him? By the Darkness, he was the war
leader, not some dispensable warrior, and he’d been gone for over a
day.

Half a dozen men were on guard
when they arrived at the tower.

Berend scowled at them. “I need a
healer! And fetch the Alpha. He needs to hear what I have to
say.”

Two of the men ran off in
different directions. Berend rode the commandeered horse into the
centre of the courtyard and waited. His hand hurt fiercely where
Skaric had stabbed it, and his broken nose made his breathing come
out in noisy grunts. Neither wound was anything in comparison to
the pain in his knee, which had been made worse by walking. He’d
used a stick, of course, but the damage was done. He curled his
upper lip into a snarl. What he wouldn’t give for a Guardian to be
in his clutches now. Damn Pios for forsaking them and siding with
Miale. Damn them both.

Brokk was the first to arrive and
Berend allowed the sallow-faced man to lead him into the makeshift
infirmary and sit him down on one of the beds.

“
What happened?”
Brokk glanced at the three obvious wounds as though deciding which
one he had the best chance of being able to fix.

Berend clenched his teeth together. “Just see to my injuries.
Adalric is the first person that will hear
my
story.”

Brokk shrugged and used a knife to
cut the woollen cloth away from Berend’s leg. A quick glance down
showed Berend that his knee was a bruised and swollen mess. The
joint was twice as big as it should have been, and the knee cap was
skewed to one side.

“
Would you like
something to bite down on?”

Berend shook his head, gritted his
teeth and waited. It was all he could do to stop himself from
screaming as Brokk’s skilled hands popped the joint back into
place. All he allowed himself was a low grunt as he clenched the
sheet he was laying on in his fists.

“
You won’t be
able to walk on it for a week or two,” Brokk said.

He hurried off, returning moments
later with a bowl of water, swabs and bandages, just as Adalric
burst into the infirmary. The Alpha’s eyes fixed on Berend as he
strode forward towards his war leader.

“
What happened?
Where’s Skaric?”

Berend twisted his mouth intoa
grotesque snarl. “Gone. But not before trying to kill me.”

He watched as Adalric stared at
him. Behind the normally impassioned expression that the Alpha wore
he saw a look of confusion, then disbelief.

“
Why? Why would
he do that?”

Berend winced internally as Brokk
began to peel away the bloody strip of cloth that had been wrapped
round his hand. He refused to register any pain on his face. He
wasn’t weak.

“
Because he’s a
traitor. That’s why.”

Adalric’s mouth became taut. “Be
careful, Berend.”

Berend snorted through his broken
nose. Weren’t his injuries enough proof? Adalric really was a blind
idiot when it came to his son.

“
Skaric had Miale
in his grasp and he let her go. He told me so himself. He confided
in me while we were searching.” His words weren’t convincing.
Everyone knew how much animosity there was between him and Skaric.
“Look what Skaric did to me!”

Adalric began to pace up and down
in the small space in front of the bed. He clasped his hands behind
his back and hunched his shoulders. His expression was dark and
brooding.

Fresh pain afflicted Berend as
Brokk began to clean the knife wound, readying it to be stitched.
“He went wild and attacked me!”

Adalric stopped pacing. “Skaric
couldn’t hope to win against you.”

“
Not in even
combat. That’s why he used his magic against me.” Berend motioned
to his knee. “Then he tried to finish me off with a knife before
taking the horses and fleeing.”

“
And your
face?”

Berend felt a brief flush of heat rise to his cheeks.
“I
told
you. He went wild. First he attacked me physically, and
when I fought back, he attacked me magically.”

Adalric turned round and
approached Berend. For a moment, the war leader felt cold as the
Alpha stood right over him, staring down at him with anger seething
in his pale eyes.

“
I see no
evidence of burns.” Adalric looked at Brokk, who nodded in
agreement.

Berend allowed himself to smile.
“You saw the magic he used to destroy the portcullis. Was that fire
magic?”

Adalric’s face drained of colour.
“You’re accusing my son of treason.”

Berend breathed in deeply through
his mouth. He had to speak calmly. “Skaric is a coward and a
traitor. Why would I lie to you? You know I respect you, as a son
respects his father.” Just as Adalric had once treated him as a
son. Then Skaric had been born. Skaric, who barely had the strength
to lift a sword. Skaric the coward.

Adalric’s chest heaved as his
breathing became heavier.

“
If Skaric is
innocent, why would he attack me? Why would he have
run?”

Adalric let out a growl and
slammed his fist down on the bed beside Berend. The wooden base
cracked and splintered under the attack. Then he turned away and
buried his fist into the nearest wall, cracking the plaster. His
entire body was tense with anger. “Isn’t it enough that my son
acted in a cowardly way? But a traitor?”

Berend stared at Adalric calmly.
“He has brought shame on you. He has brought shame on us all.”

He watched as Adalric breathed in
and out harshly for several moments. There was an angry snarl on
the Alpha’s face, but in his eyes, Berend saw nothing but hurt and
disappointment.

“
Brokk, finish
patching Berend up.” Adalric began to walk away.