Twenty-one before New Dawning, 29964 DC
The snow had stopped. Kaden peered up at the flawless blue-white sky and licked his dry lips. Almost without thinking about it he was systematically rubbing his hands, numb even inside his thick fur-lined gloves, up and down the length of his powerful yew bow. If he let it freeze then the wood would go brittle, and crack when he drew it; the bow itself might kill him as it exploded into pieces under the strain, let alone the consequences it would have.
He looked around again. In the cold, clear evening he was perched on the roof of the village's little stone-built shrine, along with a group of the other villagers. Kaden shivered and hunched down further inside his furs. He'd told them that he was old enough; pleaded to be included and not consigned to wait with the people huddled fearfully inside the shrine with the door barred. And despite his age, Kaden was the best shot in the village, so he'd been allowed. Another, smaller contingent was waiting inside, ready to defend the children and elderly with their lives.
Kaden hopped from foot to foot, drawing assorted compassionate and irritated looks from his companions. 'Steady, lad,' Ola advised, not taking her grey eyes from the forest edge. 'They'll be here soon enough. Listen!' Everyone heard clearly the high cold note of a wolf's howl.
'It's them,' muttered Bern.
'A long way off yet,' Ola said, raising her voice slightly so that everyone heard her. 'Time for us to prepare.'
'We're as prepared as we're going to be, Ola,' Ulin said, the young woman's voice wavering nervously as she clutched at her bow.
Skula Greybeard nodded, his eyes and hands steady despite his age. 'This weather's the worst luck that we could have.'
'It would have happened eventually,' Bern said, pessimistically. 'If it snowed every day between now and spring, then the spring wouldn't come and we'd all be buried twenty feet under in ice.'
'But all the snow on the ground…' Kaden said. 'Won't that get in their way?'
'It will, but not as much as it does us,' Ola told him. She scanned the distance again. 'And they're desperate. They're starving. A bit of snow isn't going to stop them. They'd have come eventually even through a storm. At least this way we know to expect them - and we've good light for shooting.'
Some of the archers nodded, but Bern said glumly, 'We have now, but they won't come until it's getting dark. They're damn cunning beasts.'
'Arcaren protect us all,' Hamen the wheelwright said, grimly.
'He will, when we protect ourselves,' came Data's gruff voice. Kaden looked up at the huge orc in his armour and felt comforted. Data's bow was an exceptionally fierce looking hide-backed laminated weapon; he'd once let Kaden shoot it, and the boy knew that it packed a fearful punch. Data was someone that he was glad to have on his side.
To his surprise, the orc looked down at him and winked. 'Besides, we can defend ourselves. I've seen Kaden here split a wand at a hundred paces, even in the dusk. Isn't that right, youngster?'
'It was a hundred and twenty paces!' Kaden said, affronted, forgetting his surprise.
Ola nodded agreement. 'It was. I should know, I counted it.'
'Are you promising me a wolf at a hundred and twenty paces today?' Data asked, baring his fangs in a savage smile.
Kaden gulped at him. 'I…uh…'
The orc shook his huge, ugly head. 'Lighten up, youngling, I'm teasing you.'
'Oh. Right.' Kaden had never heard Data make a joke before. He respected the orc, everyone did - no one had Data's strength or endurance, and no one was more willing to lend a helping hand - but the orc had always been surly and taciturn, ever since the day he first arrived and set about working to get himself accepted in the lonely human village. But now the orc looked relaxed - and even happy.
He's actually enjoying this, Kaden thought, shaking his head. Amazing. I'm really glad he's with me! And Ola, too. He glanced across at where the ranger was coolly surveying the landscape around them. He could hear the echoing howling again - from more than one animal, he thought, listening carefully. It sounded closer now.
The light was gradually leaching out of the world, leaving the wooden houses of the village as dark shapeless humps against the white snow, and the jagged black outline of the Great Forest beyond. The temperature was dropping even further; Kaden dragged a fold of cloth across his mouth, ears and nose so that only his upper face was exposed to the biting air. Even that was too much; he wished that he was at home in bed. Even that would be bitterly cold; but at least he would have his blankets and furs to add to what he was already wearing. And no one was at home tonight; his only choice would be to wait below, defenceless, and in the gathering dark…
'String bows and check blades and arrows,' Ola ordered quietly. Every villager had a bow; those were cheap and easy for the foresting community to manufacture; but Ola had spent a great deal of effort on gathering together at least a small blade for everyone who would be fighting.
Kaden clumsily drew the long dagger in his belt and re-sheathed it. He wasn't sure what use he would be with it; he hoped that he wouldn't have to find out. All the swords that Ola had managed to find were in the hands of the defenders below, waiting inside the chapel in case the wolves broke through the barricaded doors. The ranger had sternly warned the archers that the short blades they were carrying didn't have enough reach to be much use against a wolf. They were to stay up on the shrine roof, safely out of harm's way.
He steeled himself for a minute and then quickly stripped off his thick gloves and tucked the end of his bow into his instep to bend the stiff wooden length and slip the top loop of the string into place. It bent smoothly and he didn't hear a crack; good, he'd managed to keep it warm and supple. His arrows were hanging in a quiver at his belt; he drew out a few to check that they slid loose easily enough, then pushed them back again. His heart was racing faster as he stuck his fingers into his mouth and puffed hot air over them, wincing as they painfully thawed a little, then stuffed them back inside his gloves. He could shoot fine with them on; certainly better than he would with frostbite in his fingers.
He jogged from foot to foot again as he stared out towards the forest, swallowing nervously over a rolling belly. Ola thought they'd be coming soon…
Earlier in the evening the sun had been shining from behind the archers straight into the forest, but now that it had set the edge of the trees was almost impenetrably black. Kaden couldn't tell if there were shadows moving in that darkness or not.
'There they are!' Ulin had better eyes, but the young woman sounded almost hysterical. A moment later, Kaden too saw a dark shape, belly close to the snow, emerge from the forest and slink across the clear white ground, and then others behind it. He swallowed and clenched his hands.
'I see them. Steady.' Ola eyed the approaching animals calmly. 'Arrows to the string, but hold your shot until they get close enough. Kaden, hit that big one at the front for me.'
Kaden gulped, his eyes widening. 'Now?'
'If you can.'
Kaden bit his tongue. Then, moving cautiously because he felt suddenly clumsy, he laid an arrow against the string and lifted the bow. He'd made the arrows in the autumn and he'd carefully tagged them with his mark, a flash of white feather in the grey goose fletches, so that he could tell them apart from anyone else's in the village. But it was a waste to shoot arrows like that, good arrows he'd crafted so carefully, at the wolves. It wasn't like hunting; he'd likely break all the arrows that he shot today.
Ola and the others were waiting for him. Kaden licked dry lips and swallowed a mouthful of icy air, his breath steaming. Then he took a careful stance, and in one swift movement lifted his bow, drew back, aimed and released the arrow.
He knew it was a good shot by the feel of it, and the travelling time of the arrow was enough for him to watch it flying; Kaden wasn't surprised to see the dark line of his arrow fall across bright snow into the dark shape that was the leading wolf.
'Shot,' growled Data admiringly, but Kaden was disappointed.
'It didn't even slow down!'
'It wouldn't at that range,' Ola said. She sighed. 'That's the one that's going to cause us trouble. It's a dire wolf.'
Kaden swallowed. 'A dire… but aren't they legendary?'
Ola shook her head, measuring with her eyes the distance between them and the approaching pack. Nine wolves in total were converging on the village in a loose arc. 'In the centre of the Great Forest you can find all sorts of dire animals. That's why there's no road through to Eldavir… but you can occasionally get them out here, too. Usually on their own.' She frowned. 'This one leading a pack of ordinary wolves is a threat I haven't seen before. I think they're close enough.' She raised her voice and said to everyone. 'Ready, and shoot at will!'
Data's first arrow tore through the air beside Kaden before Ola had even finished speaking, making the boy jump, followed in a ragged volley by those of the other archers. Ola herself hit, he saw, and Data's arrow lodged solidly in the shoulder of one of the smaller animals behind the dire wolf, but the others scored only glancing hits, and a number flew entirely wide. Hastily Kaden dropped to one knee to be out of the other archers' shots - Data's had been too close for comfort - fumbled another arrow onto his string and sighted again on the big leader.
He got off another couple of shots, but for all the effect they had on the dire wolf he might as well not have bothered. As the pack got closer the perspective meant that they appeared to travel faster, closing the distance in what seemed like no time at all; Kaden could see now that the dire wolf was half again the size of the others, and huge thick ridges of bone rising through its coat at the shoulder blades made it look unnatural and threatening. Kaden could see the steam of the animal's breath in the air as it raced up the street towards him; and he could hear its softly thumping footsteps in the snow and the rasp of its panting. The dire wolf's eyes were gleaming redly, and as it looked up at Kaden he could see one of his arrows hanging loosely from its thick black coat. The wolf's tongue lolled out of the side of its mouth so that it appeared to leer up at the boy; as if daring him to try and hurt it.
Feeling strangely detached under the gaze of the dire wolf thundering towards him, Kaden laid another arrow on the string, drew up and loosed it straight away; he didn't even pause to aim. In the same daze he saw the fletches, starlike, spiralling away from him; and then the sudden explosion of redness spraying across the snow as the shaft slid up the dire wolf's muzzle, laying the beast's face open.
And then sound flooded back into the world; the dire wolf roared, and the raging sound seemed to shake the world. The couple of triumphant cries from the archers were swallowed in the thunderous noise, and the huge beast recovered its momentum and threw itself forwards again towards the shrine, leaping hugely into the air to hurl its weight towards Kaden.
It knows it was me that hurt it, thought the terrified boy, clutching his bow as he knelt on the edge of the roof. Around him the other archers were hustling backwards away from the wolf, shouting with fear, but Kaden couldn't seem to move. We were supposed to be safe up on the roof, he thought, rigidly. But it's going to make it! It's going to make it it's going to make it…
The dire wolf's flying weight struck the building below the level of the roof, hard enough to make the stone walls flex a little, and shaking loose the snow piled on the almost-flat roof. The heaped ice crystals poured onto the ground, and Kaden found the roof around him sliding away suddenly. He shouted and tried to twist round, to fling himself back up onto the part of the roof that the archers had cleared of snow; but the movement only made him skid faster across the suddenly treacherous and slippery surface. Then, with a heart-jolting jerk, his scrabbling feet plunged into space, and Kaden was falling.
He landed on his back with a sickening thud that knocked the breath out of his body, hearing a loud crack somewhere. He tried to breathe and found his lungs compressed as if a steel band was tightening around his chest; he had to strain to force air in and out of his body. The wolves! his mind screamed at him. The wolves, where are the wolves? He'd fallen into the snowdrift piled around the shrine's walls - it had probably saved his life - and he'd sunk into it so that he could see nothing but the grey shadows of the snow walls around him and the deep blue sky above. The snow touching his face and seeping into his clothing was piercingly cold. I'm going to die! Where are the wolves?
It didn't matter where the wolves were. Kaden couldn't move anyway. There wasn't enough strength in him; there wasn't enough air… His head swam.
No! he told himself, furiously blinking his eyes clear and dragging in deep breaths of the painfully icy air. The fur-lined hood of his coat had fallen back during the fall, and was packed with snow. But being cold would be the last of his problems soon. Forcing his limp body to respond, Kaden lifted himself up on one elbow.
The wolves were surrounding him in a ragged semi-circle, glittering yellow eyes fixed on him. There were only seven; some must have been shot; and even as Kaden watched an arrow flew down from above and buried itself in the haunches of one of the animals, which yelped and backed down, twisting its head to try and reach the injury and whining pitifully, but the other wolves didn't even react; they carried on slinking towards the boy. He could see their ribs through their fur and the ragged look of their thick coats. The wolf pack was close to starvation, and the threat of the archers above wasn't enough to keep them away from their intended prey.
The dire wolf was in the centre of the line of animals, its muzzle gory with its own blood. It drew back its lips in a ferocious snarl as Kaden looked at it, and crouched ready to spring.
Kaden heard a fierce yell, and a bulky black shape dropped across his vision. As the dire wolf leapt towards the boy, Data fell between them, landing heavily but on his feet, and shoved his shield into the dire wolf's face as it leapt, blocking it. The orc grunted as the animal's weight forced him backwards a few steps towards Kaden, and the wolf growled angrily as its head slammed painfully into the solid metal. It retreated a step and stopped, watching the orc with narrowed eyes as he half-turned, not letting the huge animal out of his sight, and dragged Kaden to his feet.
The ordinary wolves had fled a little way back down the village street when Data came hurtling down among them, but as they saw their leader hold his ground they turned and came creeping back, bellies close to the ground. This time a number of arrows came raining down on them. Ola must have got them organised up there, Kaden thought, shakily, letting Data support him as his breathing began to ease. He saw one wolf collapse as a well-aimed shaft seemed to sprout out of its chest, crimson staining the snow and the animal's fur.
A thought struck him, and he shook off Data's supporting hand, twisting to look around the area where he'd fallen. Where was his longbow? His quiver was still strapped to his waist; he'd lost a lot of arrows in his fall, but there were some left…
Behind him Data grunted a warning and leapt forwards towards the wolves, slashing his sword across the face of one that came too close, but Kaden trusted the orc to keep him covered. He'd spotted the end of his bow, and dragged it hastily out of the snow drift. If only he could get a couple of shots at the wolves before they got bold enough to attack; Data couldn't possibly hold them all…
His bow was in two pieces. Kaden gaped at it, horrified, remembering the crack he'd heard as he landed on the ground. His full weight must have come down on his sturdy bow…
Data; his bow, where was it? Kaden spun around to see the orc standing in between three wolves, blocking and dodging their fangs and claws. A fourth wolf was lying in a pool of crimson snow nearby, head almost severed from its body by the orc's blade. The archers had stopped shooting; the risk of hitting Data was too great.
But where was the dire wolf? It was unmistakable by its size and those hideous bony protuberances on its back; and it wasn't there. Kaden looked around desperately, and found himself face to face with the huge animal; it alone had ignored Data and come back for the easier prey.
There was a moment where the world seemed to slow; the wolf's muscles bunched up, and Kaden thought grimly, I knew I was doomed from the moment I fell. I hope Data gets away…
Then the dire wolf leapt and Kaden dropped to his knees, dragging out with numb fingers the long knife Ola had given him, and bracing himself. He'd managed to dodge the wolf's jaws, but its forepaw raked across his shoulder, tearing a set of gouges that burned like fire and throwing him backwards into the snow. The dagger must have hit something, though; it was torn from his grasp as the force of the dire wolf's leap carried it over Kaden's prone form. As it turned Kaden could hear the new laboured note in its breathing; Ola's knife had left a deep scoring cut in the flesh of its chest, and blood was soaking out into its fur.
Won't stop it eating me, though, Kaden thought, shutting his eyes in despair. The pain of his shoulder seemed to be radiating sickeningly through his whole body.
He could hear shouting. Kaden opened his eyes, puzzled, and the wolf also swung its head around, snarling. There was something; something bright… Kaden could see the flickering orange blaze of flames in the night air, and hear running feet and the ring of metal. He cudgelled his brain into working. The men waiting below in the shrine; they must have heard the commotion, Data's shout, perhaps, and they'd come out to join the fight. And they'd win! With the wolf pack so weakened, they'd win!
The dire wolf knew it too. It howled one last time, furiously, desperately, and then it leapt away, loping off down the street into the gathering darkness. The ordinary animals, Data's foes, had already fled. A couple of arrows followed the huge beast, but they were nowhere close to hitting it.
Hands were reaching out to him, lifting him. Kaden blinked. He seemed to be looking at the sky, and it was cold around him. He felt drained and almost peaceful; only that terrible burning ache was still there in his shoulder, as if that was the only part of him that really existed.
'The wolf,' Kaden said vaguely, to the crowd of dim figures huddling around him. He could feel the hard pressure of their hands, and the sky jerking and twisting above him as they lifted him. Someone put a hand on his wounded shoulder and sent a vicious stringing throb racing through him. Kaden made a thin little noise of pain, and they let go quickly, but the hurt didn't subside.
'Wolf's gone,' growled a gruff voice near his ear. Kaden recognised it; it was… Data, that was who it was. 'Be easy, lad,' the orc continued. 'Wolf's gone. That was a damn brave fight.'
'No,' Kaden said, and struggled to get up. 'The wolf… it's not…'
'Lie still.' A hand pushed him back down, and Kaden realised vaguely that above him was no longer sky; it was the stonework roof of the shrine. He supposed he'd been carried in here; he even remembered it vaguely, if he strained. 'Go to sleep.'
'But…' Kaden struggled to explain.
'No, Kaden. Go to sleep.'
Would it count as sleep if he let the grey blurring at the edge of his eyes slide across the whole world? Kaden wondered. But it was obvious he wasn't going to have a chance to explain what he knew; that even as the dire wolf fled it had caught Kaden's eyes with its own redly gleaming ones; that the wolf wasn't dead, and it would be back; that it and Kaden would fight until one of them was dead.
And even if I kill it, Kaden thought, that's not the end. There will be other wolves. Because I am a ranger of the Wolf Country, and my enemy is the winter itself. And someday, somehow, it will kill me.