Chapter 112: If you had chosen Willowbank, Varek would still be alive!
Brann slowly lifted his head.
Swanly turned.
"What?"
"If you had chosen Willowbank, Varek would still be alive!"
Everyone near her froze.
Selka pointed at Swanly with shaking claws.
"You dragged us through the dangerous route because you wanted everyone to follow you. You wanted to prove you were smarter than the elders!"
Swanly stared at her.
A crawler shrieked in the distance.
Selka continued.
"Riverbone collapsed because of you. Those creatures followed that root monster you brought. Now Varek is dead because you refused the safer settlement!"
Brann’s face emptied.
"Selka."
She ignored him.
"You act like you care about every cub, but people keep dying wherever you lead!"
Swanly crossed the distance between them.
Kael caught her waist.
"No."
"Let me go."
"You will kill her."
"I only want to improve her face."
Selka laughed bitterly.
"You see? She thinks she can strike anyone now because powerful males protect her."
Brann laid Varek’s body down carefully.
Then he stood.
Selka finally looked at him.
"Carry him later. Save my things before they are ruined."
Brann stared at her.
For a long moment, he did not seem to understand the words.
Then his hands curled.
"No."
Selka’s ears rose.
"What?"
"I said no."
Her face went white.
Before she could speak, the final crawler fell.
Silence slammed into the camp.
Bodies covered the stone.
Three Riverbone guards were dead.
Two travelling survivors had been torn apart near the healer group.
Varek lay in Brann’s blood-covered arms.
More than a dozen people were injured.
Ashclaw had lost only one male.
Not because they had fought better.
Because most of them had not fought at all.
They had withdrawn behind their walls and allowed Riverbone to absorb the attack.
Now they emerged.
Slowly.
Calmly.
Weapons in hand.
Riverbone’s survivors looked around.
Their supply ropes had been cut.
Half their food was scattered.
Water skins were missing.
The strongest hunters were bleeding.
Soren could barely control his own hands.
Kael’s shoulder had reopened.
Thalara’s roots trembled from exhaustion.
Ashclaw’s men surrounded the camp.
Dagan walked between them.
His smile returned.
Swanly felt her hand move toward her storage.
If he came one step closer to her cubs, she would take out the gun.
Ancient shell or not, Dagan’s skull was made of ordinary bone.
Dagan stopped before Soren.
"You were warned."
Raku’s eyes narrowed.
"You knew those things came at night."
Dagan smiled.
"You survived."
"Because we fought while your males hid."
"My group protects itself."
"You weakened us on purpose," Swanly said.
His gaze shifted toward her.
"That is an ugly accusation."
"So is cutting our supply ropes."
Several Ashclaw males smiled.
Dagan did not deny it.
He spread his hands.
"Riverbone is exhausted. You cannot cross Splitstone without us."
Soren stood.
Black blood ran from the corner of his mouth.
His legs trembled once.
Then stopped.
"What do you want?"
Dagan’s smile widened.
"Your weapons."
Growls rolled through Riverbone.
"All of them," Dagan continued. "Your food. Your medicine."
His eyes moved toward Thalara.
"The Root-Eyed creature."
Thalara’s claws dug into the stone.
Then Dagan looked at Swanly.
"And the snow fox."
The gorge went silent.
Kael shifted.
A massive black panther landed between Swanly and Dagan.
His roar shook the stone walls.
Nerin rose despite the blood running from his antler.
Arion stepped forward with his amber eyes burning.
Raku lifted his weapon.
Even several wounded males forced themselves upright.
Dagan did not move.
"In exchange, Ashclaw will allow the cubs and remaining females to pass through the gorge."
Swanly felt sick.
Allow them to pass?
No.
Ashclaw wanted the males disarmed.
Then dead.
The females would never leave that gorge freely.
Dagan had been looking at them with hunger from the beginning.
Soren’s expression became calm.
Too calm.
"No."
Dagan tilted his head.
"Think carefully."
"I did."
"You are surrounded."
Soren’s claws lengthened.
"So are you."
Dagan laughed.
"You can barely stand."
"Come closer and test that."
The darkness beneath Soren’s scales spread across his throat.
Dagan’s smile faltered.
Then Garran stepped forward.
"Enough."
Arion turned.
"Father."
Garran moved beside Dagan.
Maela stared at her mate.
"What are you doing?"
"Saving what remains of Sunmane."
Several former Sunmane elders followed him.
One of them lowered his weapon.
Garran looked at the scattered survivors.
"Sunmane will join Ashclaw."
Shock spread through the camp.
A lion male growled.
"Join them?"
"They abandoned us during the attack!"
"They have a path through the gorge," Garran said. "They have strong hunters. They have walls."
Raku stared at him.
"They also have bodies buried beneath those walls."
Garran ignored him.
"Soren’s core is damaged. He nearly killed one of his own guards."
The Riverbone guard touched the bruises around his throat.
Fear moved through several faces.
Garran pointed toward Soren.
"He can no longer lead."
Soren watched him without blinking.
Garran’s confidence grew.
"Following the snake and that fox has cost us our home and our people."
Swanly’s ears flattened.
The words struck something old inside her.
Her past world.
Groups breaking apart.
People selling one another for food.
Safe houses destroyed because one coward gave away the entrance.
Betrayal always sounded reasonable before the blood started.
Arion stepped toward his father.
"Do not do this."
"I am restoring Sunmane."
"There is nothing to restore."
"You have forgotten your blood."
"No."
Arion’s voice shook.
"I finally remember the people carrying it."
Garran turned toward the remaining Sunmane survivors.
"Join me."
Some looked toward Dagan.
Then toward Soren’s blackened scales.
Fear pulled them in different directions.
One former elder stepped beside Garran.
Then another.
Maela grabbed Garran’s arm.
"Those men watched us fight."
"They will respect strength."
"They are using you!"
Garran shook her off.
Dagan’s smile returned.
"Tell them."
Swanly went still.
Arion’s face changed.
"Tell them what?"
Garran looked toward the rear of Riverbone’s formation.
"The wounded are behind the broken stone shelf."
Everything inside Swanly froze.
Garran pointed.
"The rear path beside the medicine group has only four guards. Most of the hunters are here."
Arion stared at him.
"You gave them our families."
"I gave them Sunmane."
"There is no Sunmane left to save!"
Dagan’s hand dropped.
Ashclaw attacked.
Hidden bows released from the upper gorge.
Arrows rained toward the rear path Garran had exposed.
The first pierced a wounded male through the throat.
The second entered a female’s chest.
A third struck Sari’s medicine bundle and drove her to the ground.
"Rear attack!" Raku roared.
Tilla threw herself over the cub line.
Mora shifted into bear form and covered three children with her body.
Nerin dragged Lumi behind stone.
Kael lunged toward Swanly.
Swanly’s black bow appeared in her hand.
She fired upward.
One hidden archer fell from the ledge with an arrow through his eye.
Arion stared at the people dying behind him.
Then at Garran.
"You told them exactly where to shoot."
Garran’s face paled.
"I did not tell them to attack."
Swanly almost laughed.
The sound that came from her throat was not laughter.
It was rage.
Her hand reached toward her storage.
She wanted the gun.
She wanted to place it against Garran’s forehead and end him before he sold anyone else.
But Soren moved first.
His damaged core flared.
The world inside him turned red.
Not metaphorically.
Every heartbeat became visible.
Every pulse of fear.
Every drop of blood.
The pain vanished.
So did restraint.
Dagan shifted into a massive gray wolf and charged.
He was not weak.
His shoulders were broad enough to knock a bear from its feet. His jaws had scarred more than one rival. His claws tore deep lines through the stone.
He aimed directly for Soren’s damaged ribs.
Soren transformed.
A gigantic white snake erupted across the gorge.
His body struck the walls on both sides.
Several Ashclaw males screamed and fell backward.
Dagan’s confidence vanished.
Too late.
Soren’s tail hit him in midair.
The wolf slammed into the gorge wall.
Stone cracked behind him.
Before Dagan could fall, Soren’s coils wrapped around his body.
The gray wolf bit down.
His teeth broke against pale scales.
Soren tightened.
Dagan’s ribs collapsed.