***Tirnanog, Northern Mountain Range***

***Astra***

I had removed the arrows and hanged another body above Thalia, right next to the Thich leader. They were upside down, and I had cut the arteries lengthwise so that they would bleed out all over my friend. It was gruesome, but I told myself that they no longer needed their blood. Thalia lay in a shallow ditch that was originally intended to catch the waste of dressing unprocessed raw meat for the group.

It felt like I had been at this task for hours, but I couldn't rest. Every minute counted when it came to this.

Fox stumbled back into the cave and slid down against a wall. He actually looked a little green beneath the thin fur that covered his entire body. “I can't watch it anymore.”

“Watch what?” I asked.

“Your mate...” He shuddered. “Forgive me to say this, but that guy is a psycho. He collected the Thich survivors and is interrogating them.”

I couldn't care less about what Magnus did to those bastards.

“Is someone watching out?” I asked, unsure whether Magnus was aware of the issue that so many dead bodies might attract dangerous carrion eaters.

Fox waved it off with his remaining arm. “Hailey and Charite are outside. One is on watch while the other is searching for Ryan and Nina. We haven't confirmed whether they are dead. Though, I don't believe that the Thich left them alive.”

He looked at the macabre display that I had created in the hope of saving my friend. “Do you have to bleed them in here?”

“I can't do it outside.” I rebutted him. “You know how long it might take Thalia to revive. If she doesn't wake up by nightfall, the night predators might get to her.”

He chuckled. “Nice to be like a plant. Just sprinkle some fertilizer on top and everything is fine. I would have taken the bloodvine mutation if I could.”

“Provided that someone can sprinkle some fertilizer on top,” I pointed out.

My attention was drawn by Aylin, who barfed up into a stone-hewn bucket that was more like a large bowl. It was intended for when someone absolutely had to follow nature's call while the shelter was closed. It would be a pain if someone else needed it tonight, but there was nothing to be done about it now.

I would wait and see whether Aylin recovered enough to no longer need the bucket.

In any case, the shelter wouldn't be a pleasant smelling place for the next few days.

Instead of basking in her misery, Aylin uncorked her water skin and drank. It was her body's way of dealing with the poison. She leaned over and shook Luciana by the shoulder, then drank some more.

“What about the poisoned?” I asked.

Aylin shook her head. “Micha and Luci have no poison resistance. They are goners. Sanders might make it. At least his heart is still beating.”

I closed my eyes.

My heart ached at the thought. “That makes six, maybe seven dead?”

We had some medical supplies, but the Thich used processed wyrmroot, a potent poison that had only one known antidote – freshly plucked wyrmroot. The plant was a powerful antidote against any poison but quickly turned venomous as it dried. Once the dried wyrmroot was roasted, it could be ground to powder and mixed with water to create a poisonous paste that was easy to apply to any weapon.

And wyrmroot was only found in the swamp region to the Old Camp's east. Another possibility I knew of were the Aerie plantations. Neither place was within reach. Anyone who was poisoned out here was as good as dead unless their body had a natural resistance.

During the clan wars, it was the poison of choice because it killed anyone who wasn't within reach of a major settlement or a swamp.

Nowadays, every civilised poison user chose the firebush because the antidote could be easily stored and applied – if one was fast enough.

“Oh, that's no good.” Fox slumped. “We have only two remaining warrior types, even if you two are strong. The others are all either sensors or supporters. How are we going to make the trip? The first big predator we come across will eat us for breakfast.”

“It could be worse,” I tried to cheer him up. “We could all be dead.”

“We could try to get back to the Old Camp,” he suggested. “Sit out the winter and try again next year. The clan will mount an expedition to find out why nobody returned.”

“We should first see how the situation looks tomorrow,” I said. At the moment, there is no point in making plans beyond that. “We can't make it to another shelter today, so we have to sit out the night and see what we have to work with come morning.”

I didn't mention that we also lost most of the people who could fly. There would be no easy gliding across descending mountain ridges anymore. If Thalia revived, then she and Aylin might be able to do it.

My filaments suffered a lot when the Thich dropped down on me. I was no longer sure that I could create enough surface area to glide.

That's when Charite entered the shelter, transporting a body in a fireman's carry. She glowered at the mess that I had made. “You and Tulkas are two of a kind.”

“Who?” I asked, indicating the body on her shoulders.

“Nina. They knocked her out, but I found a pulse. Possible that they intended to have some fun with her once they were done with us.” Charite carried the unconscious woman to her sleeping bag and laid her down. “I also found Ryan on his post, but he was already cold. Caught an arrow directly through the eye.”

I closed my eyes and sighed. We were down to eight people, maybe nine if Sanders survived. Fox was a cripple for the foreseeable future. Even with a starfish mutation, limbs didn't regrow on the fly.

And then there were the kids. Carrying them would require two people. Carrying the additional supplies required two people. That left only four or five of us for proper scouting duties. We could have three scouts and two rear-guards, but then there would be nobody with the supply carriers.

Fox was right with his concerns. The travel group wasn't maintainable like this.

We would have to make do with a much slower pace or take some risks with smaller scouting parties. Maybe just one scout and rear-guard each? We would lose people for certain that way. None of us had enough sensor abilities to cover for every angle of attack.

I stood up and walked over to where Michaela and Luciana lay. Just to be sure, I checked the pulse on both of them. Then I retrieved their clan amulets and handed them to Aylin.

Six people. That was the body count so far, and we had been lucky despite that.

If the Thich had known about Magnus' and my abilities, they would have killed all of us. Thankfully, they had lost a sizeable part of their people due to a stupid mistake.

I grabbed the bodies at the scruffs of their necks and pulled them out of the shelter.

Hailey was sitting next to the entrance and scanning the surrounding area with her eyes. Her expression fell when I lined up the two bodies next to Liam and Powell. Someone had brought Liam from the stream, even if I couldn't fathom the reason.

I wished we could send them off properly, but there was no burying the bodies out here. The rocky ground would take hours to dig into and piling up stones on top of the bodies wouldn't deter the larger animals.

Nonetheless, I knelt next to Liam and paid him my respects. He wasn't exactly a friend, but he was a good leader and a trustworthy clansman. He hadn't been a fighter, but I remembered his last words. Liam thought of us instead of himself.

My eyes drifted down to the stream where Tulkas had a man and a woman arrayed in front of him. Roderick lay impaled behind my partner, accompanied by two bodies that looked like someone had carefully dissected them in a way that made them live for as long as possible.

That's when an idea struck me. “Tulkas, don't kill them!”

I slid down the slope towards the stream, ignoring my mate's sour expression.

“Why not?” he asked and waved his bloody short sword at the two prisoners. “They attacked us with the intention to kill.”

“Because we need someone to carry the supplies!” I pointed out. “We have too little manpower to have people on scouting missions. If we had two pack-animals, a lot of our problems would be solved.”

“I don't think that's a wise idea.” Magnus scratched his cheek with the bloody blade. “They could turn on us. Poison us. Run away in a crucial moment.”

“You would have more time to interrogate them,” I pointed out. “I don't know what else to say. Our group is too small to journey on in its current state. Not if we have to transport the children.”

“They are injured,” Magnus pointed out. “They won't be of much help if they just stumble along.”

I looked at the two remaining prisoners. The Man's eyes had been blinded and the woman held her bloody side, grimacing as she looked up at me. I cursed, realizing that they wouldn't be of much help until they healed up, which could take days.

“You have the starfish mutation?” I asked.

Both nodded.

I tried to juggle the numbers in my head. “Wait... we have four weeks left until the winter starts. If we stay here for a week to lick our wounds... we would use up our safety margin. I am just trying to get the timetable right... It might work out. Otherwise, we would have to turn around and return to the Old Camp.”

“That's not an option,” Magnus replied. “Back at the camp, we would have another fight on our hands. Can you predict which side the other clans might take?”

“What?” I asked.

He pointed his short sword at the injured woman. “The missus says that the Thich want the kids for breeding experiments. She is apparently unaware of the greater picture, but that's what's going on. They have permanent orders from their higher-ups to bring them all the twins that Earth sends, especially the redheads. Even if it means paying off the other clans.”

Magnus placed the flat of his blade on his shoulder, not caring about the blood. “I tell you, the Thich have some kind of deal with Earth's government! The kids are all taken back to the Thich clan grounds where they receive identical mutations from some unknown source, often turning their skin violet. They are doing that again and again with all the kids.”

He took a heaving breath, becoming angrier as he talked. “So far, it doesn't sound like their experiments succeeded because they are repeating the same experiment with the same sub-par results. But that's not all; the kids are indoctrinated in a way that I could only describe as creating child soldiers! Once they are done with them, they are handing the children off to high-ranking clanners because pairing the violet mutation with others is apparently exceedingly successful.”

Magnus had been waving his sword wildly by the end, looking like he would lose it any second and behead the two Thich right then and there.

Now that I thought about it, the Thich always had one or two women with violet skin among their numbers. I had never seen men with that evolution. So far, I hadn't found that to be special because every clan had their preferred evolutions. I would have to go through every detail that I remembered from the three times I visited the Old Camp.

It didn't help that the Thich's attitude towards the other clans was isolationistic at best, hostile at worst.

I turned to the woman who had been cowed by my partner's loss of control – which was understandable, given that this had likely been his sisters' fate. “Is that true?”

“Yes,” she whined. “Please don't let him cut us up. He doesn't even let us die. That maniac reanimated Hannes three times with his electricity before his body finally quit.”

“Why do they need twins exactly?” I asked.

“I don't know.” The woman sniffled. “All that I and the others did was to follow orders. We are lower class soldiers. One of our orders was to get the kids back to the clan at all costs. Jan was anal about it. He said several times that they would have all our heads if we didn't bring them the redheads. Back at the clan, they gave the kids something that made their skin violet. They would go through the clan's training courses together with the other clankids. But once they graduated, they would always get partnered off to one of the big shots instead of joining the regular warriors. Everything else was above our pay-grade, I swear.”

“The mutation isn't widely known among the clan?” I questioned, thinking that this was important to know. I couldn't think of any logical reason to hold back a mutation that would improve the survival chances of everyone.

I thought about it, but the only thing that came to mind was that the source might be in limited supply. But why would some animal or plant be in limited supply on a flourishing world like Tirnanog? Nothing aside from the great beasts was too hard to harvest if the clans saw the benefits in doing so.

It didn't make sense.

The blind man shook his head, looking deadpan into the distance. “It isn't some animal or plant that the general population is aware of. Whatever it is, they are giving it only to exiled girls. Not even high ranking clanners or promising exiles get the mutation.”

I turned to Magnus. “There is another reason why they have to live.”

He frowned. “Why?”

“Because they are witnesses,” I stated. “Once we reach Aerie, clan politics will be much easier with their testimonies. What the Thich did here will have an aftermath.”

Even though Magnus didn't look convinced, I turned back to the two. “You have my word that if you come with us and tell the clan elders everything you know, you can live under my parents' protection for the rest of your lives.”

“We don't even know whether you can deliver,” the blinded man stated.

“Do you have a choice?” I asked. “I am offering you a chance. Take it or we leave you out here for the night predators to feast upon! Injured as you are, you won't get far.”

He tilted his head in acquiescence. “I would rather not be eaten.”

“Then it's a deal!” I looked at Magnus. “We are going to stay here for two or three days to recover and move out as soon as we can. We will try for the next shelter, see how that goes. We are a week away from the Old Camp. If it doesn't work out, we can still turn around. If our pace is satisfactory, we continue.”

“Shouldn't we be worried about the Thich sending out another group?” Magnus asked. “There are still some of them at the Old Camp. They could recruit more exiles, even if most of them were trash mobs.”

“Trash mobs?” I frowned, then raised a finger to stop him. “No! I actually remember that one. It comes from computer games, right?”

He sighed. “This world needs computers and movies. What do children get taught in clan Aerie?”

“How to fight and how to survive,” I answered and returned to the original question. “And no, I don't believe that we have more to fear from that direction. Their group must have included all the clanners that left the Old Camp to set up this ambush, adding all the reasonably strong exiles they managed to recruit. They won't expect them back for another week. Even if they immediately send out a hired search party once their people don't show up, it will take them another week to get here.”

I contemplated it further. “By the time they get back to the Old Camp, they will be stuck there. There will be no chance to reach Thich clan grounds before winter comes.”

“Jan was already cutting it close with this stupid ambush,” the injured woman mumbled. “I actually expected us to be caught at the Old Camp. We would have had to fabricate some story for our return and sneak the kids into the bunker...”

Magnus frowned as he contemplated the travel restrictions of this world. “In other words, you are frightened enough of your clan to risk being caught in snow and ice, including two abducted kids, at nothing more than their behest?”

The blinded man shrugged. “They have executed soldiers for less.”

“How many people does your clan have?” Magnus asked.

The woman considered that. “I don't know. The fortress city might hold anything from ten to twenty-thousand people.”

My partner looked towards me.

I shrugged. “It's a normal size for the large clans. Aerie has fifteen stratas and each holds a thousand to two thousand people. I am not aware of our exact numbers either.”

“It's no secret?” he asked.

I laughed. “Please, didn't I tell you about the Caravaners? They travel all the clans. I would be deeply surprised if information about each clan's rough size and political make-up hadn't gotten out.”

Then I suddenly remembered something and addressed the prisoners, “Speaking of violet-skinned evolutions... I thought that I saw Ivonne among you when you attacked. Where is her body? We might learn something from it. I threw a stone at her and hopefully got her good.”

“I found no violet skinned one,” Magnus clarified.

“Ivonne was gone after you flashed us with the light,” the injured woman replied.

I looked down the stream. “Maybe the water carried her off? She was in the deep part.”

Magnus sighed and looked towards the sky, then went and pulled his spetum out of Roderick's corpse. “I will check further down the stream. Do you think she survived?”

I shrugged. “She is a tough bitch.”

***Tirnanog, Northern Mountain Range***

***Ivonne***

I woke and coughed out blood, then slowly touched my aching face. It wasn't one of those normal aches, but a pulsating pain that rose and ebbed even if I held still.

Coughing again, I spit out what looked like the entire front row of my teeth.

“Mh, killh hat hitch...” I mewled and looked around, finding myself at the riverside in a shallow part of the mountain stream. Nothing looked familiar, so I crawled out of the water and laid on my side while I tried to get my act together.

The last thing I remembered was the bitch screaming, and then she exploded like a tiny sun. Hopefully, she was dead.

I covered my eyes and tried to keep up with the others – and then the lights went out.

“Hitch...” I continued to curse, even if my swollen lips were unable to form the necessary 'b'.

Things had taken a turn for the worse during the last month.

My initiation was supposed to be easy. Everyone said so.

I finally finished all the training courses and joined the recruitment team to prove my loyalty to the clan. Just one small task and Jan would have taken me through the initiation ritual to make me a full member.

Lead the negotiations and get the kids, he said while he had his fun back at the bunker.

It should have been no problem! The other clans were practically throwing all the good ones at me until that bitch showed up and messed with the negotiations. Only the Hochberg were a little bitchy, but a bribe would have solved the issue easily enough. Jan had been clear about what resources we had to spare.

But the bitch out-bid me on everything! How was I supposed to know that I should promise whatever was necessary to get the kids? Jan had given me a frame to work with. So I stayed within his limits!

If anyone should pay for my failure, then he should at least share half the blame!

And when Jan instructed me to kill the bitch, I didn't manage that either. She, threw me across the whole town, making a spectacle out of it!

And then I messed up with Gurney! Jan could have told me that the fucking dating manager was partnered!

The whole month, nothing but one mess-up after the other and it was all the fucking bitch's fault!

I stumbled to my feet and looked around, not knowing which way to go. Jan and the others had been in charge of the direction.

The sun was already close to disappearing. I had to get back to Jan and my people, find shelter.