The Wolf Mage

Her heart thudding in her breast, Kori glanced around at the decaying, semi-lupine forms that shambled silently towards them and slipping her hand into the pouch at her leather belt, she grasped a specially prepared package of fire powder that she had brought with her to Castle Gruenwald.

"Werewargs!" Cried Rudolph. "Fire!" The archers sent a volley of arrows at the encroaching werewargs. Those hit stumbled and staggered round in circles.

Kori glared at a werewarg that continued its advance and withdrew the fire package from the pouch and flung it with all her might and the shambling horror. With her demonic coordination, she could scarcely miss. The undead creature burst into flames and only staggered a few more paces before collapsing. Kori could hear Siegfried yelling in applause at the top of his voice.

But the other werewargs seemed to recover from the arrows and they continued their advance. Kori withdrew a second fire package and flung it at another undead beast with pinpoint accuracy and then a third… but by this time she had used up her supply and the remaining werewargs were almost on them.

Kori silently thanked the gods that the horses were the best trained in the Dark Forest and would not panic, even in the dire straits they were in. At their riders' urging they reared at the werewargs, lashing out with their hooves. Kori grimaced as the rotting stench of the undead beasts invaded her nostrils. The clamour of battle and men yelling was all around, but the creatures made no sound at all – they did not have heartbeats and they did not breathe. Despite the blows from the horses' hooves, the werewargs arose and snapped at the riders. One of them lurched towards her! Kori gritted her teeth and made the blocking motion Rudolph had taught her, using both her sword and Runeknife, slicing through the horror's decaying claws and then with lightning speed cleaving its neck. Her blades bit through bone and sinew and the beast cadaver collapsed in a heap; a pile of bones and decaying organs.

The battle was over now and… wait, what was this? The fallen werewargs, except for the three that Kori had burned, were twitching and now they were beginning to rise again. There was a weird throbbing in the air. Probably no one else could hear it. Kori turned her head in the direction it emanated from and saw a shadowy figure – similar in form to the werewargs, but alive. Yes, she could hear his heavy breathing – a wolfman swathed in shadow, growling softly.

"Look! Over there!" she cried, pointing.

A few of the men shook their heads, but the rest were preoccupied with fighting the resurgent werewargs.

The shadowy wolfman was stalking towards the royal carriages. There was no time to waste. Kori urged her horse forward at a gallop. The figure turned to her. It had burning red eyes like glowing coals. It raised a black furred claw at her and showed her its middle finger on which she saw the icy glint of a platinum ring. Another cultist! The werewolf growled, a sound full of rage and ice cold malice. Her horse suddenly gave a whinny of terror and stopped dead in its tracks and she was flung off, but she landed on all fours and leapt at the cultist, brandishing her weapons, but was stopped by an invisible forcefield. The werewolf lunged at her, jaws snapping and in desperation, she tried to recreate the unnatural scream she had made the previous month that had struck fear into the wolf pack.

This time she succeeded. She screamed a bloodcurdling scream that went on and on. Her voice was filled with her terror and her anger at their attacker. The werewolf took a step back and Kori felt a gleam of hope and screamed all the louder, opening her mouth wider than she thought possible, directing all the fury she could muster against the cultist. The terrible sound she made seemed to coalesce in front of her as she concentrated on directing all the force of her voice against her enemy. Her jaw felt as though it was coming off, but she couldn't stop. Dimly, she was aware of the men crying and the twang of arrows being fired. The cultist staggered again as silver tipped arrows struck him. Kori screamed with such terrible force, that she felt her mouth distending. She concentrated harder against the werewolf…

Now they were surrounded by men, led by Rudolph, who attacked the cultist from all sides with their swords. The werewolf's hot blood spurted from multiple wounds. Kori stopped screaming and sank to her knees, feeling very sick. Now the only inhuman voice was the howling of the dying werewolf.

Her whole body was shaking convulsively and she vomited on the ground, but she couldn't close her mouth. Rudolph was there and he gathered her up in his arms, his dark eyes wide, looking pale underneath the bush of his beard. She tried to speak, but she could only make strange choking noises. She couldn't close her mouth. She was beginning to black out…

The next thing Kori knew was that Rudolph had placed her on a bed in one of the carriages and a man was wrapping bandages around her jaw. It was the castle's military surgeon.

"I don't often treat young Ladies like her, My Lord," said the surgeon baldly to Rudolph. "And I've never seen anyone's jaw distend like that. If I were to hazard a guess, I'd say she has overtaxed herself."

"Answer the question man," barked Rudolph. "Can you heal my niece or not?"

"Sir, her physical composition is not altogether flesh and blood. Where there is magic involved, the limits of my expertise are past. We need Lord Vereticus."

Kori still could not speak. Her jaw felt terribly limp. Her consciousness was beginning to fade again.

00O00

As Kori came to, she heard Erika's voice. "No one is to disturb us unless I say."

Kori opened her eyes to see Erika's white face above her, looking anxious. "Sister dearest, can you hear me?" Kori nodded. Erika stroked her long hair that was now loose on the pillow. "You've been so brave Kori, as I knew you would. I – " Erika's voice trembled a little. Her dark eyes seemed bright with tears. "Siegfried was right. Lord Vereticus is a great scholar and he has an interest in the supernatural. He will be able to heal you, my sweet demon-girl. He must."

Kori found she could move her jaw a little, but the bandages were holding it in place. She found that the only vocal sounds she could still make were little hoarse croaks. She struggled into a sitting position and Erika put her arms around her, kissing her on the cheek. She relaxed somewhat at the feeling of her embrace, but her thoughts were still in a whirl. What was wrong with her? It was obviously related to her demonic nature… she remembered her father's account in the library book of how the lesser demon's mouth distended grotesquely… what was going to happen to her? She thought of the rest of the guards and the Royal Party as a whole. Were any of them injured? In which case, she ought to get to work healing them right away instead of leaving it all to the surgeon.

She tried to speak, but only managed a hoarse croaking. She gestured at the door of the carriage, but she did not know much sign language. She tried to mime writing something down.

"You want to say something, but have to write it down?" said Erika gently. "No problem, I've got some parchment."

She selected a piece of parchment and a quill from a drawer in the wooden table in the caravan and Kori scratched out a message: Was anyone wounded by the werewargs? I've got to tend to them.

Erika gave a silvery laugh. "You are a dedicated healer, sister. I expected no less. Do not fret; the foul things did claw at a few of the guards, but no one was bitten. When you directed your magic scream at the Wolf Necromancer, his concentration was broken and the werewargs had no will to direct them. He couldn't maintain whatever spell of invisibility he had used to baffle the rest of us either. You ensured a victory with no major casualties. Yet more proof that Rudolph was right about you all along. Mother will have to eat her words now. Isn't that something marvelous?"

Kori scratched out another message: I want to help anyone who was clawed, Erika. I don't want to sit around when I could be healing someone.

"Kori… You need your rest. You really are not well. You are the most hurt and the surgeon doesn't know what is wrong. You are special … " Erika gave a small, sad smile and then continued; "you need a special healer – Lord Vereticus. And until then, you must rest."

Kori wanted to protest further, but at that moment the caravan halted.

"We're taking just a brief rest stop," Erika explained. "What is more the Princes will want to visit after your latest feat of heroism. They'll be anxious about you." Kori was flattered that they were concerned about her, but fervently wished that she could speak and that her face was not held together with bandages for Siegfried's visit.

"And how is our most prized guard?" Boomed Siegfried. "It grieves me to see you so hurt in the course of duty, Lady Korina. But your deed is worth a song. I disagree with Rudolph often, but at least he could see the obvious – that we need you on the frontline."

Gerd spoke up. "The frontline? Can't you see how horribly dangerous this is?" He looked agitated.

Siegfried rounded on him. "And what were you doing to distinguish yourself? When you're half as brave and interesting as Korina, then you can talk to us about danger." He pointed at himself to emphasise his use of the royal 'we.'

Gerd bit his lip and looked a little forlorn. Kori wanted to speak up on his behalf, but of course, she could only croak. Siegfried put a hand on her shoulder and she thought she would melt. "Rest and mend quickly, lady. We hope to the gods that that stunningly pretty face of yours mends." Siegfried thought her stunningly pretty! Kori would have squealed if her voice had been working. She fervently hoped she would heal… she had to.

Siegfried took his leave of Erika in the formal way and then exited the caravan, but Gerd remained, still seeming on edge. Kori could not ask what was wrong, so she croaked and laid a hand on his arm to console him.

They gazed into each other's eyes for a moment and Kori was struck anew by how pretty his were.

"My father intends for you to be a fighter on our side, Kori, but I like it not. Especially as he knows how dangerous the Wolf Cultists are and that they come in different guises."

Erika was looking grave. Then her elegant white hands balled themselves into fists. Suddenly she blurted out; "if anything were to happen to Kori, I…" she checked herself and took a deep breath. "The Cultists put us all in danger. I try my utmost to defer to the wisdom of our uncle and the Regent."

Kori picked up her quill and indicated that she wanted to write and then she scratched out a new message on the back of her parchment: Dearest ones, I must accept my duty. The Regent showed good faith when he accepted a demon-girl into the Royal Castle. The condition was that I do my duty. We should accept his decisions. We each have our own role. Erika must be queen and I must help defend us from the wolves. But I am afraid, dears! The Wolf Mage could do magic – was he their leader? If not, then their leader must be terrible indeed.

Erika gave a fond smile when she saw mention of her own name in the message.

Gerd still looked grave. "Indeed, father always talks of duty. He is right of course. And which Cultist was it, who attacked us today? Was he their leader, the Arch-Lycanthrope himself? Or was he merely a follower?"