The Arch-Lycanthrope

After dumping the werewolf's carcass into the undergrowth, Rudolph insisted to Kori that Luca could be left in the cottage for a short time as long as she kept the door barred and then he led her and Ralph through a spur of dense pine forests and to the crags. The Arch-Lycanthrope's old sword was strapped to Kori's back and her own sword and her Runeknife remained in her belt, ready to be drawn. The branches of the pines were laden with snow. Eventually they thinned out and the three found themselves at the foot of a hill, standing before a gaping cave mouth, the stalactites and stalagmites at the entrance giving them impression of fangs. The moonlight did not penetrate far into the cavern, but Kori could see what lay beyond… The cave floor was strewn with bones. Some of them looked human. She swallowed.

"Only Kori can see in the dark, so we had better have our lanterns ready, my lad," said Rudolph.

They held their lanterns aloft and the three of them entered the cave. "A right dog's dinner," Rudolph observed, glancing down at the bones strewn around the rocky floor. Kori did not wish to look down at them and instead stared fixedly ahead at the three separate tunnels that all led onward. The light of the lanterns cast weird, flickering shadows on the rocky walls of the cave.

"What do your demonic senses tell you, Kori?" asked Rudolph. "Which way?"

"The tunnel to the left leads downwards. It smells foul. We should not go that way. As for the middle way, the tunnel with a seam of black stone running though it…" Kori peered into the gloom and then picked up a rock from the cave floor and hurled it down the middle tunnel and listened intently. "As I thought. It just ends. There may have been a cave in. If we are to go on, it will have to be the icy tunnel to the right."

The three of them proceeded along the tunnel. Rudolph was slower and followed behind. Ralph almost slipped on a pool of ice, but Kori's arms were around him in an instant to steady him. "Take care, dear."

Ralph was breathing hard because of the fright and his green eyes wide. His face looked pale in the dim light, accentuating his two-toned complexion. They looked into each other's eyes as his breathing steadied. He nodded.

In the next cavern, the floor was still icy and pristine icicles hung from the ceiling.

"Look at this," said Rudolph, pointing to the far wall, "the skeleton of a man, probably a prospector, but his bones have recently been picked clean and then sat against the wall."

"Poor prospector," said Kori glumly.

"And there is a message written on the wall in his blood."

"I can't read it," said Ralph, frowning.

Kori wrinkled her nose, somewhat disgusted at the notion of writing in someone's blood. "The language is eastern and they have a slightly different alphabet over there, Ralph."

Rudolph tapped the wall beside the bloody message. "It reads; 'Death to intruders!' A dire warning in the style we have come to expect from the Wolf Cult."

00O00

There was only one way on from the cavern, along a narrow, icy ledge which they crossed in single file. To their left was a precipice. Rudolph glanced into the pit. "There are more human bones down there, but they're smaller. They look like children."

Kori felt sick and her hands trembled a little. "Please don't look down, Ralph," she urged, not wanting him to be unnerved.

They followed a winding passage. "Be wary, you dears. I hear a chomping and a slavering some way off," warned Kori.

After following the passage for a few minutes, they emerged into what seemed to be open air. This cavern had no roof and the moon shone down, lighting up a strange scene.

There was a huge stone slab strewn with carcasses of dead animals, pigs, sheep and goats and three women in filthy, torn and dishevelled gowns that might once have been dresses.

The noise Kori had heard was that of the women gorging themselves on the raw carcasses. One of them stopped abruptly, even as she was sucking the marrow from a leg bone. "We have company, sisters," she snarled. The other two women both ceased their messy eating and sniffed the air, turning to the intruders, their faces hidden by veils. Moving as stealthily as cats, they glided towards Ralph and the Sommernachts.

"What's this?" asked another. "Guests for dinner?"

"Or another course?" said the third gleefully.

"They're obviously the Arch-Lycanthrope's victims," murmured Kori. "If we can talk our way out of this, we won't have to kill them."

Ralph nodded. "Alright, we'll see," said Rudolph.

"What do you bring? Fresh meat?" asked the first addressing them directly. She turned to Ralph. "You have something more to delight us with." She pulled aside her veil and he gasped in horror at the sight of the face beneath although it was what Kori had expected to see. It was a hideous amalgam of human being and animal, somewhere between that of a woman and a she-wolf. The wolf-woman licked a long pink tongue across canine fangs and something like a smile split her horrible visage.

"You're partial to red heads," the second observed. "Careful, lest the Arch—Lycanthrope hear."

"No! We have gifts for you," said Kori hastily, "then we'll be on our way."

"Ooh, pretty things," said the last of the wolf-woman.

"What are you, dearie? Some sort of demon in girl's clothing?" asked the first, drawing back her head and sniffing the air, her muzzle-nose wrinkling.

"I'm the bearer of gifts," said Kori. "Uncle, what pretty things do we have that are not made of silver?"

Rudolph reached into one of his belt pouches and drew out a gold ring. "Here, take it," he told the first wolf-woman.

"Pretty thing indeed," agreed the second.

"Wondrous, wondrous," warbled the first, snatching the ring from Rudolph. "Now be off old man and you, green girl, but the boy is welcome to stay if he wishes."

"Sorry, duty calls," said Ralph with admirable calm and they left the cavern and proceeded in single file down another passageway, this one very narrow and dark. Kori could sense evil and malevolence in the air now, worse than ever before. It sent a chill down her spine. "Be very wary indeed," she urged, "I really believe we are about to find the Arch-Lycanthrope."

The passageway opened out into another cavern with a hole in the room, the entire cavern and the stalactites hanging from the rocky ceiling lit up by the cold glare of the full moon. In the center of the cavern there was a roughly hewn rocky throne on which there sat a man, huge and imposing, with a mane of shaggy silver hair and a scar down the side of his face and cold, hard, eyes. He was wrapped in a cloak of what appeared to be a poorly stitched, leather patchwork… Oh gods! Kori realised it was actually made from stitched together human skin and she shuddered. Kori recognised the dreadful man from her vision. This could only be the Arch-Lycanthrope. The throne was surrounded by huge wolves who watched them intently, with unblinking, scarily human-like eyes…

The Arch-Lycanthrope glared at the sight of them. He spoke, and his deep, rough voice resonated throughout the cavern. "How dare rabble such as yourselves invade my inner sanctuary? How dare you suppose you could challenge Volkov, warlord and the scourge of the Odelands and now Arch-Lycanthrope? See what I have done already? I have turned a pack of your countrymen to my cause – they now wear the mantle of wolves. Do you want them to tear you apart?" Volkov's tone became gloating. "Or will you kill them…?"

Kori was not going to have this. She drew a deep breath and then stepping forward, gave voice to a horrendous, baying cry. Rudolph and Ralph jumped and the huge werewolves quailed and quaked, whimpering at her demonic howl before finally turning tail and running from the cavern though the different tunnel exits. Kori panted, to make such a terrible noise was taxing, but she was exhilarated. Their countrymen who had been afflicted with lycanthropy did not have the rabid fanaticism of the wolf-cult and whatever hold the Arch-Lycanthrope had used his demonic powers to exert over them had now been broken by her own. No victim was going to be harmed tonight, only the perpetrator. The warmonger turned leader of ghoulish demon-worshippers. Volkov himself.

"Your web is unwinding, Volkov," said Rudolph scornfully.

"Very well," Volkov growled with barely contained fury. "I shall deal with you myself."

Rising from his throne, Volkov threw back his head, giving an unadulterated howl of animal delight. With the horrible cracking-crunching sound of bones warping and re-forming, his body grew in stature, his ribcage broadening, spine arching, arms becoming longer, nails thrusting from the ends of his fingers, turning to claws. Fangs pushed through bleeding gums as the Arch-Lycanthrope's skull reshaped itself, becoming a lupine muzzle, his ears stretching to hairy arrow points. His feet lengthened and changed shape. Grey fur sprouted all over his body and he cast aside his cloak of human skin.

Before them stood the largest and most fearsome werewolf Kori had even seen. She could feel the pure evil intent pouring off the transformed cultist – a mixture of savage animal cunning and pure human malevolence. It chilled her blood, but she had to be strong. Strong for her sister, strong for the household of the Sommernachts, strong for Madeleine and strong for the Dark Forest.

She concentrated hard and screamed directly at the transformed Volkov. Circular sound waves seemed to crystallise in the air and stream towards the Arch-Lycanthrope. He clapped his gnarled claws to his arrow tip ears and staggered from his rocky throne. Rudolph also gave a cry and threw a package at the werewolf – there was a flash and the beast growled and staggered sideways. Kori guessed that the package must have contained silver nitrate. She quickly unbuckled the great sword from her back and leapt forward, brandishing it in the air as Volkov recovered and lunged at her with evil intent.

At the sight of his old sword however, something like recognition flared in the werewolf's eyes and he recoiled from Kori as she screamed at him again and struck with all her might, opening up a long, crimson gash in his grey hide across his ribs.

Enraged he leapt forward, swiping at her with his cruel claws, but she had hoped he would. She had to lead him away from her uncle and her friend and she had a plan. As he swiped, she screamed and jabbed at him again, this time in his flank. Then she leapt backwards underneath a hanging stalactite which had a very wide and noticeable crack in it. She had to time this just right…

She stood under the stalactite, waving the great sword and then as the evil creature lunged for her, jumped back and turning her face upwards, screamed with all her might at the stalactite. It cracked and groaned and as Volkov lunged for her, she leapt backwards again. And then the stalactite broke. Volkov had moved directly under it and now it landed on top of him, plunging into his shoulder and pinioning him to the rocky floor of the cavern.

He gave a terrible howl, almost as ear splitting as Kori's own, and struggled to free himself, but in an instant, Kori was there and had plunged the mighty sword deep into his evil heart.

Volkov's glaring eyes bulged, his howls became gurgling roars and as steaming blood gushed from his wounds, he vomited even more out onto the rocky floor of the cavern. And then his deadly jaws snapped shut for the last time and his misshapen head lolled to one side. The infernal light in his eyes dulled and he lay quite still.

"Oh bravo, Kori, you've done it!" Cried Rudolph. "The terrible beast that plagued our land is no more!"

"Kori, that was incredible," said Ralph. "It was a great day when Rudolph vouched for you."

Kori smiled at them, but she could not speak for the moment. She stood there panting, quite out of breath. Rudolph ran forward and knelt down beside their fallen foe and removed the platinum ring from the middle claw of his left fore-paw. "This is the last platinum ring. And that is the end of the Wolf Cult." He stood up and took the other four rings from a pouch at his belt. "That is every last one of them."

Kori got her breath back, but now she could see something deeply disturbing. The wounds she had inflicted on the werewolf were beginning to knit together and heal bloodlessly. The werewolf's eyes flickered open, but now they burned with an infernal light.

Kori found her voice. "You dears, it is not over. Look! The demon is resurrecting him. Cold steel and earthly force are not enough. Dear uncle, remember what Vereticus told us? Only I can finish this. Please give me the rings and stand back."

Rudolph nodded and handed her the rings and ordered Ralph to stand back.

"Wait, is she going to be alright," demanded Ralph. Rudolph shushed him.

Kori gave him a reassuring smile. "Darling, please don't worry about me. I'm worried about both your hearing. Do you have anything to block your ears?"

Rudolph nodded and took a ball of wax from one of his other belt pouches. He applied half of it to his ears and gave Ralph some and then led him back to the cavern entrance.

Kori knelt down beside the werewolf cadaver even as the demon attempt to regenerate. She spoke aloud. "Demon, you were brought to this world because five evil men, pure human all of them, were blinded by their hatred and ambition. They were rash enough to bring you here. It was their evil intent that started this. They are all dead now. That first part of the summoning is undone."

She laid the rings around Volkov's carcass in the shape of a skewed pentacle. "They first laid these rings in a pentacle to summon you. Now I lay them in a charm of undoing. The second part of the summoning is undone."

She glared at the wolf form before her. "Five evil men called you here. Now I, one demon-born, banish you and undo the third and final part of the summoning." She took a deep breath and screamed:

"BEGONE! BEGONE!" And then she exerted herself harder than ever, putting all her energy into her final cry and concentrating with all her might:

"BEEEGOOOOONNNNNEEEEE!" Her jaw was cracking, distending as she cried. And then her voice was joined by another unearthly howl that broke from the Arch-Lycanthrope's throat as something like black smoke poured from its mouth, briefly forming the shadowy outline of a wolf's head that writhed as if in agony and then imploded with a clap like thunder and the whole cavern seemed to shake.

The Wolf Demon was now gone and the Arch-Lycanthrope truly dead. Once more, Kori found herself choking, her jaw sagging. Rudolph and Ralph were rushing forward, helping her to her feet and holding her up, for she was too dizzy and unwell to stand by herself. Ralph was holding her jaw in position while Rudolph clapped a metal mask to her face. Once more, the mask held her jaw in position. Kori knew she was facing an arduous period of recovery, but it was so worth it. The danger was over, the Wolf Cult was finished and so was the plague of lycanthropy. Yes, it was true! Volkov's lupine corpse was now reverting to that of a man. With the greater demon defeated, every monstrous transformation was now reversed. The heir of Vereticus and all those infected by that terrible disease were now cured. She had succeeded in her duty as a healer! Madeleine would be so proud of her. And she had succeeded in her duty as a Sommernacht! Would that her father were here…