I shook my head. “There must be some mistake. Grayshadow isn’t doing anything these days. We have his body at Central—Sebastian ID’d it for us himself.”
“He ID’d the corpse of a vargulf, an enemy of the gang Grayshadow hired to help with his scheme. The man was once part of Arnou, so he smelled right, and with that much mutilation, who could tell?”
I sorted through the mass of information he’d just dumped on me, and grabbed the biggest nugget. “You’re saying Grayshadow is the Hunter? But he’s a Were.”
“There is no Hunter! Grayshadow used the terror that term holds for us to cover his tracks. If Sebastian had shown up to rescue me, he’d have killed him as he did White Sun and blamed it on the Hunter. Then with both of them dead, he’d waltz into Sebastian’s position with no opposition. He’s my brother’s Third.”
“But Sebastian didn’t show.”
“No, he sent the Corps instead. So Grayshadow has gone with Plan B: to challenge. Sebastian’s inability to stop the Hunter gives him cause. And White Sun was the only warrior Arnou had likely to win against him. No one else will dare take the challenge, meaning Sebastian will be forced to fight himself.”
“I take it you don’t think he can win.”
Cyrus paused at the entrance to the main tunnel, breathing heavier than he should have been for the short hike. “People think that because Sebastian is a diplomat, he’s a pushover. He’s not. I’ve sparred with him enough to know that. And he’s younger and faster than Grayshadow, although possibly not as strong. If it was a fair fight, it would be an even contest.”
“If it was?”
“Grayshadow doesn’t want a chance to win,” Cyrus told me grimly. “He wants certainty. And he thinks he’s found a way to get it.”
“The wolf wards.” A few things started to click into place.
“You’ve seen them?”
“I had them in my hand—briefly.”
“Well, Grayshadow has them now. He showed them to me when he returned this afternoon. He wanted to gloat about the fact that while Sebastian might defeat him, he couldn’t take out five wolves at once.”
“Five?”
“Himself and the four wolves he killed. The life force he stole from them will give him unbelievable strength. No way can Sebastian stand against that. No single Were could!”
“That’s why he was at the wardsmith’s,” I guessed. “To pick up the final ward. And once the man had delivered it, he was of no further use. So he killed him and left one of the gang behind to wait for me, to retrieve the rest of the weapons once I tracked the guy down.”
“I don’t know about that. I just know what he plans to do with them now.” Cyrus started for the corridor, but I pulled him back.
“But why did Grayshadow go to all this trouble? If he wants to discredit Sebastian, why didn’t he just tell everyone the truth about you? Sebastian said he knew!”
“Because the only way he becomes bardric is by inheriting the office,” Cyrus said impatiently. “By our laws, the bardric is the chief of the leading clan—in this case, Arnou—whoever that may be. But if a new election is called because Sebastian has lost the chiefs’ respect—which would almost certainly happen if they found out about me—”
“It would go to Whirlwind of Rand.”
“Very likely.”
“So instead of discrediting Sebastian, Grayshadow plans to kill him. But that doesn’t explain what you think you’re going to do.”
Cyrus’s jaw tightened. “Kill him first.”
He changed and slipped out the door so fast, I didn’t even see him go. But I heard Jamie curse and the sound of a knife hitting wood. “Jamie, no!” I hit the main tunnel at a run, to find Jamie and Caleb facing off with a huge black and tan wolf.
“It’s Cyrus!” I told them.
“That would be more reassuring if his hackles weren’t raised,” Caleb commented.
“And if he wasn’t growling at us,” Jamie added, yanking his knife out of a support beam.
“You just tried to stab him!”
“Well excuse the hell out of me!” Jamie said, livid. “It’s not like the rest of us can tell the difference! One huge hairy beast looks much like—”
Caleb gripped his shoulder. “Don’t go there.”
I belatedly realized that my feet were wet. There was maybe an inch of water in the hall, enough to slosh against the sides when I moved. “What’s going on?”
“This place is flooding, as I told you,” Jamie snapped. “We have to get out of here.”
Cyrus bounded away and we followed. Water was inching its way down the tunnel as we neared the warded wall again. The floor must have been slanted, because the farther we went, the deeper it got. It was halfway up my shins by the time we reached the end.
Caleb threw a sound shield around us. “Careful. Some of them are still in the outer room.”
I hadn’t needed the warning. Someone had a light and it lit them up through the thin skin of the ward, like silhouettes in front of a bonfire. I cautiously stuck my face through the faux clay and got a shock.
The remaining Weres—and shit, there were a lot—were standing on the far side of the cave, near the door. The ward was still coughing and sputtering, hiccoughing floodwater into the cave every time it flickered out. When it flicked back on, the waterfall coming through the gap was chopped off like a neck on a guillotine. The level in the cave was rising fast, but for some reason, the Weres weren’t leaving.
Then one of them was shoved forward by an older man with flowing silver hair and a goatee, a leather coat and dusty boots. Cyrus whined softly and I got the idea. Grayshadow.
The younger Were didn’t look happy, but he cautiously approached the ward anyway, as if waiting for it to cut out again. It should have been permeable from this side, with no need to wait. But the water must have messed up the charm, because when he tried to jump through as I had, he missed.
Badly.
The ward flicked back on and sliced him in two lengthwise, killing him before he had a chance to scream. One half of his body tumbled back into the cave, the other fell into the river raging in the tunnel outside and was immediately swept away. Grayshadow made an expression of distaste, kicked the remains aside, and selected another guinea pig.
We watched as this one made it through—barely—and another took his place. This one wasn’t so lucky. “He’s trying to wear out the ward,” Jamie muttered from behind me. “He’s using them to sap its strength.”
“Why are they doing this?” I demanded. “They don’t owe him any loyalty! They’re outcasts!”
“Not for long,” Cyrus said, his voice tight. Jamie and Caleb did a double take. I guess they hadn’t thought Weres could talk while in wolf form. Or maybe it was the deep, guttural sound of his wolf voice that startled them. “Grayshadow offered them a place in Arnou once he takes power.”
“He’s lying!”
“Of course, but they’re desperate. It’s the best chance, maybe the only chance, most of them will ever have to regain Clan status. So don’t expect them to disobey him—or to show us any mercy.”
“Let’s make sure we don’t need any,” Jamie said, pulling his huge sword.
“What is that?” I demanded. It was definitely not standard-issue.
“Claymore. I’ve noticed that knives don’t work too well on these beasties,” he told me. And then he charged, throwing himself through the warded stretch of wall, yelling at the top of his lungs.
The rest of us looked at one another, and then plowed through after him.
The reaction was a little different than I’d expected. The odds were heavily in our opponents’ favor and Weres don’t spook easily. But they were a gang, not trained troops, and they’d already been under enough stress. A screeching war mage brandishing a huge sword was the final straw.