The trees still had some of their leaves here and a riot of coloured flowers was still in bloom on thorny bushes. Their scents fought for attention in his nostrils. High overhead an eagle soared on the wind. Kormak was very aware of its presence and of the massive bulk of the mountains looming over him. He felt like an insect crawling over their sides and that got him to thinking.
“You are frowning. Straining to think, are you?” Petra said. He looked at her and smiled. They had developed the odd companionship of the road, the intimacy of strangers who would most likely never see each other again after the next few days. He had felt this way many times before. He could be open in such circumstances in a way he could not be with the closest brethren of his order.
“I was thinking about whether any of this is worth it.”
“You picked a bad time to have doubts.”
“I’ve always had them. Our lives are so short. We will pass in an eyeblink of the gods. The mountains will still be here. They’ve seen a hundred generations come and go. They’ll see a hundred more.”
She looked a little confused. “I have sometimes thought something similar myself.”
“Razhak has been here for millennia. The Old Ones have been here even longer. I have set myself to hunt things as old as mountains and I do so to stop them preying on people who will die anyway, in heartbeats as those demons measure time.”
“Why do it then? No one is forcing you to. You could just turn your horse around and ride away.”
“You’re not asking me anything I haven’t asked myself.”
“You ever give yourself any answers?”
“I swore an oath. I keep it.”
“That’s no answer at all.”
“It is for me.”
“It’s not the whole truth though, is it?” It was a surprisingly sharp observation for one so young.
“The truth is that I love doing this. I love the hunt. I love the excitement of the battle. It’s when I feel most alive.”
“You could soon get very dead.”
“And that’s the point. Sometimes I think that is an unworthy reason to do what I do but it keeps me at the task.”
“Maybe for you. I plan on living as long as I can and dying peacefully in my sleep surrounded by my grandchildren.”
“I am surprised you have thought that far ahead.”
“I’ve had some occasion to brood on these things recently. Tell me, do you hate him? Razhak, I mean? Or any of the Old Ones.”
“I don’t know Razhak. I know what he has done and what he will do if he is not stopped and that is enough for me.”
“What about the Old Ones?”
“One in particular but it’s an old hate and I try not to let it bother me.”
“Why you hate the one you do?” Kormak considered his answer, wondering whether he should give one, and then decided that under the circumstances it did not matter at all.
“Because I am afraid of him and because he killed my family when I was a boy. He killed everyone I knew.”
“I can understand why you feel that way then. You see that all the time up here. With the feuds. One killing leads to another. The moondogs kill us. We kill them. I was kind of hoping you would say there is no one you hate or fear.”
“The two things go together along with a lot of other ugly emotions.”
“You do sound like a priest sometimes, you know.”
“I know.”
“How are you going to kill Massimo?”
“However I can.”
“That does not sound like a plan.”
“How can I have a plan when I have no idea what I will encounter? I will sneak into the tower one way or another. I will find Massimo and Razhak then I will see what happens.”
“You have a lot of confidence in your own ability, don’t you?” She sounded envious.
“I’ve done this sort of thing before.”
“And that’s the secret, isn’t it? To confidence, I mean. How do you do it the first time though?”
“You fumble your way through and you do your best to appear to know what you are doing.”
“Is that what you did?”
“For the most part. I was also trained to do this. It helps. A lot.”
“An order of monks who are trained to kill. It sounds more exciting than praying for the souls of the dead.”
“I won’t argue about that.”
“But you could?”
He shrugged. Somewhere in the distance a howl rang out. It was eerily loud. It sounded like a wolf but it was not. There was something oddly human about its tones. Petra had frozen on the spot. Her face was pale and devoid of colour. Her knife was in her hands but she looked as if she wanted to dive into the nearest bush.
“It seems like Massimo’s pets are getting ready to hunt,” she said. Her voice sounded shaky, as if she was having some difficulty forcing the words out. She swallowed and waited for him to say something. He just listened.
“They are still a long way off. The sound carries a fair distance in these valleys.”
“They are going to be looking for us soon.”
“They are going to be looking for me. You can still run.” She looked embarrassed.
“I don’t want to be on my own in these mountains with the Wolves running free.”
“We’re heading towards an army.”
“I can be as sneaky as you. I have hunted these hills since I was a little girl. And I want to be there when you kill Razhak. I want to see him pay for what he did to Tam.”
“I am not sure that is a good idea.”
“You think I am not up for it?”
“I’ve seen people who have had to deal with possessed relatives before. It’s not pleasant. They sometimes forget what has happened and demons can be very persuasive.”
“It won’t happen to me.”
“I wish I was as certain of anything, as you are of everything.”
“You are getting old, Guardian.”
“I know it.” They moved on.
Below them the valley was visible in the early evening gloom. Smoke rose from campfires around which sat a number of men. A tower loomed on the opposite ridge overlooking the other side of the valley. A silvery dome topped the roof. It has the ancient look of most lunar fortifications in the area. The moondogs had been in this land a long time before the Sun worshippers came. It had been theirs once, just as the dying wolf-man had claimed.
The tower’s age in no way detracted from its aura of strength. The position was very defensible, the only approach up the line of the ridge, a narrow road along which not many troops could advance at a time. Anyone coming up the road would be visible to defenders from a long way off. Anyone standing on the battlements would have a clear view of the surrounding land.
Kormak was glad that Petra had the native wit not to stand. He had left his horse back down the path a ways, and crawled forward to take a look. He did not want to be silhouetted against the brow of the ridge if anyone glanced in their direction.
“There are several hundred men down there, and most likely Wolves in the tower. They are not all out hunting us,” Petra said. “Massimo must want to keep a guard close to him.”
“Maybe he does not trust Razhak,” Kormak said. “I can’t say I would blame him.”
“You think he took possession of one of the Wolves?”
“It would not do him much good.”
“How so?”
“The wolf-man is already possessed. It has a spirit of Shadow bound within its form. It would fight possession by Razhak and even if he snatched the body, he would have none of its powers. They would go with the Shadow Spirit.”
“He might have powers of his own.”
“He most certainly does. He is a life drinker.”
“And that does not scare you?”
“My amulets will protect me.”
“I wish I had one.”
“I need all the ones I have.”
“I wasn’t asking. I was just saying.” She was very touchy and, of course, she had been asking. As they watched the gate of the tower opened and a pack of monstrous shapes emerged howling. They raced down the path and joined a group of riders. All of them departed from the valley by the entrance on the opposite side.