Age of War

Chapter 38

It didn’t take long for Albrihn’s nightmares to find him again. This time, at least, it was something new. He stood in a place he’d never knowingly been before: a snowy mountainside. The sky was dark and black clouds swirled as if driven by a hurricane, but he felt no wind stirring his cloak. The air smelt of fire and death. He looked around and saw the ruins of a great city emerging from the snow, just towers rising up to the tormented sky like twisted black fingers. He could hear a faint voice in the distance and he walked towards it. It was just a whisper in the foetid air but the closer he came, walking uphill, the more familiar it was. Finally, it was loud enough for him to make out the words. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Rayke. I never meant for it to happen like this.” The same phrase over and over. It was Jonis speaking. He frowned. Was she in danger? Why was she apologising? Suddenly gripped with terror, he broke into a sprint, but as is often the way in dreams his legs felt like they were mired in thick mud, and he could only manage an awkward trudge across the white landscape. He didn’t find Jonis, but he did find blood. It was soaked into the snow, staining everything pink. He wrinkled his nose at the stench. Slowly, he approached the epicentre of the carnage that had been wreaked here and found body parts – human remains. None of them were familiar, but then he saw a round, shattered shield. It tugged at his memory. He went on, until he found what he somehow knew he’d come here to find. A pale hand, lying alone on the ground. He stared at it. The stump was bloody and ragged, as if shorn through by a woodsaw. Or teeth.

He turned at the growl that came from behind him. Nothing was there. It came again and he tried to follow the sound and find the predator that still lay in wait, somewhere in these ghastly ruins. His heart was pounding in his chest and he felt a raw, primal fear inside him. Something shifted in his peripheral vision. He spun, reaching for a sword that wasn’t there. Still he saw nothing though. He squinted. Something moved again and he jumped back, terrified. He saw it well enough now: a hulking wolf, its pelt criss-crossed with thick scars. He hadn’t seen it because its fur was as white as the snow, but it had been there all along, stalking him. The smell emanated from the huge creature. As it walked closer, huge muscles rippling in its powerful limbs, it was hard to imagine how he’d missed it: it wasn’t entirely white for its pelt was shot through with a little red, or perhaps that was just blood. Its slavering jaw was filled with long, yellow fangs, and its eyes shone green in the fell light.

Albrihn raised his hands, hoping to placate the creature, but of course it would do no good. It was intent on him, this monstrous white wolf. He could feel its hunger too, somehow. An insatiable need to consume not just him, but the whole world. As it opened its dripping maw wider, he could see it was capable of it too. Those jaws could enclose all creation, snuffing out the sun and the moon and plunging everything into a cold darkness from which it would never emerge again.

“I’m sorry. I’m so sorry, Rayke,” whispered Jonis again.

“Who are you?” he asked the wolf stupidly.

He sensed it understood him. That it mocked him. Its pink tongue lolled from its mouth and it padded towards him. It was enormous: larger than him. He’d never seen a wolf so huge. Were there places in the world where they could grow to this size? Not that he’d ever visited, for certain.

“Who are you?” he said, now in a roar of defiance.

The wolf lifted its muzzle and let out a howl. It reverberated across the mountains and was answered by dozens more calls. No, hundreds. Thousands. Millions. The sound was deafening and beneath it all was the rush of wind, the crack of thunder, the coming of a terrible storm. He dropped to his knees, holding his hands to his ears.

“Please…” he whispered.

The wolf fixed him in its gaze and there was a second’s hesitation. That was his chance to run, and he knew he’d missed it. The wolf leapt for him. It was impossible to imagine such a heavy beast could be so agile, but it pounced as well as any of its kind. It hit him with all the force of an avalanche, driving him helplessly into the snow. He stared into that hideous mouth and saw row upon row of teeth, smelt the cold reek of the grave and heard, from somewhere deep inside, a single word, faint as a whisper. Everything went black.