The warg's breath ghosted white and thick in the chill, his ashen fur matted and muddied. And where there should've been a tail, there was only a stump.
Thresh.
Her heart sank for just a moment. She'd so badly wanted it to be Thrax.
Thresh threw his head high and let out a bellowing howl that raised the hairs on the back of her neck. It was so loud that it rumbled across the sky, and for a moment even the thunder god himself paused his fury.
She hadn't yet learned which howl meant what, but it sounded like he was raising an alarm. She felt the mating bond vibrate deep within her veins. A mixture of bloody rage and excitement. Even a shadow of fear whispered in her blood. The onslaught startled her. It was as though she was feeling Thrax's emotions.
Despite Thresh's fearsome mien, she approached him and sagged against his bristly mane. She was nigh boneless with relief. Giddy beyond speech! For all of a second, she allowed herself to imagine it was Thrax's fur under her cheek. Except Thresh smelled nothing like her mate.
"You smell like a wet dog," she whispered, hugging him tighter. He grunted. The sound reverberated through her bones and made her smile. "Yes, I know I reek of wet horse turds, thank you." No thanks to Merritt.
The men all gaped in horror. But none more so than Merritt, who stank of hot piss and terror.
She looked up at Thresh, tears gathering behind her eyes. Tears hidden by the rain. She was so happy to see her kin, even this ornery warg. "I didn't run off, Thresh! I'm here against my will, I swear it!"
The warg's glare turned menacing as he studied her shackles. I can see that.
Wiping her eyes, she turned a black look at Merritt. "You'd better unshackle me now, or I'll have Thresh chew your bollocks off."
To that, Thresh gave a violent canine sneeze of disgust.
She glanced up at him through wet lashes. "Go on, at least nibble a finger or two off, he deserves it for knocking me senseless." She was speaking so that the others could understand, too. Those that were close enough to hear over the storm.
"Oh, gods!" Merritt whimpered, curling his fingers under his chin.
With a sharp grunt, Thresh began to shift. She'd seen Thrax do it so many times now, she hardly batted an eyelid. But to the humans recoiling, it was still a horrifying sight. By the time he'd shed his fur, the milky-skinned valet had fainted dead away, right off his horse.
Even Thresh winced to hear the lad hit the ground with a wet thud.
Blushing, she darted her gaze away so she wouldn't have to see his cock in her periphery.
He didn't seem to notice because he was examining her scalp, fingers probing the lump. "Not too serious," he rasped. "Good thing you never stayed married to this wife beater."
Merritt gasped. "What?! No! I never...I wasn't beating her, I was just..."
"You just walloped a sleeping woman over the head," she finished for him. "Coward." She ripped off the gold band and flung it in his face.
He flinched as it struck him under the eye. In a flash, it landed in the mud at his knees and disappeared.
Thresh snagged him in a flinty look, prowling forward. His bare foot landed hard over where the ring had disappeared. "The wargrix bade you unshackle her, what are you waiting for?" He was a brooding warg even on his best days, but his impatience at that moment made him downright sinister. She didn't care, she wanted to hug him again. Just not while he was naked.
Merritt turned sickly pale when Thresh barked for him to hurry up. He was fumbling to get a key off his belt. "Please...p-please don't eat me!"
"I don't like the taste of piss," Thresh muttered, lip curling up over his teeth. His gaze was probing the curtain of rain as though he expected, at any moment, monsters to lunge out of the gloom.
Merritt gaped at Thresh's long fangs and promptly dropped the key. With a sniveling apology, he began rooting around in the muck for it.
The warg rumbled his impatience. "Leave it, Marwort, we've no time for your bumbling." That said, he took hold of Rowan's wrists at the iron cuffs and, with an almighty jerk, snapped the iron links free. The chain was broken, but the cuffs remained, gnawing away at her skin. "That'll have to do for now," he said. "We need to leave this place."
It occurred to her that he wasn't just being impatient, he was visibly disturbed. That alone—seeing him look so uneasy—turned her stomach.
She peered down into the mud one last time, hoping to catch sight of that infernal key, but Merritt's antics seemed to have buried it deep.
Meera dashed over to throw her arms around Rowan. And when she turned to hug Thresh, she was instantly enfolded in his burly arms. A flash of something tender appeared in Thresh's gaze. It was fleeting but Rowan glimpsed it.
The sight of them like this made her yearn for her mate. "Where's Thrax?"
Thresh's eyes were once more hunting through the dense rain. "The storm wildered your trail, so we split up to cover more ground."
She gasped. "So he's out here, too?" He'd come for her after all! Her knees nearly gave way, she was so relieved.
"He's close." Finally, Thresh gave her a brief look. "But if we can't stay here and wait for him."
"Yes," she whispered, watching Merritt crawl away on all fours.
"Where are we?" Meera asked, looking frightened.
"The Deadwolds," said Thresh.
Meera gasped, turning white.
Acid flushed into Rowan's gut. She'd suspected as much. It made her want to throttle Merritt all the more. She pierced him with a killing look. "You brought us to the Deadwolds!" She felt Thresh's hand firm on her arm, holding her back lest she murder the man.
Merritt stood up, his hat like a drowned pigeon, the long feathers drooping pitifully. "Deadwolds?"
"Is there an echo in here?" the warg replied with a snarl. "Yes, the fokken Deadwolds!"
Merritt yanked out a tattered piece of parchment and glared at it through the rain. "It's not on the map!" He shouted over the thunder of rain!
"To Hekki with your map!" Thresh boomed. He began walking Rowan backwards, in the opposite direction.
They moved backwards towards Striga who looked as fierce as a griffin with her feathery horns and sharp beak. Her forelegs were now covered in black scales, her talons slicing through the mud. The rest of her was all brawny horse flanks, tail swishing.
Meanwhile, Merritt inched further and further away. His soldiers and mercenaries were all edging steadily away from the warg, too. Only the valet remained where he was, still comatose. Even the valet's horse had left him.
"That's the wrong way, Marwort!" Thresh warned.
"I'll take my chances!" Now that Merritt wasn't huddled on all fours in the mud, his voice quavered less.
"Too much the coward to face Thrax, eh?"
Merritt halted, his brow in a fret. Then his eyes darted to Meera, narrowing to pinholes. Meera was planted on all fours in the mud where Merritt had been, scrabbling around for the lost key.
"Meera!" Thresh snapped, slowing, "leave it, there's no time!" He crooked his fingers impatiently at her. There was more than gravity in his glare. There was fear.
"Just a moment!" she shouted back, not looking up from her search.
Suddenly, Merritt lunged towards Meera. She gave a garbled cry as he hooked her around the neck and yanked the dagger from her belt. It was Rowan's mirok dagger! With a shaking hand, he held the rondel like a stake to Meera's neck and pulled her hurriedly away towards his men.
Thresh had leaped forward with a roar at the first sign of trouble. Neither of them had expected Merritt to turn rabid like this. But the moment that dagger was pressed to Meera's neck, Thresh skidded to a halt. His breath growled out in hot spurts as he glowered. "Let her go!"
"She's m-my assurance you won't harm me."
"I hadn't thought to harm you," he snarled, "until now..." He uttered a feral growl as blood began to trickle down Meera's neck. Merritt was dragging her clumsily backwards, the blade point nicking her throat. "Tread carefully, Marwort. You draw any more blood and I'll kill you."
"You...you..." Merritt licked his lips. Despite the rain, his voice was like desiccated bone. He tried again, "You w-will see us safely to West Gate. Then I'll...I'll release her and...and you can all f-fuck off back to Carthyrk."
"I'll see you dead first." But he looked fearful, his eyes on the strange winding tracks behind them. "Get away from there, damn you!"
The men were all backing away along the strange pathway. More like snaking roots beneath the earth. Like the roots of the underworld waiting to drag them to Hekki's realm.
"You're going the wrong way!" Thresh's fangs were nearly too long to speak through.
Merritt looked around, panicked. "But this is the shortcut! I know what I'm doing!"
"You're standing on a hive, you twit! These grave trails lead to pit traps!"
But Merritt was still tracking backwards, deeming the warg the greater threat. That or he couldn't hear above the thunder and wind. Some of the men, those that'd trod on the roots, were lifting their feet up, their eyes like saucers as the white roots clung to their boots. Something like sticky ooze coated the roots. One man was struggling with it in a panic, unable to free himself.
Thresh shoved Rowan towards Striga. He looked like a bull about to charge Merritt. But one of Merritt's men, with sticky web up to his knees, gave a sudden shriek. The roots seemed to be dragging him in! Flailing, he latched onto Merritt's surcoat. With another scream, he toppled backwards out of sight, but he wrenched Merritt in with him. And Merritt, in turn, dragged Meera down! All three were swallowed up in seconds.
"Meera!" Rowan screamed. Black dots flapped into her vision, turning her dizzy. She wobbled, stomach plummeting.
The other men began hacking at the sticky roots. But Rowan stood transfixed with horror. The sound of men shouting and swords hacking at the roots was drowned by the roar of blood in her head. Her throat was raw from screaming Meera's name. Her legs threatened to buckle as she ran to Thresh.
His eyes were stark, his face grim. He looked ready to bolt after Meera. The same madness was churning in her own head. Could she? Did she dare jump in after her friend.
She bolted forward, ducking out of Thresh's grasp. She rushed towards the trap despite the warg shouting for her to stop. The others, those who'd finally freed themselves of the roots, raced past her in the opposite direction. They were like ants that she ducked between, but Thresh had a harder time swatting them aside, or he might've caught her. They were all yelling as they sought safety with Thresh, surrounding him. Swarming him.
With an abrupt skid, she knelt at the edge of what turned out to be a large pit. Still screaming Meera's name, she squinted through the blinding sheets of water. But Meera was gone.
The pit trap yawned like a massive funnel. It should've been filled with water, but it was all whirlpooling down through a hole at the bottom. A gullet. And it'd already swallowed Meera up!
"Rowan, get back!" Thresh's voice was closing in.
"Meera!" she screamed again, fingers clutching helplessly at the mud and white goo. Meera was like a sister to her—more family than her own mother. She had to do something! And she had to do it fast, Thresh was closing in.
Her heart froze in her throat as she felt the white web drag her down into the pit. But she didn't struggle. Not at first. The ground gave way beneath her like loose sand. The pit yawned wider beneath her as her stomach dropped.
Another scream tore free as she plunged into the pit. But this scream had no form, it was pure black terror. The sudden urge to follow Meera had passed, and now she panicked. A sick, swirling panic. Like the sucking mud that surrounded West Gate, the more she clawed and struggled in the pit, the quicker it devoured her.
She gulped a last desperate breath before the underworld sucked her down.