Chapter 19: The wolves are coming

Chapter 19: The wolves are coming Days passed slowly in the land of eternal dawn. The dark, sprawling castle on the edge of the void hung over Castaway Valley, its shadow often falling over the city. The courtyard, barracks, training yard, smithy, and all the other buildings that made up the massive and ancient body of the Grey Keep were alive with people swarming to perform their duties. A deadly pack of Bull wolves was approaching the territory. Lucen, who was now a Knight, joined the war rooms led by Chester and Sandor. The great hall was silent and cold this early in the morning. They all sat at the wooden banquet tables, and listened attentively. "Riders will be back in two weeks, the wolves will be here in one," Sandor’s deep voice boomed to the small crowd of knights. "Before the Red Keep’s answer comes, we have to fight hard and wait." The provincial house in charge of this region, the Red Keep, was silent despite Lightcloak’s communications to them. "We don’t know why the Bull wolves have abandoned their normal lands," added Chester, "But we’ll send another group around them and check." A single Bull-wolf could match three men, and needed to be contained by a knight. "Can the patriarch return earlier?" one of his Lightcloak cousins asked. "No," said Chester simply. So they moved on. "The Oculus, attached to messenger orbs, have brought back numbers of at least three hundred, " said Sandor, "We have Thirty Knights still with us and two hundred men. The Castaway soldiers are weak, but they bring another three hundred." One of the Lightcloaks elders, Alger’s peer, stroked his long white beard. A huge blade hung ‌ at his hip. "Then we can handle them as long as there aren’t too many High-ranked wolves." Lucen rested his head against an empty chair, he was sitting at the very back of the crowd and rolled his tired eyes, exasperated by the half-baked performance. The elders should have been present at the first meeting among the inner circle before they informed the ordinary knights of what was happening. They spoke like this to lower their anxieties. Lucen had a feeling it couldn’t be too bad, however, because there were still two months and two weeks to his foretold danger. They may be lying about the number of wolves and their ranks. Hopefully, it was just the numbers. ■——■ The next day, Lucen was determined to finish his search for Windy’s thief. He was down in the Valley early in the morning. He had already been to the garrison a lot and built some goodwill with them. A few days ago, he was speaking to the Garrison commander after they had been out hunting Lurker hounds. "Too many people come into town every day," the gruff man said, adjusting his armour. "We only check for dangerous materials, but we do keep records of people with high mana." The Commander, Jon, was a goliath of a man, but was very reasonable and cautious. He was a bit suspicious of Lucen’s search, but nothing came back, they had no record of a Peter Cross. "Come grab a drink with us," Jon suggested. "Okay," said Lucen reluctantly. It sounded like a good idea to build rapport with Jon, but now he had to be around people. Obviously Peter would change his name, but it did help him narrow things down, the man wasn’t a fool. He managed to bring a deadly spear into the city, but he wasn’t a trained assassin or hidden agent, according to Windy. So how? Lucen expected Peter to be working with people in the garrison. So the questions he was asking could alert Peter of the search. Windy had been, unsurprisingly, useless. She had degraded from mysterious seer to bored hag. "Who is your favourite hero?" asked Windy dully, "I like Harus, the Pale-king. Men are always more admirable when they are stoic" Lucen glared at her from his seat. Her grey hair and wrinkled face drooped with boredom. That sounded like bullshit, and it wasn’t wasn’t why either of them was here. "None, all their stories sound dumb to me," Lucen answered. "Harus sacrificed his wife to some distant god." "Miracles often require the worst suffering," she said absentmindedly, "His kingdom is the only one that didn’t fall after the Primacy wars, and that was due to the revelations he received. Even Elaris still uses the Trade Guilds system he created." Lucen suddenly froze. Trade caravans were searched by the Garrison, but their members were recorded by their guilds "Was Peter Cross part of any Trade guilds?" "The family he married into traded fish from the mountain clan’s special lakes," she explained, "He was likely part of the Fishing Guild, helping his wife while working in the treasury." Lucen stood, memory turning as he walked out of Windy’s small house quickly. She sighed as he left, "Didn’t even drink his tea." ■——■ There was a fishing guild in town for some reason. Lucen always wondered why considering how far they were from any bodies of water. The building was old and decrepit. its floor creaked, rust grew on the torches, and the building was manned by a single receptionist. Lucen took a breath before he entered, letting the nervous energy seep from his body. "Good evening, sir," she bowed deeply and saluted. "How may I help you?" She was rather young and had looked incredibly bored before this, a hardcover novel was sprawled in front of her. "I’d like to know if you’ve had any visitors recently," said Lucen, trying to look confident. "Yes, actually, we never get visitors," she said rapidly, "especially not ones as lofty as you, the building only stays open for licensing, we haven’t had a customer in almost—" "I’m sorry," Lucen interrupted, "But may I know about the other person?" She paled, realising she had been rambling. "Of course, sir. He was very tall and skinny, the tallest man I’d ever seen in this town, and his hair was very unkempt and long, black, it looked like seaweed. He was covered up, so I didn’t see his face. But he said something had been delivered here for him, a crate left behind after the last Two-star festival." The girl went on a long, pointless segway about the Two-star festival, while Lucen thought. It was definitely him. The description and the crate. Peter must have been planning whatever he wanted to do here for ages. "Did he leave an address," asked Lucen, " or anything strange?" "No, but his hair—it had some Lyst leaves in it." Lucen closed his eyes, then nodded and turned to leave. This man, Peter Cross, Lucen had a bad feeling that whatever he was planning would swallow not just the valley but the Grey keep itself. The receptionist watched him leave sadly. "Come back anytime!" She yelled as he disappeared into the distance. ■——■ Selene was busy when Lucen found her, making notes out of an old, black book and scowling. "Careful," he said, "someone might pity the book and rescue it from you." Selene sighed loudly, falling limply over the large mahogany table she sat at. "My ungrateful son comes to belittle me while I suffer. Lord, why me?" Lucen sat on the table, unworried as the library was rather empty, and looked down at the book she was reading. "Translation?" "Yes, I’ve been learning Old Eia. I feel this is some ancient Smith’s notes" The book was bigger than his head and wider than his chest. He silently pitied his mother, but he had a reason for coming here. "Do you know anything about House Cross?" Selene raised an eyebrow. "Why? They’re just some old, rich family that got in trouble recently with some heresy claims. One of the maids has a cousin working with them who was almost executed" "I heard about them in town. What were the claims?" Selene pursed her lips. "Some illegal spell that tampered with life, that’s what I’ve heard." Lucen, at that moment, did his best to keep his face normal. "Oh, that is horrible. Anyway, how are you?" He leaned over the table, smiling and laughing as Selene went on a rant about translating the book, but his stomach was turning nervously. Life magic deemed heresy? Lucen regretted sleeping during his inconsistent visits to the church. Peter Cross was connected to Life magic. ■——■ Lucen visited Liam later that evening to talk about the Lyst leaves, and his sense of something really bad coming. The unending wave of people and voices filled the courtyard. "So you think that he’s hiding in the forests for now?" Liam asked, flattening a tough piece of dough as they spoke. "Yes, he may not have wanted to spend any time in town to reduce the risk of being caught," said Lucen, "Now what I’m considering is whether to involve the garrison or not, in case word ends up reaching Duran or anyone else." "I mean it’s one man against a knight," Liam joked. "In any sense, the Wolf pack is coming soon," said Lucen. He shifted on the old, wooden banquet table, looking over the horizon. "This was my last free day, I need you to find Aya and watch her too," Lucen asked. "Something’s not right here."