Dan the Adventurer, page 17
part #2 of Gold Girls and Glory Series
You never told them to report to different quadrants, he thought, cursing himself. You never drilled spear distribution. You never assigned roles to the non-combatants.
Chaos.
Had this been an actual attack, chaos would have gotten them killed.
He would speak to Ula. They must clarify everyone’s role and work out various contingency plans. The elves needed to drill every day, at different times, under different conditions.
To survive, the defenders of Fire Ridge would need more than walls and weapons.
So much to think of, so much to do. Leadership was hard.
Now it was time to greet the gnomes.
He stepped over the battlement and climbed down the ladder they had been using to leave and reenter the fortress since blocking off the gate hole.
Holly emerged from the tower, and they walked out together.
They stepped through a hole in the palisade as the gnomes arrived.
“Greetings,” Dan said.
A middle-aged gnome in studded leather armor stepped forward and puffed out his chest. He had nut-brown skin, white hair, and gray-blue eyes, stood around three feet tall, and was thick for a gnome, with a potbelly and the red, bulbous nose of a drinker. He wore a sword on his belt and a short bow on his back.
Half a dozen gnomes in leather armor stood close behind him.
“I am Jorbin Ateel,” the potbellied gnome squeaked proudly, “and these are my people.”
Dan considered the self-important little gnome for a second, glanced at the other men, then turned to the women, children, and elderly gnomes who made up the rest of the procession. They were a pitiful lot, road-weary, dirty, and frightened.
Apparently, Roderick’s Raiders had pressed most of their young men into the Duke of Harrisburg’s service, too.
Jorbin Ateel started talking at Dan, almost shouting, his tone aggressive and condescending. “We have come to protect the red elves of Fire Ridge. What do you offer in return?”
Pompous little bastard, Dan thought. Normally, he might’ve let it slide. Jorbin was probably just trying to protect his people, who were obviously shell-shocked.
But Dan couldn’t stand cocky assholes, and after watching the inefficient response of his own forces, he was in no mood for letting things slide.
Looking at Jorbin with no expression on his face, he said, “Pipe down, tough guy. For starters, my name is Dan, and this is my wife, Holly.”
Following Dan’s lead, Holly stared icily down at the gnomish leader. “Choose your words carefully when speaking with my husband, Jorbin Ateel. Your people have clearly suffered significant losses. I would hate to see them lose your counsel as well.”
The gnome’s gray-blue eyes narrowed, and he opened his mouth to respond.
Before the cocky little bastard could sign his own death warrant, Dan cut him off. “Thanks for the offer of protection,” Dan said, “but we don’t need your help.”
Behind Jorbin, the refugees murmured with concern.
Then, for the benefit of the red elves crowding in alongside him, Dan added, “The red elves of Fire Ridge can defend themselves.”
Jorbin glanced at the elves and smiled nastily.
Yup, Dan thought. It’s official. Don’t like him.
“Spears and bows don’t make warriors,” Jorbin said. “I fought in the Battle of Murky Fen. These men behind me have trained for years in the art of war. We—”
“You’re farmers,” Dan said.
“I fought at—”
“Murky Fen,” Dan said. He didn’t have time for this bullshit. There was work to be done. “And I’ve killed ogres, zombies, giant spiders, and a lich—all in the last month—not to mention some of Roderick’s Raiders, who you seem to be fleeing. So why don’t you take it down a notch?”
“You can’t talk to me that way,” Jorbin sputtered. “I’m—”
“My Lord!” a gnomish girl cried out, racing forward from the wagons. She fell to one knee, bowing to Dan. “My Lord, please forgive my uncle. He is a proud man, only trying to protect his people. We come seeking refuge.”
She looked up with hopeful eyes, and Dan recognized her as one of the girls he’d saved from the slavers.
“We welcome you,” Dan said, addressing the main body of the procession, “so long as you follow our rules, obey our commands, and work alongside us.”
Dan turned without waiting for their response, knowing that they would accept.
27
The Lone Wolf
Alone in the cold night, Nadia cast one final look back at the fortress. She hated it. Yes, she was happy for the elves and proud of all that Dan and Holly had achieved, but she couldn't look at the cleared meadow and mended walls without thinking of Zeke.
She knew that her emotions had something to do with the fact that she was an orphan. Abandonment cut her more deeply than it did those lucky enough to grow up with a loving family. But there was more to her reaction than just having suffered a shitty childhood.
Mostly, it was her wolf. To wolves, pack was everything. A wolf would die for its pack. Without its pack, a wolf was nothing.
She had thought that she had found her pack in Dan and Holly. But had she? Hadn't Zeke been part of that pack? And yet they had abandoned him to help these strangers.
Worse still, she herself had stayed with them, abandoning not only Zeke but also her young friends back in State College. Gruss was no doubt getting angrier and angrier the longer she was away, especially since Dan had thumped two of his goons. Was the mobster taking his anger out on Little Bird, Toad, Stork, and Badger?
She didn't know. Couldn't know. Because she was still out here in the woods, helping some weak-ass elves prepare for a fight that had nothing to do with her or her pack.
She had gone out scouting with Lily. Together, they had warned several villages, studied the forest, and talked with every traveler they met on the road, keenly interested in news from the east, where day by day Roderick’s Raiders drew closer to marching on Fire Ridge.
She had enjoyed her time with Lily, who loved the woods just as much as she did. But when Lily stopped at the grey elf grove, Nadia said her farewell. She’d had enough of that place, and she was missing Dan and Holly. But arriving here, staring out at the fortress and seeing the progress the elves had made, she could only growl.
She didn’t want to go back in there. Fortress life drove her crazy. She had felt restless in the grove and while traveling beneath the waxing moon, but life within Fire Ridge had proven intolerable.
The great shining eye in the night sky was waning again, soothing the Beast in Nadia and giving her human form more power with each passing night.
She didn't know what she was doing.
In town, she was a respected thief, the protector of street children, a straight A student, and the best RA on campus.
In the woods, she was always one shift away from being the alpha wolf of all alpha wolves.
But within the walls of the fortress, who was she? Who was she supposed to be? Sure, she had a relationship with Dan and Holly. But beyond that, what was her role?
Dan had stepped up to lead the elves as they rebuilt their defenses. Always an amazing administrator, Holly handled countless problems without even telling Dan, while at the same time applying her great brain to fixing the Fist of Fury. Ula had taken charge of training the elves.
What was Nadia's role in the fortress, though? There was nothing to steal. There were no street children. There were no classes or homework or grades. No anxious freshmen away from home for the first time and looking for advice. In the fortress, Nadia could only drift, and she felt like little more than an extension of Dan and Holly.
Which would not have been bad, if Dan and Holly had truly been her pack. But after they had abandoned Zeke, she wasn't so sure that they were.
And that was a painful uncertainty.
Here in the woods, Nadia could become the alpha of all alphas, but was her true pack here?
She was about to find out.
Night after night, the wolves had called to her, howling as they ran through the surrounding forest. They must have caught her scent back at the crevasse and followed her all this way, willing to abandon their territory to follow her into the unknown.
And yet they had abandoned her at the crevasse.
She didn't even know what she wanted anymore. Day after day, night after night, she had been consumed by restlessness and emptiness and a burning desire to answer these questions.
Now was the time to do just that.
She stripped slowly, stilling her mind. She carefully folded her clothing and stacked it beside her boots and gear, as if some part of her was conscious of how these items would look should she never return to claim them.
For a moment, she just stood there in human form, naked among the trees, the cold air pressing, studding her pale flesh in goosebumps and making her hard nipples ache.
Then she shifted, flowing through her fused state and straight into her full-wolf form.
Nadia the Beast stood at the center of the clearing, panting as the pain and elation of transformation ebbed away, breathing in the wilderness and the night and the moment. For a wolf understood the fullness of the present much more deeply than any human or elf, and as Nadia pulled her lungs full of cold night air, reading the myriad smells passing through her nostrils and registering the countless small night sounds of the forest around her, her entire existence drew down to this single moment in time.
And yet, with the weakening moon above her, there was enough of Nadia the human left within her consciousness to understand that this moment was more than sights and smells and sounds. This was the moment where Nadia, all of Nadia—Nadia the human, Nadia the half-wolf, and Nadia the all-powerful beast queen of the forest—would determine not only her true identity but her place in the world.
Her great lupine head rolled back on her powerful neck muscles, and out of her throat rose the old, sad song; a long, mournful howl that throbbed up out of her wolf blood and into the night, giving voice to the power and pain of a living thing alone in the wilderness, surrounded by old trees and ancient rocks, with the ageless stars twinkling apathetically in the eternal night sky overhead.
The howl died away. Her breath rose as ghostly mist into the cold night.
Nadia waited.
And the pack answered.
As the Beast, Nadia could hear the fear and elation in their answering call, fear and elation that throbbed and swelled as the wolves strained urgently toward her through the forest. For weeks, they had sought their queen, calling to her night after night with primordial begging, crying out for her to return to them and lead their pack forever.
It would be a good life, simple and natural, a life lived nose to ground, without the foolish complications and betrayals and anxieties of life in the human world. A life where she could forget everything, live in the moment, and rule the forest as Nadia the Beast Queen.
The wolves streamed, panting and whining, into the clearing, a rushing river of gray fur, lolling tongues, and shining eyes.
Nadia stood at the center of the clearing with her head and ears and tail held high.
The wolves hunched low, ears pinned, looking at her and looking away, wriggling their lips and licking nervously as they inched forward, whining like puppies as they approached their queen. Upon reaching her, the largest wolf flopped onto his side, whimpering, and lifted his snout to sniff and lick placatingly when she lowered her muzzle to his.
One after one, the wild beasts fawned at her feet, showing total submission.
Nadia’s howl leapt into the night, a throbbing pillar of primordial emotion powered by the ancient, supernatural force throbbing within her. And the pack set the forest ablaze with a chorus of joyous howling.
It would be such an easy thing for her to embrace this moment as wholeheartedly as the pack had embraced her. Such an easy thing for the humanity in her to roll over and submit once and forever to the great Beast.
But there was enough of Nadia the human left in her to demand one final test. She had no doubt that this pack would follow her into death. Their devotion and loyalty would be beyond question—so long as she remained the Beast.
When she had paused to investigate the crevasse, the wolves had abandoned her. But she had not been acting like a wolf. Her insistence on investigating the crevasse had been completely unnatural. A human notion. And her hold over them had snapped, setting them free.
Perhaps it was time to say goodbye to Nadia the human forever, but that would not change the fact that she was more than a wolf. Yes, life as the queen of the forest beckoned to her from deep within her marrow, but her would-be pack needed to pass one more test.
Nadia shifted.
The wolves yipped and snarled as Nadia changed, lifting onto her hind legs and shrinking into herself, growing more compact until she stood before them as the huffing half-wolf thing that was her fused form.
The wolves backed away, snapping involuntarily at the air and pawing at the ground, hackles raised, tails clamped tightly between their legs, eyes flashing with fear.
“Are you my pack?” Nadia growled.
The wolves broke and fled away through the forest, disappearing into the night.
Nadia stared after them, listening to their fading footfalls and breathing in the dissipating mist of a life that had almost been.
Then she shifted back into her human form and wept, alone in the woods, alone in the world.
28
An Unexpected Turn of Events
Dan stood alone atop the ramparts, staring down at the palisade and its many gaps.
Have to work on that next, he thought. Have to dig trenches, lift fallen logs with pulleys, set the timbers in place, and tamp dirt along the base.
So much work to do.
After weeks of hard work and little sleep. His hands were hard and calloused. What little fat he’d been carrying had vanished, consumed by his growing muscles.
But no matter how he looked, he was tired. Bone-tired.
So be it, he thought. Can’t slow down now.
Soon, his work here would be finished. Then he and the girls could head to the crevasse. Hopefully, this would appease Nadia and put their relationship back on good terms.
She was still out there somewhere, presumably scouting with Lily.
As he’d climbed up to check this new section of walkway, he’d heard a loud howl. A chorus of howls had answered, moving across the forest, and then the woods had exploded with howling.
After that, things had fallen silent.
He stared out at the dark woods. Are you out there, Nadia? Wherever you are, come back to me. Come all the way back.
“Lord Dan!” a gnome shouted from the courtyard below. “Please come down!”
Descending the stairs, Dan recognized the woman as one of Jorbin Ateel’s wives, a heavyset gnome with intelligent eyes and, he remembered from meals in the great hall, a pleasant, unchecked, and infectious laugh.
Now her blue eyes shone with excitement as she grabbed his hand and begged him to follow her.
“What is it?” he asked.
Ahneena and the red elves had welcomed the gnomes with open arms, and the refugees had quickly settled in and joined in the defense of Fire Ridge.
Dan was pleasantly surprised. At very least, he had expected Jorbin to be a pain in the ass, but inside these walls, the gnomish leader had become a completely different person. Not once had he acted pompously or questioned Dan. When Holly had assigned Jorbin the unremarkable role of brush crew laborer, the potbellied gnome hadn’t even frowned. He and the other gnomes reported to their duties on time and without complaint.
Dan was beginning to suspect that all of Jorbin’s strutting and shouting at the gate had been nothing but drummed-up bravado of a desperate man trying to do right by his people. In that light, Dan was glad he hadn’t crushed the little fucker or turned his people away.
Both of them could live and learn.
As a fighting force, the gnomes were disappointing, but they were good workers, accelerating every aspect of the improvements. With the gnomes on board, the brush crews finally cleared the meadow for 360 degrees surrounding the fortress all the way to the forest, and they had not only finished rebuilding the inner wall but also were well on their way to hammering together the scaffolding that would soon create a contiguous defensive walkway all the way around the top of the ramparts. The gnomes had helped in everything from sharpening new spears to sweeping floors and clearing dishes, and Dan was happy to have them.
More of the little people appeared now, beaming with excitement and gesturing for Dan to follow. “Lord Dan! Come see what we’ve discovered!”
They sound more than excited, Dan realized. They sound proud.
The excited men and women led Dan into a supply building, where still more gnomes grinned around a hole gaping at the center of the room. Dan saw the crates and tarp they’d shoved aside to access the now open trap door.
“Weleena sensed the passage beneath us,” Jorbin reported, smiling with pride at a red-nosed little girl that could only be one of Jorbin’s many daughters.
“What is it?” Dan asked.
“A tunnel,” the matriarch said, entering the room with another group of gnomes who had apparently gone to fetch her. “And a safeguard of last resort. The tunnel runs beneath the wall and all the way to the forest. Unfortunately, the middle of the tunnel collapsed.”
“I want to see it,” Dan said, and took a fluttering torch from one of the gnomes. He followed Jorbin down a set of stairs into a cool, dark tunnel with a floor of hardpacked earth. The passage was wide enough to fit a wagon, but the ceiling was so low Dan had to crouch-walk as he followed the tiny gnome deeper underground.
The shaft sloped downward. After perhaps two hundred feet, they stood face-to-face with a wall of dirt and stone where the tunnel had collapsed.
