Times Like These Read online

  "Might be a question to ask Mahkiyoc," Estrella mused from up front. "Now, no more talking, we should be drawing close to the edges of their fields soon."

  "Saf'kij, Jipouet, scout and flank the right," the First said in a low voice. "Sasha and Nibisa, take the left."

  All four lionesses quickly melted away into the dark trees.

  Everyone else spread out into a skirmish line, Estrella at the center, with Sean on her left and the First on her right. They moved more carefully now as they picked their way closer, until suddenly they were just inside the woods, a cleared field lying before them.

  The field was the same as the ones Sean had seen around Estrella's keep when he first came here. What they were growing, he still didn't know, as he'd never asked her about it, though she had mentioned it was some sort of food the djevels could eat.

  Beyond the fields were the buildings. It didn't look so much like a town as a military installation. There was a low stone wall surrounding everything, and a keep that was probably twice the size of the one Estrella had lived in, having two large towers and a small building between them.

  Laid out around the keep were a number of other structures. Sean wasn't sure what most of them were, but two were nice stone buildings that were probably about the size of a single-wide trailer. Everything else appeared to be made from the black wood the forests supplied, and while several of the structures weren't very large, probably half of them looked like longhouses.

  Estrella looked back at them and spoke in a soft voice.

  "Those small stone buildings are probably where the ridder or biskops live, or any magic users or special crafters, should they have one here. The long wooden ones are most likely the living quarters for gnashers and bonde. The higher-level demons will all live in the main keep, where they can serve the lord."

  "What do they have in the way of weapons?" Keairra asked.

  "Just swords and pole arms. If they have a magic user, they'll undoubtedly use it to cast spells, and of course the lord will have some magic as well, but this is a smaller keep, so he may not be very powerful."

  "Everyone shift," the First said.

  Letting Peg slide off his back, Sean shifted into his hybrid form.

  "Ready your weapons. We'll start off with swords until we get into town. Don't use firearms unless you have to. We need to conserve ammunition."

  Sean drew his sword from where it was slung over his back, next to his lever action rifle. He was also wearing two backpacks that were slung side by side. When he shifted into a lion they sat on his back like saddlebags. That was mainly because the fey armor prevented anything else from occupying the magical storage in their lycan collars. While some had complained about it, Sean pointed out that the weight limit of the collars would have prevented them from taking as much as they now had as well.

  "I get the lord," the First said, continuing. "Make sure everyone gets at least a råge. I don't know if a bonde will be enough to feed one of us."

  The First looked around and pointed forward with his sword.

  "Let's go."

  They came out of the woods at a trot. They were about halfway across the field when Sean noticed there were workers, gnashers, in the field, looking up at them in confused surprise.

  Right up until Sasha and Nibisa swept in, still in their animal forms, and started killing them left and right, dispatching each with a swipe of a large paw. He noticed then that the other two lionesses were coming in from the other side doing the same thing.

  "Just like the old days!" Keairra said with a laugh, and with that, they suddenly took off at a run. Sean let the others kill the handful of gnashers they ran down. It wasn't like he needed anything to 'eat', after all.

  When they got in amongst the buildings, the fight turned serious. Bonde started pouring out of the buildings immediately. Some of them even had spears. Råge also showed up and were immediately set upon by five 'cubs', while the others slaughtered the bonde.

  Sean noticed that while Roxy and Cali were giving a good account of themselves, Peg was hanging back. He guessed he shouldn't have been surprised; she wasn't much of a fighter, relying primarily on her skills with magic.

  Spying a råge no one had picked up, Sean called out to her, "Follow me, Peg!" as he quickly fought his way over to the remaining råge. Sasha had joined them by now, and she helped keep any of the bonde from getting in his way as Sean slapped the råge in the side of the head, stunning it, then lopped off an arm and knocked it over, planting a foot on its chest and pinning it to the ground.

  "Kill it, Peg! Quick, before it dies from its wounds!"

  "Must I?" she asked looking at it a little worriedly.

  "Do you want to starve?"

  "Hell no!" Peg said and ran her sword through its head, killing it instantly.

  "Hey! I felt that!"

  "Great!"

  "And I'm still hungry."

  "Well, let's start cutting down the bonde and the gnashers. I'll stun 'em, you can kill 'em."

  Peg nodded, but before they could get started, the demon lord came out. He was well armed and was even wearing a chest plate. The first thing he did was move to cast a spell, and Sean found himself dealing with that as the First quickly cut a path through to where the lord was standing.

  "Lions? What are lions doing here!" the lord screamed and was then immediately fighting for his life. Apparently the First was very hungry.

  Looking around, Sean saw there were two ridders and a biskop. Keairra quickly cut down the biskop, and Cali killed one of the ridders, while Peym got the other one.

  Sean hit the lord with a magic missile, which stunned it for a brief moment, but that was all it took for the First to take its head off.

  "Wives! With me! Let's clean out the keep. The rest of you, kill everything outside!"

  Sean watched as all seven of the First's wives streamed into the keep behind him. Taking stock of the situation outside, Sean saw the others had things well in hand, so he stunned bonde and gnashers so Peg could kill them, killing a few of them himself in the process.

  Several of the cubs found a raseri hiding in the other stone house, and Kalif killed it very quickly. Roxy also found another råge. So after that they all set to scouring the grounds, looking for bonde or gnashers, and anything else they could find.

  When the First finally came back out of the keep, he looked pleased.

  "We found a couple of mindre in there with another ridder. Estrella!" he called, looking around.

  "Yes, Father?"

  "We need to hit another town. We're still hungry."

  "Sure, gather everyone up."

  Five minutes later they were all back in animal form and loping off to the next keep Estrella knew about.

  "How many of these do you think we'll have to hit?" Roxy asked.

  Sean shook his head. "No idea. Stell?"

  "Hell, I don't know, ask Dad! Prince Spis knows we're here now, we did just kill one of his lords."

  "Well, we'd better hurry up and kill a few more before he comes looking for us, shouldn't we?" Keairra said, chuckling.

  "Don't encourage him, Mother." Estrella sighed.

  "Uh-huh. I'm still hungry. The lord at the next one is mine."

  "Are we gonna have to kill a lord for each of you?"

  "Well, that will depend on what else we find when we get there, now won't it?"

  "Yes, Mother," Estrella sighed.

  Ξ

  Prince Talt was happy. At first he'd been worried about King Sladd's orders to go up onto the 'Mountain of the Dead' and investigate the truth of the old stories about the master of the ley-lines who once lived up there. It seemed King Sladd's own scribes' knowledge of the fabled permanent gateways was lacking, and it was believed by all that there were answers to be found up on the 'Mountain of the Dead'.

  Prince Talt wasn't so sure about that. He'd heard the legends and the myths; all the princes and the lords had—that none who went up the mountain returned alive. But his own scribes couldn't
name a single lord or prince who had met that fate. It was true that some bonde and even the occasional råge went up there seeking power, and of course were never seen again. But they were only bonde and råge, not anyone of any real power.

  But for all that, Prince Talt was still happy. Because King Sladd's orders specifically allowed him to cut through the domain of the late Prince Spis. Prince Talt knew Prince Spis' death had hurt King Sladd deeply. Raising up a new prince would also take time, probably more time than Sladd could afford. But if his other princes were to gather up Spis' lords, Sladd would get that power back.

  This whole trip was obviously just a cover for Prince Talt to do that. Apparently he still had his king's favor and that, along with the lords he would gather to himself on this trip, had left him feeling very happy. That and the three new lords he'd taken the vows of so far today. True, the lords of Prince Spis were not as strong, on average, as the ones Talt already had. Spis' tactic of many small lords was one that had caused as much anger as it had admiration in Prince Talt's mind. But with their prince now dead, they were all eager and willing to join themselves to him, because he was a powerful prince and they knew their own power would now grow, as he had promised to raise them all up to the level of his own lords.

  "My Prince! We have a problem!"

  Prince Talt looked up from his reverie. Hydda, the biskop who was the head of his guards, was riding back to him.

  "What's wrong, Hydda?"

  "The town, all of the beings there, all of them, are dead!"

  "What?"

  "Apparently there was a battle here some time ago, as even the former lord has disincorporated!"

  Swearing, Prince Talt urged his mount onwards. "Show me!"

  Thundering down the road a few minutes later Hydda led him into the town. Sure enough, there were the tar spots of the disincorporated everywhere. From the weapons laying beside them, as well as the gems and the armor in some cases, he could tell whoever had done this had been thorough.

  "Watch my mount!" Prince Talt commanded and threw the reins to a bonde as he dismounted and strode quickly over to the open doors of the main keep.

  At the bottom of the steps leading up to the doorway was a large spot of tar with the armor and sword one would expect of a lord. Swearing again, he strode up past the open doors and into the building.

  It was carnage. Tar was everywhere, and while most of it was obviously just that of the gnasher and bonde servants you'd expect to find in a lord's keep, there were also several larger remains Prince Talt wasn't quite sure of.

  "What do you make of it, my Prince?" Hydda asked when he came back outside.

  "A large force came through here, harvesting and eating all."

  "Do you think it was another prince? One seeking to deny you their oaths?"

  Walking over to his mount, which was tearing chunks out of the dead bonde now under one of its feet as it fed quickly before it melted, Prince Talt shrugged.

  "It may be, I cannot tell for sure. But I would expect any of my king's princes to be looking to consolidate, not destroy. It could be a party sent by King Flik to weaken our king further in preparation for a move against him."

  Grabbing the saddle, Prince Talt pulled himself back up onto his mount, which was almost finished with its meal. This was quite unexpected, finding this kind of destruction so deep within the kingdom, and so close to his own lands.

  "Let us continue on and see if the next town has also been destroyed."

  "Yes, my Prince," Hydda said with a nod and passed orders down to the others to reorganize in preparation for marching on. Prince Talt watched as his men quickly gathered up the weapons and armor of the dead, as well as anything else of value they could find. That puzzled him the most. Who would kill so many and then simply leave such treasure behind?

  Mountain Climbing

  Sean was lying down with Cali and enjoying the afterglow of some truly wonderful sex. Apparently after she'd slain a biskop, she'd gained enough power to actually manifest a sexy looking set of bat-like wings on her back. They actually looked large enough to fly. She's also gained a smaller set on her head that were kind of sexy as well.

  Sean had of course taken blatant advantage of the situation, not that Cali hadn't apparently been thinking the same thoughts.

  "I wonder if I'll have these after we go back home?" Cali mused.

  "I'd suspect not," Sean said, thinking about it. "They seem to be a creation of this place. In the lion world we're able to create all sorts of things, but none of them survive the transition to our world."

  Cali sighed. "It would be nice to be able to learn to fly with my own wings."

  Roxy shook her head. "For all that it looks good on you, I don't think it would be all that advisable for you to show up looking like a demon or a djevel when we get back home. People might get the wrong idea, after all."

  "How much further, Estrella?" the First called out from the other side of camp.

  "Two days."

  "I thought it was two days when we started?"

  "Might I remind someone that we detoured through how many towns in the last day and a half?"

  The First snorted. "Blame your mother and your aunts."

  "Five, we detoured through five. We're actually no closer now than when we started out."

  "Well, I guess it's time to get up and head up the hill."

  Getting up and stretching, Sean gathered up his armor as everyone else did the same, then checked to be sure his sword and rifle were slung. Then he checked the pouch he'd attached to his lycan collar, which had a few extra tags in it, as well as one of the silver bombs he'd had Daelyn make for him. Roxy was also carrying one, as were the First, Keairra, Dienna, and Sasha.

  Last of all he slung the two large packs that had the ammunition for their rifles and pistols. For all that they had taken out five towns, they hadn't fired a shot yet. Each of the towns had been small enough that, combined with the element of surprise, they'd been able to easily overwhelm the forces in them.

  "Are all of Spis' towns so small?" Roxy asked Estrella as they all started to move off.

  "A lot of them are, but we're also on the outskirts of his domain. The forces around his castle, I've been told, were much larger and more powerful. Which is another reason we need to get moving. He'll know we've been killing his people, and he'll be sending out forces to engage us."

  "No he won't," the First said as he came over to pad alongside Estrella. "He's dead."

  "What? How do you know that?"

  "Got it from that first lord I killed. The girls all got it too, from the ones they ate. Spis died back on Earth. I'm guessing Sean's diversion killed him."

  "How can that be?"

  "Adam, Roy, Scott, and Andre were all up in the forward command posts when the blast went off. Apparently Andre was close enough he got the Prince's soul when he died."

  "He must have been pretty close," Sean said.

  "Yeah, he said he got second and third degree burns over most of his body, even though he was in a pretty deep hole when it went off. None of the lycans who were with him survived, either." The First shook his head and sighed heavily. "I told him I didn't know whether to thank him or throttle him. I'm happy he destroyed the prince, but he shouldn't have gotten the others killed."

  "It's hard for a lot of them," Keairra said, joining the conversation. "For so many thousands of years, back when we were young, we didn't care about whether any of them lived or died. We were immortal, we were gods, and they were all beneath us." She shrugged. "We're learning; those of us in the First Pride know the lives of the lycans have to be protected. The youngers…" she shook her head. "Some get it, some don't. Yet. They only know they're immortal once again. I fear there are some hard lessons ahead for some of our children."

  "Especially if Sean gets his hands on them," Roxy said with a wink.

  "Oh, he won't be the only one handing out lessons," Keairra said with a laugh. "Your father there really gets quite put out when he's not lis
tened to."

  "And then he makes us go straighten them out!" said Dienna, who had been listening nearby.

  "Well, they are your children, after all," the First replied.

  "Uh-huh. Like you weren't there when we made them!"

  Sean just stayed out of the conversation and watched the byplay between the First and his wives as they walked along. He didn't recall them teasing each other this much back in the lion world. He wondered if this was because they were 'out' in the world again? Or was this just the kind of thing that went on when he wasn't around?

  They'd been traveling for almost half the day when Rowan, who'd been detailed as one of the scouts to watch their rear, came trotting up, panting heavily.

  "We're being followed," she told them.

  "How is that possible?" Peg asked. "I thought their prince-guy was dead?"

  Rowan shrugged. "They're way behind us; it took me a while to investigate, but they're back there, they're moving faster than us, and there's a lot of them. Big ones, too. I think a prince is leading them, and I counted almost a dozen biskops."

  "Are you sure they're following us?" Estrella asked.

  "They have a bunch of demons that look like dogs running at the front of them. They appear to be trailing us by scent."

  "Well, no use in wondering why they're back there," the First said. "All that matters is they're there, and we'll have to deal with them. Let's keep an eye out for a place to ambush them and pick up the pace a little so they're not gaining on us."

  "Do you think they know we're lions?" Sasha asked.

  "If not, they're going to find out soon enough."

  "Still no idea what our quarry is?" Prince Talt asked the råge in charge of the tracking demons.

  "No, my Prince. The trackers do not recognize the scent, so I can only say it is something they've never run into before. But the scent is getting fresher, so we are gaining on them, my Prince."

  Prince Talt turned to Hydda. "Get my guards ready for battle." He then turned to the two lords of his who were accompanying him on this trek. "Tvivel, you will take your troops and move to the left flank. Enkel, take yours and set up along the right. Once everyone is ready, we will move forward again."