Savage Fire (Tales from Wildhearth #2)

Chapter 23 - Allies Don't Have to Be Your Friends

The shock kept her compliant.

Normally, Kappsi would have run fast and far from any wolfkin enforcer the first chance she got, but now she didn't know what to do. Seeing Brickle's screaming face down in that crowd of robed, painted fanatics had cracked her world.

So they followed the wolves. Under the watchful eye of the big one – Gensher, if she'd heard right – they slouched along with the enforcers, all three of them trying to get to grips with what they'd uncovered. Part of her wished only she had seen it – at least then there would at least be some measure of doubt – but Haarm had seen the same thing; corroborated the same impossible reality. With two siblings along for the ride, Skoppa was in no position to fight the point. He slunk along at the rear of the column with a face like fury.

What kind of lies, threats and torture could have warped the mind of someone like Brickle so thoroughly that she would actually join that group of maniacs?

She had a lot of questions. Too many to choose from. Despite her instinctive fear in the presence of the wolfkin, she also realised that this was her best chance to get some answers. If Kendris had Wildhearth's enforcers riled up, then this was even worse than she'd realised.

Leaving the madness of Helsfur far behind, the enforcers led them to a neighbouring district not remarkable enough to commit to memory, before plunging them all into a region of dim-dark tunnels that made the underdocks look like a big, welcoming hug. With no idea where they were going, Kappsi had no choice but to follow along in Illando's wake, until they emerged into the first vestiges of morning light.

She still had no idea where they were. Kappsi squinted at the dawn, taking in a vista of low, boxy buildings constructed of hardened ceramic brickwork. Her nose twitched with the stink of burning fuel, and a few rows back she could see a cluster of smokestacks jutting up out of the district.

"Follow me," grated the enforcer leader, turning to the right out of the tunnel and leading the group into the narrow alley between two of the buildings. Shadows swallowed them and Kappsi hunched her shoulders, feeling Skoppa and Haarm edge closer to her.

Illando led them to a door – a barely visible square of dark metal lodged in one of the walls. A scent key appeared in his paw and he passed it over the lock, extracting a bleep and a clunk before the thick panel swung inward. He ducked through first, followed by the female, Noelle

"Inside," Gensher grunted, motioning to the door with a dip of his head.

Kappsi gulped down the lump in her throat, sparing a second to give her brothers a reassuring nod. Then she gathered her nerves and stepped through the doorway, emerging into a metal-walled room maybe ten meters square. She straightened up as she entered, noting several cabinets that spilled around the wall to her left. A small desk had been bolted into place to her right, together with maps and a rack of fearsome looking weapons, ranging from clubs and armbows, to bladed gauntlets, long daggers and axes.

An enforcer safe house, from the looks of things.

She hunched her shoulders as the rest of the enforcer squad clustered in behind her. The door sank shut behind them with a morbid finality. Kappsi dug her claws into the fabric of her kilt, trying not to think the worst. If the enforcers wanted them dead, they could have done it by now. They wouldn't have dragged them all the way out here.

"Farler, get on the howlwire," Illando grunted. "Pull Jaris's pack and get them onto the Helsfur transport yards. I want eyes on where those bastards go next."
"Sir." The wolf in question loped over to the howlwire set embedded above the desk.

As his subordinate set to work, Illando turned back to face them, beckoning. "C'mon in. And for Peace sake, relax. We're not going to hurt you."

Glancing at Skoppa and Haarm, Kappsi shrugged nervously and shuffled further forward into the chamber. She tried to will the tension out of her body, but it wouldn't happen. With everything that had just happened her instincts wouldn't let her drop her guard.