The Iron Wolf

Chapter 4

The days were dreary and heavy with rain as the Mirror traveled, wrapped in sodden cloaks and as miserable as wet cats. But the rain drove away other travelers off the roads, leaving Nox and Sol to travel alone but slowly through the mud. Word had spread of their mission, many not knowing the true goal but the people knew that the Mirror had full reign of the GoodLands and would paint the world red in the name of King Jago if need be.

Warm lights of inns winked through the downfall, promising of a hot meal and a warm bed. It almost made Sol long for the Shadow City once again, the dark alleys were at least dry. But alas, the bounty for their heads would have surely risen since the genocide of the Lotus Gang was discovered, and the Shadow City was full of desperate men who would jump at such an opportunity. The promise of fortune and legend would bring more trouble than dry boots were worth. So they rode through the rain, the water washing the last bloody evidence of the Lotus Gang from their armor and skin.

Sol rode silently, comfortable quiet stretching between the siblings, her attention turned inwards to her thoughts. Quiet is the bane of the uncertain mind. The doubts that had plagued her in the throne room emerged once again, hindered no longer by the distraction of violence. Doubt creeped and oozed back like the BadLands corrupting the fertile earth of the GoodLands.

"Is all this blood worth the capture of one foe?" Sol herself was surely not one to question King Jago, no matter her position as a reflection of the Mirror, the twins were still enlisted as part of the castle guard. But... the Lotus Gangs' blood that had soaked through the rotten floorboards made her think twice. So much death and the Shadow City thrown into turmoil with the genocide of their leading gang for a scrap of information that wasn't even assured to play out.

A smaller part of her whispered daringly, half formed thoughts that Sol could not bring herself to think, but could not avoid. "Are we truly fighting for the right side?" Sol could not believe that there was a group causing evil just for the sake of it. She had seen much in her lifetime, but the bad of the world had always been driven by some sort of twisted reason. Did... Did the Pack truly have a cause to fight for? Sol had seen the horrors of war and ruin, and the BadLands certainly was a special sort of pestilence within itself, but the GoodLands were relatively safe; the kingdom had arisen indomitably from the ashes that was the first Wakening. There had been peace with the shambling dead for the better part of the year, no major hordes straying from their usual yearly hunting patterns. But it had been some time since the Mirror had strayed from the walls of the King's Castle... Surely King Jago would've settled any reason for unrest? Sol lost herself in her thoughts, hunching down beneath her sopping cloak, watching the road with idle eyes as the rain continued to pour relentlessly. The doubt weighed in her stomach, her heart heavy with the stains of tarnished blood.

"You are doing it again." Nox's voice knocked her from her frustrated stupor. He watched her, a smile ghosting his lips. Her brother was much more open than the court would care to believe when it was simply just the two of them. He wore no hood, the rain plastering his hair to his cheeks, his russet skin seeming to be untouched by the chill while Sol herself remained cold and miserable in the downpour.

"I am not!" Sol shot back defensively, her brother could read her like an open book. "Besides, I have no idea what you speak of, I was simply thinking." She sat straighter in the saddle, sticking her nose in the air as she nudged her horse forward, away from Nox.

"Sol,"-Nox laughed softly as he pushed his own horse forward to ride beside her- "You must have faith in the King." Sol set her jaw, not meeting her brother's eyes. "I know you have questions, but it is not our place to ask."