Stranger Skies (The Borderlands Saga #1)

16. The Oldest Song in the Cosmos

Before Ruk had a chance to fall, before the first fountain of blood gushed from his long, beautiful white muzzle, Thalaea had turned to the direction the arrow had come. She turned and she bolted, unseeing, into the woods, and a second later she had found the Minae soldier responsible, and he was under her, his throat in her teeth, his blood bursting forth onto her waiting tongue.

It tasted like justice.

The sights and sounds of battle were heady chaos; she leapt up, hearing her oncoming attacker before seeing or smelling him. He wore leather armor like the man who had died under her, and she ripped through it, finding the tender flesh beneath.

Now the other wolves had joined her. She could smell them, could hear them whine in distress as they met the soldier's weapons and hits.

How did she not suffer a hit? She did not know. She moved like a whirlwind, a tornado of snow. A white wolf, spinning into battle, leaving nothing but corpses in her wake, until her fur is as pink as the sky above.

Fifteen soldiers in this company. Fifteen dead men in the Broomgap forest. One had ran. He had not got far.

Before she even checked the wolves' casualties, she ran back to Ruk's side.

He coughed, blood bubbling at his lips. She changed, and cradled his head in her blood-soaked arms. Amber eyes darted up to her face, and she thought he said something.

What is it? Oh, Ruk, what is it? she sent. Her eyesight blurred. She stroked his fur lovingly.

The arrow had pierced his centre heart. Even if they could remove it and repair the wound, he'd never survive with only two hearts. This world was too heavy. The earth clung to his body, grasped, pulling him down and away from Thalaea's embrace.

He swallowed, slowly, painfully. His tongue was a ponderous thing in his mouth. White-furred eyelids came down slowly, and opened once again; his breathing became shallow.

"To the end. I'll be here to the end." She was crying now, crying so hard she thought a river would spring from her sorrow. How could she not drown the earth with it?

He was so young.

It took Ruk an hour to die. He did not speak again. His breath slowed to a standstill, and Thalaea swore she felt his spirit leave his body.

Then the afterdeath began.

His jaw opened convulsively and his body took in air, he shuddered, he breathed out though he was not living any more. He breathed in, sharply, he shuddered, and he breathed out. Not enough. His body filled with gas, bloated. He was dead but his body would not stop its movements; it would not stop with the chorus of death.

Thalaea did not know how long she sat there, naked and blood-drenched and holding the wolf she'd come to love so much. When she felt a gentle graze of lupine teeth on her shoulder, she jumped. She had forgotten there were others with them at all.

Ruk's body had stiffened. Flies had appeared out of nowhere, and landed on his lips, his eyes, his nose, his anus. She waved them away, to no avail. They simply came back.

She turned to the wolf who had nipped her. Deylua, his name was, she remembered numbly. He had blood on his muzzle from the battle. How long ago had that been? It felt a lifetime gone already.

Deylua was of Isuena's pack. He was a beta. He looked at Ruk's body, then back to Thalaea. You were his second.

She wanted to argue; Vunil was Ruk's second. But no, Deylua meant for this mission. Thalaea had been second in command for the mission.

Now she was the leader.

"Right," she said, and almost jumped at the stranger that was her voice. A ghost in a lost land she had no business being in. "What are our casualties?"

Deylua looked away, and she turned, looking back towards the forest. She saw the rest of her team on the edge of the woods. Minus three. Zophen, Bainc, and Naidra were all dead. There were only eight wolves in the team left now.

Guilt flooded her. She should have asked sooner. Should have inquired to the well being of her troops.

Instead she'd been completely preoccupied with Ruk's death.

Deylua said nothing, however, and he didn't seem to begrudge her her actions. Nor did the rest of the team when she joined them.

She was in wolf form again, her white fur pink-brown with blood. She assumed that was the color, based on the shades of grey that appeared in her sight.

She stood in front of her team. They sat patiently, regarding her with no censure. Thalaea felt at a loss for words to say. How did one lead? Being a military commander was a far cry from being a goddess. She felt so lost.

Woods, guide me. She whispered a quick prayer, eyes closed. When her lids lifted, she knew what to do.

Who is trained in the Howl? Three wolves stepped forwards — Orairar, Shais, and Flich. She nodded. Good. Shais, get a message to Loncra. Tell her all that's happened. Say we don't know if there are any more Minae in the forest, but we plan to find out.

Shais nodded, and then got to work. He sat and lifted his throat, letting out a deep, sonorous howl to the heavens. A moment later they heard an answering howl from Loncra to the northeast. She confirmed, with tears in her song, and then went to relay the message to the next gray wolf.

Thank you, Shais. Thalaea knew a personal touch was important. She'd paid a lot of attention to Ruk's leadership during their friendship. He knew the name of every pack member, and he always paid individual attention to them.

For so long as they fought the Minae invasion this was her pack. She was determined to do right by them.

Orairar, Shais, and Flich, would the three of you lead us in a Howl for the dead, please? Her voice choked with this request, and she saw answering sadness on the other wolves' faces.

The three wolves lifted their throats to the heavens and from the depths of the earth herself came the deepest, saddest song ever howled. It was the oldest song in creation, the first song that broke free from the lips and hearts of the first wolves, singing their dead to their rest. It spoke to the stars. It moved in the heavens. It told the cosmos that the wolves always remember. They remember their dead and they sing them back into the earth from which they were born.