Meta Gods War 3 Page 17

  “Sorry it happened this way,” he said, smiling placidly like he’d expected this all along. “I didn’t want things to turn out like this.”

  “You don’t have to do this,” Cam said. “Lagon, you don’t have to go down this road.”

  But Lagon only shook his head and walked into the midst of his men.

  They turned and disappeared into the gloom of the evening.

  “You can stop them,” Felin said. “You can burn them.”

  “No,” Cam said. “I can’t. As soon as I turn my magic against our own people, I’ll become everything they’re afraid of.”

  She opened her mouth then clamped her jaw shut.

  “Arter,” Cam said. “Go wake General Brice and General Key. Get them up, get their men ready. We’ll hunt Lagon down and bring him back.”

  “Yes, sir.” Arter turned and sprinted off into the night.

  Cam watched the guard go then turned to Felin. “This is what I was afraid of,” he said.

  “I know.” Her eyes shone in the darkness. She looked so much like a wolf, it almost scared him. “I’ve let you down.”

  “No,” he said. “Not at all.” He stepped toward her but she pulled away.

  “Guards,” she said. “With me. We’ll start the hunt.”

  “No,” Cam said. “Stay here. Make sure you don’t lose any more prisoners. Start figuring out exactly who those men were, and how many more might agree with them.”

  Felin looked like she wanted to argue but turned away.

  “You heard the General,” Felin said. “We need to get to work.”

  She marched back toward her tent with her guards in tow.

  Cam stood alone in the tent courtyard for a moment. Wind tugged at his tunic. He ran his hand along the grip of his sword.

  They were close, so close. At any moment, this whole thing could fall apart. The factions within his army were at war with themselves, and if he couldn’t manage to bring them all together in time, the wolves would overrun them all.

  He turned and marched into the night.

  25

  Early morning mist rolled off the mountain peaks and sifted through the pines. Cam’s boots bit down into loam and fallen needles. Brice marched at his side, and fifty of her best men marched behind them.

  It was slow going. Lagon and the deserters hadn’t been careful about their tracks, but the fog worked in their favor. Cam kept stopping every few minutes to confirm that he was still on the right path, following a slow slope up along a ridge toward the rocky crags above. Half of Brice’s men wore heavy armor and the other half stayed in modest leathers. Every couple of hours, they’d switch roles, and the other half of the group would wear the armor, which allowed for the group to move longer distances than they’d be able to if everyone wore plate all the time.

  “I can’t believe they did it,” Brice said. She hadn’t spoken since they left camp. She looked haggard and angry, her hair pulled back in an austere bun, her armor hanging from her muscular frame.

  She refused to rotate out, wearing the armor their whole march.

  “I can’t either,” Cam said. “Called my bluff.”

  She glanced at him. “You did the right thing, you know. You couldn’t use magic on your own men.”

  “They would’ve deserved it.” His eyes stared ahead. “They’re traitors. Deserters.”

  “Still our own men,” she said. “Killing them like that would set a dangerous precedent.”

  “I’m afraid the dangerous precedent’s already been set,” he said. “All the men have to do is come in big enough numbers and no justice can stand in the way.”

  She made a grunting noise in the back of her throat. “Some would say what you did wasn’t justice.”

  He felt a jolt of surprise. “Are you one of those?”

  “I don’t know,” she said, staring straight ahead. “Lagon wasn’t such a bad man.”

  “And yet he’d been actively trying to subvert me.”

  “True.” She shook her head. “I don’t understand it.”

  “There’s nothing rational about his decision.”

  “Maybe, maybe not. Lagon was always smart.”

  “But now he’s stuck in the wilderness with only fifty men and an entire wolf army wandering around.”

  She nodded, eyes locked forward on the ground, searching for tracks. “What were you going to do with him?”

  “I planned on sending him back to the Mansion,” Cam said. “Once this was all over, I’d give him a fair trial.”

  “That’s reasonable,” she said. “But I can’t imagine it would have worked.”

  “Why?” he asked, starting to feel annoyed.

  “He would’ve escaped on the way back, or they would’ve been ambushed and killed, or something like that. I can’t see them actually making it back.”

  “Maybe,” Cam said. “But I wasn’t going to execute him in the field.”

  “No, that would’ve been a bad idea,” she said.

  “Then what am I supposed to do?” he asked. “I can’t kill and I can’t punish. If my men are insubordinate, I’m supposed to just let it happen?”

  She squinted at the ground. Her breath came out in streams of white. Creaks of armor and grunts from exhausted and overworked men drifted up around them.

  “There was no way out,” she said. “You should’ve left him, at least for a while.”

  “That was Felin’s decision.”

  “But you gave Felin her authority, so it comes back to you in the end.”

  “What should she have done then?”

  “Left him alone,” Brice said. “For a while, anyway. She should’ve watched carefully and waited for him to do something stupid. Then you could’ve taken him with some proof in hand, and at least it wouldn’t have caused half the camp to question your motives.”

  Cam stared at her. “Question my motives?”

  “Some believe Lagon was the first in a purge,” she said. “That you’re aiming to get rid of anyone that was loyal to the previous Lord.”

  “You can’t be serious.”

  “That’s what the men are saying.”

  “Do you believe that?”

  “No,” she said. “I know that’s not what you’re doing.”

  “I can’t win,” he said. “I stamp out one fire, a thousand more spring up.”

  “That’s what it means to be a General,” she said. “You’d better get good at stamping.”

  He pushed through a thicket of bushes and came out onto a tree-lined hill. Footprints marred its surface. Branches were bent and broken. Men came through here, and not too long ago. Cam began to stalk up the hill toward a tree line at the top. He smelled dirt and pine sap. He wanted to turn around and burn the whole damn valley.

  But the wind turned. It blew into his face and brought with it something rancid.

  He stopped in his tracks and took a sharp breath.

  “Brice,” he said. “Do you smell that?”

  She came up next to him and scented the air. “I think so,” she said. “What the hell is that?”

  “Smells rotten.”

  Cam pushed up the hill. Brice rallied her men and got them into a tight formation. Cam reached the top and peered between the trees.

  Bodies lay in a sun-drenched field strewn with rocks and short bushes.

  Wolves were torn to shreds. Blood oozed across the grass. Piles and piles of wolves, starting at the far side of the clearing and ending at the opposite. Along the way, several Humans were scattered in with the wolves.

  “Oh no,” Brice said.

  “This happened not too long ago,” Cam said. “Hours, maybe.”

  “How many?” she asked.

  Cam shook his head. “Too many wolves to count,” he said. “They put up a good fight.”

  “I don’t see many men.” Brice took a step forward but Cam caught her wrist.

  “Careful,” he said. “Wolves might still be alive. I have the feeling Lagon didn’t stick around to put th
em all down.”

  She met his gaze and nodded once.

  They moved forward as a unit. Brice’s men spread out and killed any wolves that were still clinging to life. Cam kicked over Human corpses, hoping to find Lagon’s face in the mess.

  But he was still missing.

  “Only fifteen,” Brice said. “That I counted.”

  “I got the same count,” Cam said.

  “They must’ve killed twice that.”

  “Three times, even.” Cam shook his head. “They put on a good show, I’ll give them that.”

  “I think they kept heading toward the mountain,” Brice said. “I found tracks leading away.”

  “Any wolf tracks?”

  She shook her head. “I’m guessing they ran into a large scouting party.”

  “I think you’re right.” He grunted and kicked over another body. An unfamiliar face missing half its right cheek stared sightlessly up at him. “We should get moving before someone comes back.”

  “You’re right.” Brice called her men into formation and they marched away from the battlefield.

  Cam didn’t want to leave the Humans behind, but they didn’t have much of a choice. They had to keep moving if they were going to catch up with Lagon.

  The mood shifted as they headed further up the slopes. Brice’s men spoke less. They marched with grim determination. Cam got the sense that the death back in the field was a reminder of the stakes at play here, and how even losing fifty men was a blow to their chances.

  Fifty men and a competent supply General.

  They marched in silence for another hour before Brice called a halt. The men looked grateful as they began to strip off their armor and switch with their partner. They sat and drank water from skins and hid from the late afternoon sun as it beat down bitter and unrelenting.

  Cam wandered away from the main group, eyes on the forest floor. Lagon was heading toward the mountain, but for what reason, Cam couldn’t guess.

  Brice appeared through the trees. She’d taken off her armor for the first time since they left the Mansion. Her hair was down and stray strands billowed along her pretty face. Cam turned to her and leaned against the trunk of a young tree.

  “He’s going to get them all killed,” Cam said, speaking softly.

  Brice stopped a few feet in front of him and tugged at a low branch.

  “He might” she said.

  “The stupid bastard.” Cam felt a pulse of anger run through him. “More lost lives. And these are lost needlessly. They won’t advance our cause; they won’t win us any time.”

  “That’s what’s bothering you?”

  “I’m out here to save lives,” Cam said. “Even if those men think godlings are monsters and beasts, I still want to save them. They’re my people, good or bad.”

  Brice tilted her head. “I’m not sure I’d be so generous.”

  “It’s not generosity,” he said. “It’s just what’s right.”

  “And most men don’t concern themselves with what’s right.” Brice broke off a twig then threw it on the ground. She looked at him and dropped her hands to her sides.

  “Everyone worries about what’s right,” Cam said. “But few act on it, because what’s right isn’t always what’s easy. I wish this were easy, I wish I could just march after those bastards and revel in their deaths, but it’s not why I’m out here.”

  “So what can you do about it?”

  “Find them,” he said. “Bring them back. Punish Lagon and make sure everyone knows he was wrong.”

  “That sounds like a fantasy.”

  Cam laughed, bitter and angry. “I think you’re right.”

  “This is going to end in violence,” she said. “You know that, don’t you?”

  He met her gaze and held it. The laughter slipped away. “I know it,” he said. “And I’m ready for it.”

  “Good.” She stepped closer. “I think I underestimated you, when we first met.”

  Cam tilted his head. Brice was closer, inches away from him now. She was smaller than he would have guessed, a few inches shorter than he was. Her body was lean and muscular from fighting with that heavy armor, but still feminine and soft in the right places. He felt himself stir at her closeness and at the look she gave him, sultry and desiring.

  “I knew exactly what you were the second we met,” Cam said.

  “Yeah? What’s that?”

  He reached out and touched her cheek. She didn’t flinch away. He moved his hand down her side, along her arm, to her hand. His fingers slipped through hers and he tugged her closer.

  She put a hand on his chest.

  “Brave,” he said. “Determined. Terrifying as hell. Beautiful when you want to be.”

  She smiled a little. “Not beautiful all the time?”

  “Not when you’re too busy killing your enemies,” he said.

  She smiled more. “You know just what to say to a lady, don’t you?”

  “Damn right I do.”

  He leaned down and kissed her.

  She returned the kiss, slowly, tentatively. Her lips tasted like berries and cool spring water. Her tongue was soft against his and he pulled her body closer. Her breasts pressed against his chest and his other hand moved down her back, the graceful curve of her spine beneath his fingertips.

  He felt her shiver into the kiss before he broke it off.

  “I’ve been thinking about that since the first night I saw you,” he said. “Wearing that armor, fighting the wolves.”

  “Have you?” She smiled a little. “The thought didn’t occur to me until… more recently.”

  He touched her cheek again and kissed her a second time. She took a sharp breath and seemed to melt against him.

  But he had to break it off again. There was work to do, and he couldn’t spend all day taking his pleasure from Brice’s gorgeous body.

  “We should get moving again,” he said.

  “Yeah. You’re right.” She didn’t move though. “This won’t… complicate things?”

  “I have a lot of experience working with women, I’m… you know.”

  She smiled a little. “We haven’t done that yet.”

  “Yet?” He arched an eyebrow. “I like the implication.”

  She gave him a look and patted his cheek. “Keep up the good work and I’ll reward you. How’s that sound?”

  “Sounds like a good plan to me.”

  She turned from him and stalked back to her men. Cam watched her go and wondered what he was getting himself into.

  But he didn’t care. Brice was smart, beautiful, and brave. He needed her on his side, and more than that, he wanted her in his bed. He’d mention her to the other girls when he got back to camp, but he had a feeling they wouldn’t mind.

  He took a deep breath, shut his eyes, and forced himself to clear his thoughts.

  When he opened them again, it was time to get marching.

  26

  Footing got rocky as Cam climbed further up the steep slope toward the mountain cliffs. The air was thinner and cold on his skin. The armored men moved slower and Cam could see the sweat beading their skin. Brice moved among them, speaking soft encouragement. Several had to swap out of their gear early.

  Tracks led along a winding path. Boulders loomed on either side of their hike. Cam worried about an ambush, but pushed the thought away. Lagon and his men would be exhausted from their battle earlier in the day, and there was no way they knew Cam was this close. He doubted they were scouting or doing much more than pushing as hard as they could toward the cliffs.

  Cam called a halt a few hours before sunset.

  “We might have to camp here for the night,” Brice said.

  “I want to push on,” Cam said. “Another hour or two.”

  “The men are tired.” Her eyes swept over the group as they drank from their water skins and rested against trees and stones. “I’m worried that if we do catch up with Lagon, they won’t be much use in a fight.”

  “Lagon’s men
are worse off,” Cam said. “They did this march on top of a pitched battle. Half their number are probably injured, and the other half are probably exhausted.”

  She nodded, her eyes tight. “Another two hours,” she said. “Then we call it and camp.”

  “Alright,” Cam said.

  “There should be some safe spots up near the cliffs. We’ll dig in for the night, then find Lagon in the morning.”

  Cam scouted out ahead while the others rested. He climbed up a large rocky outcropping that hung over the valley. He felt wind whip along his clothes as he scanned the path below. He wondered what it would feel like to float in mid-air like Lycanica did, then banished the thought away. Maybe it was paranoia, but he felt as though just thinking about the goddess could call her down on them.

  As he scanned the ground ahead, he spotted movement in the distance. He thought it might’ve been a mountain goat or an elk, but he stared at the cliff wall for several minutes until he saw it again.

  The glinting flash of metal.

  He headed back down the path and rejoined Brice and her men.

  “They’re ahead,” he said. “Maybe twenty minutes along this path.”

  “How do you know?” Brice asked.

  “The cliffs are ahead,” he said. “I climbed up onto the rocks and was watching them when I saw some movement. I kept watching then saw light off metal.”

  “So they must be there, then,” she said.

  “Unless it’s the wolves in their human shapes.”

  She nodded and began to rally the men. Half of them seemed relieved for their march to be over, though Cam knew this was just beginning. Once they were arrayed in ranks, shields and spears up front, they began the long walk up toward the cliffs.

  The going was slow and unsteady, but the ground leveled off as they reached the top of the slope. Black pits marred the cliff face ahead, and Cam realized they were caverns dropping off into the dark of the mountain.

  “Slow,” Cam said, speaking low.

  “Front line,” Brice said. “Shields up.”

  The front line raised their shields and marched in lock step toward the caverns. Nothing moved, no light off metal, no dark shapes in the shadows. Cam strained to see around the shield wall and wondered if he’d been wrong.