In Harmony We Trust by Ryan Matthew Harker (chromebook ebook reader .TXT) 📕

animals around him while sending out a mental command for the werewolves who had reached the corner to halt, something else that he had found the Lupelire allowed him to do.
The entire column and Candlelite skidded around the corner to see mercenary soldiers armed with plasma rifles and particle swords defending themselves bravely against the werewolves that had managed to turn the corner and elude his mental command.
“No!” Candlelite boomed, allowing his preternatural roar to creep into his natural baritone.
The combative werewolves immediately broke from their opponents with a sneered growl and casually dismissed their mercenary adversaries before returning docilely to stare at them from behind Candlelite.
“Candlelite!” McAriicoys gaped at the spectacle of werewolves that retreated at a stern command from their master like trained hounds from a fox hunt.
“McAriicoys?” Candlelite rushed forward in surprise, giving his lupine cohorts a mental command that left them where they sat with long tongues lolling and tails wagging. “Where’s Absinthe?”
“I don’t know?” McAriicoys admitted. “She was with us for some time after you disappeared but shortly after I separated from Jeshux I lost track of her.”
“Candlelite!” a familiar roar erupted in Candlelite’s ear and he was crushed in a loving embrace. “Ahh, you’re a sight for sore eyes. We thought we’d lost ya!”
“Don’t exaggerate Vohrmint,” Candlelite gasped as he shrugged out of the big man’s arms.
“I’m not exaggeratin’,” Vohrmint countered as he let go of the smaller man. “But fer sure none of us expected you to return with a stampeding vanguard of the whore dogs, regardless of what Nefarious said your wolf trinket was capable of.”
“Yes, regardless,” Candlelite cast a sidelong glance at his furred companions. “But that aside for a moment my friend, have you seen Absinthe?”
“Alas, no lad,” Vohrmint confessed in the face of the younger man’s obvious anguish. “But I’m sure she’s safe. After all she wears the queen’s charm.” He smiled reassuringly.
“My lord,” a blood coated merc ran up hurriedly and held out a transmitting mic to McAriicoys. “Here sir, it’s the Lord Regent!”
McAriicoys snatched the communicator with one hand and dismissed the com-grunt with the other before he barked, “This is McAriicoys!”
“McAriicoys,” Jeshux presence leapt from the speaker. “Finally, we have got a serious problem developing and I need you to address it on the double!”
“What’s brewing Jes?”
“First tell me what the werewolf situation’s doing.”
“Everything’s doing fine on that front Jeshux,” Candlelite broke in. “They’re traveling with me courtesy of the Lupelire.”
“Candlelite, it’s good to hear from you. We were worried.” Jeshux voice was tense and his impatience only slightly shadowed the genuine warmth of his concern. “It’s good to know that I don’t have a rampaging werewolf hunting party to worry about either.”
“What are you worrying about?” McAriicoys asked.
There was a longish sort of pause before the speaker crackled with the Lord Regents response.
“McAriicoys, I’m sorry to send you on this mission,” Jeshux began. “But I can’t trust anyone else to do this.” There was another pause, shorter this time, and then Jeshux resumed. “A harashna has just manifested inside of sector A. So far there hasn’t been any activity and I’ve made General Kahill aware of the implication its presence poses.”
“Where?” McAriicoys asked.
“The west end of the Avenue of East and West,” Jeshux said. “McAriicoys, it’s sure to be Florencii.”
“I’m afraid that I have to agree with you,” McAriicoys concurred. “I’ll head everyone over there immediately.”
“Thank you my friend,” Jeshux voice came back full of relief.
“One more thing though,” McAriicoys began. “Absinthe seems to be missing.”
Jeshux sighed. “I’ll do what I can to locate her.”
“Thank you sir,” Candlelite interjected.
“No problem, Jeshux out!”
“Alright everyone,” McAriicoys shouted as he turned toward his men. “We have a situation on the Avenue of East and West. Let’s get over there on the double!”
“Yes sir!” the combined response from the troops boomed.
Less than ten minutes after Jeshux spotted the harashna McAriicoys led the response team to contain the situation.


General Kahill stood on a small balcony high atop one of the taller spires of the palace observing the harashna as it pulsed and fluctuated. The swirled mess of color had grown slowly but steadily as he watched it. The General had ordered a thousand of his best soldiers to take up positions on the palace side of the massive gateway and even now he could see the first to arrive of the many ranks to come.
“Tell the men I want double time.” The General spoke calmly into a hand mic to one of the nameless subordinates that were stationed under his command.
“Yes sir!” was the snappy response and Kahill could see as the little dots below him increase their speed.
Looking back at the harashna he noticed that it seemed to have stabilized, its wild fluctuations not quite as wild as they were, and it had settled on one size, mostly. This was definitely not a good sign.
“Triple time!” the General barked into the mic. “Prepare for hostile contact! I repeat hostile contact imminent!”
“Yes sir!” that generic response came again and the little dots began to move even faster.
From somewhere deep within the ceaseless motion that was the harashna a new kind of movement began, less extravagant and easier for the senses to comprehend and it was this movement that General Kahill dreaded.
When the first of the ensorcelled Gonders burst from the harashna they found many of the men and women of the imperial army confused at being confronted by what appeared to be their unarmed countrymen. This confusion only lasted long enough for the Gonders to catch sight of their prey and burst into a frenzy of uncanny speed. Long distances were covered in a blink of an eye and just as their first line of defense was about to be breached the imperial soldiers opened fire. Hot plasma burned through the undead as volley after volley of machinegun fire cut them to pieces. Those who were not fatally incapacitated terrified the soldiers around them by continuing to advance even after they had lost one or more of their appendages.
More and more of the undead army attacked as a seemingly endless stream continued to pour from the depths of the harashna. Their mouths gaped with rotting teeth and the foul stench of death. Their hands were outstretched with broken nailed fingers curled into rending claws as the human beasts swarmed the first ranks of defenders and overwhelmed them. Terrified screams of agony ripped through the air as the Gonders ripped handfuls of flesh from the living. Although the increasingly desperate soldiers felled the creatures by scores they were pitifully few against an army that amounted to an entire nation.
General Kahill watched in disbelief as his men were slowly overrun by the necromonic minions of the Archmagi. Quickly did the realization dawn that he would have to signal a retreat but an ingrained stubbornness, a trait he was well known for, refused to let him give the order that would save the lives of the brave men and women below him and so he watched as they died.
Without warning, from the numerous side streets that intersected the Avenue of East and West, a salivating horde of werewolves burst forth and fell upon the undead Gonders, they rent and tore the ensorcelled people until their bodies were scarcely recognizable as human.
“What the hell is going on down there?” Kahill screamed into his hand mic as he groped blindly for his binoculars with his free hand.
The microphone’s speaker crackled with static and the General was about to key it and demand a response when a voice suddenly replied, “General Kahill! This is lieutenant McAriicoys and the werewolves are under command of Lord Candlelite via the Lupelire!”
“Oh thank heaven,” the General breathed as he finally found his binoculars and brought them to bear on the chaos below. What he witnessed nearly took his

breath away for as he watched McAriicoys lead his mercenaries onto the battlefield and join the werewolves in their wanton slaughter of the Gonders. The brief reprieve brought by this new confusion in the battle was all that the imperial soldiers needed to rally their defenses. They gave a mighty cheer that even the General heard high above, regrouped and renewed their attack.
For a while it seemed as if the forces of good might prevail as the Gonders were held at bay but then the defenders were once more put into a position of slow retreat by a renewed surge in carnivorous energy.
“General, I’m not sure how much longer we can hold out here,” McAriicoys voice sounded even more stressed translated through the static of the hand mic.
“Don’t worry,” Kahill responded. “I’ve initiated a plan for your retreat. Just hold tight for a few more moments then on my mark begin to fall back, force fields will be placed between you and the harashna. The wizards are just finishing with fields around the rest of the palace and will be in your area shortly.”
“Ten four,” McAriicoys answered. “But get them here quick!”
Kahill scanned the area behind the battlefield and was relieved to discover that the contingent of wizards were closer than he had anticipated them being. He watched as the white robed men and women took up their positions.
“All right McAriicoys, on my mark!” the General barked into his hand mic as the wizards began the complex series of hand gestures that were part of the force field spell. “And…now!” he ordered and brought the battle back into his line of sight.
McAriicoys gave the signal to retreat. The mercenaries and imperial soldiers began to move backwards toward the wizards, always making sure to keep their adversaries in front of them. The werewolves continued to mangle the uncaring Gonders. The soldiers crossed the invisible line that marked the boundary of the force field and the werewolves turned together as one giant pack and made their own retreat. As quick as the ensorcelled Gonders were they were easily outdistanced by the animals once they dropped to all fours and the werewolves crossed into the safe zone just as the spell was finished.
The force field shimmered to life and neatly sheared in half any Gonder who happened to be caught in it. Others that were less quick bounced harmlessly off of it. The few zombified monsters that happened to make it inside the perimeter were quickly eliminated by mercenaries while their imperial comrades cheered their success at not dying.
Their enthusiasm was short lived however for the Gonders, being denied their live prey, wasted no time in falling upon the dead and dying in what was a cannibalistic feast of insanity. Many of the imperial soldiers lost their stomachs on the clean cobbles while the seasoned mercenaries further hardened their hearts to what was yet another atrocity of this tragic war. Even the cold General Kahill lowered his binoculars and turned away from the dreadful sights below.


Absinthe sat on an antique wooden chair and watched the conflict swirl around her from the spot she had secreted herself not long after the fight for possession of the capital had begun. Absinthe was a brave young woman and did not think herself a coward by any means but after having been through so much in such a short span of time she found she just could not participate in any more of the mayhem. She knew the others were probably worried about her, especially Candlelite, but still she sat and contemplated everything that had brought her to this moment. It was hard to believe mere months before she had been a giant grizzly bear contently living a quiet forest life with barely any recollection that she had been anything but. But that was another life, one