Pack of Wolves by Maggie Claire (read along books .TXT) 📕

“Then say that when it is your turn to speak. If your pride forces you to claim innocence, then it will surely make your death bearable.” Wolf paces around the stable, throwing his hands out dramatically as he continues. “Do you value your life or your pride? Be wise in your words!”

What kind of choice is this? To force someone to admit a falsehood to live or die in honesty? Cyrus wonders from his place, shackled between two guards. Oh, Iris, what fresh hell did you unleash on our land? Would you approve his actions, or would you be appalled by what he’s become?

Wolf dances his way over to a makeshift podium formed by a pile of driftwood planks. An ornate chair is placed atop them. Wolf regally drops into the throne, his posture and countenance resembling that of royalty. “Bring them out three at a time. If they plead guilty, they are to stand on the right. If they claim innocence, they go left. Once they are all sorted, put the ‘innocent’ ones back in the corral. I’ll see the first batch now, Fox.”

“I’ll not bring them to you,” Fox declares from his place in the guards beside Wolf’s improvised throne. “If you insist on going down this road, it will not be my hand that leads them to the slaughter.”

“Then stand to the left with the rest of the ‘innocent’ and receive the same fate as them,” Wolf growls, pointing one clawed hand toward his healer. “I do not care anymore.”

Fox drops his mask, his pale face and silver hair shining in the light. “Gladly.” He paces to the side, his steps even and without fear. There is no tremor in his hands, nor regret in his eyes. A grim, determined set to his jaw mirrors the emotions running through the rest of the trapped House of Piranhas members. “I’d rather die than live like this anymore.”

“Rest assured, old friend, that will be your fate,” Wolf sneers as the first three captives are brought before him. “How do you plead?”

“Guilty.”

“Guilty.”

“Innocent,” whispers the young mother, still grieving the loss of her beloved, Tang. “And my baby will claim innocence as well. Better he dies with me than face life under your rule.”

“Fool,” Wolf snarls, snapping his fingers. Three soldiers step out of ranks, prodding the prisoners out of the way. “Take the child. Give him to one of the others who claimed guilt. The child is too young to have a say. I will give him a chance at a better life.”

“No!” the mother wails as the child is wrenched from her arms. “Then I change my plea! I’m guilty!”

“Too late!” Wolf declares, stepping off the podium to shove her back into place. She lands at Fox’s feet, crying hysterically. “Keep her over here, on the traitor’s side. She had a chance, and she squandered it. Let her suffer the consequences.”

Jackal steps out of line, grabbing the woman by the waist. “Listen, pretty lady, you either stay put, or I take you into the house and we have a little fun before you die.” She struggles against his hold, but Jackal’s iron grip is too strong. “Or maybe I’ll take your son out into the woods and leave him to rot. Oh, that shut you up, didn’t it, love?”

“Don’t hurt my son,” she whispers brokenly, her fingers stilling their protesting slaps.

“That a girl!” Jackal laughs triumphantly, ripping her mask off her face. “Carry on, Wolf. You’ll have no more trouble with this one!”

“Next set of prisoners!” Wolf commands, returning to his seat on the podium. “Isn’t this fun, brother? Don’t you wish you had this much power? I determine life and death, I hold ultimate control! I’m as good as a god!”

“You’re as crazy as a loon,” Cyrus mutters under his breath. Staring into the eyes of the damned, Cyrus begins to see his own reflection. He’s there in their hunched stances, in their tired, weeping eyes. He sees himself in every man, woman, and child. Shutting his eyes solves nothing, for their haunted expressions remain trapped in his memory. “I’m sorry,” he cries, the words repeating with every breath, growing louder each time until he shouts.

“SHUT UP!” Wolf demands, slapping Cyrus hard across the face. Wolf shakes Cyrus until his head snaps back hard against his neck, but the force does not stop his anxious words. Wolf brandishes his sword, threatening to slice Cyrus’s throat. He even presses the metal into Cyrus’s neck, leaving a tiny necklace of bloody stripes across its surface. “Set up a tent beside the House of Piranhas, and strap him down to a table inside it,” Wolf commands two soldiers who hasten to do as he wishes. They drag Cyrus’s screaming body away from the crowd, his frantic words lingering in the ears of the damned while they await their fate.

***

“I see them!” Wren shouts urgently as Suryc soars low over the scraggly trees that stand near the House of Piranhas.

“Cyrus!” Suryc roars, his deep voice colored with worry. “We have to get down there immediately!”

“Well, we can’t just drop in unseen, can we? Wolf has too many guards standing watch. We need to stay in shadows until the time is right.”

Cyrus, I am here, Suryc whispers into his Cadogan’s mind. Show me what’s been happening. Let me into your mind. Cyrus?

Suryc rumbles a growl deep in his throat as flashes of fragmented memories tumble from Cyrus’s thoughts. “Wren, you need to sneak into their camp tonight!”

“What’s wrong?” Wren demands as he slips down Suryc’s ebony scales, his feet squelching deep into the sand and mud.

“Cyrus’s mind is broken. I cannot fully understand his jumbled thoughts. He’s endured too many trials since our separation. Whatever has occurred has scarred him terribly, and since I cannot waltz into Wolf’s presence safely, it will have to be you.”

“I’ll go as soon as the sun fully drops, and I’ll find out what we’ve been missing,” Wren assures, carefully taking stock of the weapons