Meta Gods War 3 by B. Miles (the ebook reader txt) 📕

as if the wolves were going to act like they have before, but there’s no promise of that.”

“No, there’s not,” Brice said. “But what else can you do?”

“I can think of some tricks of my own,” Cam said. “You’re one of them.”

“You have others?”

“I hope so.” He let out a breath. “What are the chances they’ll come today?”

“I don’t know,” she said. “Are you sure they’ll attack at all?”

“Not when we’re behind trenches and stakes,” Cam said. “But if I marched the men out into the open, I think they would.”

“Why?”

“Lycanica wants to end this. I think she has bigger plans and we’re slowing her down. She was angry when I saw her, really angry. I think she wants to crush us, and if I offer her a battle, she’ll take it.”

“So you’re trying to bait a goddess into fighting,” Brice said.

“I guess so. I didn’t think about it that way.”

“Just be careful, Cam.” Brice ran her fingers through her hair then tugged at it. “There’s too much at stake. If we lose this…”

“I know,” Cam said.

“Gambling everything on one fight.”

“If there was another way, I’d take it.”

“I know.” She dropped her hair and leaned back. “I just want it to happen, you know? The waiting gets me more than the fighting. When I’m down there with my armor and my sword in hand…”

“You’re in your element,” Cam said. “You’re beautiful, you know.”

She gave him a small laugh. “Yeah, I don’t think so. I’m wrapped in armor and probably covered in sweat and blood.”

“Like I said, beautiful.”

Cam stood. He wanted to go around and kiss her, but there was a commotion outside. He heard boots stomping and words being exchanged. The tent flap brushed open and Key came inside. She had a sheen of sweat on her brow and her spear was uncovered and dripping with blood.

“They’re here,” she said.

Brice jumped to her feet. “What?”

“Attacking the right flank,” Key said. “In numbers.”

“Take me,” Cam said.

He followed Key out of the tent with Brice by his side. Arter followed on their heels and several more of his bodyguard fell into step. Cam guessed Arter had them ready at a moment’s notice.

The clash of bodies and metal rang over the camp. Most of the tents were empty, the campfires only ash. Cam smelled blood and sweat in the air, and the way Key hurried suggested things weren’t going well.

A mass of bodies clumped along the trench line. Cam could barely see beyond them, but he heard the noise of fighting. Wolves growled, snapped their jaws, howled in pain. Men shouted and screamed and cursed. The smell of piss and shit and death hung heavy.

“I need a better view,” Cam said. “Arter!”

Arter appeared at his shoulder. “Hill toward the rear,” he said. “Along the right slope. You’ll see better.’

Cam nodded and looked at Key. “Hold them here,” he said.

“Why are they attacking?” she asked. “I don’t understand it.”

“I’ll find out. Brice, with me.” He turned and jogged. Arter and Brice kept his pace along with the rest of the guards.

Cam ran through the camp and headed toward the hills that climbed up into the mountains. The foothills were the entryway to the valley itself, and they would give Cam a good enough view of the fighting.

He climbed as fast as he could. Few trees grew along the slope. He reached the first plateau and turned, leaning up against the trunk of a young pine, and stared down at the field.

Below them, wolves threw themselves across a shallow trench at a line of spears and shields.

The wolves shredded themselves. Their forward momentum was arrested by the line of trenches, so their charge was effectively worthless against the shield wall. Any wolf that managed to scramble up from the trench was stabbed to death and sent tumbling back down.

Soon, the trench would fill with corpses.

“What are they doing?” Brice asked, her voice soft.

“I don’t know,” Cam said.

“It makes no sense. They can’t possibly win.”

Cam scanned the horizon. More wolves stood motionless at the edge of the dense woods. They watched as their brethren threw themselves with wild abandon along an open and rocky field toward a line of trenches and shields, effectively running to their deaths.

Hundreds of wolves were slaughtered. Cam saw several wounded men get pulled back through the ranks, but none were dead as far as he could see. And the wolves continued to watch, continued to fight.

Until, at some unspoken command, they stopped.

The wolves still within the field arrested their assault. They backpedaled, turned, and fled back to the woods. The wolves standing in the tree line remained where they were, though one wolf the size of a pack horse stepped forward, its swept back silver fur shining in the sunlight.

“Look at that thing,” Brice said. “It’s huge.”

“Lycanica,” Cam said.

Brice started and stared at him. “Are you sure?”

“No,” he admitted. “When I saw her, she was in a human shape, and she was hard to look at, but that wolf…” He trailed off.

It had to be the goddess. The wolf was at least twice as big as any other around it, and all the others wolves seemed to give it some special deference. The enormous silver wolf carried its head high and seemed to look down upon the Humans.

“She’s testing us,” Cam said.

“Testing us?”

“Look.” He nodded at the trench. “There are maybe a hundred wolves down there. A tiny fraction of her full force. And she stopped before it got worse.”

“But she’s their goddess. She wouldn’t just… throw away their lives for nothing.”

“I doubt it’s nothing.” Cam took a deep breath and let it go. He turned and glanced at the guards standing behind them. He watched them shift from foot to foot, their hands gripping and relaxing along the shafts of their spears. Arter’s eyes were harder and downcast, staring at the killing field down below them.

He could see the fear, almost taste it.

If that’s what Lycanica wanted, if she wanted to make his people afraid, she was succeeding.

The giant silver