Wendigo Wars (14 page)

Mathilde scanned the pitch black forest for signs of the wendigo. The noises continued; whispers, screams, gurgles, ripping clawing noises and the pleading voices. They seemed to come from every corner of the woods. Mathilde could not tell if there were three wendigo or three hundred.

The group stood still for what seemed like hours. As their legs and arms grew tired the noises continued. They intensified then disappeared completely before returning as soft as a breeze. On and on until Mathilde wanted to grab her ears to block out the noise but she stood still, her arms aching at the shoulders and elbows as she tried to hold her increasingly heavy crossbow up and shouted words of encouragement to the group, backed up with similar words from Seb and Paul. The group held strong.

Finally silence fell and lasted for longer than it had before.

“Louisa, Alan – stay here and watch our backs. The rest of us will spread out around the perimeter and check for wendigo.” Mathilde felt unsure whether that was the correct course of action but they couldn’t stand and wait forever. It was time to take a risk.

Mathilde, Seb, Dash, Jewel and Paul spread out, each taking a different area to check. Mathilde looked into the thick woods, seeing nothing but dark. She listened but couldn’t hear anything but the crunch of her booted feet on snow and her own breath. A twig cracked behind her and Mathilde whipped around, finger twitching on her crossbow trigger.  She exhaled loudly. Dash stood in front of her. Mathilde tried to fight back her annoyance at his careless mistake. She glanced at Paul and Seb who were still keeping a good distance between themselves. For the first time she wished that Dash were a little more like Seb. With an entire Protectorate to worry about in a unknown territory Mathilde did not have the time to be able to cope with Dash’s inexperience.

“Dash, move back,” Mathilde snapped. “We need to provide an even cover of the perimeter.”

“Sorry,” Dash said. He looked concerned at Mathilde’s tone but did as she had asked. After another full sweep of the perimeter Mathilde gestured to everyone to fall back to the centre.

 “We will continue to watch in shifts but double the number of people on watch.” Mathilde said to the group. “Just mind games most likely. We must be getting closer.”

“Yes. This is where we were taken from last time,” said Dash.

“What?” Mathilde rounded on Dash and tried to keep her voice down. The Protectorate took a step back but kept watching, some looking uncomfortable with the confrontation.

“You need to tell me things like this. This is important information. We aren’t just on a nature walk; I am responsible for the lives of everyone here and you just gave me a big handicap.”

“Sorry. I just didn’t think it was important.” Dash shrank back a bit, looking nervous of Mathilde’s reaction.

“Of course it is. They could have taken us all again. Look around. It is the perfect place for an ambush and if it has been done before and this is close to their caves then why wouldn’t it happen again?”

“Maybe he’s working for them. What are you doing really Dash? Making us leave the settlement unprotected so that the wendigo can have an all you can eat buffet? Leading us into a trap so that we can be the next meal? What’s your game?”

Seb spat the accusations at Dash. The hate he had been barely holding back seemed to spray from him now like arrows. Mathilde gasped and took a step away from Dash. A couple of hours ago she would have automatically leapt to his defense but now she felt more wary. Getting so close to Mathilde in the sweep could have been a mistake but not telling her about this clearing? Mathilde was scared of what that meant. Either he was deceitful, stupid or so obsessed with saving Suzanna that he was not thinking clearly. None of those were good things.

“Is it true?”

“No, I promise. I just thought that it wasn’t important. I didn’t think that they would be here again. Last time, with my family, they had been following us from the monastery. We came from the other direction and had passed right by their caves on the way to the monastery. They probably caught our scent. We think they may even have followed us for days and waited for their opportunity. It wasn’t this clearing that was anything special, this was just their first opportunity. Please Mathilde. I wouldn’t lie to you or put you in harm’s way on purpose. I love you.”

At this the Protectorate did start to move away and regrouped to discuss who should take the first shift. This was a scene they didn’t want to watch. Seb spat on the floor, glared at Dash then gave Mathilde a warning look before going to join the group.

Mathilde’s thoughts tumbled over each other. The words had made her heart stop for a second. He loved her. At the moment he said it she had wanted to say it back. It all made sense, her feelings with the word ’love’ put to them all seemed right. The way it had been done though. The words tossed out like a weapon or shield. It wasn’t right.

“You don’t love me. You don’t even know me, not really, and I definitely don’t know you.”

Mathilde felt sick as she turned away from Dash. Within seconds he was behind her. The touch of his hand on her arm and the whisper of warm breath in her ear sent electric shocks to her nerve endings again. Sending feelings she didn’t want through her body.

“Look at me Mathilde.” His voice was soft and pleading.

“No.”

“Please.” Dash took her shoulders and pulled her gently around to face him. Their bodies were close again and he held her shoulders in place, stopping her from turning away.

“You used those words so carelessly. They were just a way to diffuse the situation, a way to make me believe you. How could you mean them?”

“How could I not? Don’t you feel it Mathilde? Every time we’re together I want to be close to you, touching you. I want to lie with you for hours, just being together, as close as we could possibly get. I can’t get close enough to you. When we are apart I think of you constantly. This has to be love Mathilde. Don’t you feel it?”

“Yes,” Mathilde whispered. “But it’s wrong. I don’t want to feel it. Maybe this isn’t even love. To tell me in that way; how can I believe you really mean it?”

“You just have to trust me and trust what you feel.”

Mathilde pulled away from Dash and looked to the two groups, one now looking out into the woods and one going to sleep. Even in the cold and with wendigo threatening the Protectors knew that they had to get their rest. Tiredness would definitely reduce their chances of success and they trusted their group mates enough to be able to rest.

“Get some sleep Dash. Tomorrow will be a long day. I’m assuming you know the way to the monastery from here. You can guide us tomorrow. I will trust you enough to believe that you will take us where we need to go and not straight to the wendigo’s cave. We will take it from there.”

“Mathilde...”

Mathilde turned away and walked over to Seb. He glanced at Mathilde and raised his eyebrows but she just gave him a small smile then stared out into the woods. He had the good grace not to push it.

Chapter Seventeen

The sky glinted a silver-grey in the early morning. Though the snow and ice never eased the sun did shine bright on most days making the nicer days an amber warmth but the less nice days a dismal cold silver like today. Mathilde struggled not to see the cold light as a bad omen.

“Ready to get going everyone?” she asked as she shook the bad thoughts from the edges of her brain. The group had been awake for an hour. Dried meats and hot drinks had been consumed and sleeping mats had been packed away. The only remaining signs of their stay were the now dampened fires which let off plumes of black smoke high into the sky. Had the wendigo not already known of their location Mathilde would have ordered the smoke to be quenched as it would be easily seen for miles around by anyone looking above the tree tops.

“Keep in travel formation - groups of two. Keep an eye to the sides and back. Dash in the lead.”

“How do we know that he won’t lead us straight to them?” asked Seb, and it didn’t surprise Mathilde that he brought this up. Unfortunately it was also no surprise that a series of nods and similar grumbles went around the group.

“We don’t, but we are going to give him this chance. He knows the way to the monastery; we don’t. Believe me when I tell you that if he leads us anywhere else he will not need to fear the wendigo. I will kill him myself.”

Mathilde glared at Dash, wishing that she felt as hard hearted and as sure as she sounded. Dash held her eye for a moment; sadness flashed in his eyes then a determination. Mathilde hoped that it was a determination to prove himself to her and not a determination to lead them to their deaths.

The group walked quickly and with purpose. Many people thought that the way to stay safe from a predator was to walk slowly, judging every step and every potential trap but that wasn’t always true. Mathilde knew the predators were out there and they knew where her group was. If they were going to attack they would have done so by now. She had no doubt that they were watching and so the best thing to do would be to get her group into the relative safety of the monastery as soon as possible so that they could talk and plan without the listening ears of their voyeurs.

They had been walking for half a day when they began a steep climb. Still in the thick of the trees the going was both treacherous, with the gnarled tree roots sprouting from the ground, trying to trip them up, but also a relief as the tree branches and trunks gave them priceless hand holds when the climb became too steep. Finally they erupted from the thick of the trees into the light of the clearing at the top of the hill. Below them lay more forest running down the hill and at the bottom another clearing. In the clearing stood the cylindrical towers of a church. Each tower was topped by a cone shaped roof and in each tower were small windows, high up from the ground. The church was surrounded on all sides by grounds which held stables, sheds and log piles. Around the central grounds stood four rows of buildings, joined at each end to make a large square. Around the square was the obligatory moat filled with burning fires. On all sides the monastery was surrounded by mountains and hills.

“Wow, it’s beautiful,” Paul said in a hushed whisper.

“Yes. Historians think that it was built in the early 1500s. In 1821 it was used as military headquarters by the Vladimirescu and his army during the Revolution,” said Dash, speaking for the first time since they had begun their trek that morning.

“But it’s so open to observation. The wendigo could stand on any of these hills or mountains and plan a way to get in easily. They could probably pounce from one of the nearer trees and get in. Why don’t they?”

“There have been attacks in the past,” said Dash, “but the monks are experts in fighting. You can’t see it from here but there are numerous traps on the roofs, around the outer perimeter and inside the grounds. The monks are no longer really monks. They have slowly changed and become ‘The Brotherhood’. They practice fighting daily both hand-to-hand and with weapons. They may be men of God but they also carry the might of God with them.”

The travelers crossed themselves; their hand going from their forehead to their chest and then crosswise from shoulder to shoulder. Some kissed the crucifixes which hung at their necks. Mathilde did nothing. Though many people in Romania had inherited the Orthodox Catholic beliefs of their parents, and many of those whose families came from elsewhere in Europe followed their various other Christian beliefs, Mathilde found it hard to believe in a God that had created the wendigo and had left her without a mother at such a young age. Would a God who loved her have burdened her with such a heavy responsibility to somehow rid the world of wendigo?

“Let’s go.” She spoke brusquely and did not make eye contact with any of the group. Seb squeezed her shoulder. Of everyone he was the only person, other than Amelie, who knew of her constant battles with her yearning to believe but her inability to do so. Dash caught up to her and gave a hesitant smile.

“You can stop looking like you want to kill me now. Haven’t I proved myself?”

Mathilde bristled with annoyance that he was so badly judging what was causing her mood. It was yet another example of him thinking that the world revolved around him. Another example of why she shouldn’t be longing to just hold him and be alone with him as she was doing now. Mathilde stormed ahead, shaking her head to try to dislodge the thoughts of Dash. He may have proved himself here but it wasn’t enough. Mathilde cursed herself for giving her trust so freely in the first place.

Dash fell back and joined the group. The mood, other than Mathilde and Dash’s, had taken on a lighter tone and, though still looking out for threats, the Protectorate chattered quietly and excitedly. Beds and warm meals awaited them.

As they neared the monastery they slowed and stopped talking. They were used to being seen and welcomed by a lookout but they had seen no-one on their descent. As they reached the moat they waited but no voice called to them and the drawbridge stayed closed.

“What do we do? Why were there no lookouts Dash? Is this place really inhabited?”

Dash looked at Mathilde with hurt and disappointment in his eyes. “So you don’t yet trust me again. Not many people visit here. It is far out of the way of travel routes. With the traps and the fighting skills of the monks there is no need for a lookout. We just wait. The drawbridge is let down once a day, in the mid afternoon, so that the horses can be taken for a ride. We must wait until then.”

“It doesn’t seem very sensible. Traps and no lookouts, they have an arrogance which will kill them.”

“You know nothing about them. You are arrogant yourself in your assumptions Mathilde.”

Mathilde looked at Dash in surprise. She spent so long insulting him but it came as a shock to be insulted herself.

“Hey, mate. There’s no need to talk to her like that. Who are you to talk about arrogance? A moment alone with you and I would wipe that condescending look off your face Your Highness,” Seb snarled at Dash. They were nose to nose, or would have been if Seb weren’t a good foot taller than Dash. Dash met his glare with a vicious look of his own. Seb growled again then turned away from him.