My mind and heart are no longer as protected from my emotions as they were only moments ago, because the medallion on my right bicep is nowhere near as powerful in that location as it would be if I pressed it to my left hand.
I can’t stop the groan of regret rising within me as my face brushes the edge of the black metal now fused to the Vandawolf.
It is cruel and unkind, and it stings and aches and punishes.
And now I have forced it on him.
The consequences will be mine to face.
Chapter2
I’ve barely raised my head when the sound of the outer gate opening reaches me.
The humans are coming out.
I take quick stock of my weapons. My hammer is clipped to my belt and I have one medallion currently positioned around my right bicep. I can choose to wrap that medallion around my left palm, but that will only benefit me if I can get up close to the humans and make physical contact.
Otherwise, I can transform it into any weapon I want.
The Vandawolf has two daggers, both of which are sheathed at his waist. I can’t transform those, but I can certainly use them.
Of course, I also need to think past the fight—assuming I survive it. I need to get the Vandawolf out of here, but he’s too big for me to carry over my shoulders. Even with my enhanced strength, I don’t have the size to support him.
My focus flashes to the landscape around me. The wasteland stretches for at least another three hundred feet until it reaches the edge of the Sunken Bog, which sits on the eastern side of the city and extends all the way to the mountains. The ashen ground of the wasteland is dotted with skeletal trees, their branches splattered with blood-rain, while the bog is wet and marshy, filled with large, rotted trees and insects. Even without rain, the ground within the bog sucks at everything that touches it, trying to sink and pull it all down.
Somehow, I need to get the Vandawolf to the edge of the bog and then through it to reach the mountain pass, where my family and Thaden will be waiting.
The squelching sounds of boots in the distance tells me that the humans are only now stepping through the gate. The front of the monolith where we shelter is a solid hundred paces from the wall.
They may try to muffle their whispers, but their footfalls will give their location away. Unlike me, they won’t be accustomed to moving through this sodden earth. I’ve trained myself to run through it and I’ve built up the muscles needed to keep myself from sinking with every step.
The mud will slow them down considerably.
I judge I have at most five minutes before they reach me.
I need to use that time to its fullest extent.
My focus flashes to the shield wedged into the earth just beyond the monolith—to the large surface it provides.
Then upward to the stone wolf’s face.
Protruding from either side of its nose are two tusks that are shiny and smooth and appear as if they’re made from black onyx. They’re sharp at their pointed ends, but they’re also long, thin, and only gently curved—and most importantly, they’re unbreakable. Not even my magic could shatter them.
If I can attach the tusks to each side of the shield, they can act as poles.
If I can turn the shield into a stretcher, I can transport the Vandawolf on it.
I don’t have a moment to waste.
Leaning back from the Vandawolf and putting space between us, I press my left hand to my right bicep and cause my last medallion to wrap around my left palm. Then I take hold of my hammer in my left hand too.
I shudder at the immense power now raging through me. Holding both the hammer and the medallion in one hand is like clutching fire.
I can’t use this power on the tusks, but I need the extra physical strength it will give me.
Taking a few steps back, while remaining within the shelter of the wolf’s chest, I prepare to make the jump up to the tusks high above me.
If I had a longer run-up, I could reach them in a single bound, but not from this close.
