Chapter 9 - The Hunt in the Mist
The Ironfang Forest at night was a treacherous maze of jagged rocks, ancient pine trees, and thick, choking white fog.
A pack of fifty elite Royal Guards, led by King Torin and Abigail, rode hard through the narrow mountain passes. Torin rode a massive, coal-black warhorse at the front of the column, while Abigail rode beside him, Finn secured safely in a leather child-harness strapped across Torin's chest beneath his heavy wolf-pelt cape.
Finn’s sense of smell, completely cured of the dark resin poisoning, was remarkably sharp.
"That way, Daddy," Finn whispered, pointing his small, pale finger toward a narrow, dark ravine shrouded in heavy mist. "Smells like the dark needles."
Torin pulled his horse to a stop, raising his hand to halt the column. He looked at Abigail.
"The Whispering Ravine," Torin said in a low tone. "It leads directly to the abandoned iron mines at the Southern border."
"It's a trap, Sire," Abigail warned, studying the steep, rocky cliffs surrounding the ravine. "Vance knows this terrain. He wouldn't run into a dead-end canyon unless he had established a defensive position."
"Then we end it here," Torin declared.
He dismounted swiftly, lifting Finn out of the harness and handing him to Captain Eric. "Eric, stay back with twenty guards. Protect the heir at all costs. Abigail, come with me."
Abigail dismounted, pulling a sleek crossbow loaded with silver-tipped bolts from her saddle holster.
Torin led the remaining thirty warriors silently into the misty ravine. The air grew cold, smelling strongly of sulfur, rot, and dark magic. High above on the cliff ledges, dark shadows moved through the fog.
"Torin!" a harsh, bitter voice echoed from the rocks above.
Lord Vance stepped out onto a high stone ledge overlooking the ravine. He was dressed in blackened steel armor, his face twisted in desperate rage. Beside him stood three dark-robed Shadow Mages, their hands glowing with sickly green fel-fire.
"You brought a maid to a war, brother?" Vance mocked, his cruel laugh echoing off the canyon walls. "How pathetic! You should have let that weakling child die! He was a curse upon our bloodline!"
"The only curse on our bloodline," Torin roared, his voice shaking the stone walls, "is a traitor who tortures a child!"
"Kill them all!" Vance screamed.
The three Shadow Mages raised their hands, unleashing a torrent of green fel-fire down into the narrow ravine. Huge boulders were dislodged, crashing down toward Torin’s men.
"Scatter!" Torin bared his fangs, shifting fully into his legendary Alpha Wolf form—a massive, eight-foot-tall beast with fur dark as midnight and eyes like blazing white stars.
The Alpha Wolf leaped up the steep cliff face with impossible speed, dodging falling rocks and fireballs, his lethal claws digging deep into the granite.
Abigail didn't run. She ducked beneath a stone overhang, brought her crossbow to her eye, and aimed directly at the lead Shadow Mage who was preparing a massive firestorm targeted right at Torin’s landing path.
She took a deep breath, calculating the wind and fog density.
Click-RELEASE.
The silver bolt cut through the thick mist like a streak of lightning. It struck the lead mage directly through his throat. His spell collapsed, exploding in his hands and consuming the second mage in a fiery blast.
Vance gasped in shock as his magical support disintegrated in seconds. "You wretched bitch!"
Vance drew his broadsword and lunged down from the ledge, aiming to strike Abigail down himself.
Abigail dropped the empty crossbow, drew her father’s silver dagger, and rolled to the left just as Vance’s blade shattered the stone where she had been standing.
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Vance spun around, his sword flashing back to cut her down. But before his blade could touch her, a massive black shadow slammed into him from above.
Torin’s giant wolf form smashed Vance onto the rocky floor of the ravine, pinning the traitorous lord under two thousand pounds of muscular, murderous fury.
