“Don’t come out yet,” the Alpha Lycan said, closing what you could call curtains—though it was really just a coarse brown sheet attached to the carriage.
“25. I would be 25 if placed in human years,” Sely said to Rhys. “Now answer: have you slept?”
“Yes…”
“Lies. You didn’t sleep, Rhys. Look at your hands—that wasn’t from the war,” Sely said, studying the almost fresh wounds. They looked more like precise, self-inflicted lines.
“Look, Rhys, I won’t force you to forgive me or anything like that. But the truth is that you need to rest, at least to some extent. You are what is keeping both of us alive.”
Rhys didn’t answer. Sely made the move again, shifting her position so her lap could accommodate his head comfortably.
“I’ll stay on lookout. You get some rest. If anything happens, I’ll wake you up,” she said as she cradled his head.
With no energy left to fight her off, he surrendered. The moment Sely told him her age, the unspoken rules between them had reversed again.
Well, guess you might actually have a love interest. Though she spent most of her time…
“Shut up. You are just a dead knight…” Rhys murmured as he closed his eyes.
The whispered words still reached Sely’s felid ears.
“How many did we help?” Lycan asked, standing among what looked like a council. He and Alpha Vaikor were the oldest among them.
“Almost sixty. A lot more than we first thought.”
“Not a hundred? I heard a hundred,” another chimed in.
“Should we go count, too?” Vaikor asked, cutting his eyes at the first canid.
“We will check again,” the canid replied quickly.
“And the food? We still have some days to go,” Lycan pressed.
“There are children and young ones in the group, but we managed to gather plenty of food. We can fill our stomachs until we reach Garwulf.”
“If that’s everything, then rest, boys. We have much distance to cover,” Vaikor said, turning around.
“Alpha,” one of them called out.
“Yes?” Lycan replied.
“We have a question,” another said.
Five male canids stood there, each looking cautiously at the two Alphas.
“A question?” Vaikor asked.
“Yes. About the human. We heard you were riding with this human.”
“Didn’t you see him?” Vaikor asked. “At the war, it was pretty hard to miss him.”
Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.
“Yes, we did. But we thought you would leave him to the felids or the aurochs.”
“No. We thought it was better to keep him with us.”
“But he’s a human,” another protested.
“What the boy did to the Ravari village is what we want,” Vaikor explained. “If he acts as we expect him to, then we will leave him to choose…”
“A human is a human! Whatever he did—whether he helped other canids or not, killed other humans or not, helped Mikok or not—he’s still a human. Any other human could do the same.”
“At some point, I hated all humans just as you do,” the Lycan said quietly. “They have killed a lot of us. Used a lot of us. But if there were more humans who acted as this boy does, then this place might be a little better.”
“Can he die after.....”
“What we mean,” Vaikor interrupted sharply, “is that the boy is important. He did more for you than you did during the Neutral City war.”
“How important is he?”
“We are tired of talking about this,” the Lycan snapped. “We will talk later. Right now, we have other things to look after.”
“We will let it go, but we only ask to speak with him. Just once,” another said.
“Will that end this?”
“Yes, Alphas. That will do it.”
“Then go get him,” Lycan said.
Three of the canids immediately rushed past the two Alphas.
A few minutes passed before they returned, dragging Rhys along.
“They would like to talk to you,” Vaikor said flatly.
“Where are you from?” one canid demanded.
“Neutral City. But years back, I lived with the Ravari,” Rhys replied, stepping forward. “Good… the shade is nice,” he added quietly as a cool breeze drifted past.
“Have you killed canids before?” another asked.
“What answer would you like, yes or no?” Rhys replied.
“You are in demi-human land. Talk like it!”
“Now, we need to know if you’ve killed canids before. The Alphas look at you like you’re a good human, but all humans are killers. They take what they want, no matter who they have to kill.”
Rhys took a deep breath. “No. I have never killed canids before.”
“Let’s try.....”
“Was that the answer you wanted?” Rhys cut in. “Whatever I’ve done, you can call it evil. I might be the most evil person here—human or demi-human.”
" Infact evil might be a small word, I just don't have anything bigger than that." He added quickly.
“Wh.....”
“You don’t want to know. Trust me. But what I will tell you is this: I won’t stop you from hating me. You can hate me. In fact, kill me if you feel the need.”
“Then let’s kill him,” one said, his hand dropping to his sword hilt.
“You hate me, I hate you, we hate each other,” Rhys continued coldly. “You kill me, nobody kills you, and you later die, whether in war or not. But if I kill you…”
“Seems like you’re not ready to die after all.”
“Oh, me? I am. If you have the will, you can just do it.”
“What if you don’t?”
“Then I would do almost anything to live. But the Alphas want to keep me alive, so I need to live.”
“You listen to the Alphas?”
“I’m a slave,” Rhys said, smiling faintly at the canid. “Don’t slaves listen to their masters?”
“How many have you killed? I bet I’ve killed more humans than you.”
“Bet?” Rhys said, the smile lingering. “You only think of killing.....”
“Is that all?” Vaikor interjected. “Rhys, you can go.”
Rhys turned and walked back, tracking the familiar path to his carriage.
“Is that it? Rest now. We need to start moving again soon,” Vaikor told the group.
Vaikor and the Lycan finished their duties. After an hour or more of managing the camp, they returned to Rhys’s carriage.
“He is sleeping again?” Lycan asked, seeing Rhys flat on his back with his head resting on Sely’s lap.
“Yes. Do you need.....”
“No, it’s fine,” Lycan replied.
“What did you do to have him stick with you?”
The question drifted over from the Lycan. Sely was looking down at Rhys, her mind wandering, but the words registered. She hesitated, thinking long and hard before answering.
“It seems my name travels further by the day,” Sely replied softly.
“Oh, yes. You are no longer under the protection of that monster of a husband you had,” the Lycan said. “And now everyone wants your blood, planning to do to you what you did to others.”
“I spend most of my time thinking about what everyone would do to me, considering I’ve already been stripped naked and beaten,” Sely said quietly. “But you asked what I did. It wasn’t any good I did. He just seems to want me beside him.”
“Is that so? Okay then. We will wait…”
*Can you hear them? They are talking about the all-kind Rhys,* the knight said, standing over him in full armor.
“What can I do to make you go away?” Rhys whispered.
*Me? Go away? Why, Rhys? Do you want to kill me again?*
“I had to. It was either me or.....”
*A father. A parent, Rhys. Now my children will no longer have a dad.*