Ja go of the worries pervading her mind and slowed her breathing to think. She rarely recited prayers to the Spirits, preferring to persevere through her own abilities, but now she he focus and crity granted by their embrace. Ign Terrific’s ghostly apparition lurking in the shadows of their prison, the warlord began the Prayer e.

  Blessed Mother. Deliver me from the temptation of self-pity a me straight on the road of betterment. Let rightee fill my veins and invigorate me; mold me into a tireless instrument of the state and a defender of the weak. Of this I ask you, Blessed Mother.

  The door opened again, and several raiders stumbled in, wearing inplete sets of their suits and reeking of cheap booze. A faint smile spread across her lips as she noticed the bastard’s ranged and melee ons. Her prayer was answered. Perfect.

  “Think their women are like the town’s whores?” A raider hiccuped, nodding at the Wolfkins.

  “Brood Lord took two,” said anuard, stepping closer to the cage. “They didn’t st long, but he boasted they were exactly the same. What, you want to try them? The big one belongs to the khan.”

  Spirit e, stay your cws, I beg you. Jaoned, moving a fio her wrist. Good, she reach it. A sed finger followed. Let me breathe for a while. Let me stay sail the deed is done. I am still needed in this world. Avert yaze, and I will sacrifice hundreds of lives in your honor.

  Talking to the Spirit e was the height of stupidity. It had no oals than to spread destru ah. Its creations, skinwalkers, possessed genius minds and unrivaled ferocity and cked any moral restraint. Had Impatient One been privy to her mother’s thoughts, she would have attacked her with the full iion of murdering the warlord, family ties or not. No one should pray to the mother of skinwalkers. You do not tell it your name; you do not think about it, let alone speak of it. These were the rules, paper-thin barriers to stay safe. But superstitions ran deep iribe, and every warlord performed self-ied prayers to this cruel thing, hoping to protect their packs.

  “Who gives a raptor’s ass about the big ohe first raider answered, lig his lips as he looked at the Ice Fang. “Check her out. Such curiosity.” He stepped ihe cage. “Crimson eyes, fur like white silk, and such delicate arms. What a unique sight!”

  “Let me go, and I will show you such tenderness,” the knight sang, a murderous light dang in her eyes. “e, there is nothing to fear, sirrah.”

  “I have heard that the white-furred are nobles among their kind,” the sed hordeman said. “She’ll murder you if you let her loose.”

  “Then we won’t. But we must give her a prreeting. How about we give her a taste of real men? Brood Lord Khan won’t mind, as long as she’s alive…”

  Ignacy lunged forward as far as the s would allow, and the man screamed. He recoiled, but Ignacy had already sunk his fangs into the guard’s ear and part of his neck. A siwist of the jaw tore off a siderable k of flesh. The Wolfkin ughed, spitting the lightning bato the face of the enraged and panicked guard. Even a heavy kick to the stomach that smmed Ignacy’s body against the bars couldn’t shake him from his mirth.

  “Sorry. Just wao try a real man.” Ignacy smiled through the pain.

  “You fug cripple!” The wounded guard roared, kig Igna his groin and adding another blow as the soldier thrashed in his restraints.

  “Takes oo know one,” Ignacy groaned. “By the way, you taste like shit. Then again, you look like a pile of excrement. Guess that was a given.”

  “Bastard!” The raider kicked Ignacy between his legs again, drawing blood. “Mutant! Filth! My ear! Sve!” A kick apanied every word, while the other raiders ughed.

  Janine’s fingers rested on her wrists, each against the bone she o dislocate. Silently, she stood ooes, preparing to pull her legs through the narrow shackles and break her feet. She wouldn’t let aake her son from her. A cw slipped free, unseen among the thick fur. Its tip pierced the skin, reag the bone.

  “Give me tongs! I will rip out his fangs and torture him until his screams are heard in...”

  A shot silenced his yelling and the ughter of his panions, stopping Janine from freeing herself as she tried to uand what was going on. The hordeman’s head had a gaping hole in its temple. His eyes rolled up, and his body sagged to the floor. His panions immediately reached for their helmets to raise the arm, their hands tightening on their rifles.

  Drinks or no, they reacted too te. Bursts of gunfire riddled the exposed parts of their bodies as the ued rescue team ehe prison. Nine raiders full power armors, apanied by four Malformed who leapt nimbly to the ceiling, firing single shots from their pulse rifles. The guards’ screams were useless; the front door smmed shut, and their questions and pleas for mercy fell on deaf ears. Effitly and swiftly, the attackers gunned down both wounded and surrendering guards and spread out, opening cages and releasing prisoners.

  Dokholkhu approached Janine’s cell, pressing two trembling fio his forehead. The boy and his siblings wore an abomination of teology. Sleeves of their suits were too big for their forearms; steel ptes ected by cables hung loosely around each leg; helmets barely covered the top of the head, but miraculously the things worked, and his fingers broke through the cage door with ease but faltered when trying to pry open their shackles. On his back, safely hiddeh the geor, was a rge tainer.

  The boy raised his eyebrows at the wet spots on her wrists and drew his sword, aiming for the bonds.

  “They are too durable. Use a key.” Janine the dead guards, and Dokholkhu hurried to get a key ring. It took him several nervous attempts, but finally the shackles fell from her limbs, aepped back, smelling of nervousness and sweating with desperation as a paw rose. “You’ve made the right choice, Dokholkhu.” Jated his shoulder to calm him and faced his group. “I thought I had spared more.”

  “Not everyone agreed to join,” another malformed replied. He approached, carrying the Taleteller and ha over. “We… we had to take precautions.”

  “Is it true? your state keep us from the Horde?” asked a hordewoman.

  “Keep? Girl, when we are finished,” Janine swung the Taleteller and cut through the s that held her before, “there will be no more Horde. Just the state. Have you attacked civilians? Vioted our people?” She studied the woman’s face, remembering the trickle of blood she had seen.

  “N… don’t know,” the raider gulped. She removed her helmet, revealing a stocky, pale-skinned, fear-stri face covered in a work of scars. “We came from the steppes, and Muhrew us first at your walls and then at this town. We fought our way to the square, then Mungke went on and got himself killed, and we panicked and tried to hide because of the beasts lurking in the smoke... I do not know if we attacked your civilians or not. There is not even my khaganate anymore; we are all from different s,” she said, as if that expined everything to Janine. “Listen, I am in charge of these buffoons. Punish me if you wish, but spare them.”

  “Appreciate the hoy. We are all getting out.” Janine nodded, deg to hold back her wrath. The woman was thteo lie. Let the Iigation Bureau earn its keep by determining her guilt. Uhe Malformed, these were adults, and while some leniency will be shown for the rescue, a prisoence awaited them if they had harmed civilians. But there was o say it out loud now. Dokholkhu’s tainer made a series of noises—needles scraping the surface. “What’s in it?”

  “Family,” Dokholkhu replied quickly. “I am not leaving them.”

  “Are we w with the Horde now?” The Ice Fang massaged her wrists and stomped on the dead guard’s face.

  “Corre: We are esg the Horde’s captivity thanks to the brave and timely aid of our new allies.” Janine poi the corpses. “Shut up and arm yourselves. Everyone, put on whatever armor you . Guardsmen, you get any o…”

  “Warlord… These animals.” Ignacy poi the hordemen. “These animals burheir way through our nds; they killed…”

  “Enough,” Jaopped him before the boy could blurt out anything important. She still didn’t fully trust her ‘rescuers’ either, worried that this might be Brood Lord’s trick. But a ce was a ce. Ja a hand on her son’s shoulder, wishing she could grant him her strength and take away his sorroill watch their backs and work with them. Because we hem to survive and escape, and they need us for the same reason. That is an order.”

  Ignacy met Janine’s eye. She calmly accepted whatever bme or hatred her son might have thrown at her. Was it not her orders and ck of fht that brought them here? She was too weak to save Bogdan from this terrible fate. Suddenly, Ignacy bared his neck, and the warlord rexed, happy that she didn’t have to knock him out if he had tried to take revenge. Ignacy examihe former hordemen’s suits and sighed, clumsily adjusting several parts to provide better prote, and gave the Malformed advi how to better fold their cables to avoid being fried by an occasional discharge.

  “I thank you for your assistance, even though it wasn’t needed, sir.” The Ice Fang bowed to Ignacy.

  “Beat it, traitor,” he told her. “I am already eo the best woman in the world, so paws off me.”

  “That wasn’t my iion, and I’m no traitor,” the knight said slowly, massagiemples. “My gratutions, sir. Pray tell, must the Wolf Tribe always reduce everything to the degeneracy of al pleasure?”

  The warlord checked the pulse on the neck of the unscious sword saint. Bad. His skin was hot, his lips were dry and his heart barely beat thirty times a mi was tempting to decre the bastard beyond saving and snap Macarius’ neck, but that would betray everything Bogdan had fought and died for. Even breaking the bastard’s nose was impossible; in his dition, he could easily die from additional stress.

  Irrelevant. There will always be time for it ter. She re-bandaged his wounds usiively er pieces of the dead guards’ clothing and secured him to his back with her own s. Pus oozed from the cuts and bruises on Macarius’ body, armihe iion should not have spread so quickly. She inteo save him to spite the Horde and uttered a small prayer to the Spirits, asking the Blessed Mother to help the man endure.

  “Are there any other captives nearby?” Janine asked Dokholkhu.

  “Not that I know of.”

  “Got it.” Janine swung, testing if there was any weakness in her arm. “Here’s the pn. Cubs, stay with the guardsmen in the rear. New Breeds, and we will cut us a path…”

  “We better steal a Sky Carrier.” Dokholkhu noticed a raised brow and quickly expined, beaming. “It’s an aircraft. The Gilded Horde has three of them; they are used to transp goods. Fa… Brood Lord was given one for his service, and it is currently undergoing maintenan the hangar after being damaged i battle. The Sky Carrier has no ons, but it flies fast. It also has a shield, so if aries to shoot at us, we have a better ce of surviving.”

  “And you have any idea how to pilot it?” Janine crified.

  “I… No.” Dokholkhu looked down.

  “I !” A hordeman raised his hand. “I ilot for Mungke Khan ba the steppes before his son kicked me out.”

  Janine sidered the idea for a sed. Her inal pn had been to steal a Horde vehicle, drive it to the edge of the chasm, and drop down. It was risky, but the Wolfkins were skilled climbers who could save themselves and their allies. Then they would have travelled north in the safety of the depths. But that pn was risky, and Dokholkhu’s proposal promised better ces of survival for their Normie allies, and depriving their enemies of rare equipment was too tempting. Perhaps it might evehem to Houstad safe and sound!

  “Tell me how to get to the hangar,” Jaold the boy.

  “Why are we in the rear?” She heard a Malformed hissing after their preparations were plete.

  “She thinks us children,” Dokholkhu whispered back with a mixture of fusion and annoyance, loading his rifle.

  “Is she dumb? I lived for three thousand days!”

  “Three thousand divided by three hundred seventy-five…” whistled a guardsman and sized up the Malformed.

  “What?”

  “Surprised,” replied the guardsman. “Quiet, kiddos,” he said as Janine raised her paw.

  She was done sinning. Cubs of any rao matter how they looked, were untouchable in times of eace. Acts happened, but just because the Horde had resorted to such mindless cruelty didn’t mean they had the right to abandon their ws. Much to Ignacy’s disappoi, she told him to stay in the back.

  Their unusual group stepped into the corridor in silence, and Jaore a pieetal from one of her nostrils, along with a piece of skin stuck to it, and she air. The stench of alcohol from a tunnel ahead alerted her to potential hostiles, and the pack took a detour to avoid exposing themselves unnecessarily. She sniffed again as they reached the shattered windows, pig up the faint st of Drozna in the distand many more reeking of sweat and blood. Cries of dozens of people being dragged away to be sold like cattle at a market. Proud querors walked through the ruireets, overseeing the restoration by the ensved popution.

  I will e back for you. She led her group ahead, listening to the sounds of civilians g and screaming and the boastful ughter of the invaders. Failure. A total failure of the state. How many will die because they ot bear the abuse?

  Dokholkhu had expio them that the prisoners were held in the west factory. The site had been verted from civilian to military use, and the engineers had set up workshops and assembly lines in the hangars. Cracks and crimson stains on the wall indicated that several units of the Provincial Army had made their st stand here, protected from artillery fire. Janine tio use her nose, remembering her days as a scout as they approached the rgest ‘hangar’.

  Occasionally, the party entered a patrol. The first time, the hordewoman had distracted the guards long enough for the Wolfkins to sneak up close and mercilessly dismember them. The sed patrol had been wiped out by the deserters themselves, who had approached the drunkards and spoken briefly before stabbing them in the necks.

  They had only halted their flight once when they heard the ctter of moving gears filling the corridors and faint wailings. A group of intoxicated soldiers had taken over a small room previously used by workers to rest and were hanging a civilian’s hands from the ceiling, whipping the poor man for their amusement aing on how long his heart would st. Janine sehe anger in her Wolfkins and guardsmen. Good. It was better than fear.

  Led by the Ice Fang, two males sneaked up behind the torturers and pluhe stolen knives into their necks. Two simultaneous twists ripped through arteries and bones, killing the prey instantly. The three remaining guards turned just in time to be greeted by a blindingly fast quick-draw from the Ice Fang. The i Horde bde decapitated them, and the knight shook it to the blood from the edge, gng sfully at the falling bodies.

  Janine nodded in respect of the knight’s skills. It was so easy tet how dangerous the Ice Fangs were. Behind their opulent goerfumes were inparable warriors, their feral instincts waiting for the right opportunity to emerge and wreak havod judging by the hungry glint in the crimsohe knight itched for an opportunity to unleash the true age.

  “P-please,” the civilian whimpered as Ignacy gently lowered him on the floor and guardsmen began bandaging the horrible cerations at his back. “I didn’t want… We didn’t mean… It was a joke; there was never any treasure buried here, but they… they killed everyone…”

  “Hush,” Janine pressed a fio his lips. “You are safe.”

  “No.” His panicked gaze focused on her, and the trembling hand gripped her waist. “No one is safe. They are here… Please, a quid, a…”

  Mad. Too scared to move on. The pack had no choice. Leaving him would spell his doom, and Janine closed her paw around the man’s neck, choking him out into unsciousness. Another sin for her to atone for.

  “I carry him,” the Ice Fang volunteered.

  “Your paws are needed for battle. Ignacy, take him,” Janine said.

  Shadows greeted them as they turo the left in the corridor. cealed from her nose by rubbed-in oil and standing perfectly still, the fged offspring of Brood Lord revealed themselves, blog the path to the steel gates leading ihe hangar. Each Malformed carried a heavy mae gun leveled at the Wolfkins. Their bodies tensed in readio jump at the walls at the first sign of aggression.

  Their leader, a woman whose long hair was tied ba a tight knot, stepped forward, armed with a psma discharger ripped from a provincial army vehicle. Two gagged and bound soldiers, rescued from the arena by Dokholkhu, followed her. A yer of oil covered them.

  “Jaliqai?” Dokholkhu tried to push past Janine, but she stopped him, wary of what might happen. “What are you doing here?”

  “Waiting for you,” Jaliqai answered. “Father rusted you. He assigned me to spy on you, and you did a spectacurly poor job of stealing from his treasure trove. And then I caught these tw to steal a hoverbike. The question is, what do you think you are doing, you idiots? Do you have any idea what Father will do to you for this?”

  Janine reized the Malformed. She had stood beside Brood Lord in the arena earlier, and her voice had drawn the Khan’s attention away from her brother. Even now, she never raised her voice but used her legs to push two soldiers in front of her, using them as a shield.

  “I am getting our family out of here, Jaliqai.” Dokholkhu replied.

  “You are betraying the Brood,” Jaliqai said with a stony expression.

  “What is there left to betray?” Dokholkhu ched his fist. “The Brood is dead. We are finished. Culled almost to the st.”

  “It happened before. New ones will…”

  “And you wish them to live a life like ours? You said it yourself; it happened before.”

  “I…” she hesitated. “No, of course not.”

  Dokholkhu pressed a hand to his chest. “It will happen again. You will die. I will die. For what? Screw it, and screw him! Jaliqai, please step out of our way, or better yet, join us!”

  “It’s too te for me, brother,” the girl said. “Too te for us all. The things he made me… us do…”

  “Maybe so. But it is not too te for them!” Dokholkhu poi the tainer behind his back. “Will you let them take them back? To mutite them, to torture them, to raise them in his image? So they will always be afraid? Are you willing to sacrifice me for him?”

  Jani looking at the girl’s on and the way the barrel ointing down. An energy on. Almost soundless. But should her kin fire… The entire facility will be alerted.

  She turned her eye to the Malformed, notig torn chitin ptes from their upper bodies, wide scars, a few missing fingers or ears, fresh cuts, and bruises. Regardless of their age, these were veterans of many battles—people who had survived impossible odds and who had devised a pn to sneak up on them. So why didn’t they attack them right away? Janine sighed as she finally uood the reason. A genuine family, after all.

  “Put down your on,” the warlord said softly. “If it was too te for you, you wouldn’t care. You’d shoot immediately. But you hesitate. You want to be punished, killed, ahese cubs escape, right? You think that will redeem you?” Jaliqai’s look told her the answer, mirr the same expression she had seen in her own eyes many times before. “It doesn’t work that way, kiddo. Earn it. You chi out and refuse to try to redeem yourself. Or you dare to fly into the unknown. Trying to make up for your mistakes and crimes might be hard. But you’re clearly not happy here, and dying won’t solve anything. It will only further fracture your family. Why not try to be with a family that cares about you, instead of dying for a family that spits on you? Live.”

  “Who is here!?”

  Jaliqai’s finger moved to the trigger, and Jaensed, preparing t her axe down on the woman. But instead of firing at the group, the fged woman turo the left and burned a hole in the chest of the approag guard. The man barely had time to realize what had happened; a gasp escaped his lips before his body colpsed.

  “Well, that answers it.” Jaliqai released the guardsmen. “Guys, we are officially joining the mutants. Fuck Brood Lord.”

  “Sister…” a male Malformed near her started talking.

  “What?” Jaliqai loosened her hair and tied it bato a knot again before hugging Dokholkhu. “Don’t tell me yoing to turn on me.”

  “Nah. Fuck Brood Lord and all that,” the boy chuckled. “Just… Jaliqai, Dokholkhu, we better hurry. There are a lot of people in the hangar.”

  “Leave it to us,” Jaold him, grabbing the energy on from Jaliqai. “Cubs ought to py, learn, and be safe. Stand bad let us work.”

  “But we are not cubs,” Jaliqai argued, snatg a spare gun from one of her brothers.

  “Trust me, it is better nuing,” Dokholkhu whispered to her. “They are weird. They think someone who has lived for three thousand days is a child.”

  “The wise and merciful khatun is n,” said the hordewoman. “You are children.”

  “Madness is tagious,” Jaliqai muttered.

  “Enough chatter,” Janine said, crag her neck. “Time to go home.”