Janine breathed a sigh of relief as the group ehe elevator. Rather than waiting for it to return, she jumped off the upper deck, enjoying the cool breeze ruffling her hair. The crawler was an enormous piece of ever-shifting maery, and it was dangerous furs to operate oer hull without being secured by ropes or harnesses. A sudden turn of a turret could’ve sent a person tumbling down on the massive tracks.

  For Wolfkins, it was a sed home. Trained since birth to scale the treacherous jagged mountains and ruins of their homend using only their nimble and strong toes and fingers, they traversed up and down, mog the caution of their cousins. Janine used the ons as stairs and made her way to the lower observation deck, the closest point to her pack’s dens.

  The Wolfkins had mahe observation decks, examining distant fields and civilian cars. Whereas the lower ranks had an air of childish e about them and were genuinely shocked about the ck of personal ons among civilians, the wolf hags and scouts surveyed for perfect locations to pnt mines, prepare ambushes, or orchestrate anized retreats. It wasn’t do of malice; years of dedicated service had kept them on edge.

  Joining her pack, Janine narrowed her eyes as she spotted Mar the road below. He begged and asked relentlessly to be permitted to withe arrival in Houstad, and she had granted him this small boon, celling the lessons after her precious buffoons, including even trying to look impartial, Impatient One, had gives of support. What harm could one day do?

  A lot, it seemed, she cluded as her boy dodged the tracks of an APC below..

  “fess, what have you got Marco up to this time?” Janine yanked Bogdan by the ear.

  “Nothing, Warlord!” Her son smiled ily at a of fangs near his neck. “Marco is brilliantly perf a unity service.”

  Like most of her soldiers, the boy wore a long-colred buttoned jacket, thick pants, boots, and his beret. He hurried toward the railing separating the road from the field. After a brief moment of fusion, Jaiced a terrified filly, pounding her hooves on the crete, leaning against the iron railing, and calling to her mother, who was oher side of the railing, trying to free herself from the workers’ arms. Upon realizing that the young Wolfkin hem, both six-legged horses squealed in panid the filly stood on her hind legs, ready to defend herself.

  “He’ll get hit!” Ignacy prepared to jump down, but Soulless One grabbed him by the ned pulled him back.

  “Trust in your brother, male,” the shaman said. “He isn’t half as dumb as you.”

  Marco evaded the clumsy kicks aimed at his snout and circled around the filly, ing his arms arouorso. He tried to lift her over the railing, but his knees gave way. g his fangs, the cub trembled and stood up, refusing to let go of the panicked animal. Janine wondered why he bothered. If it had been her, she would have she horse’s ned thrown the meat back to the farmer. No livestock g on sense was tolerated ier Lands; all disobediend coarseness were forcibly wiped out of them, making the animals easily manageable and docile.

  “What are you doing standing around here like mouth-breathers?” A voiapped above Janine’s ears, addressing the Wolfkins on a deck below them. “Help the cub!”

  “Yes, Warlord!” Kaisa answered faster than anyone else, and, like a bck streak, she leapt off the deck, weaving her ast the vehicles to reach Marco.

  Janine found Warlrite’s ugly snout beside her a go of Bogdan, guessing the i. The woman anting, but not fre. Fangs, tless fangs, the blessing of the Spirits, covered her entire upper and lower pate, trappiohey desded into her throat, turning every breath into a struggle. Ygrite unbuttoned her colr and scratched at her neck, where more fangs grew, their cruel red tips poking through strands of fur.

  “What are they yapping about?” Ygrite demao know, her words apanied by the loud sug and g of her fangs; the very act of speaking was torturous for her.

  Janine heard the distant cries of ‘Neriskē, zēns!’ and ‘V?lkommen hem!’ mixed in it, but they told her nothing.

  “They implore Marco to back off from danger…”

  “My son is not that fragile,” Janine bristled.

  “And are greeting us,” Soulless One tinued. She put Ignacy down, deg against discipling him in public. “Seems they are happy to see us.”

  “Why?” Janine asked. The migrant workers had lost some of their tan, but she reized the physiques and heaps of blonde hair of several people. “We crushed their homend sixty years ago.”

  “Half a tury is a long time, Warlord,” Bogdan said. “I wasn’t born there. ces are, these people weren’t born theher. And I doubt they’d be tent dwelling underground like those insane shamans demanded. Religious freaks are such a bore sometimes.” He raised his paws. “No offeended, Shaman!”

  “Naturally.” Soulless One locked her eyes with his until Bogdan blinked in submission. Then she pulled out a notepad and began scribbling words.

  “Sorry to startle you, Janine,” Ygrite said. “But you and Ashbrireated my girl pretty nasty, I’d say.”

  “She was the one who started it.” Janine pced her paws on the guardrail.

  “Oh, I am not overly g about that.” Ygrite’s gre caused the rest of the pack to retreat to free them space. “If she is foolish enough to challenge a warlord and die, that’s ohis is what I have a problem with!”

  Ygrite’s crooked finger poi the Wolfkins below. The wolf hag had easily lifted the struggling boy, helping him to push over the struggling filly to reuhe horses. The scared mare still kicked, but Kaisa blocked the hooves aed the boy on her shoulder. Before either of them could leave, a farmer rode up to them, apologizing for the i and thanking them for their help. Kaisa unhappily tried to wave him away, but Marco kept talking to the smiling farmer, f the wolf hag to stay.

  “Just a few months ago, she wouldn’t bat an eye if the horse had hit the boy. Or better yet, she would’ve added a kick of her own. And now she is the first to help ah anything, has stopped rampant dominations, and es to talk to you every night.” Ygrite sucked in air, furiously tearing off fangs from her neck. “Freaky. Gives the impression that a certain warlord thinks her pack is too small and is propping up a dumb puppet to get rid of a rival.”

  “More like she’s growing up.” Janine ighe accusation. “Feeling paranoid? Good. It means you uand your shortings. Try solving problems in your pack. Fewer worries that way.”

  “Maybe I will.” Ygrite fshed an ugly grin and licked her torn lips. “But I ain’t the one who screwed up the girl. It was her parents’ and shamans’ fault. None of them expio her it is ok to ask for help or food, even if you are a motherless cur. I was given a fwed tool.”

  “And?” Janine arched a brow. “Ygrite, how the Abyss is this matter? You have an unstable soldier of high rank in your pack. A gift to the tribe, a jewel to be polished. Would the knowledge that you are right sustain you when Kaisa drives her family to death and leads her pack to ruin? As warlords, everything in our pack is our responsibility. If a male kills himself, it is a failure. If a female dies of her wounds in the field, it reeks of inpeten our part. If there is a disruptive element that breeds hatred at the expense of unity, it is our job to set things right. Discipline and morale are just as important as martial knowledge. Get on with being a leader, lead by example, educate, or step down ahers do the job. Even Kaisa is more mature than you are right now, and she is a bitch. But at least she is trying to be better.”

  She smelled the seething anger in Ygrite’s st, but made no effort to defend herself. If the fool dared to try to dominate her, so be it. Ygrite was a member er’s private circle far earlier than Jahe woman had first opened her eyes in the boratory, or so she cimed. Even Janine was nothing more than a youngster pared to her. But she didn’t care about the veion of the elderly. If the old gives in to paranoia and overly gs to their authority, then the old is a threat. She fought and bled to get where she is today, and she’ll be damned if she’s going to lie to spare the feelings of a senile idiot.

  “Truth be told, I had a thought of opening your throat out for a sec here. But ya have a point; the pointless bickering makes us weaker. I’m not really feeling like doing you or Ashbringer in anymore,” Ygrite ughed and stood o Janine; her hostility fading. A hooked dagger the length of her forearm slid from a coat sleeve, and the warlord spun it in her paw. “I’ll try to set the girl straight, but I’d appreciate it if you’d stick to your lessons. It used to be so easy. Ehat everyone is fed, lead the troops into battle, fet the weaklings who died and live to fight another day... Where has all that gone? Laws, ranks, emotions, teology… Why does everything have to be so plex now?”

  “ge is iable. Few know it better than we,” Janine said quietly, examining her oversized paws. “I remember the days of fighting without power armor, when we feasted oill hot insides of our enemies. And I remember how many died needlessly before Alpha and Lacerated One ged it, f us to use ons instead of relying on trusty cws and hides. We have beed from ge. True, ge breeds plexity, but it also breeds life. I live with it. And so you.”

  “Gosh, I remember young Janine, shy and fragile, hiding behind Terrific’s back, eyes to the ground. What turned ya into a philosopher?” Ygrite elbowed her.

  “Death,” Janine replied, rejoining her soldiers.

  The farmer gave Marce bag, and the boy had to stand up on Kaisa’s shoulder to look inside. Kaisa took Marder her arm ahe bag in her mouth. For several breaths, she watched the APCs pass by. And then she darted, passing them like water, avoiding a collision at the st moment and trolling her run perfectly to show off. She jumped at the APC closest to the crawler, stepped over its turret, and soared through the air like a bird. She nded just above the moving tracks and used her only free paw to climb up. Her thumb slipped, but Anji grabbed the woman’s paw and helped both adventurers back down to the deck.

  “It was kind of you to help the cub, Kali,” Anji sang in a hoone.

  “Shut your trap, Bootlicker.” Kaisa spat the bag into Marco’s paws. “I didn’t need your help. I had everything under trol!”

  “No, you didn’t, but it was still cool. Way to go! I’m rooting for you!” Anissa said as she stepped out of the corridor. Shortly after, she had to duck to avoid a swing that was aimed at her nose while maintaining a smug smile on her face.

  The swied a wall, and Anissa tered by smming her elbow into Kaisa’s ribs, throwing the woman face up against the wall. Her cws fshed, eager to cerate the exposed back, but they only struck the steel. Kaisa disappeared. Her speed and agility, worthy of a warlord, allowed her to slip off the ining stabs at the small cost of having her clothes torn.

  A back kick sent Anissa crashing into the wall. She tried to break free, but an elbow pushed into the scruff of her neck, cratering her head into the steel, despite the wolf hag’s desperate efforts to break free. The two women simply occupied different social levels iribe. Where Nissa had already reached her peak, Kaisa’s growth tinued. Janine’s little girl will never be her equal; that was Anji’s privilege.

  Bogdan’s paw moved to a pocket of her jacket, Ignacy’s arm transformed, Elzada dropped low, Impatient One bared her fangs, Melina prepared to lunge, and Soulless One released her cws. The sight of unity pleased Janine, but she growled, stopping the struggle. Kaisa could’ve easily maimed her girl by now. She didn’t. The fool had not yet fully grasped the idea of restraint, but she no longer was a menace.

  “Warlord!” Marco checked his beret was in pce, saluted Janine, and showed her the bag taining six gss jars of white milk. “Look what the mister gave to us! Cows’ milk! Real stuff! He even invited me ter to get a ride, and…”

  “And you will never again risk your hide without my permission.” Janine’s finger lightly smacked Mar the forehead. Teically, she should have also punished Kaisa for leaving the crawler, but just for today, Janine had decided to ignore minor pses of insubordination. “You won’t be h it for yourself. Three pots go to Ygrite’s pack for Kaisa’s help.”

  “As if I want this piss,” Kaisa mumbled, taking backward steps into the corridor.

  “Wait, don’t go anywhere!” Marco set aside the bag and hurried into the crawler. He returned from his den, beaming and carryiher sacks with their names written on them. “Because of the cold, Anji, Kaisa, and I have made something for you all!”

  Intrigued, Janine picked up a sack meant for her. She unfolded it and found a bck sweater—more of a turtleneck, really—ihe sweater was a little rough around the edges, but it was real, proper cloth, and it even had the emblem of her pack, the Taleteller buried in a Wolfkin’s skull, on the chest. Bogdan, Ignacy, Elzada, Impatient One, Anissa, and Soulless One received the same sweaters; Anji got a much more elegantly made sweater with an emblem of a paed in shadows, crushing a bone in its grip. Kaisa blinked in fusion when Marco handed her a sabsp;

  “When in the Abyss did you make it?” she growled, tearing the leather asuo find a coarse-looking sweater with Ygrite’s pack emblem, an exploding house.

  “Since you agreed to help us, I thought it would be fair if you’d get ooo.” Marced. “I’ve been w on it in my spare time, so…”

  “I like it,” Kaisa decred, taking off her coat and dressing into the sweater. “I nominate you as my favorite pipsqueak. If you need someoo beat up, just call me.”

  “Thank you, Marco.” Jated him on the head. “You too, Anji, Kaisa. In gratitude, I authorize you to apany Marco to this farm if he accepts the farmer’s offer.”

  “Great, more busywork.” Kaisa’s shoulders slumped.

  “What was that?” Soulless One asked quietly.

  “I said, ready and able, ma’am!”

  “Excellent,” Janine said, heading toward the corridor. “Now back to your posts; we arrive in Houstad ihan an hour. Make yourselves presentable. Bogdan! You are responsible for making sure our pack does not cause any tension with the locals. If any of the females grumble, call me and I’ll break her skull.”

  “Yes, ma’am! It will be done, Warlord!” Her boy stood at attention.

  “And no more fighting or dominating! Anyone who spills a drop of an ally’s blood will join Lacerated One ie bay.”