“Filth.” Cws raked across the sage’s snout, opening it to the bone from cheek to the nose. “Scum.” An elbow smashed into the woman, flinging her into the wall with enough force to knock the air out of her. “I gave you the order.” Pure, unadulterated hate shone from the amber eyes. “Why didn’t you report his disappearahe sed you lost him?”

  “We assumed that Marco had gotten lost somewhere around here,” the sage said, clumsily grabbing a railing and trying to stand up. She coughed out a red blob. “I never imagihat the boy would dare to sneak onto a transport…” Her words ged into a shriek of pain as the foot smmed into her forearm, shards of bone pierg the bone oher side of the kick.

  “Dare?” Janine whispered. “You bme him?”

  “I meant…” The sage choked on her words as the warlrabbed her by the throat, yanking the woman into the air.

  “He is a cub! You are an adult!” She puhe sage iomach, ign the vomit mixed with blood spshing on her head. “It is your duty, your obligation, to watch over the young geion! I entrusted you with our precious gift as we risked ourselves to save the Order’s cubs, and this is how you treat our future?”

  Janine dropped the sage, fuming in rage, and cws slowly slipped from her fingers. She stood, dumbfounded by what she had just heard, drool dripping from her jaw, her nostrils widened and still bleeding from the open wounds. The warlord had refused all offers of treatment, f herself to maintain posure he civilians and rescued cubs while she sent Anissa to rush Marco to the medical bay alongside every other injured and assigned a sage to find the dead boy’s parents. Then she had checked the thinned ranks of her troops, not ign the traitors, deliberately ign the bowed sage whose duty it was to watch over her own cub.

  Otherwise, she would’ve murdered the female on the spot.

  Kirk had tried to hide a wide gash on his arm to avoid medical attention, and Janine kicked him, sending the infuriating male flying toward his destination through the corridors. The rest of the survivot the memo and stopped fooling around.

  “Marco is not to bme for what happened.” The sage frowhe cws of her good arm scraping against the wall. She had a narrower snout than the most Ice Fangs and bronze-incrusted studs pierced her brow. Lumie was written on her badge, but Janine immediately refused to use that name. “I would’ve never id the bme on him. I tried to…”

  “Warlord. You injured my soldier,” Bertruda said. “Step away from her, a’s discuss this as reasonable people.”

  “If she ’t use her arms to protect the cubs entrusted to her, then she doesn’t hem.” Janine raised the paw, her fangs chattering a tune of anticipation, and an urge gripped her stomach, demanding sustenance. “If she ’t use her eyes or her brain, then she has no need for them, either.”

  Cws met the bde, failing to read scoop the top of the sage’s head. The warlord’s arm bounced off Elegance’s ft, and its edge swayed, pressing against her ne a single, smooth, almost instantaneous motion, dang just outside of adding a cut to her neck.

  “You dare?” Janine asked in disbelief, raising her arm to stop Martyshkina and the packs from charging the Ice Fangs. They couldn’t begin a civil war, not here. “We fought for you. Our sisters and brothers died to save your cubs. We deserve retribution.”

  “And I have nothing but eternal praise for your as,” Bertruda responded calmly, not removing Elegaheir eyes locked. “This i will be settled in a civil court…”

  “To the Abyss with yratitude!” Martyshkina roared. “The sage was given an order and a ward! The price for the sin of pcy is death!”

  “This is not the Ice Fangs way.” The stubborn sword saint refused to budge. “I will not let my people be sughtered like cattle.”

  “Instead, you would risk an open war between allies.” Janine grabbed Elegander the bde and pulled the spear down, easily overp Bertruda. She spoke without anger now; the seething rage in her soul pushed her beyond any reasonable limits of fury. “Had I’ve killed you upourning, Opul’s victims would’ve died. I was wrong to act rashly and scar you.”

  “Janine…”

  “Silence. Listen to me, Sword Saint,” she interrupted her. “Everything has its limits. Think. Think with that prideful skull of yours. You see us as savages, worse than dirt. What if you are right? What if in trying to stop what must be done, in refusing to sacrifice to pcate, you spark bloodshed? How many of your kind will die?”

  “And how many of yours?”

  “Less than yours.”

  “Are the lives of your people so cheap to you, Janine?” Bertruda asked.

  “They are precious enough for us to die trying t justice. I treasure them so much that I am willing to work alongside traitors if it means h their principles and legacies.” Jaensed.

  “Then prove it!” Bertruda insisted. “Janine, I didn’t uand you. Not at first, and I was wrong. You are, to me, an ideal of duty aion, an awe-inspiring example of what we be! Don’t betray it,” she whispered. “Please. Stay true to what is just.”

  Am I supposed to sacrifice again? Janine’s grip tightened, her fiwitg against her will, and blood spurted from her neever before had a leader of the Wolf Tribe tried to stop a punishment by an officer of the Order by threatening violence. Sure, the lesser ranks and even the warlords and sword saints fought each other all the time, often vioting the Blessed Mother’s decree and even occasionally dying in duels.

  She sehe packs’ aggression, watg them shift from leg to leg out of the er of her eye. Paws reached for shardguns, cws fshed, fangs bared, Martyshkina’s fingers drummed on the revolver’s handle. Bodies crouched, hungrily pnning an attack. More Ice Fangs showed in the corridor, sages and defenders, and behind them the hunters btantly raised their rifles, taking aim.

  So much for the cims of kinship.

  What would Mard Bogdan have wanted? Jaopped herself from deg Bertruda. These Ice Fangs, this filth… They had little ones and family waiting for them at home. How would they feel if they learhat their loved ones had died senselessly in battle against the Wolf Tribe while the enemy was knog at the gates?

  There is no honor in what you desire. They ck the strength of will to bear the sense of loyalty o satisfy a monster. But are you a monster or a human? That voice again. She wasn’t sure if the loss of blood was causio halluate, but Jahought she heard the ander speaking in her ear. There was no inquisitorial insistence or nation, the Blessed Mother asked thoughtfully, serving more as a wito verify any answer.

  And Janine chose. Damruth and damn being right. There would be no winner and no future for the state if the Wolf Tribe were to abandon unity. Janine brought Elegao her neck, deliberately wounding herself against Bertruda’s attempt to remove the edge.

  “You still have an arm left,” Janine said to the sage, not b to look down at the sage. Her full attention was on the cold bde sliding up and down her neck, soothing her despite the pain.

  “Jaop,” Bertruda said.

  “That’s what you waraitors. To see us hurt. Savor it, then, deceivers.” She grinned. “You will fight beside Normies, stripped of your family name, dishonored, ranked lower than the lowest of your foot soldiers. Should you survive the war…” She pushed Elegance away from her ned tore the metal lodged in her arm, dropping it before the sage. “Do as honor dictates. Whatever you decide, never approach the vilges of the Wolf Tribe or our offspring. Otherwise, dev. Thus I decred.”

  “And so it is heard,” Impatient One announced from the rear. “There will be no further vengeance or distent. Any fool wasting their energy or infighting shall pay the ultimate price. The shamans stand with Warlord Janine!!”

  “The warlords join their sister!” Martyshkina thumped her chest and spat at the rising sage. The woman didn’t wipe her fad tried to pick up the bde before medics forcibly led her away.

  “The sword saints hear and obey the decree.” Bertruda saluted, nodding in thanks. She stomped, breaking the k in the silent answer.

  “The verdict has been recorded and added to the Order’s database,” Albert said as teis wheeled away the half-ruined suit. Janine wordlessly wished him a speedy restoration and many worthy battles.

  “Speaking of wasting their energy…” She thrust her arm into the ranks, grabbing her petunt daughter by the neck. Impatient One squealed and tried to bite the warlord, and Martyshkina chuckled, blog the shaman’s kick. “e ‘ere!”

  “I will not be humiliated, Warlord!” Impatient One srying to pry away the fingers.

  “Then you should’ve obeyed the order. Insubordination from the males I uand, but of you I expected better. Fine, if you want to be treated as a little one, I will treat you as one!” Janine ughed, easing the tension.

  With a possible massacre averted, Martyshkina howled, long and hard, stretg her voice to the limit, and the packs joined in that cry, begging fiveness for those they had to leave otlefield and m the rades they had lost. Bertruda k, encircled by sages and her elite guard, then by knight-captains and knights, and the lesser ranks formed the outer, third, circle. She led a more intimate prayer to the Twins and the Blessed Mother, holding a paw to her chest and intoning the oaths and the names of the fallen while the sages held smoking sers over her head. Several defenders and foot soldiers joined in the wailing, but the sword saint did not reprimand them.

  But the m did not st long. After a howl of sadness, there was a burst of jubition. They felled the enemies, saved the cubs, and several civilians. Sages and surviving shamans of the Martyshkina pack had to physically restrain the scouts, wolf hags, and even several Ice Fangs fring the shocked cubs into the celebrations, following the a ways. The sages handed out stern disciplinary punishments, while the shamaheir cws do the talking.

  Tables were dragged into the hangar, and drinks—bottles of vodka, ac, sodas, and juices that the Wolfkins had grown fond of during their stay in Houstad—began appearing on them, brought in by the cooks. Tasty-smelling carcasses of genuine cows, bulls, and deer followed, piled high for the soldiers to eat, and the exquisite meat of a white stag that scouts had found. The locals cimed this beast was a sign of luck, so the Wolfki out for food, prioritized hunting it, and now it ed this feast of excess. In a show of solidarity, Bertruda and Martyshkina broke the softest meat of this rare beast together, raising their fists high in the air to the delight of everyone, but Jaiced a glimmer of hatred in Martyshkina’s eyes.

  Teis, engineers, off-duty doctors, civilian officials, bck-coated agents, the Brood, and the Horde deserters—no one was shunned away to the curses of the officer in charge. The crowd grew, interfering with the staff’s work, and already the Wolfkins and Ice Fangs began g their paws, summoning a knight-captain to tell his story of how he had defeated an ironcd.

  And that was well, Janine decided. The Gilded Horde had tried to strike fear into their hearts. Let them know that the Recmation Army was made of steruff. As soon as the celebration was over, Marty would begin her merciless training in preparation for the battle.

  Stepping into the spacious halls of the medical bay, Janine sniffed a variety of sts, ranging from the usual tantalizing blood to the repulsive, pu odors of disiant to the sweet tastiness of rot ing from a farmer’s arm, corrupted by gangrene as the doctors sawed it away, while the burly man joked, w if he could install a multi-purpose tool in its pext to him was Kaisa, stripped down to her scarred body, hooked up to the meical ventitor with a tube dowhroat. Two nurses fought to keep her alive uhe guidance of an Iternian doctor who had tacted the voy from his station on Houstad.

  “…Your onboard facilities should be able to synthesize the antidote based on the formu.” The Iternian clicked his tongue. “What a disgusting sight.”

  “She was injured in the line of duty! Show some respect, Mr. Diego!” barked the Ice Fang field medic.

  “Honey of my eyes, I in no way io insult the patient’s deeds!” The dispy showed the doctor pg a hand over his heart in mock horror. “All women are goddesses and deserve a befitting outward splendor to match their inner beauty. I prescribe the scar removal procedure for our young wolf hag.”

  “I don’t think she will agree,” the nurse said.

  “Believe me, I know,” Diego sighed. “I’ve had my share of unruly patients here. I even had to stop four of them from esg by using a tranquilizer. That’s why I spend aire night sulting wyers from my home while we read through their tracts, line by line. If we use the excuse of ag in the best i of the patient’s mental health, we are free to schedule the procedure for a ter date, regardless of the wolf hag’s wishes.”

  “Is it in her best i?”

  “Would you be satisfied if, P spare us, you were ugly, o dearest flower of distant nds?” Diego noticed Janine and stared at her, examining her short legs, long arms, and bleeding wounds, ign the shaman writhing in her paw.

  “No,” she stated.

  “That ot be tolerated, I agree, my wild furball.” Diego nodded. “I have no patience for suffering patients, mine or otherwise, so I fix everyone.”

  “You must be an excellent doctor,” Janine said.

  “Sued sixteen times for wasteful spending.” Diego waved his hand. “It’s why they stuck me into Houstad; the Family thought I wouldn’t have a ce to overspend here. Hah! They wish! Now I get to abuse both Iterna and the Recmation Army’s funds! Titanium… no, it won’t be durable enough to support you… tuo lengthen legs’ bones until they grow over the impnts naturally, then remove scars to smoothen skin, and finally restoration of the bodily hair… Honey, give me two months and all the men will be yours! Or women, if you swing that way.”

  “Not unscious, not giving my permission. Piss off, weirdo!” Jahrew to the overenthusiastic doctor. The Iternians were weird. And creeps, the lot of them.

  She stormed inside, ign Diego’s demands, and o Kirk and his family. His sister and brood-naturedly teased the blushing male about missing the party.

  More thaate’s servants worked here. Helpers from the ranks of the refugees joined in, including even four doctors from the Oathtakers. These were the tourists visiting. After they had been rescued, they willingly offered their assistance. Janine khat she should be grateful for their valiant aid, and she was. Yet at the same time, the sight of a Troll, a type of New Breed very on otlefield, tending to the wounded Wolfkins filled her with unease.

  “Not a step further!” Dokholkhu jumped from the ceiling.

  “The shaman is here to have her wounds treated. I came to visit…”

  “Your son, yeah, I know. My dolehe doctors are operating on him as we speak. It’ll have to wait.”

  “It ’t,” growled Impatient One.

  “Bite me.” He took them by the arms and grinned as the two refused to move. “You try to make a se and be denied patient visits, be maced by the guards, and then have your injuries treated, or you follow me so we end the unpleasant procedure swifter. Your choice, Khan.”

  “Warlord,” Janine corrected him. “Lead the way. When did you turn into a jerk, Dokholkhu?”

  “Hey, it’s not my fault your tribe is so proo self-harm, Warlord!” His lips twitched, and then the fged Malformed, wearing a medical robe ed around his waist, tapped nervously. “About your boy. Listen, I am no healer, but I think everything should be fine. Your daughter is already there, so he is not alone if he wakes up.”

  “That’s not fair! I am better than her!” Impatient One pined as he led them into a separate partment and sat them both on the operating tables. “Why is the wolf hag free?”

  “She wasn’t hurt that badly. Take better care of yourself, and we won’t have to bother you.” Dokholkhu grinned, used a devi the wall to call for a doctor, and then poked his head into the hallway.

  “Thank you for the news, Dokholkhu,” Janine said.

  “Just trying to be useful, Warlord. Doctor! Yes, right here!”