Chapter 11

The witchfinder awoke several hours before dawn with ill-ease. The outside night was quiet and the air was still and no menaces seemed to lurk for the moment outside in the street shadows but the dark warrior couldn't put to rest his feeling that danger was creeping ever closer while they had been resting. He risked another look outside the third floor windows, but even with his superb night vision he could see nothing that would pose a threat to them, but perhaps there was something in the air ... an unfamiliar scent that disturbed him more by the moment. Something was coming and the witchfinder was certain that it was searching for him! Reluctantly, he began to awaken the young witch-priestesses and together they made some hasty plans to escape this possible trap.

"My sense of smell this early morning is rather keen," the Witchfinder commented as the ladies were gathering up their sleeping rolls, "unusually so for me even. I've noted recently that magical talents seem to be shareable, so I would assume then that one of you possesses an unusually sharp sense of scent?"

"That would be Amie!" Lorrie laughed. "She could smell a burned slice of toast all the way from the kitchen across the temple to our upstairs barracks quarters, and gauge how rancid the butter smeared across it was too!"

"Sadly, true ... it's not entirely a welcome and useful gift, especially when most of the guards were ill-used to bathing. Not to mention the witch-taint scent of corruption that permeated nearly everything there. I thought it would overpower me, when I was at first taken there and ritually forced to accept my host, and in truth the taint odor of it never did become a tolerable one, even as it began to turn me. Now I feel clean once again, as do each of my sisters ... but a real bath would be most pleasant!"

"Then leave your bedroll by the staircase and come to the window here with me and tell me what your senses tell you."

Amie did as she was instructed and reaching the wide open broken window where great sheets of glass had once been in place, she leaned her head outside and took but a few sample sniffs before her nose wrinkled in mild disgust.

"Worm-Hounds." She muttered with her face scrunched up in visible annoyance. "The guards and soldiers call them hell-hounds, but the senior priestesses call them worm-hounds. They're bred to hunt down fresh captives and recover escaped slaves, but many are not trainable and turn feral, often escaping into the ruined warrens of the city here, killing even the tainted in their ferocity and malice, not knowing ally from enemy. They hate everything that lives and hunt in packs, seeking always to kill, even when they do not wish to feed."

"They're drawing nearer." Tania whispered in a girlish voice. "Their pack is large and they hunger fiercely. They're following our trail from yesterday and will follow it again today, until their jaws are within grasp of us. They will not tire until they feed, and they are not far away. We should leave now at once ... it would not be wise to face them here in confined space."

I looked rather oddly at the youngest priestess at her rather peculiar proclamation, but Lorrie the eldest just urged the women to gather up their final camping materials hastily. Then when all that we had unpacked last night had been put back into our saddle packs, she took me aside for a moment of consultation.

"Tania has a bit of the witch-gift of foresight, but she can control the talent very little, and only for a short period into the future. She warned the sisterhood of danger moments before you and the Great Lady Moondance arrived, but the elders were slow to prepare. If they had attacked you together in concert with the guards, the outcome could have been much different. If Tania senses danger, then danger will come ... so let us make haste and find a large clearing where the monsters can be faced more safely, for even if we had still possessed the taint, the beasts would seek to devour us in any case."

"Can we frighten them off by any means? Will magic hurt them, as it does the other tainted?"

"They burn from witch-fire, as does all else that lives, but they feel physical pains little and have no sense of fear, you will not be able to frighten them away. They live solely to kill and devour all else that is weaker than them, and in a great pack they wouldn't flinch from even attacking a dire-bear ten times their own size."

"Then we should indeed hasten. I've been feeling ill at ease about our course heading north in any case, so let us instead turn towards the heart of the city for yet awhile. Something nags at me, as if I've left a task but half done and it remains needful that some other wickedness there requires my further cleansing."

"Your instincts do you much credit, brave Witchfinder. Within the old heart of the city in Riverside there is the great pit. According to the elder priestesses, the pit is where the taint broke forth here in Kansas first, in the very first days after the great volcano blew. Our temple was built years later and while much corruption and evil was done there, the taint is strongest at the pit. There is said to be no other place like this rupture of the earth within a month's travel of us, and it is here where nearly all of the hordes captives are taken. Truly the ultimate source for nearly all of the evil that infests this land. Kansas could be lush and green again someday, without this postulant sore upon the earth, and an infection that corrupts it without mercy!"

"Should I go pay a visit to this pit, can I rely upon your help, or would the danger for you be too acute, having just been freed from your own taint?"

"We shall not be separated." Tania stated in a low but firm voice. "We have become a part of you and you in turn a part of us. Where you go we shall follow, for I fear that without our aid this great original bastion of the worm-taint would be beyond your talents alone to subdue, but together we can perhaps persevere."

Amie nodded in agreement as well and we hastily completed loading our packs upon the horses and we each took weapons in hand, but unfortunately I had few silver .308 rounds to share for their M-1's and none for their .38's. The head guard had possessed a .45 auto with two clips of 9 rounds each of silver ammunition, and I gave this weapon to Lorrie, who was acknowledged to be the best shot of the trio of ladies.

"Silver will burn and kill the beasts, as it does the other worm-tainted?"

"As easily, but not more so. Their hungers will overpower their pain, but a mortal shot in their vitals will kill them as it would a normal such hound, more enormous as these are."

"My aim is invariably true ... and I hope that this gift of mine, absorbed from the witchfinder whose talents I acquired, has now in part passed to you a well. In friendlier lands, I would have you shoot a clip or two from your rifles to test this theory, but we must keep our escape in as much silence as possible, as no doubt their ears are as keen as well as their noses."

"Very much so!" Lorrie laughed. "In the gloom this morning my eyes are keener than I am used to seeing, undoubtedly another passed along gift from you. This will speed our footsteps but guiding the two pack horses will slow our progress, but let us try and hurry."

"I've been this way once before, I think." Amie commented as we headed west down the former roadway. Soon up ahead to the right there will be a great open field where little grows except ryegrass. In the past I believe it was all naught but concrete everywhere, a place where the ancients kept their sky machines, an elder once told me. That would be a suitable place with open ground where we can kill off as many of those worm-hounds at a distance as we can, before they lunge in close for our throats!"

The great flat field was indeed not too much further ahead of us and we reached it at about dawn, but already we could tell that the pack of hell hounds was indeed hard on our trail. We could hear loud baying behind us and also just off to both sides now, as if the pack had split up to corner us.

"The beasts are cunning." Tania agreed, when she noticed that I kept looking back behind us and to both sides. "They'd surround us if they could, to prevent our flight and force a showdown, but they are not overly possessed with brains. They seek to corner us, true, but we can still pick favorable ground of our own choosing, and if we hasten, we just might find an unlikely ally!"

I didn't need to be reminded to hurry twice. We easily found an opening in the old security fence and moments later we were walking gently up a long and virtually flat field towards a small hillock about a few hundred yards ahead of us. The sounds of baying were getting nearer, but I felt that we'd reach this hill before the pack of hounds could reach us, but two of the faster beasts had arrived there first!

On top of the small hill, barely at most five feet in height about the rest of the large flat plain that it surveyed, an unlikely foe and even more unlikely ally was challenging the hounds for possession. The creature was a dire-badger, one of the meanest and most ferocious creatures of the Kansas wasteland! Standing in height at least two feet tall and a full six feet in length, not counting its black and silver tail, the badger had more than its share of huge razor sharp teeth and claws. The creature had the massive claw power to dig through old concrete ruins and construct otherwise an unassailable den. The creatures were known for their ferocity and ill-temper, but truthfully rarely attacked humans, and only then if provoked.

He was determined to face down the pair of hell hounds that were invading its home turf and being fearless (and hungry) the beasts considered the slightly smaller subterranean dweller little threat to them, and they attacked. The badger was outnumbered and out-toothed, but fought with frenzied ferociousness, bringing all of its long massive and sharp claws and teeth into its seemingly hopeless defense. Undoubtedly overmatched, the badger didn't even attempt to retreat into its hole but sought to sell its life as dearly as possible, and for twenty crucial seconds it kept the hell hounds at bay until we were in position to shoot.

With my first two silver-lead shots from my Blackhawk .44 boring deep inside of the first worm-hound's skull and brain, the beast was dropped dead in its tracks upon the hillside. Hearing Lorrie's .45 bark out, along with a silver round each from Amie and Tania's rifles, the second beast was felled at once as well. A quick inspection showed that all three of their fired rounds had struck on target, hitting either the head or the chest of the hound. My gift of accuracy had indeed been imparted by our lovemaking yesterday!

Our unexpected ally, the badger had taken several fearsome wounds from the savage bites of the great hounds, but it was still on its feet and determined to protect its lair, but it did not growl at us as we approached! Instead it shuffled its wounded body around to face the north, where another trio of charging and baying hounds could now be seen heading towards us.

With my Marlin rifle in hand, I fired off three rounds in quick succession and watched as the three beasts collapsed in their tracks. One might have still been twitching, gravely wounded but not dead with a bullet inside of its brain, but for the moment it was of no further danger to us. The real impending threat was now the arrival of the main pack, which was just now entering the fence where we had entered, still following our scent and they were baying loudly to announce that their quarry had at last been cornered.

We turned to face this more fearsome danger, with the full pack numbered at least twenty beasts. I gave the wounded badger ample clearance as I moved to the south side of the hillock, but the animal crawled up to by my side, clearly in great pain but determined to defend its burrow home until the end ... and right by our side.

"She senses that we desire to help protect her home and her kits, her three young, helpless inside her burrow." Tania stated quietly. "She knows that she will die defending them, but with our help her young might yet live. She feels your witch-power and your will and she has no fear of us and will fight as our comrade to protect her offspring!"

Young Tania was indeed a young lady of interesting and not insignificant talents. Sparing a moment myself to look into the determined mother badgers eyes I could sense the same thoughts. She was in immense pain from her wounds, but her over-powering will to defend her family at any cost held her upright upon her massive paws. We were of no threat to her and her kin and likely in fact to share her own fate as well, torn and ravaged to bit by hounds that were nearly large enough to ride as war mounts! Her fate was immaterial to her. She would stand and she would fight, and claw with the very last of her strength before the final end.

I rather hoped that it wouldn't come to that!

We didn't have much for silver ammo, but using it all here to preserve our lives might in fact be necessary. I wanted to bring down about half of the pack while they were on the charge towards us, and I gave instructions for the ladies not to panic but choose targets and aim carefully. When they got too close, which they nearly were already, I would summon bale-fire to deal with the survivors.

With scattered but very accurate weapons fire, we did drop a little over half of the charging pack at range and with but feet left to spare, I summoned a circular bed of roaring bale-fire to form a barricade against the survivors, the majority of which did come lumbering to an abrupt stop at the base of the mound, just outside of the protective circle of flame. The priestesses summoned witch-fire as well, and they engulfed two of the final beasts that came roaring through the flames and our faithful dire-badger mother pounced upon the other attacker in mid-leap. The battle begun even while still in the air, they crashed to the ground in mortal combat as the badger savaged the monster's soft underbelly with her long powerful claws that quickly disemboweled the beast, but at the cost of a horrendous bite upon her back quarters, which splintered bone and rendered her flesh, which quite immobilized her hind feet.

With a short focused burst of fire, I burned through the wounded hound's skull and then more carefully burned the now dead beasts internal worm host, so that it could never infect any other creature or person. The women checked that their two dead hounds had been cleansed to ashes as well.

This now just left the six wary hounds outside of my burning circle of fire. They weren't afraid of us particularly, but their hosts were wary of my witch-flame, seeking a way to get past our defenses. The creatures were canny, knowing that they couldn't take us upon the hillside but also wily enough not to retreat, where we could again shoot and slay them from a range of safety.

In fact, in rather a piqué of desperation, the worm-hounds did something I had never before witnessed. They each laid back upon their haunches and began to spasm, freely relinquishing the taint within them, releasing their witch-worms free to soar like a cloud of dark vaporous mist over the flames towards us, to engulf and imprison us! Their witch-worms had a low level of animal cunning but no great intelligence. While their witch-vapors were both surprising and a bit frightening, we were prepared, and the slow taint-clouds were no match for our magical flame, which burned and cleansed them all, burning what little substance they had to floating ash in the early morning breeze.

As for the hounds, without their worm hosts, none of the beasts had enough life left within them to remain alive and each died within minutes of their host's departure, but we burned the bodies anyway just to be safe and certain.

As for our brave companion, her wounds were dire, at least as great and terrible as her size and fearsomeness! I wasn't sure that I could heal her wounds, my witch-loan gift of healing from Jodi now being several days old and undoubtedly fading without recent contact, but I was determined to try.

"Tania, take my hand and help guide your thoughts and will to match mine. You have the greater affinity to this creatures mind, try and soothe it, and if you can, tell her that while we wish to help her there might be some pain, but it is not intended and will hopefully be of short duration. Can you make her sense this?"

"I can, and now I think she will now let us touch her fur, to examine the extent of the damage, for her wounds are indeed severe. She knows that she will die soon, leaving her kits unfed and unprotected, where they will in turn die soon as well. She will endure your touch ... our touch together, for them, for the hope of her young."

We became link bonded, the three of us. My right hand was now upon the dreadful bleeding wounds of the badger, Tania's right hand in my left, and her left hand caressing and soothing the mortally wounded creature's head. But after even a brief moment of mental contact with her I had to break my will away. The wounds ... the tearing searing pain, was just too extreme for me to share. It was as if feeling that half of my own body had been torn away.

"I thought I could handle pain, but that was searing ... more than I could take, but I'll try it again in a second. She can't hold to life much longer!"

"Then you will need my help." Lorrie laughed softly. "Let me take your hands in-between you both and I'll help you share and divide this pain, but let us be quick. Already I can see her eyes begin to close in expectation of her release from life."

With Lorrie sharing the link, at first the pain that soared through us was just as severe as before, the worst that I could ever remember feeling, but as I began to heal and close her massive wounds, channeling my witch-healing powers through the great creature, the pain quickly faded, dulled and even began to resemble and tingling feeling of almost pleasure! Now I could devote all of my attention and will to her injuries and I could feel the flesh knit itself back together and the broken bones and arteries and other blood vessels all merged back together intact and whole, until at least the external fur began to reattach itself to her now raw, but intact flesh. At last she was whole once more, still alive but unconscious, mostly due to her extreme loss of blood.

Brock'a, for that was the creature's name more or less in human sounds, would live, but she'd be virtually helpless for awhile yet to come.

"She'll need to eat soon and drink as well, to rebuild up all of the blood she has lost." Tania advised, petting the unconscious creature's head one last time before she got back up on her feet. "Her kits are mewling, hungry for her milk as well. If we can move off a bit away from the nest, I think I can urge the kits to climb up, to nurse up here while their mother sleeps and recovers. But they won't be safe to stay here. Not for some time!"

"Then we shall stay for as long as needed. She could have retreated into her den but she didn't, she stayed and fought with us, taking on three of the beasts that could have otherwise attacked one of us, possibly saving one or more of our lives. We've cured her wounds but she will need recovery time, and we can spare it."