Wolf Who Rules

Chapter 22: End Of The Rainbow

Briggs drove in the front while the rest of them sat in the back. Tinker had grabbed a flex screen from the ship and now spread it out on the floor. Downloading the dreadnaught’s layout and defenses, they planned the assault.

“The dreadnaught’s biggest weakness is that it wasn’t built with an aerial attack in mind. It’s like a turtle, with lots of service hatches down in through its shell. Also it tends to be blind in the butt. I was going to fix that with a turret on top.”

“Prince True Flame said that it was useless fighting the dragon because it couldn’t defend from attacks above.” Pony said.

“That’s true,” Tinker said. “So we’re going to have to kill Malice before he has a chance to close.”

“Oh, fun.” Esme muttered.

“But the airship is vulnerable to the tengu,” Tinker said. “I think if we fly up behind it, we can approach it unseen — but it leaves a very choppy wake.”

“We can handle it, domi.” Jin waved off the worry.

Domi. That drove her commitment to them home and left her a little breathless. I’m responsible for them — and I’m taking them straight into danger. But what recourse did she have? Just as the elves were not about to let the oni live, the oni couldn’t leave any of the elves alive either.

“We need three things.” Tinker forced herself to focus on the plan and not how badly it might end. “We need to keep the ship in the air, pick where it goes, and fire the cannons. So, that means, we need to secure the fore and aft engine compartments, the cannon turrets, and the bridge.”

Pony gazed at the plan for a moment, and then pointed to the access hatch nearest to the rear which opened to the aft engine compartment. “We’ll enter here. Once we’ve secured it, we’ll break into teams. These tengu are good with machines — yes?” Getting a nod from Tinker, Pony continued. “There are three doors to this area including the hatch, so Little Erget and four tengu will stay.”

Jin assigned Xiao Chen and two of the other tengu to the aft team.

“The rest of us will then move to the fore engine compartment and take it.” Pony traced a route across the top of the airship to the forward-most service hatch. “Four doors open to this area, but we’ll control what’s beyond these two doors. Rainlily and four of the tengu will hold this position. We split here. Domi and Cloudwalker will take the bridge with Esme, Jin and Durrack — which should be lightly manned and will have only one door not controlled by us. Stormsong and Briggs will come with me. We’ll take the main cannon turret — which will be heavily manned.”

Tinker explained how she planned to kill Malice. “Now when this spell goes off, you’re going to lose your shields and it might take a minute or two before normal level of magic is restored.” She warned her Hand. “Your beads should be protected from the spell effects, so if you save the power in them, you can recast your shields immediately.”

The sekasha nodded, indicating that they understood.

Durrack pressed his hand to his ear and listened to it intently. “Okay. Understand.” He knocked on the partition to the driver’s cabin. “Briggs? Where are we?”

“Nearly to McKees Rocks Bridge,” Briggs answered.

“The dreadnaught is here.” Durrack tapped the map just down river of Neville’s Island, and then ran a finger up the Ohio River towards Pittsburgh. “They’re following the river.”

“If we’re carrying others, we won’t be able to climb fast.” Jin said. “We should start high, like the edge of a cliff or on top of a building.”

“They’ll come over the bridge,” Pony pointed to the bridge. “We can wait on the supports. The bridge will give us cover, and then the tengu can take us aloft.”

“That will work.” Jin said.

Nearly a mile and a half long, the McKees Rocks Bridge stretched across the wide, flat Ohio River valley in a complex string of structures — more a chain of bridges than one single bridge. The part that actually sat above the river was a seven hundred plus foot trussed arch bridge. On both sides of the elegant steel curve were two massive stone pylons. They hid the truck in the shadows of the western pylons.

The cloudy night was on their side — it cloaked them in darkness.

“I hear it,” Jin put out a hand to Tinker. “I’ll take you up.”

The other eight tengu paired off with the humans and elves.

It was short spring up to the arching steel. They crouched down, tucking themselves in the crossbeams.

The roar of the dreadnaught grew louder.

“There! See it?” Jin whispered.

Twin searchlights appeared in the distance, slashing downwards. The cockpit was a pale gleam between them. The dreadnaught moved up the broad valley, keeping between the hills that flanked the Ohio River. The searchlights played back and forth in a narrow arc, directly in front of the airship.

Durrack glanced up river toward the darkened city and then back to the oncoming dreadnaught. “They’re probably following the river because it’s the most recognizable landmark they can see with the power out.”

“Lucky for us,” Jin said. “They’re going slow so they don’t hit anything. That will make it easier for us to get to it.”

In the dark, the true size of the dreadnaught was lost. It was a wedge of darkness behind the searchlights’ brilliance. They crouched in the bridge’s shadows as the gleaming spots moved across the shimmer of the water, encountered the bridge, and played up and over the network of steel struts. Tinker held still, heart hammering, trying not to think about the machine gun cannons. Her luck on this kind of thing had been so bad lately.

The cockpit slid overhead, and the belly of the dreadnaught followed, the air throbbing. Ushi with Pony leapt upwards, the rustle of his black wings spreading lost under the rumble of the dreadnaught’s engines. As he took his first downstroke, Xiao Chen with Stormsong vaulted after him. Niu and Zan rose together. Tinker lost sight of them in the dreadnaught’s eclipse.

Jin took hold of Tinker and murmured, “Hang on.” And then they were airborne.

Amazingly, in some strange heart stopping manner, winging upwards was fun. In her flights with Riki, she had been so concerned about their end destination that she never noticed the thrill of flying. Did it say something about her that as long as she knew where they were going, she could now enjoy the ride?

Jin landed them between Ushi and Xiao Chen.

“I think I envy you.” Stormsong murmured to Xiao Chen.

Tinker smothered a laugh, and whispered. “Yeah, once you get used to it, it’s fairly cool.”

“It’s wood!” Jin whispered, running his hand over the hull’s surface.

“Of course,” Tinker whispered. “These are elves.”

Her Hand activated their shields. Pony asked a question with blade talk. Getting a nod from the others, he opened the hatch and the sekasha dropped down into dim engine room.

She had never seen the elves really fighting before. Not a full Hand against hordes, unconcerned for her protection because she was safe behind her own shield. She hadn’t expected it to be so beautiful. Their swordplay became a fluid dance with the oni seeming like paper cutouts instead of real opponents. The dreadnaught, though, was buzzing like a kicked beehive, and they spread themselves thin.

On the bridge, Tinker used her shield to back the oni warriors away from the door. Cloudwalker slipped around her on the right and Durrack went left.

“Don’t shoot any of the instruments!” Tinker had her pistol out, but was afraid to fire. She rarely hit what she aimed at and all the controls were vital to their success.

“I — don’t — miss.” Durrack picked his shots with deliberation. “Someone get the pilot before he crashes us!”

Two warriors blocked Tinker.

“Esme, the pilot.” Jin spun on one heel and kicked one of the warriors out of Tinker’s path. Tinker hedged sideways, covering Esme as her mother scrambled into the low cockpit.

The ship banked hard to the left, rushing toward the hills that lined the valley, Esme struggled with the oni pilot.

“Tinker!” Esme cried. “We need to lift! Pull up on the collective.”

Dropping her shield, Tinker scrambled into the cockpit and grabbed hold of the collective control stick and pulled up. The engines roared louder and they started to climb.

“Tinker!” Jin shouted warning, and she ducked instinctively.

Bullets sprayed the windshield just over her head. A dozen bullet holes reduced the Plexiglas to a haze of cracked glass.

The oni pilot kicked Tinker backwards. She hit the cracked windshield; it held for a moment then gave way. She screamed, flailing and caught hold of the pilot’s leg as she fell. Her weight jerked him half out the cockpit. He grabbed the edge of the cockpit before he fell the full way out. They dangled far above the last mile of the I-279 before it ended at the Rim; the oni pilot holding onto the airship and Tinker onto his leg.

“Jin!” Esme shouted, struggling to keep the airship aloft and reach for the oni pilot at the same time. “I can’t reach her!”

Jin shouted; his words resonated against Tinker’s senses with magic.

The oni pilot clawed at the edge of cockpit, trying to pull himself up. He grasped the windshield wiper and started to pull himself up.

The wiper snapped and he fell — and Tinker with him.

Tinker screamed and Esme — staring down at her — cried out in dismay.

Then someone caught Tinker’s wrist, and she was jerked hard in both directions.

“Let go of him!” Keiko cried, flapping madly. “I can’t catch you both; we’ll all fall.”

“No! No! No!” The pilot wailed, dangling upside down by Tinker’s grip on his leg. But she wasn’t strong enough to hold his weight by one hand. He slipped out of her hold and plunged downward again. The clouds had slid away and moonlight gleamed silver on the pavement below. The pilot dwindled to doll-size but still hit the road a loud carrying thud, a sudden burst of wet on the gray pavement.

“Shit, shit, shit!” Keiko cried as they continued to slowly fall. “You’re still too heavy.”

Xiao Chen swooped down and tried to intercept them.

Keiko hissed in anger, bringing up her razor-sheathed feet. “She’s charmed by the Chosen’s blood. She’s not to be hurt!”

“You heard her,” Riki glided in. “She’s charmed by my line!”

“It’s only Xiao—” Tinker yelped as Keiko suddenly passed her to Riki in a mid-air fling.

“I got you.” Riki said it as if this was supposed to be comforting. “Keiko!”

The tengu female was heading for the airship. “I was called! He’s here! He called!”

“Keiko!” Riki shouted, chasing after the teenager. “Wait! Damn it, Tinker, who is on that dreadnaught?”

“Your uncle Jin.”

“That’s not possi—” Riki gasped as they swept back in through the shattered windshield and he saw Jin. “Uncle Jin?”

Jin reached out and pulled Tinker out of Riki’s hold. “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine.” Tinker fought the need to cling to Riki, Jin, or Durrack. I’m safe inside. I’m safe inside.

“What the hell is going on? Where did you come from?” Riki gazed in stunned amazement at the tengu, elves and humans.

“We got her. She’s safe.” Durrack had found the speaker tubes to the gun turret and engine rooms. Cloudwalker and Keiko were holding the door that boomed with the oni’s attempts to break it down. “Tinker, your cousin says that Malice has Windwolf pinned down in Oakland. If you don’t want to be a widow, we better get going.”

It took Tinker a second to realize that Durrack had received the last part via his earbud radio and not the speakertube. Yeah, yeah, she was fine.

“What?” Riki cried as “You’re taking on Malice? Are you nuts?”

“I’ve got a plan.” Tinker wondered if that sounded anywhere reassuring. She couldn’t stop trembling. “Do we have the guns?”

“The Storms are holding the guns.” Durrack meant Storm Horse and Stormsong.

Tinker hugged herself, panting, trying to remember said plan. She was missing something important. “Oilcan? Wait? Where’s Impatience? I don’t want to take him out with this spell — he’ll revert to a wild animal and kill anyone near him.”

“He’s in the Cathedral with your cousin,” Durrack said.

“Okay, I really don’t want Impatience in the spell range then.” Tinker thought a moment. “Tell Oilcan to put distance between him and Impatience — just to be on the safe side. Esme, let’s do a strafing run on Malice.”

“And NASA thought it covered all possible flight simulations.” Esme banked the ship hard back toward city.

Clouds continued to clear, and the city resolved out of the darkness. Their shadow ran on ahead of them. Esme climbed out of the river valley, and crested over the hill district to the flat plain of Oakland.

“Where is Malice?” Tinker asked Durrack.

“See that dark cloud?” Durrack pointed at billow of darkness that looked like smoke. “That’s him.”

“Oh, good, he’s at least a half mile from the Cathedral.” Tinker started to unload her bag, setting up for the spell. “Let’s get his attention. Esme, get ready to run. Pony, can you hear me?”

“Yes, domi.”

“Shoot Malice with one of the cannons. He’s going to come fast, so get ready with the other cannon. Fire the second cannon when my spell takes your shield down.”

“Yes, domi,” Pony said.

Esme had edged sideways so that they hung over Fifth Avenue where it spilled down the hill toward the flood plain of Uptown. The cannon thundered, deafening at the close range. The shell whistled away. It hit the edge of the miasma and the black deepened. Something stirred in the darkness. Massive eyes gleamed at the heart of the cloud and then Malice uncoiled and lifted from the ground.

“Here he comes!” Tinker cried.

Esme scuttled the airship backwards, roaring out over Uptown, keeping the cannons pointed toward the onrushing dragon. “Come on, come on.”

Suddenly Malice dove into the ground.

“Where the fuck did he go?” Esme cried.

“He’s phased!” Durrack shouted. “He can move through solid objects!”

“Oh, you’ve got to be shitting me!” Esme flung the airship forward and they raced up Fifth Avenue, into the heart of Oakland.

“Where are you going?” Tinker cried.

“You said run.” Esme put all power into forward motion, tilting the airship to fit down the narrow places of Fifth Avenue. They lost something — hopefully not vital — as they took out one the red lights over the street.

“Not this way!” Tinker cried, pointing at the towering Cathedral that stood over Oakland, where Oilcan was with Impatience.

“It had to be this way!” Esme snapped.

Tinker looked behind them. Malice rose out of the ground where they would have been if they had continued toward Uptown. “Okay, this is good.”

“He’ll come after us,” Esme said. “Trust me. When you run, it’s like you put out a sign that says ‘free lunch.’ It’s an easy way to make even the smartest ones get stupid.”

Perhaps she was right; Malice was giving chase, coiling through the air like a snake in water. Esme banked around the curve of the Hill, nearly clipping the top of houses.

“It’s like trying to drag race in a Volkswagen.” Esme complained.

Tinker had been watching the Cathedral dwindle behind them. She realized now that they were heading into downtown, the most densely populated area in Pittsburgh.

“No, not this way either!” Tinker pointed away from the city. “I don’t want to open fire in the middle of the city!”

“I don’t either.” Esme said as they nearly skimmed across the Veterans Bridge and ducked into the forest of skyscrapers. “But we need time for me to get turned around and facing him.”

They wove through the buildings, the gleam of the cockpit reflecting in the glass walls as they streaked by.

“Okay, keep going west,” Tinker pointed out west just in case Esme didn’t know. “After you get out of the city, try to get Malice south of us, up against Mount Washington. It’s a blank slate. We can open fire on him there.”

Esme suddenly squeaked in surprise and banked hard to the right. A moment later Malice came through a skyscraper and fire jetted out of his mouth. The night went bright with the flame, the light reflecting off the canyon of glass around them.

“Oh shit!” Esme banked again, somehow dodging both the flame and the PPG tower. She clipped the side of the Fifth Avenue Place. “Oh shit — we lost our front right props.” She fought the ship to keep it from careening out of control. “No one said anything about him breathing fire!”

“He’s a dragon,” Jin said. “That’s what they do!”

“We’ve got a fire up here!” One of the tengu shouted from the front engine room.

“We’re running out of city.” Durrack warned.

“I know, I know, I know.” Tinker was loath to open fire in the city, but if Malice took the airship down, they’ll lose the guns and then they’ll all die. Point Park was going to have to do. “Get ready people!”

Esme wrenched the airship about as they roared over the empty expense of the park. Malice flew at them. Tinker watched him come, spell in hand, waiting for him to get clear of the city.

When he cleared the highway dividing city from the park, she cast the spell.

The coldness flashed over her. The wings vanished from the tengu’s back. Cloudwalker’s shield winked out. The miasma of Malice’s shield vanished and he fell, twisting madly as he plunged out of the sky. The cannons roared. One of the shells caught him in the left eye, blasting his head backwards.

“I’m losing it!” Esme shouted as the dreadnaught slid sideways toward the massive Fort Pitt Bridge. “We’re going down!”

Tinker called for her shields and nothing happened. The ambient magic in the area hadn’t recovered from the flux spell yet. “Oh shit.”

And then they hit the bridge.

Wolf braced himself for the worse. He trusted that Tinker would somehow kill the dragon, but he was afraid she leapt one too many times into the void. As he hurried toward the downed dreadnaught, his fears only deepened. The airship had struck the first span of the twin decked bridge and then crashed into Monongahela River. The crumbled wreckage laid half in and half of the water. Human emergency crews gathered on the shore and on the water, trucks and boats with bright flashing lights.

Wolf pushed through the tightest knot of people find Little Egret lying unconscious on the pavement. A pair of soaked tengu were giving the young sekasha CPR. As he watched, Little Egret coughed and sputtered weakly back to life. Oilcan had told him that the astronaut tengu were helping Tinker kill the dragon. He assumed that these two were part of that crew.

“Where’s Tinker?” Wolf asked the two tengu.

“We were in the aft engine room.” The tengu female indicated the submerged section of the dreadnaught and then made a vague motion at the part smashed up against the bridge. “She was in the cockpit.”

He left a healer from the hospice with Little Egret and moved on, working his way around the airship. One section was still burning, and the humans were frantically trying to douse out the flames. Wolf caught snatches of their conversations that focused on the live ammo still on board the ship.

There was a body under a white sheet. He paused to draw aside the sheet. A male tengu, badly burned.

Little Horse, Discord and Briggs were on the other side of the wreckage along with more dead and wounded. They worked with the Pittsburgh Fire Fighters and more tengu, hacking at the splintered wood hull.

“Domi was on the bridge with Cloudwalker.” Little Horse hacked at a section of the hull with his ejae. “Rainlily took in too much smoke, but she got out without being burned. Two of tengu with her were not so lucky. You were hurt?”

Wolf held up his spell-covered hand, careful not to flex. “Just this but it’s healing.” Wolf glanced over the many dead laid out and covered. “How many tengu did you take with you?”

“Those are oni.” Discord was favoring the leg bitten by the dragon earlier in the week. “Most we killed taking the dreadnaught.”

Blood on the pavement showed that there had been fighting after the crash too.

A cry went up and people were lifted free of the wreckage. A tengu male and female, both young, face painted for war. They were battered but alive.

“Were they with you or against you?” Wolf asked.

“They caught domi when she was knocked from the dreadnaught.” Little Horse said.

“Domi promised that all tengu would be under her protection,” Discord added.

“All?” Wolf indicated that the war-painted tengu were not to be harmed. “How many does that include?”

Discord shrugged and then gave a wry smile. “I do not think domi bothered to find out.”

More survivors were lifted out. Durrack, a woman, and another pair of tengu, these from the spaceship.

“I can see shielding!” Little Horse cried. “Cloudwalker has his shield up!”

“He and domi should be the only ones left.” Discord said.

They cut carefully through the shattered wood and broken instruments to the young sekasha. Despite his shield, he’d been knocked unconscious. He still protected Tinker, however, in his loose hold. Wraith leaned into the hole they had cut and whispered to Tinker the word to deactivate Cloudwalker’s shields, which needed to be spoken close to the sekasha’s heart. It felt like eternity before the hurt and dazed Tinker understood what was wanted of her and the shimmering blue of the shields vanished.

The healers from the hospice cast spells to make sure they could be safely removed, then, the two were lifted carefully out of the womb of twisted wreckage. Only then could Wolf hold Tinker in his arms and reassure himself that she had emerged once again safely out the void. She seemed so small and fragile without her normal vibrant personality.

“Oh, thanks gods, I was so worried about you,” she murmured as if it had been him in the airship. “The others?”

“Your Hand is safe.” He spared her the news of the dead tengu.

She cried in dismay at the extent of the damage to the airship. “Oh, I crashed True Flame’s dreadnaught! He’s going to be angry.”

“He will not care. It is a thing. All things wear out — just usually not in such a spectacular fashion.”

Tinker groaned.

“Do not worry, beloved. He will be only concerned that you and yours are safe and that the dragon is dead.”

Tinker whimpered against his shoulder. “Windwolf, I’ve made the tengu mine.”

“So I’ve heard.”

“Please, don’t hurt them. I promised them that they will be safe.”

“They are safe.”

“You won’t hurt them?”

“I will protect them safe for you.” He kissed her carefully. “Rest.”

True Flame and the Stone Clan were arriving, so he reluctantly, he gave Tinker over to the healers and the protection of her beholden.

True Flame stopped on the edge of the roadway where he could see the dead dragon, the crashed dreadnaught, and in the distance, like an exclamation mark in the weak morning sky, the towering spaceship.

“You were right, Wolf.”

“I was?”

“She’s surprisingly destructive for one so small. I am starting to see why you love her so — she is the right size for you.”

“Yes, she is.”

A shout caught his attention. Little Horse and Wraith Arrow were holding the Stone Clan sekasha back from the tengu.

“What’s going on here?” True Flame stalked down to the river’s edge.

“These tengu are still alive.” Earth Son stood behind his First, Thorne Scratch. He pointed at the battered and soaked tengu who had given Little Egret CPR.

“Yes,” Wolf noticed that the Wyverns were watching. A whispered discussion was being passed through their ranks. “And they are staying that way. My domi has taken the tengu as beholden.”

“They are oni,” Earth Son snapped. “We must eliminate the monsters before they can breed to dangerous numbers.”

“The tengu and the half-oni are no different than the elves,” Wolf pitched his argument to True Flame and the silent sekasha. “We were created by the skin clan, as they were created by the oni. They are turning on the oni as we turned on the skin clan. Yes the oni are as evil as the skin clan — but we merely need to look at ourselves to know that good can come from evil.”

“Tengu flock together.” Forest Moss drifted into the conversation, his tone light, as if he was discussing clouds. Wolf could not tell how the mad one felt on the issue. “Their loyalty to one another will supersede any claim that they make to you. If you act against one of their brethrens, they will turn on you.”

“Tinker ze domi holds all the tengu.” The astronaut tengu named Jin said.

True Flame looked at Jin. “All? How many are all?”

The war-painted male stepped forward, apparently speaking for the Elfhome-based tengu. “We don’t have a full count. It has too dangerous to count, least the oni ever found out what we were doing.”

“Which was?” Wolf asked.

“We hoped to be free here on Elfhome,” Riki said. “So in the last twenty-eight years, all of the tengu of Earth and Onihida have come to Elfhome.”

“All?” True Flame glanced over the ten living tengu. “Are we speaking hundreds? Thousands? Millions?”

“Several thousand.” Riki glanced to Jin to see if he should be more specific and got a nod. “We believe around twenty thousand.”

Which meant they greatly outnumbered the oni now trapped on Elfhome.

True Flame turned to Wolf. “How does your domi possibly think she could hold all of them?”

“Through me. I am Jin Wong. I am the heart and soul and voice of the tengu. I speak, and all will listen.”

“I doubt this greatly.” True Flame said.

Jin raised his hands and gave out a call. It resonated with magic, as if his voice alone triggered some spell. He turned to North and called. He faced the West and called. Even as he faced the South and called, a rustle of wings announced the arrival of a great flock of tengu. The sky went dark with the crow black feathers. Warriors all, faces painted, and feet sheathed in sharpened steel. They carried guns holstered to their hips. They settled silently on the bridge trusses, the tops of buildings, and street lights.

When the last tengu went still, Jin called again, magic pulsing out from him. It echoed off the buildings and the hillside across the river. He turned, gazing at them, as if he too was stunned by the massive numbers of them. “I am Jin Wong! I have returned to our people!”

And the tengu flock shouted back, “Jin! Jin! Jin!”

Jin raised his hands and the flock fell silent. “We are entering into an alliance with the elves. We are taking Tinker ze domi as our protector. Under her, I hope that first time our people will live in peace, security, and prosperity.”

The flock roared in approval, a deafening sound that washed over them. Jin raised his hand, commanding silence, and receiving instant obedience.

“Jin offered his people,” Wolf said in the silence. “Domi offered her protection. Such an agreement, once made, no other person could break that oath.”

“This is true.” True Flame said.

Earth Son had cast his shield, encompassing only him and his sekasha. “She can’t hold them. This is preposterous.”

“They fit the model of a household with Jin as the head,” Wolf said.

“Only clan heads can hold that many people,” Earth Son said. “And she is nothing but a —”

“She is my domi and we are the clan heads of the Westernlands,” Wolf growled. “Forest Moss is right. You are a blind. Tinker has closed the Ghostlands.” Wolf pointed to Malice’s massive body. “She killed the dragon that four of us could not harm. She has made a peace with a force that we didn’t even know existed. Do not assign her your limitations. We can hold the tengu.”

“They are monsters!” Earth Son shouted.

Wolf shook his head. “They were once human, forced into their shape by cruel masters. They have fought beside my domi to kill the dragon. They have protected my youngest sekasha from harm.”

“You are a traitor to your people,” Earth Son spat the accusation and then looked to True Flame, as if challenging the prince to refute it.

True Flame said nothing, waiting to see the outcome of the debate.

Wolf directed his argument to the Wyvern and the Stone Clan sekasha as he knew that his Hands had already decided on the issue — or they wouldn’t have defended the tengu. But their decision was based on their trust of him. The others would need convincing. “My people are those that offer me their loyalty, be they elfin, human, tengu, or half-blooded oni. It is my duty as domana to extend protection to those weaker than I am.”

“It is our duty to keep our race pure,” Earth Son said.

“That is our Skin Clan forefathers speaking. Kill the misbegotten children. Eliminate the unwanted genetic line. Ignore trust, obedience, loyalty, and love in the search for perfection. It was the Skin Clan, but it not our way.”

“This is insanity. They breed like mice. All of them do. The oni and the humans. This is our world. If we don’t eliminate them, they will overwhelm us.”

“If they offer their loyalty and we give them our protection — do they not become one of us? They do not lessen us — they make us greater.”

Earth Son worked his mouth for a minute, and then finally cried. “No! No, no, no! They are filthy lying creatures. I am Stone Clan head of the Westernlands, and I say that the Stone Clan will never accept this!”

“I do not care what the Stone Clan accepts.” Wolf cocked his fingers, wondering if Earth Son would be as stupid as actually start a fight with all the tengu assembled. Since Earth Son was holding shields, he could strike quickly. “Know this — the tengu are Wind Clan now. I will protect them.”

Earth Son made a motion. It was a start of a spell. What spell Wolf would never know. Wolf snapped his hand up to summon the winds, even though he would be too late to block the attack. Thorne Scratch reacted first. With deliberate calm, she struck out and beheaded Earth Son.

“We will not follow the path of the Skin Clan.” Thorne Scratch cleaned the blood from her ejae.

Red Knife, True Flame’s First, nodded. “Those that offer loyalty will be protected.”

Jewel Tears gazed down at Earth Son’s body. “As temporary Stone Clan head of the Westernlands, I recognize that non-elfin can be beholden.”