Chapter Text
The wolves prowled slowly through the forest, both on two and on four legs. Their footsteps made close to no noise, just faint rustles here and there that could be mistaken for a lone fox. Moonlight forced its way through the branches, lighting their way in silvery streaks wherever trees stood a little further apart.
A disadvantage, really; the wolves didn’t need so much light to see, but the hunters could notice them easier this way.
But the nights had remained cloudless recently and two wolves had been nearly captured three days ago, and another two a day ago. Lada had decided they couldn’t wait until the humans succeeded in their hunt. No-one wished to repeat the events of a month ago, even if it had ended well that time, with all captured members of the pack rescued and all hunters killed. So if another group of hunters wanted to share their colleagues’ fate, the Hearthstone pack would be happy to comply.
And that was why the wolves came out for the hunt now, on the offensive this time instead of on a desperate rescue mission.
Not that Dimitri had been part of the rescue team that time. He exhaled softly and steeled his nerves. He didn’t want Lada to think she’d made the wrong choice by allowing him to come tonight. He was fine. The occasional nightmare about the weeks he’d spent in the hunters’ cage was all that remained from his capture. He had his strength back, and his focus. His fur grew back in on all the bald patches and shone in the moonlight once again.
Well, perhaps not right now, Dimitri thought wryly as he kept walking forward on his two feet and tightened his grip on the rope. Most of the pack chose to go in their fur, but he needed an opposable thumb – and a mouth capable of speech, to give orders.
Dimitri glanced to the right. Within an arms reach walked their captured hunter mage. Not that the length of rope would allow him any further. It was a risk, a double-edged sword, to take him along. A trump card against the hunters, Lada had said, but then stressed to Dimitri the importance of keeping the mage under tight control. They couldn’t afford for him to sabotage this hunt.
Two more wolves, Ilari and Vesela, prowled nearby them for the express purpose of reminding the mage that any wrong move would be punished harshly. And so far he’d made no trouble: He walked as quietly as he could on his clumsy human feet – and perhaps that was where the moonlight came in handy, so the mage wouldn’t be completely blind. He didn’t attempt to cause any additional noise by rustling branches or bushes – although Dimitri would hardly allow him to move his hands towards any, he could feel more than see that the mage’s bound hands stayed directly in front of his body and didn’t even twitch. Not unless Dimitri whispered an order to search for any sources of magic. Only then, the mage carefully lifted his hands and pointed to a snare or another magic-infused trap, if any were nearby, which the wolves avoided springing before moving on. Apparently, activating the trap could alert the mage who’d created them, and the wolves desperately hoped for the element of surprise.
Which was what made their own mage both the biggest asset and the biggest threat. For every trap he correctly pointed out, Dimitri couldn’t stop worrying about all the ways the mage could betray them – no, not betray, that would require some loyalty in the first place, and they couldn’t expect that from an imprisoned hunter.
At least the largest potential source of noise had been neatly dealt with by Mirza back in the village. She’d looked slightly apologetic, kind as she was to everyone, even their human prisoner, but that still didn’t stop her from grabbing a clean white handkerchief and stuffing it into the mage’s mouth, before securing it by tying another one over it. The mage had panicked during that and Dimitri had to hold his head, somehow uncomfortably reminiscent of the accursed hunters’ camp a month ago when he’d held the mage down to let Lada collar him. At least this time the mage didn’t fall unconscious for nearly two days, but the distressed expression he was sporting once the gag was tied reminded Dimitri of the man’s expression when he’d woken up after those two days of unconsciousness.
Dimitri hated the squirming feeling of guilt at seeing that now. The mage had lost the abject fear over the course of the month, and so had Dimitri shaken off the brightest flames of his anger. So seeing the mage return back to those expressions now, when Dimitri no longer held the urge to hurt him at the forefront of his mind, was unsettling.
Dimitri wouldn’t claim he wished the mage a good, happy life without fear or strife, but he’d come to respect the acceptance the mage showed for his sentence. Never refusing to follow orders, never complaining about the place he slept or the food he got, never insulting or being rude to anyone. Almost polite, Dimitri would say, only politeness was hard to ascribe to someone who didn’t speak unless spoken to and hardly moved unless ordered to. Unobtrusiveness, perhaps. Which suited the wolves just right – no-one exactly liked to be reminded of the hunter in their midst.
And unobtrusiveness was exactly what they needed at the moment from the mage. Exactly how he’d acted for the past month, quiet and compliant. Yet… mending broken fences and setting up protection wards didn’t quite contradict his previous calling in life as directly as helping the wolves to track down and eliminate a hunter group. If the mage ever decided that enough was enough, this could very well be it.
As far as Dimitri could see, the mage’s face remained fearful, his posture tense. Fear made people act unpredictably, lash out or freeze. Not a good emotion to inspire in the mage here and now, but they couldn’t risk giving him any leeway. Besides, fearful as he’d been a month ago, his instincts had leaned towards following orders without question, so perhaps his current state wouldn’t push him any closer to acting out either.
Which was… good, but it also fuelled Dimitri’s guilt. There was a real possibility that the mage would have kept following their orders placidly even without the restraints, without all the fear. The fact that they couldn’t afford the risk helped little when he watched the mage struggle to keep his breathing slow and steady.
They passed the last checked area. “Check for any magic for the next fifty yards,” Dimitri repeated by rote.
The mage always calmed down a little while performing the task, like his muscle memory guiding him to focus. He was… really good at it. From the start, really. Even in the first days, when the mage had twitched at every sudden movement, giving him an order made him concentrate immediately, like the snap of one’s fingers. Perhaps knowing that he was following orders promptly eased his worry about punishments? Dmitri hadn’t spent much time actually wondering about the mage’s reasoning. All he knew was, it worked. If he had any good ideas at the moment, he’d have liked to give him constant useless orders just to keep him busy and the fear off his face.
But Dimitri himself had to focus too. Yes, keeping an eye on the mage remained his main task, but they were nearing the hunters, however slow, and he couldn’t let his guard down so close to enemies who weren’t subdued and restrained.
The mage found one snare. Dmitri couldn’t wait until they could clear the forest of the traps’ presence, but for now, they gave it a wide berth.
The moon kept shining peacefully. The soft crunch of feet rustled in the dry leaves. The heavier steps hurried from the north.
All wolves as one turned their heads in that direction.
Two humans – not running at full speed but still moving fast towards the wolves’ position. There was no chance to avoid them, to hide in the moonlit forest. Dimitri saw Lada gesture at the two wolves closest to the approaching humans.
They were probably hunters. Probably. The wolves weren’t in the business of killing random passer-bys, so the situation remained tricky until they could be sure. Besides, Dimitri guessed that Lada might try to get some information from the probable hunters, risky as it was to allow them to communicate – just like the mage at Dimitri’s side.
The two wolves lunged at the same time, shifting as they did so they could grab the newcomers and cover their mouths as the weight dragged them to the ground.
The humans struggled and kicked, muffled cries and wildly rustling leaves upping the noise considerably, but still not enough to carry far. The rest of the wolves circled the captured men. Dimitri stayed a little further away, most of his attention on the mage who was watching the scene with wide eyes. Remembering his own capture perhaps? Although he hadn’t fought half as hard – the pack had been lucky that night, attacking the hunters’ camp while the mage had been visibly tired.
But these two men – hunters, Dmitri was sure now after spotting the wolf fur lining their coats and the daggers they didn’t have time to use – they still tried to buck the wolves off even as they must have realized they had no chance of running. The muffled noises bit off angrily, probably some inventive curses; how sad no-one could understand them.
Lada walked towards the centre of the circle. “Hunters,” she growled, voice low and promising pain, “tell us what we want to know and your deaths will be quick.”
One lurched forward with a feeble growl of his own, but was held back.
“Don’t answer us,” Lada continued evenly, “and we will take our time ending your lives.” Not that they would have the time for that right now, but the hunters didn’t need to know.
Lada gave them a moment to think it through, although they used it to attempt a couple more curses behind the hands clamped over their mouths. “Were you coming from a hunters’ camp?” She asked, then added at their glares: “A shake or a nod of your head will be enough.”
No answer, just shooting daggers from their eyes. One more visibly scared than the other, but not enough to give Lada anything.
“Were you perhaps coming to a camp?” Lada asked after a short while. No luck.
“What were you doing out here? Scouting?” She tried next. By now, it was more about noticing any tells that would give her the answers without the hunters’ cooperation, but they were either too scared to read anything else or too good to give anything away.
Eventually, she sighed and straightened. “We’re wasting time. Kill them.”
The mage took in a sharp breath, and the half-step back might have been subconscious. Dimitri tugged at the rope in warning as he glanced over at him, so he didn’t see what was happening with the hunters – only heard a brief desperate struggle, smelled the sharp scent of blood-
A bright flash of light shot upwards and burst into a shower of sparks. Another wolf growled and bit through the second hunter’s neck, but they all knew it was too late. This signal would alert everyone in the forest for a mile.
“Dammit!” Lada hissed. They couldn’t know if the signal meant a warning, a call for help or anything else, but no option was good.
“Should we wait to see if it leads them here to us?” Ilari asked, glancing around and smelling the air. Many others were trying to scent any shifts in the forest as well, searching the trees with their eyes. No luck.
“No,” Lada shook her head. “We’re too exposed.”
They had been travelling in the approximate direction on the camp based on the two encounters days ago, and the traps confirmed their path, but so far it was still too vague to know the actual location.
“What about this,” Dimitri stepped forward, pulling the mage with him. “Mage, would you be able to create similar flashes in other places, without us having to walk all the way there?”
Lada’s eyes sharpened in attention and looked at the mage expectantly. The younger man quickly glanced between the two, then frowned in thought for a moment and finally nodded.
“Very well,” Lada spoke to Dimitri, “make sure they don’t appear too quick in succession, so the delay from the first one isn’t so obvious. Make one right now.”
Dimitri jerked his head at the mage. “Alright, do the flash about two hundred yards in this direction.”
The exact specifications of parameters when it came to the orders still bothered Dimitri sometimes, and he hoped allowing for this wouldn’t give the mage the possibility to tweak it just a bit – what if he hit a nearby tree with the spell while aiming in the desired direction, therefore marking their true location again with the excuse that he was trying to create the flash much further. What if-
The mage flicked his hands and the spark appeared in the distance. About two hundred yards away.
Alright. Dimitri sighed silently as the relief loosened his shoulders, and he nodded in approval.
Lada turned to the group at large. “We’ll continue on our original trail, but be vigilant. While we might hide our true position, the hunters will still be on their guard and searching the forest. If they split up, we might be able to pick them off. Be prepared to retreat if I say the word,” she added grimly.
No-one wanted to turn back. But not knowing how large the hunter group was, risking their lives against much larger numbers would be foolish.
They continued forward, Dimitri ordering the mage to check for magic signatures and to create more flashes, and the mage dutifully did so every time. The situation was too tense to spare it more than a thought, but Dimitri did feel grateful for the easy compliance. He still held the rope as tightly as before; caution remained paramount. There could be an attack any moment.
Any moment.
Yet…
Nothing.
Too much time went by with no sound, no sudden movement. The wolves grew more twitchy, jumping at shadows, and Dimitri wondered if Lada would order a retreat for that reason alone. He told the mage to check their surroundings again and the young man dutifully made the gesture – and froze mid-step.
Dimitri stopped with him and huffed softly to get Lada’s attention, who reacted in the blink of an eye. Dimitri nodded to the mage in answer to her unspoken question, and then addressed the mage: “What is it?”
The mage pointed forward, then drew a large round shape in the air with his bound hands. He looked at Dimitri and pointed there again with a sense of urgency, frowning as he did so.
“Something round is there. Something big?” Lada asked, stepping closer. The other wolves stood around, fully on guard for sudden attacks.
The mage nodded emphatically and gestured again, this time drawing the circle flat horizontally, as if drawing it onto the ground. His wide eyes urged them to understand.
Urgency, a large round shape in the forest-
“The camp,” Dimitri and Lada exclaimed as one, still careful not to speak too loud, and were rewarded by the mage’s frantic nods.
The other wolves shifted in anticipation, and Dimitri too felt his body eager to jump and tear. But the reason why they hadn’t understood the mage right away was obvious:
“I see nothing in there,” Dmitri rumbled. “Was the last camp hidden like this too?”
“Not quite,” Lada answered at the same time as the mage shook his head. “Can you tell how many people are inside?” she asked and at the answering shrug, Dimitri said: “Try it.”
The mage drew his eyebrows together as he concentrated, but shook his head in defeat.
And there were still no hunters around. Were they waiting for something? And was there really a camp? Did the mage start lying now, to distract them?
“Are you lying to us?” Dimitri growled and the fear in mage’s face reappeared in a blink. He shook his head wildly, eyes wide, and Dimitri kept the eye contact for a long moment to see any twitch, any tell. Still, the fear remained at the forefront.
A shuffle.
From the direction the mage had been pointing, one lone human-smelling figure crept forward, a glint of a blade in their hand.
Ilari jumped and tore out their throat immediately.
Not the best decision maybe, to gain more information. But everyone was too high-strung and the mage did try to tell them hunters were that way. The corpse sure appeared to be one of them too.
And the corpse meant that a hunter would be expected to return to the camp, perhaps even soon. If the wolves wanted any element of surprise, it was now or never. Lada thought the same. “Let’s go!” she growled and shifted, leaping forward. Dimitri was left behind as the mage’s minder, but he still dragged him along on his two feet. “Can you remove the spell hiding it?” he snapped, and the mage jerked at his harsh words but obligingly lifted his hands, making a sort of tearing motion in the air.
The space not far from them wobbled, then rippled like the surface of a lake disturbed by a gust of wind, until a long rip through the air revealed flickering light of fire and dying screams.
Dimitri rushed forward, pulling the leash none too gently. He couldn’t leave the others behind when they were fighting, even if he wasn’t able to do much while babysitting the mage. Order him to attack the hunters with magic, perhaps? No, too risky. Something else then or-
His thoughts were disrupted by the lack of loud noises. He almost tripped over a fallen pile of firewood to get a better look.
Bodies of humans lay bloody and motionless on the ground, and not of any wolves. All his packmates were searching the camp, looking for cowards hiding in their tents or waiting for a moment of inattention. Further away, he could see four hunters still alive, in the wolves’ clutches, being dragged towards empty cages. Soon the small beginning fires were doused and the camp smelled of smoke, lingering fear and blood. Not… not quite enough blood, for the size of the camp. Not that Dimitri enjoyed the stench, but it didn’t make sense.
“How many hunters were there?” he asked Lada in confusion when she neared him.
“Far too few,” she agreed with his observation grimly. “That’s why we kept some of them alive. Hopefully they will explain the lack of ambush in the forest, and the pitiful number of them here as well.”
Dimitri nodded, then something occurred to him and he turned to the mage: “You’ve lived in a camp like this, any ideas?”
The mage’s eyes flitted around, and he made an unsure shrug. Well, this would be easier without… Dimitri raised an eyebrow at Lada. “I’m guessing we don’t need to worry about alerting the hunters anymore?”
Lada huffed out an amused puff of air. “No, I reckon we don’t.”
Dimitri took it as permission and turned back to the mage. “Hold still,” he reached towards his face, and of course the mage flinched but after that he did stay still as ordered. Dimitri reached to the back of the mage’s head and untied the handkerchief, then pulled out the soggy gag from his mouth.
The mage blinked in surprise, breathed in – almost gulped – a mouthful of air and finally slowly, with a grimace, closed his jaws. His pinched expression showed the discomfort, and he wiggled his lower jaw a little. The ache would pass soon though.
“Let’s try it again then,” Dimitri said after a moment, “any idea where the rest of the hunters went? And why we didn’t notice any in the forest?”
The mage aimed his eyes towards the ground, but his sight obviously fell at one of the dead bodies, because he recoiled and set his eyes on Dimitri instead. “The – the fire signal meant danger. It can be a call for help but if no-one wants to go help…” He shrugged. “And with all those false signals I made. I think they…”
“They?” Lada prompted.
“They might have… ran away.”
Dimitri breathed out an incredulous laugh. “Seriously?”
“Um, maybe.”
“What makes you think that? Have you met this group before? Or is it just something hunters do?” Dimitri shared the disdain in Lada’s voice. But he wouldn’t be surprised if the murderous bastards held no loyalty to anyone, not even their fellow hunters.
“I…” the mage glanced again at the nearest corpse and gulped. “I’ve met them before.” Ah, that was why he had such a strong reaction then. Meeting more friends only to see them die. “But um, I’ve noticed that… If someone lit the signal at night, no-one usually wanted to risk following it.”
Dimitri wondered if the mage would have been among those who wouldn’t go help. The idea made him startlingly disappointed in the man.
“Yet they would risk running away, from the greater safety of the camp?” Lada focused on the more important questions.
The mage shrugged jerkily. “There were eleven signals, that’s more than any one of them has probably ever seen in their life. And they all came from the west, or north-west and south-west, so they could,” he shrugged again, “risk going the other way?”
“Lada!” Ilari was marching up to them, “the captured hunters mentioned another camp when they thought I couldn’t hear them.”
Lada, Dimitri and the mage all looked at each other, for once all with the same expression in their eyes, the same understanding.
“What exactly did they say?” Lada demanded.
“One said they should’ve gone to the other camp too when they had the chance. The others either agreed or called him a coward.”
“Oh?” Lada grinned. “I suppose I can have a little talk with them. Perhaps we can yet catch the fleeing hunters before they reach the camp. The rest of you, stay on guard but try to rest. We may yet need to travel further.”
The wolves nearby nodded and Ilari walked towards the edge of the camp where he smelled the air, then walked further. Dimitri watched him for a minute, itching to do something – patrol the perimeter, search the tents for any hints of where the rest might have gone. But other wolves were already on it, and Dimitri’s main role remained the mage’s guard. He twisted the rope a little in his hands and looked at the man tied to the other end of it. The mage looked back, vaguely curious, and then lowered his eyes to the ground.
Standing still with his gaze pointed down; that had been the mage’s default position whenever he had to wait – for the next order, for someone to finish speaking, for anything. It disconcerted Dimitri at first. Well, no, at first it made him suspicious of whatever the mage was planning. But then the unnatural stillness coupled with the fear caused him to get goosebumps more than anything. And yes, the mage’s fear had lessened and virtually disappeared in usual day-to-day situations, but the waiting pose remained.
Dimitri fought the urge to shake him. He had nothing to do but wait as well, but he couldn’t… he wouldn’t be able to stay still like that. It was creepy!
Alright, Dimitri knew that the tension of the situation and being idle was making him irritated, but knowing it didn’t help push it down easily. And he was supposed to pay attention to the mage, he couldn’t just ignore him and leave him here to stroll around the camp.
Well, perhaps he could indulge in his curiosity then: “So back then, whenever you saw a signal in the night,” he started and watched as the mage twitched and glanced up in attention, “did you go help whoever lit it?”
The mage opened his mouth, then closed it slowly and shook his head a little before lowering his gaze again.
That… was disheartening. Surely with his magic, he would have been better able to help than most, even if Dimitri himself wouldn’t cheer for saving a hunter. Or perhaps his question was too vague. “But you’ve seen it, right? More than once, from what you’ve said.”
“Yes,” the mage answered softly, this time not even raising his eyes.
“And not even once did you try and help?”
“Yes,” the mage said again, even quieter.
Dimitri crossed his arms, not caring that it tugged at the mage’s bound hands; it’s not like he would dare to complain. “Well, I guess you being a coward at least served us well,” Dimitri commented, disappointed and annoyed at being disappointed.
The mage hunched his shoulders but didn’t say anything to defend himself.
Pained screams echoed from the other side of the camp. Dimitri ignored the predictable scared jerk of the man next to him and just turned slightly towards the noise in curiosity. The hunters had to be very stubborn if Lada decided to encourage them so soon. Or Lada herself was impatient. The escaped hunters would have been easier to catch before they reached the other camp, but even with the wolves’ faster legs, their window of opportunity might be very small. How far away could the other camp be, to risk to flee there in the middle of the night? And how many additional hunters were in that one, would the wolves here be enough to overpower them if all the hunters had already reached the new camp?
Surely those were similar questions to those Lada was asking just this moment.
Dimitri studied the silent figure in front of him. The mage would have been so much easier to interrogate, self-serving coward that he was. Well, he was easy to interrogate, so easy that it could have hardly been called an interrogation instead of patient questioning. The mage had told them all he knew about the hunters’ disgusting business practices when they’d asked. A lot of it they’d already known, but any scrap of new information that could possibly help them against other hunters in the future was welcome.
Dimitri wondered if any of that information would be useful now, turning it over in his head. The hunters usually worked in separate groups, but sometimes they joined forces if they thought it would profit them. So perhaps the other camp belonged to a different hunter group?
But honestly, Dimitri didn’t give a damn about that. It would help little apart from maybe the hunters having worse coordination during their defence if they weren’t used to working together. Even more so if they didn’t care for their own colleagues to save them from danger.
Then again, they had to hold some loyalty, or the captured hunters wouldn’t be withholding the information about the other camp. Or perhaps they just knew they were going to die either way and decided to make it as difficult as possible for the pack. Or they simply hated wolves so much that saying nothing was a matter of pride for them, even if they were repaid in pain.
Would the mage know that?
“So why aren’t they saying anything?” Dimitri asked, and the mage flicked his eyes at him to show he was listening. “Did we get unlucky and caught the only hunters around who hold some loyalty for their partners?”
The mage glanced in the direction from which the screams were coming occasionally, but he couldn’t actually see them with the tents in the way. Predictably, his eyes fell back to the ground. “They probably don’t want to show any weakness in front of wolves.”
Fuck, had Dimitri been right?
“They’d rather get sliced to ribbons than answer a question from a wolf?” He asked incredulously.
The mage shrugged. “They do hate you a lot.”
They instead of we. Did the mage not consider himself a hunter, on the account that he wasn’t allowed to be one anymore? Was he trying to distance himself from them, seeing their corpses and hearing their screams, worried that the same could still befall him?
Or was he saying that unlike the other hunters, he didn’t hate the wolves?
Dimitri had to admit that whatever hate the mage was feeling – must have felt, to take on that bloody job – he’d hid it expertly for the whole past month. Another survival tactic perhaps, not antagonizing those who held all the power and his life in their hands. A smart action for a coward.
But the part of Dimitri that respected the mage for his quiet acceptance of his punishment wondered if this was really all just an act. One could accept their fate with grace, but how good an actor could someone be? The fear could hardly be faked, not to this extent, yet the mage never appeared to contradict himself with his actions.
Did he, somehow, not hate the wolves then? Was hunting and killing them just a job, disconnected from any emotion? Dimitri thought that would be even worse.
Perhaps there was another option still?
Dimitri sighed deeply. He hated being idle because then he started thinking about all sorts of stupid crap. Who cared what the mage was feeling? As long as he kept doing as he was told, it was fine. And Dimitri wouldn’t have any conflicting feelings about him either. Nor guilt, nor disappointment. He had no reason to care, only making his own life more difficult for himself. Stupid.
Luckily, his thoughts were interrupted then by Lada approaching with a grim expression and hands speckled with blood. Dimitri wished Khalida was here to reassure Lada, but someone had to stay back to take care of the village.
“They won’t talk,” she growled. “I’d hate to kill them just yet, so if any of you got any ideas?” she turned to Dimitri and a couple more wolves who neared them at her approach.
Dimitri sighed and rubbed his forehead. Was it a bad idea? Maybe, but it might also not hurt to try. “Maybe?” he spoke up and the others turned to him. “If they hate us too much to tell us anything, what if they’re not talking to a wolf?” he jerked his head towards the mage.
Everyone stared. Including the mage.
“You want the mage to interrogate them,” Lada’s question barely sounded like one.
“Not exactly,” Dimitri shook his head and studied the mage carefully, who looked rather spooked by the idea. “Just have a friendly chat with them, as a kindred soul. Who knows what they might say to a fellow captive.”
The mage appeared more and more apprehensive as he listened, somehow shrinking into himself without truly moving. That was fine; if he looked too composed, the hunters might suspect him of not being on the hunters’ side.
“Any other ideas?” Lada sighed.
Vesela crossed her arms. “None I’m saying if we’re letting the mage talk to them, he’d just warn them.”
Lada sighed. Again. Dimitri felt kind of bad but still thought his suggestion could work. “We might as well start with Dima’s idea then.”
The mage did take a step back at that, tense and shaking his head. Dimitri pulled him back by the rope. “You’re not getting a choice in this. Just,” Dimitri looked around, grabbed a bottle of water that was standing by a tent and pushed it into the mage’s hands, “go bring them something to drink, their throats might be scratchy after all the screaming.”
“And don’t hide being sympathetic,” Lada pointed out. “Feel free to commiserate.”
Dimitri would thought it cruel, misusing the hunter’s emotions like this, but the hunters never cared for the wolves’ feelings. And it’s not like they were forcing him to do anything too deceptive, just: “But don’t you dare discourage them from talking. Don’t tell them not to tell you anything. Understood?”
The mage stared at him, eyes wide and shoulders up to his ears. “Understood,” he whispered.
“Go then,” Lada ordered and Dimitri let go of the rope. Then he gave the mage a little shove when he looked reluctant to start walking.
So he went, not very fast but not so slow that Dimitri felt the urge to hurry him again. Almost like he’d practised the perfect speed of going to do something he hated yet having no choice.
Dimitri kept his eyes on the mage’s back. He wasn’t sure what exactly he expected out of it. Of course, the information about the camp. But also perhaps some actual cracks in the mage’s act, if he was indeed acting. Would he finally show his true colours faced with his kindred souls? Reveal his actual feelings about the wolves, about why he behaved nothing like one would expect from a captured hunter? Even knowing the wolves would eavesdrop, the mage would have to choose who to appease – the hunters or the wolves.
“What was your other idea?” Lada asked Vesela in a low voice.
“We let one run and see if they lead us to the camp?” Vesela shrugged.
“Are they that dumb?” Ilari raised an eyebrow.
“Well,” Vesela gestured to one of the corpses nearby, “fear of ending up like this can make people stupid.”
Lada nodded. “We can try that, unless someone has some other idea first, that doesn’t include setting any of them free?”
They all looked at each other, but no-one else spoke.
“He’s there,” Dimitri told them, having kept watch after moving a bit further away, to see when the mage disappeared behind the tent next to the cages. They all moved a little closer, still out of sight but near enough to hear the voices. The humans couldn’t hear them in return, what with their much inferior hearing.
Dimitri waited with bated breath. He would never admit out loud how much he hated his inability to understand the mage. This better give him some answers.