Lightning struck and he measured it up. No way it could see out of that vile pulp. When it charged at him again, he tossed his sword clattering to the side. The Lost hitched toward the noise.

  More than enough time.

  Niaz rolled behind the thing and leapt up its back, locking its head under his arm and pulling them onto their backs. It thrashed about, but Niaz Akhtar wasn’t easily moved. He pulled a knife with his free hand and slashed at the fiend’s neck. The blade only made it partway through, and rank flesh resealed over the cut, so he snatched it out and went at it again with all the strength he could muster. This time he made it clean through, and the head splashed into a puddle, body folding over it.

  Niaz sagged to his knees, lungs screaming for air. Now that the fear was past, his cheek stung where the arrow had split it, and his foot ached where he’d wrenched it. Shit luck as always. When he steadied, he stood and waited for the next lightning strike, so as to judge the standing of things. Then it came, and ignorance was bliss.

  During his tussle the other Lost had reached, and it’d all gone to shit. Men on both sides ripped apart and eaten. One Lost pulled the head off a man and chomped through the throat of another, mail and all. Taite was running wicked between the debris, kicking up mud, another Lost hard on heels. Niaz wanted to help the boy, but he reckoned it was about time to call it for their chances and find somewhere safe. Somewhere where he wasn’t fighting monsters from the Void at the very least. No use in both of them dying.

  He looked for the cleanest route away, then under the lightning he saw something that might shift the balance. Back behind all the killing were the bastards responsible for it, whites of their eyes glinting under the moonlight—Ackland’s Ausars. They were a way off from the real work, gathered near the harbor. He reckoned they had some part in controlling the Lost, and if so, a sword in their bellies might change the tone of the whole thing. If he was wrong, they were fucked anyway. Besides, there was someone he’d left things unfinished with.

  Another rip of lightning and he found who he was looking for. Aisha stood in the rear of the company. He wouldn’t be mistaking that face anytime soon, or ever. If he did what needed to be done, he wouldn’t ever have to. He looked for the Vonungr brat in the lightning but didn’t get much in the way of returns.

  That was alright. He belted his knife and retrieved the sword he’d tossed earlier. That boy was tough as his mother. He wasn’t going to the clay unless Niaz sent him there himself. It was Aisha who needed dealing with at the moment. There’s always another score to be settled.

  He sheathed the weapon and made sure the way was clear. When he was out of excuses to stay put, he ran hard as his legs could go. Trouble was sprinting is easier when you’re young, same as just about everything else. Didn’t make it far all before he slunk down into some mud to suck in some air.

  He hauled himself up and squinted through the darkness. Everyone was running from the Lost or being torn apart by them, and he needed to reach the harbor without joining getting involved in it. Ran over what he knew in his mind, which was nice and easy. Siofra hadn’t blown every tunnel to shit, which meant he’d be able to avoid the nastiness for a bit at least, but one of them would have one of her Shields and an outfit crawling in it, and he had no fucking clue which one. He sighed. Never could be easy.

  Had to do something though, and waiting for a Lost to find him didn’t seem like the best route. He shambled toward where the nearest tunnel was on aching legs. Sure enough it was there, a road of even ground that hadn’t been blasted apart by dragonpowder.

  He grunted the grate off the roadway and creaked his way down the rusted ladder. Splashed into running sewage and wrinkled his nose, but it had to be said it didn’t smell much worse than most of the battles he’d been in. At least he was alone though. He’d taken the empty route in a rare dash of luck.

  He started following it toward the harbor, and splashes of footsteps echoed from deeper behind him in the tunnel. He kicked at the sewage and cursed when it splashed his all over him. Never could be fucking easy. He pulled the sword back and shut his eyes, focused on the splashing. Sounded like no more than two, but Fanir were no spring stroll. He slid through the slosh and framed his body against the edge of a corner. Might be able to get it done quick and clean if he got the jump on them.

  The splashes got louder, and he readied his steel. Splish, splash. Splish, splash. Splish, splash. He leapt out when they were rounding, slipped and crashed into the sewage, smashing face first in a pile of shit.

  Someone screamed, and a boot busted the side of his head, pushed it deeper into the shit pile. His head was humming, and he saw another kick coming for—

  “Stop!”

  He’d never been happier to recognize a voice. He peeled up onto his knees and looked up at his savior. Raiza had stepped in front of the grey-haired girl who’d been walking with her head up Siofra and Kara’s arses. “Niaz?”

  “What’re you doing here?” Bet asked, with as much scorn jammed in her scowl as she could manage.

  “Yeah, it’s me, kid. And getting kicked to death I guess,” Niaz choked out as he groaned to his feet, trying to wipe his face clean. Hardly had to be said what sort of situation this was. “You alright, kid?” he asked Raiza, all three of her.

  Raiza darted a quick glare at Bet. “Be better if I was with you instead.”

  Niaz rubbed his temple until she came into focus. “I’m very seriously doubting that. What are you doing here?”

  Bet folded her arms and narrowed her eyes at him. “I asked you first and you’re the one who disregarded orders.”

  Damn she was difficult. “Maybe, but I’m the one with the sword. And I only like one of you.”

  Raiza placed a small hand on her hip with a skinny arm and shifted her weight leaning to the side. “We’re going to the harbor to help.”

  Niaz snorted surprise, coughed, hacked up blood, probably some insides too. “That’s got to be by far the worst idea I’ve ever heard, and I’ve had some piss-poor ones myself.”

  Raiza frowned up at him, eyes stormed dark under her brow. “They won’t kill me. They need me, or else they wouldn’t have taken me in the first place.” She tapped the hilt of the knife he regretted giving her. “But I’m not afraid to make ‘em bleed.”

  Bet was equally determined not to use her brain. “The Lost are going to overtake the library eventually. Siofra will be at the harbor. Kara too.” She narrowed her eyes at him and slid them behind him down tunnel. “You too, it looks like. Seems a world of a lot safer than curled up in a bookshelf waiting for a Lost to find us.”

  Most frustrating part of it was that they had solid points. Niaz ran a hand through his hair, got shit on it and wiped it on his leg in disgust. “You think Siofra’s going to be arsed to worry about you out there? Or me? She’ll be about the old ways, and I’ve got my own scores to worry on. And I’ve never seen a Lýkein set to killing folk, but I imagine between the three of us you’ll be wondering which is the real devil. The entire reason Siofra told everyone you’d be at the harbor was putting you somewhere else. Let’s try not to fuck that one up.

  “As for where you should be? You’re probably as safe as you’re going to get here. Only one’s that know about this tunnel should be on our side, and Lost shouldn’t be able to smell you through the filth. Stay quiet and they won’t hear you either. You two are supposed to be the smart ones, show it. Yeah?” I’ll find you when this is over”

  Bet avoided his gaze, and Raiza gave a stiff nod. She was stubborn, but she’d listen to him. They’d been through too much for her not to. This must’ve been what they meant when they talked about trust. “Where’s Taite?” she asked.

  He thought about the Lost he’d seen chasing Taite and grimaced through a squat down to her level. He reckoned the truth wasn’t what she needed hearing right now. “I lost him up there, but he’ll be fine. It’s gonna take a lot to kill that horse’s arse huh?”

  She laughed and he pulled her into a hug, good horn prodding him, and he held her there. He moved his head to the side to whisper in her ear in Southern. “Watch this one, kid. She ain’t much for looking, but she’s dangerous, and she’s here for Kara. And I don’t know if that’s the same as being here for you. If you’ve got to make a hard decision when it comes to her, remember where that is iron is on your belt.” He peeled back and looked her in the eyes. “Hear me?”

  She nodded and he stood and patted her on the head. He gave a short nod to Bet too, just out of decency. No need to make goodbyes harder than they need to be. He flashed Raiza that crooked smile and bolted splashing in the other direction. He paused when he reached the ladder and listened to the screams above. Awful as usual, and they’d only get worse. After all, you gotta earn a name like the Devil of the Clay.

  A deep breath and climbed up and shoved the grate to the side and hauled himself over. Instant regret. First thing he saw was Siofra Vonungr separating a head from its torso, blood spraying up like a fountain. The next was Kara with someone’s insides in her bare hands. Found himself wondering why he hadn’t just stayed with the girls.

  All it took was some lightning to work his memory. There she was, whites of her eyes whizzing and glinting in their sockets, hair wild in the storm. She and the rest of the Ausars were barking orders to soldiers. Fresh soldiers too, from the looks of them.

  Niaz snarled and ran at her. The hunger to reach her burned tighter than any of his wounds. Some fucker got in the way. Niaz jerked under a lazy swing and snatched the fucker by the breastplate and pulled him close. He struggled, but old as he was, Niaz had some strength left, and this was nowhere near so bad as tussling with a Lost. Niaz bit the fucker’s ear, pinning him tight while he struggled bashed and screamed. He twisted and ripped and snarled until he’d ripped the ear out and spit in the fucker’s face. He released his grip, and the man writhed around, screaming and crying, hand tight to his leaking ear. It would’ve been a mercy to kill him, but that was the sorry truth he’d come to—he was a devil to his core. Besides, this wasn’t a place for mercy.

  He started back for Aisha. When he was close enough, they made eye contact in the lightning, and her face creased with that old hatred. He stopped and flashed that crooked smile. “I’m coming!” he yelled into the rains.

  She didn’t respond, just turned and continued barking her orders, like she didn’t see him at all.

  “Don’t worry, bitch. I’m coming,” he muttered, starting back with the advance.

  The rain had sunk its claws into her fur, but claws in her fur was nothing new. Her tongue was thick with the metal taste of blood. She dropped the hand from her jaws and leapt at the nearest body. She swatted his neck into a deadly crack with one paw and looked around for the next. She’d tried her hand at peace, and the path led her here all the same. It was like Yadda had said in Kaza. Freedom was a bloody fucking industry. Whatever industry was.

  On either side of her flank her pack was just as bent on freedom. Faolan bashed his shield into someone’s nose and crumpled him to his knees, sank Kronr’s fangs into his neck while he was down. One of Sayah’s hatchets popped someone’s knee open, the other spilled his skull. She was annoying, but she weren’t afraid to get her paws bloody.

  Faolan shouted something to rain, but the wind took the words and carried them off. Rain was busy bashing someone’s face in anyway. Maud flattened her ears to her skull and pulled in a deep whiff to make sure they were still headed toward the harbor’s brine. She snarled confusion and whiffed again.

  Faolan. She flattened herself in the mud and focused, swiveled her ears toward the scent. Where was the fucking scent coming from? Runt!

  WHAT!? Faolan’s fingers were wrapped up in someone’s wet hair, bashing the skull into a crunch of brains and bone. He tossed the body to the side and snarled at her through the rain. WHAT!?

  It’s hollow beneath us. Someone’s under us. Not that she needed to tell him. He was feeling her realization now that murder wasn’t the only thing on his mind, and confusion was washing through him.

  There’s nothing under Ilysílos. Just irrigation sewage. He took a step toward her.

  Sayah planted her hatchet in someone’s spine and blood grew out of his back. “Why the fuck are you two stopped!?” she hollered into the rains.

  Faolan spread his arms wide, blood flicking off Kronr in a ray. “Maud thinks there’s tunnels under us!”

  “So fucking what!? We have to get to the fucking harbor!”

  Maud snorted. Fine with her. Maud made a violent shake and flung cold water and warm blood out of her pelt. She was starting to feel the wear in her limbs now that she was stopped. Her flanks heaved, and her tongue dangled out of the side of her mouth.

  “We good!?” Sayah shouted.

  Maud growled. Too fucking tired and too fucking wet to—

  Her back exploded in pain, and she howled. There was weight on her back, but she couldn’t’ thrash it off. She shrieked as pain dragged down her spine. Someone shouted her name. Sayah barreled over her, and the weight lifted. Maud scampered around on her paws and her eyes flared wide in terror.

  Sayah was heaving in front of her, and in front of Sayah was the stuff of Curses. It looked dead, but its head was tilting side to side with lifeless eyes, taking them in. The air was cold around it, made her want to shiver. She backpedaled. She wanted to be anywhere but here. Needed to be anywhere but here. Where’d she felt like this before?

  It lurched for them, squealing, shrinking. Maud whimpered and put her head in her paws. A squelching sound followed by a grunt. She looked up and Faolan was between the Lost and them. The monster was missing an arm, and wet rotted flesh was resealing over the stump.

  He shot a hard look back at them while the thing clicked and jittered where it stood. “Get to Sayah’s sister!” He turned forward, cracked his neck side to side, and swung Kronr into ready. “I didn’t care much for the Traitors.”

  Under the fort in Kaza. That’s where she’d seen these before, but this, this was even less a person. The calm she felt from Faolan was the only thing letting her paws keep stepping backwards.

  Sayah grabbed her scruff and gave her a shake, snapped her back into focus. “You okay?” Maud nodded, eyes darting to Faolan hacking at the monster with Kronr. Sayah pulled her head back to her. “He’s going to be fine. Let’s go.”

  Maud gave a shaggy nod and Sayah hooked her arm around her scruff and hauled herself onto Maud’s back. Maud made one final look at the terror before she pounded toward the harbor, where the screams were the loudest.

  A hulk of what had to be ships loomed from the Red Strait, overlooking a cluster of blood, mud and wickedness. A group of Cursed lurked near the water, eye-whites gleaming under the moon. Violence swept toward the Cursed, headed by a woman with frosted blonde hair. Two other women were swimming in the blood next to her, chopping down the men between them and the Cursed, and one of them, with snow white hair, had seized Maud’s attention entirely. Maud watched her rip a man’s helm off and pull his face apart by the jaws in a sputter of gore. She recognized the glint in her eyes, and ferocious snarl her lips Here was the Lýkein she’d run across all of the Southern Twin to find.

  Sayah leapt off her back and wasted no time getting to it. She pounded into fray, hatchets in hand. Maud let her fantasies of peace and joining the other Lýkein pack die in the rain. She already had her pack. No more running. Not unless it straight into the blood.

  She thundered after Sayah, paws smacking, cold, wet stone. Someone was creeping toward Sayah’s backside, so Maud barreled into him. He fell in a heap, and she took his skull in her jowls and twisted it to a crunch. She dropped it limp and waded further into the blood.

  Sayah shouted something about her sister or the harbor at Maud, then turned back around just in time to duck under a sword ripping at her head. Sayah jerked back and spun a hatchet at the assailant, but he twirled out of the way on a heel.

  Maud padded in Sayah’s direction, but she’d have to survive on her own for now. A lean, sinewed body shuffled toward Maud with narrowed amber eyes. She peeled wet, white hair out of her face to show glinting amber eyes. “Sister!”

  Maud snarled and flexed her claws. She hoped this one was better than her sister, not that it was a high branch to clear. She flattened her ears and showed her teeth, and the gristle stuck between them.

  White Hair’s nostrils flared, and she phased in an instant. She ripped through her rags as her body folded and crunched into its true state. She showed Maud her teeth in kind. I don’t want to kill you, but you’re in the way of me making a world for our people to live in.

  Maud charged a bark at White Fur as they circled each other. There’s always different views on the sort of world we need to live in. All we ever get for them is blood.

  What’s to be done then?

  Maud snorted. Answer was simple, always had been. She could hardly believe she’d ever ran from it. If she hadn’t it might’ve been her as they alpha instead of Naja. But she wasn’t running from it anymore.

  White Fur loosed a shrill howl to the moon, and Maud sang one too. Then they leapt for each other in a tangle of snarls, teeth, and claws.

  A hammer smashed at him from the edge of his vision. He dodged and jutted his knife in his attacker’s eye, spraying blood and eye parts all over his face. Shoved the body to the side and wiped the muck off. There was no one in his immediate space and he took the chance to breath warm air and take stock of things.

  A shit situation if there ever was one. The Ausars were in a group near the pier, likely still making sure the Lost tore through the rest of the city. At least he had Siofra Vonungr fighting on his side of things again. Made it seem like his luck was starting to turn. Looked like she might’ve been using her off hand just to make a show of things. Men kept going at her to protect the Ausars, and men kept dying. Trouble was that there was only one Siofra Vonungr, and the numbers on their side were thinning.