Verena's Whistle: Varangian Descendants Book I by K. Panikian (essential reading txt) 📗

they cut down everything in front of them, without discriminating between good guys and bad guys. When they pass out at the end of the battle, they sleep for days to recover.”

“Well,” Julian said, “those are just the legends.”

“Lots of legends are based in fact,” I retorted and stood. “I’ve hit my capacity for today. I’m going to bed.” I walked away.

As I left the room, I heard Owen ask, “Why would they bite their shields?”

“Well…” Julian started to answer.

I went to my room.

IN the morning, I was still trying to find my equilibrium, and mostly failing. On one hand, we’d killed ten of the besy in one strike and impressed a god. On the other hand, we had a new, impossible task to complete, to figure out a way to shut the gate permanently. Plus, we had the addition of the foretelling that more besy would soon be coming through the portal, and a teammate who was probably going to kill us all in a frenzy of insanity and bloodlust.

I practiced some deep breathing and then checked my email. I sent a message to my parents last night before I went to bed that all was well and I had a new response from my dad asking for more details.

I called the farmhouse and when my mom answered, I felt immeasurably calmer. I told her everything and, in the end, she said simply “I’m proud of you, sweetie. You’re doing an amazing job. You’ll figure this out.”

It helped. I hung up and felt like I was ready to face the day. I showered and then made my way to the kitchen. It was empty; I felt relieved. I ate a quick bowl of cereal and then snagged the keys to the rental SUV.

In town, I found a hunting and fishing store near the road that led to the national park. I went inside and bought two game trail cameras, plus a pile of batteries. The sales clerk, who thankfully spoke English, wanted to know what kind of game I was hunting. I didn’t tell him, “monsters.”

When I pulled into the garage, Owen opened the door to the house and came out to the SUV. I frowned at him, feeling anxious all over again. He grabbed the bags for me and I followed him into the house. I dumped them out on the kitchen counter and started opening the packages. Owen opened the batteries and began helping. We worked in awkward silence for a couple of minutes.

Finally, I asked, “How are you feeling?”

He answered right away, looking at me with a tentative smile, “I feel great! I slept like a log all night. You?”

“Worried,” I answered. I looked into the living room and saw the wolf sword was gone from the floor. I asked Owen what happened to it and he said he picked it up while wearing a glove and nothing happened, so he put it away in the garage.

“Next time,” I told him, “I don’t think you should touch it without giving everyone a heads up first. I’d rather not be murdered in my bed by a berserker wolf. At least if I know you’re coming, I’ll have a fighting chance to kill you first.” I smiled sweetly at him. Owen took a step back. Hmm, maybe my sweet smile needed some work.

“I didn’t feel insane last night,” he finally said. “I think we all need to keep an open mind about what this means.”

He was right. I nodded at him and we finished getting the batteries in the cameras and receivers in silence.

When we were done, I explained that I wanted eyes on the portal clearing. I got two cameras because I wasn’t sure if the magic still emanating from the center of the crater, that Zasha’s science team picked up on, would distort the camera signal. I figured we could put one camera in the clearing, focused on the gate, and the other camera a little way back in the woods, watching the main trail.

“That way, at least,” I said, “maybe we’ll get a heads up when the next group of besy come through.”

Owen thought it was a great idea.

“I don’t know if it will work at all though,” I said. “Zasha told Theo that her team tried to take a couple of satellite pictures of the crater, and none of the pictures worked. The images were so distorted, you couldn’t see anything.

“But right now, it’s my only idea for getting eyes up there. Other than actually camping in the snow, which I don’t really want to do unless we have to.”

“Let’s go up now,” Owen said. “Theo and Zasha haven’t emerged yet, and Julian and I were up pretty late talking, so he’s probably still sleeping hard.”

I thought about it. My initial impulse to say I wanted to wait for Julian or Theo was childish. Owen was right; I needed to keep an open mind.

“I’ll leave the sword here,” he added, seeing my indecision.

That clinched it for me. It would be foolish to muzzle what was possibly our greatest weapon because I was nervous about potentials. So far, all of the evidence pointed to Owen being a rational, thinking creature when he transformed. I had to proceed with that evidence and not make decisions based on my fears.

I said, “Okay, let’s go. And bring your sword.”

I watched Owen pick up a pair of gloves from the mudroom, slip them on, and then go out to the garage to strap on his sword. I wrote a note on the pad on the counter for the guys and followed him out, strapping on my knife as well. I put the two cameras in a backpack and we slid on our helmets to hit the trail.

When we got to the crater, I motioned for Owen to stop while we were still in the trees at the edge. I crouched in my snowshoes and waited. I wanted to look first for any new tracks. I could see the trail