Chapter 16

ACHILLES. Around us, the people in the pub start to tune in. When they see Morgan squaring up against us, they all get up too. I see flashes of blades being drawn. I can sense the tension in the air. It’s drawn taut like a string: one wrong move and it could all just whip up a perfect storm. I freeze, slowly raising my hands to show that I mean no harm. But the citizens don’t like that. Instead of backing off and letting us get out in peace, they see this as some sort of an attack. They all rush to Morgan’s side, glaring at us like we’re carrying bombs. I look at the faces around us, and my heart nearly jumps out of my chest when I realize that some of them are familiar faces. The people who left my pack and came with Tristan… some of them are here. The very same citizens who used to bow to me, greet me, and treat me like their friend and their leader, are now staring at me with eyes full of hate. I wonder if they disliked me for a long time and now they’re just getting the freedom to express it properly. I wonder if it’s something that Tristan said that made them turn against me like this. Either way, I feel a wave of sadness when they all advance towards us with their weapons. I lower my arms. They come closer. Carlos steps in between us, holding his arm out to them to tell them to back off. “Don’t come any closer. We’re not here for a fight.” “You’re here under false pretenses,” Morgan retorts. “You told me you were merchants. But you’re just royals snooping around.” The people around him start to agree, nodding and whispering things I can’t make out. “What do you really want from us?” Morgan demands. “Why are you here?” Carlos looks over at me. I sign to him, ‘Tell him we’ve been doing visits on the villages to see their status.’ “We have a plan to visit every village in the land to see what they need and what they are up to,” Carlos explains. “But we agreed to do it in secrecy.” “Lies,” one of the citizens spits out. “Nothing but lies. That’s all you ever give us.” They start to speak louder and louder, the vibrations of their collective voices now getting to me. They’re starting to get closer to us too, basically spitting in our faces, their anger pouring out in waves. I want to tell them that I do care about them, that I wanted nothing but the best, but I let the other Alphas get in my way. I want to apologize. I want to tell them that they don’t need to trust someone more unstable just to see results. But I can’t. Right now, I have no voice. Carlos is yelling back at them, but I can’t make out his words. I can just feel his rage and see the veins on his neck protruding because of his efforts to drown them out. I can’t stand to see him like that, putting himself in danger when I can’t do or say anything because I simply don’t have the ability. I put a hand on his shoulder. He wheels around as though he thought I was an attacker and he was ready to punch me, but he deflates as soon as he sees that it’s me. ‘Let’s go,’ I just sign to him. ‘There’s no point fighting them. We can’t blame them for choosing what they think is best for them.’ “But, Alpha….” he tries to reason out, but as the crowd gets louder, he just relents. “Get out!” Morgan yells, and before they can throw hands, I keep my hand on Carlos’s shoulder and leave the pub. “Never come back! We’re with Alpha Tristan now, and we’re no longer under your rule!” I can feel the people following us. I can see the other villagers rushing out of their cabins to look at us. It’s a walk of shame getting out of there, but I find myself feeling relieved once we’re out. “So that was a waste of time,” Carlos grumbles as he unties the horses from the tree. “I don’t know what we achieved from that mission.” I don’t say anything, because I kind of agree with him. However, just as I get on my horse, an idea comes to mind. I turn back to him. ‘Maybe this day doesn’t need to be a waste. He did tell us where the Rogues are. The warehouse.’ His face lights up, and together, we go up to the hill where the warehouse is. The path is steep and filled with rocks. The horses start to struggle with our weight halfway there, so we get off the horses and start to walk on foot. This proves to be a better strategy because even from afar, I can already feel the strange energy emanating from the place. It’s older from this angle than from afar. The walls are crumbling, its paint peeling off in huge clumps and showing the inner workings, the rot on the wood. The windows are all cracked, and the area where the explosion happened is still showing off the black mark of the smoke and fire. The gates are all rusted, but the metal fence around it is pristine, as though it just got replaced. The smell of lumber and fire and gas are still very strong, almost coating the air and making their presence known. Still, I keep my sense of smell sharp, searching for that rotten odor that Rogues give off, just in case they’re around to attack. But strangely enough, I don’t catch that scent around the place. ‘I don’t smell Rogues,’ I sign to Carlos. ‘Do you?’ He shakes his head. “If what Morgan said is accurate, then they should be all over this place. We should be able to smell them from the bottom of the hill.” ‘Perhaps they’re all inside,’ I reply, but as soon as I sign that, I can tell it’s a very feeble thing to go off of. Still, we walk further upward, readying ourselves for a possible Rogue attack. At this point, I’m still waiting to get hit in the face with their stench, which gets stronger in numbers. However, I still don’t get a single whiff even close to the barbed fence. Which means that the Rogues have abandoned this place long ago. There’s no lingering smell. “They’re not here,” Carlos confirms for me. “I think Morgan knew what we were up to even before he exposed us. He must have given us the wrong information.” I think that he’s right. It sounds like something a person who hates you would do. We start to go back around, walking slowly with our horses to avoid rolling down the steep hill. However, before we can reach the bottom of the hill, I feel strong vibrations on the ground. Footsteps. Heavy ones, at that. I can sense low growls. As I look up at the warehouse, I see a faint line of smoke coming from one of the chimneys, as though the factory is still in operation and someone is inside.