Chapitre 75: Chapter 75: Standoff
Patch POV
Fenrir's guts!
How many rogues were still in the castle? Patch had lost count. Maybe they bred on the spot and emerged fully grown. He wouldn't put it past Hades to hatch shifters like geese. A silly image, and one that would probably make him have nightmares of wolf-geese hybrids trying to attack him. It was a known fact that geese could be meaner than wolves at times.
Lilia's worried voice jolted him out of his daydreaming. "Where did Mother go?" Then, she bellowed at the rogues, "What did you do with my mother?"
Those words reached him above the noise made by the rogues.
Bram smelled angry, like pepper. "WHERE'S MY FATHER?"
"Oblivion," the lead rogue said as he smirked.
Dane snarled, "You're lying. I can smell it. Or at least you better be lying if you want to live."
"Stand down," Daxius called out, battering the rogues with blasts.
Patch shouted at the rogues, "We've got magic on our side that doesn't come from a demon. I'd advise you to give up now."
The lead rogue, who looked like he was the kind of person that took pleasure in killing small animals just for fun, smiled hungrily. "And be weak and wolfless like all of you? Not a chance."
Duffy Kruspodin stood toe to toe with one of the rogues, and despite the gnome's small size, Patch couldn't help thinking the rogue was in trouble. Glaring up at the rogue, Duffy said in a calm, steely voice, "I'd advise you to just leave this place. Your master isn't who you think she is. You're the weak one for following her."
The rogue sneered. "You wouldn't even make a mouthful!"
Duffy jabbed his dagger, silver of course, into the rogue's ankle. A yelp of pain answered him. Undaunted, Duffy stared at her with a look that said she asked for it.
Patch smelled the blood spilled by Duffy's dagger and the burning flesh. Considering that these rogues inflicted the same burning and poison from silver on Dane, Lilia, and Ravyn, he felt no compassion, only a sense of cold, hard justice.
Duffy continued to attack the rogue, who, to her credit, beset Duffy with slashes of her claws. Hopeless from the start. Duffy was small, quick, and nimble. She couldn't land a claw on him. Every time she swiped at him, he was already somewhere else, stabbing and gouging.
While squaring off against the lead rogue, Patch vowed that he was going to treat Duffy to the finest ale or wine in the Cresta cellars when they got home. And to anything else that the valiant gnome might fancy. They'd swap stories of adventure and tales of heroism.
Morgana guarded Melisande, glaring at the rogues who tried to get to their master.
Beside Patch, Anneliese gripped a crystal and cast forest green waves of energy that spread above the rogues' heads, creating a cloud cover. Lilia added to the spell, weaving a canopy that smelled of growing things, of sunshine and new life. Trust those two to craft the most inventive spells! Daxius added his energy, his turquoise eyes focused and strong. He embroidered the spell with golden threads of energy so it looked like a tree canopy striped with sunshine.
Patch switched his opinion of Daxius in an instant. If he'd resented Daxius before and wanted to make him disappear, he now thought of the man as family. "Keep your weave strong, Daxius," he hollered. "You know Dane always wants perfection! You're a Cresta now, for Fenrir's sake!"
Flashing the sort of grin that must have captivated Ravyn back in the day, Daxius drawled, "I'll try not to disappoint anyone."
Dane hollered across the mass of rogues, "Patch, you have magic, too–use it! That's an order from your Alpha!"
"Focus your thoughts on creating a container for our friends," Anneliese called out. "A temporary cell, if you will."
Patch concentrated, and ribbons of green mist streamed from his hands, joining the canopy. "A prison cell in the corridor. I like it."
"That's only the first step," Lilia informed him, her voice taut and strained as she held the weave. "The next step is going to curl your fur."
With a roguish smile, Patch purred, "And I'm going to love it. I just know it."
The stench that hit his nose was like someone threw skunk cabbage into a stink bog, then set the place on fire. Gagging, he held his breath.
The sounds and smells of retching and general sickness filled the corridor.
Then, he heard the sweetest sound in a while.
WHUMP. WHUMP. WHUMP.
The rogues all hit the ground, falling on top of each other.
When the last rogue fell unconscious, a blast of wind cleansed the air in the corridor, chasing away every trace of the foul odor and the green mist. Across the piles of unconscious rogues lying on the floor, Patch caught sight of Lilia's smug smile. "What do you call that?" he asked.
Anneliese beamed. "Cloud of Eternal Stench. Don't worry, it didn't touch us. At least, not much. It only affects everyone within a certain radius."
"Even if I smell like I just bathed in stinkweed for a month, it's worth it," Patch said in satisfaction. "Nice work. I didn't know you could do that."
"We didn't either," Lilia confessed. "It's an old and still-experimental witch spell. Casting it is tricky, so it's not used very much."
Patch embraced and kissed Anneliese, so proud that she'd pushed the limits of magic and saved all of them from a messy, bloody, costly fight.
Awed, Bram whistled. "I can understand why." He sniffed himself for traces of the smell.
Just then, Patch's senses warned him of more company approaching. "Let's move," he snarled. "We'll find Jude and Ravyn.
Lilia and the others picked their way across the silent, unmoving rogues. The group, together at last, navigated down the corridor. Patch's wolf vision couldn't detect anyone lurking in the shadows, or in the rooms they passed.
He honestly wished their pursuers would attack and get on with it.
* * * * *
Lilia POV
Where was her mother?
Lilia tried to sense Ravyn's presence. She was close by, Lilia just knew it. But where?
Dane's hand slipped into hers, and she clung to its comforting warmth. "We'll find her," he said in his strong, protective voice. "And if the rogues have hurt them, they'll suffer worse than stinking for a month."
"Actually, no one is quite sure how long the spell lasts," Daxius chimed in, unconsciously smelling himself. "It's experimental, as my daughter said. They could stink for a month or a year. No one knows for sure."
Dane's teeth flashed in a grin. "The way you said that, you are DEFINITELY a Cresta."
Marieke laughed. "Then count me in, I hope I'm one, too."
"After all of this, you most definitely are," Anneliese assured her.
Lilia's ears picked up movement. The sound of footsteps. Moving slowly, then stopping, then moving again. They sounded like they came from just up ahead, around a corner.
Exchanging glances, Bram, Patch, and Dane charged toward the corner and took it at a run. Lilia heard a surprised yelp, and a human voice.
"I say, I'm on your side!"
Jiro shouted, "Dane, you can stop going full Alpha now."
Ravyn's shout filled Lilia with joy because she heard her mother's voice, safe and strong. "Back off!"
"MOTHER," Lilia shouted happily.
Garnet shouted, "Jude! You just attacked the King of Lugdunum! Back off."
"King Odo?" Lilia shook her head in disbelief.
Anneliese gasped. "He must have come when his soldiers didn't return!"
The group looked stunned. Daxius's turquoise eyes widened in surprise. Morgana smiled in satisfaction as she looked at Melisande/Hades. "Tell me again that humans are weak," she hissed at her former mate in his new form.
Seconds later, Dane, Jiro, and Jude appeared, escorting King Odo of Lugdunum. The dark-haired, dark-eyed young king looked startled to see the corridor carpeted with rogues. "I hope that's the last of those creatures."
"Us, too, Your Majesty," Lilia replied. "Thank you for coming to our aid."
A young mage appeared as well, looking deceptively delicate. Lilia could feel the power coming off her in waves. Her robe was covered in dust and blood.
"Jiro and Garnet did this," Jude announced. "They made shifter history! They convinced the king and queen to join us in rescuing you and defeating Hades–who looks out for the count as he hides in the body of one Melisande Bracknell."
The young mage nodded, her eyes huge. "I remember her. This is shocking!"
"It's worse if you're in the Wildefell Witch Circle," Anneliese said with a sour face.
The young mage lifted her chin. "I was born in Wildefell! Witch circle strong!"
"Witch circle strong," all the witches shouted.
Lilia stared with joy at Jiro and Garnet, and Dane grinned from ear to ear at his little brother and his sister-in-law. "I assume you ran this by the councils back home?" His note was only half-teasing.
Jiro rolled his eyes. "Ignore him, everyone." But his smirk spoiled his mock irritation.
"How sweet."
Lilia felt as if she'd just been dropped into an ice bath.
Hades' voice came out of Melisande's mouth, and the witch's eyes glowed like demonic red lights. "Enjoy your victory howl. The Dark Goddess is coming now."
L’AVIS DES CRÉATEURS 
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État de l’alimentation hebdomadaire
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Power Stone 
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