He didn't open his mouth. The word came from everywhere. Rolling through the stone, through the air, and through me.
There was a pause as we all took in his words. What happened. I prayed it was not what I thought.
Helena called out, "What oath has been broken?"
"Thou askest what oath is broken. Thou dare?" The breath of the wolf washed over us, warm and wet. It pushed us back from the mere force. "My son has been slain. Slain and flayed by mortal hands. His hide torn off for sport, and head severed as a trophy."
"Wolf. It was not us–" Helena said.
"Lies!" The single word hit like a hammer. The wind exploded outward, driving us back. Lightning cracked across the sky, splitting the night into shards of black and white.
"They wore thy banners. A giant of stone sinew. A shifter of many faces. A man in iron. All were brood of thy kingdom."
The clouds twisted at his anger. "Long have I forborne thee. I drew my pack from thy meadows. I turned mine eyes while ye burned the forests and bled the rivers. No more. Ye two legged takers have forgotten the price of breath. Ye shall learn again to fear the sky."
The storm gathered at his shoulders. Lightning circled him like a crown.
"Wait!" I heard myself say. My voice felt small in my own mouth. "Please. Wait."
His eyes turned upon me, gold and without mercy. For a heartbeat there was nothing else in the world.
"I can save your son." I said, the words scraping out of me. "I know a way to bring him back."
Thunder crashed behind him, the sound rolling across the wall like the sky itself was breaking apart. Lightning clawed down from the clouds, striking the parapet around me, scorching stone to black glass.
"Be watchful with thy next words, mortal" The voice rippled over the tower, with barely suppressed rage. "There are fates worse than death."
My mouth had gone dry. I'd spent my whole life searching for it. The one relic that could undo the past, that could bring her back. But if I said nothing, we would all die.
"I know what loss feels like. I know what its like to lose someone more precious to you than even breathing." I forced out, "I've done everything I can to try and find a way to get them back."
The wolf stared at me with a silence louder than any noise.
"There's a stone," I forced out, "A resurrection stone. Beyond Deathcrest."
The creature's eyes burned into me, as if measuring my worth. For a heartbeat, I thought he might strike me dead where I stood.
"Thou speakest of that which devours the seekers," he said. "Few have dared the road. None have returned."
"If we use it," I said quickly, "your son will live again. Our mistake will be fixed, and nobody has to get suffer anymore."
A silence followed that stretched so long it felt like the world was holding its breath.
Then, at last the wolf moved. It lowered its head until it was no more than five feet from me. His energy felt overwhelming, as if I would die if he breathed too heavy.
"Six courses of the moon," he said at last. "At the sixth rising thous shalt stand in Eden, what thou callest Stormvale. Bring the stone. Revive my son. Fail, and I shall grind thy walls to dust, crush thy weapons to filings, and make this kingdom to legend."
My knees nearly gave out. Terror and relief warred in my chest
"Yet know this." The words came softer, colder. "I trust not the breath of men."
His exhale rolled out, silver and shadow mixed, a living mist that reached for me like fingers.
"Thou shalt bear my mark. My sight shall swell in thy blood. Betray me, and thou shalt be the first bite for my kin."
The mist struck me. Agony instantly crawled through every nerve. My blood felt like molten metal. My bones split and knit again in seconds. I screamed, or at least I tried. Blood, black and semi-solid spilled from my mouth, my eyes, and my ears.
The world exploded into sound. The storm, the clatter of armor, even my heartbeat combined into a cacophony of noise that shook my head. I could smell blood in the rain, iron in the stone, and the stench of death beneath the wall.
Someone was shouting my name, hands grabbing at me, but it all blurred into a single, endless roar. I wanted to tell them to stop. To just let me breathe, but no words came. Only the echo of the wolf's voice, now inside me.
"You are bound to me, mortal. Do this, and thy name may yet be etched in history. Fail…"
The last word rolled through my skull like thunder.
"… and I shall feast upon thy very soul."