He barely heard Challa's gasp as he jumped the chasm. The Chainkeeper had to be surprised, because in trying to intercept Senn, his hands let go of the chain just as Senn grabbed onto the woman. The Chainkeeper could only watch in astonishment as he was flung into the air. The long chain was still tied around his waist as was the custom, and Senn's added weight sent him flying against the dangling hook. Senn heard his cries but didn't look up to see the man impaled on it. His attention was down, not up.

He landed on both feet, muffling the impact as best he could with his power. He had no space to roll with it, and his hands were occupied with the woman, who seemed to be regaining consciousness. The canids had instinctively cleared the landing area to avoid being trampled, but their fear was being overcome quickly by their hunger. He was in for a fight, but he had to get the woman clear first. He fumbled with the chain that tied her leash, all the while growling at the canids and kicking the braver ones away. He managed to do it somehow and shook the woman awake.

"Climb! Now, wake up, do it, climb, don't think!"

The woman was startled but grabbed the chain he handed her. She was more composed than he thought possible and started a slow climb up the dangling chain.

"Don't look up... or down," he shouted over the canids' growls. He grabbed one by the neck and used its open jaw to hit another animal, slashing with its fangs. The animals clawed at him but his skin couldn't be pierced, not as long as he concentrated on it. He measured the woman's slow ascent and realized he was in more danger from the Chainkeepers that were on their way to get him than from the canid pups.

"Just look at the chain in front of you. I'll be right behind you."

He didn't know how he'd get out of there. He hadn't thought that far ahead. He smiled, and then he burst out in laughter. He'd find a way. He kept punching the animals and grabbing some to use as clubs against the others. The dance kept going, as more canids entered the clearing he struggled to create with sweat and blood and crunched bones. The beasts just kept piling on him, but he didn't worry. He kept his gaze on the climbing woman. She was almost above ground level. And then, stupidity provided his way out, as two chains whirled around his arm. The Chainkeepers above were trying to restrain him so the canids would finish the job. They didn't realize in all the tumult that he didn't have even one wound. They could have taken the dangling chain away and let him rot. As it was, he grabbed onto the chains and tugged. The men resisted.

Good.

He jumped toward the wall and kept pulling at the chains, using them to climb up. The men couldn't let go or he would pull them down to the pit. They could only watch in terror as he climbed up like a spider. One of them tried to untie the chain from his waist but fumbled with it. Senn used the moment of hesitation to pull with all his weight on that chain, and the man didn't react fast enough. He fell into the pit and was piled on by the canids. The other Chainkeeper could only try to step back from the pit, using all his strength, but he was not sparked, just a regular brute. Senn reached the edge of the pit and pulled up. The woman was now hanging at his level, eyes closed and trembling.

"Challa, get her! This one's mine."

Senn's voice came out gnarled, and the Chainkeeper recoiled. He looked around for help, but only the eyes of the Leashed stared back. They couldn't seem to decide whether to flee to safety or to stay for the spectacle. Or they were just too used to standing around. The Chainkeeper, realizing he was alone and no help was coming, ran toward Senn. Just before they clashed, the Chainkeeper jumped to the side as if to run past him. Senn braced himself for the tug that would follow when the Chainkeeper ran out of chain, but the other man had managed to disentangle himself from the chain somehow. He sprinted past Senn and Challa and the other Leashed, without sparing them a second glance.

"Damn him. He's out for reinforcements," said Senn to no one in particular. He looked at Challa and the woman he had rescued. He looked at the other Leashed. If the Chainkeepers came back there, they would find them all just as guilty as him. He had to distract them from this tumult by creating bedlam. He grinned. He knew just how to.

"Run. Run, you fools!" he shouted and flailed his end of the chain for emphasis. The Leashed started to trickle out of the door, then, realizing they weren't the only ones with the same idea, hurried out in droves. Challa and the rescued woman looked at him, not knowing whether to stay or go.

"Go," said Senn, not without gentleness.

He waited until everyone was out and no footsteps could be heard. He walked leisurely down the row of cells, looking at the animals like one of the hagglers at the Lordstown market appraising his wares. He settled on a big canid that looked imposing but didn't snarl at the other beasts as much.

"You still look fierce but it's mostly for show, right? Kind of like me, aren't you?"

The beast didn't reply, so Senn shrugged and opened the cage. The beast was leashed and muzzled. He felt a sudden pang of sympathy toward the animal.

"I bet you want to be free, don't you?" he said, patting the animal on the side while it tried to trample him. He just stepped aside and took the saddle from a peg in the wall and put it over the beast, fastening it without even looking. "I want to be free, too. Let's run for it, yes?"

He jumped on the beast's back and kicked his hind. The canid darted forward and snarled, but couldn't shake him even when scraping him against the wall. Senn ignored everything.

"Let's get this out while we're at it," he said. He disentangled the straps holding the muzzle. "Let them hear you howl."

The beast turned and tried to close his jaws around him. It managed to do so when Senn gave him his arm to chew on. But the beast didn't manage to pierce the skin or crunch the bone as it expected, so after a while, it gave up and surrendered to Senn's will.

Senn then spurred him to a gallop just as the first reinforcements were reaching the building. He rode past them and over some of them. A few ran right after him, while the others ran into the building to check if there were more escapees. Senn wouldn't have done that. If he had set all the beasts free, they would have killed more Leashed than Chainkeepers. That would have been slaughter, unjustified no matter how much chaos it could cause, how much it would hinder their tyrants. There was another way, or at least he was counting on it. Hoping.

He galloped down the street, catching the other Chainkeepers he came across by surprise. One of them tried to stand in his way, but Senn made the canid bound to the side to avoid him and carried on. There were few people on the streets, but as he ventured further into the Hub, the trickle of people pouring from the side streets became a steady stream. The sun was already hiding behind the last visible hovels and so the Leashed returned from the fields, the mines, and the pens. The road he had taken was the Broad, the main north-south artery of the Hub, and thus one of the most trodden. He shouted ahead to make them open way for him, and they stopped in their tracks or moved aside. He caught the eyes of an old woman clutching a small boy's hand. She didn't seem to believe what she was seeing, and neither did the boy. They needed just a glimmer of hope to feed them through their struggles. He may not be able to free them on his own, but if he could feed that spark, maybe, just maybe, his job would be made easier and someday they would all believe they could be free.

Word of his coming sped ahead of him somehow, carried at the speed of rumor, and the wave of people rippled, opening a pathway for him. The ones further away had to think it was anything but an escapee. He had to show them.

He heard a shout and glanced back. Some Chainkeepers had rounded up other canids and formed a hunting party, ten men strong, and sped after him a hundred paces back. He saw two other mounted men try to flank him from the side streets, but the throng of people cluttered them and they had to retreat to find another way. One of them tried to trample the bystanders but his canid tripped and threw him over the saddle. Senn could just glimpse the beast running away, frothing at his chance for freedom, and the Chainkeeper being swallowed by the multitude. He kept going but wondered what would happen to the man. Any other day, surely nothing. This day, he hoped that certainty vanished.

He realized then that he had trapped himself. The throng was leading him onward, with no chance of escaping through the sides. If the Chainkeepers closed off the Broad, he'd have no way out. He'd be caught between his pursuers and the multitude. So it goes.

He let the canid fall to a trot, and he looked at the crowd. He winked at a young, pretty girl. The first Chainkeeper caught up with him. Senn used his momentum against him, making his mount jump to the side with a sharp kick in the belly, and extending his arm to the side to hit the coming rider with the flat of his hand. The other canid tried to stop abruptly and tripped, just as its rider fell to the ground from the blow. There were gasps from the crowd, and farther away, a festive shout. Senn looked at the crowd, trying to find the one cheering him. He found him, an old grizzled man with watering eyes, and lifted his fist toward him. The people surrounding the man erupted in cheers, but the rest of the crowd was still too scared. He needed more. Another Chainkeeper obliged.

Find this and other great novels on the author's preferred platform. Support original creators!

The rider came up behind Senn and this time he couldn't evade him. The pursuer was intent on crashing into him if necessary. His mount gave Senn a side blow and tried to bite him. Senn's mount reeled and almost fell, but bit back the other beast and with it, the Chainkeeper's ankle. The attacker reeled, and Senn spurred his canid forward. They came up underneath the other beast, and Senn and the canid worked in unspoken concert to overturn the attackers. The canid fell back on top of his rider with a crack of bones. The crowd's breath seemed to be sucked away, and all was still. Then a cheer went up from one side, and then from the other until it filled the entire street and drowned out the cries of pain from men and beast alike.

Senn pranced around on his mount, keeping an eye on the pack of canids bearing riders that approached him. The crowd was inadvertently stalling them, as they all converged in the middle of the road to get a better look at the show. One look at the riders and Senn knew they wouldn't let that deter them. A chain howled once, twice, then struck a body and prompted a series of shouts from the back of the crowd. The mass of people parted and the first rider went through. Some people, the closest to Senn, tried to get out of the way, though the sheer amount of people kept funneling them back toward Senn, his snarling canid, and the dashing attacker. This one didn't attempt to pounce him, instead, he stopped a few paces away and let his momentum swing his chain toward Senn. It had a hook, but it didn't pierce Senn's skin as it curled around his arm. Senn rode around his enemy as far back as the chain extended, and then the Chainkeeper started moving too, both of them stuck in a movement that could only bring them head to head. The beasts beneath them wanted to tear each other apart, but they didn't let them just yet. They were both measuring the other. They tested each other's strength through pulls and unexpectedly loosening the chain. The other Chainkeepers were still struggling to get through the crowd. Senn could take his time with this one.

The chain disappeared from Senn's clutches as the world sped toward him. A mailed fist crashed into his face, knocking him to the ground on his back, under the canid's legs. Senn was so shocked he couldn't even think. He had been pulled from his canid completely, flung through the air toward his adversary. Stupid. You didn't think of this. A deja vu filled his head but he shook that away just as he rolled under the beast's leg and punched its balls. The beast crumpled and its rider fell on his side awkwardly but unharmed.

This one was Sparked, like the Chainkeeper he had fought during the battle of the Stormcloud. He didn't know if there were a handful of them like it had been with his former lord's Sparked, or if they numbered in dozens or hundreds. He discarded that idea. If there had been so many of them, he or his men would have noticed that in their previous skirmishes or during their lives in the Hub. They had to be just a few. The exact number, though, could spell his end. Time for deeds, not thoughts.

He stood up and straddled the fallen Chainkeeper, choking him with the chain. No matter how strong the man was, it was hard to concentrate with your very breath leaving you, and his feeble backstrokes could not dislodge Senn's arms, though they would have if he hadn't been Sparked too. The man couldn't understand it. He looked up in desperation, his gaze matching Senn's. The former Herald's stomach turned, and he let go of the chain. The man underneath him fainted. Senn didn't check for a pulse. He was suddenly weary. Another deja vu struck him. Which fight was this one? Hadn't he been there before?

Someone approached as the crowd parted again. A face he could place amidst all those strangers. Marsh. What is he...?

The miner was carrying a body. He couldn't see his face clearly underneath the blood, but he recognized the man's partner. It was Talid. Struck down by the Chainkeepers, or trampled. The crowd behind him was succumbing to the pressure. Marsh fell to his knees in the middle of the clearing in the street. He fumbled around, trying to lift Talid's face. He managed to do it after a few agonizing moments and brought his lover's face to his chest. He wept as he cradled him, then looked up and let out a cry so loud it drowned out the sounds of the crowd and the fighting, so poignant it made the Leashed and the Chainkeepers freeze in place.

Senn realized he was the cause of that pain. He had crashed into these people’s lives and destroyed them. One more regret to add to his long litany. He wanted to forget about all of them. To erase the time in between. He was tired of the struggle. He wanted to just...

No, said another voice in his head. He recognized it as his new God.

Just that one word, and then he dug deeper into what he felt. It wasn't natural. He was tired of it all, but this was someone else pushing against his will. Despair pressed on him like a collapsed ceiling. It had to be an external power, like the hunger he used to be able to fire up in others. Only this was a contrarian force. Was it the Chainkeepers? Was that their secret? Was that how they had kept control over them?

No, the answer was still in front of him but he wanted to avoid it. The Chainkeepers' methods were tried and true. They didn't need any extra help. The one bringing him down was the man he had just hurt. Marsh. The blindness had to be god-given. The ones in Lordstown were beggars. They had lost hope after a long struggle. After Senn had killed the last rebels and doused their hope of change. Now he had struck another's hopes, and blindness and despair had followed. He had been the blind one.

A chain swirled around his free arm, the one that wasn't already entangled with the fallen Chainkeeper. His pursuers had arrived, after trampling and slashing their way past the crowd. The circle around him grew in diameter, and half a dozen of them approached. The rest stood back, holding the crowd in check. They had to be scared to do so. A glance would have sufficed at any other time. But events were spinning out of control.

Senn struggled with the chain, but he did so halfheartedly, and before he could shake it off, another entangled him, closing around his calf. He had to use all his strength to stand, and he couldn't summon the anger or the desperation he needed to resist effectively. His will was sapped, his mind was addled by second thoughts on all the day's follies and only a deep well within him still held a shallow pool to sustain him. His will, hidden deep down, seeping upwards at times, but extant only in that recess of his mind. It was shallow, but it had always been enough, even when he thought he had lost everything. He had felt that twice, and now that he knew he could survive even the darkest days, now he just wanted to give up.

The pool vanished, evaporated away, and turned into mud.

He opened his eyes, realizing his power had also left him.

I haven't given up on you, said the Hunter, speaking in reply to his unspoken question. It's you who has given me up. Why?

I'm not strong enough, thought Senn.

That's never stopped you before, said the god’s voice.

A new chain struck his other leg. This one had a hook, like the others, but this time it sunk into his thigh. He screamed, first from the surprise but then due to the pain spreading through his leg like wildfire. He started shaking and moved his other leg to put the weight into it and not on the wounded leg. But a concerted pull from the Chainkeepers brought him face-first to the ground. He shivered and spat blood mingled with dust. He whined. He hadn't whined since he was a boy. He looked up, in front of him. The Chainkeepers hadn't minded Marsh. He just sat there, cradling Talid between his arms, rocking gently back and forth. Senn couldn't stop looking at his callused, thick hands. They seemed so gentle and warm. The last rays of daylight shone behind Marsh, between the buildings and hovels. They gave him an aura of beauty that could only be born from unspeakable pain. One of the Chainkeepers circling Senn came near him and attempted to lift a leg to kick him and Talid. But he hesitated, then set his foot down and walked away from him. It was a great aura, a great power that had been born there. The deep despair of departing love. Senn knew how it felt and wanted to cry just like Marsh. But his eyes were too dry.

A new pull from all directions threatened to rip his muscles apart. It hurt more than any wound he had suffered in his life. In a fight or lying in bandages, he was always certain the pain would stop. Now he couldn't. The pain grew and grew until he felt his mind would crack before his ligament and bone. Then he saw Naial pushing her way through the first line of onlookers. She walked up to Marsh, then she crept in desperation, tearing at her hair. And then she fell to the ground weeping. Senn focused his eyes on her shaking figure. It was all he could do to block out the pain until he couldn't even do that anymore, and his mind and his body cracked.

The Chainkeepers stopped after hearing the popping sound of muscle torn from flesh. They released their pressure, and Senn's body sagged limply to the ground. They didn't stop because of mercy. They did it so they could start a new torture without losing the victim to the pain. They lifted him carefully to a standing position, though his feet rested on air and his arms flopped at his side, out of their sockets but still holding him upright. It was lucky for Senn his mind had cracked. A great chunk of the pain had stayed back with that other Senn, the broken and dying one, and the one that could think and see was thankfully the one that couldn't feel anything. Not pain, regret, guilt, or sympathy for the other dead. Nothing at all. He drifted, and the pain ebbed and flowed somewhere underneath, like a warm river looking for cracks in the soil to seep through, away from the sun.

Time passed, or so he could deduce from the time it took for his thoughts to form. He could also tell, after much consideration, that the sun had vanished, maybe never to return, and that fires had been lit around him. They had been so thoughtful. They didn't want to leave him in darkness. He looked through one half-open eyelid at the tableau in front of him. He couldn't muster the strength to open the other eye. In front and beneath him lay two men, one stretched out peacefully, the other less so. They rocked like a bird on a sidewind. The light from the torches lit their faces well. They were otherworldly, like characters from a dream of the elders relayed perfectly, with no corruption from the words used to describe them. Behind them and to the side lay another figure. Its hair was long and dirty. The clothes were haggard and threadbare. It sat on two legs now, kneeling. Its hands were joined in front of its face, obscuring the sight of it. If Senn strained, he could hear it mumble softly just above the crackling sound of the torches. The sound of the fire was beautiful. It was the best sound in the world. The sign of a warm hearth, of food, and sometimes even laughter. All that from just a burning log, existing in potential in all the wood of the world. Sunlight turned to seed, then limb, then fire, then life. Then swept by the wind till it was only dust that served no purpose. Such was life.

Time passed, or so he deduced by the rising sun bringing warmth to the faces of the still figures before him. The torches shone weakly or not at all, and the big torch above them outshone all. He had lived through the long dark night, to better give an example to everyone in the Hub by daylight. That, or the night had forgiven him for something he had done. The heavenly bodies were more generous than any man deserved.

The sunlight was tempered by what had to be clouds, and the sounds of the waking town were replaced by screams and the howling wind. And between the swirls and howls of the current and the dust, he heard a thunderous voice that, for once, wasn't in his head.

"HE IS MINE."