被诅咒者的静默 Silence for the Damned

作者： Odin Austin Shafer

越过冰封的河面，灯火遥遥闪烁，似是描绘着温暖和饱足。乌迪尔想象着城中住宅里的熊熊炉火。壁炉周围铺着毛绒被褥，暖意沁人。

Across the frozen river, the distant, glowing lights promised warmth and food. Udyr imagined a hearth fire crackling inside one of the city’s homes. Around the fire, bedding furs rested, prickling with warmth.

冰面轰然迸裂，惊醒了这位正在幻想的萨满。乌迪尔口中咒骂，打了个冷战。冻雨已经打湿了身上的毛皮大衣，低垂的太阳预示着凶险的寒潮随时可能降临。要想说服瑟庄妮另谋他路必定会很困难。他不愿继续那个话题，也不太想回到她的军队里。

The loud crack of river ice shook the shaman from his fantasy. Udyr cursed and shivered. The sleet had soaked his furs, and the setting sun already hinted at a dangerous freeze coming. It was going to be difficult to convince Sejuani to change course. He wasn’t looking forward to continuing that conversation, or to rejoining the rest of her army.

在下方的山谷中，瑟庄妮的主力部队正在行进。战争的胜利让凛冬之爪部族吸收了数十个其他氏族以及整个石牙部落。现在的瑟庄妮是一位真正的战母了——麾下有几千名血战士、重装步兵、猛犸骑手以及寒冰血脉。

In the valley below him, the bulk of Sejuani’s host approached. Through victory, the Winter’s Claw tribe had absorbed dozens of clans and all of the Stone Tooth tribe. Sejuani was a true Warmother now—commanding thousands of blooded warriors, steelclad, mammoth riders, and Iceborn.

在主力部队的前方，先锋部队正在支起一座座圆顶帐篷，既有她的血盟的居所，也有斥候的哨站。蓝色界杆标志着瑟庄妮的帐篷，上面绣着符文纹样，耸立在营地的正中间。

Ahead of the main force, the warriors of Sejuani’s vanguard were unpacking yurts to house her bloodsworn and to serve as the command outpost for the army’s scouts. Sejuani’s tent, marked with blue wards and covered in rune-stitched leather, loomed over the center of the encampment.

乌迪尔向前走的同时，口水顺着长长的下巴淌了下来，难忍的饥火让他把牙齿咬得咯咯响。一开始他以为这是他自己的感觉，但他很快就看到一只狼犬从身边小步跑过。他朝那条狗怒吼一声，努力控制住自己的下巴，摆脱了这只动物侵入的意识。

As Udyr approached, drool slithered down his long jaws, and his teeth gnashed with bottomless hunger. The feeling seemed his own before he spotted a wolfhound trotting past. He snarled at the dog, struggling to regain control of his own jaw and rid himself of the animal’s invading consciousness.

他发现瑟庄妮正在帮血盟搭帐篷。

He found Sejuani helping her bloodsworn build a yurt.

乌迪尔骄傲地笑起来。这就是瑟庄妮的风范——事无巨细，亲力亲为。在泥泞的土地上搭建猛犸皮帐篷真是一件苦差。瑟庄妮将一根巨牙长矛狠狠刺入泥地，不慎一个趔趄，滑跪在地。附近的血盟战士们在冰冷的雨中也是苦头吃尽，咒骂声此起彼伏，互相应和。

Udyr smiled in pride. This was her way. No matter the work, she led from the front. Raising these mammoth-hide tents in the soaked earth was a burdensome task. As Sejuani slammed a tusk-spike into the mud, she stumbled to one knee. Nearby, bloodsworn warriors struggled in the icy rain, with curses echoing hers.

看到瑟庄妮扶着长矛站起来，乌迪尔再次感慨她已经长成了一个肩膀宽厚的壮妇。对乌迪尔来说，瑟庄妮永远都是许多个季节以前他遇到的那个皮包骨头的小女孩。也许他心底希望她永远都长不大。当时的她迫切地需要他的指引。可现在再过上几年，乌迪尔担心自己就会成为她的负担和累赘。

Watching Sejuani pull herself to her feet, Udyr was struck once more by how she’d grown into a heavy-shouldered swagger. He would never be able to think of her as anything but the bone-thin girl he’d met a so many seasons ago; he wasn’t sure he wanted to. She had so desperately needed his guidance then. In perhaps only a few more years, Udyr worried, he would become a useless burden to her.

“看这天气，我们也不用再争了，乌迪尔。”她的声音盖过大雨。

“The weather ended this discussion, Udyr,” she shouted over the downpour.

“往西边走，几天就能到瓦尔钦部落，”乌迪尔开口说，“我们不用过河，可以突然袭击——”十几匹路过的马儿的意识填满了乌迪尔的脑海。他感到了它们冻僵的肌肉不自主地打着冷战。乌迪尔对最近的一匹马狠狠地说，“闭嘴！没有燕麦！”

“The Vargkin tribe are a few days west of here,” Udyr began. “We could avoid crossing the river, take them by surprise and—” The minds of a dozen passing horses filled Udyr’s head. He felt their frozen muscles tightening as they shivered in the cold. Udyr snapped at the nearest horse, “Shut it! No oats now!”

瑟庄妮的血盟们一惊，不禁面面相觑。瑟庄妮严厉地瞥了他们一眼。血盟们立刻转回头去继续干活。无论她的萨满行为多么古怪，即使是他们也无权过问。

Taken aback, Sejuani’s bloodsworn exchanged nervous glances. Sejuani gave her men a look of warning. Immediately they returned to work. Even they did not have the right to question her shaman’s strangeness.

乌迪尔把双手藏在身后，从暗兜里取出一根银刺。他将刺尖扎进手心。虽然效果不如冥想，但疼痛清理了他的脑海，让他可以像正常人一样集中精力说话。

Hiding his hands behind his back, Udyr gently took a small spike made of silver from a hidden pouch. He pushed the metal nail against the flesh of his palm. Hardly the relief of meditation, but the metal’s pain cleared his mind, allowing him to focus on speaking like a human.

“到瓦尔钦只需要六天的路程，”乌迪尔喷着鼻子，“他们的村子没有围墙。”

“The Vargkin are only a six-day march,” Udyr snorted, “no walls around their villages.”

瑟庄妮等到他的眼神落定，才开口回答。

Sejuani let his eyes settle before responding.

“我们没时间了，乌迪尔。”瑟庄妮指了指身边软塌的帐篷。“我们必须夺下对岸的城市，不然就得冻死！”她又示意了一下附近的几名较为年长的战士，“大多数牙齐的都把口粮让给了他们的孩子。昨天，我帮奥盖伊埋葬了她的女儿。”瑟庄妮因寒冷而变成暗紫色的嘴唇苦涩地抿了一下。“那个孩子活了两个夏天，但看上去又痩又小，好像刚活到第一春。”她叹出一口气，目光看向别处，继续说，“我不会再让任何一个孩子因为我的决定而冻死或者饿死。”

“We’re out of time, Udyr.” Sejuani indicated the sagging yurts around her. “We must take that city across the river or freeze!” She gestured to a few of her older warriors nearby, “Most of the long tooths skip meals to feed their young. Yesterday, I helped Orgaii bury her daughter.” Sejuani’s lips, purple from the cold, tightened bitterly. “The child was two summers, but as small and frail as one on its first spring.” She exhaled and looked away before continuing. “I will not be responsible for another child growing too thin to survive the cold.”

“那就马上出击。”乌迪尔指着对岸远处的城市。“相信斧头和肌肉、利爪和牙齿。老法子。”

“Then attack now.” Udyr said pointing toward the distant city across the river. “Trust in our axes and muscle. Claws and teeth. The old way.”

“老法子是派出最强的战士，”她打断道，“还有哪个氏族比熊人更强？如果没有他们的帮助，我们要死多少人才能过河？我已经向族人们承诺了力量与胜利，绝不能看着我的军队活活饿死。”她一手按在乌迪尔肩上，“我知道你有充分的理由担心他们的——”

“The old way is to use the best warriors,” she interrupted. “What clan or tribe do I know stronger than the Ursine? How many of us would die crossing that river without their help? I will not watch my army diminish from hunger, not when I promised my people strength and victory.” She steadied Udyr’s shoulder, “I know you have good reason to fear what they—”

“我担心的是艾希的军队，”乌迪尔顶了回去。“每天都有新的氏族向你敌人的旗帜俯首称臣。每个月都会有一个新的部落归顺阿瓦罗萨。你说你要让凛冬之爪变强对吧？如果我们与熊人合作……战斗就不会留下奴隶。不会有战士作为氏族盟友重获新生。那些失者会杀掉那座城镇中的一切生灵，不杀光不罢休。”

“Ashe’s army is what I fear,” Udyr countered. “New clans bend their knee to your rival’s banner every day. Each moon, the Avarosans absorb whole tribes. You say you want to make the Winter’s Claw stronger? If we work with the Ursine… there will be no thralls. No warriors to be reborn as clan-kith. The Lost Ones won’t stop until they kill every living thing in that town.”

“我们的名字就叫凛冬之爪。他们就是我们的同族。”她解释说，“是我发起了这场战争，只要我说停——”

“Our name is Winter’s Claw. They are our kin.” She explained, “I called this war, and we stop when I—”

“熊人从来不听命令！”手心的疼痛已经不算什么了，心底的决绝让乌迪尔彻底地清醒过来。他放低了声音。“他们的嗜血会传染开来。把我们吃光抹净。”

“The Ursine do not obey!” More than the pain from the silver he held, it was Udyr’s certainty that finally cleared his mind. His voice lowered. “Their bloodlust spreads like a sickness. It will consume us.”

“我从小到大一直都很看重你的建议，”瑟庄妮思考着他刚刚的话，“但我们必须在明天征服那座城市。”她斩钉截铁地说。

“I have valued your advice my whole life,” Sejuani said, as she considered his words. “But we must overwhelm that city tomorrow,” she concluded.

“你曾经挺过了更艰难的困境。”乌迪尔的脑子开始失控，猪、马、狼、人、还有厄纽克的意识全都撞进了他的脑海。他竭力抵抗着，因为他知道这是劝阻瑟庄妮的最后机会。

“You’ve beaten odds worse than this.” Udyr lost his train of thought as the consciousness of boars, horses, wolves, men, and elnük flowed through him. He fought against it, knowing this would be his last chance to change her mind.

“瑟庄妮，”他用了最后的手段，“廓吉雅曾有过许多失败，她太容易妥协，太容易认输。我知道，她身为母亲令你十分失望。但我们部族真正懦弱的，是你的祖母。她一直都在害怕被人看不起，害怕——”

“Sejuani,” he said finally, “Kalkia had many failings. She was too prone to compromise, too quick to see defeat. I know how badly your mother failed you. But it was your grandmother who was our tribe’s true coward, afraid of ever looking weak. Afraid of—”

“你不可以诋毁希吉安祖母。”她警告道。

“You will not speak ill of Hejian,” she warned.

“即使廓吉雅都知道要避免你祖母的错误。”话一出口，乌迪尔就意识到自己过线了。

“Even Kalkia was smart enough to avoid your grandmother’s mistakes.” As he spoke, Udyr knew he had crossed a line.

“希吉安祖母让我离开母亲，她错了吗？”瑟庄妮的眼中燃着怒火。“难道我变成南方的母牛就好了吗？像母亲那样？我难道应该像她一样躺在王座上，酒池肉林？不能上战场，也就没有资格掌权。”瑟庄妮冷冷地说，“祖母犯的唯一错误就是纵容了母亲的统治。”

“Was it a mistake for Hejian to take me from mother?” Sejuani’s eyes flashed in anger. “Would it be better if I became a southern cow, like my mother? Should I have laid on a throne as she did? My legs open and my belly full of mead? Worthless in a fight, unworthy of ruling.” Sejuani stated coldly. “The only mistake my grandmother made was tolerating my mother’s rule.”

“希吉安把你养大是为了她自己的野心。”

“Hejian raised you for her own ambitions.”

“所以我敬仰她。”

“And I honor her for that.”

瑟庄妮的语气中再无半点亲近和尊重。“我一定要召唤失者。你可以帮忙与熊人谈判，或者自己死在这场风暴中。”

Any closeness and deference Sejuani had shown Udyr was gone. “I will call the Lost Ones. You may help negotiate with the Ursine, or you may rot in this storm.”

乌迪尔的希望沉没了。“那容我告辞吧，”他用认输的语气说，“猎牲领主看到我不会高兴的。”反正乌迪尔也并不期待这次不愉快的重聚。

Udyr’s hopes sank. “Then I should leave,” he said admitting his defeat. “The Hounded Lord wouldn’t be happy to see me.” And Udyr had no desire for that unhappy reunion either.

瑟庄妮的表情变得柔和，然后狡黠地一笑。

Sejuani’s face transformed, softening before she gave a cunning smile.

“不行，”她说，“就是因为这个，我才需要你留下，老朋友。”

“No,” she grinned. “That’s exactly why I need you with me, old friend.”

高处的颂树叶子全是血的颜色。乌迪尔看着一片猩红的树叶落下，意识到自己对红色有多么大的误解。在他的故乡，这色彩只会溅在白雪上。在弗雷尔卓德，红色象征暴力。在弗雷尔卓德，红色是死亡在靠近。但事实上，红色象征生命。任何人、任何动物，只要还活着，体内就蕴藏着红色。

Above him, the song-tree’s leaves were the color of blood. Watching a scarlet leaf fall, Udyr realized how badly he’d misunderstood the color red. In his homeland, he had only seen its hue splashed against the white snow. In the Freljord, red was the color of violence. In the Freljord, red was the color of death’s approach. But in truth, it was the color of life. As long as they lived, every man and beast carried it with them.

乌迪尔睁开双眼。

Udyr opened his eyes.

冥想用的烛火在他的视线中烧出一个红斑。雨水打在渐熄的营火上发出嘶嘶的响声。强风摇晃着小屋松垂的皮革壁帐，像是打算在天亮前把它吹倒。冰冷的雨水在帐内毛皮地毯之间的缝隙中渗流。他并没有和僧侣们盘坐在遥远的艾欧尼亚山顶，这里是瑟庄妮营地的一角。

The light of his meditation candle burned a red spot into his vision. Rain hissed against the weakening flame of his campfire. Wind shook the hut’s sagging leather walls, promising to collapse them before the night ended. On the ground around him, a thin stream of freezing water flowed between the hides of his yurt’s floor. He wasn’t sitting with monks on a hilltop in the foreign lands of Ionia; he was on the edge of Sejuani’s camp.

这是我的家，他心里泛起一股苦涩的骄傲。

This is my home, he thought with bitter pride.

乌迪尔过了好几周才再一次成功地进行冥想，但他现在没法高兴。他刚开始看清周遭的事物……那些声音就又回来了。

It’d been weeks since Udyr had meditated successfully, but there wasn’t time to dwell on it. As his current surroundings came into focus… the voices returned.

一阵避之不及的刺耳杂音让这位萨满喘不上气来。附近的厄纽克、居瓦斯克还有马匹的思绪淹没了他的自我意识，让他脑海中充斥着外来的感觉——一种雷霆般的巨大声响，只有他和最强大的兽灵行者才能听得到，而且无法令其安静下来。紧随其后的是人类的情绪。他们也同样是动物。千种零碎的思绪混在一起：愤怒、恐惧、怨恨、冷酷——

The inescapable cacophony knocked the breath from the shaman. The foreign thoughts of nearby elnük, drüvasks, and horses flooded his consciousness with feelings that weren’t his own—a thunderous soundscape only he and the most powerful spirit walkers could hear, and could never truly quiet. The emotions of men came next. They were beasts as much as any other. A thousand scattered thoughts: anger, fear, bitterness, cold—

乌迪尔听不到自己的尖叫。他只是感到了自己喉咙发紧。那些声音不会安静，它们永远都不会安静。他翻开包裹，疯狂地寻找那根银刺。灼热的金属碰到了他的手指。他将银刺反复扎进手掌。金属带来的冲击将疼痛放大了数千倍——但为了赶走那些声音，他愿意承受任何代价。任何代价。

Udyr couldn’t hear himself screaming. He simply became aware of the rawness in his throat. The voices wouldn’t go away; they never went away. He ripped through his bag searching for the silver nail. The metal burned in his fingers as Udyr found it. He plunged it into his palm again and again. The shock of the metal compounded the pain a thousand-fold—but to quiet the voices, he would give anything. Anything.

瑟庄妮很好奇她要拿出多少军需物资来冒险，才能联系上熊人。许多巨大的篝火在咆哮，火焰有三个人高。瑟庄妮的军队站在篝火阵的四周，饥寒交迫，带着疲惫与疑虑看着眼前的火焰。在目前这种天气里，干柴是一种决定生死的物资。而这些篝火仍然不能保证一定可以唤来失者。

Sejuani wondered how much of the army’s supplies she was risking in an attempt to contact the Ursine. Massive bonfires roared with flames three times the height of a man. Around them stood Sejuani’s army, starving and cold, stared at the fires with exhaustion and uncertainty. Dry wood was a commodity that determined life or death in this weather. And there was no guarantee the Lost Ones would come.

篝火的木柴按照死结的样式组成环环相扣的三角形。高高叠起的木柴搭成了一座座燃烧的尖塔。在篝火阵周围，立着高大、古老的铁杆。每根铁杆上都铸着熊人的标志，铁杆下堆着武器和骸骨，就像等待被点燃的干柴。一切就绪。准备颂唱誓言的战士们只需要接受了血祈就可以正式开始仪式了。

The bonfires’ logs had been arranged to match the interlocking triangles of a death knot’s pattern. Piled on top of each other, the wood formed a series of burning towers. Surrounding the fires, tall, ancient iron-stakes were arranged. Forged with the Ursine’s symbols, around each stake was heaped a pile of weapons and bones, like kindling. All was ready. The warriors preparing to channel the oath needed only the Red Blessing to begin the ritual.

她向熊灵的助祭点头示意开始。他将一只巨大的木碗举到颂誓者们的头上，浇了下去。粘稠的熊血挂在他们身上，盖满了他们的面孔和胸膛。然后每个人都拿起熊掌图腾，划过自己的胸膛。他们皮开肉绽，发出了疼痛的吼叫。

She nodded to the bear spirit’s acolyte to begin. He lifted the massive wooden bowl above Sejuani’s oathsingers and poured. The bear’s blood covered them in sticky strings of gore, clinging to the men’s features and chests. Each man then took the bear-claw totem, dragged it across his chest, and snarled in pain as his skin was ripped open.

最后一名颂誓者是一个十夏大的小女孩，她颤抖地站在原地，熊灵的祭司将传统的鸦羽披巾像领圈一样环过她的脖子。然后她和其他战士们一起，围着最大的一处篝火开始了颂唱。她双眼翻白，喉咙里发出持续的噪音，就像风暴中呼号的狂风。其他颂誓者也开始应和。声音相互覆盖，同时唱出不同的音调，制造出一种不自然的人声挽歌，与火焰的咆哮声和谐共鸣。这声音让瑟庄妮感到腹中惊惶，就像一种无法满足的饥饿。

The final oathsinger, a girl of only ten summers, shivered as the bear spirit’s acolyte attached the traditional shawl of raven feathers around her neck like a collar. Then she joined the choir of warriors around the main fire. Her eyes rolled back as she released a sustained noise from her throat, like wind crying in a storm. Then the other oathsingers began. Each overlapping, several pitches at once, creating an unnatural, guttural dirge which harmonized with the fire’s roar. The sound dug fear into Sejuani’s stomach like an unquenchable hunger.

“去叫乌迪尔。”她向身边的两个血盟命令道。他们被火焰迷住了，只是木讷地点点头，甚至无法将目光从仪式上挪开。“去把萨满找来！”她吼道。

“Get Udyr,” she commanded a pair of bloodsworn nearby. Hypnotized by the fire, they nodded dumbly, failing even to look away from the ceremony. “Find our shaman!” she barked.

她的声音让他们回过神来。两名侍卫走出了火光，踏入黑暗。

Her voice cut them from the trance, and her guards trudged into the darkness, outside of the firelight’s reach.

她也离开了篝火，走到自己的坐骑钢鬃身边。瑟庄妮知道，无论自己感到有多么不安，她的人民必须觉得她已准备好带领他们冲锋陷阵。

She marched from the fire to Bristle, her mount. Sejuani knew, whatever uncertainty she felt, her people needed to feel she was ready to lead them into battle.

她爬上居瓦斯克野猪的鞍座。它的肩膀是她的二倍高，重逾十人。当它紧张地打起响鼻，她不需要大萨满的知识也知道它感受到了什么。

She climbed onto her saddle atop the giant mount’s back, an enormous, boar-like drüvask. Its shoulders were twice as tall as her and heavier than a dozen men. When it snorted uneasily, she didn’t need the great shaman’s training to know what it felt.

它的爪子周围的坚冰碎裂，对她心有灵犀的坐骑与她的不安感觉产生了共鸣。被她拿去冒险的不仅仅是她手里的军需物资。

Ice crackled around its claws as her unease resonated with her soul-bonded steed. She was risking something other than her army’s supplies.

在瑟庄妮头顶，篝火的灰烬飞向天空。点点的星火之光向上方跳跃，指向一场正在接近的风暴。远处闪过一道霹雳，短暂地照亮了向她扑来的滚滚乌云。在如此庞大的旋涡面前，她感觉自己渺小得像个孩子。

Above Sejuani, the fire’s embers floated toward the sky. Pinpricks of flickering light danced upward and pointed to an approaching storm. Distant lightning flashed, briefly illuminating the wall of ferocious clouds boiling toward her. In the face of this huge maelstrom, she felt as small as a child.

第一道闪电伴着惊雷击中了一根铁杆。瑟庄妮在鞍座里向前探出身子，将手指伸入钢鬃黑色的硬毛中。如果是马，或者是其他次等坐骑，瑟庄妮会用一些安抚的话哄骗它。但她对钢鬃低语道，“我也不喜欢这样。但现在一切都要看大萨满了……”

The first lighting bolt smashed into an iron stake with a crack. Sejuani leaned forward in her saddle and ran her fingers through Bristle’s dark, wiry fur. To a horse, or some lesser mount, Sejuani would have lied and uttered soothing words. Instead she whispered, “I don’t like it either. But now everything depends on the great shaman…”

晨光始终没有到来。

Morning never came.

乌云翻江倒海，拦住了归来的太阳。

Churning, black clouds blocked the sun’s return.

乌迪尔打着冷战。雨水一夜之间就结成了冰。护胫上的冰霜阻碍着他的脚步。他的思绪不受控制地扭曲游移。太多生物，太多人，全都围绕着他，他们的困苦在他脑海中喧嚣哭叫。

Udyr shuddered in the cold. The rains had frozen overnight. The frost on his leggings resisted his every move. His mind twitched and wandered uncontrollably. Too many creatures, too many men, surrounded him, and the clamor of their misery howled in his mind.

瑟庄妮将部队沿着河岸边的树林组成犄角之势。营地和炉户战士都站在前线部队后方的山坡上。每个人都准备好了武器，等着熊人部族的到来。血战士们敲打着盾牌，击响了战鼓。

Sejuani had arranged her forces in the twin-horn formation at the edge of the woods lining the riverside. The camps and hearthbound warriors stood on the hill behind her frontline troops. Awaiting the arrival of the Ursine tribe, everyone in her host had their weapons drawn and ready. Blooded warriors smashed shields, drums sounded.

这是弗雷尔卓德的习俗。你要先证明自己是朋友，然后才能放下武器。

This was the way of the Freljord. You proved yourself a friend before either side sheathed arms.

战士们的护甲、刀剑和战斧上开始出现细小的静电火花。乌迪尔看到战士们对这异样的现象不知所措。电弧继续在他们的武器之间跳跃游移，他能感到他们的恐惧。

Tiny sparks of static electricity began crackling across the Winter’s Claw’s armor, swords, and axes. Udyr watched as the tribe’s warriors reacted to this alien thing, arcing and jumping across their weapons. He could feel their fear.

在军队最前方，瑟庄妮挥手甩掉了披风。毫无疑问是在提醒他们的部族，这位战母是真正的寒冰血脉。寒冰魔法在她的血液中流淌，战斗是她所需的唯一温暖。全军上下开始欢呼。

At the front of her army, Sejuani threw off her cloak with a flourish. No doubt to remind her tribe that their Warmother was a true Iceborn. Battle was the only warmth she needed; ice magic was in her blood. The army cheered.

乌迪尔跟随她走到树林的边缘。他的脸庞开始拉长变形，牙齿向外伸展，形成巨大的獠牙，又缩回到原本的样子。他的皮肤上的毛发泛起波浪，向浑身各处流淌，将他全身覆盖，又像小水湾里的潮水一样退去，似乎是在响应着某种未知的浪潮。他低吼着、鸣吠着，口角流出涎水。突然，乌迪尔瞪大了双眼。

Udyr followed her to the edge of the forest. The features of his face stretched, transformed. Fangs formed, became tusks then twisted back into an approximation of his own features. Waves of hair formed and cascaded across his skin, covering him in fur before reversing like waves in an inlet, reacting to some unknown tide. He growled, jabbered, and drooled. Suddenly, Udyr’s eyes widened.

“他们来了。”

“They’ve come.”

静默席卷了一切。

A silence swept over everything.

第一批熊人从树木间的黑影中不声不响地闪了出来——是野人，他们的皮肤被血染成了棕色。他们的头发被污垢粘在一起。有些人没穿衣服，其他人披着熊皮或者破布。

The first of the Ursine slipped out from between the black forest’s trees without a sound—savages, with their skin stained brown by blood. Their hair matted with filth. Some were naked; others wore bear hides or the rotting remains of clothes.

接下来出现的是野兽，大多数是熊，体型和毛色各不相同。有些种类乌迪尔认得，还有一些他却从未见过。他们都曾是兽灵行者，如今被困在了无情的巨熊形态中。他们早已忘记自己曾是人。

Next came the beasts, bears mostly, of various sizes and colors. Some breeds Udyr knew, others he’d never seen before. They were spirit walkers trapped in the form of the unrelenting bear. Men who had forgotten they were men.

再来的是怪兽。

Then came the monsters.

它们都是熊和其他生物的怪异混合体，是来自传说、噩梦和民间故事中的东西。它们曾经都是人，但现在已被至真兽灵完全吞噬，早已没有了正常动物的外形。它们当中最巨大的一只——一只庞大的熊样生物从树林里缓缓走出。原本应该是脑袋的地方有一颗腐坏的麋鹿头骨，周围垫着一圈黑羽的鬃毛。它的双眼燃烧着蓝火，张开巨口以后里面露出一个孩童的面孔。然后孩童又张开嘴，吐出秽物般的棕色粘液。其他噩梦生物随着它从树林中现身，跛行着、爬行着、摇晃着向前走。

They were strange amalgamations of bears and other creatures, things of legends, dreams, and folklore. They had all been men once too, but now, so consumed by the true spirit, they had passed beyond what the normal animals looked like. The largest of them, a huge bear-like thing, lumbered out of the forest—where its head should have been, a decayed elk’s skull rested on a mane of black feathers. Eyes glowing with blue fire, it opened its jaws to reveal a child’s face inside its maw. Then the child opened its own mouth too, spewing a foul brown liquid. Other nightmares followed it from the woods, limping, crawling, and shambling forward.

熊人在瑟庄妮大军的对面凌乱地站成一排。他们没有摆出进攻的架势，没有发出任何声音。他们只是在等待。

The Ursine assembled in a rough battle line across from Sejuani’s army. They made no gesture to attack, spoke no words. They simply waited.

乌迪尔紧促的呼吸渐渐缓了下来，他的颤抖也变成了惺忪的摇摆。手心的疼痛退去了。他从对面的阵线上认出了许多灵魂：学生们、大师们、曾经的颂誓者们。有他在喝酒时认识的氏族萨满，有他在战场上认识的战士。他们几乎没有留下任何自我意识。大多数已经忘记自己曾经是人。一些已经将自己的灵魂撕裂得只剩下不屈熊灵的唯一情绪，一种接近狂怒的无限自信。

Udyr’s ragged breaths slowed, his nervous jittering became a hypnotic sway. The pain in his hands dissolved. He recognized a few of the souls across the field from him: pupils, masters, and former oathsingers. Clan shamans he’d known in drink, warriors he’d known in battle. Little of their consciousness remained. Most had forgotten they were men. Some had rended their souls into the raw, singular emotion of the unrelenting bear’s spirit, an unchecked confidence bordering on rage.

一个人从树林中走出，只穿着巨大的鸦羽罩帽和熊皮披风。猎牲领主。

A man walked from between the trees, wearing only a great raven-feathered cowl and a bearskin cloak. The Hounded Lord.

“我是熊人。我来给沃利贝尔传话。”他大声宣布。

“I am Ursine. I come to bring the word of the Volibear,” he announced.

乌迪尔记得几年前的他。当时他还叫纳扎克，是一个忧愁的男孩，也是一个未接受训练的、有伟大潜质的兽灵行者。乌迪尔的第一个学生，如今已沦为熊人的代言者。即使他用力寻找，拨开他周围的魔法，乌迪尔也依然无法听到纳扎克的灵魂或者意识的声音。那个孩子已经不在了。

Udyr remembered him from years before. Back then he was Najak, a troubled boy and an untrained spirit walker of great potential. Udyr’s first pupil, now reduced to the voice of the Ursine. Even searching for it, pulling at the magic around him, Udyr could find little sound coming from Najak’s spirit or mind. That boy was gone.

是我辜负了你，乌迪尔心想，但当他意识到的时候已经太晚了。纳扎克能够听到他的心声，和大声叫喊没有区别。

How deeply I failed you, Udyr thought, remembering too late that the Najak could hear his mind as clearly as shouted words.

“你没有辜负懦弱的心，”猎牲领主用怒吼回答乌迪尔的心声。“你这是在折磨自己。不要压抑我们的天赋，不要拒绝它真正的力量。”一阵狂风拂过他身后被冰雪覆盖的树丛，就像鬼魅的钟声。“你们为何召唤我们，凛冬之爪？”

“Cowardice is your true failure,” the Hounded Lord snarled to answer Udyr’s thought. “You torture yourself by trying to control our gift. Denying its true power.” The wind howled briefly through the ice-covered trees behind him, sounding like ghostly chimes. “Why have you called us, Winter’s Claw?”

“我请求熊人的力量。”瑟庄妮一字一句地说。“我请求你与我的部落并肩作战，猎牲领主。”

“I ask for the strength of the Ursine.” Sejuani intoned. “I ask you fight alongside my host, Hounded Lord.”

那个年轻的兽灵行者扭头朝向瑟庄妮，无神的眼睛在眼眶里一动不动。“你求错了人。我只是代为传达沃利贝尔的声音。”

The young spirit walker turned his head from Udyr to Sejuani without moving his lifeless eyes. “You ask wrongly. I am only the voice of the Volibear.”

“你作为他的代表，我可以接受你许下的——”

“As his agent, I would take your oath as—”

“我不能代表他。我只是他的工具。”猎牲领主打断了她。他似乎是在盯着瑟庄妮身后的远方。“我们的主与我们同行。”

“I cannot speak for him. I am simply his instrument,” The Hounded Lord interrupted her. He seemed to stare through Sejuani. “Our lord walks with us.”

乌迪尔还没看到它出现，先感受到了它的力量。那些声音，那些在他脑海中的兽灵，那些永远挥之不去的意识……全都开始变弱。即便是瑟庄妮，近在咫尺也无法感知。围绕在她身边的恼怒和急躁消退不见。沃利贝尔来了。

Udyr felt its power before it appeared. The voices, the spirits in his mind from the men around him, which had endlessly plagued him… began to soften. Even that of Sejuani, standing beside him. The ring of her annoyed impatience faded away. The Volibear had come.

在纳扎克身后的树林中，巨大的黑叶树木噼啪作响、摇摇晃晃。比猛犸还更高大的它走出了树林。这是一座肌肉的城池，支撑它的每一条肢体都比人体还粗壮。它古老残破的远古护甲由黑暗的金属板组成，数百场战斗留下的血迹在上面凝结成厚厚的一层。在它的后背和肩膀上，插着许许多多残破的武器，全都因岁月而变得锈迹斑斑。它有一半的脸已经没有了血肉，露出了粼粼的白骨、牙齿和犄角。诡异的黑血从它嘴里淌出。四只眼睛看上去超乎想象地古老、异样、冷酷，正俯视着瑟庄妮和乌迪尔。

In the forest behind Najak, the great black-leaf trees cracked and shook. Taller than a mammoth, it stepped out of the woods. Walls of muscle, each limb larger than a man, propelled the beast forward. Its broken, ancient armor of dark, metal plates was caked brown by the dried gore of a hundreds of battles. Broken weapons, rusted with age, jutted from its back and shoulders. One half of its face had been stripped of flesh, revealing oily bone, teeth, and horns. From its mouth, an unnatural, black blood dripped. Its four eyes, impossibly ancient, alien, and pitiless, looked over Sejuani and Udyr.

熊灵的化身一步步走近，就像宁静的暴风眼在靠近。乌迪尔的注意力集中到了一处。他脑海中没有留下任何声音。没有任何动物。没有任何感觉。即使乌迪尔自己的思绪也只剩下微弱的轻声。他只能感受到沃利贝尔。它的静默与任何人或动物的感觉都不一样。沃利贝尔的意识压倒性地碾碎了一切。

As the bear spirit’s avatar came closer, it was like the quiet at the center of a storm. Udyr’s focus became singular. No sounds were left in his head. No animals. No feelings. Even Udyr’s own thoughts barely whispered. He felt only the Volibear. Its silence felt nothing like a man or animal. The Volibear’s consciousness crushed everything with its purity.

虽然瑟庄妮军队的数量是熊人的一百倍，但她的战士却在沃利贝尔面前退缩了。巨大的战争猛犸、身经百战的老兵，他们打过人，打过巨魔，打过斯喀尔德瓦斯塔亚，但现在全都在瑟瑟发抖。

Despite Sejuani’s army outnumbering the Ursine by a hundred to one, her warriors backed away from the Volibear’s approach. Huge war mammoths, veterans of numerous battles against men, trolls, and the skard vastaya, trembled in fear.

面前的威严生物让瑟庄妮倒抽一口凉气。她从未想过熊灵的化身有可能亲自回应她的召唤。无论失者能够带来什么价值，他们的主人都等同一千倍不止。

Sejuani gasped at the awesome creature before her. She had not considered the possibility that the avatar of the bear spirit would answer her summon personally. Whatever value the Lost Ones offered, their master was worth a thousand times that.

她在鞍座里横下一条心，在缓慢前进的沃利贝尔面前巍然不动。她的脸上没有恐惧，而是闪过了野心的光芒。

She steeled herself in her saddle and held her ground against the Volibear’s slow advance. Instead of fear, ambition flashed across her face.

乌迪尔与静默挣扎着，他尝试开口说话，尝试回忆起儿时的故事。有人说就连沃利贝尔也曾经是人。一个伟大的萨满和兽灵行者，将自己全然献给熊灵，甚至足以让它真正通过他的身躯显现。但现在看到这个怪物的尺寸，他怀疑这东西不太可能是人变的。沃利贝尔停在瑟庄妮面前，闪电在它后背噼啪作响。

Udyr fought against the silence, trying to speak, to remember the stories of his childhood. Some said even the Volibear had been a man once. A great shaman and spirit walker who’d surrendered himself to the bear spirit so completely that it was able to truly manifest through him. But looking at the scale of this monster, he doubted this thing could ever have been a man. When the Volibear stopped in front of Sejuani, lightning crackled across its back.

沃利贝尔的提问淹没了乌迪尔的脑海，压垮了他。乌迪尔感觉似乎所有言语都在从自己的眼球中往外喷发，撕开指间向外流淌。

The Volibear’s question flooded Udyr’s mind. It overwhelmed him. Udyr felt as if the words were bursting from inside his eyes, ripping through his fingertips.

“战争的女儿，什么样的战斗值得我们出手？”

“What battle is worthy of us, warchild?”

这个声音回荡在这片大地的每个熊人和每个兽灵行者口中。

The voice reverberated from every Ursine and spirit walker on the field.

瑟庄妮刚才就看到猎牲领主的双眼上翻，然后变成一汪黑水，把头仰到身后。现在这个身形纤细的人正用雪崩般的声音说话，就像是雷暴攫住他的嗓子，将自己变成了语言。但真正令这位战母感到惊讶的是她听到乌迪尔也在低声问着同样的问题。

Sejuani had watched as the Hounded Lord’s eyes rolled backwards, then darkened to black pools before his head tilted back. Now the slight man spoke with a voice like an avalanche. It was as if a thunderstorm had taken control of his throat and shaped itself into those words. But what turned the Warmother in surprise was hearing Udyr whisper the same question.

瑟庄妮很快回过神来，她微笑着，用两支军队都听得到的声音回答。“我将烧毁南方的农场。我将用他们的孩子当做狩猎的消遣。我将推倒他们的石墙和房屋，让这世上没人再敢反抗我们。”她指向了南方。“冰雪降临的每一寸土地都将归我所有。我的名字将成为他们的梦魇，我们的部族将统治到永远。”

Recovering quickly, Sejuani smiled, then answered with a voice both armies could hear. “I will burn the southern farms. I will hunt their children for sport. I will level their stone walls and houses so that none may stand against us again.” She gestured southward. “All that snow touches will be ours. My name will be fear, and our tribe will rule forever.”

有那么一刻，只有乌迪尔在风中猎猎飘扬的斗篷应和她的宣言。在她头顶，乌云像风暴一样盘旋。

For a moment, only the sound of Udyr’s cloak flapping in the wind followed her proclamation. Above her, the black clouds circled like a tempest.

“请求我们的力量，”那个声音说。

“Ask for our strength,” the voice said.

乌迪尔动用起全部的意志力，把手伸进包里。他掏出银刺，金属的寒热让他的手臂麻木。如果他能在瑟庄妮开价之前说出口……如果他能用自己的嘴说出人话……他还有时间……

With every ounce of his will, Udyr reached into his bag. He pulled out his silver nail; the cold heat of the metal numbed his arm. If he could speak before Sejuani made the bargain… if he could make the human words come from his mouth… He had time…

现在还不晚。

It wasn’t too late.

瑟庄妮曾经的导师还没来得及强迫自己走上前，她便开口答道：“我请求你们的力量。”但他随后迈开僵直的双腿，蹒跚地走到她和熊灵之间。

“I ask for your strength,” Sejuani replied, before her former mentor managed to force himself forward. But shaking and stiff-legged, he then stumbled between her and the great bear spirit.

乌迪尔将银刺扎进手心——即使穿掌而过也没有给他带来任何感觉。没有疼痛，甚至都没有金属的能量。他张开嘴，但发现说不出任何话，而是被沃利贝尔的意识所动摇，令他双膝跪地。

Udyr dug the silver nail into his hand—he felt nothing as it passed through. No pain, not even the energy of the metal. He opened his mouth to speak but found no words would come. Instead, the Volibear’s consciousness shook him, forcing him to his knees.

“你将献上谁作牺牲？”乌迪尔和猎牲领主用熊灵的声音说。

“Whom do you offer as sacrifice?” Udyr and the Hounded Lord spoke with the spirit’s voice.

乌迪尔闭上双眼，想象艾欧尼亚的丘陵，红叶落在他身边。他学习冥想、学习控制自己力量的那段记忆显得如此空洞。那片遥远的土地永远不会成为他的家，也永远无缘再见。然后，乌迪尔回想起他回到弗雷尔卓德，见到年轻的瑟庄妮，以及在随后的岁月里，见证她在自己的教导下成长为一位战母。

Udyr closed his eyes and pictured the Ionian hill, the red leaves falling around him. That memory of learning meditation, learning to control his powers seemed so hollow now. A faraway land he could never call home and would never see again. Then, Udyr remembered his return to the Freljord, meeting young Sejuani, and the years of watching her grow into a Warmother under his tutelage.

从他身体外部，乌迪尔听到自己拼力喊出的话语。“她并非在对你起誓，熊灵。”他咽下一口唾沫，将自己推向那个怪兽般的生物。“我们只献上战争和战死的人。”

From outside his body, Udyr heard his voice crack in effort. “She makes no pledge to you, bear spirit.” He swallowed as he pushed himself toward the monstrous creature. “We offer only the war and its dead.”

沃利贝尔愤怒地咆哮。它的音浪将乌迪尔推到瑟庄妮跟前，巨兽的咒语中断了。

The Volibear roared in anger. The force of its howl pushed Udyr back toward Sejuani as the beast’s spell broke.

瑟庄妮曾独自一人狩猎过冰巨虫。她曾十几次把自己的头发打成死结再冲上战场，那些誓言，承诺了胜利或者她自己的死亡。她曾冲进漆黑之地闭着眼迎战巨魔。但就在沃利贝尔的咒语中断的一刻，当她抬头看到头顶笼罩着的可怕存在，她才知道它真正的恐怖。它毛发直立，闪电在它血肉中肆虐。它的伤疤在发光。霹雳从它口中倾泻而出，似乎下一瞬就要爆炸。瑟庄妮感到了前所未有的剧烈恐惧，她刚刚差一点就把她和她的人民全都献给熊人。

Sejuani had hunted ice-wyrms alone. She had tied her hair into a death knot before battle a dozen times in the past and, with those oaths, pledged victory or her own death. She had charged into total darkness and fought trolls blind. But the moment the Volibear’s spell broke, when she looked up at the monstrous thing looming over her, she knew its true horror. Its hair stood. Lighting raged from within its flesh. Its scars glowed. Electricity poured from its mouth, as if it would explode. And Sejuani felt the most intense fear she’d ever known; she had almost pledged herself and her people to the Ursine.

这才是沃利贝尔的真正力量。

This was the true power of the Volibear.

她敬畏地看着自己曾经的导师。不知如何，他找到了足够强大的力量，足以匹敌如此的恐怖。

She looked to her former mentor in awe. Somehow he’d found the strength to stand against this power.

“你畏惧我们的战争吗，巨熊之灵！？”乌迪尔朝着怪兽大吼

“Do you fear our war, spirit of the great bear!?” Udyr screamed at the monster.

那个巨大的生物再次咆哮，变得越来越不像熊的样子——血肉似乎开始飘散：肌肉、毛发、筋骨都开始分离，只有其中无尽的闪电将其连接。沃利贝尔摆出进攻姿态。但不等它发起进攻，瑟庄妮直接向他骑行，挡在乌迪尔面前。

The massive creature roared again, seeming to become less and less like a bear—its flesh seemed to lift away: muscles, fur and flesh floated apart, connected only by the endless lighting crackling inside it. The Volibear moved to attack. Before it could strike, Sejuani rode straight at it, blocking its path to Udyr.

“风暴与狂野之熊！你是否与我们并肩作战？”乌迪尔大喊道，“还是说你畏惧我们的战争？”

“Will you fight alongside us, bear of storms and wilds?” Udyr shouted. “Or do you fear our war?”

等了许久，怪兽给出了回答。

After a long moment, the monster answered.

“我们无所畏惧。”

“We fear nothing.”

乌迪尔走过城市大门的废墟。这座河畔的城市已经所剩无几，不可能还有温暖的炉火驱走夜晚的寒冷。他身边的建筑全都只剩下焦黑的骨架。只有碳化的木材和石头砌的烟囱立在尖尖的碎石堆顶端。

Udyr walked through the city’s ruined gates. With what was left of the river city, there would be no warm hearths to rid the cold from the night. The structures around him had been reduced to black skeletons. Only scorched timber and stone chimneys remained above the sharp piles of rubble.

乌迪尔走向城中心，他的脚步在烟灰覆盖的街道上留下灰白的脚印。黑烟组成的帷幕在他周围飘荡，遮住了街道和被夷平的石头房子。一片黑烟暂时散去，显露出十几个凛冬之爪的战士。他们围着一座着火的哨塔组成阵列，包围了少数几个幸存者，将他们赶向火海。剩余的城镇守卫绝望无助地想要逃脱，但等待他们的只有斧头和死亡。

As he headed to the center of the city, Udyr’s footsteps left a pale gray trail in the soot-covered street. Walls of black smoke swept around him, obscuring the streets and razed stone buildings. When an inky cloud swept aside for a moment, it revealed a dozen Winter’s Claw warriors. They’d formed a line around a burning guard tower, surrounding the few survivors and pushing them against the blaze. The remaining town guards desperately, helplessly clawed for an escape but they were met only with axes and death.

在他们附近，一个熊人正在肢解一个商店老板的尸首。它回过野兽模样的脸，看向乌迪尔。鲜血沾满了它的毛发，它随手将一对战斧砍在那具早已死去的尸体上。紧接着，那个熊人发出一声咆哮，附近的战士们立刻逼近了剩余的城镇守卫，无情地将他们推进火海。

Near them, an Ursine butchered the remains of a shopkeeper. It turned its bestial face to look at Udyr. Gore covered its fur as it mindlessly slammed a pair of axes into the man’s long-dead corpse. Without stopping, the Ursine bellowed a roar, and the neighboring warriors closed in on the remaining guards, mercilessly pushing them into the fire.

这是乌迪尔看到的第一批幸存者。熊人首先冲破了城镇的防线。瑟庄妮的部队紧随其后，但他们和失者一样凶残。直到现在乌迪尔依然能感受到那斩筋截骨、不容置疑的熊灵正在悄悄爬进身边每一个生灵的脑海。熊人的力量正在增长。

These were the first survivors Udyr had seen. The Ursine had smashed through the city’s defenses first. Sejuani’s forces followed, but they had matched the Lost Ones’ savagery. Even now, Udyr could feel the cruel, unquestioning certainty of the bear spirit creeping through the thoughts of every creature around him. The power of the Ursine was growing.

乌迪尔爬上碎石的阶梯，来到一片广场的废墟。在周围高大石头房子的环绕下，他看到那个巨兽正在等他。熊灵的化身独自站在城市的中央，它把尸体钉在尖刺顶端，组成某种未知的图样。怪兽周围四散的尸体上长出了黑色的枝杈和根须，就像地里钻出的蠕虫。沃利贝尔脸上的血肉和毛皮已经痊愈，它的肌肉似乎变得比以往更加粗壮厚重。

Udyr climbed up the rubble of a stairway to a ruined square. Surrounded by tall stone buildings, he found the monster waiting for him. Alone and in the middle of the city, the bear spirit’s avatar impaled corpses on stakes arranged in some unknowable pattern. Black branches and roots grew from the speared bodies around the beast, like worms slowly crawling from the earth. The flesh and fur on the Volibear’s face had healed, its muscles seemed thicker, stronger than before.

沃利贝尔的眼睛看向迎面走来的乌迪尔。在它的脸上，十多只新的眼睛冒了出来，每一只都和蜘蛛的眼睛一样黑暗冰冷。或许它在这名凛冬之爪的萨满身上嗅到了外来的魔法，而现在已经认定他通过了考验。不知为何，乌迪尔知道，这一次它是在对他单独讲话。

The Volibear’s eyes turned to Udyr as the shaman approached. Across its face, a dozen new eyes bloomed, each as dark and cold as a spider’s. Perhaps it smelled the foreign magic on the Winter’s Claw shaman, and now deemed him worthy of examination. Somehow Udyr knew, this time, it spoke to him alone.

“我将重获新生。你无法阻止我，人类的孩子。”怪兽说。

“I will be reborn. You cannot stop that, son of man,” the beast said.

乌迪尔脱下斗篷，经过傍晚冥想的准备，他逐一行走于他的不同形态：不死的雄鹰、机敏的山猫、刚毅的野猪，还有十多个其他兽灵。当他变换成熊灵的外形时停了下来。他完美地控制自己的身体，与头顶那只巨大怪兽的形体变得一模一样。最终，乌迪尔变成了它的宿敌——烈焰、炉火和铁砧之灵，巨羊。

Udyr removed his cloak. Then, prepared by his evening meditation, he walked through his forms: the Undying Eagle, the Clever Lynx, the Iron Boar, and a dozen more spirit beasts. He paused when he assumed the aspect of the bear spirit. With perfect control, he matched the shape of the giant beast looming above him. Then, finally, Udyr changed from the bear into its sworn enemy, the spirit of fire, hearth, and forge—the Great Ram.

乌迪尔并不惧怕他与这只生物之间不可避免的战斗。他不惧怕任何事。他的头脑无比清晰。他心中确信……这些都是噩兆。沃利贝尔可能随时都准备好吞噬他和瑟庄妮。但他的决心并没有动摇。他已经发过誓要保护瑟庄妮，正如一位父亲的本分。不计代价。

Udyr wasn’t afraid of the fight he would inevitably have with this creature. He wasn’t afraid of anything. His head was clear. And in this certainty… he knew those were bad signs. The Volibear would consume him as readily as Sejuani. But his resolve did not falter. He had sworn an oath to protect Sejuani, as a father would. No matter the cost.

“你不可能夺走她。”乌迪尔狠狠地说。

“You will not take her,” Udyr spat.

那只怪兽只用静默回答，它又回过身继续手上血腥的工作。

Silence was the only answer the beast gave as it turned back to its gruesome task.