Under the Wolf's Shadow

by A. Katie Rose

  “Just how does he do that?” Kel’Ratan demanded, his voice harsh from exertion.

  If we didn’t find a way to stop them, we’d be dead before midnight. We all might be fit warriors, but no one could run and dodge dead people for more than several hours. Sooner or later, we’d make a mistake. One stumble at a crucial moment and we’d be instant ghoul-bait. Corwyn, the oldest of us, ducked and dodged his ghoul in tattered homespun, his chest heaving.

  The strain was already telling on them, by their pallor, their panting breath, their white-ringed eyes. His expression drawn and desperate, agile Tor leaped to the side as a young dead maid reached for him, as though longing for his kiss. Rannon cursed under his breath as a strapping youth sought to walk him down as he circled the camp at a run. The twins, Left and Right, away from each other for the first time since I’d known them, couldn’t remain together and still dodge the relentless pursuit of the ghouls that had marked them. Dark eyes glittered with more than anger. I recognized their silent panic, their knowledge that they’d die and they’d die apart.

  Even Silverruff and Thunder panted, their tongues hanging low. Yet they had been pursued the least, as the ghouls seemed interested only in people. Refusing to leave me or leave Ly’Tana and Arianne, they remained and were forced, like all of us, to flee rather than fight.

  I wrapped my tongue around words to send them away, command them to go and rejoin the pack so they might live. Take Tuatha with you, I wanted to say, keep him safe. Yet while I had the words ready, I didn’t speak them. My voice refused to work.

  Bar shrieked from on high, still circling overhead, my son still clasped safely in his raptor’s talon. I glanced up, catching a swift peek as both Bar and Tuatha peered down. Into the firelight, then just as quickly out of it, Bar emerged and vanished from the light.

  Looking up is dangerous, I told myself. That damn baby liked me too bloody much. Dancing once more from its tiny fingers, I thought it a powerful argument for birth control.

  “I don’t know all the details of the ritual,” Rygel said, once more dodging his newest lady love, “but he must perform a sacrifice.”

  That piqued Ly’Tana’s interest, despite the dead man who chased her. “Sacrifice?”

  “A human,” Rygel replied grimly, sweat trickling down his brow to his jaw. “Ja’Teel sacrificed one person to his dark magic for each ghoul he raised. He must needs appease the dark forces at work with a blood ritual.”

  “Monster!” Kel’Ratan burst out just as he spun out of reach of his ghoul.

  “He slaughtered twelve innocents,” Ly’Tana all but screamed, “just to kill us?”

  “He did.”

  “Monster is the least of his titles,” I said, refraining from booting that vile baby into next week. “Why would he kill all of us? He bloody knows Brutal needs me, Ly’Tana and Arianne alive. And why would he kill you so easily and not under his own blade? These ghouls don’t seem to care that we’re needed breathing.”

  “I considered that,” Rygel said, his voice breathless. “I suspect that most of these ghouls he commanded to kill. Others, say the four of us, will fall under a spell if touched, yet not actually be slain.”

  “I don’t intend to test that theory,” I said, stepping over the infant ghoul. That seemed to confuse it, and I stayed in one place, stepping over it and back. I forced it to follow my legs, back and forth, over its head. Its head spun to and fro, like a dog’s will when its master tosses a ball from hand to hand.

  “Can’t you just unravel the spell?” Alun asked, dodging his ghoul, his dark eyes wide.

  “It’s not a spell,” Rygel snapped. “It’s a working of black magic, bought by the blood of innocents.”

  “How did he set them on us?” Ly’Tana asked. “How did he know where we are?”

  “I’ve no answer, Princess,” Rygel replied, still dodging his lady. “He most probably robbed a graveyard of its recent dead, sacrificed his victims and raised them. Then he transported them into our general area. The ghouls would find us quickly enough, kill us, and he could walk in at his leisure.”

  Ly’Tana suddenly stopped, scowling. “This is bloody enough.”

  “Ly’Tana,” Kel’Ratan asked, his tone worried. “What’re you doing?”

  “I’m ending this absurdity,” she replied, digging at the neck of her heavy fur jacket.

  “Ly’Tana,’ I said, ending my jumping game with the infant. “Don’t be foolish.”

  Rather than answer, Ly’Tana clasped the gold gem on its chain in her fist and shut her eyes.

  “What is she doing?” Arianne screamed as the young ghoul who targeted her shambled in close.

  I’ve no idea, I thought, close to panic. Whatever it was, she’d be dead before she accomplished it.

  “Princess,” Rygel cried. “Stop, watch yourself.”

  Witraz lunged toward her, his own ghoul stalking him, at the same moment I did. The infant, now behind me, followed although I’d no eyes for it. Both Witraz and I crashed between Ly’Tana and the ghoul that staggered toward her, his arms out. Our living presence distracted him, making him falter in his mission and forcing him to turn.

  “Keep its attention,” I shouted, ducking between him Ly’Tana, my baby dogging my heels.

  Witraz obeyed, catching the ghoul’s attention, then ducking away to save himself.

  The ghoul blinked, its silver eyes yet as emotionless as ever, yet its mouth puckered in annoyance.

  “Keep at it,” I gasped, lunging between Ly’Tana and it, forcing its attention onto myself before ducking away. I almost tripped over my infant nemesis. Only my wolf instincts and agility kept my ankles out of its hungry grasp.

  Kel’Ratan screamed a wordless warcry as he dashed into the gap left by Witraz and myself, once more distracting the ghoul from claiming Ly’Tana. His own ghoul followed after, relentless and emotionless.

  Left, or maybe Right, chased Kel’Ratan, pausing long enough to wave a hand in front of the dead ghoul’s blank face before running into the darkness, his own ghoul hot on his heels. The warriors, even Corwyn and Arianne, lined up taking their turns at preventing the ghoul from taking Ly’Tana down. The youthful ghoul half-chased a warrior more than a dozen times, unable to maintain his evil focus on his target. Silverruff and Thunder, with no ghouls of their own, yapped in his face, tormenting him, making him chase them a few strides before he once more zeroed in on her.

  Yet how long can we keep this up? How much time did she need?

  “As long as it takes,” Darius replied.

  She stood silent, her jade eyes shut, her face lifted toward the cold, distant stars. As though in a deep trance, she breathed deeply and evenly. Still, the skin over her face twitched and convulsed, as though tweaked by affectionate grand-uncles. Long minutes ticked by as we prevented her ghoul from staking his claim, exhausting ourselves, risking everything.

  Her eyes glowed deep emerald as she opened them. She smiled, her face still raised to the heavens. From the candle of my eye, I caught a lightning fast glimpse of a shooting star. Legends called them firedrakes, or dragons. A portent, an omen, of things to come. But for good or for evil?

  “Ly’Tana?” I asked, catching my breath as Tor took his turn at distracting her ghoul, yelling into his face, forcing him to turn. My infant wandered close and I absently stepped away, maintaining my fierce watch on her face.

  “Of course. So absurdly simple.”

  Her words, spoken to the heavens and not me, spilled from her fair lips in a soft tumble. Had I not been close, I mightn’t have heard even with my keen hearing. Kel’Ratan looked a question to me, but I shook my head.

  Ly’Tana tossed her hair from her eyes and blinked. Her smile never wavered. She raised her right hand. Her left hand still clasped her gold-washed gem gifted to her by the gods.

  Ly’Tana, I choked, unable to speak aloud. Don’t. Don’t do it.

  Ly’Tana stepped forward two, then three, then four strides. She held her right hand high, as though ready t
o clasp the shoulder of a friend in greeting. The ghoul, ignoring Alun who’d just cursed in his face before scampering from his view, reached out his own hand.

  Gods.

  I’d time for that one brief thought as Ly’Tana’s hand, in mid-air, passed his by. She touched the ghoul first.

  At first nothing happened. Ly’Tana and the dead youth stared into one another’s eyes, mesmerized. Green eyes met flat glittering silver. Her delicate yet strong hand clasped his raggedly clad shoulder. His right hand, ready and deadly, froze, suspended as though on invisible wires.

  “Be at peace,” she murmured. “Return from whence you came.”

  The ghoul sighed. His eyes, once emotionless silver disks, changed instantly to an ordinary hazel color, lively and alive. His thin lips smiled. Emotion, however briefly, filled his grateful face. As though brushed by an invisible wind, the dead boy shuddered, his shadow shivering in the firelight. He vanished.

  I’d no time to gape, or even gasp in shock.

  Bending low, Ly’Tana cupped the infant’s face before its tiny hand could stroke my booted foot. “Go home, dear one,” she whispered, her breath stirring its lank hair.

  Sitting back on its diapered butt, the baby smiled a toothless grin and popped out of existence.

  “What the hell?” Kel’Ratan murmured, only half-ducking away from his own favorite ghoul.

  Ly’Tana called to it, the first two fingers of her right hand rising and falling in a come-hither gesture. The ghoul faltered, glancing over its ragged shoulder, before shambling on weak legs toward the one who had more power over it than Ja’Teel.

  “Find your rest,” Ly’Tana murmured, caressing its foul cheek. “You are free.”

  I thought for a moment he meant to kiss her hand, yet he merely bowed to her. Taking a few steps away, he mounted the light mountain breeze and rose higher and higher until he disappeared into the new night.

  Corwyn’s ghoul stumbled into her reach, following on Corwyn’s heels. She seized hold of its arm at the same moment I caught Corwyn before he fell. The ghoul half-turned as she smiled, its chilling eyes grew warmer by the second as the pair stared at one another.

  “Seek your peace, now,” Ly’Tana murmured. “Go home to your children.”

  The ghoul sighed, lifting its face to the bright stars. Before it could draw another breath, it shimmered and vanished.

  “Thanks,” Corwyn murmured, still needing my support as he regained his lost breath.

  The other ghouls ceased their pursuit of their targets of their own accord. She’d no need to chase them, or call them. They lined up as though waiting at dinner. One by one, she touched foul dead flesh bound into a hellish new life by Ja’Teel’s dark and bloody magic. She caressed each ghoul, murmuring words of hope, of freedom, or love. The Kel’Hallans, astounded, walked forward, also drawn to her power. Bar dropped lightly to three legs between the two blazing fires, Tuatha curled safely in his talons. Silverruff, Thunder, Tashira and Shardon entered the camp just outside the firelight, not speaking.

  I wasn’t surprised by their silence. I myself couldn’t have spoken if I stood before Darius’s throne.

  “I don’t really have a throne, you know.”

  “Rejoin your husband,” Ly’Tana told the lady in red.

  She curtseyed, her ragged red skirts falling in tatters about her legs before a swift mountain breeze tossed her into fine shreds. She disappeared, her once expressionless face now filled with joy. Alun watched her fade into the night with a strange expression on his sharply angled face.

  Witraz’s pursuer departed to his long promised rest. Tor’s young ghoul abandoned him to Ly’Tana’s soft plea that she return to her home. That left only Rygel’s personal ghoul, his devoted lover.

  “I pray you,” Ly’Tana said, her eyes luminescent in the firelight. “Your time here is done. Seek your reward from your goddess. Your time here has ended.”

  Ly’Tana’s slender hand caressed her brow.

  The woman’s flat, silver eyes faded. Strangely beautiful, bright blue eyes that challenged Tuatha’s for color lit with gratitude and relief. Her pale lips parted in a sweet smile, and her own hand rose to touch Ly’Tana’s cheek.

  “Thank you, Beloved,” the dead woman whispered. “Thank you for your blessing.”

  Stepping lightly away, the freed spirit walked toward the forest. With each step, her body grew more transparent, faint. I noticed the dark trees clearly through her wispy form. More like a simple ghost than an evil ghoul, she paused to turn gracefully. Her hand lifted briefly in a short farewell wave.

  Alone in her action, Ly’Tana returned the gesture, smiling, her kitten teeth gleaming in the young shadows.

  Turning into the trees, the woman shivered and vanished at last.

  Corwyn left my support, and, limping slightly, walked to a nearby rock to sit down. He put his shaggy red-silver head in his hands.

  I cocked my head, listening to the sigh of the light mountain breeze whisper through the tops of the trees. A sound filled with peace, as though hundreds of souls murmured words of thanks and congratulations. Ly’Tana stood silent, smiling, tears glittering on her pale cheeks. Her head, like mine, tilted slightly to the side as though we two listened to voices only we could hear. Despite the sounds of the others crunching on the frozen snow crust, their low-voiced mutters of relief and wonder, Ly’Tana and I watched the spot where the last ghost had vanished and shared a moment that seemed to last a lifetime.

  Her hand crept into mine, warm and soft despite the bitter cold of the winter mountain night. I glanced down.

  “They’re at peace,” Ly’Tana murmured, her eyes luminescent in the faint light. “They’re happy, now.”

  I couldn’t help but raise a faint grin. “Friends in high places?”

  Being Ly’Tana, she, of course, giggled. “What else is there?”

  “Ah, ye of little faith.”

  “Did you call in some markers?” I asked Darius.

  “You know the answer to that.”

  “Ly’Tana’s friends, then?”

  “I stand amazed by your powers of perception.”

  “How’d you do that?”

  Of course, the question came from Kel’Ratan. He, with Witraz, Left, Right, Tor and Alun had stepped behind us, breathing more evenly, weak grins of relief etching their features. Rannon touched Corwyn’s shoulder, and, in a low voice, asked him if he was all right. Corwyn nodded, finding a brief smile somewhere in his craggy weathered face.

  Arianne rushed into Rygel’s arms, her body shaking with reaction. Rygel held her tight to his chest, his head bowed over her shoulders. The trembling I saw wasn’t all my sister’s fault. Further away, the rest of the warriors sat down around the fires, arming sweat from their faces and hair and talking in low tones. Tashira trotted to me, his dark liquid eyes bright. He nuzzled my shoulder.

  “Damn glad to see you, meathead,” he commented. “For a while there, things didn’t look too good.”

  Chuckling, I disentangled my hand from Ly’Tana’s to caress his sleek face. “Ditto, Blackie,” I murmured.

  Ly’Tana embraced her cousin, not yet answering his question. His wings furled over his back, Bar chirped at Ly’Tana and clicked his beak. Carefully opening his talon, he set Tuatha gently, almost gingerly, onto the snow-covered ground. My son covered the distance to me in a surprising short period of time.

  “Pa!” he exclaimed. “Papa, we saw it all. Damn–”

  “Watch your language,” I murmured, picking him up.

  Laughing, he licked my face, his tail thumping my arm, his sapphire eyes lit with relief that all turned out well. In his eyes, I was alive and he survived his first flight. Excited, he began with the exuberance of youth to tell me all about it. I reluctantly shushed him.

  “I want to hear it,” I told him softly. “And soon, I promise.”

  Tuatha sagged for only an instant. “All right,” he said eagerly, his enthusiasm fractured not one bit. “Then Ma can hear it, too.” />
  “Can the others come in now?” Silverruff asked, his panting now eased considerably. “Darkhan is asking. They’re all worried.”

  Setting my arm around Ly’Tana’s seemingly frail shoulders, I kissed her cheek. She snuggled under my arm, ruffling Tuatha’s ears, and returned the gold-washed gem to its place beneath her heavy jacket.

  “Yes,” I replied. “Call them in.”

  “Are you going to answer me?” Kel’Ratan demanded.

  Ly’Tana grinned up at me. “What do you say, my love? Perhaps some secrets should be kept so.”

  Laughing, I kissed her lips. “Beloved, in my albeit humble opinion, all females need their secrets.”

  A Veil of Tears

  Chapter 14

  This is absolutely absurd, I thought bitterly.

  “What is?”

  I slewed in my saddle to stare at Raine. “You read my mind?”

  He blinked, confused. Then his weird eyes cleared, as he smiled in dawning comprehension. “I reckon I did at that. I thought you’d spoken.”

  Brother and sister, I thought, more quietly this time, both mind-readers, both seers. Why was I surprised?

  We rode, side by side, at the head of the long column of riders and wolves. Witraz and Alun, along with Joker and Black Tongue, acted as our vanguard. They currently were out of sight over the snow-covered rocky hill with the rest of us travelling in their tracks. Many horse-lengths behind, Arianne and Rygel sat their saddles holding hands, Tuatha aboard Shardon’s saddle. With his paws on the pommel, Tuatha chatted away at them, no doubt regaling them with visions of what he wanted to be when he grew up. They smiled at him and each other, perhaps contemplating the day when they’d have puppies of their own.

  On his ugly roan, Corwyn followed behind them, White Fang brushing his stirrup. Ever since the night of the ghouls, Corwyn grew more silent than was his usual wont. Not a chatty person to begin with, he now spoke only when spoken to. He rode slumped in his saddle, his blue eyes lowered. Though White Fang didn’t appear worried, I fretted over Corwyn’s health. He certainly wasn’t young anymore.