CYRANQuain slips off like a hare once we arrive Eldad, while Fareedah lingers with Saelyna for a while. I don't listen to what they say, and I'm to exhausted to wait for her; mentally and physically. The safety and solitude of the hut (if somehow temporary) is what I seek. My heart leaps when I spot him standing there, in front of the hut. Someone had braided his hair back, in long, thick plaits that accentuate the amber-flecked brown eyes. He's wearing a white flannel shirt revealing his muscled torso, and a black leather trouser. An entirely different look. Makes him almost human. And handsomer than the wolf without a left eye. I try hard to keep a passive face, so hard. But when he steps closer with a small smirk on his lips, I let done my guard a notch and I find myself smiling back. 'Hey. Are you alright?' he asks, bending closer to get a proper look at my face, 'You look…pale'. I feel the grin disappear from my face with the flash of fires, the smell of death that had filled
RONNThat's when I see her. Dark mist swirls all around her form, rising in spinning tendrils, her eyes glowing embers of fire, her claws sharp and protruding from her fingers like hooks. I hold up a hand, trying to shield myself from whatever threatened to shoot from those misty hands. 'Keilen?' My voice is barely a whisper as the shadows intensify.Sirgil barks in some distant part of the hut, I'm dimly aware of my fingers closing around the stone in my pocket. The air becomes thick with smoke, with the rotting stench of xanten and something worse. I launch myself at her, a deep grow resonating in my throat. But I'm here. I'm still standing here. Sirgil. Keilen…or whatever that is, turns swifter than the average wolven, faster than I can see and in that one deadly motion, strikes him into the wall to my right, cracking it with his impact. I gasp and drop to my knees, as the pain racks through my back in one brutal wave. I tighten my grip on the round, hard object, the same tim
SAELYNA The prophecy, her eyes mean to say, even though she doesn't mention it. She doesn't know how much I know, how much Quain must have told me. The thought that our lives had been a cover, a facade, drains me of emotion, and all I can do is sink into a chair next to me. Veesa's rocking chair, I realize. How many nights had Earmon been here, while she rocked in its wooden seat, talking our future over with her? Argell? Our parents? I open my mouth to speak, but she must have guessed my thoughts, because she shakes her head. 'No. Your parents tried as much as they could to shield you as well as they could from the pains and troubles of the outside world. But then, it became inevitable, once your mother had made that prophecy'. 'Only it was for nothing, right?' I say quietly, 'Xanwed now knows about us'. Her look is sad, almost pitiful, and it makes my temper boil. 'I've always suspected the Nordinger boy; after all, blood runs thick. The usurper is wily, too wily for a deer-genn.
RONNAs far as stories go, this one sure has got a lot of weight with it. My throat itches for more of ale, or something considerably stronger; anything to blank out mind; but one look at Keilen and what she had become in the last few minutes turns my stomach to lead. I almost wish it was a dream. That she had not switched to some demon wolf at the verge of ripping me in two. That she had not said what she just told me, speculated that the annis had possessed her. Either is too wild to be true. "It's not possible," I had said. All she did was laugh, in a dark, dark manner that made the hairs on the back of my neck stand. I begin pacing the room, one hand in my pocket, closed around the stone. It's cold in my grasp but at the same time, comforting. 'Why? Why would she…do whatever she did to you?' She cocks a brow. 'You mean amplify my powers?' 'Amplify?' I stop pacing, throwing a glance her way, 'Well that's one way to put it. Turn you to a monster more like….or amplified the mosnte
CAIVAN'What do you reckon would have happened, what news Seirmon bears? Something bad? Do you think those raveners had gotten to them?' I groan at the thought; I'd avoided it altogether back at the plateau when I had looked out over the plain. Inevitable, it seems. 'If it's bad, Charlin would let us know. Or you'd smell it on her, the anxiety,' I state, and she scoffs. 'I'm good at masking my emotions,' she chips. 'And she wouldn't be making jokes,' I add. Father's hut looms in front of us like some ill bringer of doom. It certainly has played the part over the years…since mother's death. I fervently hope Seirmon doesn't bring more than we can bear. Inside, I spot his dark sienna hair behind a dining chair, and look around instinctively for a body. There's none, and I stifle a tremendous sigh of relief. Gylen pats him on the shoulder as he turns, his mouth quite full with what looks to be shellfish. He looks perfectly fine, thank the gods. 'Seirmon, you old bastard,' I mutter, mas
SAELYNA'I said it the first night we came here,' he says softly, 'We should leave'. He looks very convinced, I have no choice but to hear him out. 'Leave? Why would we leave? Where to, Cyran? Believe it or not, our lives are forfeit once we leave these people, once we are in the open field for Xanwed'. 'We go to Asthan, then. Or we go further north, we take the grasslands, and board a ship from one of the port cities. Anywhere but here'. 'This is our home, Cyran,' I snap, 'I won't leave it for the usurper'. He purses his lips, and puffs out a long gasp of air, like he was expecting my response. His eyes turn contemplative, and he says, 'The more we stay, Saelyna, the more we bring more harm to people who love us. Don't you see it, yet?' I reach out for his hand impulsively, and squeeze it tight. 'They stand very little chance beside us. The least we can do is carry on what father and mother left behind. The elves deserve better than this, and so do the wolvens,' I say with a smile.
CAIVANJenna pours him another glass of mead when Seirmon finishes. All Haron does is utter a grunt, while Veesa remains as she had been in the rocking chair since she came into the hut with Jenna. And father doesn't move from his position over the fireplace.I hate it when he takes up that posture; hands behind his back, eyes fixed on the flickering flames like nothing else mattered. That was how I found him the night she died. He didn't so much as look at me, not when I began sobbing, asking where mother was now. All he did was look. And look.Gylen's voice shakes me back to the present. 'So what are we waiting for?' he asks, 'The road is clearest in the day, we can move as swiftly as we can….' 'The road makes us easier targets in the day, think, boy,' Haron snaps, 'If what Seirmon says is true, we'd be sitting ducks for the Abominations. We cannot risk it'.If what Seirmon says is true, we should all be fleeing Eldad as we speak. If the Abominations slaughtered a pack west of Henna
CYRANIt doesn't tickle anymore. It doesn't hurt. It lies dormant under my palms, my chest, like a cooling ember, waiting to be called upon.I have no idea what the book did to me, but it seems to have the same effect on Saelyna. She isn't as tentative as she had been minutes ago when I told her what I meant to do. I can almost feel the iden waiting on her call like mine, can see it behind her eyes. Or it's Halden, and the thought of losing our friends. At least this channels the rage.She squats before them, peering and searching through the blue leaves, picking small, pea-sized balls, what we used to call kingpeas. Tiny little buggers, the start of our troubles as well. I recall the weird feeling I'd get when around them back in the glade. It was one of the reasons I opted to be among the "food crew", even though Camille made me less comfortable. At least I was far away from the cursed things.And here we are.I scoff at the voice in my head, as she stands erect. She holds a handful