her body until it was all the sensation she could absorb, leaving no room for any of her other senses. Unable to see or feel, Aralorn focused on one part of the mouse at a time; nose first, then whiskers. It took her only the time it takes to breathe deeply three times before a very small mouse crouched where she had been.
She shrank against the wall underneath the pipe for a minute and waited for the Magician to investigate the magic that she'd used - but he didn't come. Human magicians weren't usually sensitive enough to detect that someone else was using magic, but the ae'Magi was a law unto himself. He'd said he was tired, so maybe (she hoped) he was asleep. The mouse shook herself briskly, twitched her whiskers, and scratched an itchy spot where the tingle hadn't quite worn off yet; then she climbed up into the dark tunnel of pipe.
Centuries of sludge had built up in the opening, and if several other bold rodents hadn't foraged through (perhaps to escape a castle feline) she wouldn't have made it - as it was, Aralorn was submerged in slimy stuff of unknown origin up to her belly.
It was dark which didn't bother her much, and smelly which did. As she was busy not thinking about the composition of the muck under her feet she almost fell out of the pipe and into the moat some distance below, only saving herself by some ungraceful but highly athletic scrambling.
She caught her breath and thought, "Okay, now what? I need to be something that can swim" - a whiff of the moat's unsubtle aroma cut through the stench of the pipe - "or better yet, fly. Hmm ..."
The little slime-coated mouse leapt. The air blurred and a white, domestic goose flapped awkwardly over the water, one wing dripping goo from the moat. Hampered by the wet wing, Aralorn was unable to gain any altitude and came to a flapping halt in front of the bushes that signaled the beginning of the woodland surrounding the castle several hundred yards beyond the moat. She straightened her feathers and started to waddle into - the woods, carefully leaving the ooze-covered wing stretched away from the rest of her body.
From the shadows, a black form emerged growling, its ivory fangs catching the light of the moon as it landed directly in Aralorn's path. The goose squawked and dodged backward, resuming a human form just in time for Aralorn to fall on her rump rather than her tail. Instead of the tall, slender beauty she had been in the cage, she was a bit shorter than average, brown-haired, and plain-faced - only the sea-storm eyes remained the same. At this moment they glittered with unsuppressed fury.
"Allyn's toadflax! Wolf, what are you trying to do to me?'" Mindful of the proximity of the castle, she lowered her voice to a soft tone that didn't carry, but did not lack for force either. "I could have died of shock." She put her hand theatrically over her pounding heart. "I still might. Why didn't you warn me you were here?"
The Wolf stood over her, fey and feral, with the stillness of a wild thing. The deep, macabre voice was calm and passionless when he spoke without replying to her question. "You should have told me that you intended to spy on the ae'Magi - if I had known that you were contemplating suicide I would have killed you myself. At least it would be a cleaner death than any he would bestow." Fathomless golden eyes gazed at her without emotion.
She looked at him for a moment, giving him the dominant position by remaining on the ground. "Do you know," she said softly, "that you are the only person that I have ever talked to who had anything unpleasant to say about him? As far as I could determine he was the perfect gentleman. I even asked why I was being sent to spy there."
She nodded her head at the dark shape of the castle, its silhouette almost blacking out the sky to the east. "I was told that there were rumors of an assassination plot and I was to investigate it and warn the Master Magician if necessary." Her customary grin restored itself. "If there is such a plot, I can only wish them luck in their endeavors."
"It has always amazed me how well he can blind people, even without the use of magic," replied the Wolf. He