looked at the castle with the stillness that was so much a part of him. His yellow eyes glistened, glowing with a light that might not all have been a reflection of the moon. A growl rose low in his lupine throat, and the hair on his neck and back stiffened with rage.
Aralorn cautiously set a hand on his back. In all the time she'd known him he'd always been slow to warm from his customary passionlessness, and although she'd seen him kill several times she'd never seen him quite this upset. "What's wrong?"
The Wolf quieted and lowered his head for a moment. Then he shook himself as dogs will and said softly, "Nothing. It must be the moon. I find that it sometimes has this effect on me."
"Right. Uh-huh. The moon." She nodded solemnly, then she caught his gaze and raised one eyebrow, the Wolf staring silently back at her. She gave up the contest immediately, knowing that he was perfectly capable of continuing the stare-down all night. "Shall we go, or do you want to wait for the Magician so we can destroy him and win the world back for goodness and light?"
The Wolf grinned ferally and snorted. "If we killed the Magician, the world would be more likely to draw and quarter us than praise us as saviors. So by all means, let us make haste so as not to be forced to destroy the ae'Magi." He turned and made his way back through the brush with Aralorn following.
Several hundred yards from the edge of the woods a grey war stallion was tied to the trees, and at their approach he whickered a greeting. Aralorn laughed as the animal lipped the plain tunic she wore and then drew back in obvious disgust at the taste.
"Where did you come from, Sheen?" She slanted a look at the Wolf and said to him, "Thanks. I wasn't looking forward to walking back."
Over the years she'd learned not to question him too closely. If he wanted to be a Wolf, who was she of all people to question it? But the knot that attached the colorful cloth reins to the tree would have been difficult to tie for someone with no fingers.
Aralorn untied the reins and mounted, only to dismount and shorten the stirrups. She sighed loudly as she untied the leather strings. Someone with much longer legs than hers had ridden the horse last. She'd known for a long time that Wolf wasn't really a wolf, or at least not an ordinary one. The first time he spoke to her removed the last of the doubts that she had. She might not question him out loud, but she liked to make it obvious that it was cooperation and not stupidity.
"Sheen, how many times have I told you not to give strangers a ride? You never know where they might take you."
The Wolf tilted his head to one side, and there was a hint of amusement in his eyes. He woofed softly in acknowledgement of her restraint. She laughed and continued to unweave the strings.
* * *
WOLF WAS AN ENIGMA. EVEN THOUGH HE'D BEEN DRIFTING IN and out of her life for nearly four years, she wasn't sure if she actually knew anything about him at all. Every time she decided that she had him figured out, he baffled her again. She had been relieved when she'd decided that he wasn't really a wolf. Her feelings for him, although still confusing, had been plaguing worrisome when she felt them toward an animal.
Sometimes she thought that he might be a renegade shape-shifter, one of her mother's people - though he lacked the grey-green eyes that were characteristic of the race. But he could do too many things that were not possible for a wielder of green magic. Also, although she was not well trained in green magic, having been brought up by her human father, she knew enough to tell whether a spell was done by green magic or human. When Wolf cast a spell, it had a human feel to it, as well as a touch of something else that she couldn't quite pin down.
That he was a human magician was more likely, but human magic - the kind the ae'Magi used - didn't lend itself well to shapeshifting because instead of blending in with the forces of nature it sought to control them, and that required immense concentration which was impossible to maintain for extended periods of time. Most magicians