bloomed on his shirt and he slumped back, dead. I stared at him a few seconds more before scrabbling over the ground, grabbing up the keys, and reaching the rock.
I tried the biggest key, praying it was that size to distinguish it quickly from the others. I jammed it into the heavy lock and turned. But the lock was old—Joran must have spent more money on his rings than new locks. Behind me a man shouted—one of the bodyguards. I looked over my shoulder in time to see him swinging his scimitar down at me. Cornered, nowhere to go, I screamed. Suddenly Wolf was there. A splash of blood hit the dirt floor, and then Wolf and the bodyguard went at each other with blades.
“Hurry!” Wolf yelled to me.
I wrestled with the lock, and then it snapped open and the chain fell free.
“Go!” I shouted to the people. “Go. You’re free!”
The slaves pulled the chain through their manacles, one by one running out the front or back of the tent, wild and yelling. Another bizarre feeling yanked at me, demanding my attention. I spun around. Joran stood near the center of the tent, as still as a statue and a talisman in his hand glowing.
I didn’t know if that meant he was a wizard, or if he’d just been traded a magic trinket, but it couldn’t be good, whatever it was. I threw the keys at him, hitting him square in the face. Joran flailed in surprise before tripping over his own feet and falling on his back once more. Then the first bodyguard Wolf had tackled started to get up. I sat frozen for several seconds. I couldn’t kill anyone again, and the slaves weren’t interested in helping. We needed something to distract everyone enough to get out.
“Wolf—the tent pole!”
Wolf pushed his opponent into the side of the tent where a pack of slaves pushed him again so he tripped in an almost comedic way and hit the ground. Wolf didn’t need to be told twice and ran at the pole, hitting it with all his might in his shoulder. For a few agonizing seconds nothing happened. Then it cracked loudly amidst the chaos of the tent, and then snapped.
Just before the fabric of the tent fell around us, I caught the astonished looks of the half-dozen people before me. I knew exactly what they meant.
A wolf had just obeyed a human.
Then the world went orange and yellow, billowing amidst the air pockets around us. I spotted a small figure in blue dart towards an opening.
“Marianne!”
Suddenly Wolf was at my side again, dragging me towards the opening. We emerged and almost ran smack into the jaws of a roaring beast. It stood on two legs that were bent like a dog’s and a sweeping tail bristled behind it. Its grasping hands were equipped with wicked claws and its entire body was covered in slate gray fur. But the roar came from the mouth of a wolf. Except it wasn’t a wolf. It was too big with ears far too long and pointed and teeth that were razor sharp. This was the creature from children’s nightmares. This was a true werewolf.
The strange sensation roiled through me again. I wasn’t just looking at the creature, I felt it. People yelled and ran in all directions like chickens with missing heads. Marianne fainted dead away. Before I could do a thing the werewolf scooped her up, shoved her into its mouth, and swallowed. It was then I realized the creature wasn’t real. I could see though it—I could see Marianne curled up inside of it, surrounded by a haze of gray. The nightmare wolf launched itself down the road, leaving a faint trail of gray smoke behind it.
“Marianne!” I screamed and ran after the thing. I pumped my legs hard, not knowing if Wolf was behind me or not, knowing I couldn’t catch up to the thing, whatever it was, but I had to try.
Finally the creature was too far down the path, and then disappeared altogether. I couldn’t run anymore. I slowed, eventually stopping and settling my hands on my head as I sucked in deep breaths of air. I turned. Wolf walked toward me, breathing hard as well, but not as hard as me.
“What the hell?” I managed to huff. One question that pretty much handled it all.
“I smelled it coming,” he said. “I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was bad.”