ones who spoke these words:
'... Radu's sister - dead, and by your hands! Six of you, onto one girl! This pair of mangy corpses here, Arlek Bargosi and Kherl Fumari, and the Ferenczy brothers, Rakhi and Lagula ... and you two, of course!' (Unmistakably Giorga's voice. And the answer):
'Not all our fault. It was you who sent us after Freji, to do him in. Well, and there was that in Radu's eyes as told us he knew!
He must have found his father out in the woods. As for the girl: that ... was an accident, for she wouldn't hold still.'
That one had been Ion. And Magda's death had been an 'accident,' because she had tried to fight them off where they'd rutted over her like beasts!
Ah, but there are beasts and there are beasts, and the rest of it wouldn't be an accident, be sure! Giorga was dead, Lexandru, too, but Ion and the Ferenczys still lived. For now they lived, anyway. Again Radu howled - howled his bloodlust and a vow to the goddess of the moon where she floated on high: that Magda would be avenged in a manner befitting her ordeal! In answer, it seemed the moon lit his way through the woods by silvering the madly trampled, blundering trail of
Ion Zirescu ... to where the last of that loathsome family was hiding. Later, Radu would scarcely remember tracking him, loping through the dark woods and faling to al fours to sniff the trail of freshly crushed grass and rootlets, the vile-smeling spoor of sweat and fear. But in a little while there'd been a clearing, with a stand of trees to one side, and breaking from the woods into the clearing Radu had sensed ... stillness! Al was still; neither a sound nor any movement; not even the hoot of an owl or the furtive creep of smal creatures in the grass. Why? Because they had been startled to stillness by the sudden crashing of a fugitive? Possibly ...
Radu's mist had subsided by then, but the moon was still ful and high and his powers were still with him. Except they were new powers and he didn't know them; he wasn't experienced in their use. But listening to the stillness - keeping absolutely still himself and straining to detect even the slightest sound - he
'heard' something that wasn't a sound! Instead, it was ... a thought! They were thoughts! The terrified thoughts of Ion Zirescu!
At first Radu shook his head; he knew he was imagining it, this listening to another's mind. But as he concentrated even harder, so the thoughts came that much clearer, so that now he must heed them. And this was what he heard:
... Followed me! But how? Is he a man or a dog, to track me so unerringly? Radu Lykan, alive! Or perhaps his vengeful spirit? But a ghost that kills? And his strength! His great speed! No, this is no ghost but Radu himself. We thought him a coward like his father, but the youth who killed Kherl andArlek that night was no coward. And now he's back. But my father, Giorga, dead? Wel, so what...
Lexandru and I would have seen to him before too long! Ahhh ...! (That last was a gasp of horror, and it signaled that Radu had been seen).
He closed his eyes and concentrated more yet, and saw ... through another's eyes! Through Ion's, of course! Saw himself, or his shadow, poised at the edge of the clearing, head cocked forward, ears alert as they angled this way and that. And saw - and indeed felt - himself go down on al fours again, and aim himself at the stand of trees. For Ion's line of sight had given him away, and the shock of his thoughts confirmed it: ... He's pointing at me, coming straight for me! But I have my machete ...!
Oh, yes, Radu was coming. Half-upright and leaning forward, he loped towards the stand of trees. But... Ion had a machete? Oh, really? And deep in a clump of gorse, Radu paused to ready his crossbow - four seconds at most - before continuing in a new direction, apparently away from Ion. And in his head:
... He'll go right by me! He hasn't seen me! (It was a sigh of relief, almost a sob - a pitiful 'sound'! But there was no pity in Radu Lykan).
And in the corner of his eye Radu saw Ion there, crouching in the shrubbery under the trees,