After a moment's hesitation, Maleva called out, 'Here, Shard! Come here, boy!'
The dog broke off its pursuit just as Darrow reached Rusk. Sorcia was already with him, looking no worse for testing the Selunite's ward. Maybe she had simply waited to see what happened to Darrow, first.
Maleva let Shard inside the cottage then closed the door before approaching the three werewolves. She wore a dark blue cloak with the hood thrown back to reveal white hair bound in a long braid. She stopped inside the ward around her cottage, about twenty yards away.
'I see ydu brought a pair of your own dogs,' she said.
'Bitch,' muttered Sorcia. Darrow noted she said it quietly.
'Won't you come embrace your old friend, Maleva?' Rusk walked halfway toward her but stopped well beyond the magical boundary.
'Go back to your lodge, Rusk. Hunt the animals, and leave the people alone.'
'You could come with us,' he said. 'You could run with me as we did so long ago. There is still great strength in each of us.'
'You are wasting your breath, Rusk. If you want to turn away from Malar, I'll go with you to Moonshadow Hall. Otherwise, I'll stay here until one of your pups tears you down.'
'But you won't kill me, will you, Maleva?'
'I will if you don't keep away,' she said. 'Stay in the woods, Rusk.'
'Where is Feena? Why does she not come out to greet me?'
'In Yhaunn,' said Maleva. 'With Dhauna Myritar, well beyond your reach.'
'The Mistress of Moonshadow Hall taking your acolyte under her wing? I think not. She never forgave you for your heresy.'
'Think what you will,' she replied.
'Perhaps you left her in Selgaunt to look after the boy.'
'Think whatever you will. Just stay in your woods.'
'You think he is the Black Wolf, don't you?'
'The Black Wolf is a myth,' she said. 'We are too old to believe in such stories.'
'You once believed it enough to run with me,' said Rusk.
'We were young then. I was a foolish young girl, and you were a much better man than you are today. Stay in your woods, Rusk.'
'Perhaps I'll pay them a visit,' he said. 'There are so many things I would like to tell them both, Feena and this young wolf. But not too soon, I think. Perhaps next summer would be a good time.'
Maleva's eyes flashed bright blue, and she raised her hands in prayer to the moon. White light formed on the medallion around her neck.
Rusk pressed the back of his hand against the talisman on his forehead, chanting his own invocation. When he thrust his open hand toward Maleva, a burst of red light surrounded her. For an instant, Darrow could see the smooth, curving border of the invisible field surrounding her home.
Rusk cursed. Whatever the spell was meant to achieve, it had failed.
Simultaneously, a cone of silver light shot from Maleva's palm and covered all three werewolves. Every muscle in Darrow's body cramped at once, and he was forced low to the ground. Before he realized he was transforming, he was in wolf form.
Nearby, Rusk snarled but seemed otherwise unaffected. Beside him stood the white wolf, her vicious teeth bared.
'Go back to the woods, before you lose one of your pups.'
She raised her arms toward the moon and called again on Selune's power. Rusk hesitated, then turned to leave. He walked at first then moved more quickly as he willed his own transformation into wolf form. Soon they entered the dark forest, where neither Maleva nor her spells followed them.
Chapter 12
Marpenoth, 1371 DR
In the months since his expulsion from Master Ferrick's, Tal began his own sword practice. There was no room in the tallhouse, so he used the backstage area at the Wide Realms.
At first he came in the mornings, when the building was deserted except for Lommy and the reclusive Otter. Within a tenday, Mistress Quickly complained that Lommy was missing his cues for opening the trapdoors or lowering the sun and moon from the heavens. One look at the bleary-eyed tasloi made Tal realize his mistake. The arboreal creatures were nocturnal by nature, and Tal had been disturbing their sleep.
He changed his schedule, returning to the playhouse a few hours after a performance. He practiced by himself while Lommy and Otter scampered about the mechanical works in the rafters. He didn't know what the tasloi were doing up there-maybe just chasing each other in play, or perhaps building new gods and comets to drop and swing from the ropes-but he liked the sound of them nearby. He liked to think they were glad of his presence, too.
Often he would stay until dawn, having exhausted himself with drilling, then hours of working out new fight scenes for plays that had yet to be written. Soon he found himself most alert at night, sleeping away the mornings before rising to a quick breakfast and a return to the Realms for rehearsals.
On full moons, Tal's routine was always the same. He ate a big dinner then had Chancy lock him in the cellar. During the transformation, Tal did his best to remain calm, meditating as Master Ferrick had taught him until the tidal dreams swept him out to oblivion. An hour after dawn, Chancy and Eckert would let him out. He stayed in the tallhouse for all three days, bidding Eckert to tell callers he was out carousing with Chancy in an alehouse somewhere.
In truth, Tal no longer frequented alehouses. He'd drink a cup of wine or a tankard of ale with Chancy in the tall-house, but he wouldn't drink more, and he wouldn't go anywhere where he might get into a quarrel. He didn't want to hurt anyone else.
Word of the accident at Master Ferrick's eventually reached the players. Mallion and Sivana were uncharacteristically sympathetic. Instead of the expected jokes, Tal received a surprising request one day in the cold month of Uktar.
The three actors stood among the vendors outside the playhouse. Most of them sold food and drink to the audience as they arrived. The smells of roast meat and baked dumplings mingled with the sweet autumn air. Brown leaves scratched along the cobblestones.
The three actors clutched cups of hot cider to warm their hands. The autumn air was still comfortable, but the playhouse doors were already open.
'Let's go back inside,' suggested Tal.
'Actually,' said Sivana, 'we wanted a word with you alone.'
That sounded ominous. Tal braced himself for some admonishment about recent rehearsals. Quickly had cast him as the mad king, a role most of the players-including Tal-thought should go to one of the more experienced actors. Quickly said the role demanded a voice by turns thunderous, and frail, and that Tal had proven he had the range. That was true enough, thought Tal, who had been expanding his repertoire of mimicry mostly through his mocking representations of the Hulorn and members of the Old Chauncel. On the other hand, Tal was far too young to express the emotional depth of a man driven mad by his children's betrayal.
At least, that was Tal's fear.
'We heard you weren't going to Master Ferrick's these days,' said Mallion.
The sly, handsome actor was the one who usually got the roles Tal wanted. He rarely passed up an opportunity to point out Tal's shortcomings, usually in front of the other players. He did it in a tone of genial humor, but there was no doubt in Tal's mind that he also did it to make sure everyone realized that Mallion was the better actor.
Tal nodded, then sipped his cider. It was spicy and almost too hot to drink.
