the rear workroom.
Chane bolted for the broken window as a scream erupted outside the shop.
Rodian watched something blacker than night bleed through the shop's front wall. He still held on to Wynn, but the sage had ceased struggling.
The blot spread quickly over the shop's wood planks, blocking out one window. Then it bulged like a shroud cloth in a gale. It took shape in something he'd seen once before.
The black-cloaked and — robed figure halted, one arm stretched out behind it. Its hand was still beyond one pane of the window. And Rodian saw what it held in its trailing grip.
It held a folio, still stuck behind the window, inside the shop.
The pane creaked and began to crack.
Rodian dropped Wynn and shoved her out of the way, and the window exploded outward.
He raised his sword arm before his face. Glass fragments tinkled off steel and across his glove. A wailing scream rose before his sight line cleared.
Then Wynn cried out, 'Captain!'
He'd kept three guardsmen with him out front: Shâth, Ecgbryht, and Ruben.
And Shâth was rushing toward the black figure.
'Stay back!' Rodian ordered, raising his sword.
The figure stood before the shop, folio in one hand, as its cloak writhed around its robed form. But its other hand…
Black fingers lanced through Shâth's chest and out his back, like barbs of shadow emerging from the guardsman's body. The rest of its hand followed instantly as Ruben and Ecgbryht closed in. Shâth hung impaled and shuddering as the figure's hand clenched into a fist.
Mute crackling rose as Shâth choked, but he never screamed. A dark stain spread across the back of his tabard around the figure's protruding wrist. The robed figure wrenched its arm back.
Shâth arched as the black fist ripped back through his torso.
Blood spattered over Ecgbryht as Shâth collapsed. His body hit the street hard, with his face frozen into a gaping mouth and eyes.
The front of his tabard and hauberk were torn around a mangled hole.
It happened so fast.
A low hiss rose all around in the street. The dark space of the figure's wide hood turned toward Rodian—no, beyond him, toward Wynn. And it rushed her like some coal-colored ghost, solid and real and yet not.
Rodian dodged in, uncertain what he could do against this thing. Ecgbryht was closer, and swung hard at the figure as Wynn scrambled back across the cobblestones. Rodian stepped in front of her.
'Wynn… stay away! Do not let it touch you!'
Those rasping words came like a shout. Rodian didn't know who'd given this warning, but then he saw someone crouched upon the shattered window's sill.
The man wore a long dark cloak with its hood thrown back. His face was pale and narrow, and there was something wrong with his eyes. Two killers emerged from the scribe shop—but why had the second one warned Wynn off?
'Stay behind me!' Rodian shouted at her. He swung, aiming for the black figure's wrist just above the clutched folio.
Too much happened at once.
The black figure swung its free hand and latched it solidly around Ecgbryht's throat. Rodian's blade passed through the figure's wrist with no resistance, and its tip clanged off a street stone.
Garrogh bolted out of the shop's front door with two guards, Lúcan and Taméne, running behind him… just as Ruben charged the figure, trying to force it off Ecgbryht.
The second killer upon the sill, sword in one hand, reached out and grabbed the folio.
All this passed by the time Rodian righted his sword.
Locked in the figure's grip, Ecgbryht drew short, rapid breaths. His features twisted and paled. The robed one released him, and he crumpled instantly. It tried to pull the folio back, and the second killer slipped off the sill to the street. Garrogh closed on the other would-be thief clinging to his end of the folio.
'Get back!' Rodian shouted at his men. 'It's a mage!'
The robed one turned its hood toward Wynn.
'No!' the other thief hissed. 'You will leave her alone!'
He jerked hard on the folio, and Rodian faltered.
The two caught in his trap were at odds, but not just over the folio. Another conflict existed between them over the journeyor. Rodian set himself against either coming at Wynn.
And then a snarl trailed into a howl somewhere in the open street. He heard rapid claws on cobblestone and had to turn his head.
A tall, dark-coated dog charged along buildings in the thicker shadows beneath their eaves. Or was it a wolf?
Rodian thought he saw a streetlight catch upon its eyes, which glittered like pale blue gems.
Wynn barely spotted Chane before Rodian stepped in her way. All she saw around the captain was the robed figure. When she stared into its hood, the pitch-black within it seemed to bleed over everything in her sight. She couldn't look at anything else.
Then she heard a distant snarl.
It seemed so far away, but so did every other noise around her. Then it trailed into a familiar wailing howl. She'd heard it so many times she knew it like the voice of an old friend in her head.
Chap was here, and he was hunting!
She wasn't mad, delusional, like everyone whispered. This thing killing her people was an undead. No other reason would cause Chap to howl like that.
For an instant his face rose in her thoughts—fur so silver it might tint blue in moonlight, and eyes like crystals catching an afternoon sky.
A hissing shriek rang in her ears as she heard claws scrabbling on cobblestones. Another deep snarl sounded as a dark gray form rushed past her. It spun and circled before her on four long legs ending in large paws, and its head swung briefly toward her.
Wynn saw the outline of tall peaked ears over a long muzzle—and pale blue eyes gazed at her. Then the dog wheeled, facing the robed undead beyond the captain. She reached out, screaming his name.
'Chap!'
Rodian sucked a breath. He'd lost all control here. Everything splintered into chaos.
Garrogh grabbed the pal [rabplie-faced man by his cloak, jerking him back. The man lost his grip on the folio but ducked around the lieutenant and took a swing. His fist landed hard, and Garrogh twisted away under the impact, slamming against the shop's front.
'Don't let him escape!' Rodian shouted.
Lúcan rushed the pale man, while Ruben swung his sword at the robed figure's back.
A hissing shriek broke over the noise and shouts.
Rodian lurched sideways as the robed figure recoiled. Only then did Ruben's sword connect and pass straight through, not even ruffling robe or cloak. The figure's hood remained fixed on Wynn somewhere behind Rodian. He glanced back.
Her eyes were wide yet vacant as she stared up and beyond Rodian, as if locking her gaze with whoever hid inside the robe's large cowl.
And the wolf rushed in between him and Wynn.
Rodian instinctively turned his sword point toward the animal, but it didn't go for the sage. It circled her quickly, coming around between her and everyone else. Its charcoal fur was nearly as dark as the robed thief, but strange shimmers showed wherever muscles rolled beneath its coat. It was taller than any wolf that Rodian had seen, and its eyes scintillated blue in the dark.
