LOGINRHYANNE"You're distracted." Thessaly said to me without looking up. She was crouched over the ring of ash with a pinch of powder in her gloved fingers, and I was sitting on the stool with my sleeve pushed to the elbow."I'm not.""Your wolf is… she keeps pacing." She sprinkled the powder along the line. "Whatever's in your head is louder than she is. Out with it."I hesitated for a bit, then I told her. Just the summary of it, Fenna's silence, abd that I'd told Draven, and the three wolves would be going to investigate.By the time I finished, Thessaly had stopped moving."Ashenfall," she said."Yes.""That's where you were born, yes?""I told you that.""yes." She stood, brushing ash from her robe, and a strange look crossed her face, bright and greedy, like a child who'd spotted a plate of sweets. "If I'm any judge. Do you know what that means?""That it's a long way away?""It means records, girl." She started pacing, and her gloves flapped as she gestured. "A seal this size doesn
CHAPTER 42RHYANNEAlpha Draven had told me the night before that Kellan would be coming, so I wasn't too surprised to find him and two other wolves in his study the next morning. I was surprised by how ordinary the two beside Kellan looked. One was a slight, sandy-haired man who looked like a baker's apprentice, the other was a woman with a tired face and a basket on her arm, as if she'd just come from the market."These are the two," Kellan said. "You don't need to remember their faces.""Luna." The woman nodded politely.Alpha Draven stood by the window with his arms folded, and he gave me a small nod of his own. I took the chair in the middle of the room and sat down the way Madam Orla had taught me, mostly to show off."We'll start simple," Kellan said. "Ashenfall's kitchens. Where are they, and how easily can you get in?""There are three." I closed my eyes to see them properly. "The main kitchen is on the ground floor of the fortress, by the west, and that's where everything fo
CHAPTER 41DRAVEN Kellan shut the door and stood with his back to it, hands loose at his sides, waiting. He hadn't taken off his cloak. Rain still beaded on the shoulders, and there was mud on his boots from the yard."You sent for me, Alpha.""I did. Sit.""I'd rather stand."I poured two cups from the jug on the shelf and held one out. He took it, looking mildly suspicious, as if wine from my hand might be another kind of order. "You've had a long month.""The search for the Luna's friend.""Mira, yes." I set my own cup down untouched. "I won't ask you to go back to that. This is a different job, and a harder one.""Harder than a woman who didn't want to be found?""Yes."He took a sip and waited."I need two of your trackers," I said. "Your best two. Not the strongest, and not the fastest. The ones who can disguise themselves well. Wolves who can walk into a strange territory and be forgotten the moment they've passed.""Pass as locals.""Exactly that.""Which territory?""Ashenfa
DRAVENI felt a tug behind my ribs, it had been growing for the last minute, I could already tell Rhyanne was coming."Come in," I said when it got stronger.She slipped through the door and shut it behind her. Her hair was windblown, her cheeks pink from the cold, and a few dry leaves clung to the hem of her skirt. She looked like she'd been walking a long time."Alpha.""Rhyanne." I gestured at the chair. "Sit."She sat on the edge of it, back straight, hands folded."Thank you for the pastry," she said."What pastry?""The one outside my door.""I don't know what you mean.""The plate had honey on it. The cook told me you came to the kitchens yourself." She held a perfectly straight face. "She seemed to think it was very funny.""The cook talks too much.""She does."For a moment the corner of her mouth twitched, and I let myself enjoy it. Then it faded, and she looked down at her hands."I need to talk to you about something important.""Go ahead."She drew a breath. "It's about F
RHYANNEI came back from the garden with cold fingers and found a plate on the floor outside my door.A pastry, honey and almonds, gone cool by now. There was no note. I thought it over for about three seconds, because only one wolf in this fortress could have known I'd eaten two of them in my second week. Then I sat down in the corridor and ate it. It was the first thing that had tasted like anything in days.I was brushing sugar off my skirt when someone cleared their throat at the far end of the hall."Luna." Soren. Of course."Hello.""Are you going somewhere?""Not really.""Then walk with me."I raised an eyebrow. "Is that an order?""Just suggestion." He paused. "I've been told I should practice those."I didn't ask by whom. We went down the east stairs and out through the side door, onto the gravel path that curved around the orchard. The apple trees had dropped most of their leaves, and the ground was a patchwork of brown and gold. Soren walked beside me, not ahead, and it to
DRAVENRhyanne was acting really odd during breakfast.She had never been loud. In the weeks since the ceremony, though, she'd learned to fill a table without trying, a dry remark to one elder, a correction to another, a quick laugh when Soren grumbled about the porridge. This morning she sat at my right with her hands in her lap and said almost nothing.It wasn't her usual quiet. I knew that one. This was the other kind."Did you sleep?" I asked."Fine.""Is the bed comfortable?""Yes.""Thessaly's not working you too hard?""No."One word each time, and her eyes never rose from her plate. She moved an egg from one side to the other and ate half a piece of toast. When an elder asked her opinion on the winter grain count, she answered it correctly, in a flat voice that sounded like she was reading it off a card. Then she excused herself before the second course arrived, and I watched her walk out of the hall with her shoulders held a little too straight.I started to rise. Then I sat







