로그인The man held Cassian like a trap holds a fox, and two voices came out of his mouth."Run, Cass!""Too late."The first was hoarse and terrified. The second was cool and pleased. They overlapped, tangled, fought for the same throat, and the sound made my skin crawl. In the pitch dark of the tunnel, I heard Kael swear, and Dorian's boots scrape stone, and the dry, rising rustle I had heard in the pass."Light!" Kael roared. "Somebody get me light!"Ronan struck flint. A torch sputtered and caught, and the tunnel jumped into view.The walls were moving.Grey shapes oozed out of the stones like damp out of a cellar. They flowed along the ceiling and down the sides and gathered on the floor in a silent, shivering carpet. They had no eyes, but every one of them had turned toward us."Silver!" Kael bellowed. "Hold the line!"The tunnel was too narrow for a proper fight.We stood three abreast with our backs to the sealed door and our blessed blades out in front. The first wave hit us in a ru
The silver was singing when I walked into the Circle at dusk.I do not know how else to say it. A thousand blades lay heaped on the white altar, swords and daggers, arrow tips and hunting knives, chains and cooking pots and a bent horseshoe that somebody's grandmother had insisted on. The pack had brought everything silver they owned. As the full Moon rose over the east wall, the whole pile began to hum.Isolde stood in the middle of it with her arms raised."Stand back," she called. "This will be bright."We stood back.Light poured down from the sky and struck the altar. It did not flare. It sank in, slowly, like water into dry earth, and the metal glowed from within, pale and clean and cold. A long, soft chord rolled across the courtyard. Somebody gasped. A toddler laughed.When it ended, Isolde lowered her hands. She swayed. Dorian caught her elbow."Done," she whispered. "Take what you need."I said goodbye in the Warden's wall.They had set up a small camp in the Circle's heart,
Cassian walked out of the courtyard, and nobody dared follow him but me.I found him at the edge of the Moon Circle, sitting on the lowest step of the white altar with his elbows on his knees and the letter crushed in one fist. The morning wind lifted his silver-blond hair. The thin crescent of Isolde's light glowed faintly on the stones around him, silent and still."Go away," he said, without looking up."No.""Wren.""I said no." I sat down beside him. The stone was cold through my cloak. "You can shout at me if you like. I have heard worse."He gave a short, ugly laugh. "I would never shout at you.""Then say something quiet."For a long time, he did not. The Moon sank slowly behind the western wall. A pair of crows landed on the broken tower and croaked at each other."I should leave," he said at last. "I should take Torben and ride north, and let him do what he wants with me. It would be simpler.""For whom?""For you. For them." His voice cracked. "I am his son. I carry his blo
Cassian saddled his horse before dawn, and he did not say goodbye.I found him in the stable with a lantern hanging from a beam and his bedroll already strapped behind the saddle. He moved quietly, tightening a girth, checking a buckle. His face was pale and set. He did not look up when my boots scuffed the straw."You were going to leave," I said."Yes.""Without telling me.""I was going to leave a note.""A note."His hands stopped on the strap. After a moment, he let out a long breath and turned. In the lantern light, he looked exhausted. There were shadows under his eyes, and the scar through his brow stood out white against his skin."I do not know how to say this," he said."Try.""My father is alive.""You do not know that.""I know enough." He rubbed a hand over his face. "I was twelve. They told me he died in a hunting accident. They sealed the coffin and buried it in the north cairn, and I stood beside it in the snow and did not cry, because he had taught me Alphas do not c
My father leapt through a wall of moonlight, and it burned him to the bone.I screamed as he hit it. The silver dome blazed white. Smoke poured off his black hide in thick, oily coils, and a sound came out of him that was half howl, half sob. But he did not stop. He tore through the glittering barrier like a man tearing through a burning curtain and landed in the Circle with a crash that cracked the stones."Aldric!" Mira screamed.He did not hear her. His black eyes were fixed on the three baskets by the altar. He gathered his legs and sprang.Kael hit him in mid-air.They crashed to the cobbles in a tangle of fur and smoke. Kael's jaws closed on the big wolf's shoulder. For one second, I thought he had him. Then the shadow flexed, and Kael flew across the Circle like a rag doll and slammed into a pillar."Kael!" I cried."Get the children!" he wheezed.Cassian lunged with his silver chain. The shadow wolf caught it in his teeth, wrenched it from his hands, and flung him aside. Doria
The shadow wolves did not make a sound when they ran.That was the worst part. A thousand charging bodies, and not a single paw on stone. They flowed over the hillside like spilled ink, down the slope, through the open gate, into the courtyard in a silent grey flood."Shields!" Garrick roared. "Form up!"Warriors scrambled. Torches swung. A woman snatched up her toddler and ran. The first shadow wolf leaped at a young guard, and he swung his sword. The blade passed straight through its chest. It sank its teeth into his shoulder anyway, and he screamed."Iron does not work!" someone yelled."Silver!" Kael shouted. "Use silver! Cassian!"Cassian was already moving. He ripped the broken silver cuffs from his wrists, wrapped the chain around his fist, and drove it into the nearest wolf's skull. A flash of white light. The creature burst into smoke and was gone."Silver works!" he roared. "Bring everything silver you have!"I did not think. I did not decide.I handed Aldric to Hazel, kisse







