“He doesn’t strike me as the sort to sneak around on Azazel, either,” Beezle retorted. “I didn’t think he had the stones.”
“I know. He always seems like the world’s biggest kiss-ass.”
We walked along for a while, turning right when the opportunity presented itself and going down stairs when we found them.
We heard nothing more exciting that the gossip of servants, which seemed to be everywhere. It made sense, I guess, that a castle of this size would need a lot of people to run it.
Amarantha seemed universally revered, which was surprising. Most monarchs would have managed to sow at least some discontent in a one-thousand-plus-year reign. Lady Violet, on the other hand, was despised by pretty much everyone. She “acted above her station,” made unnecessary demands and in general behaved as though she were the queen of the castle, not Amarantha.
I managed to avoid detection by the servants by putting out my wings whenever I heard footsteps approaching. Beezle would hover up near the ceiling out of sight.
My wings were far too large and unwieldy to leave out, though, even folded on my back. A couple of times I’d had to hold my breath as I pressed up against the wall while a faerie passed by. I ran my finger inside the rather snug waistband of my skirt. Maybe Beezle was right. Maybe I did need to take up jogging or something.
We had just about decided that we’d pushed our luck long enough when we heard the wolf howling.
It sounded like it was in horrible pain. I started to run down the corridor in the direction of the sound. We reached a T-junction.
“Where?” I asked, looking left and right.
Beezle flew up behind me, panting with exertion. Talk about someone who needed an exercise program.
“I think it’s outside,” he panted. “Try to get into one of the main rooms.”
I sprinted for the first door that I saw and opened it. Shelves stacked with bread and cheese and hanging meat surrounded us. We were in some kind of larder. I pushed out the door on the other side and surprised several faeries working in the kitchen.
“Outside door?” I asked.
A faerie pointed wordlessly at a heavy oak door on the other side of the kitchen. The wolf’s howls grew louder, more anguished, and suddenly the howls of the other wolves rang out inside the castle.
I pushed open the door and emerged into the darkness of full night. The forest that surrounded the castle loomed above the outer walls. I listened for a moment to the sound of howls now growing faint, and turned left. The wolf was dying. I could feel it.
I turned the corner on the castle and was suddenly knocked back by a powerful shock wave. For the third time I was struck by a sense of wrongness, a sense that this was outside the natural order of things. It was the feeling I associated with Ramuell, and I knew the wolf was already dead.
I didn’t have time to think or to protect myself as the shock wave hit, and I felt my magic wink out in an instant.
Great. Now I was totally helpless and surrounded by enemies, and the wolf was beyond help. But I could still try to discover the identity of its attacker. I knew one thing for sure—this was the same creature that had killed the other wolves. The shock wave confirmed that.
The darkness made it hard to see, and my lack of magic meant that I couldn’t conjure up a ball of flame to light my way. Amarantha had lit the catwalks with torches, but here on the ground everything was swathed in shadow. Beezle puffed and panted behind me. The wolf had long since stopped crying, and the howls of the other wolves had ceased.
I ran forward blindly and tripped, flew a few feet and landed on my face in the dirt. Dirt and other things. Thank goodness my mouth was closed.
I came to my knees and looked around in the faint light. The same scene of carnage that had greeted me twice before was here. The coppery smell of blood filled the air.
“Dammit,” I said to Beezle. “How many times are we going to be too late?”
“A question I have asked myself, as well, Madeline Black,” a rumbling voice said behind me.
I stood and turned to face Wade, Jude, James and another wolf I didn’t know.
“You didn’t see anyone, either?” I asked.
“We see you, Agent,” James growled.
“You’ve got to be kidding,” I said. “I was trying to help him.”
“Peace, James,” Wade said with a cautioning hand.
“Why, Wade?” Jude said, angrily pushing forward. He bristled all over with fury. “Three times she has been at the death of a pack member. This time she’s covered in blood. What more do you want?”
“Uh, how about some evidence?” I asked.
“I see the evidence all over you,” Jude said, and James growled in agreement.
Wolves could see much better than I could in the dark. I’m sure that I appeared pretty incriminating, but I wasn’t about to be tried for a crime I didn’t commit.
“I was racing to help your pack mate and I tripped in the dark,” I said patiently. I didn’t have any magic to defend myself and I wasn’t about to go hand to hand with a wolf a hundred pounds heavier than me.
“If Madeline Black says that is what happened, then it is so,” Wade said.
Jude made a noise of frustration, but he stepped away from me. He had to obey his alpha or challenge him in front of the pack.
I looked at Wade, ignoring Jude. “How was your pack mate separated from the rest of you?”
I knew that members of the pack generally slept as wolves in a large community pile, and the disheveled appearance of the others indicated that they had settled in for the night.