Chapter 35

Within the hour, we’d readied ourselves to leave the citadel, Liam donning silk robes that the lesser nobles typically wore so that his uniform with its royal insignia didn’t draw attention to us.

While Liam sent off several messages and gave instructions to Kaira and Zusa, I packed a small rucksack with a few necessities, the map Major Antelz had given us, the silver hair sticks and a handful of coins that Liam pulled out of the hidden alcove.

Liam convinced me that I must wear the guard disguise again or I might attract too much attention as we passed through the citadel. I wasn’t thrilled about wearing the itchy uniform and even itchier wig, but he was right.

When I shrugged the rucksack onto my shoulders, I began to bounce on my toes in excitement.

Grinning at me, Liam tucked his royal pass into a pocket hidden within the robe’s sleeve and then we were off.

As it was the middle of the night, we saw few people as we headed toward the Eastern Gate of the citadel; a few guards on patrol and the occasional slave sent off on some errand or another were all that we encountered, though we didn’t interact with any of them. We forced ourselves to keep a sedate pace so as not to draw any attention to ourselves, though it chafed at me fiercely for I was anxious to be outside of the walls of the citadel.

When we arrived at the Eastern Gate, I was amazed at how tall it was. The gate itself was a good twenty feet tall, crisscrossed with bands of silver, the whole thing set into the stone wall itself, which was thirty feet tall not counting the turrets that dotted the length.

Two guards stood to either side of the enormous doors, each holding a moon staff, so named for the long, crescent shaped blade at the end of the pole that stood as tall as they did. A lantern above cast just enough light to gleam along the sharp edges of their weapons.

As we neared the gate, Liam pulled his royal pass out of his pocket and dangled it by its knotted tassel out toward the gate. A dim pulse of light came from the rune engraved silver disk and the gate doors immediately began to open, slowly swinging outward. Standing behind Liam at the expected three paces, I couldn’t see the guards’ faces, but I heard one of them take in a sharp breath of surprise.

Liam had explained to me that he and Tae Beun were the only ones with these magicked silver discs, therefore were the only ones who could freely pass in and out of the citadel gates at will. Everyone else had to have an identity badge and each person passing through was magically logged in a report to the royal court; except for Liam and Tae Beun, that is.

Both guards dipped their heads in low bows and stayed that way as the gate doors opened. Without waiting for them to open completely, Liam moved through the gap, which was just wide enough to accommodate his shoulders. I followed behind him and we walked a few dozen paces before I looked over my shoulder and saw that the gate was once again closed.

As we had agreed on beforehand, we continued to walk in silence along the path lest anyone hear us. Though we were now outside the citadel walls, there was a town here comprised of Kin, so Liam had advised that we remain quiet until we were a fair distance past it as anyone making noise at this time of night was bound to be noticed.

With every step, my excitement grew. Deep inside my mind, I'ikki yipped and whined, anxious to come out and run beneath the light of the moon.

A few more minutes, little sister, I promise.

She gave a sharp bark of excitement and her tail wagged so exuberantly that I couldn’t help but smile.

Once we were a fair bit past the town, Liam halted and looked around. He jerked his chin to the side indicating which way he wanted to go and I followed him off the path and into the trees.

I walked silently behind him, cringing as he snapped twigs and crackled leaves with every step. Astmenai were taught the quiet walk from a young age, mimicking the ability of our wolves so as not to scare off prey when we were hunting, but it was evident that Liam had never learned that particular skill. I made a mental note to teach him once we reached Twisted Pines.

Once we were a goodly distance from the path, Liam stopped beside an old oak tree and turned to me. “Will this do, Xia Wind Song?”

I nodded as I yanked the wig off, carefully tucking it and the tinted spectacles into the rucksack before I started doing a few stretches. I bent and twisted and reached until I could feel my muscles loosening up.

As I stretched, I asked Liam if he’d named his wolf yet. He grinned, looking pleased. “Yes, I think I’d like to call him Dax.”

A worried look came over his face. “Do you think he’ll like it?”

I snorted. “If he’s anything like I'ikki, he’ll be fine with it. When I asked her what she’d like her name to be, she said, ‘One cares not for one is wolf.’ But if you’re concerned, you can always wait and try to ask him later.”

Liam considered for a moment and then shook his head. “No, I think I’ll stick with Dax, that way I can start calling him by name now.”

“Why don’t you try his name when we shift? And don’t forget - ask him, don’t command him. He’s your wolf and a part of you, not just some tool to control.”

Liam nodded in understanding as I retrieved the rucksack and shrugged it back onto my shoulders.

“Are you ready, wife?”

“Almost. One last thing before we go.”

I stepped close to him and reached up to cup his face in my hands. I pulled at him until he leaned down and we shared a soft, warm kiss. “I wanted a kiss under the moonlight.”

His lips curved up in a gentle smile and he leaned his forehead against mine for a moment.

When we broke apart, I took a few steps away from him so that our wolves wouldn’t bump into each other as we shifted and so that the energy wouldn’t knock me down again like the last time he’d shifted in front of me.

I reached out to I'ikki. Shall we, little sister?

Her response was a sharp bark of happiness and then I felt her power surging through me and in a tenth of a second, we were wolf.

Since we changed more quickly than Liam, we watched him become surrounded by a shimmer of light and then his body began to change, morphing into his wolf form. It took less time than when he’d shifted before so we hoped that it meant he’d asked Dax instead of trying to force him. After a few seconds, the beautiful black wolf stood next to us and we looked into the moonlit eyes that were exactly the same color as Liam’s human eyes.

Liam-Dax barked sharply, just once, the sound ringing out in the hushed forest, and then they took off at a full run. With no hesitation, we ran after them, hot on their heels. They were much larger than us, so were faster and soon outpaced us by a fair bit. But our smaller size and years of constant toil gave us more endurance and we soon caught up and then passed them by.

When we reached a small creek, we stopped to wait for them, taking a long drink from the gently burbling water. After our thirst was quenched, we sat staring up at the moon. It was far more beautiful than it had ever been when I’d gazed at it from within the citadel walls.

One is happy.

It gladdens my heart to hear that, little sister.

Will one be free from now on?

Yes, but it may cost us our lives.

Better that than to never again feel the warmth of the sun on one’s fur, or to feel the thrill of the hunt.

You speak truth, I'ikki.

Our ears perked up at a distant sound.

Our mate comes.

Aye. One wishes to hunt. One hungers.

I could feel her desire to hunt, to feed. She didn’t technically need to eat in the real world; the food I ate in human form sufficed. But she did need to feed her wolves spirit. In Astmenai, I had often hunted and fed in wolf form just to satisfy that need for her, though I was too human to care for the taste of raw meat and blood.

Then we shall hunt.

I could feel her joy and her joy was mine, as well.

Liam-Dax came out of the tree line and slowed to a walk as they neared us. They came to the edge of the water and lapped at it before sitting next to us, our haunches touching. They were panting, so we waited several moments for them to catch their breath.

When their breathing slowed, we stood and trotted away, pausing after a few steps to look at them over our shoulder, inviting them to follow us.

They yipped and followed us back into the trees. Soon, we scented rabbit, a favorite of I'ikki’s, though it would take more than one to satisfy her appetite. We followed the trail to its burrough, but it was empty.

We resumed the hunt, scenting many animals, but most were too small or up in the trees where we could not reach in our wolf forms. And then we caught a familiar scent and we led Liam-Dax to a turkey nest. The hen was nowhere to be found, perhaps having been scared off or eaten by another predator, but she had left behind her clutch, much to I'ikki’s delight. It wasn’t the hunt she had craved but she absolutely loved eggs, so it would do for now.

Carefully, we took one of the eggs into our mouth and laid it at Liam-Dax’s feet. They just stared at it as if they didn’t know what to do with it. It occurred to us they likely had never eaten raw wild eggs before.

Lowering our face to the egg, we gently applied pressure with our teeth so as not to make it explode. When it cracked in half, we nudged at the shell with our nose to move it out of the way and then licked at the thick liquid within.

Once we were done, we grabbed another egg and placed it once more at Liam-Dax’s feet. They mimicked what we had shown them but used far too much force and the egg burst, squirting gooey liquid everywhere. We growled at them both in laughter and in admonishment and gave them another egg. This time, they were gentler and successfully cracked the egg open. They lapped at it and made a pleased chuffing sound.

We ate the entire clutch and I'ikki’s appetite was sated for the time being. I promised her we would hunt again soon.

We resumed our journey, this time loping along together with Liam-Dax instead of racing. After a couple of hours, we could see that they were beginning to flag so we lifted our nose, scenting at the air to see if we could find someplace to sleep for the rest of the night.

In short order, we found a small cave that smelled of foxes, but the scent was several weeks old so there was little risk of having the previous inhabitants return.

We lay next to each other in our wolf forms, our backs just barely touching as the warm summer night made it too uncomfortable to snuggle closer.

Liam-Dax was asleep within seconds. As we listened to the sound of their slow, deep breathing, we sent a quick prayer to our goddess thanking her for the hunt. As we drifted off, we thought we heard the soft tinkling of bells like those Selene had worn in the vision. We were asleep before we could decipher what the bells meant.