Dave Gross - Black Wolf

"Are they all nightwalkers?"

"Yes, but Rusk also leads a wider congregation on festival days. Even the good folk are afraid to turn him out of their villages at festival."

"I don't understand that," said Chaney. He crooked his fingers above his head and capered like a goblin." Tm the great bloody monster of an animal god, here to devour your children. Please come to my ceremony, and don't be stingy at the offering box.' "

"You have no idea what you're talking about," said Feena.

"No," agreed Chaney, "you're right. I might be ignorant in the ways of rural beast gods, but it seems ludicrous to invite some barking madman into town when you know his people turn into wolves and eat folk."

"That's not all they do," said Feena. "They're hunters, and they don't prey on the villagers."

"Why are you defending them?" asked Tal.

"I'm not defending them," said Feena. "I'm explaining why the people pay their respects to their god. You live in a port city. Don't your sailors pray to Umberlee?"

"Sure," said Chaney. "They pay tribute so the Sea Queen doesn't sink their ships."

"Ye-es?" drawled Feena, encouraging Chaney to make the connection.

"They're warding off evil," said Tal. "Like paying off bandits to leave your caravans alone."

"Ha! You sound like Thamalon when you put it that way," said Chaney.

"You take that back!" said Tal, capturing his friend in a headlock. They wrestled in mock combat for a moment before realizing that Feena was staring at them impatiently.

"How old are you two?"

"I'm one-and-twenty," said Chaney, squirming out of Tal's hold. "This big lout's the baby, though you wouldn't think it to look at him."

"You're both behaving like ten-year-old boys."

"We were just having a bit of fun," said Chaney. "You could stand to have a little fun yourself. In a few years, they'll be calling you an old maid."

Tal winced at Chaney's crass remark. Feena was probably still a few years shy of thirty, but she was in no danger of appearing past her prime. True, her round hips and unrestrained breasts were not noble Selgaunt's feminine ideal, but Tal doubted she cared about city ideals.

"I'm not here for fun," she said, turning her back on Chaney and stabbing a finger at Tal. "I'm here to look after you."

"I don't need looking after."

"Besides, that's my job," said Chaney, puffing out his chest. "I watch his back."

Feena snorted derisively. "Why do I have the feeling you're the one who gets him into trouble?"

"Hey!" protested Chaney.

"Hm," observed Tal. Remembrance of the attack on the High Bridge darkened his thoughts, but he was too pleased that Feena had turned her sharp tongue back on Chaney to dwell on it. "She's more perceptive than she looks."

"Hey!"

"Let me guess," said Tal, voicing a thought he had been considering since the moment of Feena's return. "You're the one Dhauna Myritar sent to help me."

Feena lifted her chin. "That's right," she said, "and she also told me you promised to cooperate."

Tal laughed. "We'll see about that," he said. "Now come on. Here's the place."

He nodded at a small shop whose sign depicted a pie through which poked the heads of three singing blackbirds, and through its door came the savory odor of chicken pies. They went inside and found a vacant table, where the proprietor took their orders and left them with a steaming pot of the hot black tea Sembians favored.

"Mother says she's sure Rusk is alive," said Feena. She poured for Chaney and Tal before filling her own cup.

"How does she know?" asked Tal.

"I don't know," Feena answered. "Sometimes she just knows things, and it does no good to ask how."

She looked down at the table, and Tal realized she must be as frustrated with her mother as he had been with Chaney.

"If that ambulatory carpet comes back here," said Chaney brightly, "Tal's going to lop off his other arm." The table rocked as Tal kicked him in the shins. "Ow! Well, you said so yourself, didn't you?"

"You were lucky last time," said Feena, fixing Tal's eyes with her own. "You realize that, don't you?"

"Maybe," said Tal.

Feena's face flushed as she raised a finger to berate him.

"Yes, I was lucky," Tal added before she could speak. "I know, but I also didn't know he was coming. Now I'm better prepared."

"With what? That great ridiculous beam you call a sword? Rusk can stop you with a word. The only reason he didn't do it last time was because he was seducing you."

"Seducing me?" said Tal, grimacing at the word. "He didn't even buy me dinner."

"Can you be serious for once and listen to what I'm telling you?"

"We're quarreling again, aren't we?" said Chaney. "You two should just rent a room and get it out of your systems." He pushed back from the table before Tal could land another kick.

"All I'm saying is that you need a plan if you want to be ready for Rusk." Feena tossed back her tea and slammed the ceramic cup on the table. Tal refilled it.

"Wait a moment," said Tal. "Rusk hasn't gone back to his lair, right?"

"Right, as far as we can tell."

"So where in the Nine Hells has he been hiding all this time?"

"Perhaps somewhere in Selgaunt," suggested Feena.

"He's not exactly inconspicuous," said Chaney. "He'd have to have someplace to hide for those two or three months."

"Somehow, I don't see Rusk spending that time at an inn," said Tal. "He must have friends in the city. What do you think, Feena?"

She thought for a moment before answering. "It's possible," she said. "Rusk is older than he looks. Mother said he roamed all over Sembia when he was young."

"If he was interested in you the whole time," said Chaney, "then it all started with that hunting trip. Whose idea was that?"

"I don't remember," said Tal. "One of the Soargyls, maybe."

"Wasn't it Alale who actually invited you?"

"Maybe," said Tal with a frown. "Dark and empty! I think it was."

"Why don't you ask him?" said Feena. "Maybe he has some connection to Rusk."

"He does," said Tal. "Or rather, he did. He's the one Rusk killed in my tallhouse last winter."

Tal's appetite vanished as he remembered waking up to find the man's mutilated body in his own bedroom. At first he feared he'd done the killing himself. Later, Feena assured him that she'd seen Rusk commit the murder in an effort to inflame Tal's bloodlust. Tal remembered none of it, for he remained completely unconscious of what occurred while he was in wolf form.

"That means Alale can't have been the one hiding him all this time," said Chaney. "If he has a friend in the city, it's someone else."

"Good thinking," said Feena.

Chaney missed her sarcastic tone and basked in the compliment.

"We can work on figuring out who Rusk's city friends are," said Tal, "but I'm more interested in finding out what he wants with me. Dhauna was very nice, but she didn't tell me anything about that."

" 'Dhauna,' is it?"

"Yes," said Tal. "We hit it off. You could say we're friends."

"She's the high priestess of Selune!"

Tal smiled over his teacup. "She likes me."

Feena turned away but glanced back at him out of the corner of her eyes. Rather than rise to the bait, she returned to the subject at hand. "Mother will give us a sending if someone spots Rusk."

"Isn't it dangerous for her to stay so close to the pack?" asked Tal. "Even with two of you there, aren't you horribly outnumbered?"

"She can take care of herself," said Feena. "Selune grants strong powers against shapechangers."

"They didn't stop Rusk last time," said Tal.

"That wasn't our fault," protested Feena. "He surprised us. It didn't help that you'd locked yourself inside a cage and were no help in the beginning."

"I was only in the cage to keep from hurting-"