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.It meant friends were nearby.His own voice joined the reply when it was their turn to howl.By midnight they neared the edge of the wood, running along a wide clearing that ended in a thin screen of trees.Beyond them, Darrow remembered, lay the first of the farmsteads.The muscles in his back and shoulders began to tense, and his mane bristled in anticipation of an attack.He did not have long to wait.A huge bird descended silently toward the pack, blotting out the moon and the stars with its passage.It was a gigantic owl with a wingspan over three times Darrow's height.The wolves flinched as they sensed its presence then turned to look at it as it screeched, passing them.It was the perfect distraction.A shower of arrows fell among the pack, many sprouting from the wolves' bodies.Darrow felt fire crease his ribs and tried to dance away from it.The arrow had only grazed him, but the pain was sharp and persistent."Silver!" he wanted to yell, but all he could do was bark a general warning.It was redundant, as all the wolves could now smell the human scent nearby.A second volley fell on the nearest cluster of wolves.A wolf called Corvus yelped and thrashed on the ground, then lay still.Rusk ran for the edge of the wood with four wolves following close behind.Darrow ran after them in time to see five archers retreating from the tree line.They did not panic, nor did they fall back far, for they had an ally.A lion the size of a cottage covered their retreat.Its pelt was incandescent, as white as the swollen moon.The moonlion's mane was a brilliant corona, and its eyes were blue flames.Its open mouth looked like a cavern full of swords.With a thunderous roar, it ran toward the oncoming wolves.Darrow hesitated, cowed by the sight of the colossal beast.Ahead of him, Rusk paused only long enough to see that a dozen more wolves had emerged from the forest.Then he rushed toward the lion.At first he looked awkward on his three legs, but he was still nimble enough to dart away to avoid the monstrous lion's pounce.Even from his safe distance, Darrow felt the vibration as the lion's immense mass hit the ground.The wolves ringed the giant lion, darting in to bite at its flanks when they dared.Ronan's teeth caught the lion's thigh, and the creature roared as it whirled around to slash at him.Ronan barely escaped the scythelike claws, leaping away as they formed deep furrows in the earth where he had crouched an instant earlier.Rusk and Morrel took advantage of the lion's distraction, wetting their fangs before retreating.The lion's blood was black under the moonlight.Darrow saw that its tiny wounds closed almost as quickly as they appeared.Rusk must have noticed it as well, for he broke off to leave the rest of the pack harrying their foe.The great sil-verback rose up on his hind legs, smoothly transforming into human form.He stood naked except for the bronze talisman of Malar.Pointing at the archers, he chanted a prayer to Malar.Red light flashed from his hand to strike the men.Three of them loosed their arrows, while two stood paralyzed by Rusk's magic."You," he shouted at the wolves nearest him, including Darrow."Kill them all."Eight nightwalkers and dire wolves broke off at his command, but the archers also heard.They adjusted their aim and shot at their attackers.Two wolves went down, and Brigid shied away with an arrow through her hind leg.Darrow ran under the legs of one of the men, knocking him to the ground.Before he turned back to bite the man, Sorcia was already at the archer's throat.Her muzzle was dark with blood.The other wolves had already dispatched the moving archers.Darrow and Sorcia leaped on the paralyzed archers, knocking their rigid bodies to the ground."Get away from them!" snapped a woman's voice.Without daring to look toward the woman, Darrow sprinted out of the way just in time to avoid the searing ray of silver light that washed over the other wolves.Two of them vanished in a red mist, while the other three yelped and ran for the woods.Like Darrow, Sorcia had not hesitated to flee at the sound of Maleva's voice.After avoiding the initial attack, she turned toward the cleric.Darrow wanted nothing to do with the terrible magic she cast, but he couldn't leave Sorcia to face her alone.He ran close behind, cursing her silently.They would have hit her before she could invoke her goddess again, but a powerful compulsion made Darrow veer away at the last moment.He saw that the magic had the same effect on Sorcia.Seeing that her spell worked, Maleva ignored the werewolves and knelt to tend one of the fallen archers.Darrow saw that she was bleeding, but he had seen no one strike her.In the instant before he turned to run away, he saw a gash appear on her cheek.At the same time, he heard the moonlion roar in pain.Darrow ran back to Rusk.Sorcia followed his lead this time.The bodies of two dire wolves lay torn apart on the ground beneath the moonlion, as did the broken human figure of a werewolf called Mandor.Darrow knew that a dead nightwalker always reverted to the form of his birth, but the sight still shocked him.The surviving wolves continued to harry the moonlion, as Rusk sang more prayers to Malar.Magical power surged into the Huntmaster, and his body rippled with unholy strength.His remaining hand had grown huge and clawed.Razor sharp talons curved from his thick fingers.Darrow needed his human shape to warn Rusk of what he'd seen.With a searing effort, he willed himself to transform.It was much harder when he was frightened, but his message couldn't wait.The pain left him on hands and knees, even after he had a human mouth."Maleva is here," he said, pointing back to the archers."She's taking the lion's wounds on herself."Rusk spied his nemesis, who was healing herself after reviving the archers who had survived.The foresters fled now, leaving the cleric alone to support the moonlion."Then give her some of her own," growled Rusk."Don't be a coward!""We tried," said Darrow."She is warded."Rusk nodded almost absently."Let's see what we can do about that."He cast his own spell, jabbing his hand toward Maleva.Darrow saw no effects of the spell.Maleva continued with her own chanting, and her wounds vanished under the white glow of her palms.With a curse, Rusk tried again.This time his spell caused Maleva to start and raise her hands to defend her face.She took a cautious step back and turned her head from side to side.The spell had taken her sight.Rusk laughed with cruel satisfaction."That should make things more interesting."He cast another spell upon himself before running toward the blinded cleric."Follow me," he said.Darrow obeyed, and Sorcia followed also.By the time Rusk reached Maleva, the cleric had dispelled the blindness, but now her clothes were steeped in blood.She reeled from the effects of her sympathetic wounds, and a glance back at the melee confirmed for Darrow that the battle was finally turning against the gigantic moonlion.When Maleva saw Rusk charging her, she raised one hand and held her holy symbol in the other.It was the same gesture she had made before destroying the other werewolves."Selune, send—" Rusk's clawed hand gripped her throat [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]