Chapter 7: The Letter Was a Good One

By the time I turned onto the north road, it was fully dark.

The road ran through tall pines, and I had not seen another car in twenty minutes.

At the last bend, a fallen tree lay across the asphalt.

"Great," I said aloud. "Perfect timing."

I slowed, put the car in reverse and swung the wheel to turn around.

My headlights swept the trees.

Something moved in the shadows.

My stomach dropped, and I jerked the wheel.

At the same moment, dark shapes burst out of the woods and ringed the car.

They were wolves, a dozen of them, big and gray and low to the ground, and every pair of eyes had a flat, patient shine.

One stepped into the headlights and became a man.

He was heavy in the shoulders, with black hair gone gray at the temples and a scar down his jaw.

"Evening," he said, and licked a canine. "I wondered whether Draven let his little mate wander the roads alone. Apparently he does."

"The hearing is at the shrine," I said through the windshield. "I have a letter."

"The hearing is at the shrine," he agreed. "The letter was a good one, wasn't it? The wax is real. An Elder's clerk got careless."

I slammed my foot down on the gas.

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