The Shadows of Night by Ellen Fisher Read Free Book Online Page B

yet hungry enough to eat more grass.
    Half an hour later, she left the outskirts of the town behind, crossed the vast emerald meadows that surrounded the town, and struck out into the forest.
     
    *****
     
    It felt good to be outside, in the night air.   It was a long distance back to Claw territory, particularly in her slower human form, but she settled into an easy lope that she could sustain for many miles.   The cool breeze brushed her cheeks as she jogged, and the familiar stars brightened above her as the sky darkened.
    The smaller moon was three quarters full, but the greater moon had not yet risen, which was unfortunate, because her human eyes did not have the night vision she needed for the trip.   But if she were to avoid capture, she must travel at night.   The Claw Kindred were the only people who generally went abroad by night, so by traveling at night she hoped to avoid the Fangs.  
    Of course, the Fang Kindred had attacked her in the night once before.   But she put that thought out of her mind.   Prong, after all, had been attacked in the daytime.   She must travel sometime, and nighttime seemed like the better choice.
    For the first time, she let herself wonder exactly what had happened to the younger lord.   She hadn’t gotten a good look at his injuries, but the strong smell of blood suggested he had been quite badly injured.   She had assumed he had been attacked by the Fang Kindred, just as she had.   But he might just as well have been attacked by her own people, who would certainly seek retribution for her capture if they had somehow discovered it.   Either way, he was lucky to have survived.
    It mattered not to her, she assured herself.   The Antler meant nothing to her.   She hated them for their attempt to keep her, to use her as leverage.   She loathed them for putting a collar on her, as if she were a pet, and preventing her from using her shifting abilities.   People, after all, weren’t meant to stay in one form forever.   If the myths were true, perhaps humans had only had a single form, once upon a time, but that had been centuries ago.
    She wanted to shift.   She needed to shift.   The wild animal seethed inside her, frustrated, hungry for release.
    Despite her anger at the Antler, she found herself thinking about the lord.   Not Prong, but his brother.  
    How did he feel now that his own brother had been so badly injured?   What if the brother died?   Surely Hart would mourn.   Would he weep?
    Somewhere in the depths of her soul, she found a sympathy for Hart that surprised her, and a curious longing to comfort him.   She reminded herself that she hated him, but the thought had lost much of its force.   He had treated her well, and if his mother were to be believed, he hadn’t wanted to keep her as a prisoner.   Certainly that was the impression she had garnered from his conversation with the monarch.   He had only been doing his duty—something she really couldn’t hold against him.
    She had been jogging through the underbrush at a steady pace for an hour when she heard the faint sound of hoofbeats behind her.   Cursing, she broke into a full run, knowing all the while that it was fruitless.   She couldn’t outrun an Antler in human form.
    Sure enough, the hoofbeats grew steadily nearer.   She was fairly certain by the sound that only one Antler was in pursuit.
    She was surprised the Antler had managed to track her so readily—since they were not predators, they knew little of tracking, and their noses were not as sensitive as the Fang and Claw.   She’d done what she could to throw them off her trail, but obviously she’d failed.
    More out of instinct than anything else, she shimmied up the nearest tree and crouched in a tree limb.
    Moments later, a large and magnificent stag came into view, a barely visible shadow in the moonlit darkness.   Katara looked down at him, feeling a strange tightness constrict her throat.   It was Hart.   She was