The Silvered by Tanya Huff Read Free Book Online

close enough to touch when he changed. “When this is over…” The growl smoothed out of his voice with every word. “…and we have a moment to ourselves, you and I will have to talk.”
    She kept her eyes on his face. Mostly. There were lines and shadows there hadn’t been last night at the Opera House. Lines at the edges of his mouth. Shadows in and under his eyes. He looked older. He looked like he hadn’t slept. His intensity was still…disconcerting. “We have a moment now,” she said.
    “No. Promises made before battles bring bad luck. But after…” He grinned, showing teeth. “After the battle, Mirian Maylin who smells amazing, I will find you and we
will
talk.”
    Mirian took a deep breath. He smelled like sweat, just on the edge of becoming rank and she wished she had his nose, his certainty. But he made her feel as though she trembled on the edge of an abyss and that uncertainty would have to be certainty enough. Discarding half a dozen responses, she reached out, laid two fingertips against the damp skin over his heart, and said, “Yes.”
    That seemed to be answer enough. A heartbeat later, the wolf stood where the man had been and a heartbeat after that, he turned and raced back toward the boulevard.
    She watched him for a moment, then pivoted on one heel, walked to the carriage, accepted Jon the coachman’s hand with a smile, and settled into the seat beside her father.
    “Mirian!” Her mother’s eyes were so wide the whites showed allthe way around. “That was Jaspyr Hagen. Cousin to the Pack Leader!”
    Mirian discarded another half a dozen responses, wiped damp palms on her skirt, and settled for, “I know.”

    “You will stop them at the border.”
    “Is that an order, my love?”
    “It is. And here’s another…” Danika wrapped her hands behind Ryder’s neck and locked her eyes with his. “…return safely and soon.”
    He bent his head and kissed her, then buried his face in her hair, inhaling her scent. It was something he’d done a hundred, a thousand times over the years of their marriage, and Danika refused to read anything more into it now.
    She let him go when he stepped away, even though holding on seemed a perfectly reasonable thing to do. When he changed, she stroked the soft fur on his muzzle and murmured, “Do try to stay out of the burrs, beloved. You know how much you hate having your tail brushed.”
    He licked her hand, pushed his face up against her belly, then pivoted on one rear foot and raced along the wide boulevard that led out of the city, toward the border. Tomas and Jaspyr fell in behind, with them the other four males who’d stayed in Bercarit to help maintain order.
    “Lady Hagen, we need to leave.”
    Lady Berin. Lord Berin had gone to the border. Although Ryder wouldn’t have sent him, he hadn’t stopped the old wolf.
    Danika raised a hand to acknowledge she’d heard. The Pack’s carriages were among the last remaining in the city, the five of the Mage-pack tasked to guard the rear of the column. She whispered, “I love you.” Sent it on a breeze to Ryder. Turned, much as he had given the differences between two legs and four, and took her place in the carriage.

    “I can’t see how this’ll hold anything, Cap.”
    Before Lieutenant Lord Geurin could find words to go with hisscowl, Reiter carefully gathered the gold net dangling between two of Chard’s fingers, and piled it into the soldier’s palm. “You just have to throw it, Private. None of us has to understand how it works.”
    “The tangles are ancient artifacts,” the lieutenant snapped. “They’ll do their jobs if we do ours.”
    “But…”
    Reiter raised a hand to cut off Chard’s protest. “Up the tree, throw the tangle among the carriages, down the tree, take the neutralized mages to the empire. Simple. Now, get your ass up the tree.”
    As he settled into the underbrush by the side of Trouge Road, Reiter had to admit the Soothsayers had chosen the perfect place for