White Moon

Chapter 3

I parted ways with Phyllis and Anya outside the Seamstresses shop. Both were giddy with excitement over the new clothes – two dresses for Phylis and one for Anya on the days she helped – which were to be their work uniform. At first, Phyllis tried to refuse but I pointed out that the nobility were just as much snobs to the clothing of their workers as they were their own, which convinced her pretty quickly.

Night had fallen while we had been occupied at the shop, and although not totally dark yet, the gas lamps had been lit. I moved along the streets of the main square joining the hordes of merchants and their apprentices as they closed up for the day and headed home. Soon the streets would be all but deserted with only the patrons of the various taverns lending their voices to the night air as they celebrated the end of another work day.

With only a day before the shops opened, I felt restless with excitement and nervous energy. Despite the fact that I had done this twice before, the feelings never faded. Already the servants of several noble families had stopped by with questions about the establishment and quarries to open accounts. Things were going far better than I expected… at least on that front.

I made a mental note to stop at the treasurer's office early tomorrow to set up the various accounts I needed. I would also need to stop by the carrier's house. The shipment of Klineroot tea should have arrived and I needed to send my thanks to Jeanine, my supplier from the North. All in all, everything was on track.

Still, I found that I didn’t particularly feel like being cooped up at home with all this energy moving through me. Making a last-minute decision, I took a left at the end of the road, taking the path that led away from home and towards the edge of the main square.

While Arisai was surrounded by walls from all sides, the careful planning of the city had made it so that the further you traveled from the city center – the main square and the Second Square – the more wooded the area became, ending in a small band of forested area just before the walls. Depending on your direction, the band was larger the closer to the north of the city you were - roughly fifty acres - and smaller further south, which was about half, if not a third, of the size of the northern parts.

I snorted.

It definitely didn’t have anything to do with the distribution of wealth throughout the city or so the chancellors would have you believe. It must have also been a coincidence that those same chancellors were rich beyond all belief and just happened to reside in the north of the city.

As I left the confines of the city and stepped into the darkness of the woods, I felt the wildness normally kept at bay take over. Here the light of the gas lamps was all but a distant glimmer and the moon shone its silvery light on everything it touched. I walked further into the dense woods letting Razia expand my senses.

Others were out tonight, the closest wolf pack several minutes away. From the sounds of their excitement - and the number and sound of paws hitting the ground - I would hazard a guess that it was a family. Rare, as usually only one or two members were wolf-marked.

I walked further until I was well away from any of the other wolves and found an old tree stump with a hallowed space in its bark. Perfect. I stripped, folded my clothes, and neatly placed them in the tree before allowing the change to take me. The faint blue lines of magic wrapped around me and in no sooner than a blink, a sky-eyed, white wolf with blue markings was standing where a girl once stood. I felt Razias' consciousness come forward to take the reins as she stretched, shaking out our fur before she bounded off with her new freedom.

"Stay hidden." I cautioned her before letting her fully take over. She snorted at my words but I knew she would listen. Razia and I had a unique bond. The easiest way to explain it was that of two spirits sharing the same bodies. In reality, while she could not take over when I was human, she was mostly in control when I was a wolf, though I could still take over the wolf if I felt I needed to.

I didn't know what it was like for other guardian wolves, but the few wolf-marked I had interacted with claimed that they were in full control of the wolf the whole time they were shifted - essentially the same person in a different body.

I watched the world fly by through her eyes and let my mind drift in the void that was our shared mind. I allowed the worries that had been pushed away to come forward. Being in the capital city was dangerous for me and only a witch with a death sentence willingly decided to reside in the city that was home to Amelia's guardians. But the goddess had given me little choice in the matter. I just hoped she offered me a little protection at least, but knowing her, she was more likely to cause me to slip up in the middle of her children, just to get her rocks off.

I pushed my consciousness forward. "Do you sense any of your kin?"

"Not close by," she replied "Besides, did you think her grace would make it that easy?"

She got me there.

"Where do you sense them?"

"North."

I sighed, then sunk back into the void. I was hoping they would be closer. The Northern forests were heavily warded and I wasn't walking through them without an invitation... or some serious and definitely noticeable magic. My mind kept wandering, thinking of all the things I had to do both with the shop and Amalias' not-so-little task as Razia played and hunted well into the night.

~

The moon was high when I decided to finally take over and return home. We made our way back to the stump that held my clothes and I let go of the magic of the wolf, returning to my human form once more.

I got dressed as quickly as I could, the cold night air doing nothing for my coordination as my hand shook. Once everything was in place, I turned back, making the trek home.

Razia appeared at my side, a quiet companion. Her spectral form rubbed against me, lending me her body heat. I stifled a yawn as we got closer to home, my limbs feeling heavy from all the exercise. Turning the bend that would have me passing by the rowdy ravens as the quickest way to get home, I came to a sight that stopped me short and frustrated me. A fight had spilled into the street, with patrons from the surrounding areas coming out in droves to spectate and cheer on the fighters. The road was so densely packed that I had little doubt that I would be able to successfully navigate the masses without having to fend off a wandering hand or two. Or starting another fight.

I groaned as I turned around, backtracking and taking an upper street route that would take me past the main square, making the journey that much longer.

"You could always just persuade them to move along or make a clear path for you," Razia commented unhelpfully.

I grunted in reply, not bothering to dignify her comment with an answer.

"It would certainly be the fastest way to find The Alpha."

She wasn't wrong but, "I would really like to complete this errand without losing my life. Thank you."

We continued on in silence and what seemed like an eternity - but was only likely just about 10 minutes - before the building housing the shop came into view. I let out a relieved sigh, as my muscles loosened and began to relax, thinking of my bed just a few more feet away. I walked around the side of the shop to the back, unlatched the back gate, stopped short, closed my eyes, and groaned.

Because lying there on the path halfway between the back gate and the doorstep was a man passed out drunk.

"Why me?"

Razia chuckled in amusement at my distress and padded forward to check on my unwanted guest.

"He is fine just sleeping off his drink," she concluded, her voice tinged with amusement. "Leave him. The cold should do him some good."

Any other time I would have wondered why the prickly wolf found this situation amusing when she notoriously hated people in what she considered her private space, but I was just too tired to care.

"I just can't leave him here," I argued back. It was still early enough in spring that the nights could get brutally cold. "I don't want to deal with a dead body come morning."

"Wouldn't be the first time," she commented, but I ignored her walking up to the man and considering my options, or option really. I had to get him inside.

"I need your strength to get him inside." she snorted and padded away.

"If you want to bring him in, then you have to do it yourself." With those parting words, she phased through the back door.

I narrowed my eyes at the door. Yeah, I couldn't wait to get rid of her.

In the dark, all I could make out was his light hair - probably blond - and straight nose, but not much else. I hefted the man up using my shoulder to support him - he weighed a considerable amount - and slowly navigated the rest of the way to the shop and up the stairs.

By the time I made it up to my tiny apartment, I was out of breath and more exhausted than I had ever been. Razia was already resting at the foot of the bed and paid me no mind. At least she had been kind enough to start the fire. I leaned my charge against a wall as I set out some blankets by the fire, then pulled him over and deposited him. With my good deed for the day sorted, I turned and headed for my bed, falling into the blankets. My last thought was a reminder to myself to wake up early to check on my unwanted guest before promptly passing out.

~

"Wake up."

I jolted awake at the loud demand spoken in my head, then instantly went still.

"I told you your bleeding heart would get you killed."

She wouldn't have been wrong if the angry green eyes staring down at me and the blade at my throat had anything to say about it.