Wolf's Eye Read online

  Wolf’s Eyes

  By: Rae D. Magdon

  Dedication: First, to my Mistress, the keeper of my heart. You make me feel so safe, loved, and confident. I can’t wait to be your wife. Second, to everyone who personally e-mailed me and told me that they enjoyed the first story. This is for you guys.

  A Special Note To: Lee Fitzsimmons, my wonderful beta reader! I don’t know what I would have done without you

  Feedback: [email protected] I would love to hear from you!

  Part One:

  As told by Cathelin Raybrook, recorded by Lady Eleanor of Baxstresse

  …

  Chapter One:

  Clouds hung in dark bundles against a murky-gray sky. The brown dirt racetrack stretched out below us and the crowd around it shifted and rumbled. There was a tiny moving dot of color for each figure. So many people! This was my first time in Ronin, the capital of Seria, and I was overwhelmed by the size of the crowd.

  The Ronin Track was marvelous, even with the threat of rain. Horses with colored blankets on their backs tossed their heads, ears flicking and muscles twitching. Voices rose and fell in swells of sound, like rolling waves. Their energy passed through the stands and up into the private box where Belladonna, Ellie, Sarah, and I sat. Lady Kingsclere, the owner of the box, leaned over the railing.

  “Isn’t this exciting, Cate?” Sarah said breathlessly. Her hands were clasped in her lap. “We are actually at the Prince’s Cup in a private box!”

  “Not a very original name, is it? The Prince’s Cup,” Belladonna commented. She was tall, even while sitting down. Her dark, glossy hair and pale blue eyes drew attention. A few months before, she had been a brooding and unhappy person. Now she was lighthearted, poetic, and a bit of a tease. That was my friend Ellie’s doing.

  “Look, Belle, I think I can see Brahms and Cor.” Ellie left her place beside Belladonna and joined Lady Kingsclere at the railing. She was much smaller, with fair hair and a pleasant freckled face. Ellie had a special bond with the horses. She was Ariada – a witch – like me. Her gift was speaking with animals.

  I looked down. Corynne D’Reixa and Brahmsian Synng were being walked around the track. Both sported Baxstresse’s blue and white colors. Corynne was older and wiser than Brahms. She had won the Prince’s Cup five times in three years, but strained her left foreleg in her last race. She was in good condition again, but getting older. She would have to retire soon.

  Brahms was a full brother to Corynne. This was his first race. Competing against his sister would be difficult. He was inexperienced, but he was powerful and fast. Both of their odds were very good. I placed no bets, of course.

  “Nervous, my love?” Belladonna called to Ellie, who was twisting the skirt of her dress in fidgeting hands.

  Ellie gave her a cautioning look. “Careful, Belle, this box is open. People could hear…” She could not help glancing around to make sure that no one was looking at her, even though we were all in a private box.

  Tongues started wagging over a year ago, when Lady Kingsclere married a wealthy merchant named Roland. Ellie was his daughter. After thieves killed Roland, Lady Kingsclere took to her bed. Some said she was ill, some said she had gone mad. Really, it had been magic. Luciana, the eldest Kingsclere child, was keeping her mother sick and tried to cast a spell on Prince Brendan. When she was caught, the Kingsclere family became the subject of all the high-class gossip.

  “Stop listening to it, then. Some of the rumors say that my mother was planning to run off with the Prince herself,” Belladonna reminded Ellie. “And do you remember the one where you tried to poison the King?”

  “Yes, but those never actually happened.”

  “Rejecting the Prince’s marriage proposal made it worse, darling.” Ellie blushed bright red. That piece of information had sent the aristocracy into an uproar. None of them could figure out why Ellie had turned down a Prince. She offered no explanations, so they made up their own.

  “And as far as they know,” Belladonna continued, “the rumor that we are lovers is just as unlikely as the rest of them. No one cares about my peccadilloes. If they do suspect, let them. Our family has always been labeled as eccentric…”

  “But rich,” Sarah interrupted. “And powerful.”

  “And close to the Prince.” I gave Sarah a meaningful glance. She blushed to the roots of her wind-tossed brown hair, but did not tease me back. That was unusual. Sarah was infatuated with Prince Brendan. We all knew. But perhaps it was more serious than I thought.

  “Belladonna is rubbing off on you, Cate,” Ellie mumbled, fidgeting at the railing.

  Belladonna rose and put a hand on the back of Ellie’s waist. They made a striking picture – Ellie with her white dress and soft, honey-colored hair, and Belladonna with her pale skin and blue eyes. They matched her dress, which was off the shoulder and very lovely. Belladonna was tall, with sheets of muscle, and a neat flair to her hips. Ellie fit snugly against her side, tucked under one arm.

  Whenever I looked at the couple, I felt a strange emotion that I could not identify. It was not jealousy. More like… longing. I just knew that I wanted – something…

  The racetrack suddenly grew more vivid around me. I could pick out different smells: sweat and warm bodies, overpowering perfume, and under that, fresh, sweet grass. Outside of our box, they would have been even stronger. My eyes glazed like I wanted to sleep, but I did not feel tired. My throat knotted and I found it hard to breathe. My heart hammered fast against my ribs.

  I saw rippling bodies surge forward in a cloud of dust. Brown and gray horses drummed over the scraped smooth track. The edges of my sight were blurry, indistinct, as though I was looking in a smudged mirror or a murky pool. The white and blue colors of Baxstresse flickered, flaring bright like a candle flame and then stuttering back. Brahms had broken early and was pulling away. A large black horse in red and gold, with a bright beaked eagle crest, heaved behind him. Corynne was a head behind that.

  This was not the actual race. I Knew. It was something else.

  The three leaders pulled left. Swerving sharply, the red horse jerked to the side. His shoulder caught the round part of Brahms’ broad flank. I felt a scream rise in my throat, but could not release it. My breath came hard and sharp. I could hear Brahms’ leg as the bone snapped, smell the sweat and blood. My chest ached from the harsh drumming of my heart.

  “Cate! Can you hear me? Cate!” The voice was muffled, like sound traveling underwater. “Cate?”

  There were different voices swimming in my head, different faces shifting in and out of focus before my eyes. Everything was blurry. I latched on to the first person that I recognized.

  “Ellie, what happened?”

  One of her hands was in my hair to hold my head steady. She said, “we should be asking you that question. You screamed ‘no’ and fell over.” I realized that I was sprawled on the hard floor of the private box. “Are you all right?”

  “Brahms,” I blurted out. My mouth was dry, and my tongue felt heavy and thick against my teeth. “Tell him – not to break early. Keep him away from the red horse!”

  Ellie frowned, but stood up and left, taking the stairs that led down to the public stands. She was gone without a word. Ellie believed me. I wanted to cry with relief.

  Belladonna offered a hand to help me to my feet. I took it, and she pulled me up. “You really are all right, aren’t you? This is the second time…” She had not been present in the entrance hall when I fell in front of a bleeding, blind Luciana and warned her that the wolf would kill her. Ellie must have explained.

  “Oh, Cate does this kind of thing all the time,” Sarah babbled nervously, plucking at the sleeves of her dress. Not satisfied, she reached out and tried to straighten mine.

  I pulled aw
ay, shaking my head. I had always Known things, even as a child, but I did not usually collapse to the floor and shout out warnings. I had seer blood in me. That was a dangerous thing to admit in a country like Seria, where magic was perceived as a threat.

  Underneath those worries, I was afraid for Brahms. I had no idea if my vision would come true or only might come true. Most visions only showed a possible future, but some were destined to happen. The seer could usually tell the difference. I searched inside myself. I did not think it was Brahms’ fate to die from a cheap shove in his first race. Ellie would do something to prevent it.

  I noticed Lady Kingsclere pressing a cup of water into my hands. Belladonna helped me to sit and I drank deeply. “Are you sure you are all right?” Lady Kingsclere asked. She sounded concerned, even though she did not know me well. “Maybe you should lie down.”

  I wiped my lips with the back of my hand, swallowing. “No.”

  Suddenly, a choir of trumpets above the track began blaring the opening theme. I looked down, watching the horses being loaded into the gates. Brahms was in gate thirteen, an unlucky draw. The red-blanketed horse was in gate six. Corynne was to his right in gate seven.

  I pressed my lips together nervously, fighting the waves of nausea tossing in my stomach. My throat was knotted tight. I prayed that Ellie had done something – anything – to prevent the disaster that I had Seen.

  “Here we go,” Sarah said, crossing her fingers for luck. Belladonna’s knees jerked up and down in a very unladylike way as she bounced her legs. Only Lady Kingsclere seemed composed. The trumpets blasted again, the gates swung open, and the horses burst onto the track. The race had begun. Just as they started, the rain finally broke.

  Corynne and the red-blanketed horse took an early lead, their feet drumming almost in rhythm. Corynne was a nose ahead. Brahms held back, trying to squeeze his way through the pack and find the edge of the rail.

  It happened so fast that I almost missed it. The red horse collided with Corynne’s side, almost upsetting her balance. Somehow, she oriented herself and charged forward again.

  The rest of the group was almost on top of them, but Corynne held her spot, stretching her neck out as far as it would go.

  “A less experienced horse might have fallen over,” said Belladonna, sounding stunned. Falling on the racetrack usually meant death.

  The rest of the race was not very exciting. Corynne held her lead by almost a body length and then it was over. Brahms managed to pull forward somehow, and squeezed into third place. The red horse had fallen back to the middle of the group.

  All around the track, blue and white flags were raised. The trumpeters belted out the winner’s march as Corynne walked her customary lap. We ran from the box in an excited group, hurrying down the steps to meet up in the winner’s circle.

  …

  “That could have turned out very badly,” Ellie confessed on the carriage ride to the palace. Prince Brendan had invited our party to stay there for the night. “I talked to Corynne afterward. She said it was a deliberate push.”

  “If that had been Brahms…” my voice trailed off. “Do you think…?” If Brahms had broken early and taken the lead, he might have died. I left that thought unspoken.

  “It looks like you are good at more than just housework,” said Sarah, trying to brighten the mood. “Well done.”

  “And the only things you are good at are gossiping and snooping.”

  “That’s it, Cate, stand up for yourself,” Belladonna said supportively. I blushed. The comment had just slipped out. Maybe Ellie was right and I really was gaining more confidence.

  “Not true! You should be nicer to me, Cate. I was making you a present, but now I might not give it to you.”

  “A present?” I asked. “Why?”

  “For when you leave!”

  It was true. I decided to leave Baxstresse several weeks ago. Even though my friends were there and Luciana was gone, the manor was not my home. I needed to leave and seek my own fortune. “So, you really made me a present? What will you do with it if you don’t give it to me?”

  “Throw it away,” said Sarah.

  Ellie patted my shoulder. “Don’t listen to her. You know how Sarah is.”

  Sarah pouted and the tension between us broke. She struggled not to smile when Belladonna added, “cheer up, you get to see the Prince soon.” Sarah blushed as she endured a few more minutes of good-natured teasing.

  “You did do well, Cate. That warning probably saved Brahms’ life.” I did not know what to say. Ellie continued. “I know you were reluctant to put any bets on the race, but Belle and I put down a considerable sum of money on both Corynne and Brahms.”

  “How much?” I asked.

  “A lot,” she answered. “And, since we’re discussing going-away presents, I think there is no better use for the winnings than sending you to Amendyr.”

  I was struck dumb. “Amendyr?” I echoed. I had made up my mind to leave Baxstresse weeks ago, but I never thought about leaving the kingdom of Seria. Besides, crossing the border was almost impossible with the unrest between the two kingdoms.

  “I know you have a Grandmother there,” Ellie said persuasively, “and I know you were born there. Whenever I asked, you never really knew where you wanted to go, so I thought…” Ellie studied my face, realizing that I did not look as happy as she expected. “Are you all right?”

  “I wish people would stop asking me that,” I said, swallowing to loosen my throat. The more I thought about it, the more the idea appealed to me. Amendyr. My real home. Maybe my grandmother was still alive. Maybe I could find other members of my family and learn more about my magical gifts. “Ellie, I think… I think you’re right. I want to go. Thank you!”

  …

  Chapter Two:

  There are many reasons that I need to leave Baxstresse, I thought to myself. My wandering feet had taken me out onto an ivy-laced balcony. Stars winked in the black fabric of the sky. Behind me, through a set of doors, the Prince’s dinner party was still going on. I could hear laughter and the scraping of silverware from outside. But I was not a part of that world.

  Even though some of the richest, most powerful people in the Kingdom were my friends, I was still a servant. I was also a foreigner. Magic burned in my blood. Serians took one look at my curly red hair and freckles and knew that I was from Amendyr, even though I had no accent.

  I was startled when a voice behind me said, “so, you decided to escape?”

  My breath caught, my head snapped over my shoulder. “Oh… well, yes,” I said to the man standing there. He had a neat little black beard and very bright eyes. I felt warmth and energy coming from him. He was Ariada , like me. “I felt… stifled in there.”

  The man smiled. I noticed that he was short and thin as a whippet. He wore gloves, but he removed them and let them hang from his right pocket. Like his beard, the rest of his hair was tidy and well groomed. “The nobles can be tiring,” he said understandingly. “Sometimes, I sneak out of dinner parties, too.”

  The stranger’s clothes were made of fine material. His hands were soft, not calloused from work. He certainly looked like a noble. If he was a commoner, why was he here? He read the question in my face and said, “My name is Cieran. I am the King’s magical advisor.”

  That explained the energy I felt from him. Cieran and his wife, Cassandra, were the liaisons between the King of Seria and the magical community. They also protected his son, Prince Brendan, from any magical threats. Magic was not outlawed in Seria, but many non-magical people, especially nobles, were afraid of it. It was easier for them to pretend that the druids did not help their crops to thrive and that wizards did not call the rain or repair the trading roads that held the kingdom together.

  “My name is Cate,” I said, offering him my hand. To my surprise, he stepped forward and touched my forehead with two fingers instead. I felt a shiver start at the base of my spine, rippling along my back. My bones began to hum and I felt warm.
>
  “Ellie tells me that you are going to Amendyr,” he said, stepping back.

  Impulsively, I touched my forehead where his fingers had been. Nothing seemed different. I wondered what Cieran had done. I decided not to ask. “Yes,” I said.

  “Good. I must confess, Miss Cate, that I had a motive for following you out here besides escaping the dinner party.”

  Other questions pushed the strange touch that he had given me to the back of my mind. “What do you mean?”

  “Your friend Ellie confided in me today. She told me that you See things before they happen.”

  For some reason, I was not afraid of admitting this. Maybe it was because Cieran was also Ariada . “Yes,” I said.

  “That is one of my abilities, too. I have Seen something of your journey to Amendyr. I want to give you a task, a warning, and a blessing.” My mind was spinning. A task, a warning, and a blessing? I did not realize that I had said the words aloud until Cieran said, “yes.”

  “What is the task?” I asked.

  “You will ask any powerful Ariada that you meet to tell you about Umbra, the last of the High Ariada . Do you remember the chain that Luciana Kingsclere wore?”

  I shivered again. This time, it was unpleasant. I did not know which subject disturbed me more: Luciana or the strange necklace that she wore around her neck. It had been a simple piece of jewelry with three circles – a golden coin with a silver ring in the middle and a golden dot in the very center. It almost looked like the iris and pupil of a metallic eye.

  Cieran went on. “I believe that it was made for Umbra centuries ago. I would like to find out more, but information on the magical history of Amendyr is scarce in Seria.”

  A thought struck me. “How will I let you know if I learn anything?”

  “I will speak to Ellie about that,” Cieran said. “So, will you ask, if you meet a magical scholar in Amendyr?”

  “Yes,” I agreed. “I will.” Asking a history question did not seem dangerous or difficult to do.