Before first light hit the mountainside, she snuck out on four feet, following the tracking spell she’d set into the bottom of his left boot a couple of weeks past. It led her to a small cave Wolf occupied. She had never been in it and was distracted from her intended goal by the opportunity to see a different side to her mysterious magician. He kept a small magelight glowing to keep the room from the total darkness that was natural to the cave. Wolf himself was lying with his back to her on a cot against the far end of the room.
Although it was spartan and immaculate, she could tell by the smell that Wolf had occupied it for a long time—longer than the few months Myr had been hiding in the Northlands. Being a mouse had its advantages.
Fascinated, she wandered around, noticing that for all of its surface plainness, there were touches that showed an appreciation of beauty in small things: A small knob of rock reaching up from the floor was polished to a high gloss. A large clear glass vessel was placed in a secure nook; the tiny fractures that spiderwebbed the glass glittered even in the dim light.
Wolf moved restlessly on the bed. Aralorn waited to make sure that he was still sleeping before she crept into the pack that lay out of place near the entrance, trusting that its position signified that it was something he was going to take with him.
She made a place for herself among the various items and sat very still. She didn’t have to wait long. Although he had announced that he would leave at first light, she wasn’t at all surprised that he was leaving well before that. It had been obvious that neither she nor Myr had been particularly happy with his decision to go and face the ae’Magi alone.
To her relief, he swung the pack up and carried it with him when he departed. She hadn’t quite figured out what she would have done if he’d left it.
She felt the roar of dizziness that signaled the magical leap from one place to another. When the sensation passed, she scrambled for a secure position in which the shuffling contents, which seemed to consist of nothing but hard angular objects, were not as likely to squish her. Even in human form, it seemed that Wolf’s favorite gait was a ground-eating run.
Apparently he had arrived at a point several miles from the castle, as he ran for a long time. Battered and bruised, Aralorn was beginning to wish she’d figured out a better way to accompany him.
When Wolf opened the pack, the first thing that he saw was a bedraggled gray mouse, who looked at him with reproachful eyes, and said, “Would it have hurt to pack something soft, like a shirt or something?”
He should have been surprised. Or angry. He found himself, instead, absurdly grateful.
He picked her up out of the bag and held her at eye level in the palm of his hand. “When one comes along without being invited, one cannot complain about the accommodations.”
“Oh dear,” said the mouse, in a shocked voice. “I hope I am not intruding.”
He took off the silver mask, and sat cross-legged on the ground—careful not to knock her off her perch on the palm of his hand. “I don’t suppose that you would go back, would you? I trust it has occurred to you that it would be very easy for the ae’Magi to use you against me.”
She ran up his arm and poised for an instant on his shoulder.
“Yes,” she replied, cleaning her whiskers, “but it also occurred to me that my wolf was going off alone to kill his father. Granted that he is not the typical father, but—I don’t think this is as easy for you as you’d like everyone to believe.”
She hesitated for a minute before she continued. “I know how he is. How he can twist things until black seems white. His power is frightening, but it is not as dangerous as his ability to manipulate thoughts with words. I was only there for a short time; you were raised by him. It doesn’t seem to me that exposure would make you immune to everyone; the opposite, I think. Perhaps having someone with you might make it easier.”
Wolf was still. He didn’t want to do this alone, but he wanted even less to have her hurt—or worse. Aralorn abruptly jumped to the ground.
“I couldn’t have lived with myself if something happened to you and I was not with you.” She shrugged and twitched her whiskers. “Besides, why should you have all the fun? He will see only a mouse, if he looks.”
He wanted to send her away, not just for her safety, but because he didn’t want her to know what he’d been before, even though he’d done his best to tell her himself. The feelings that she brought out in him were so painful and confusing. It was easier when he had felt nothing, no pain—no guilt. No desire.
His father had taught him how to be that way. When Wolf had understood that he was becoming the monster his father wanted, it had driven him to escape. It was easier when he had cared for nothing, easier when he’d been his father’s pet mage. Much easier.
The desire that he felt to return to what he had left behind terrified him. No one who hadn’t been raised there would understand the addiction of his father’s corruption. Aralorn was right. He needed her to keep him from returning to his old ways, becoming his father’s tool once more. The knowledge that she was watching might be enough to strengthen him.
“Stay,” was all that he said.
Once he’d made his decision, he ignored her. Kneeling, he emptied the contents of the backpack, a motley collection of jars, which he organized in an overtly random fashion. He stripped himself of his clothes and began a ritual of purification, using the water from a nearby stream.
Aralorn watched for a while, but when he started to meditate, she went for a scurry—mice seldom walk. Once out of sight, where she wouldn’t pull his concentration back to her, she shifted into her own form.
She stopped when she had a good view of the castle. It was funny how she always pictured it as black on the outside, the way it had appeared both times she left it. In the sunlight it sparkled a pearly gray, almost white. She could almost visualize the noble knight riding out to face the evil dragon. She hoped in this story the dragon (accompanied by his faithful mouse) would defeat the knight.
She clenched her fingers in the bark of the tree she stood next to and turned her cheek against the rough texture, closing her eyes against the very real possibility that this story would turn out like all the rest—the knight living happily ever after and the dragon slain.
When the shadows lengthened into dusk, Aralorn—once again the mouse—snuck back to where Wolf sat with closed eyes, the last light resting on his clean-shaven unblemished face with loving affection. The sight of his scarless face momentarily distracted her from his nudity.
Aralorn fought the chill that crept over her, knowing that if he looked just then, his all-too-discerning eyes would see her anxiety. It was unsettling to be in love with someone who looked like the face in her nightmares.
Ah well, as her stepmother would have said, at least he was handsome. And his face wasn’t the only beautiful thing about him.
She leapt blithely onto his leg and ascended quickly to his bare shoulder, feeling a slight malicious pleasure when he jerked in surprise. When he turned to glare at her, she kissed him on the nose, then began to clean her forepaws with industry. With a sound that might have been a laugh, he ran a finger lightly up her back, rubbing her fur the wrong way. She bit him—but not too hard.
He smoothed her hair and set her down on the ground so that he could regain his clothing. She noticed that it wasn’t the same outfit he’d taken off. It wasn’t like anything that she’d ever seen him wear. The main color was still black, but it was finely embroidered with silver thread. The shirt was gathered and puffed, hanging down well over his thighs, which was just as well, because the pants were indecently tight, from mouse height anyway. She could see the faint flickering of magic in the fabric and assumed that the clothes he wore were the magician equivalent of armor.