Wolf Heart: Moon Born book 1

by Dallas Jessica Owen

  The moon was full when they left the camp but the light barely filtered through the forest canopy. There was a deep gloomy atmosphere and as they walked she heard Pyter whisper, “Keep near. Traveling the forest, any forest, at night is a foolish thing to do. It is easy to get lost and creatures prowl looking for food.” Pushing a branch out of the way he nodded. “Do not make me regret my decision to bring you.”

  “I have spent more time in this forest at night than you realize.” She saw his shoulder twitch in the dark and continued, “I never felt afraid of this forest at night, because I knew your daughter would always be there to protect me.”

  “And now you know the truth of it. That for most of your life, we were not here and Sasha is too ill to protect you.” As they walked she watched the patriarch as he led the way. Every tree he passed his hand reached out, stroking the bark and as his fingers trailed across the wood she felt something almost primal pass over her.

  “Maybe so, but I still feel no ill will from this place.” Reaching out she touched a tree that Pyter had just touched, felt a residue of a tingle, a memory of something she could not identify. He said the forest listens to them. I wonder if their gift includes some sort of empathy that the trees pick up on. They certainly seem to move to ease the Walkers path. They did it for Markus and now they do it for Pyter. Is it a male thing? She shook her head and smiled sadly, I have so many questions.

  “Tell me about her.” She spoke suddenly to break the silence and he did not even slow down as he replied.

  “Why? You will meet her soon.” He pushed a low hanging branch out of the way and as he did she saw the others around him rise in sympathy.

  “I want to see her through your eyes.” She followed and as soon as she did the branches fell behind her. “Both you and my father say she is impossibly beautiful. I understand you went to her for a cure, but you speak as if you still hold a longing in your heart for her. She must be someone very special.”

  “The world around us is impossibly beautiful. The rainstorm that brings lightning overhead, the rush of water as if falls into a stream or the rainbow that arcs overhead in the sunlight. These are beautiful. Sera, Sera is something else entirely.” He ducked under a branch and she followed. “How a person conducts themselves warps the world around them. The truly good have brightness to them, the truly bad a darkness in the heart and those with our senses can see it. Sera has nothing, it is like she is not part of the natural world. That makes her impossibly beautiful, a blankness on a canvas of bright yellows and dark reds.”

  “I would never have guessed you have a poetic side. It sounds like you love her.“ Alice smiled softly at the man’s back and heard a bitter laugh.

  “You can love a lightning storm but you stay away from it because you know one strike will send you to the Celestials. Sera is like that storm, wild, untamed and most of all, dangerous.”

  They walked on for a moment and Alice nodded, “Ok then tell me this. How many are there of you?” She heard a snort and continued, “I mean I have only ever known your family. Yet I have heard it spoken about a gathering? Are there many Walker families then that travel the world?”

  “There were originally twenty-one families, twenty still hold to the old ways. We are not enough for the duty the goddess gave us for the world is changing and more and more of the first race’s magic’s are being unearthed every year. Still, we are enough for others to distrust us.” Then he stopped and turned, finger to his lips. She nodded and he waited.

  She waited with him, her heart pounding. They had been walking for perhaps moments, perhaps hours. Impossible to tell under the trees as the only light they had were shafts of moonlight that filtered down through the treetops. Then she heard it, a hissing mewl that soon went quiet.

  “Forest cat,” she heard Pyter whisper. “It is a very dangerous creature that could take you without you noticing. The trees lead it away for us.” How do the trees lead it away? The sharp crack of wood, of something heavy breaking a branch echoed through the wood and waiting perhaps one moment more the headman turned to her and beckoned her onwards.

  “The gathering is a way for us to come together, to share stories and information. It seems every time we meet there is some fresh ill to try and bandage or some fresh evil to destroy.”

  “Do you arrange marriages as well?” She asked quietly, her mind still on the forest cat. I have not seen couples overtly staying together in your family but I presume it must happen.”

  “Since we cannot have children marriage is not important. We have no bloodlines to strengthen, no treasure to pass down. What does it matter if we get married? Couples come together for pleasure and disband at their own leisure. It is not my business what people do in the dark of the night. It only becomes my business if it impacts the way our family works.”

  That is scandalous! Alice felt her face going red as she digested it. “I have shocked you and in that there is an important lesson. Do not expect everyone to view the world as you do. Sasha included.” She stayed quiet preferring instead to walk rather than get into something she did not feel comfortable talking about and Pyter seemed content to allow her that comfort.

  The night seemed to crawl for Alice as she followed Sasha’s father deeper into the forest. She had been raised on tales of the witch of the hollows and she had always thought of them as just that, tales. Now she was going to meet the one the tales were about but she felt no fear, felt no terror. I feel no fear of her. Is it because she is Sasha’s mother? I do not know.

  Growls erupted from in front of them and Pyter held up his hand. “Peace,” he called out and the undergrowth was pushed apart as a huge wolf slowly padded out to stand in front of them. Yet it was like no wolf she had ever seen before. Silver like the moon, its fur shimmered like a wave and its eyes were the blue of the sky. “I come to see Sera. There is a problem with her daughter and she is her only hope.”

  Raising its head it howled and Alice felt her blood turn to ice at that sound. “Is that one of your people?” she whispered and saw him shake his head.

  “No, that is one of hers. That is the wolf my daughter’s is named after. That is Sasha, the sorceress’s companion and boon protector.”

  Chapter 15

  Alice stared at the silver wolf as it stood its ground, blocking the two of them from progressing any further. “You named Sasha after the witch’s wolf?” she whispered and saw the eyes of the beast flick to her. Yellow and bright they regarded her with intelligence that she had seen before. Carefully she moved forward a step, her hand reaching for the silver fur.

  “Peace Sasha,” she whispered. Heart hammering painfully her fingers trembled in the air as she regarded the animal. “We only come seeking help for your namesake, nothing more, nothing less. We mean your mistress no harm.”

  “I am not her mistress,” From trees around them, she heard a voice, soft, slow, whispering like the wind. It caressed her ears and made her shiver. “I am not her keeper, not her friend, not her mother.” She felt her hair stroked and jumped, turning to see who had touched her and found no one.

  “Sera. Enough of this! Enough of your games! Your daughter is in trouble.” Pyter’s voice echoed in the forest as he shouted it. “I know you are here. You can hide from our sight but you cannot hide from the forest and the forest listens to my will.” The wolf in front of them bared its teeth, a deep rumbling starting in its chest and Pyter stared down at it, seemingly growing larger. “Do you want to test me here girl?”

  Branches parted and a woman walked forward towards them. Eyes the color of a storm stared at them both and short blond hair topped a face that was delicate, elfin in its harshness yet soft and inviting. Dressed in soft brown leather like the Walkers did Alice watched as the witch moved forward, gracefully as the wolf padded silently to stand beside her.

  As Alice watched the witch dropped her hand and stroked the silver fur of the wolf beside her. Long slim fingers slid through the fur and Alice felt her heart beat faster though it h
ad nothing to do with fear. “What do you want Pyter? I gave you your child and the answer to your problems if you had the wit to see it.” Alice felt that voice almost physically as it stroked her ear with a slow smoky burn.

  Gods, she thought as thoughts alien to her burned through her mind. Now I understand why they said she is impossibly beautiful. I have to think of my Sasha, she needs my help. Concentrate! Squeezing her hand closed Alice felt her nails dig into her palm and the pain broke through the witch’s spell.

  “Please,” Alice whispered through a throat that was dry. “I have tried herbs but I know what afflicts her will not succumb to my healing methods. I do not think she will live out the day if you do not help.” Taking a step forward on wobbly legs she pushed her nails deep into her palm and blood well up against her nails. “You are her mother. She calls for you in her delirium. You have to help.”

  She felt those storm grey eyes on her like a knife against her skin. Bright, sharp, dangerous they laid her bare and then the witch nodded. “Come, we will talk.” The sorceress turned and walked away, the wolf padding by her side and without looking at her Pyter followed. Alice trailed after them all, her existence hanging between lust and pain as she fought against the witches spell.

  Trees parted, flowing like water around them and they entered a grove of trees. It was a small clearing surrounded by trees and as they entered she heard creaking and Pyter cried out in pain. Falling to his knees the creaking got louder as the trees merged, became as one and they were trapped, by a wall of tree and branch.

  “Now we can talk freely,“ The sorceress faced her and cocked her head. “There is a beast that stalks you girl. When the time comes you will have to choose your path and that time comes soon. Until then, tell me, what do you see?”

  Alice, unsure of what the sorceress wanted, looked at her only to see the sorceress smile. “The world goes in circles and everything happens as it is meant to girl. Fate chooses what happens and even the gods above us or below can change her mind. Fate has decreed you and my daughter are to be, so tell me what sort of person I entrust her to?”

  She’s testing me? Why? Swallowing Alice stared at the two figures. Circles? The world goes in circles? She speaks in riddles and yet Alice could not stop staring at the two figures, one human and one animal. “There is something of your Sasha within mine isn’t there.” Alice felt a bolt of intuition as she spoke, “That is why she has the streak of silver within her hair.”

  Sera laughed a deep throaty laugh and then her eyes flicked over Alice’s shoulder. “She is a sharp one Walker. Is she to be one of your new recruits now that you think my way has failed?”

  “She is the daughter of a friend here to heal our daughter that is all.” Pyter’s voice came from over her shoulder, breathless and pain filled. “She is no concern of yours.”

  “Oh, you are so very wrong Pyter. She is tied to my daughter. I think she is very much my concern.”

  “Stop it!” Alice felt dizzy as the air in the grove seemed to be growing heavy. “You want to know about me then ask sorceress, witch of the hollows. Our Sasha does not have time for this. Will you help her or not.”

  “I will help you, but first there are things you should know healer, to help things that are meant to come to pass be born.” She stared into Alice’s eyes, “My daughter will have need of a friend in the years to come and fate has decreed it be you.”

  “We do not have time for this, Sera.” Pyter moved forward, placed himself slightly in front of Alice as if protecting her. “Sasha is dying.”

  “Oh Pyter, you never fully comprehended my power.” Throwing up her hand fire flashed into the sky and slowly, so slowly, moved there as the moments passed. “Time moves differently within this grove. We have time.”

  “To understand why my daughter is different, you have to understand what the Goddess did to the Walkers. When you understand that the Walkers hope has not been lost. So sit.”

  The sorceress pointed at the ground and light erupted from nothing illuminating the grove below as the slowly rising fire above filled it with heat. Sera sat down, and by her side the wolf slowly laid, its head in the sorceress’s lap and Sera slowly rubbed its head. Then sorceress pointed a finger at her and Alice felt herself sit, without any violation of her own.

  Pyter kept standing, his arms crossing over his chest but the sorceress seemed entirely unconcerned with that.

  “Sova was wise in her own way. She knew those things left behind after the night of falling stars would be dangerous to those who did not know how to use them. Wisdom is a gift our kind rarely has and she knew that if their power leaked out into the natural world, it would damage it. So she took steps to make sure that would not happen by creating the Walkers, but she is not, I think, much like us for she did not foresee one thing.”

  “She didn’t foresee they would not have children?” The sorceress nodded and Alice frowned, “But she is a goddess, how could she not understand what would happen?”

  “She is a goddess compared to us, but are we not gods compared to the rabbit whose life we hold in our hands or to the grain that we cut down? Do not be so quick to call those more powerful gods.” Alice felt her face turn white and Sera held up her hand. “Oh I know, blasphemous isn’t it, to think that our gods may not be all powerful, all knowing. It is why I was driven out of my home so long ago. The ability to think for oneself is never a good one in the poor.”

  “Now hold still.” Alice felt herself going stiff, unable to move. “As I was saying, green Lady Sova is not much like us and I think she is trapped in time as much as we are. She could not see what her magic would do.” Leaning forward Alice felt the storm grey eyes upon her intently, “The gifts the Walkers enjoy are a part of them, blood and bone, balls to brain. Every part of their bodies is infused with magic but that magic is not the magic of the earth, of the land like mine. It is alien magic, an alien way of working and it fights with their bodies. That is why they cannot pass it on through children. The magic is too strong and it makes them sterile. I thought I could break that, I was wrong.”

  “But, you lay with Pyter, gave birth to Sasha. If you couldn’t break the hold the goddess magic had on him, how then did you do it,” She paused as a horrible realization came to her and she saw the sorceress nod. “Yes, you are sharp aren’t you healer. Tell me, what is it you are thinking?”

  “She is not Pyter’s.” Alice whispered it, not understanding how “But I know that is impossible. She has his eyes, his coloring.” She turned to the headman, saw the look in his eye and shook her head, “You suspected as much.”

  “Long are the hours I have sat thinking about that night. Long are the nights I have stayed awake watching my little Sasha grow. The eyes are just a little too green, the nose just a little too sharp, the ears a little too small. And her hair, I suspected when she had that silver streak of hair.” Then he sighed, “But she is still my daughter, still my Sasha who I held in my arms when she was a babe. She is still my Sasha who I taught how to hunt and run and bite and claw. She is still my Sasha who is dying.”

  “Yet it is not how you both think. But now you see healer why I allowed his request and why I tried so hard to break the blood curse and give him the child he craved. What had been done to the Walkers was terrible and Pyter, Pyter can be persuasive. When we lay together I used all my magic but it still was not enough. I could not break the magic’s hold on his blood, but I could remove it entirely.”

  Alice shook her head, “No. I have seen Sasha change and I have seen her as the wolf. She has that gift.”

  “Yes, you have seen her change, but not all trees are the same healer. When I lay with Pyter and tried to break the hold of the goddess magic upon him I could not. When I felt his seed within me I removed the magic entirely and used my own to guarantee the child. Then when she was born and I saw what she was I knew what I had to do.”

  “You gave her a piece of your Sasha, didn’t you.” It was obvious when she thought about it and yet not. “
But still why does she not change into a silver wolf then?” Turning her head Alice shook her head. “I have seen you and Sasha change. I think there is more than you realize within her.”

  Another intuition hit her and Alice stared down at the wolf that lay against Sera. “That means your Sasha can change?” The sorceress nodded but said nothing and Alice swallowed hard. “That is a tale I would love to hear one day, but my Sasha, she is still your daughter. You carried her for nine months and then gave her up but still, you visited her when she was in this forest. I suspect you also visit her elsewhere. She needs your help.”

  “It is a hard thing to give up something you love healer. But just as the Walkers are under the goddess’s geas, I am under the forest lady’s. I cannot leave this forest and I wanted my child to see the world. I am content knowing she does that and is looked after by a good man, a good family.”

  Then she stood, and the wolf came with her. “But now she needs my help and there is nothing within this forest that can ignore my will, save the forest lady and this is a matter that does not concern her. So, come, let us go and save my child.”

  Holding her hand aloft it blazed with light and Alice felt her bones shriek as the world turned inside out. Her head screamed with pain and her eyes watered. Light surrounded her, entered her, burned her and opening her mouth she screamed before the forest grove disappeared and the night was still once more.

  Chapter 16

  Markus sat by Sasha, his dark eyes brooding on the young woman. He had once been an orphan on the street, death an ever close companion that he had come to accept as inevitable. Yet not, staring down at someone he had come to regard as family, he hated death with every part of his being. “Is there any change?” He looked up and saw Mashka’s concerned face before shaking his head.

  “No, she still sleeps but her chest barely rises. I fear they will not return in time.” He sighed and then groaned, “No,” as Sasha began to jerk and writhe under her blankets. Sweat poured from her and he looked up, saw with a sight that was goddess given the shadows coalescing around them and felt his eyes prick with tears.