"I'd welcome either," Reandn allowed. "But not until I've had food."
"We saved some for you," Rethia said, not appearing to notice how her words startled him.
He shot her a good hard look, and said, "You saved—"
"I had a spell set up to let us know when you arrived," Farren interrupted. "We knew you were close, yesterday—that's when we brought your Patrol Leader and that grey horse in from the Keep. Although why the horse had to come, I don't know. Preparing it for translocation wasn't easy."
"The horse had to come," Saxe said, unperturbed by the wizard's comment or the way Reandn turned on him.
"You came by magic?" Reandn said, thinking only of the agony of confusion such travel had caused him, and the weeks of near insanity.
Saxe shrugged.
Farren looked annoyed. "As I said, Reandn, properly prepared, the wizard's road doesn't cause the harm you suffered."
Reandn gave him a cold stare, deciding the weeks with magic had certainly done no harm to Farren's commanding attitude. "And I told you, I don't trust what a wizard says."
Kacey stopped them before it went any further. "Sit," she said. "And eat. And you, Farren—leave him some peace while he does it."
"Hard to get a word in edgewise around here," Saxe observed dryly.
"I'll eat, you talk," Reandn said, snagging a spiced drumstick. A mug of cool tea appeared in front of him and he ate without searching for a chair, having had enough of sitting in recent days. But the ride had been good for him—distracted him, even while giving him space to think.
Enough space so he knew that Saxe had been right to point out that he still wore his vest—it was time to take it off for good.
"Are you listening?" Saxe asked, his voice suddenly sharper.
Reandn swallowed chicken and said, "No, I guess not."
Saxe rolled his eyes. "Show some respect, will you? I'm still your commanding officer."
Reandn raised an eyebrow of disagreement but left it at that. Kacey and Faline watched with attentive silence, although Rethia seemed to have wandered off into thoughts of her own. Teayo pushed away from the table to gather his things, muttering something about Braden and a fall from a horse. It was all very familiar, somehow.
Saxe cleared his throat. "I told you that there've been discussions at the Keep. The gist of it is, we've—the Wolves—allowed ourselves to become strangers to the general population."
"There weren't many people in Maurant who were familiar with Wolves," Reandn agreed.
"We've got to change that. The Northern hills are talking trouble again—they have no intention of letting the Keep resume the direct administration we employed when we last had strong magic. We've got to get people used to the Wolves' authority, before we have to send out Dragons."
"And have you thought about my suggestion you create a new rank of justice keepers to deal solely with magic?" Farren interjected.
Saxe waved off the interruption. "Later, Farren. That's got nothing to do with this." Farren only tipped his head, an unspoken promise that he would bring the matter up again.
"And how do you plan to reacquaint an entire country with something they've chosen to forget?" Reandn asked.
"Remote Patrol," Saxe said, his hazel eyes carefully studying Reandn's reaction. "Just one, to start with, to see how it goes. Work the kinks out. We're not sure how big an area such a patrol would cover, or the exact procedures. We thought you'd want to work that out yourself."
"Me," Reandn said.
"Instead of patrolling over one shift, your pairs would go out for a week or so at a time, then report back to you. If you hit a trouble spot, it would be your discretion—you'd either notify or augment the Locals." Reandn kept his face quiet, his thoughts within, and Saxe added, "Autonomous patrol, Danny. Can't imagine you could ask for anything more than that."
"The patrol's ready?" Reandn asked suspiciously, beginning to believe in a future again, yet wary of believing—of wanting something that wasn't there.
Saxe nodded; Faline added, "They've been with my people. We're camped out of Solace."
"I told them not to make you put up with the city," Kacey said. "It's hard enough to catch you civil, never mind when there's magic about."
Saxe unsuccessfully hid amusement, although at Reandn's frown, he managed to clear his throat and straighten his face.
"You sure you want me to do this?" Reandn asked. "Listen to what Kacey just said. I'll have to track wide of places with magic. I'll probably have to stay close to Little Wisdom, unless—" he looked at Farren and Rethia, "you two can figure out a way to take care of this allergy."
Farren shook his head. "I doubt it, son. It's intrinsically you. Any spell strong enough to work would kill you before it cured you. I'd hate to risk using even a protection spell, with the strength of the reaction you have. I'll give it some thought—but for now, best you don't stray too far from here."
"Reandn," Saxe said, his voice sliding into the no-nonsense command tone that Reandn had responded to for too many years to ignore now. "If ordered, would you come back to the Keep?"
Reandn pushed his plate aside and met Saxe's eye straight on. "No."
"Then I suggest you think hard about the offer I've made." He sighed, and dropped back into being a friend. "Some things are in the blood, Danny. You've lost so much already—don't push this away, too."
No one said anything, though it was plain they all wanted to. Kacey's anxiety shone in her eyes, and Reandn was sure it was killing her to keep quiet.
"Yes," he said.
Saxe blinked. "Yes."
"Yes, I'll lead your patrol. Yes, I'll spend my time teaching this part of Keland what a Wolf is. Yes, I'll be your experiment." Pretending indifference, Reandn picked up his mug for a long gulp of cool—magic-cooled—tea.
It might have been his imagination, but he thought the entire room heaved a sigh of relief; Saxe ducked his head to hide a grin Reandn saw anyway.
Faline leaned against the table and nodded. "Good," she said. "Having a second patrol in with mine has been a handful. Especially since half of them were in your old patrol and they feel unnaturally obliged to defend your honor against the passing remark."
Reandn gave her a satisfied, quirk-mouthed smile. "It's the Wolf in them," he said. "It's hard to get rid of."
~~~~~~~~~~
The Beginning
Rethia watched Reandn eat, missing entirely the conversation that flew across the table between the three ranking Wolves, re-united. She thought about the day of the unicorns, when he'd been so raw with anger and pain. While she'd been communing with the wild spirits of unicorns, Reandn had faced the man who'd killed his family. He'd faced the woman he loved, seen her satisfied to be where she was—and not interested in sharing that place with him, not ahead of his time.
Just like she found herself facing the odd unexpected thought or magical innovation that came from that timeless time with the unicorns, Reandn was obviously still bumping up against his inner scars. They left him sharp-edged, aloof but always ready to lash out; she saw it now, as his friend Saxe posed some question to him—an instant of hope, quickly shuttered with disbelief. His were not the kind of scars that would disappear.
Perhaps over time they might fade.
That's what Kacey hoped, anyway, although Rethia thought her sister had come to terms with her emotions. She'd become more relaxed around Reandn, as though she'd realized she, too, had to go on with her life.
Rethia's thoughts wandered to the soft, spice-scented breath of a walnut colored unicorn as it blew puffs of air in her face, taking in her own scent. When she tried to remember the exchange of thought between them, she couldn't. But if she came on it sideways, and just let it happen, sometimes...sometimes she could get a glimpse of the strange and wondrous ethereal world they'd made their home.
Finally, belatedly, she realized Reandn had spoken to her. "What?"
"I said, come outside with me for a minute." He gave her a quick smile, as much of
one as she ever saw from him—this time, it was acceptance of her nature. Kacey gave her a look as she stood, a request; Rethia responded with a quiet shrug, and her sister joined them.
"I'm not through with you yet," Saxe warned as Reandn's hand settled gently on Rethia's shoulder, guiding her out of the room.
"I'm not going anywhere," Reandn said without concern. The other man may have been his superior officer, but it seemed to Rethia that Reandn was making his own decisions here. She preceded him into the sickroom, and let him take the lead outside.
"Why is it you don't have a horse?" he asked without preamble. Rethia hurried to keep up with his long stride, trying but unable to understand why he would ask. A glance at Kacey netted only a shrug—her sister seemed uncharacteristically quiet after the banter of the kitchen.
Eventually, when he looked back at her, she said simply, "It's hard to pick herbs from horseback."
"I have a feeling that you're in for some traveling," he said. "People are going to want to talk to you."
"Then they can come here," she replied, unable to imagine any great number of people wishing to speak with her.
"The wizards in the city will probably want to talk to you, to pick your brains about the unicorns. The Highborn will want to talk to you just to be able to say they have. You don't want them coming here, Rethia." He stopped suddenly, and turned to face her. "You want to keep this place your own. Don't let them steal your privacy, or your meadow—or even who you are."
Trying to understand, she searched his clear grey eyes, but he was already turning, taking her to the barn and the line of horses there. Kacey held back just a bit, giving them space.
"This," he said, stopping by the lightly dappled rump in the line, "is Willow. Saxe would say he's mine, but he was really Dela's. He needs someone to love him like she did. Will you have him?"
Take Adela's horse?
Rethia just stared at him, and then stared at the horse. It was a gelding, not too large, but of a good size for her height. His legs were sturdy, his neck fine, and most of all, his eyes looked at her with a quick, sensitive gaze. Adela's horse. She looked at Reandn—Danny, Adela had called him—and knew she'd never find the words to acknowledge the magnitude of this gift, or the deeper gift it represented.
He didn't hate her for bringing back the magic. He understood she'd had no choice, that she'd been, in her way, just as driven as he. She moved up to the horse's head, stroking the broad plate of his jaw. "Willow," she crooned, and his ears perked. His nose quivered; clearly he expected a treat. Some horses seemed to know to expect that from her.
Reandn hesitated, then gave the horse a few gentle pats on the rump—the good-bye kind. He looked, for a moment, indescribably sad. But then he straightened, closed in on himself, and closed her—and everyone else—out.
"Oh, Dan," Rethia said, easily drawn in by his grief. "There's another side to endings, you know. They can turn into beginnings." If he hadn't come here, hadn't been hurt, would she ever have been goaded into realizing what lay within her?
He gave her a sharp look, a clear warning not to lay platitudes on him.
"Adela didn't want you to come back here just to mourn her for the rest of your life. Life waits for you, she said," Rethia told him, pushing on through his astonishment. She laid her cheek up against Willow's, watching Reandn with an oblique gaze. He, as much as she, had been touched by magic, and now other people would stand off from him and wonder what went on in his fierce, private thoughts. Very few would have the chance to find out as she had. Very few would know just how much he had lost. But... Live, she thought at him, and said it again, out loud. "Live. It's not so bad."
He looked away from her, out across Willow's back. Rethia doubted very much he actually looked at anything, but she thought she knew what he was seeing. Then he glanced at Kacey; it seemed almost like a question. Kacey merely smiled back at him—not blustery, not curt, just the sweet smile she seldom shared. But it clearly held no answers; she was leaving them up to him.
Reandn turned back to Rethia, searching those strikingly odd eyes of hers, giving her the direct contact so many others ran from. After a moment, he offered her a wry, quirky little half-smile. Pure Reandn. "If there's a beginning here for me, I'll find it."
"I know," she said, and smiled through those magic-touched eyes.
~~~~~~~~~~
~~~~~~~~~~
King's Wolf Saga Book II: Wolf Justice
Magic is back–and only the man who once tried to stop it can save his world from what happens next.
Magic is back in Reandn’s world–and when wizards use it to slaughter his Remote Wolf Patrol, he is left adrift in a society still reeling from the changes wrought by magic’ return.
But King’s Keep offers him a chance to regain his rank: escort the beloved Higborn woman through the rebel-torn Resioran border to King’s Keep. Soon enough Reandn is embroiled in wizard’s treachery. To make it out alive–to keep Kalena alive and prevent a catastrophic wizard war–he’ll have to face his own worst enemy.
Magic.
~~~~~~~~~~
Author Bio & Website
http://doranna.net
The Third-Person Bit:
Doranna responded to all early injunctions to "put down that book/notebook and go outside to play" by climbing trees to read & write. Such quirkiness of spirit has led to an eclectic publishing journey, at this point spanning genres over 30 novels to include mystery, SF/F, action-romance, paranormal, franchise, and a slew of essays and short stories.
But after all that, mostly she still prefers to hang around outside her New Mexico mountain home with the animals, riding dressage on her Lipizzan and training for performance sports with the dogs. She doesn't believe so much in mastering the beast within, but in channeling its power. For good or bad has yet to be decided...
~~~~~~~~~~
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Book List
FANTASY
Changespell Saga:
Dun Lady's Jess (Winner, Compton Crook Award)
Changespell
Changespell Legacy
Barrenlands (prequel)
King's Wolf Saga
Touched by Magic
Wolf Justice
Stand-Alone Fantasies
Wolverine's Daughter
Seer's Blood
A Feral Darkness
The Heart of Dog Anthology (author e-pub)
ROMANCE
Action Romance
Shaken and Stirred (Femme Fatale Novella)
Chameleon (Smokescreen Novella)
Exception to the Rules
Beyond the Rules
Making the Rules (author e-pub)
Heavy Metal Honey
Survival Instinct
Hidden Steel
Checkmate: Athena Force
Comeback Athena Force 2
Paranormal
Sentinels: Wild Thing novella
Sentinels: Jaguar Night
Sentinels: Lion Heart
Sentinels: Wolf Hunt
Sentinels: Night of the Tiger novella
Sentinels: Tiger Bound
Sentinels: Kodiak Chained
Demon Blade: Demon Heat
Demon Blade: Demon Blade
Demon Blade: Dark Blade
Avenging Angels I: Touched by Fire (enovella)
The Reckoners Series:
The Reckoners
Storm of Reckoning
Deep River Reckoning (enovella)
MYSTERY
Nose for Trouble
Scent of Danger
FRANCHISE BOOKS
Star Trek: Next Generation
Tooth and Claw, #60
Earth: Final Conflict
Heritage
Angel
Impressions
Fearless
Mage Knight
Dark Debts
Ghost Whisperer
Revenge
Ghost Trap
SHORT STORIES
Harvest of Sou
ls
Fool's Gold
A Bitch in Time
The Right Bitch
Bitch Bewitched
Mornglom Dreaming
Bummed out
The Yoke of the Soul
Feef's House
Hair of the Dog
Call from the Wild
Just Hanah
Emerging Legacy
The Scoria
Fountane Of
Table of Contents
Copyright Information
TOUCHED BY MAGIC
The Ending
Touched By Mystery
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Touched By Sorrow
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Touched By Magic
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
The Beginning
King's Wolf Saga Book II: Wolf Justice
Author Bio & Website
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Touched By Magic (The King's Wolf Saga) Page 29
