The Children of Black Annis

by Amy Cross

  "I got lost," I say.

  "I figured. How'd you find your way out?"

  "I..." I pause. "Well, I found a map."

  "Useful," Duncan says. "So you just spent a year wandering around the library?"

  "Not quite," I reply, as we start walking away.

  "So what did you do?"

  "Well, I joined a tribe. And I hung out with my new husband."

  "Your what?"

  I smile. For once, I'm the one with the shocking and surprising news. "Yeah," I say casually, "I got married in there to a really nice guy named Thomas. He wanted me to stay and live with him and his tribe, but I decided I couldn't handle living in a giant library so I decided to come back out to the real world."

  "Good move," Duncan says.

  "I hope so," I say. "To be honest, I thought you were probably lost in the library too. I thought I'd never see you again."

  "Oh, you know me," he says. "I managed to find my way out."

  "Did you look for me?" I ask.

  "Not really," he continues. "I mean, I took a quick look around, but then I figured you'd find me anyway. I just didn't think it'd take more than a year for you to manage to make your way out of the bloody place. Seriously, Jess, what were you doing all that time?"

  "What were you doing?" I ask. "At least I was with people. Were you just sitting out here waiting for me?"

  "Like I said," he replies, "I went off a couple of times. But it was quite fun sitting around outside the gate. I learned to fish." He points towards the left. "There's a river over there. I didn't manage to catch anything, but it was fun to try."

  I smile, thinking back to the bunch of soldiers who had somehow managed to build an entire religion around Duncan. Part of me wants to tell him all about Dukan and all that stuff, but another part of me thinks that Duncan's ego is already big enough, and it would probably make him unbearably smug if he found out that he'd accidentally become a god to a bunch of idiots.

  "What are you smiling about?" he asks suspiciously.

  "Nothing," I say, deciding not to tell him. Knowing Duncan, he'd turned right around and demand to go back into the library so he could see the statue for himself.

  "Good," he replies. "We have to focus on our work. We have to go and hide this sword." He raises Excalibur, and I have to duck out of the way.

  "Watch where you swing that thing!" I say.

  "Sorry," he says.

  We walk on. I'm still planning to go and live in the wilderness as a wolf, but I guess I'll help Duncan find a place to hide Excalibur first. Glancing over my shoulder, I look back for a moment at the library. It's weird to think of that whole world existing in there, and it's weird to think of Thomas. My husband. Although I'm glad to be out in the real world again, and I'm even kind of glad to have found Duncan, there's definitely a small part of me that was left behind in the library. It was a gentler, calmer life in there. I'll miss it. I'll miss Thomas.

  "Stop!" Duncan says suddenly.

  I look ahead of us and see a large, armor-clad creature standing before us. He's huge, maybe ten meters tall, and he's holding a huge ax. His entire body is covered in black metal, and he doesn't look like he's in the mood to mess around.

  "Not again," Duncan says, sounding more tired than scared.

  "Who the hell is that?" I ask.

  "He's one of the chaps who want to get hold of Excalibur. His name's Malkioch. He's rather evil, and he'd use the sword's power to do terrible things."

  I sigh. "So that fucking sword has put a huge target on our backs?"

  "Basically," says Duncan, staring up at the creature as it raises its ax, "yes. That's one of the reasons we need to hide it fast. Carrying this thing around with us just isn't tenable. We need to bury it deep, where no-one can ever find it, and then we need to make sure that no-one even knows that we know where it is. Now stop asking stupid questions, and run!"

  We both switch into our wolf forms. The pain is something I barely even notice these days, especially when we've got a job to do. With Duncan holding the sword tightly between his teeth, we turn and run just as the huge ax swings down and slams into the ground behind us.

  I guess nothing ever really changes.

  Books in this series

  1. Werewolves of Soho

  2. Werewolves of the Other London

  3. The Children of Black Annis

  4. Destiny of the Last Wolf

  5. Werewolves of Sangreth

  6. The Immortal Wolf

  7. Wolves of the Red Church (coming soon)