Page 54 of Nightmare's Dance

“Are you sure?” I asked.

“It will be my honor,” the wolf growled. He held out a leg for me to step on.

Not wanting to anger the wolf, I buried my hands in his thick fur and stepped up onto his leg. My years of performing with Geraint helped me mount the wolf gracefully, carefully climbing up his side and swinging a leg over his back. I even managed not to squeal in terror as the creature stood, forcing myself to trust him, as I would have trusted my knight. Or Nic.

The wolf had a broad, muscular back that wasn’t uncomfortable, simply strange. His muscles bunched under me, and I clamped my legs around him and held tight to his coarse ruff fur.

I looked at the others. Robby had climbed onto the back of another wolf and Geraint approached a third. Nic had his hand on the shoulder of the last, a smaller wolf that rested her head against Nic’s side. He dug his fingers into the creature’s fur. Perhaps he knew the wolf well? They acted very familiar.

A twinge of jealousy curled through my body, surprising me. Where had that come from?

To distract myself, I turned my attention to the wolf that would carry me. “Do you like being pet, or do you prefer I keep my touch minimal?”

“You may pet me, Princess. I am honored by your attention, and it pleases me. Others may lose a hand.”

That startled a laugh out of me. “Do you have a name?”

“You may call me Ghost. Hang on, Princess. We run.”

I clutched Ghost’s fur as he and the others leaped into a rolling lope. Nic and the smaller wolf led, with Ghost following behind her. Geraint and Robby rode to either side and slightly behind me, all of us running in kind of an arrow shape. It didn’t escape my attention that I was in the center of the formation.

Riding a giant wolf through the wilds of Nightmare was an experience I didn’t even know how to describe. First off, I was riding a wolf. A huge, horse-sized wolf with canines the length of my arm. Their ground-eating gaits were not uncomfortable, as long as I trusted Ghost. Simply an amazing and new experience.

The deep forest closed in around us, and the endless shine of blinking eyes stared from the darkness. I shivered and nearly pitched over Ghost’s head as he slid to a stop.

Two young girls blocked our path, eyes solid black, wearing light blue dresses. They both dragged giant axes, dripping blood.

“You cross our path,” they said with the same voice, slightly out of sync. “You must appease us.”

“We travel to the boundaries,” the lead wolf growled. “Give way for your prince and princess.”

Their dead black eyes shifted from Nic to me. I clutched at Ghost’s fur and tried not to show how terrified I was. Surely two axe-toting children were no match for a bunch of dire wolves.

That Nic’s wolf backed into Ghost when the children stepped forward did not comfort me.

“We give way for the princess, that she may save us from the nothingness. We will take the price of passage from the pursuers.”

“Jesus fucking Christ,” I swore quietly as they stepped into the darkness. The wolves took up their run, maybe just a little faster than before, not slowing until the trees thinned.

We broke out of the dense forest and onto vast grasslands. I looked up into the gray sky, tinged with hints of blue. Clouds drifted lazily on an unseen breeze, and I marveled as they shifted from cloud shaped, to dragon shaped, to fish shaped, and through many other patterns. I couldn’t explain it, but suddenly the clouds froze as if noticing someone watched them.

Unable to look away as the clouds shifted back into cheerful puffy forms, I clenched my fingers on Ghost’s fur. The familiar cumulus puffs should have been reassuring. Instead, fear trickled icy fingers down my spine. Moments later, eyes slitted open on the clouds, and gashes like mouths gaped at me, filled with jagged teeth.

My jaw dropped open, and I mewled in terror as the clouds dove out of the sky toward us.

At my frightened squeak, Nic followed my gaze and sighed in exasperation. The wolves slowed.

“Stop. You can terrorize us all later,” Nic snapped.

The clouds paused.

“Promise. We’ll give you a good round of chase once Baz’s hounds are no longer after us.”

I gaped at Nic, then at the puffy clouds as they seemed to confer, before shifting their attention away from me and toward something behind us.

“Yes, go chase the hounds, good idea.”

The clouds zoomed away.

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