And as he
watched, the man-child was struck, and weakened in will, by the size and
unswerving gait of Shar-hai, whom he had seen before only from a
distance. Now he was less than a hundred yards away.
Suddenly the great head stopped in mid-air, turning left and then right:
searching. At the same moment his guard lowered their noses to the
ground and angrily, anxiously swept the earth about them. Kalus'
heart froze, but even as it did his fingers wrapped more tightly about
the hilt of his sword. The two fanned out fifteen yards to either side,
then doubled back upon their own path. It was not his scent they had
found.
They snarled and tore the ground with their feet, waiting to
advance. For the scent of the true wolf they recognized, and hated.
Only Shar-hai looked about him, sensing, but not seeing, something else.
He too was aware of Akar. His lip curled slightly and a rumble of
distant hatred crawled out.
They advanced up the hill.
Chapter 13
The sky was deep and blue and bare of clouds. The sun shone down bright
and unhindered, but its warmth was fleeting, carried away by the
fretting and inconstant late October wind. Dry and fallen leaves were
whisked up quickly into whirlwinds, only to be abandoned with equal
suddenness, left to drift back to earth as they would.
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