Page 25

“Wait, shyte,” I said now. “What am I?”

“I’ll forgive you not saying hello, for you’ve just been through a lot, but save your squittering, we haven’t much time, and you and that Spanth both are like to die without my urgent help. Now do you want it, or would you rather just marvel at my mammets and bellystone?”

I opened my mouth, which felt strangely long, and I shut it.

“Right. You’re in a dog, s’the only thing I could find to harbor you for this singsong. If you need to piss or shit, just do it, I haven’t time to let you outside. And yes, I’m gravid, but don’t go asking questions. I’m about a pile of witchery that’s well beyond your ken, and maybe you had something to do with it, and maybe you didn’t, but even if you did, don’t get any notions.”

“But what was all that business you once said about how you’re not for making bairns? Oh, you do bewilder me!” I said, and I turned twice in a circle and whimpered, and now she pointed at me and said, “Sit!” in such a slap-ready mother’s way that my haunches fell to the floor whether I willed it or no.

But then a cricket went hopping on the floor, and I felt my tongue loll out of my mouth as I chased it. Next thing I knew, Norrigal had me by the tail and was pulling me none-too-gently back. Then her hand was heavy on my rear and she pushed me down into a sit. Now she knelt so her face was just in front of mine, and oh her breath was sweet with meat in her teeth and beer on her tongue, and just the good, warm air from her lungs, and I could smell that she was in good health, and I could smell her hair, and the gloaming night air in it, and the wolf that lived in the tower, and the dead pair of legs she had on her that came from another woman, one who’d been hanged in the town of Meath, they do a lot of that there. And I smelled all the spices and herbs in her kitchen all at once and also the wee cricket who was nearly under the door and away and oooo I’d never catch her now. But there was a great big leg of mutton somewhere in the room, cool now but not cold, and it had been fed on ryegrass, and timothy, and red clover, and it had died quick and well and would be tender in the mouth.

“Listen and mark me, Kinch Na Shannack, you’re letting a stray puppy take your mind over, and it reflects poorly on you.”

“I’m perfectly myself,” I said, offended, then started licking her hand. She grabbed me by both cheeks as I tried to love-bite her and pawed at her, but she gave me a shake. “Right, sorry,” I said.

And there were her big eyes in her big face right in front of mine.

“Now listen. Listen, damn ya! Yer Spanth has a fester of the lungs, and that’s what’s giving her fever. She’s just not made for that cold, and she’s sworn promises to her goddess that mark her to die young.”

I nodded my head and wagged my tail, gave a little yip.

“Fight harder, you fond, weak-minded thing.”

“Yah! Fight! Then, you got any sticks here? I do love to chew a stick! Or a bone. There’s one close with a lot of mutton on it, too!”

“I’m going to put something in your—”

“Mouth? Brilliant! Is it mutton?”

“No. Something else. And not your mouth. I’ll give it to you just before I send you back. It’s a packet with a dozen little pellets in it. You’re to feed Galva one a day however you can get them down her throat. But you’ll also have to hunt snowshoe hares and wildermice for her, and feed her frost onion and winterberry as well, and keep her by a good fire.”

I understood! I could do this! I wanted so to please her that I turned in a circle from pure love and enthusiasm, but she pushed me back to sitting again.

“Another thing, and this is worse. You’re not going to make it over them mountains on foot, not this late in the year, not having turned back. It’s going to be a brutal, short gloaming, and a long, hard winter. And you can’t stay in that cave neither. The Guild’s after ya, and they got a sure tracker—a dog-man they’ve learned to breed up—and another one of them adepts, and someone else as well, someone hard. Sit still and they’ll find you, as lightning finds a tree. And I don’t think you two can beat them three, not with them choosing when to strike. Remember what just one adept did to the lot of us?”

This made me sad, so I lay down on my belly and rested my chin on my paws.

“But I been talking to people, and there’s another way.”

My tail wagged just once or twice. I wasn’t happy yet, but I was hopeful.

“Yer going fucking dog again, Kinch. Speak to me now. Speak!”

I barked.

“Fucking words, please. Talk to me.” Then, more brightly, “I’ll give you mutton!”

Gods, woman, why’d ya not say so?

“Mutton!” I said.

“Now, what did I just tell you?”

“Mountains bad. Cave bad. Another way. Mutton, please!” But it was hard to talk, I was drooling so.

She rolled her eyes.

“This is hopeless, you’ll not remember shyte. I hadn’t wanted to do things this way, but I have no choice. I love ya, ya eejit puppy. Here’s yer mutton.”