Black Wolf Read Online Free Page A

range.
     
    It certainly
felt like an awfully long way to go.
     
    *Here!* Bane
barked sharply, mentally and aloud both.
     
    "Clearing,
about eight feet ahead," Deanna murmured.
     
    They finally
stepped out of the trees, and with intense relief Kevin called a
floating sphere of light to hover in the air and give them all a
reasonable view of their surroundings.
     
    The clearing
was small, and mostly empty. There were lingering traces of
illusion, still strong enough that Kevin could see what it had
been. Why had Moira created the illusion of a campsite? The only
things real were the remains of a fire, which still shimmered with
mage power—created by, extinguished by, and he thought manipulated
by an elvenmage—and an impression under the one person still
present that suggested a blanket woven by a mage out of light and
then left to dissolve when no longer useful.
     
    Deanna
crouched beside the black-clad figure that lay on the grass, curled
into a tight fetal ball, breath coming in rapid ragged sobs of
pain.
     
    "Oh gods," she
whispered, reaching out to run her fingers down his cheek. "Oh,
Rebecca, what have you done this time?" She looked up at Kevin, and
he didn't need to read her mind to know what she wanted him to do.
No one should have to experience that much pain. Gently, Kevin
wrapped his mind around the stranger's and thought sleep at
him. His breathing slowed and evened out somewhat as he lost
consciousness.
     
    *Ready,
Flynn?*
     
    *Yes,* came
the prompt reply.
     
    Reaching to
Flynn, using him as an anchor to spin a doorway of light and energy
linking here and there , was one of the most tiring
things he'd done yet tonight. Pixie-slight Gisela, her long
honey-brown hair dripping wet and a pale summer dress clinging to
her damply, darted through on bare feet. Flynn, his ever-present
cards in one hand, followed her, and the gate imploded, leaving
them in twilight. Not that Kevin really needed to see the redheaded
seer, whose mother's Scottish blood showed in every line of his
body.
     
    Gisela dropped
instantly to her knees next to the stranger, laying a hand on his
cheek—about the only skin accessible with his arms and hands
clenched tight against his chest. Her eyes closed as she
concentrated on what healer senses could tell her about what was
going on in his body right now.
     
    Kevin studied
him as best he could while waiting. Young, slender, probably no
taller than Flynn. Black hair that didn't look like it had been cut
or even washed lately, pulled back in a rough tail with strands
escaping to frame his face. Dark skin, maybe Native, with one
silver crescent stud bright through his ear. Features slightly
delicate, very sensual... attractive, even streaked with drying
tears and dirt, but not strong enough to be handsome, Kevin
mused.
     
    "I don't know
everything that's happening, there's too much all at once," Gisela
said worriedly. "He's been ripped wide open psychically, and I
think it overloaded his whole nervous system. He's already in
shock, and even before this, he had an awful lot of stuff going on.
Flynn's right, he's going to die unless I can do something..."
     
    "Do what you
can," Flynn said softly, toying with his cards without actually
pulling any out to look at. He wouldn't have gone to Gisela if she
had no hope of saving the stranger, Kevin thought; he would never
do that to her. So he must see a reasonable chance.
     
    Gisela nodded,
and tucked her hair back behind her ears. For a moment, by
magelight, she looked less like the seventeen-year-old
mostly-trained dryad healer she was, and more like she'd be in
another couple of decades when both she and her gifts reached full
maturity. She moved so she was sitting on the ground with her legs
crossed, the stranger's head on her lap, and closed her eyes
again.
     
    Bane prowled,
agitated but lacking a target, circling around them in wide
loops—practically daring anything to attack again. Kevin, Deanna,
and Flynn settled themselves near