Page 14 of Shadow Master
I took a shuddering breath, pushing down the frustration and locking away that horrible foreboding that screamedtoo late, too latein my face.
I released Athos. “I’m going to get him back.”
Athos rumbled again, but this time there was more to that sound. Something a hairbreadth out of my comprehension.
My arm ached where the violet-eyed fomorian had branded me with the symbol that allowed me to understand the fomorian tongue, and then words unfurled in my mind.
Let me come with you.
I exhaled sharply and stumbled back. “What? Did you just …”
You hear me?His eyes widened.You understand me.
“Yes … I can understand you. How is this possible?” The mark? I rubbed the brand.
Athos looked down at it.That mark allows you to understand me?
It was a fomorian mark, and Athos was a hound born and bred on this side of the mist. How could a fomorian mark allow me to understand him?
Take me with you,he said again.Brady is my master, and you are his mate. I will protect you. I will help bring him home.
He was talking to me. A hound was talking to me. “Can you all talk? All the hounds?”
Athos nodded.Listen.
I took a step back to the pen door and allowed the rumbles that vibrated through the stables to wash over me.
Rumbles that morphed and changed into voices of all tenors.
What’s happening?
What was the explosion?
Where’s Jemima?
Where’s my master?
Oh, God.
I could hear them all.
I staggered into the sawdust-strewn strip between the pens.
Enough!Athos followed me out of his pen.She can hear you. She can hear us. Now listen.
The hounds fell into silence.
Athos looked to me.Tell us what happened. Tell us what we can do to help.
* * *
The sky was getting lighteras I climbed the rise back to the fortress grounds. But this time, I wasn’t alone. The hounds walked behind me. Twenty huge fomorian hounds, livid at the deaths of their masters and eager for vengeance. We crested the rise to the clang of swords and the bellow of instructions. But the sounds faltered and ceased as we drew near. As the sun rose, warming my back, sword arms were lowered and mouths popped open.
Lloyd stepped around a group of nervous-looking academy cadets. He stopped at the sight of me and my entourage and crossed his arms. Aidan, Devon, and Harmon joined him. The hounds fanned out as we approached, and Athos came abreast of me, staying close, casting me in his protective shadow.
We came to a standstill a few meters away from the gathered. “The hounds want to help. They’ll be joining us for training.”
“They want to help?” Aidan looked from me to Athos.
