Chapter 26. The Whisperer

CYRAN

I watch them splash about without interest. I never learned to swim, and I’m not learning with these wolvens. Sitting here, on the edge of this rock suddenly feels precarious, and I stand up to go when I see it.

A brown wolf slinking forward quietly. I blink severally, it must be the same hallucination I had two days before. But it’s real; all my senses have picked up the all too familiar traces of danger.

Instinctively, I reach for my arrow. It’s not at hand. I take out my hunting knife, but it takes me a while to realize it’s not even looking at me. Then I remember the others.

I yell for them to get out of the water, waving my arms wildly and jumping frantically. Gylen hears me but when he turns, the creature has slouched off. He swims closer.

“What did you say?” he asks.

“There was a wolf” I say, “Brown and…and the largest animal I’ve seen…”

Seirmon and Edril come by as well, their eyes scouting the other side of the bank where I ha