Chapter 30. The Wolf’s Plans

CYRAN

I’m sitting on the edge of the outcrop again, but this time, I watch the sunset in the west, sliding slowly out of view behind the distant hills. It’s a beautiful thing, and I wonder how I’ve missed much of it my whole life. Our cottage was below the hill next to the forest, so the sunset wasn’t something we saw daily. I saw it once, though, but the sky had been the darkest that day, and the village was of smoke and ashes.

I hear approaching feet and I don’t need to turn to know it’s Gylen; he walks like he has all the time in the world, with a leisurely gait that I admire. He sits beside me, his left hand in a cast and his left eye looking as queer as ever on his long face.

“I want to be alone,” I tell him.

“What a coincidence. So let’s be alone together.”

We’re silent for a while.

“You look…positively useless,” he says suddenly.

“Thanks,” I snap, “I feel better already.”

“It wasn’t a compliment,” he says mildly, tossing a stone