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. He turned and was gone, fading into the night.Bek stared after him.He did not move again for a longtime.The Ilse Witch finished chewing on the vegetable root she had harvested for her dinner and stared outinto the growing darkness.She would set out again soon, tracking the boy and the shape-shifter oncemore, following them into the mountains.They were clever and resourceful-or at least the shape-shifterwas-and she could not afford to let them get too far ahead of her.She must press hard to keep themwithin reach.She might even catch up to them that night if they stopped to rest.They would have to,wouldn t they? The boy did not possess the stamina to go without rest, even if the shape-shifter did.Hewould have to sleep sometime.If she was quick enough, she would catch them unprepared.She finished what she wanted of the root and threw the rest away.She would have them by now if theyhadn t been working so hard to throw her off.That was clever, back by the river, setting up a false trailon one bank and swinging back across to the other.It had confused the caull, had sent it running up anddown the wrong bank without purpose, had caused it to go half-mad with rage.The caull was skilled andpossessed exceptional instincts, but it lacked insight.She was the one who spied the hook still caught inthe upper branches of that hickory and sent the caull back across the river to search out the trail anew.By that time she had given back to her quarry the time they had lost to her during the night.Tonight shemust make it up all over again.Easy enough though, if the boy slept.The bushes parted, and the caull reappeared.She had sent it out to find something to eat, and from thesmear of blood on its muzzle, it had been successful.It moved to within a dozen yards of her and then satback on its haunches, watching.It was a dangerous beast.She could not afford to turn her back on it; ithated her for what she had done to it and would kill her if it got the chance.It was obedient because ithad no choice; her magic kept it in line.But if she loosed its leash, even a little.She studied it a moment, then looked away, dismissing it.It was important to show she was not afraid ofor even particularly interested in it beyond its intended usefulness.She had created it for a purpose, and itwas there to serve that purpose and nothing more.What it thought she would do with it when the boywas found, she had no idea.Probably it could not think that far ahead, which was just as well. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlShe found herself wondering, instead, what she would do with the boy.It was easy enough to decidewhat would become of the caull and the shape-shifter, but the boy was another matter.She hadn tfollowed him all that way just to put an end to him; he was an important link to understanding the Druid, apotential window into his mind.Before the Druid died, she would know everything there was to knowabout him.The boy was a device to unsettle and confuse her, but he might prove to be a resource, aswell.There were things about him that needed understanding-how he could have magic so like her own,how he could know so much about her that felt true, how he could seem so real.She knew there wereexplanations for all of it, but the explanations were not enough as they stood.She would have the wholetruth before she was finished with him.She would strip him bare before she tossed him away.She pictured his face, recalled his voice.She could still hear him telling her he was her brother, he wasBek, survived somehow from the burning of her home and the killing of her family.She couldn t acceptthat, of course.The Druid had wanted only her, and when she had told the Morgawr how she had hiddenher brother, he had been certain that no one else was left alive in the ashes of her home.Dark shadows gathered at the back of her thoughts, then crowded to the fore in warning.Unless he waslying.Unless the Morgawr had concealed the truth about Bek.But there could be no reason for that,when Bek might have proved useful to him in the same way she had.No, the Druid and his minions haddeceived her parents and then murdered them, all because of her, because of who and what she was.Healone was responsible and must answer for that, and the boy was just another pawn employed in theirwar to destroy each other.He was clever, the boy, but an artifice, a Druid stratagem; in the end he wasstill just a boy who looked the way Bek might have looked had he lived to grow up, just a boy who hadbeen deceived into thinking he was someone he was not.She rose to her feet, and the caull rose with her, eyes bright and anticipatory.It was ready to hunt, andshe was ready to let it do so.She sent it ahead with a gesture, letting it sniff out the trail, yet keeping itclose enough that it could not act without her knowing.She did not want it catching the boy and tearinghim apart before she had a chance to plumb his mind.The shape-shifter was another matter, but shedoubted that the caull would catch that one unawares.In all likelihood, they must deal with it before theycould expect to find the boy.She wondered again why a shape-shifter would take such an interest in theirbusiness.Perhaps it was in thrall to the Druid, although that would be unusual for a shape-shifter.Perhapsit was in some way connected to the killing of her parents and the destruction of her home, and its ownlife was at risk because of that.The Druid had used shape-shifters to carry out his purpose.This might beone of them.She mulled the possibilities over as she trailed after the caull, keeping her senses alert to what lay aroundher.The forest dark concealed many things, and one of them might be her enemy.She moved silently inher tied-up gray robes, sliding through the brush and trees like a shadow.The night sky was clear, andthe light of moon and stars flooded down through the canopy of the limbs overhead.There was too muchlight to make her comfortable.She caught glimpses of the caull ahead of her, bits and pieces ofmovement in the patches of silver.It padded forward, then circled back again, over and over, keeping tothe trail its prey had left, reading the signs, sorting them out to be certain it was not being misled.It wasgood at that; all its wolf instincts were intact and working within its new form, all its skills at play.It was nearing midnight when she reached an open stretch of ground that fronted the foothills leading upinto the mountains, a rocky flat empty of everything but scrub and deadwood.Standing hidden within thetrees, she watched the caull move out into the open ground, sniffing, circling, then continuing on.Shestayed where she was, letting it go.The terrain ahead was too exposed.She didn t feel right aboutmoving through it, even though the trail clearly went that way. Generated by ABC Amber LIT Converter, http://www.processtext.com/abclit.htmlShe tightened her invisible leash on the caull and summoned it back to her.Her instincts told her thatsomething was amiss and she must determine what it was before continuing on.Staring out across the flat, the caull crouched at her side, she began to reason it out
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