Hounded

Granuaile. «
    » She is a sweet child, and very bright. She will make a good Druid. «
    » I agree. May I speak with her now? «
    » Certainly. Farewell. « Granuaile’s head drooped, and when it came back up she staggered backward and covered her face with her hands.
    » Fauggh! What is that fucking smell? Oh my God, it reeks! I can’t—can’t— « She couldn’t finish her sentence because she was too busy vomiting on the side of the trail.
    » Oh, yeah, I forgot about that, « I said. » Sorry. You kind of get used to it after a while. « Granuaile vomited again by way of reply, and it occurred to me that I hadn’t actually answered her question, and she might jump to the wrong conclusion if I didn’t say something soon. » It wasn’t me, « I assured her. » I swear it wasn’t me. That’s demons you’re smelling. «
    » Whatever it is, « she gasped, » do we have to stay here for long? Because I don’t think— « She retched again, but now it was dry heaves. Part of me was finding this very interesting. Laksha had obviously been using the same nose as Granuaile, so the two had been exposed to the exact same stimuli, but Laksha had shown no urge to vomit so violently. It suggested that the physical reaction was even more psychologically based than I had previously supposed.
    » Well, I have to stay and wait for the pack to return, but you could go back up the trail a little way until you can stand it. There’s nothing pretty to see here. «
    » Then why did you have me come back here? «
    » Precisely because there’s nothing pretty to see here. I wanted to give you a last chance to back out of our arrangement. You’re about to become an initiate in the world of magic, and that world can sometimes be brutally violent and smell as evil as it actually is. Breathe through your mouth and look around. «
    » It’s all dark. «
    Oh, duh. My binding had snapped when I lost my energy and Aenghus Óg had drained the earth. Laksha clearly had used her own methods of seeing in the dark to get here. Using some more of the Morrigan’s power, I gave Granuaile night vision again, and she looked at the meadow full of corpses.
    » My God, « she said. » Did you do all of this? «
    » Everything except the witches and the two werewolves. But I had lots of help staying alive tonight. By rights I should be dead. And you should know that magic users rarely die peacefully in their sleep. So I want you to think about what you’re looking at and what you smelled as you take Laksha back east. I don’t want you entering into this with any romanticized ideals. And if you’d rather not be my apprentice when you come back, I will understand, no hard feelings, and I’ll make sure you get a good job to replace the one you quit today. «
    » But what happened here? How did you manage this? «
    » Whoa, hold that thought, « I said, hearing yips from the opposite side of the meadow and seeing Snorri lift his head off the ground. » It sounds like the Pack is returning. We may be able to leave sooner than I thought. «
    Their arrival punctuated my point perfectly: Granuaile clutched my shoulder when she saw Emily’s head dangling from Gunnar’s jaws, and when he dropped it at my feet faceup, she hid behind my back.
    » No, Granuaile, what are you hiding from? You need to see this too. This is part of it. This woman here looked about twenty before she died, and now we see her true age was closer to ninety. There are seven more witches who are older than she was and who think they’re wiser, so they might get ideas about trying to succeed where this one failed. Maybe seeing the head of their youngest will drive home the point that it’s not wise to tangle with me. When you cannot reason with people, you have to try scaring them. If that doesn’t work, then you either run or you kill them. Or set your lawyers on them. «
    » Is that what you’re doing? Trying to scare me? «
    » Think of it as full disclosure. «
    » Okay. Thank you. I will think about it. « She turned and started back up the trail. » I’m just going to go far enough ahead to where I can breathe normally again. «
    Gunnar and Hal sloughed off their fur and put their human skin on so they could carry their two fallen pack mates out of the wilderness. They didn’t want to talk, and I figured they were probably calculating the costs of having me as a client. Snorri moved slowly and Greta trotted on three legs, but they were able to make it out without