Hounded

extensively about our plans, because I could not communicate with him effectively when he was in wolf form. Communicating with Oberon was my magic, but communication amongst the Pack was their magic; I was not part of the Pack, no matter how friendly we were. And werewolves are, for the most part, immune to any magic that isn’t theirs, even the benign sort that would allow me to talk to them mind-to-mind in wolf form.
    » This, unfortunately, « I said to Granuaile, » is where we need to part ways for some time. Laksha is going to need to rejoin us from here on out. «
    » Oh, okay, um, master, or sensei, or whatever. What should I call you? «
    I laughed. » Archdruid would be the correct term, I suppose, « I said. » But that doesn’t fall trippingly off the tongue, does it? And it would turn heads in public, and we don’t want that. So let’s stick with sensei. «
    » Kick some ass, sensei. « She clasped her hands together mantis style and bowed to me, and when she rose back up Laksha was in charge.
    » Why was she bowing to you? « she asked in her Tamil accent.
    » I’m her sensei now. «
    » I am not knowing this word. «
    » It’s an honorific we’ve settled on. Listen, we’re four miles, give or take, from Tony Cabin. How close do you need to get to Radomila? «
    » To take the necklace back, I’ll need to be right next to her. «
    » I mean how close do you need to be to, you know, make karma happen? Do you need line of sight? «
    She shook her head. » I need only this drop of blood I have heard about. «
    I pulled Radomila’s note from my pocket and handed it to her. She examined it the way a normal human being would for a couple of moments, but then she pulled some creepy witch stuff and made Granuaile’s eyes roll back in their sockets so all I saw was the whites of her eyes. I knew it was something akin to my faerie specs—the Vedic third eye that allowed them to see visible traces of magic—but it was still creepy. When she had seen what she needed to see, her eyes rolled back down like slot machine tumblers to give me double pupils. They focused on me and she said, » I can kill her from as far away as a mile with this. But I cannot kill the other witches without my necklace—unless you have their blood too? «
    » No, I don’t. «
    » I was not thinking so. You will have to get me the necklace, then, if you want me to be helping with them. «
    » I’ll probably be busy at that point, « I said dryly, thinking of Aenghus Óg. Suddenly I felt a tug at my feet, a subtle indication that someone nearby was drawing power from the earth. The only beings capable of doing that, besides me, were a few Old World dryads, Pan, and the Tuatha Dé Danann. Paranoia made me think of Aenghus Óg immediately, since I doubted Pan would be chasing any dryads in the Superstition Mountains. » Someone’s coming, « I said, drawing Fragarach from its sheath. The werewolves’ hackles rose and they spread themselves before me, facing the direction I was facing and straining with snout and ear to sense what I had sensed. Nice doggies.
    I wondered if the magic of the Tuatha Dé Danann would work on the werewolves; my own didn’t seem to work very well, and it was the same as the Tuatha Dé’s, albeit somewhat weaker. Laksha, I saw peripherally, had coiled Granuaile’s body into a defensive stance that was probably some form of varma kalai, an Indian martial art based on attacking pressure points. She wasn’t dependent entirely on magic, then, like most witches, for her offense and defense—good to know. In case, you know, we weren’t on the same side someday.
    The tug at my heels felt nearer—whoever it was, they were definitely coming this way. I looked down the slope into Haunted Canyon but could not spy anything moving. The choked overgrowth of scrub oak and manzanita along the trail had quite a bit to do with that; someone determined to remain concealed could do so until they were practically on top of us. As it was almost certainly one of the Tuatha Dé Danaan, they would have camouflage cast on them in any case.
    I saw a couple of werewolves snarl and leap slightly off to my left, and I shifted my stance to meet whatever threat might materialize there. The werewolves oddly tried to change course in midair, but apparently they could not avoid whatever alarmed them. Instead, they collided broadside with something that sent them whirling to the ground with dismayed whimpers.
    Werewolves, in my