Lupi 04 - Night Season

previously overlooked options. As soon as she lay down, she was too tired to think at all…almost too tired. Because one thought did intrude just before sleep dragged her down.
    Those with magic were more fertile in high magic realms.
    Earth was becoming higher magic…not as high as Edge, certainly, but more than it had been for about three thousand years.
    Cullen had gotten her pregnant right after the power winds blew.
    Maybe the lupi wouldn’t have such a big problem with fertility anymore.
    Oh, my. She really hoped she saw Lily again, so she could tell her. Or warn her.

THIRTY-ONE
    T HEY were better than halfway down the mountain the next day when the mountain moved.
    Cynna had been through an earthquake before. She’d even been outside when it hit—in a forest, of all things. A forest in California, part of a national park, where she’d been hunting a missing twelve-year-old. It was been a small quake, but still pretty spooky.
    She hadn’t been on horseback, though. Horses do not like earthquakes.
    They were spread out when it happened, headed across a tilted cup of land with a fairly shallow grade. Trees surrounded the cupped meadow—mostly evergreens, but a few stubborn oaks, too, their winter-brown leaves still clinging to their limbs. It was probably pretty here in the Day Season. Beneath the thin snow cover was lots of dead grass.
    Grass and snow, with dirt beneath rather than rock—it could have been a lot worse.
    The moment the land started to dance, so did Cynna’s horse. The screams didn’t help. Those big, bad Ahk warriors were yelling like crazy. Cynna had a few moments to think she was doing okay, staying on her frantic horse in spite of everything. Then the animal reared.
    She lost the stirrups, felt her butt leave the saddle, and grabbed—but there was no pommel on the saddle, and the fistful of mane she did seize slipped right through the stupid mitten. She ended up on her back with the breath knocked out of her.
    By then the ground had stopped moving. She lay flat, caught in the wide-eyed terror of a spasming diaphragm. She could not inhale. Endless seconds later Steve’s face hovered over her. “You okay? Cynna! Hey, you okay?”
    Suddenly she sucked in a huge gulp of air. Blew it out. Did it again. Oh, air was sweet. “Yes, I’m…breath was knocked out. I don’t think anything else…hey, no groping.” Steve was running his hands up one of her legs and down the other. She managed to push up on one elbow and grin. “You’ll give me ideas.”
    â€œYou’re all right?”
    That was Daniel, who’d also dismounted. He knelt beside her as he spoke.
    â€œFine. That damned horse…” A weird keening got her attention. She sat up the rest of the way, staring. “I’m not so sure about them.”
    About half the Ahk were prostrated on the ground, their voices rising in an eerie ululation. Some of the horses liked that about as much as Cynna did—they were shying away.
    Some horses were just plain gone, she realized. Including hers. “I guess they aren’t used to earthquakes here.”
    Chulak hadn’t dismounted. He bellowed something the charm didn’t translate, then more words that it did: “This is not the displeasure of Hrvash! The mountain trembles because some fool has the medallion, a fool who does not know how to use it—or who uses it against us!”
    The keening faltered. Stopped. A couple of the prostrate Ahk sprang to their feet and waved their fists in the air, yelling things about killing those who attacked them. The others liked that theme, adding to it that “they” had offended Hvrash by attacking his holy mountain.
    The mountain was holy? Someone should have told her. Maybe she wouldn’t have cursed it so often. Cynna pushed to her feet, looked around for Gan. The little not-quite-gnome had been riding double with one of the Ahk, as usual. “You think the earthquake was caused by the medallion being in the wrong hands?”
    Daniel grimaced. “I hate to agree with Chulak about anything, but it’s possible. These mountains are supposed to be geologically stable.”
    Steve spoke slowly. “The Council thought the flood in that place—what was the name?—was caused by the disruption the medallion is experiencing.”
    â€œExperiencing? More like causing.” Cynna frowned. She didn’t see a