Sianim 02 - Wolfsbane

true memories. The dreams concerned things that only the ae’Magi and Wolf knew about.”
    “How do you know Wolf didn’t send the dreams?”
    “It was not Wolf,” she said.
    “Where was he when your father was enspelled?” Her uncle’s voice was somber. “If his father was a dreamwalker, can you say for certain he is not? He wouldn’t necessarily even know he was doing it. You’ve seen how his magic escapes him.”
    Aralorn snorted. “If you knew Wolf, you would understand just how stupid it is to accuse him.”
    She tried to think how to put into words something that was so clear to her that it was almost instinctive. “First, he would never involve other wizards in his spellcasting. He doesn’t trust anyone except maybe me that much. He would never— not ever —voluntarily share as much of his past as I saw in that dream. I knew him for years before he would admit to being anything but a wolf.”
    “I think that it is a better possibility than a dead wizard,” said Halven. “Humans just don’t interact with the natural world well enough to do anything after they are dead.”
    Aralorn digested that comment for a minute. “You mean shapeshifters do?”
    The hawk gave its version of a laugh. “Not to worry. Most people who die don’t linger to torment the living.”
    “The only other explanation that we’ve come up with is that the Dreamer has awakened,” she told him.
    Halven made a derisive sound.
    “Do you have another explanation?” she asked.
    “What about another dreamwalking wizard? A living dreamwalker might be able to do what you have described,” he said.
    “I’m told it’s a rare talent,” said Aralorn.
    “Not rarer than a dead human mage who is making everyone tap to his tune,” said Halven. “Have you figured out why someone decided to attack the Lyon?”
    She shrugged. “As we discussed earlier, it is probably to get me here. There are any number of people after Wolf, and some of them know that where I go, Wolf is not far behind.”
    “To get Wolf here and do what?” asked Halven. “What do they want?”
    She frowned at him. “To kill him.”
    “You don’t know that,” Halven said. “Maybe they only need you.”
    She laughed ruefully. “I don’t die easily. And other than as bait for Wolf, I can’t think of a reason any wizard would want me.”
    “If they kill you, they kill him,” he reminded her.
    “Only since day before yesterday,” she said. “And how did you know about that?”
    “After I objected to finding my niece in a man’s bed, Wolf told me Ridane’s priestess married you.”
    “You couldn’t care less if I was sleeping with the sheep,” she said tartly.
    “He didn’t know that. You didn’t invite me to the wedding.”
    “I didn’t know for certain that I was going to go through with it until we were there. I had to do something,” she told him, trying to stem the defensive tone that wanted to ease into her words. She’d known that she was making him more vulnerable—she was certainly more easily killed than he. But her reasoning still stood. “You said he had a death wish, and I believe you.”
    “So you tricked him into the death goddess’s binding?” asked her uncle. There was, she thought, a certain admiration in his tone. “That’s the reason for your sudden marriage. He’ll take more care of himself now.”
    “Uhm,” she said. “I haven’t told him about the side effect of being married by Ridane.”
    “He doesn’t know?”
    “He wasn’t raised next to Ridane’s temple,” she answered. “She’s not worshipped many places anymore. The gods have been quiet for a long time.”
    Two beady eyes stared at her unblinkingly. “What good is marrying him going to do if he doesn’t know that his death will kill you also? You’ve undercut the very reason for the marriage.”
    She started to defend herself, but a slow smile caught her unexpectedly. “Not really.”
    The marriage itself, she thought, had accomplished what she had sought to enforce with the bond the priestess had set between them. From the awed tone in Wolf’s voice when she’d asked him if he’d marry her to last night when, after they’d retired to this room, he’d brought his pain to her and allowed her to help him forget. She was still a little stiff from the methods they’d employed.
    Her uncle waited for a moment, and when she didn’t continue, he said, “Just make sure you don’t die before you tell him.”
    She grinned.