They Mostly Come Out At Night Read Online Free Page A

pressed to be allowed to attend.
    Those who are not of the forest cannot understand the dangers that night holds here. The Mouse thinks of its squabbles with the Serpent and the Owl and assumes that their conflicts are mirrored the world over. The Wolves are different. They are not human, they cannot be reasoned with, and they have very good hearing.
    The Magpie Guard stiffened, snapping Adahy out of his thoughts and drawing attention to the distant scene. The Wolves were clearly converging on the blacksmith's hut now, with a number of them prowling on the roof and the rest scratching at the walls on the streets below. By Adahy's count, there were about a dozen of them down there, but their frenzied movement made it hard to track them with complete success. However, what had generated a response from the guardsmen was the appearance of another shadow, this time on the roof of a building to the north of the small village. This figure moved slowly, more precisely, and by its careful steps made it clear that it wanted to remain hidden from the violent throng. Furthermore, this shadow was considerably larger than those cast by the individual Wolves, and seemed to ripple in the breeze.
    "By Alfrond's whiskers, what in the hells iz he doing?" Celso gasped, completely abandoning his composure in the tension of the moment. "He iz down there alone? Those things will tear him apart."
    A guardsman gripped the Mouse by the throat and thrust him to the earth. "You speak again and I put this through you," he thumped the butt of his spear onto the earth in front of Celso. "Get yourself killed in your own time, we will not let you endanger the young prince."
    Adahy, however, was not interested in what was happening up on the ridge, his eyes were fixed on the village, hands clenched tight on his clammy skin.
    As the large shadow jumped to another rooftop, attempting to get closer to the cottage, which was now under clear assault, it was evident from the reaction of the Wolves that they had spotted the newcomer. Like a wasp swarm, they moved as one towards the cottage the intruder was currently on top of. Realising that he had no other choice, the shadow that was Adahy's father raised his weapons and jumped into the oncoming mob.
    At this moment, the moon was shrouded by a cloud.
    All hope of continuing to watch the village scene was hopeless, as without the moonlight only the whitewash of the distant cottage walls was vaguely visible. Worse still was the fact that the Muridae diplomat began to scream.
    "'E is dead, 'e is dead - flee while you can!"
    The Mouse had clearly escaped from his captor, as evidenced by the cursing of the guardsmen as they stumbled about in the starlight.
    "Artemis take you, put a damned spear into the Mouse's throat before he gives us away."
    Adahy ignored the commotion, instead straining his eyes towards the spot where he last saw his father alive. Taking pity on him, the moon unveiled herself again, gifting Adahy sight of the devastation down at the village. Black shadows, unmoving, littered the muddy streets, and only two figures remained, one clearly Adahy's father, the Magpie King. The last remaining Wolf was on the other side of the settlement from his pursuer, but made the fatal error of turning to cast a growl back at the assassin before melting into the forest. In the time it took Adahy to gasp, the Magpie King was beside his foe. A sharp flicking movement caused the top of the Wolf's shadow to fall to the streets below, quickly followed by the rest of its body.
    "I don't believe it. One dozen of them and he bested them in zeconds. The man is incredible, he..." The rest of Celso's sentence of praise died in his throat as it was opened up by the point of a Magpie Guard spear. In death, the diplomat was finally silent.
    "Count the bodies. I can only find ten. I read twelve before the clouds came. Can anyone see the others?"
    "Are you certain? I thought there were only eleven."
    "There are still only ten bodies,