Prologue

The mid day sun scorched the ground, cracking the dirt roads and withering the crops and trees. Merari leaned farther away from the light and into the cool shade under an old pine tree. The streets were empty; everyone had given up the day to be inside. Anxiously, he glanced at the door of his brother’s house while idly twirling his knife about its wooden handle. What was taking his brother so long? He was about to get up when the door creaked open, and his brother stepped out of the gloomy indoors. Standing up, Merari slowly made his way over to him.

“Tuan, how is she?” his words were slow and careful.

“I thought she was doing better, but…” his brother’s voice trailed off, and he looked back towards his house. “I think-I think she’s gotten worse. She does not recognize Anila or I, and she talks to people who are not really there. She talks to the air.”

“Her kind are cursed,” Merari said casually, waving his hand that still held the knife in the air to emphasize his point. “They appeared from nowhere, and act like they have always been here. I would be careful in your place, you can never know what to expect from one of them.”

“She is not cursed!” Tuan’s blue eyes narrowed. “Estelle is a wonderful person. She gave up her family to be with me. Be careful of what you say, for it is the knife in your hand that seems to be the origin of her sickness. I love you my brother, but sometimes I feel as if I do not know you.” Sighing, Tuan trudged back into his dark house.

“The same can be said for you Tuan,” Merari said to the empty spot where his brother once stood. “Your wife has taken you from me, and I fear that I cannot get you back again.”

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A shrill scream pierced the evening, and Merari shot up in bed. His heart was pounding erratically, and he was breathing hard. He could hear dogs barking, and people shouting. Cautiously, he slipped on his clothes and stole across his kitchen to the front door. He was about to step outside when the glint of metal caught his eye; it was his knife. Reaching out he gripped the smooth wooden handle tightly, and pushed open the door.

Curious people had come out of their homes, packing the narrow streets. Merari pushed rudely through the crowd of neighbours and friends, a feeling a dread churning in his stomach. The sound of snarling and snapping teeth reached his ears. Another shout of pain rang between the bodies of spectators, but this time Merari recognized it, it was his brother. With one last powerful surge forwards he was through the crowd, and now stood at the edge of the small clearing.

A giant red-eyed wolf circled Tuan, who was kneeling on the ground and holding a bleeding shoulder. Behind him cowered a little girl, her violet eyes wide with fear. The wolf’s pink tongue lolled out the side of it’s mouth, and it dragged it’s paws unsteadily along the ground. It eyed the people who ringed the circle with a crazed, terrified gleam, and suddenly shot up without warning, straight at an unarmed man who stumbled away in fear. He was too slow, and the wolf’s teeth sliced one of his thighs.

People swarmed together in fright, and hurled and hammered their laughable weapons at the crazed animal. One lady landed a direct blow to the creature’s head with a fist sized rock, and it leap away from the people. Snarling in pain, the wolf turned on it’s heel and ran back to the middle of the clearing. The circle of people widened, and although Merari saw many of his neighbours grip their makeshift weapons tighter, none had the courage to approach the wolf.

“Estelle,” Merari heard Tuan whisper pleadingly at the black wolf. “Estelle, please...”

Merari’s face whitened. The wolf was named Estelle. The wolf was his brother’s…wife? He knew that her people, the Tanazi, had more than one form, but he had never seen hers till now. She was a beast, a monster. Merari looked at Tuan’s bloody shoulder, and at his brother’s tiny daughter huddled against his back. Would she hurt her only child? Feeling the burning eyes of the wolf watching him, Merari cautiously approached his brother in the middle of the circle.

“Brother, leave her,” Merari’s voice quiet and low. “What can you do to help her now?” Tuan looked up at him with cloudy eyes. “She does not recognize you or your daughter Anila. What will stop her from hurting your daughter as she has already hurt you?” Merari motioned towards Tuan’s shoulder. “Leave her,” he repeated.

“I can’t,” Tuan’s voice cracked. “Here,” he placed a gentle kiss upon the black hair of his daughter before pushing her towards Merari. “Take her.”

“No, you must come too.”

Tuan shook his head, and smiled sadly at his brother. “I can’t.”

The delirious wolf was growling deep in her throat, and Merari knew she getting ready to attack.

“If you won’t come for me, come for your daughter!” Merari’s voice rose higher, and the wolf growled louder. “Think Tuan, she will grow up with no family.”

“No, she won’t,” Tuan said gently. “She will have you.”

The wolf lunged at Tuan, who was still looking at Merari. Merari's dagger arm shot forwards,but he had moved too late. The wolf’s jaw clamped down on Tuan’s neck and he slumped forwards, dropping something out and of his hand, which hit the ground with a soft ping. Merari pulled his three-year-old niece out of the wolf’s deadly reach and held her tight against him, watching the wolf with cold grey eyes. The wolf jumped back, snarling in Merari’s direction. He could see his brother’s red blood shinning on her teeth.

His niece Anila squirmed out of his grip and reached for the metal object close to her father’s hand. It was a black coloured bracelet formed in the shape of a wolf. The child stretched out her trembling fingers, ignoring how the prowling wolf in front of her snapped it’s head to face her vulnerable form. The wolf crouched low to the ground, her ears laid flat against her skull. Lunging again she arched through the night sky, her blazing eyes set on the little girl. Merari was ready this time, and putting his all of his weight into the blade, he plunged his silver knife deep into her chest. She dropped dead to the ground with a loud thump.

Merari turned just in time to see his niece clasp the bracelet close to her heart. Underneath her small hands the dark metal warped, fluidly wreathing and twisting into the shape of a snake. She looked up at him wide eyed, and he reached out to embrace her. The moment he wrapped his arms around her the air grew strangely heavy. Curiously, Merari looked closer at the object in her tiny hands. From the head of the snake, twin ruby eyes glimmered eerily lifelike in the moonlight. A shiver spidered down his spine, and he suddenly felt invisible bony fingers grasping at his face and arms. Anila stiffened, and reached a trembling arm over her uncle's protective shoulder.

“Papa,” he heard her breathless whisper.

Merari shot to his feet and spun around, but he could see only the frightened faces of the townspeople. The air in front of him seemed to condense, and he heard the sound of a sharp wind. A softer unseen hand rested on his arm, and he thought he heard a familiar voice whisper close by his head. Startled, he jerked backwards, causing the bracelet Anila held to slide between her fingers. The invisible fingers vanished, and the voice was cut off. Shaking, Merari bent down to pick the bracelet up off of the hard ground. He carefully set it back in his niece's hands, and braced himself for something to happen, nothing did. Anila started sniffling, and then outright crying. Her sobbing wails filled the sky, and Merari tightened his arms around her. He was sure of what he heard; the voice had been his brother's.

“It's will be okay,” he said gently in her ear. He walked slowly through the crowd, and his neighbours parted for him like a plague. “Your mother took your father from me, but you can help me get him back. Don't worry,” he smoothed her black hair. “We'll see him again.”