The Silver Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page A

first time by day, the faint dislocation brought by the wolf as she approached by moonlight. The woman jerked back in terror. She feared the consequences of rebellion. She didn’t want to know how much she hated Gundabald, how deeply she feared him. Vile as her family was, she clung to them. They were better than the alternative.
    The punishments visited on witches sickened and horrified her. Her mother had whispered into Regeane’s ears tales of the last agonies of those women doomed for practicing unnatural arts. Naked in a barrel studded with nails, the barrel rolled until the screams stopped. Fire and the stake; sewn into a sack with a rat, a dog, and a snake and thrown into the river. Punishments worse than those designed by fiends from hell to torture the damned were devised by men of God to confront what they saw as evil.
    “No, no,” Regeane said to the wolf. “I’m too afraid. I can’t. Go away. Please, please go away.”
    The wolf gazed at Regeane solemnly, then she made a soft sound of regret and vanished into the darkness.
    “What’s wrong?” the old woman asked. “Are you sick?”
    “No,” Regeane said. “Only tired. Thank you,” she said to the woman. Then she went into her room and barred the door.
    The narrow stone cell was icy, but brightly lit by the sun on the walls. Regeane lay down on the bed, wrapped the mantle around herself, and slept.
    HUGO HIRED THE MAID. HE BROUGHT HER HOME IN the early hours of the morning.
    Regeane was awakened by the commotion.
    Gundabald was up late. He was entertaining a guest. Whether boy or woman, Regeane couldn’t tell. She might have summoned the wolf. No one could fool
her
nose, but the wolf was a virgin and a fastidious one. Regeane couldn’t face dealing with her disapproval and downright disgust. The night creature believed humans were oversexed and felt her human partner was too preoccupied with prurient curiosity.
    The air drifting under the door reeked of raw sex. Regeane fell asleep to the grunts and snorts of passion.
    She was awakened not by sound, but by scent. The wolf was present. Something, no not something, a snake was hunting among the vines near her window. If the reptile musk disturbed the wolf, it gagged the woman. Regeane rose to her feet in the darkened room.
    Even this slight sound was enough to frighten the slender predator sliding among the vines. The scent weakened. She heard a thump and a swish below her window as the interloper departed.
    Hugo crashed through the door in the next room.
    Someone shrieked.
    Hugo screamed, “Sodomite!”
    Evidently, the visitor
had
been a boy.
    This was followed by the sound of running feet.
    “God damn him!” Gundabald roared. “Now, see what you’ve done. The little ass fucker took my purse with him.”
    The sound of a blow followed.
    Hugo howled.
    A feminine screech followed, then four screams, in rapid succession.
    Boom. Boom. Boom. Boom.
    Regeane gasped and backed away from the door. Sherecognized this sound. The landlord below was pounding on his ceiling.
    A volley of curses followed, along with threats to throw them out into the streets
now
if the noise didn’t stop.
    The voices in the other room dropped.
    Hugo cursed Gundabald.
    Gundabald cursed Hugo.
    The girl’s voice sobbed.
    “Shut up, you stupid little cunt,” Gundabald whispered hoarsely. “I’ll twist your other tit if you don’t stop caterwauling. Strike a light, damn it. It’s black as a mole’s ass in here.”
    Regeane heard the snap of flint and steel.
    “Merciful God, who is this?” Gundabald asked.
    “Regeane’s maid,” Hugo answered. “I found her in a tavern.”
    “Where in a tavern? Down the cloaca? In the shithole? She makes most nanny goats look bewitchingly beautiful.”
    REGEANE REALLY DIDN’T CARE TO SIDE WITH GUNDABALD, but in this she had to agree with him when she met the girl the next morning.
    Her name was Silve. She was bowlegged, skinny, buck-toothed, walleyed, and sallow-skinned, which might