Red Spell

Chapter Seventeen

Hey guys!  Here's Chapter Seventeen!  Almost finished with the whole story!!!  Hope you guys have enjoyed!

The wolf stumbled in the snow.  It looked like it was off balance as it leapt over a fallen tree and tumbled into the snow on the other side.  There were shouts and orange lights flickering behind it as it struggled to its feet and rushed on.  It was limping, perhaps from the fall, and there was no chance of it escaping the hunters.  It would inevitably be shot.  Even now, arrows hissed by only inches from it.  With a yelp the wolf staggered as one of the arrows grazed it's shoulder.  There was a shout from the hunters.  Merric and Hannon were in the lead and Merric was nocking another arrow, his face twisted in badly hidden rage.  How could the wolf be here in the woods?  Hadn't he trapped it in the village?  Hannon fired his arrow and the wolf toppled through the loose snow and disappeared.  Another shout echoed from the hunters as they rushed to the edge of the cliff.  It was too dark to see the bottom, but it was hardly possible for the wolf to run away after being shot and after such a fall.  Perhaps it was already dead.  All that was left now was to collect their prize from wherever it had fallen. 
***
Everything was dark and I my head ached.  I sat up.  It was the first time since I was cursed that I slept without dreaming. 
"Wolf?" I whispered.  A bad taste from the spell mixture lingered in my mouth.  Where was I?  It wasn't the cave.  My eyes slowly adjusted.  The moon shone outside through windows.  Was I back in the village?  No, worse.  Clumps of herbs hung from the rafters and books and pestles were scattered around.  I was in Iresia's cottage again.  Had Wolf brought me back here?  Why would he do that?  I jumped up and gasped.  I was still human.  There was a slight stirring somewhere in the dark.  Iresia must be asleep somewhere.  I couldn't fathom how I'd come to be there when the last thing I remembered was Wolf chanting over me in the middle of the woods.  I slipped towards the door holding my cloak back so it wouldn't catch on anything.  I lifted the bolt and it creaked so loudly the pigs shuffled outside.
"Who's there?" Iresia barked.  I flung the door open and ran.  I heard her cursing and shouting after me as I darted between the trees. 
The moonlight was bright compared to the darkness of the cottage and I could see everything much more clearly.  I didn't stop until I was out of range of Iresia's fiery darts, but when I finally slowed to catch my breath the first thing I noticed was my cloak.  It was no longer red.  I tore it off.  I was free.  The curse was gone!  I felt elation for only an instant before confusion.  Surely this wasn't it.  This wasn't my dream.  This wasn't how the curse would come to an end.  But...but in those dreams I'd always been an onlooker.  I should have been the one running, but I only ever watched.  Dread pierced my stomach.  Surely he didn't.  But he had been so sure that nothing would happen to me; so reassuring.  He'd been positive...because he had the transferring curse.  I saw him put it in his pocket.  That's what that was; not just some interesting bit he'd found in the spell book. 
I panicked and it gave me speed as I took off for the cave.  Would he be there?  No, he should be running through the woods trying to escape the hunters.  But he wouldn't make it.  He never did in the dream.  The thought of losing him was viciously painful.  I wouldn't have thought it could be so bad until I knew that I really could lose him.  And it wasn't just the fact that I would lose his kindness, but he himself.  I wouldn't have admitted that to myself for months if it wasn't for this. 
I was gasping for breath when I finally stopped again.  I could hear voices coming from somewhere nearby.  They were coming from above me.  There was the faint glimmer of torchlight from a small cliff up ahead.  There, lined along the edge was the hunting party.  It only took me a second to figure out what they were looking for.  In the harsh light of the torches they couldn't see much, but I saw it at once.  A small furry heap at the foot of the rock with a long arrow sticking out of its side.  I fell to my knees beside it, desperate to do something, but I was afraid to touch it.  It was still except for shallow breaths and I wasn't even sure if it knew I was there.
"Wolf?" I asked unsteadily.  The tail moved almost imperceptibly.  I lifted his head out of the snow.  His eyes opened slightly and he gazed at me and then closed them again. 
"No!  Wake up," I hissed.  I could barely see him through my tears.  "Don't go.  Please."  I looked up.  The hunters were beginning to scatter along the cliff, probably searching for a way down.  It wouldn't take them long to find us.  I pulled my cloak off and laid it on the ground.  I could tell he was having trouble keeping quiet as I lifted him onto it.  The arrow must have been deep. 
"Just stay still," I breathed.  I took one end and began to pull him over the snow.  "You shouldn't have done it," I croaked through an aching throat.  His tail moved again and his ears perked up.  It was almost worse than words because he was visibly weaker. 
I pulled him for nearly fifteen minutes before I realized I would never be able to get him up to the cave.  I stopped and looked around.  I wasn't even sure where we were and we were leaving an obvious track behind us.  I looked down at him and saw him watching me again. 
"Where are your people?" I asked, but I knew that was hopeless.  He lived alone and I'd gotten the impression that the wood clan had retreated far into the forest.  Too far for us to go.  I knelt beside him and touched the arrow wound.  It wasn't bleeding much, but it must have hurt him badly, even with so light a touch, because he tensed and his eyes closed again.
"I'm sorry," I whispered.  "I'm so sorry this happened.  I'm so sorry I got you involved."  I was shaking hard now.  I clasped my own hands together to try and steady them, but I couldn't.  "Please don't leave me," I sobbed.  I leaned down and kissed his head.  "I would do anything to save you." 
His eyes were closed and I couldn't see his shallow breaths anymore.  I touched his wound, but he didn't flinch at all. 
"Wolf," I choked.  "Wake up, please!"  I touched his face, but it was cold.  Then I heard the voices of the hunters creeping up in the distance.  They were following the trail.  It would only take them minutes to find us.  They would skin him and carry him home as their prize no matter what I did or said.  I felt my breath come short and quickly.  I couldn't let them take him.  What would happen in the morning?  Would he stay a wolf?  They couldn't have him either way.  I reached out to touch him, but I felt nothing.  I turned to see nothing but my cloak in the snow.  He had completely disappeared.  Was this part of the curse?  What else could have done it?  Iresia could have done it.  She could use magic.  Had she stolen him?  Was it for Merric?  They were friends after all.  She could have done it so he could be the one to say he found the wolf.  She could have stolen him to give to Merric. 
Then I would take him back! 
I jerked up and sprinted back in the direction of her cottage as the torchlight began to light up the nearby trees.  I didn't care if I was killed anymore.  What did it matter?  The only people who loved me were already dead.  I thought of Da, but he wouldn't mourn for me.  It would hurt no one for me to die. 
"Selene!"
I whirled to face Merric.  He looked angry and shocked. 
"What are you doing here?" he cried right before I embedded my fist into his face.
"You're a monster!" I screamed at him.  He caught my wrist and tried to twist my arm, but I kicked his shin.  Still he held on.
"You are more trouble than you're worth.  You should have died years ago.  Your stupid mother just got in the way," he hissed.  I began to beat him with all my strength, but he easily caught my other hand and held it tightly. 
"What does that mean?" I croaked.  He slung me into a tree and watched as I dropped into the snow. 
"What do you think it means?" he hissed.  "You were supposed to die.  You were the Shepherd's heir.  We only needed you dead, but you survived.  So we made the best of it," he said.  "And goodness knows you've suffered for it," he added with a mirthless laugh.  "That little spell on your Da did a number on you." 
"What spell," I gasped, pulling myself to my feet. 
"The one that made him hate you." 
I struck out with my foot and kicked him in the stomach.  He doubled over and I shoved him to the ground. 
"You did that?" I asked, my voice thin and high. 
"And so much more," he said, standing up slowly.  "It would have been impossible to convince him that it was your fault without magic.  And do you really think he'd have gone for a pathetic little city girl like Marta?  She was just a distraction.  Anything to keep him from bothering with you," he said.  He took a step towards me and I took one back. 
"Why?" 
"Well, we thought if you weren't dead then you could at least be useful," Merric said.  "Marrying you would be an easy way to satisfy the traditions of the village and still become the Shepherd.  I would have killed you off after awhile, but it would just have looked like another accident," he said.  "Then I would be Shepherd and wrongs would be put right.  I can't believe you didn't see it.  You're thicker than you look," he finished.  I was shaking with rage now. 
"Who is 'we'?" I asked, my fists clenched as he stepped forward again. 
"My mother an I," he said.  "She was never pleased with the idea of marriage and she went behind my back, but it turns out her plan was better anyway.  We could give you the curse, which she had so painstakingly found, and have your father shoot you.  We might have eventually revealed to him what he'd done just to make him suffer and then kill him, but that wasn't decided fully.  You would be out of the way and I would be the obvious choice to succeed your father, who would meet an untimely end somehow or another in the near future." 
I charged him, head butting him to the ground where I slashed and scratched at his face until I felt blood on my hands.  Then I hit him as hard as I could before taking off towards Iresia's cottage again.  I felt insane, out of control, and capable of almost anything. 
I ran for nearly a quarter of an hour before I saw a new orange glow; huge and powerful.  Iresia's cottage was burning to the ground and she sat in the snow outside screaming helplessly.