Aela Darkwood's Arc

Chapter 11 of 13

Aela came back to herself on the grass. The pines still ringed them. The moon still held its place. But the world had gone loud. Every needle on every branch scraped the air. Lyra's heartbeat hammered in Aela's ears from six feet away. She could smell Kalen's blood, the sap in the trees, an old fox trail from days ago. Her wolf ears twitched at each sound and would not stop. "Something's wrong," she said. Her own voice came in too sharp. She pressed her hands to her head. "I can hear everything. I can smell — everything." Kalen crouched by her. "The wolf side's open. Human side's slipping." "Then close it," Lyra said. She looked at the moon. "We have one reading left. If she can't hold human shape for it, the spell locks her the other way." Aela's teeth felt long. Her thoughts came in flashes — deer, wind, run. She dug her fingers into the dirt to stay put. "I can't — I can't think through it." Kalen pulled his backpack off his shoulder. He tore it open and dumped it on the grass. A canteen. Rope. Then a leather strap. He held it up. A crescent stone hung from it, pale and cracked with old marks. "I forgot I had this," he said. "The witch gave it to me. Said it was a spare." He looked at Lyra. "It holds enough to shout down one sense at a time. If we put it on her, it'll drown the wolf out long enough to read." Lyra took it. She turned it once in the moonlight. "It'll work." She dropped it over Aela's head. The stone touched Aela's chest and the noise cut in half. Then in half again. The forest went back to being a forest. Her own breath came back to her. "Now," Lyra said. She opened the book. Kalen picked up the knife with the wolf blood in its metal. He knelt at Aela's side. Lyra read. Her voice moved through the knot's shape without stumbling. Kalen laid the flat of the blade across Aela's ribs where the cross had closed. The silver mark on her arm warmed. The stone at her throat grew cold. Lyra spoke the last line. The book shut on its own again, softer this time. Aela waited for fur. For the paws she had almost had. Nothing came. She sat up on the grass. Human hands. Human feet. Wolf ears still. Tail still. "It didn't work," she said. Kalen was staring at the stone against her chest. Then at his own palm mark. Then at Lyra's. "It worked," he said. "Just not the way you thought." He met her eyes. "The stone didn't just quiet the wolf. It gave you the switch. Both shapes. Same as us." Lyra nodded once. "You can choose now." Aela closed her hand around the crescent. In the trees, something heavy started moving again.