Wolf Ascendant by Carole Cummings

Author:Carole Cummings
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Forest Path Books
Published: 2021-06-20T16:00:00+00:00

2

It had been the briefest, tiniest of glimpses, but it was… almost enough. A flash of potential, all in a smeary whirl—more like glimpses of images, really, and far too much cryptic symbology—but enough to see that the Wheels were still turning. Fate was lumbering forward.

Strangely, it all seemed to flower outward from the little one, not from the twin, as Asai had rather expected, but youth did burn brightest in his general experience. Jacin-rei’s little sister was burning like the last gasp of a dying star.

Asai frowned. He had a bit of a soft spot for mortal youth. They were such fascinating little portents, even the ones without magic, their fundamental belief in all things splaying them open like porous possibility. And he’d truly hate to see Jacin-rei lose more than he had to. Still, the boy might well make it necessary to take a ruthless step or two.

The value of laying the responsibility at Jacin-rei’s feet could be debated later, after Fate had set the Cycle, when Asai was better able to gauge the feasibility of keeping his Ghost. Guilt was always an efficient tool when it came to Jacin-rei, but there was such a thing as too much of a good thing. Asai was going to have to be very careful when Jacin-rei found his way back to his beishin.

Still, Asai’d had his glimpse. He knew now. Knew the who, the what and the where—on his own lands, for pity’s sake!—but he couldn’t help the frisson of unease that curled up his backbone. He needed Temshiel, certainly, but he hadn’t counted on Kamen. And why should he? By all accounts, Kamen had retreated to spirit after… well.

Asai fisted his hands. Bloody Kamen! Of all the Temshiel out there, Jacin-rei had to stumble into Kamen.

It could complicate matters beyond repair if Asai wasn’t extraordinarily careful, and there wasn’t time to start again. There was less than a decade left in the Cycle, and he saw no possibilities in any of the other pitiable Untouchables—whether born or as yet unborn—fated to be crushed in the Wheels before the Cycle was through. Not a true Catalyst among them. It was, and had always been, Jacin-rei who held the Balance.

Damn, damn, damn the boy for slipping his traces before Asai had set his course.

“Seyh?” Vonshi knocked softly on the jamb of the open door and entered the study with his head bowed in apology. “She will not leave, seyh. She insists she must see you.”

Asai sighed. He’d rather thought she wouldn’t take Lord Asai is abed, come back tomorrow for an answer, but he’d hoped. He knew what he needed to know, and he saw no real reason to listen to her tell it to him. He’d caught the “where” from the little one, but the “who” came directly from Leu not an hour after she’d gone to collect her thugs. Asai had known she failed before she’d even crossed onto his lands.

He gave Vonshi a weary nod, and rubbed at the headache winding at his temples.

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