Free Scarlet and the White Wolf [01] - Scarlet and the White Wolf by Kirby Crow

and Liall laughed and clapped him on the shoulder. "I'm teasing, Kio. Peysho only has eyes for you."
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    Scarlet and the White Wolf--Book One
    by Kirby Crow
    Peysho caught Kio's eye and winked, and the younger man subsided, mollified.
    "Right, then." He waved at them, embarrassed at himself.
    The attempt to stir jealousy in Peysho's contented yurt was motivated solely by his own bitterness. He did not desire Kio, or not very much, but he did envy them their happiness.
    "Sleep well."
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    3.
    A Restless Night
    Liall dreamed of the pedlar that night. They were not in Byzantur, but in Rshan, and it surprised him to see the pedlar in his home country, dressed in hunting silks with silver threaded through his black hair. It must have been a snow bear hunt, for the riders were dressed splendidly in much finery and jewels, not the usual type of hunt at all. Sharpened stakes were strapped to their horse's flanks, but no swords or bows. The snow bear is a quick beast that hunters find difficult to bring down from a distance, even with a crossbow.
    The white-furred bear blended in well with his surroundings, and even well-seasoned hunters with a ready supply of bolts had the occasional accident. A horse would sometimes trip and snap a foreleg in the ice, and the downed man and his mount would become meat for the bear instead of the other way around. Or they could get caught in a small boat crossing a river or lake that had not yet frozen, which also meant death. The hulking snow bear became an otter in the sea, an agile beast armed with eight-inch claws and fangs the size of fingers. Liall had seen it happen before, and it was not a memory he cared to recall.
    In his dream, the pedlar was smiling, happy to be going on an adventure. It made his chest ache to watch the beautiful youth as he waved and laughed, calling Liall by his right name, his old name, and telling him not to be a want-wit.
    Then the dream shifted. They were racing their horses over a snowy field, hot on the trail of the bear, hounds baying 66
    Scarlet and the White Wolf--Book One
    by Kirby Crow
    ahead of them, the rest of the hunting party shouting and whipping past. Suddenly, the snow bear was there. They had stumbled right into his lair and he was among them, slashing and tearing and biting. Men and horses were screaming and someone was yelling in a high, wild voice for the spears. Liall looked frantically for the pedlar and saw that his horse was down and he was in the center of a massacre, hunters and mounts and dogs torn to bloody chunks around him, the ravening snow bear in the thick of it. Liall locked eyes with the pedlar before the bear took him. The boy vanished beneath a mountain of white fur and claws, and one of the last things Liall saw before he woke up was Scarlet's slender body covered in blood from head to toe.
    Liall woke with a gasp, his heart banging against his ribs.
    Yet it was not the dream that caused him to close his eyes on a spasm of pain, but what he saw in the instant before waking. The haughty pedlar lay in the snow with blood spilled over his body, but his face...
    For a second, the face Liall saw was not the beautiful pedlar's. It was another he recognized, but could not name: a visage from his earliest childhood dreams. The face was cold and proud, with a clear, high brow and eyes so black they were like living night.
    Who is this pedlar? he wondered as he lay staring at the rough walls of his yurt. How does he manage to affect me so?
    He shivered in sudden cold that had nothing to do with the weather and pulled the fur closer around his body. Could the pedlar be his t'aishka, his immortal one? If so, it would not be the first time in Rshani history that it had happened between 67
    Scarlet and the White Wolf--Book One
    by Kirby Crow
    a Byzan and one of his folk, but in all cases the reunion of souls had proved disastrous for everyone involved. Byzans had not been welcome in Rshan