Free Unbound by Meredith Noone Page A

old teacher just laughed wheezily, and almost lost his hand by patting the wolf on the head too familiarly. The only reason he didn’t lose a finger or two was because he was on the Council of Elders, and the wolf didn’t want to have to face a tribunal in front of them all on the next full moon.
    With a swish of his tail, Ranger turned on his heel, walking between rows of students who either ignored him or leant away, and went to lie on the floor beneath Eli’s desk. He was just getting comfortable and tucking up his paws when Professor Seybold called the class to order, asking Stephen at the back to please focus.
    “Today, we are moving on from wards and circle magic,” Seybold said from the front of the classroom, as Ranger delicately took the end of one of Eli’s shoelaces between his front teeth and began to pull on it. He could see Sachie watching him out the corner of his eye, looking fascinated. “Some people believe that a long time ago, magic occurred free and uninhibited. We discussed this late last year. Can anyone remember why?”
    The wolf knew.
    He left off pulling Eli’s shoelace to look around as hands went up around the room. Eli shifted in his seat – he must have his hand up too, which was unusual, because he’d sat there with a perpetually muddled expression on his face in every other class the wolf had sat through with him and Sachie, apart from gym.
    “Victoria?” Professor Seybold asked the pretty blonde-haired girl sitting near the front of the class, the one who smelt like the sharp metallic tang of new magic.
    “In ancient times, the Old Gods still walked the earth,” Victoria said in a rush, her words tumbling out over the top of each other. “It was an inherently more magical place. Things could happen back then that can’t now.”
    “And what happened to the Old Gods?” Professor Seybold’s eyes passed over the students, searching their faces. “It was in the summer reading material.”
    A couple of hands dropped.
    “Evan?” Seybold said.
    Evan was one of the only people – bar Sachie – who hadn’t had his hand up. He gave an angry half-shrug without looking up from his desk, and didn’t say anything. Professor Seybold just sighed.
    “Stephen?”
    Stephen Vinter was a blonde-haired, blue-eyed boy sitting down the back of the class whom the wolf remembered Michelle mentioning sometimes, usually in connection with Eli and some sort of schoolyard shenanigans that the wolf wasn’t particularly interested in. Stephen rode a motorcycle to school. Ranger saw him out on it sometimes, cruising around the streets of Tamarack. It was a sleek, black thing that reminded the wolf of a panther, all gleaming chrome and shiny paint.
    “They got bound up,” Stephen said.
    Professor Seybold nodded slowly, reminding the wolf somewhat inanely of a chicken bobbing its head up and down. “That’s right. The Old Gods were bound, usually to old trees, or great stones, to weathered vessels that could withstand their might. They have to be periodically rebound, of course. Stones crack. Trees die. Gods escape and wreak havoc.”
    Ranger lay his head on his paws and sighed. He’d never sat through this lecture before, but he already knew where it was going.
    “We have already studied the White Wolf of the Woods and the Hemlock Tree in some depth,” Professor Seybold said. “It’s time we moved onto the Horned God, Cern.”
    Cern, Cernunnos, the Horned God, the Old One, the Great Deer. The most recent Walking God, more feared than beloved.
    According to Professor Seybold’s lecture, Cern had been bound in a small grove of trees near Argol in France for centuries before His tree was cut down to make way for a housing development twenty-nine years ago. He’d been loose in the world for ten whole years, bringing plague and disaster as he moved at a glacial pace from east to west.
    “He was trapped in an admittedly unusual fashion,” Professor Seybold said. “Does anyone remember from the