Free Changelings by Anne McCaffrey Page A

and backed into her twin, who hugged her, and they clung together.
    Set . . .
the wolf’s mate said.
    Murel squeezed her eyes tight and hoped she wouldn’t be more than one bite to them so it wouldn’t hurt so much. There were no weapons. No fire.
    Ronan buried his face in her shoulder, and she did likewise with her twin.
    Attack!
This order was followed by yipping, snarling, snapping, and growling, but no biting.
    The twins were braced, ready to be knocked down by the wolves, but nothing touched them. Instead, they heard familiar voices using feline profanity never before uttered in their presence.
    Murel opened one eye in time to see Coaxtl pounce on yet another wolf and ride it like a horse while Nanook sat on her hindquarters, swatting wolf bodies right and left.
    The wolves were already on the run when the first shot rang out.
    “Go on, you mangy critters, get outta here! Those kids are too fraggin’ spoiled rotten for you to eat anyway.” Their aunt Sinead’s voice sounded so good to them, she might have been promising presents instead of punishment by the time she braked her sled and ran past her spitting track cats to scoop up the children.
    She bundled them into the sled and told them, as if talking to one of her team, “Stay.”
    They tried to tell her about the otters, but she didn’t pay any attention to them. Her mouth was compressed in a thin line. The only sounds for several hours were the shushing of the runners and the patter of paws against the snow, the occasional dog stopping to relieve itself, and Aunt Sinead’s barked commands. Not even Nanook or Coaxtl spoke. Ronan and Murel were too miserable to communicate with each other. After what seemed like a week but must have been sometime during the night, though it was hard to tell in the winter, the lead dog stopped in front of their house. Sinead stamped on the brake to set it, and ripped off her mittens to release the bindings holding the twins on the sled and under the furs. Her hands were shaking, which was funny since next to their mother, Aunt Sinead was the bravest lady they knew. Silently, she pointed to the door.
    When they left the sled, Coaxtl and Nanook stalked them all the way there.

CHAPTER 7
    O NLY M UM WAS there, and to the twins’ relief, she did not seem upset.
    “Where’s Da?” Ronan asked innocently.
    “Still out hunting for you. I imagine he’s on his way home now, though.” Mum’s voice was smooth and calm, conversational, her face unreadable. But then, her thoughts had never been easily readable to the twins. “Suppose before he gets here you explain to me without benefit of telepathy where you’ve been and what you were doing that required you to do it so far from home for so long and without the company of Coaxtl and Nanook.”
    “Well . . . we—There were these otters, weren’t there?” Ronan began.
    “No, first off, Johnny brought us these suits from Marmie, for our birthday, see—”
    “Your birthdays are not until tomorrow,” Mum said, lifting one of her raven wing eyebrows. “I should remember. I was definitely there.”
    “Yeah, well, but we figured it was close enough and we’d be busy on the day and we wanted to try the suits out, that was all,” Murel said, feeling it was best to start at the beginning. “Co’ and ’Nook weren’t around, but we just got excited and wanted to see what the suits were like so we decided to swim for a ways and put them on. They’re brilliant, Mum. They kept us as warm and dry as a parka, snow pants, boots, mittens, and a hood with a good ruff, and they’re no heavier than long johns.”
    Their mother sat with her arms crossed under her breasts, and gave a slight nod that they should continue.
    “Well, we were just getting ready to come home when we heard this poor little otter crying for help from inside the river. Of course we had to help him. Petaybee would want us to, right?”
    Their mother’s expression did not change.
    “He had his head caught so we