"Father will use this well," Gal said, quieter than before. "It'll be one of his secret weapons. It can sit among people forever until he needs it to do his bidding. No tentacles or fire breathing, you see."
Richard heard no jest behind his brothers words. "If you want me to go on, then keep quiet. This isn't easy." He stopped and looked down at the book again, half closing his eyes so that the true path of the words could shine through. "Here," he said. "This is where it made its first stand. Dropped the child. Hid behind a rock — that one there — and pounced as the pursuers reached where we are now." Richard looked at the huge rock, half expecting the werewolf to appear from within its shadow again. But the moor was as silent and secretive as ever.
"First stand?"
"Yes." Richard squatted and looked again at the book. "It killed two men and a woman here, and took more wounds. But each cut made it more ferocious. It tore one of the men apart while others were spearing it. And then it picked up the child ... "
"And?" Gal said after a pause. "Which way did it go then?"
"It picked up the child and killed it in front of everyone. It wasn't hungry anymore. Just wanted to make a point." Richard stood and started walking again, conscious of Gal following him. Is this really us? he thought. Do we really want something that'll do such a thing. There are wonders in the Memory but monsters too. Have we been doing this for so long that we've forgotten how to differentiate?
Gal walked past him, still hunched into his coat. "This way?" he said, pointing. "That way? Which way, Rich?"
Richard closed his eyes and pointed. "There. Down into the valley. It was running faster now, and the people were terrified at what they'd seen. But there were two who followed hard on its heels: the child's mother, eager for revenge, and the werewolf's wife."
The brothers walked down the hillside into the shallow valley. Richard led the way, the Book of Ways held open before him, and Gal held back. The mist was heavier here, and soon they were enveloped, its coolness like a moist breath on their exposed skin. Shapes floated here and there, parting the mist, and they could have been wraiths. Richard ignored them, knowing that they would not trouble the two brothers.
"Here," Richard said. His brother stood by his side and waited. "This is where it made its second stand. There were still a few villagers keeping up with the child's mother and the creature's wife, and this is where it stopped to dispatch them. There, on that rock. There were scratches and cracks on the stone surface, and by the time the battle was over, they ran full of blood. They gave a message ... but no one ever knew what it said."
"I'll bet we would," Gal said, jumping onto the rock and striding across its surface. He looked down, kicking at moss here and there, trying to uncover the faults and scores talked of in the book. "This is much older than everything else around here, you can just feel it. And its been used for ... things."
Richard moved on. "Gal. Whatever was written there has been changed since the werewolf. Too much time has gone by, too much weathering, and it isn't used anymore."
"But it will be," Gal said. "When Fathers time comes, places like this will come back into the land. And we'll be there to see it happen!"
Sacrifice and murder, Richard thought. Werewolves killing children and adults becoming monsters. Father never told me it would be like this. He had never stated his burgeoning doubt to his brother, and he hoped that Gal could not sense it. Richard had no idea what his brother's madness could make him capable of.
"After that," Richard said, "there was only the wife left. The child's mother lay dead on the flat rock."
"So how did she kill it?" Gal asked. "I assume the wife killed the werewolf, otherwise why would we be here?"
Richard shrugged. "It wouldn't be the first time de Lainree's text has led us astray."
"No," Gal said. "No, the wolf died here. I can feel it. Can't you? Can't you smell its final breath on the mist, see its final visions flitting through the shadows?"