Wolf Moon

Prologue

Yssalithisandra sat in her study in the house she and Carthinal owned in Hambara. In a cradle at her side slept their daughter, Starralishinara, known as Starr. She rocked the cradle absently as she waited for the arrival of her two new apprentices.

She shifted, stood and walked over to the window. Starr moved in her sleep and Yssa turned to look at her daughter, but the baby did not wake. Yssa brushed her long golden hair from off her face and went back to her chair.

Carthinal sold Mabryl's house in Bluehaven. As Mabryl's heir, he inherited everything Mabryl owned. The older mage had never married and had no children of his own, and so he had adopted Carthinal, an orphaned street child with a talent for magic. Mabryl sadly died in the flood on the Bramara the previous year when he and Carthinal travelled from Bluehaven to Hambara for Carthinal to take the tests that would end his apprenticeship. Yssa said that they could not live in the apartments in the mage tower and bring up their daughter and so they had bought a house in the town.

Now she waited for Tomac and Emmienne to come down for their first lesson with her. They had been Mabryl's apprentices and she agreed to take them on. She and Mabryl had once been close friends, and she mourned his death, even though they had seen little of each other since Mabryl moved to Bluehaven. She turned from the window to return to her seat at the table, brushing a tear from her eyes and banishing thoughts of Mabryl.

Suddenly the door flung open and fifteen-year-old Tomac rushed in. He stopped just inside the threshold, brushed his unruly dark hair out of his eyes and stammered out an apology.

'Sorry for bursting in like that. I thought I was late.'

Yssa smiled. She liked this young man and his exuberant spirit.

'No, you're not late, Tomac. Emmienne isn't here yet.'

Just a she said this, the door opened again and a rather plain girl with wavy brown hair entered.

'I'm not late am I?' she said, sitting down at the table.

Yssa took her place alongside the others.

'I thought we'd start with a bit of astronomy today,' she told her charges eliciting a groan from Tomac.

'I don't know what you've already learned about this topic, of course, but from Tomac's reaction, I gather that you've done something.'

'Phases of the moons.' Tomac cast his eyes upwards 'I still can't work them out properly.'

'You didn't try,' Emmienne told him. 'It comes eventually if you concentrate.'

Yssa smiled at the young man.

'Some people find it easier than others and some never really manage. I always had trouble and now if I need to know I look it up in an almanac. I don't really understand why it's given such prominence when people cleverer than I am can do it and put it in a book for the rest of us to look up.'

Tomac looked impressed that Yssa should admit to finding something hard, but then his face fell as he realised that their teacher still intended to press on with the lesson on astronomy.

'But today we're not going to consider phases of the moon, but something that neither you nor I are ever going to need to calculate.'

Tomac breathed a sigh of relief and Emmienne looked at him in disgust.

Just then, Starr began to stir. Yssa went over to the cradle and rocked it, hoping to get the baby back to sleep. After about five minutes, she decided her daughter had settled again and she returned to the table.

'Today I'm going to tell you of a phenomenon that's due to happen later this summer. It's a very rare occurrence and the complicated calculations to establish when it will occur are not for the likes of us to perform.

'Have any of you heard of a Wolf Moon?'

The pair shook their heads.

'A Wolf Moon, as I said, is a very rare occurrence. It's a bit like an eclipse, but happens when both moons are full and so it doesn't look like a dark shadow passing in front of one of the moons or the sun.

'As you know, Lyndor is smaller than Ullin and is nearer to Vimar. Sometimes it passes in front of its bigger sibling. If this happens when both moons are full, we get a beautiful phenomenon. Lyndor, the golden moon, appears to be surrounded by a halo of silver.'

Yssa went on to explain the phenomenon by using a lamp and an orrery, showing how the sun shone fully on the moons and so they showed their full discs as one passed before the other.

'How often does this occur?' asked Emmienne, fascinated by this.

'Not even once in a human's lifetime,' replied the teacher. 'Even in my long life, I've never seen it. I'm just hoping the night's fine and that clouds don't get in the way.'

'Why is it called a Wolf Moon?' asked Tomac, interested in spite of his dislike of astronomy.

'Superstition has it that, on that night. the hunting wolves are watched over by a celestial wolf whose eye the moons are. This 'wolf' will protect its corporate protégés against any harm. For this reason, people have come to believe that on that night the wolves lose their natural fear of people and will attack anyone whom they think is interfering with their hunting.'

'So people don't go out on that night?'

'Not in the countryside. The towns and cities are different, of course. There aren't many wolves here. Having said that, there are still people who believe that wolves will come into the cities on a Wolf Moon night and stay firmly in their houses.'

'What do you believe, Yssa?' asked Emmienne.

'I am an elf and was born in Quantisarrillishon. The elven homeland is kept as natural as it can be and so wolves roam around. I was brought up to stay indoors on the night of a Wolf Moon, although I've never lived through one.'

Yssa smiled at her two charges and then continued. 'However, I'm a mage and have learned much since my childhood. No, I don't believe the superstitions.'

Just then, Starr began to cry.

'I'll have to leave you for a bit,' Yssa told her charges. 'Starr is due for her feed. I'll be back as soon as we've finished. There are some books on the shelves about the Wolf Moon if you want to read some more while I'm gone.'

She picked up her baby and left the two apprentices to their own devices.

'A Wolf Moon. And happening in our lifetime. Fantastic,' said Tomac as Emmienne got up to look at one of the books. 'I wonder where Carthinal is and if he'll see it?'