War of Wolves: Part 2

Her home destroyed, Zora Agreeva has little left. As the city of Koldergard falls under attack by the armies of the wolf, her task becomes clear: vengeance upon the creatures who stole her old life. Yet before the battle can be joined, the secrets of the forest beckon. As Zora and her lover, the warrior Torvin, find themselves forging new alliances, they are drawn into an ever more complex web of questionable loyalties; for in the hour of the wolf, nothing is quite what it seems.

Approximate length: 9,820 words (a novella)

Part two of a series

Excerpt:

Another sound reached their ears; footsteps on the floor above. Torvin paused at his work and Zora held their breath as the heavy footfalls sounded over their heads. Without thinking, she ran to the bars, and passing her arm through, reached for one of the torches set into the wall. On her third attempt, she managed to grasp hold of it. Removing it from the socket in which it lay, Zora pulled it through the bars just as the sound of impact announced their visitor at the top of the stairs. As the door opened, a chill wind invaded the corridor, blowing out several of the torches. Aside from the one that Zora had claimed, only one other flamed poorly, plunging the subterranean jail into near darkness.

A fetid, animal smell reached their nostrils as Torvin soundlessly slid back from the bars. Holding a finger to his lips, he retreated to the far side of the bed, pulling Zora with him. Nervous eyes played over the torch she held; for several painful seconds, she wondered if they should put it out. Racked with indecision, she felt another wave of fear pass over her as the sound of movement caught her ears. Something heavy moved down the flight of stone stairs, the sound of footfalls accompanied by the rapping of something hard against the slate. It hesitated at the bottom, the smell washing through the hall. Zora could hear it breathing deeply, though from her position crouched at the back of the cell, she could not see it. Her body shook with unbridled fear as the beast sniffed the air. It hesitated, and like any trapped prey animal, she knew that they had been discovered.

The moment of silence that followed was enough to unnerve the steadiest of warriors. The air seemed electric as Zora's sixth sense came alive, overwhelming her other senses. She nearly cried out when she felt Torvin's hand upon hers, silently wresting the torch from her white knuckled grasp. In the glow of its flickering light, she could see his eyes intently concentrating on the bars.