Servant of the Moon #1 - unedited draft

Three days earlier, Essie had watched as Del swayed slowly while she stared into her obsidian bowl, the tourmaline censer filled the room with long thing ribbons of incense smoke that curled around her. To Essie, the smoke looked like ghostly silver chains binding her sister to the Tides.

‘More like slave of the Moon,’ she thought wryly.

Del’s eyes glowed as she shuddered and arched her back, gasping and reaching out a hand. Her voice always sounded so serene and distant when she spoke like this.

“The brown-furred hunters are returning to finish what they began 4 years ago, they seek the golden warrior who could be king and the red-headed oracle child. Go sister, to the Oracle Tiene, check on her, then wait in the east. That morning, let him speak to those who hunt him before aiding him. The wolves of New Wemyss are to be brought to the Gate. It is time for the servant to begin his service to Her and for the youngest and oldest daughters of the Tides to be brought to the Temples.”

Essie watched as Del’s head fell forward suddenly and her body slumped to the floor. Her breathing barely a whisper as her heart slowed. She could feel her sister sleeping, and her grandpapa coming closer. Quietly, she stepped out the door of the scrying room, leaving her sister to rest.

“What news from the Tides, granddaughter?” Eliazar asked, Kaiyou, Ketsu and Zane were behind him.

“She did not see the sunwolf. The Moon has taken her to another place. The Des Rues warriors are returning to New Wemyss to hunt Comhnyall, Mamó, and the little one. She wants us to go help them and bring them here, but he is to speak to the brown furs first,” Essie explained.

Eliazar nodded, “The Servants own a house in Lakeland. Essie, you will check on Oracle Tiene and then wait there. You will need to acquire a vehicle. Ketsu and Zane will observe the Des Rues, and help draw the hunters away after the young servant speaks to them. Take Martha with you. Kaiyou, take the Delphi to her rooms then make the travel arrangements. I want all of you carrying scent masking. The Des Rues can not know we are the ones who saved them.”

Essie and the males bowed to the Elder Wanderer and turned to leave. They had a lot of territory to cover and much to prepare, and very little time to do it in.

At midnight last night, Delilah felt the Tides and the Moon pulling her as her tidal wolf ran out to sea. Comhnyall was standing in the wheelhouse of the Seawolf. He was driving the boat toward a distant beacon. Her wolf stared at him for a moment before she floated into her Tidal form body. A dark haired oracle named Rowena appeared beside her and bowed, she had come from the Moon to speak to her mate. Without a word, the ghost drifted away.

Del lean over Nyall’s shoulder and whispered softly, “Comhnyall.”

“Go away,” he growled, “Ye annoy meh an’ I don’t want ta listen ta ye.”

“You must listen, Comhnyall. Turn the boat and go home. They are coming back to your pack’s lands to hunt the oracles you left there. Wait at the place where the ashes rest. They will come to you. Let them speak, then flee. Help will find you.”

Tears ran down his face, “I don’t want help. I want ta go ta tha Moon ta be weth Moire.”

Her heart broke for him, “I know, but it isn’t your time. She will call you to the Fields, but not for a very long time. I’m sorry. Please save the Oracles, be patient. I promise I will explain everything. But you must go home now.”

A grizzled gray-haired wolf staggered into the wheelhouse, “Comhnyall, turn tha ’Wolf. Rowena says Mamó and Ainsley are in danger.

“I know, tha Moon sent that voice ta talk ta meh, she said tha same, an’ tha’ I won’t be seeing Moire fur a very long time,” Nyall couldn’t keep the bitterness out of his tone, he whispered the last three words. “I hate Her.”

Delilah sighed, and let the Tides pull her away. Secretly, when she was alone and thinking of Luca, sometimes she hated the Moon too. It just hurt too much to be without her mate, but she had a duty to do and so did he. Comhnyall did not know the meaning of being annoyed by her, Delilah had decided she would not let them fail.

It was almost noon when Comhnyall and the stranger She-wolf approached human civilization. They had killed 11 more enemy wolves fleeing the brown furs. Nyall was impressed with how well the female fought. Her style reminded him of the shogunate wolf he had fought after the Servants of the Moon had brought him home. Near Lakelands, the espresso-colored she-wolf ran straight to a rental cabin. She shifted on the porch and hurried inside.

“Come on,” she shouted as she ran through the house, pulling the silver tips off her fingers. He followed. She was pulling clothes out of a knapsack. She threw some at his wolf. “Hurry up. Shower and change. Here’s scent blocking wash.” A bottle landed on the clothes.

He didn’t respond, he just stared at the tattoos on her skin that seemed to pulse and glow as they moved, but unlike his, hers were almost invisible in the daylight. She was the second most beautiful female he had ever seen after Moire, his heart ached at the thought of his lost mate.

“Earth to Comhnyall, if you want to see your family again, get your ass in gear!” she snarled.

The mention of seeing Mamó and Ainsley snapped him out of his shock and he shifted to his skin, went in the closest bathroom where he scrubbed himself with the liquid soap. He was pulling on the clothes before his skin was completely dry when she shouted at him to hurry. She was spraying an aerosol can of something pungent and had lit several sickly sweet candles. He hardly had boots on his feet before she was dragging him out to a truck parked in the drive. He climbed in as she started it and barely got the door closed. In minutes, they were driving the overland road north. She seemed like she knew him but he couldn’t remember where they had met before. He didn’t even know her name. For half an hour, neither spoke.

“Thank ye, uh?” Nyall started.

“Essie. Everyone calls me Essie, it is short for Esther, and you’re welcome, Comhnyall.” The brunette she-wolf flashed him a smile, “We are going to meet Captain Shamus in Sept Isle. Your loved ones are safe.”

“H-how do ye know ’em? Who-who aire ye?” he asked the wrong question, he wanted to know what she was.

“I told you, I’m Essie.”

“I know yur name, ye told meh, I’m nah daft! But how is et we have tha same tattoos but yorn glow weird? Are ye bound ta tha Moon too? An’ where did ye learn ta fight like tha? And how did ye know where I was ta be runnin’ ta come an’ help meh? ”

She grinned at him, “You’re new to this whole service to Goddess thing, aren’t you? Are you hungry? ’Cause I’m starving, I really want a bacon cheeseburger, but I doubt I will get one here. As soon as we get into a town up north, let’s find a nice little cafe or bistro or whatever they call restaurants here. Do you know a good steak house because I really could use a steak? Killing and running always makes me hungry, but ya gotta do what the Goddess tells you to. So how old are you? Was everyone in your family this tall, cause wow, you’re really tall now. She told me you had a mate and lost her, I’m sorry. Do you have any unmated brothers still alive because I like them tall and fierce? Were they all the color of you and your wolf, ’cause he’s really pretty. But sis says I’m not allowed to flirt with you. Do you know how to get to this Sept Isle place? ’Cause it’s only my second time here and I don’t even have a decent map. Well, technically it’s my third time here, but the first time I was in my tidal form and she was leading me around so I didn’t need a map. The other night she just said fly out to this place, check the Oracle Tiene and wait at the rental place until the Moon told her you needed me. Gosh, where are all the restaurants, I am so starved!” She talked so fast, he barely caught all of it.

“Wait... hush... Who is this SHE ye keep talking about? An’ aire ye always this flighty when ye talk or aire ye just ignoring my questions?” He snapped, frustrated.

Essie winked at him and grinned again, “Yes.”

Nyall gaped at her one word answer, shocked by her flirty, forward manner, but before he could think of anything to say she stopped in front of a restaurant.

“Don’t worry, Nyall, my sister will explain everything. Time for food,” And she was out of the truck and walking toward the door before he realized she had not answered a single question. He didn’t think he had never met a more annoying female.

Inside, he spotted her sitting at a table, she waved him over, the hostess took their orders, and then, to his horror, Essie lit a cigarette and smoked it. She said nothing the whole time she was smoking or while they were eating. Afterward, she were brought four full meals as take-out orders. She followed his directions to Sept Isle. And as she drove, she chain-smoked and talked; and every few hours she ate then talked more then ate then talked more. He had never seen a she-wolf or any wolf eat so much or make so much useless conversation between the simple answers to his questions.

What she told him while they drove, had him wondering what he had gotten himself into by promising to serve the Moon Goddess. Essie or Esther was the twin sister of the current Delphi or High Oracle, her name was Delilah or Del. Both were 22 and had been serving the Goddess in the Temples for 10 years since the Des Rues had destroyed their pack, the Benjmin-Naphtal. Essie was what they called a Wanderer, she went where the Oracles sent her, she liked to travel and meet interesting wolves and others.

She thought he was an interesting wolf because he could see and hear her sister. The glowing wolf he had seen was her sister’s tidal form and not a ghost. Essie went on for an hour about how only she and her grandfather could see the form Delilah waded the Tides in and that Nyall must be special and then she laughed, saying that all servants were special, special in the head. Nyall got the sense she meant that they were all daft. If they were all like her, he would believe it.

He was surprised to learn that they were going from Sept Isle to Moon’s Gate and not Old Wemyss. Come summer, the Delphi Delilah was taking them to the Servants of the Moon Pack’s main territory. A place called the Eye of the Goddess by wolves and Crater Lake by the humans. It was on the other side of the continent, far from the New Wemyss territory and safe. The Temples of Oracles were waiting for Mamó as an elder and Ainsley as an acolyte.

Essie happily announced she would be his trainer to be a Moon’s Servant along with a few other wolves. She laughingly said he should say a prayer of thanks to his father, because his combat training would shave years off his required training with Kaiyou, and he would start right away with etiquette classes, theology, strategy, information gathering, and a bunch of other stuff. He had almost groaned at the long hard winter of schooling ahead of him. By the time, they had finished the hours long drive, toward the mainland, Comhnyall dreaded his future. His service to the Moon was beginning, that meant that, after this winter, and for the next two years, his life would be closely intertwined with the most annoying she-wolf he had ever met.

“Ohh, look, a bookshop having a sale!” Essie slammed on the brakes, throwing him into the safety belt. She was the worst driver he had ever ridden with. “And there’s a cafe’, let’s eat.”

“Essie, do ye ‘ave to stop an’ buy a box of books at every open shop ye see? We need to get going, they be looking for us,” Comhnyall snapped.

“Oh Nyall, you’re such a stuffed shirt. Besides, I’ll tell you a secret about my sister, she loves books. Reads everything she can get her hands on, doesn’t care what it is. She has me buy them from shops, family sales, libraries, whatever. She loves getting boxes of mixed books, she calls it book roulette. She said it is her way of exploring the world through the words of others since she is almost never allowed to leave the Temples’ territories, except for Delphi business. If you want to stay on her good side, buy a few books for her here and there once you start wandering. I think reading is a big waste of time, but she loves books, so I buy them for her. I hate reading, it gives me a headache.”

Essie stopped and picked up a random box of used books, and handed the clerk several bills. Then she walked into the thrift store next door, and made him buy several changes of winter clothes for himself, Ainsley, and Mamó. She never stopped talking about how much she hated the cold and how she hoped she’ll get to go to a warmer climate for the next few months while he was going through his initial training. He really started wishing she would start smoking again so she would shut up, he was getting a headache.

“Essie, ye said weh would eat?” He asked hopefully.

“Oh yeah, I forgot. Let’s go.” She was too enthusiastic about food.

While they were eating a group of three, rough looking wolves walked in. He could feel his hackles rising.

“Nyall, don’t look at them. We’re just two humans having a date,” she whispered in a low firm voice.

He looked at her confused as she lit yet another cigarette.” She held it up, blowing a smoke ring, and winked, “Scent masking. And don’t worry, Del has Ketsu, Martha, and Zane laying false trails.”

“Ahh, Ketsu an’ Zane aire two of tha Wanderers ye said ye have worked weth,” he nodded, trying to sort the massive amount of information she had given him in the last 7 hours.

The wolves took a table near the back with a clear view of the door, ignoring them in their cozy corner booth. The waitress brought them their to-go orders and they walked out, holding hands, completely ignored. Essie drove through the night to make Matane, waiting till dawn and the first Ferry. And Comhnyall believed he had discovered the real reason why Essie’s sister collected books. Essie, despite being the most talkative wolf he had ever met, was polite enough not to speak while someone was reading.

He was reading a book by a man named Zane Grey, a wolf’s name if he ever heard one. Essie had said her Grandpapa like the author. By the end of the Matane Ferry ride, he was digging through the boxes looking for another one. Essie got them a hotel room while they waited for Shamus to sail into Sept Isle. The weather meant two days of sitting and watching the port for the Seawolf. The second night, Essie had disappeared for several hours and just when he was about to go look for her, she walked in and flashed him a smug smile. The way she smelled shocked him.

“Sorry but I didn’t think bars were your thing and I needed to get some information on the wolves looking for us,” she handed over a to-go box filled with sliced steaks, bell peppers, and potatoes.

“They think you headed to Halifax and booked passage on a passenger freighter. A blonde male and red headed female made a big scene about catching the boat. It’s actually Ketsu and Martha. So we are completely in the clear.”

“And you had to get drunk and have sex to get this information?” He eyed his food, wondering exactly where is had come from.

“Goddess, you sound like my grandpapa. I’m not drunk and the sex was just because he was cute and if I run that wolf again, he’ll be keen to brag to me about his work, ie. give me more information, in exchange for,” and she paused to blow a smoke ring and fluttered her eyelashes at him, “A little attention. Besides males chase tail all the time, why can’t females? We’re just as good at the horizontal tango as you all.”

“I.. I..” Nyall stammered, She had a point. He had never met anyone as blunt as Essie, but when he thought about Nathrairi and how the unmated males his older brother’s age acted toward her and Sionne and the human town girls and the way some acted back. He shrugged, “I’m sorry if I offended ye, I ne’er said there was anythin’ wrong weth et. I was just askin’ a question.”

Essie narrowed her eyes, smirking, “That’s what I thought, golden boy. I need a shower. Here.”

She pulled a book out of her bag, it was another Zane Grey but this one was a collection of four in one volume. “You better get it read before we get to the Gate or you won’t get it back from Del for a month and by then you’ll be to busy to read it.”

As Nyall ate, he listened to the shower running and Essie humming and wondered if she ever shut up. She was nothing like he expected a fellow servant to be. He couldn’t decide if she was really a flighty person or if it was a well practiced act. She never really talked about herself or her sister in depth. He only knew that she had nightmares when she slept, the little she did sleep. He wondered what she was hiding by being so annoying as he settled in to read about cowboys and life in someplace called Texas.