Guardian Hound (8 page)

“Ah,” Rudi said. He'd heard talk about the boy, how he looked like a mongrel. “Do you know what breed he is?”

Lady Metzler looked at Rudi sharply. “He's royalty. When the time comes, he'll take the forms easily enough.” Only purebred royalty could take on any dog shape they chose. Most hounds, like Rudi, could only change into one form, that of their hound soul.

“That's good,” Rudi said. And it was. “Though isn't his cousin, Oscar, also prepared for the throne?” After King Metzler had been crowned, he hadn't taken a wife for many years, and Lukas had been born almost ten years after his sister.

“Yes. And Oscar will do a good enough job, as king.”

Interesting. So Lady Metzler didn't think Lukas would be king? Was his breed so off, then? But Rudi didn't ask—he couldn't, not unless he was certain they were alone and unobserved. He had the equipment with him to take care of that, but she hadn't asked for such privacy.

Interesting. So Lady Metzler didn't think Lukas would be king? Was his breed so off, then? But Rudi didn't ask—he couldn't, not unless he was certain they were alone and unobserved. He had the equipment with him to take care of that, but she hadn't asked for such privacy.

Lady Metzler nodded at Rudi, as if listening in on this thoughts and agreeing. “My dreams—my dreams make me worried for the boy. They've always guided me, you know. You may think I'm a foolish old woman, but they've always foretold the future.” She turned her head and stared directly into Rudi's eyes. “They've given me time to prepare.”

Rudi swallowed. He felt his spine straighten, and the hair along the back of his neck stood up. “We're all very lucky to have you, my lady,” he said. “If there's ever anything I can do to help, please don't hesitate to ask.”

They finished their brandy, and Lady Metzler announced that she needed to go to her next appointment.

Rudi stood and took her hand again. This time, he slipped a cell phone into it as he bowed over it, kissing the back of it.

Lady Metzler acted as if nothing had happened, sliding both her hands into her pockets after he let go.

The phone was a burner, unregistered, bought with cash from a dealer who kept his own secrets. Only one number was programmed into it, and it wasn't Rudi's usual number. It came with a program that automatically scrambled the signal. It wasn't
unhackable
—nothing was—but unless someone was prepared, a short call would be difficult to hijack or trace.

“It was so good to see you, old friend,” Lady Metzler said with a sincere smile.

“You too,” Rudi said with another bow as she swept out of the room.

On the way back to his car, Rudi smiled faintly, tamping down on his excitement and anxiety.

After all these years, all his training with security, he might finally be of use to the king's mother.

At last.

# # #

It was a little over a year later before the twin phone, the one matching the phone Rudi had given Lady Metzler, rang.

“Come and get my grandson. Come as fast as you can, and arrive near midnight. “

The call ended abruptly. Rudi dropped the phone on the floor, then stepped on it, cracking the case and all the electronics. Then he scooped it up, got a bowl full of water, and tossed the pieces into it.

After the last visit with Lady Metzler, Rudi had gone into freelance work. He could live anywhere in the world as long as he had a good internet connection. He worked under more than one alias, with more than one tax ID for his various companies.

It took him a single day to arrange everything: His belongings to be packed up and put into storage, his most recent job finished up, more than one set of tickets bought under different names. He knew he wasn't impossible to trace—no one was—but he made it as difficult as he could.

Rudi arrived at the castle late, as Lady Metzler had asked, close to midnight. The guards at the gate knew he was coming and waved him through. A young man waited in the entranceway of the castle, and Lady Metzler joined them soon afterward.

“Old friend, I knew you'd come,” Lady Metzler said, greeting him warmly.

“What's wrong, my lady?” Rudi asked, holding her hand in his. Her skin buzzed with fear and excitement, and her amber eyes were dark. She wore an old robe like some housewife, not the mother of the king.

“Come, come,” she said, tugging him along. She took him to a part of the castle he'd never seen before. Worn red-and-white Oriental rugs covered the wooden floors. Ancient portraits and paintings hung from the high ceiling almost to the ground, hiding most of the forest green walls. Bitter lemon and pine cleaners had been used recently, making Rudi wrinkle his nose. Humans slept in this section, not anyone from the hound clan—the latter would never stand for the strong chemical scents.

The room of Lady Metzler smelled sharply of herbs, lavender soap, and the acrid scent Rudi always associated with magic. A twin bed lay immediately to the left. Rudi assumed the room was as big as the other studies, but he couldn't see anything beyond the tall shelves of books that stuck out from the walls, looming overhead and blocking the view.

A small, black Scottish terrier lay curled up on a dog bed on the floor. He got up and wagged his tail, coming over to Lady Metzler as soon as she walked through the door. She dropped immediately to her knees, more supple than Rudi had thought a seventy-plus-year-old woman would be.

Rudi knelt down beside her.

Lady Metzler picked up the little dog, putting it into her lap, and crooned over it, “My boy. My boy.” For the first time, her voice sounded weak and frail instead of commanding and strong.

Fright stalked up and down Rudi's spine, making him sit taller.

“He's stuck,” Lady Metzler whispered. “My grandson. He can't change back.”

“Ma'am, I'm so sorry,” Rudi said, horrified. The little prince was insane? Trapped as a hound? Poor boy.

“His human soul only rises twice a day, at midnight and at noon,” the lady continued. “He's almost all hound, all the time.”

Rudi nodded, saddened. Most of the hound clan, even when wearing their hound form, still had a great deal of human intelligence and soul. They shared the body. It wasn't right that the boy's hound shape was so strong.

“You needed to meet him, now,” Lady Metzler whispered. “So his human soul will remember you. Unless it slips away forever.”

Rudi hoped that wouldn't be the case. “Maybe his soul will come all the way back and he'll return to us some day.”

“I hope so. I truly hope so.”

The Scottie tilted its head to the side, looking up at Lady Metzler. It licked her nose once, then froze.

“It's time,” Lady Metzler said, picking up the dog and placing it on the ground before them. “Rudi will keep you safe,” she said softly. “Rudi will keep you safe.” She kept repeating the phrase until the dog shook its head again and looked at both of them.

Clear intelligence shone out of the dog's eyes. Rudi knew he was looking at the soul of the boy.

“I will guard you with my life, Prince,” Rudi said quickly.

The little dog nodded, and the light in his eyes faded. He looked up at both of them, puzzled for a moment, then he turned and climbed back into the little dog bed that sat on the floor next to what Rudi assumed was Lady Metzler's bed.

“I have everything prepared,” Lady Metzler said, rising gracefully. She disappeared for a moment behind the bookshelves, then reappeared with a handful of papers that she shoved at Rudi. They declared that the little Scottie dog had all his shots up to date. There were also plane tickets, for them to leave in just a few hours.

“You want me to kidnap the prince?” Rudi asked, horrified. He'd never signed up to do anything like that.

“No, no, just take him away. The court will know he's with you. They just can't know where he is, not exactly. You need to keep him safe.” The lady pulled Rudi closer and whispered very softly, “It isn't safe for him here. He's too vulnerable, particularly as such a small dog who can't change back.”

Rudi swallowed. The hound clan had a history of assassinations among its leaders, though not for centuries; the rule had been civilized for a long while, with no one family maintaining all the power. Still, Rudi was uneasy. “For how long?” he asked.

“Not too long,” Lady Metzler assured him. “I'll let you know when it's safe. Or you'll see a sign.”

“A sign,” Rudi said. How could he smuggle the prince out of the castle? Once he got to the car, he could keep the dog in the trunk, even though that wasn't safe. Maybe only keep him in the trunk until they got past the gate house? “If I leave now, the guard will suspect I have him,” Rudi warned Lady Metzler as she handed him the Scottie.

“Of course they will. I'll also give them a false trail or two to follow. I have many students who owe me their allegiance, and the guard won't find you, I trust.”

Rudi gave her a toothy grin. “I'll lead them on a good chase, I promise.” It was exciting, in a way, to be doing this, though he was worried about taking the boy so far away from his family.

“I knew you'd come in handy some day,” Lady Metzler said, some of the old steel returning to her voice. “Guard my grandson. Never trust magic. Always trust your nose.”

She turned and picked up a dark cloak, casting it over them. It stank of sour herbs and dusky magic. “The fools will see you with a briefcase, that's all,” she announced. “Throw the cloak away at the far end of the woods.”

Rudi nodded. “Anything else?”

“Keep away from the court, and all the hound clan,” she added. “And—try to make him happy.” She pet the small dog, kissing it once between its ears. “Now, go.”

Rudi slipped out the door and easily followed his own scent back to the front and out the door. The dog was almost asleep in Rudi's arms, but raised his head when they stepped outside. “It's okay,” he whispered into the soft fur. “No one will harm you,” he swore.

And no one would find them, either.

United States, Ten Years Ago to Present

Lukas

Rudolf moved them often while Lukas waited for a sign.

Once, while they were walking down the quiet streets of a neighborhood in Georgia, the air soft and felted, smelling of wet, green growing things and old, old trees, Lukas scented another of the hound clan.

He stopped, standing very still, making Rudi stop as well.

“What is it?” Rudi asked. He scented the air. “You smell that, don't you? Good boy, Prince. Come on.”

They went immediately back to the house and moved cities the next day.

# # #

After eight years, when they were living in the suburbs of Chicago, Rudi carried a large bag into his study, then called Lukas in and shut the door.

The room smelled of Rudi and all his electronics—computers, printers, and plastic cords. The bag Rudi carried smelled of cool magnets and cardboard. He'd been to a mall, or a big store: His shoes carried scents of industrial cleaners and the car.

Rudi himself smelled anxious and excited. He opened the bag and pulled out a white board, then he arranged rows of magnetic letters at the bottom, two full alphabets' worth. After he set the board on the floor, he sat in his chair and addressed Lukas.

“I was not spying on you, Prince,” Rudi said clearly.

Lukas continued to sniff the board, as if he was uninterested, though he was suddenly wary.

“My new laptop came with a camera that automatically records everything. I didn't realize it was motion-sensitive.”

Lukas finished sniffing the board and walked over to where Rudi sat, nosing his pockets as if looking for treats. He wanted to run far, far away, but he had to pretend he didn't understanding a word Rudi was saying. After all, Rudi was talking in a normal voice, not demanding attention or commanding obedience.

“It recorded you reading my magazines.”

Hamlin rose up and pressed against Lukas.
Trust
, he said.
Pack. Of us.

Lukas sat back and looked up at Rudi. He couldn't share his secrets, not even with his protector.

“If you ever want to talk to me,” Rudi continued, nudging the board closer with his foot. “You can use this.”

Lukas walked back to the board and looked at it again.

It would be so easy, so very easy, to reach out a paw and slide a letter. Even just the letter “K” to show that he understood.

But then Rudi would want more, demand Lukas say more, and Lukas couldn't take the risk. He merely nodded and wandered off, sniffing around Rudi's chair, teasing apart all the scents, trying to figure out exactly where Rudi's shoes had walked most recently.

“All right. Keep your secrets,” Rudi said. “Lady Metzler would be proud of you.”

From then on, there were always at least three different magazines open on the coffee table, set there for Lukas to read from every night.

And Rudi's computer was never close by.

# # #

Their most recent city was Seattle. Lukas didn't mind the rain, and he loved the open dog parks. Grass grew all year round, but there were still seasons, which meant leaves to jump and play in. They'd arrived more than a year ago, and Lukas hoped they'd stay longer.

Summer was just ending, and the nights were turning cooler. Rudi had taken them to a different park, and they were walking home in the soft twilight when Lukas smelled it.

He sat down in the middle of the sidewalk, nose high.

What was that?

Rudi scented the air as well. “Clan?” he asked quietly.

Lukas stood and shook himself all over, pretending it hadn't been anything. He walked to the end of his leash, then looked over his shoulder at Rudi, who still stood motionless.
Well?
Lukas asked with all of his doggie spirit.

“All right then. Come on.” Rudi started walking again.

The scent hadn't been clan.

That warm, wild heart that Lukas caught a whiff of was purely human, but strong enough to fight all the clans, and more.

It was the heart of the knight he'd dreamed of, so long ago. The knight who would defeat the shadows.

Lukas had to find it—
her
. He needed to be near her, bathe in her scent.

She gave him hope against the shadows. Finally, after all these years. Maybe, just maybe, he could be free of his curse. Oma would see that it was time, and would let him go back to being a real boy. Maybe she could explain as well why she'd cursed him with his greatest enemy.

Rudi always walked Lukas with a leash, but not because Lukas or Hamlin gave him any trouble. However, Rudi had been lulled into some complacency: Two of the boards in the corner of the fence around the backyard were loose enough that Lukas could squeeze through them.

And he did so, that night, as soon as he was certain Rudi was sound asleep.

It was the first time Lukas had been out in the city on his own. He transformed into Hamlin once past the fence and started to run. It thrilled his speeding heart to be in his native form. They raced through the empty streets, running at full speed past the dark houses and parked cars. They avoided the corner bars and young people smoking in the street, heading directly toward the old part of town and that scent, just there.

She lived on the first floor in a corner building, in the back, near the alley.

Lukas whined as he circled the building. There was no gate. The front door was old, and mostly glass, and the lock was ancient. The back door wasn't any better. Lukas could see where the doorjamb had been recently repaired—had it been kicked open? There weren't even bars on the street-level windows, unlike the building next door.

She was not safe there.

Somehow, he would have to find a way to guard her.

# # #

Every night, after Rudi had gone to bed, Lukas pushed his way through the fence, then he changed into another form and raced to the human's—Sally's—building. He wanted to confuse the scent, in case Rudi followed him, or anyone else.

The first week, Lukas let Sally see him as Hamlin, wondering how she would react to a very large, strange dog approaching her with no human nearby. It was on a quiet back street, full of parked cars, the houses and apartment buildings set back with fascinating smelling gardens.

Lukas walked directly up to Sally. She showed no fear, though he came up almost to her chest; she merely smiled at him with her warm brown eyes. She wore her hair pulled back in a ponytail, and a plain T-shirt and jeans. He blocked her path along the sidewalk, so she stopped.

“Hey, boy, do you live around here?” Sally asked, letting him sniff and lick at her fingers.

The salty tasted exploded across Lukas' tongue and he knew,
knew
, he was finally on the right path. She was the one, the heart of his knight.

“I can't take you home,” she mourned after a final
skritch
around his ears. “My apartment will only take small dogs. And I'm sure you belong to someone. Go on, now. Go on home.” She pushed past him and continued to walk down the street.

Lukas sat on the sidewalk and whined at her back. She had to take him in.

But she disappeared behind the unsafe door of her building and he could only guard her from the outside.

# # #

Two weeks later, Rudi walked into the living room carrying the board. He placed it on the floor, then stepped back, sitting down on the couch. He kept his tone conversational, though he smelled excited. “So who's the girl?” he asked.

Lukas looked at Rudi, then at the board. How had Rudi found out? He hadn't followed Lukas, that much Lukas knew. Was it because Lukas still carried her scent with him, after every visit?

He could walk away. Rudi hadn't taken him to his study and closed the door. He could go into the kitchen, or even out the dog door and into the backyard, though it was raining.

Trust
, Hamlin said.

Lukas sat on the floor and looked at Rudi. Yes, he needed to trust Rudi about this. Sally was too important. He didn't know how she was part of the knight, how she would help defeat the shadows, but she would.

Slowly, Lukas walked to the board. With a single paw, he pulled letters from the edge into the middle, spelling out a single word.

GUARD.

Rudi nodded thoughtfully. “You need to guard her? Why?”

Lukas couldn't tell him, even if he'd been in human form. He padded over to where Rudi sat and sat down himself, looking up.

“Not much of a guard hound, are you?” Rudi asked.

Lukas cocked his head to one side and looked at him, his heart racing. Had Oma told Rudi his true breed? But Rudi was smiling casually, not as if the term had any importance.

“All right. if she's that important to you, Prince, I will guard her as well.”

Lukas put his paws on Rudi's knee, then reached all the way up to lick his nose.

It was all Lukas could ask for.

# # #

Over the weeks, Lukas appeared to Sally as different breeds. He never appeared in the same place twice, but on different streets, at different times of the day, now that Rudi knew. He merely asked Lukas to be careful, and left the gate open for him so he didn't have to squeeze through the fence.

She seemed to really like terriers.

Lukas followed her endlessly through the streets, learning her patterns, where she went to lunch, where she shopped, where she worked. He couldn't follow her on the bus, but he knew it was the one going downtown, so tried to meet her there.

When he appeared to her as a
Goldendoodle
, she was walking with a friend, so she gave him only a quick pat on the head before walking away, saying to her friend, “I'm going to get a dog of my own this week.”

Lukas woofed at her back.
Take me, take me!

But she wasn't paying any attention.

It didn't take long for Lukas to track her scent to a nearby dog shelter, one she passed by all the time.

Lukas stayed in a strange dog's form, so Rudi couldn't follow his scent until early morning. Then he curled up on the step as a little Scottish terrier and waited for the shelter to open.

# # #

Rudi showed up a few hours later. “My Scottie ran off,” he said, loud enough for Lukas to hear in the back pens. “I'd wondered if he'd shown up here.”

The dogs who had been there for a while heard a friendly human's voice, not one of the regulars, and knew this was their chance, so they pressed forward, going up to the front of the cages. Like with Lukas, they knew Rudi was something different.

For the most part, the dogs had left Lukas alone, not trying to either befriend him or challenge him. Luckily, none of the volunteers had spent enough time in the cages to see just how odd their behavior was.

An older woman walked Rudi back to the cages, bringing him to Lukas' cage. But Lukas backed away from Rudi, shaking his head. He even growled.

“I guess that's not him,” Rudi said, staring at Lukas. “Still, if I can't find my dog, I may come back in a few days,” he warned.

Lukas turned his back on Rudi and wandered to another part of the cage.

He'd be gone before Rudi came back. Sally would come and get him.

That afternoon, Sally came by. Of course, she went straight to Lukas, as drawn to him as he'd always been to her. She put her fingers through the cage and he came right up and licked them, reveling in her complex scent.

“I've been seeing so many strays lately, it just made me want a dog of my own,” Sally confessed to the volunteer, a dour young man.

“He does seem taken with you,” the young man said.

“I know, but I shouldn't get the first dog I see, should I?” she asked.

Take me, take me!
was all Lukas tried to say with his big doggie eyes and rapidly waving tail.

“If you think,” the man said, leading her down the line of cages to the next group.

Lukas whined and stared after her. She had to take him. She just had to.

Finally, she did, and called him Pixie.

# # #

Lukas had discovered that a side effect of
Oma's
curse was that he could now see ghosts.

There had only been a couple of places that Rudi and he had lived in that were actively haunted: The old shotgun house in New Orleans, as well as a hobby farm in Iowa.

In New Orleans, the ghosts had wanted the place clean. Lukas kept all his balls and toys away from that side of the house, never marked his territory there, and even nosed along the leaves if they piled up.

At the farm, Lukas had never been able to figure out exactly what the spirits wanted, but the seemed to like the way he ran across the broad yard, so whether it was snowing, raining, or too hot to move, Lukas always ran from the front fence to the fields behind the house and back again, at least once a day.

At Sally's apartment, the ghosts wanted to be acknowledged, or they'd break Sally's dishes, make her TV just show snow, and once they even bunched up her dining room rug so she tripped.

So Lukas greeted each ghost as he or she came in, circling and barking, saying hello. Sally didn't seem to mind too much.

The ghosts wore old-fashioned clothes, suits and dresses, gloves and hats. They didn't smell like anything. And the ghosts sometimes gave him treats, cold snippets of bacon that melted on his tongue like ice.

Fall and winter passed. Lukas protected Sally as much as he could, though he was trapped inside much more often now. He scented Rudi near the building more than once, so he knew that his protector was still looking out for him.

Sally loved dancing, and went regularly. Lukas watched her carefully when she practiced in the apartment. He was glad he wasn't human those times: It looked too complicated, and he was sure he'd trip over his own feet.

Just as spring had started, and the crocuses were pushing through the soggy earth, Sally came home one night smelling of feathers.

The warm feathers of the knight.

Lukas would have given anything to ask her about it directly. Either Sally, or Oma. Instead, he stayed just outside the bathroom as she showered, and he jumped onto her bed as soon as she climbed in.