Werelord Thal: A Renaissance Werewolf Tale (42 page)

“Her Ladyship is pleased that you’re watching
over her family,” Valentino said. He sat next to Thal and took a
deep breath of the night air. “Splendid evening. It’s going to be a
nice summer,” he said.

When Thal did not comment, Valentino
attempted conversation again. “Can I have a look at your pistol?”
he said. Thal handed it to him and walked to the railing. His dog
peeked between the thick posts. His tail went up. Thal smelled it
too.

“Not a bad gun,” Valentino remarked. “How did
you get it?”

“Some would say I stole it, but that’s not
true,” Thal said. He walked back to Valentino and retrieved his
gun.

“Ssshhh,” he said with a nod toward the
street.

“Is it coming?” Valentino whispered. He
crouched low as he followed Thal back to the rail. The supernatural
threat excited him in a new way. He had faced human foes for years,
but the thought of a werewolf made him feel like a boy. He drew one
of his pistols.

Thal crouched behind the rail and Valentino
peeped over the edge with him. The street was abnormally empty. The
killings in Old Town had dampened the nocturnal frolics of the
Little Quarter, at least for tonight.

“There’s been no howling,” Valentino said as
if trying to convince himself that something was not coming.

Pistol’s low growl contradicted his
flirtation with denial.

“He’s approaching quietly on purpose,” Thal
explained.

“Why is he coming to you?” Valentino
asked.

Thal faced him. His silence dared Valentino
to accept the truth.

The Condottiere shook his head. “But you
can’t be. Look at the moon. Why has it not provoked your magic if
you have it?”

“Look!” Thal hissed.

“Santo Cristo!” Valentino cried.

Out of an alley emerged an upright figure
with a shaggy head. When it looked up and down the street, a
flickering street lantern silhouetted its long snout. Then it
dropped to all fours and bounded across the street with a fluffy
tail flying. It disappeared into shadows.

Thal gripped his gun. In his relatively
fragile man form, he clung to the power of the weapon, but he could
not bring himself to murder Rainer no matter the danger. But if he
wanted them both to live, he dared not confront Rainer as a man
tonight.

He ran to the bench and set down his gun. He
whipped off his cloak and fur and pulled off his shirt.

“What are you doing?” Valentino demanded.

Thal yanked off his boots and slipped down
his pants. “I don’t want to ruin my clothes,” he explained.

“Are you getting naked?” Valentino said and
stepped back, profoundly confused.

Pistol dashed under the bench and whined.

Free of clothing, Thal held his fur into the
moonlight. It sparkled supernaturally. He wrapped the fur over his
hips and trembled with anticipation. “Everybody wants me to serve
them…I understand why now. Because I have power, but my power is my
own. I’m not sure what to do with it, but I know I’m more powerful
than the beast that approaches. Don’t shoot me, Valentino,” he said
and began to chant the words of the spell.

Valentino fell back. Thal’s strange words
made him shake. Dark magic drew down upon the balcony like an owl
on a rabbit. It was almost silent yet loud with palpable intent.
The force introduced Valentino to a new level of fear, but his
terrified curiosity gave him the courage to witness a great thing
that transcended proclamations of good and evil. Thal cried out his
name and screamed. His body convulsed and he clenched his teeth
against the wrenching pain.

Like the surreal moment when a child is born
of woman, when one becomes two, Thal’s body stretched and revealed
the beast. Fur burst out upon his heavily muscled body. His human
face erupted into wolfen jaws and his eyes reflected the light of
Heaven. He was magnificent in his predatory superiority. Valentino
was paralyzed by awe. Not even the worst beating he had ever taken
from his father could compare to this humbling experience that left
him feeling like a water bug in a flood. Thal bounded up to him and
rubbed his furry chin across Valentino’s armored shoulder. He
slapped a thick paw on his other shoulder and gently ran his long
claws through Valentino’s short beard. The delicate rustle of blunt
claws against thick short hairs was a sound Valentino would never
forget. Thal sniffed him with wide wet nostrils. Thick teeth that
could crack bones glittered with magic, and then Thal bounded
across the balcony and vaulted into the street.

Valentino drew a breath as if he had just
been saved from drowning and was beginning a new second life.

His pistol barely clung to his limp fingers,
but he drew his wits back together and tightened his grip. He
hurried to the railing. Thal loped down the street. His powerful
grace amazed Valentino. Even in his terror he envied Thal’s ability
that the world called a curse but in him was a gift that united man
with all that he had forsaken.

From the street, Thal rushed between two
buildings. Two green eyes confronted him in the dark. Rainer
snarled and charged. Thal jumped back to avoid the lunging jaws.
They slashed against each other with heavy claws and rolled and
snapped in the heavy throes of fur-flying battle. Barrels were
knocked over. They rolled and crashed, heedless of obstacles. Their
snarling battle spilled into the moonlit street. Thal kept giving
ground. Rainer’s aggressiveness shocked him. The submissive
companionship of the night before should not have shifted into
attack.

The challenge soon summoned Thal’s temper.
His clawed hands seized the werewolf by the mouth behind his last
teeth. All of Rainer’s limbs scratched against Thal’s exposed
torso, but he maintained his fierce grip on the mouth. He twisted
Rainer’s head until he yowled. Thal threw him down hard on the
cobbled street. Thal jumped on top of him and bit him on the back
of the neck. His teeth broke the skin but he held back from
delivering the crushing force that would crack the spine. Rainer’s
strong body bucked and heaved against Thal’s jaws, but Thal kept
him pinned.

Rainer finally stopped struggling and
whimpered. Thal bit down a little harder to make his point and then
eased away. Rumbling ominously, Thal circled Rainer’s crumpled
form, not quite trusting the surrender.

Rainer slunk away. His ears were flat and his
tail tucked, but his black lips still quivered angrily around
jagged teeth. Thal edged closer. His fur bristled and his tail was
high. Rainer snapped at him, and Thal struck. He and Rainer tussled
brutally. The snapping frenzy of their confrontation shook the
shutters on windows. The noise reminded all who heard it of the
fragility of their soft human bodies.

Thal thrashed Rainer with heavy blows and bit
his arm and flung him against a building. Stunned and bleeding,
Rainer staggered back, panting and much more sincerely subdued.
Thal was panting heavily as well but was filled with the magical
vitality that only victors know.

Shouting and pounding footsteps down the
street broke through the red haze of battle. Both werewolves looked
at the torch-bearing mob rushing to confront them. A blast slashed
at their sensitive ears. A hot lead ball shattered the corner of a
building near Thal’s head.

Rainer fled and Thal followed him. Thal
nudged Rainer several times, trying to get him to stop. They had
left the mob behind and it would be easy to avoid it in the
labyrinth of the city, but Rainer kept running. They reached the
outer wall of the Little Quarter. Because of the noise in the city,
the gate guards had stirred up their watchfires. Thal tried again
to stop Rainer, but he headed straight for the gate. Men screamed
but stood their ground. Rainer charged them and dodged their
spears. He started scrabbling against the gate in mad desperation
to get out. The guards fell back as Thal jumped into their midst.
His swinging arms bashed them away, but a man on a balcony took a
shot with a crossbow. Thal felt the arrow split the hairs of his
tail. He joined Rainer at the gate and heaved off the bar. The
heavy slab of wood crashed to the street and Rainer pried open the
gate and shimmied out the gap in total panic. Thal kept after him.
The chase through the outer city was a blur. The werewolves stayed
on the main road until they reached the village-dotted countryside.
They bounded across fields and leaped hedges. The scent of cut hay
freshened the night breeze. Rainer fled into a woodlot and Thal
welcomed the embrace of the wild patch of old trees.

******

Regis tripped on the last step before
reaching the balcony. He popped up quickly, drawn by the crazy
roaring. Unaware of the pain in his bashed knee, he flopped against
the balcony railing next to Valentino. They gaped at the wild scene
in the street.

“Is it Thal?” Regis said.

“He…changed,” Valentino managed to
answer.

The violent crashing ended abruptly as one
werewolf triumphed over the other. Into the sudden quiet the noise
of the approaching mob intruded.

“They’re being hunted!” Regis cried.

A shot was fired and the werewolves dashed
away. Pistol started barking and clawing at Regis’s leg. The dog
ran to the stairs and then back to Regis and then to the stairs,
clearly wanting someone to follow Thal.

Regis presumed to grab Valentino. The
intrusion of physical contact snapped the man back into his normal
mind a little.

“Where are his clothes?!” Regis demanded.

Valentino slapped away his hand. “How did you
know he would take his clothes off?” he said.

“He always does, so not to ruin them,” Regis
said.

“You’ve seen this before?” Valentino
said.

“I’ve not seen it,” Regis whispered. Until
now, he had not been able to truly imagine Thal as that powerful
and vicious creature.

He looked down into the street. Streaks of
fiery light revealed the passing mob. His chest lurched with worry
for Thal and for the men hunting him.

Pistol whined and tugged at Regis’s ankle.
“We must bring him his clothes. His dog will find him,” he
said.

“His clothes are on the bench,” Valentino
said.

Regis gathered them in his arms. He held the
weapons awkwardly while trying not to drop the boots.

“I’ll take those,” Valentino said.

“Please, Condottiere, you have a horse.
Please help me catch up to him,” Regis said.

Pistol yipped and danced at the top of the
stairs impatiently.

Valentino’s mind was as garbled as a spilled
box of beads bouncing in every direction. The feel of the werewolf
touching his face was still itching across his cheek. Thal could
have ripped him to pieces, but he had not.

The shouting of the mob receded. Valentino
reckoned that Thal would outrun his hunters, but how long would his
werewolf power last? What would happen when he became a man again?
Valentino suddenly understood the musician’s concern.

“You stay here. I’ll go after him,” Valentino
decided and took the rest of the clothing from Regis. He strode to
the stairs and the little dog bounded down ahead of him. The
household was in hysterics. The Condottiere had no time to give
anyone answers. He ordered the servants to bar the doors and not
open them till dawn.

Regis encountered Raphael and Carlo and told
them the Condottiere would try to find Thal. Reluctantly the
musicians watched the big man barge off to the stables.

******

Rainer flopped into a leafy hollow where an
old tree had torn open the ground when it fell in a strong wind.
Thal stopped close by. He could smell the blood of Rainer’s wounds.
Regret flared even if he had inflicted them in defense. Panting, he
hunkered down to wait until Rainer lost his wolfen shell and they
could talk as men.

Rainer groaned and licked the bite wound on
his arm. When his sorrowful glance connected with Thal’s watchful
eyes, Thal felt no true malice in the werewolf, only confusion and
untenable urges.

Thal stretched out more comfortably on the
cool leafy ground. After many nights inside walls, this return to
open landscape refreshed his spirit. He felt content between the
throbbing sky and the steady rhythm of the Earth.

His sigh wheezed through his long snout. He
hoped that his calm presence would draw some of the poisonous humor
from Rainer.

The night waned, and Rainer’s eyelids finally
slipped shut. His sleep did not last. Twitching advanced to
convulsing and then his whole body was heaving and collapsing. Fur
fell away and exposed his human skin. Bloody scratches and puncture
marks marred his flesh and made his old scars less noticeable. His
jaws and claws shrank away and his tail disappeared.

When the transformation was done, Rainer
hugged his shivering body. With teeth chattering, he watched Thal
change back to a man. Because he knew how painful transformation
was, he sympathized as Thal shed his wolfen appearance. When it was
finished, Rainer was surprised to see that Thal still possessed a
fur. The faint glow of the sinking moon sprinkled the lustrous fur
with celestial light.

Thal set a gentle hand on Rainer’s shoulder.
“How badly are you hurt?” he asked.

“I will be all right,” Rainer whispered. He
was shaking hard.

“You’re cold,” Thal said and placed his fur
around Rainer’s shoulders.

Although Rainer needed the covering, he
mistrusted the tingle of the hide against his skin. It felt like
the first itching pull of the moon curse in the hours before his
body changed.

“Why did you attack me?” Thal said.

Rainer moaned and looked away. He had been so
foolish!

“Please tell me,” Thal coaxed. “My wish is
for us to be friends.”

“Hah!” Rainer cried.

“Why is that so bad a thing? We should be
together,” Thal said.

“What do you want from me?” Rainer said.