Repercussions

Prologue

In the dark, it could almost pass for Abode. The shapes the trees made against the night sky were the same, more or less, and the night breeze whispered through your hair, just the same. The chirring of the insects was familiar and, at the same time, oddly alien.

But the stars were different. There was no Hunter, no Wolf, no Goodtree's Rest. It had been many, many years since the stargazer had laid eyes on those comforting, familiar patterns in the sky. Of course, he'd named plenty of new ones, here on this strange new world, but somehow it just wasn't the same. It didn't feel like home. Most of the Wolfriders he'd known in his youth were long gone…the new ones, the ones who'd been born here, fitted right in. Why not? To them it WAS home. He didn't feel like one of them now. And they found it hard to believe that the Master of the Palace had been a Wolfrider once, too. Had run with the pack, howled and hunted and tasted blood fresh from the kill. The Sunfolk rarely left the palace anyway, so one world was much like another to them. The Go-Backs and the Wavedancers, they'd made a place for themselves here too. And Rayek…

Now there was a story for the Howlkeeper to tell. The Sun Villager's long, lonely years of wandering, with only Ekuar and the spirit of his dead love Winnowill for company. Skywise chuckled softly to himself at the thought of how that malignant spirit was finally expunged. It had been hard on Rayek though, having to come to terms with the fact that she didn't love him, had never loved him, and that he had been unable to make her. The Palace Master shook his silvery head ruefully, pulling his cloak tightly around himself to ward off the chill night air. There was no accounting for love…wasn't that the truth?