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PART ONE

Life and Death

One

A e expectancy overcame Grady Adams, a sense that he and Merlin were not alone

In good weather and bad, Grady and the dog walked the woods and the meadows for two hours every day In the wilderness, he was relieved of the need to think about anything other than the sht and shadow, the way ahead, and the way home

Generations of deer had rass and fragrant clover

Merlin led the way, seely indifferent to the spoor of the deer and the possibility of glis of their tails ahead of him He was a three-year-old, 160-pound Irish wolfhound, thirty-six inches tall, her on a muscular neck

The dog’s rough coat was a reen shadows, he sometimes seemed to be a shadow, too, but one not tethered to its source

As the path approached the edge of the woods, the sunshine beyond the trees suddenly looked peculiar The light turned coppery, as if the world, bewitched, had revolved toward sunset hours ahead of schedule With a sequined glimmer, afternoon sun shimmered down upon the meadow

As Merlin passed between two pines, stepping onto open ground, a vague apprehension—a presentiripped Grady He hesitated in the woodland gloo

In the open, the light was neither coppery nor gli the trees The pale-blue arch of sky and emerald arms of forest embraced the meadow

No breeze stirred the golden grass, and the late-September day was as hushed as any vault deep in the earth

Merlin stood motionless, head raised, alert, eyes fixed intently on soht to have the keenest eyesight of all breeds of dogs

The back of Grady’s neck still prickled The perception lingered that so arose fro’s tension

Standing beside the i what his coently descended southward to another vastness of forest Nothingdid

A white form, supple and swift And then another

The pair of ani the meadow less by intention than by the consequence of their play They chased each other, tuain in a frolicso

Where the grass stood tallest, they almost vanished, but often they were fully visible Because they remained in motion, however, their precise nature was difficult to define

Their fur was unifore as s

They appeared to be as limber and quick as cats But they were not cats

Although he’d lived in these h he had returned four years previously, at the age of thirty-two, Grady had never before seen creatures like these

Powerful body tense, Merlin watched the playful pair

Having raised hi spent the past three years with little coh to read his eued but puzzled, and his puzzlement made him wary

The unknown anih to be formidable predators if they had claws and sharp teeth At this distance, Grady could not deterh the last classification was the least likely

Merlin seeth, and history as hunters, Irish wolfhounds were all but fearless Although their disposition was peaceable and their nature affectionate, they had been known to stand off packs of wolves and to kill an attacking pit bull with one bite and a violent shake

When the white-furred creatures were sixty or seventy feet away, they beca watched They halted, raised their heads

The birdless sky, the shadooods, and the meadow remained under a spell of eerie silence Grady had the peculiar notion that if he round under him, and that if he shouted, he would have no voice

To get a better view ofon its haunches in the manner of a squirrel

Grady wished he had brought binoculars As far as he could tell, the ani muzzle; its black nose lay in nearly the same plane as its eyes Distance foiled further analysis

Abruptly the day exhaled A breeze sighed in the trees behind Grady

In the meadow, the risen creature dropped back onto all fours, and the pair raced away, seelide more than sprint Their sleek white forrass

The dog looked up inquiringly Grady said, “Let’s have a look”

Where the rass was bent and tramped No bare earth meant no paw prints

Merlin led histhe trail until the meadow ended where the woods resumed

A cloud shadow passed over them and seemed to be drawn into the forest as a draft draws smoke

Gazing through the serried trees into the gloom, Grady felt watched If the white-furred pair could clihs and not easily spotted

Although he was a hunter by breed and blood, with a Sherlockian sense of smell that could follow the thinnest thread of unraveled scent, Merlin showed no interest in further pursuit

They followed the tree line west, then northwest, along the curve ofair whispered through the grass They returned to the north woods

Around the, the drone of insects, the arthritic creak of heavy evergreen boughs troubled by their oeight

Although the unnatural hush had relented, Grady relanced back, no stalker was apparent, yet he felt that he and Merlin were not alone

On a long rise, they came to a stream that slithered doorn shelves of rock Where the trees parted, the sun revealed silver scales on the water, which was elsewhere dark and smooth

With other sounds le of the stream, Grady wanted e until his companion halted, turned, and stared downhill

He did not have to crouch in order to rest one hand on the wolfhound’s back Merlin’s body was tight with tension

The big dog scanned the woods His high-set ears tipped forward slightly His nostrils flared and quivered

Merlin held that posture for so long, Grady began to think the dog was not soaway a pursuer Yet he did not growl

When at last the wolfhound set off toward home once more, he ’s pace