Imminence (28 page)
Authors: Jennifer Loiske
“Will you search our minds again?” Alexei asked scornfully.
“Why are our words not enough?” Fabio wondered, perplexed.
“I no longer know what to believe, but this is a quick way of finding out if it’s one of you. If you agree,” I turned my palms upwards as a sign of peace and looked imploringly at the men.
“What should we do?” Joshua asked, his eyes on Clarissa.
“Shift,” I said, looking at each in turn.
The men lifted their heads in evident surprise and I saw a flicker of joy in their eyes.
“Right now?”
“Now,” I said wearily.
They grinned and in a moment ten large he-wolves were standing in our yard. Now I knew the nightly visitor was not one of them. First of all, only Joshua’s paws were large enough but his scent was entirely different. Secondly, the gait of these wolves revealed none of them had the length of step matching that of the visitor. This frightened me. How large exactly was this strange wolf? All the wolves standing in my yard now were uncommonly large, but the visitor appeared to be considerably larger still. I permitted the he-wolves to go running and hunting in the woods for a few hours. I told them to be very careful, however, as we still had no clue as to who was keeping an eye on us.
The howling began the following night and Clarissa’s scream woke even the last sleepyheads.
“It’s him! Mom! It’s him! I’m completely certain of it!”
“Calm down,” I said, stroking her hair. “Who is he? What do you mean?”
“Him. Listen, Mother. Don’t you recognize him? It’s Adam.”
I listened to the howling that appeared to challenge every one of us, and the hairs at the back of my neck stood up. Now that I thought of Adam, I could easily recognize him. But how was this possible? Adam ought to have been with Gunward on Senja. And if Adam was here, had Gunward also returned? The thought entered my mind and roused a longing in my body.
“Adam,” I whispered.
“What do we do?” Clarissa asked.
“We do nothing. I will deal with this,” I pronounced resolutely.
The others were very still. I stared out, steadfastly, as if to tell Adam with my firm gaze that he would not elude me this time. Night-black wolf eyes stared back at me from the edge of the forest. They locked with mine, and then the wolf lifted his muzzle in defiance and howled.
TO BE CONTINUED...
LEXICON:
Baz - a wolf in Hebrew
Farkas - a wolf in Hungarian
Gur - a wolf in Kurdish
SCOTTISH-GAELIC LEXICON:
Faol - a wolf in Gaelic
Fa'ilte - welcome
Tiamhaidh - sad
Mathanan - bear
Ciall - sense
a chroi - my heart
a' phiuthar - sister
mo gaol - my love
Carson a tha thu `gal? - Why are you crying?
Dé tha `cur dragh ort brathair? - What`s worrying you brother?
Carson a tha eagal ort? - Why are you afraid?
Cha chaomh e cron ort idir - I don´t harm you at all
feuch - try
Gormal - Gormalia
Anndra - Andrew
Iósaph - Joseph
Pól - Paul
Niall - Neil
madainn - morning
Cuir an aithne a chéile sinn - Introduce us
An lámh a bheir,´sia gheibh - The hand that gives will receive
Eu-comasach - impossible
Tha sin gu leòr - That´s enough
Gu bràth - forever
Dé thánn? - What is it?
Amhairc - look
YOUNG SHAPE SHIFTERS:
Adam
Tiamhaidh (Timothy)
Mathanan ( Matt)
Simon
Ciall
Raibeart ( Robert)
Pádraig (Patrick)
Iain (John)
Artair (Arthur)
STRANGE SHAPE SHIFTERS: (12)
Joshua Green the Rocky Mountain, North America
Blake Jones England
Darel White Australia, aboriginal; darel - blue sky
Derry Bochanan Scotland, gaelic; derry - red head
Drew Simmonds Canada
Alexei Safin Russia
Igor Korolev Russia, originally Romania
Marcel Ferrero Spain
Fabio Bolelli Italy, Toscana
Jonas Bastianssen Norway
Marc Gasquet France
Adrian Benneteau France
Special thanks to my family; Kimmo, Iida and Anna. Thanks for not throwing me out of the window and thank you for your love and enormous patience.
Thanks to Niina Järvenkari who translated the first version of this book and showed me what this book might be and again to Aino Artell, who made the final translation. To Marie Godley who did an amazing job by reading the text over and over again. And to all my other awesome author friends, Megan, Laura, Shoshana, John and Oliver, for their useful comments and to Loni Kim who is officially my hero. You do an amazing job by proofreading all my messy manuscripts. To Eveliina Tommola from Viima Graphics for designing the fab cover and to Milla Säteri from Magia for creating my website.
A very big thanks to Marjaana and Erkki Loiske who stood by me all the way and never stopped believing in me. To my reading circle; Mark, Niina, Maria, Piia, Veera and Ilona. You helped me a lot. To my wonderful friends; Pia P, Anniina, Katarina and Viveka, you all kept my feet on the ground and shared my secret for a very long time. The next round is on me!
To Erik who's the most open hearted friend I've ever known and who lifted me every time when I was about to crash. To Paul Brück, who took my promotional photos. You're a true artist! And to Kristiina Turtonen, who let us use her Atelier Gallery as a photography studio.
To Carita Nurminen, Tiia Nurminen, Tytti Rosenberg and Lauri Nurminen; my mother, my sisters and my brother. Just thank you for being there!
And thanks to everyone I forgot to mention but should have...
