Erlick’s words were clearly cold comfort to the distressed lady of the house. There was controlled fear in her speech, fear and bitterness and longing. A tone Andrei recognized, when he spoke of his own losses.  “If I may, my lady?”<br/><br/>She acknowledged him with a single nod, which he took as permission to speak.  “I hear no selfishness, Lady Ireena. Merely a wish for loved ones around you in a time of crisis.  And,” he added with s wry smile, “a desire for one or two more skilled sword-arms.”<br/><br/>He tried to maintain his smile, remembering more innocent days when he could cheer his adopted older sister with his antics. But he was no longer a child, and the grin faded to seriousness as the wolves howled beyond the walls. “But you may count on us, Lady Ireena. Elrick and I... we will not fail you.  You will see my smiling face, come the dawn’s first light.<i>Both </i>of you.”<br/><br/>With that he bowed and saluted, first to Elrick and then to Ireena, his right fist thumping against his left breast. Without further words he turned and marched away.<br/><br/>Marched. Because it was easier to control the fear that way.<br/><br/>Wolves howled outside, the eerie sound echoing through the darkened halls of the manor. He and Elrick had elected to keep them dark, to save precious oil and to make it easier to watch the wolves outside. Night after night they came, circling the manor like an army of fiends, probing their defenses. A dozen men were dead because of them, lives cut short by their fangs. Now he and Elrick were the last, the only hope the Lady Ireena had for salvation.<br/><br/>Unless Ismark returned with help. But that would require hope, and the supply of hope was as dwindled as the supply of lamp oil.<br/><br/>At the base of the great stairs, Andrei collected a spear from a wall rack. Then he began his methodical circuit of the first floor, checking the barricades on the doors and the boards that covered the windows. More than once he had found them loosened, as if someone within the house were aiding the wolves. More than once, men had died because of the apparent sabotage. But that was madness, thinking of it that way. Only he and Elrick and Ireena remained.  The loosening was simply the effects of the nightly assaults of the wolves.<br/><br/>Pausing at a loophole, he peered into the darkness. A shape peered back, eyes burning green in the moonlight. “Stay there,” he breathed, gripping the shaft of his spear. “Stay there, you bastard.”