TWELVE
Ursula had never performed so many spells in her life. If she'd known how exhausting it would be, perhaps she might not have offered...but then, what was a little work, when it meant her people would live through the winter? It wasn't like she had anything better to do, and this was as least useful. Sitting in her tower all day stitching yet another tapestry helped no one, least of all herself. For who really needed a new tapestry, anyway?
It took her a week before she'd turned the last men into bears. Mothers and children had been first, then those too old to fight, before their menfolk on the final day.
That night, she stretched out on the same pallet that had been hers since she arrived, and waited. She didn't have to wait long. Bears fell asleep faster than people, she'd fo
