Daughter of the Moon (The Moon People, Book Two) (37 page)

"Netya!" he called over to her. "Have you come to join us?"

She shook her head with a grin. "I cannot handle a spear alongside such strong warriors."

"You can handle it better than most. Come, tell them how you used that weapon to keep a mountain cat at bay when it had you cornered." He rested his spear over his shoulder and nodded in Kin's direction. "Our brother here still thinks it a useless skill to master."

"These are weapons of the Sun People," Kin complained. "They are clumsy and weak."

"I convinced you of a javelin's usefulness, did I not?"

"That is different. A javelin can be thrown far, not like these heavy things." Kin thumped the tip of his pole against the ground, the supple wood reverberating with the impact.

"Have you ever seen the way the Sun People fight with them?" Netya said. She had never witnessed her people use spears in battle either, but she remembered the men of her village training, and the tales they had told of their victories.

Kin shot her a heated look. "I know that anyone wielding this weapon would fall to the fangs of a wolf before they could even thrust it."

"Then try and sink your fangs into me." Caspian swung his spear off his shoulder and gripped it in both hands. "Gently, of course."

Kin flashed his teeth eagerly, tossing his own pole to the ground as he stepped away from the group and transformed into the shape of his wolf. He barked at his opponent, flicking his tail in the air in a taunting gesture, then lunged forward. But no sooner had his paws left the ground than he found himself stumbling to an awkward stop, forced to catch himself as the tip of Caspian's spear hovered inches from his muzzle. With a growl of annoyance Kin regained his footing and lunged again, his sandy fur rippling in the wind as he dashed to the side to try and get around the sharp flint blade. Caspian circled counter to the wolf's movements, taking several quick steps back so that the spear stayed level with Kin's muzzle. Again the aggressor found his attack thwarted. And again, and again as Caspian kept on circling and retreating, keeping the tip of his spear firmly between himself and the set of snapping jaws trying to reach him.

Soon the others were grinning at their companion's futile efforts to get around the weapon he had mocked moments earlier. Netya could not help but feel a tickle of amusement too. Of her own volition, she dropped her grass baskets to the ground and hurried forward to join Caspian with her spear in hand. She set her feet firmly, adopting the stance he himself had taught her, and lowered her weapon to hem Kin in from a second angle. Surprised, and more than a little indignant at this second new adversary, the wolf turned his attention to Netya, snapping at the red feathers trailing from the crosspiece of her weapon. Mimicking Caspian's movements, she circled and backed away, feeling the tempo of her heartbeat match the pace of every footfall.

She nearly stumbled as she retreated over a tuft of uneven grass, but she trusted her feet to find their own way, keeping her focus on the spear tip and its distance from Kin's muzzle. It was just like fighting the mountain cat, except this time she had many more months of experience with her spear to draw on. The weight that had once felt so lopsided and unnatural in her hands was now easy and comfortable, and she knew exactly when and how to shift her grip to make sure it stayed in the place she wanted. She might not have been a master of the spear, but even her simple familiarity with the weapon was more experience than Kin had in fighting against it

Caspian circled in from the side, maintaining a safe distance between himself and Netya so that neither of them would stumble into the other, and tapped Kin on the back of the neck with the tip of his spear. The wolf growled and whirled around, and as soon as his attention was diverted Netya hopped forward and tapped him a second time on the flank. Confused and angry, Kin rounded on her one last time, then seemed to realise the futility of his position. One spear had been enough to keep him at bay, but two proved impossible for him to deal with.

Netya allowed herself a proud smile, easing out of her stance and propping her spear up at her side as the young man reverted from the shape of his wolf and slumped back on the ground. She had certainly come a long way since the night she cowered in fear while Fern snapped this spear in half like a twig.

"Now imagine facing three times as many spears," Caspian said, offering Kin his hand and hauling him back to his feet. "That is how the Sun People fight. They are no match for a wolf's teeth and claws, so they use weapons that keep us at a distance and take away our advantage."

"Cowardly things," Kin growled.

"Cunning things," Caspian countered. "No man or woman has ever beaten a stronger foe by fighting them on even ground. We will not defeat the warriors of any rival clan unless we learn to fight with a cunning of our own." He picked up Kin's pole and pressed it back into the man's hands. "Do you understand now?"

Kin cast a furtive look to his companions, refusing to make eye contact. The gesture might have incurred a sharp blow from a less tolerant senior male, but Caspian only smiled patiently and waited for his charge to step back into line.

"Yes, Alpha," Kin ground out eventually.

Caspian's expression hardened, the patience suddenly dropping from his voice. "I am not your alpha. If you have one then it is Adel, not me." He winced as soon as the words had left his mouth, realising that, in contrast to his statement, he had spoken with an alpha's undeniable authority. He turned to Netya and leaned in close, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Will you stay for a while longer? They could use a second teacher."

"You seem to be doing wonderfully on your own," she replied, giving his forearm a squeeze.

"But every time they call me Alpha..." A conflicted look crossed his face. "That is not the person I want them to see me as."

Netya wanted to encourage him to press on by himself, but she knew Caspian was different from most men. Holding power over others made him uncomfortable. Perhaps that was precisely why he made a better leader than most, seeking always to do the right thing rather than whatever best served his pride. She moved her hand down to clasp his fingers, and gave him a nod.

"Very well. I can stay for a while."

He smiled with relief. "Thank you. Now the rest of you," he turned to the others, raising his voice again. "You see how Netya and I hold the spear? Try for yourselves, then we shall see who can fend off a wolf with their new weapon."

The six men spread apart into a loose group, each trying their best to mimic Caspian and Netya. Even Kin's begrudging efforts eventually gave way to genuine enthusiasm as the competitive nature of the young males reared its head, each one of them trying to outdo the others in mastering the new weapon first.

Netya followed Caspian's lead as he spent some time with each of them in turn, showing them how to set their feet and balance their poles correctly. It felt strange for her to be instructing grown men, many of whom towered over her by a head or more and dwarfed her small physique with their muscular bodies. They clearly did not favour her instruction as much as they did Caspian's, but after the first man she had been helping deftly knocked Kin's pole from his hands when they tried to spar the others quickly warmed up to their second mentor.

"You were a warrior of the Sun People?" one of them questioned her as she guided his hands farther apart on the haft of his pole. His name was Eyan, a seldom-spoken mountain of a man who often found himself the butt of his brothers' jokes, both regarding his size and implicit lack of wits. But despite his towering height and tree trunk-thick body, Netya had found him among the more meek and respectful of Kin's small group.

"I was never a warrior, no," she replied. "Only a girl living in a village."

"Then who taught Caspian the spear?"

She paused. "I do not know. He understands a great many things, doesn't he?"

"I have my friend Khelt to thank for that," Caspian cut in as he walked over to check Eyan's stance, nodding his approval. "He was a late heir to an alpha who was already long in years. His father knew Khelt would have to take leadership of the pack while he was still young, so to prepare him he had his finest warriors, craftsmen, even seers teach him everything they knew. Of course, Khelt would rather have been running around on the plains than learning back at the outcrop, so most of the time that was exactly where he ended up. Since I was his closest friend, he brought me along to his lessons too, except I tended to be the one who stayed behind and listened after he ran off." He smiled wistfully. "Thankfully I was always there to remind him of all the things he missed in the years after."

"Alpha Khelt is a great man," Eyan observed.

Caspian clapped a hand on the young man's shoulder. Even he had to reach a little to get there. "As shall we all be, with a little practise." He leaned over in the other direction and gave Kin a sharp jab in the back with the blunt end of his spear, where the other male was in the shape of his wolf trying his luck a second time at circumventing the weapon of his partner. "Remember that learning to use a weapon also helps you understand how to fight against it. If you are ever forced to defend yourself against the Sun People, then think back to what you learn here. Think about the difficulties of using a spear, the things that threaten to wrest it from your grasp, the movements that make you trip over yourself. Then use those against your opponent."

The prospect of using his knowledge of the spear to win fights against it persuaded Kin to revert from the shape of his wolf and pick up his pole again, reapplying himself to the task he had initially shunned.

"You are good with them," Netya said quietly to her man. "You have a way of explaining things that makes them listen. Even Adel cannot manage that."

Caspian shrugged. "I am used to persuading stubborn men to use their heads, remember? It only takes words."

"But words you have a way with. Perhaps this is to be your calling in our new pack? You advised Khelt, and now you advise everyone else."

"Now that I have found people who will listen. But I do not know, it seems a task anyone with experience could perform."

"It takes a special talent to
make
people listen. Not because they are afraid, but because they want to."

He smiled and ruffled her hair. "My wise seer. Will you stay and practise with us a while longer? It seems I am not the only one with a talent for convincing others to listen."

Netya glanced to her abandoned baskets, then looked back and nodded. "Perhaps I can learn a little something more too."

They kept on training all afternoon, first becoming accustomed to the correct stance and movements, before breaking into pairs to practise the same defensive game Netya and Caspian had demonstrated with Kin, one partner attacking in the shape of their wolf while the other tried to keep them at a distance. It was a difficult lesson to learn for most of them, and the wisdom of giving them blunt poles to train with soon became apparent as aggressive temperaments got the better of Kin and one of his brothers, leaving another pair of wolves with bruised and bleeding muzzles.

Caspian let them fight it out as the scene escalated into a challenge, and by the time dusk began to fall Netya ended up tending a series of claw-shaped gashes on Kin's back. Meanwhile, Caspian calmly gave the victor of the fight the task of gathering straight branches and stone that could be knapped into proper spearheads, along with bark for glue, sinew for twine, and a gift of a particularly tasty and elusive bird for Briar, so that she might be persuaded to craft spears for them all the next day. Crestfallen, Kin's opponent seemed about to protest, but Caspian folded his arms and inclined his head slightly, and the words faltered on the young man's lips. The task assigned to him would take all night, perhaps longer if he was unfortunate with the bird. But that was the price of proving himself victorious in the challenge, was it not? Kin could not very well be sent out to help him while he was recovering from his wounds.

It was another lesson, and a subtler one than most. After the young man spent all night searching up and down the valley, imagining himself back at the camp with the others, he might think twice the next time he jumped headlong into a challenge at the slightest opportunity to assert himself.

Though much of the pack's hunting was done at night, it was still the time for what little relaxation the group could manage in between their routine tasks. Many of the females were happy to welcome the strong and eager young men into their furs before they went to sleep, and Kin and his brothers were all too happy to satisfy the clan of seers who had been starved of male company for so long.

So it was with a forlorn glance back at the glowing fires on the valleyside that the victor of the duel loped off into the darkness, leaving the others to their nightly pleasures. The rest of the men stayed a while longer in the growing dusk, tussling and talking of the spear as Netya finished tending Kin's wounds. A light drizzle began to fall, promising an even more miserable night for the poor victor whose only companionship would be the clan's eerie totems dangling from the trees.

Kin slunk back to the cave he and his companions shared on the low slopes to nurse his injuries, while the rest of them headed up to the communal fire. Those gathered nearby were already preparing the evening meal, tending smaller cooking fires just beneath the overhang of the large central cave in anticipation of the rain to come.