Keeper of the Wolves (5 page)

Questions rose in my mind. The want to ask
questions and have them answered was unfamiliar. Wolves accepted
their lot in life and lived in the best way their situation
allowed. It was hard to control the human emotions; they were even
more confusing when I was in wolf form. Unable to ask questions I
shouldn’t have made the situation uncomfortable and
frustrating.

She finished the last of the salve a few
minutes later and rocked back on her heels to give her handiwork a
critical look over. She didn’t seem to mind that she stood on the
hem of her dress and that the knees of the dress were stained and
dirty from the grass. She nodded with a small sigh. “I guess
that’ll have to do. I don’t suppose I could convince you to let the
castle healer take care of it?” At my straight look, a slight smile
touched the corners of her lips. “I suppose not. Can’t say I blame
you. Strangers haven’t been too kind up to now it seems.”

A chill ran through my body and I tried to
ignore it, but her eyes were quick to take in the slight wince that
followed. “You’re coming with me to the castle.”

The command in her tone brought my head
around. I sat up and watched her, wondering why on earth she would
want me inside that brick structure again.

“
You’re not going to stay
out here with a fever. You’ll sleep by a fire where the warmth can
chase the chills away.”

Her tone left no room for argument, but the
thought of being inside the stone structure again sent a different
sort of chill through my body. I refused in the only way I knew
how, by turning my head away and pretending I hadn’t heard.

She let out a muffled laugh and I glanced
back to see her holding a delicate hand over her mouth. “The big
scary wolf ignores me just like my brother.” She acted like she was
offended, but the light that sparkled in her blues eyes made them
dance with amusement. The look sent a surge of wonder through
me.

I didn’t know a human could have so many
expressions. Wolves made their feelings known through scents, the
flick of an ear, the brush of a tail, the slight baring of teeth,
and a thousand whines and sounds that meant a myriad of emotions,
thoughts, and feelings. In my human form, I felt so inadequate at
communicating.

But the subtle lift of her chin, the slight
raise of an eyebrow, a twist of her lips, or the merest touch of
her hand could make my heart race as though I had run an entire day
without stopping. I would give anything just to be able to watch
her, though I wasn’t sure if my heart could stand much more. As it
was, it jumped and skittered sideways when she looked at me
directly as though she saw past the wolf exterior into my soul. I
wished I knew what kind of a soul she saw.

She stood suddenly; I rose beside her. “I
need to think about some things,” she said. “I would appreciate it
if you gave me the honor of walking with me.” Her brows creased
slightly and a touch of concern colored her eyes. “Unless your paw
hurts. I wasn’t thinking of that.”

I gave a slight huff at the thought that she
considered me too weak for a walk. After being confined in the cage
for so long, a walk sounded divine. I nudged her leg with my
shoulder, surprised at my own forwardness. She laughed and ran her
fingers along the top of my head in a way that sent warmth through
my body.

“
Alright. I guess I won’t
doubt your strength,” she said with a smile. She let her hand trail
on my back as we walked through the garden. I limped but tried to
keep it to a minimum in case she decided it was bothering me too
much and asked me to stay behind. I needed as much fresh air as I
could get before I faced the confines of walls again. Walls were
too similar to cages, and I had experienced my fair share of
cages.

Chapter 4

“
These are the stables,” she
said quietly, continuing the tour that began at the gardens and
past the forge that smelled of iron and fire along with the hawkery
filled with an amazing assortment of birds bound with hoods and
jesses. I pitied the animals, but surprisingly didn’t smell despair
or sorrow within the airy confines of the wooden building; instead,
I smelled determination, fighting spirit, and strength. The birds,
it seemed, enjoyed their lives of service. I wondered how anything
wild could stand such a life.

The strong scent of horses, manure, hay,
water in iron buckets, leather worked with grease, and a few dozen
families of mice who braved the stalking cats assailed my nose.
Horses snorted and whinnied as they nosed through their feed. Flat
teeth ground bits of corn and barley while the animals used their
sharper front teeth to break stalks of hay down to a manageable
size. Different emotions drifted along the scents, the odors of
determination and strength mixed with the heady scent of pride and
self-confidence. It seemed the horses were well aware of the
respect their size and power heralded.

“
What’s this?” a voice
demanded in a tone so haughty and angry my hackles rose.

I turned to see the same man who had
demanded my removal from the castle.

Instead of backing down in the face of his
anger, the girl held up a hand. “Joven, hear me out.”

Joven stopped a few feet away; his blue
eyes, a shade paler than the girl’s, burned into my own. “When
Stable Master Tragen told me you had the wolf out of his cage, I
thought he was mad.” He swung an arm in a grand gesture to indicate
my presence. “Yet here I am, made to look a fool by my own
sister.”

The stable master hung near the corner of
the stables, his eyes apologetic and studiously glued to the ground
at his feet.

“
You don’t need me to make
you look like a fool,” the girl replied. Her brother gave her a
wide-eyed look of surprise and she ducked her head. “Sorry. That
was uncalled for.”

He nodded, but his tone gentled a notch.
“You can’t trust that animal, Koya. He’s dangerous.” He kept his
eyes on me as he spoke as if he expected me to turn and attack her
at any moment. “Step away and let Master Tragen take him back to
the cage before anyone gets hurt.”

Koya kept her hand on my back. “He’s not
just an animal. He has feelings and-”

He cut her off with a frustrated sweep of
his hand. “You’re being ridiculous. Do you know what would happen
if the Heirs knew you were walking around alone with a beast that
turns into a man and talks to wolves? You would never find a
suitor.”

I glanced up to see Koya’s cheeks touch with
red before defiance flashed in her eyes. “Maybe it’s for the best.
I don’t want any of them anyway.”

Joven stepped forward and took his sister’s
upper arms in a tight grip. He seemed to have forgotten my presence
entirely. “We need them, Koya. We can’t lose Vielkeep.”

She winced and a snarl rose in my throat.
Joven’s eyes widened and he looked from me to his hands on Koya’s
arms. He dropped them as though shocked by his own actions. “I’m
sorry, Koya. I didn’t mean-”

“
I know,” she cut him off
and said to me, “It’s alright.” The snarl died in my throat but I
kept my teeth bared. No one would hurt her while I was
near.

He shook his head and rubbed his eyes with
one hand. “It’s not,” he said. “You don’t deserve that.” He glanced
at me. “But he’s not safe to have around. You know better. It’s not
. . . .”

My attention was caught by a thunder of
hooves and the shouting of men from the stables. A scent of fear
and rage reached me a second before a great black stallion with
hooves the size of tree trunks charged around the corner. His eyes
rolled wildly and he snorted, tossing his mane and stomping a hoof
before he charged at Joven and Koya; stable hands ran frantically
after him.

There wasn’t time to think. I leaped at the
animal just before he reached the siblings and grabbed his nose the
way I had many times before to bring down an elk or a moose for the
pack. My sudden weight jerked the horse’s head down and he flipped
both of us over.

I was thrown against the wall of the stable
by the force of his momentum. I got up the instant I hit the ground
and limped back over to the stallion. By that time the stable hands
had reached him and threaded ropes through his halter. His nose was
bleeding and he snorted, but when he got back up it was obvious the
fight had left him. The servants led him away at the stable
master’s command.

“
I sincerely apologize, your
Highnesses,” Master Tragen said. His cheeks were flushed with the
exertion of helping with the horse; anger burned in his eyes. “I
will get to the bottom of what is going on around here.”

“
Have that animal put down,”
Joven barked in a voice of command.

My heart skipped a beat for an instant at
the thought that he was referring to me, but his eyes were on the
retreating stallion as he held Koya protectively to his side. She
looked little worse for the danger, but her face was pale and she
held her brother’s arm tight enough to turn his skin white. Despite
her fear, she shook her head. “No, Joven. Don’t kill it,
please.”

He opened his mouth to argue, but when he
glanced down at his sister’s face, he sighed and looked at the
stable master. “What’s wrong with the beast?”

Master Tragen kept his eyes glued to the
ground as he stuttered, “H-he was your father’s breeding stallion,
my Lord. The animal is always unruly, but his paddock is gated and
locked to avoid just such an incident.” His eyes narrowed though he
kept his gaze at their feet. “I will find out who is responsible
for his escape, my Lord.”

Joven nodded and brushed his hand in a
gesture of dismissal. “See that you do, Master Tragen.”

“
T-thank you, my Lord.” The
man bowed so low the hem of his black jerkin brushed the ground.
“My Lord, my Lady.” He spun and disappeared into the stables so
fast dust rose at his departure.

Koya dropped to her knees heedless of the
dirt. “Are you alright?” she asked. She put her arms around my neck
and I felt her shaking. She hid her fear well, but now that the
danger was gone, it seemed she couldn’t hold it back. Her scent of
meadow gold and vanilla filled my nose. “He could have killed
us.”

I glanced up to see Joven watching me. I
held his eyes until he shifted his gaze to his sister. “Yes, he
could have.”

Koya looked up at his strange tone, but he
continued as if he didn’t notice. “A wolf big enough to bring down
a charging stallion might turn a few heads.”

Her eyebrows creased. “What are you talking
about?”

A sudden light of excitement lit his gaze
and he crouched so we were eye level. “Koya, do you really think he
can be trusted?”

She watched him with a touch of caution in
her eyes. “He just threw himself in front of a horse for us without
regard for his own safety. I feel he’s proven himself.”

“
You don’t think the
occasional staff member will turn up missing if he’s around?” Joven
pressed.

Koya’s mouth fell open. I snorted in
disbelief at what her brother implied. Joven sat back so quickly he
almost tripped over his feet. He dusted the knees of his white
trousers even though no dirt had gotten on them. “You mean he
understands us?” The seriousness of his tone was confirmed by the
tightness of his mouth and the way his eyes took me in as though he
saw me for the first time.

She nodded. “I tried to tell you.”

Joven glanced around, then stood up quickly
and pulled Koya up with him. His fingers tightened around her arm
and I lifted my lips in the beginning of a snarl. Joven’s eyes
widened and he dropped his hand. “I don’t know why I do that,” he
said in an apologetic undertone.

“
I know why,” Koya replied
softly.

Joven looked as though her words struck him
to the core. He opened his mouth to say something, then shook his
head and grimaced. “We’ll talk about that later. Right now, this
takes precedence.” He looked at me directly as though he addressed
a comrade instead of an animal. His forwardness took me by
surprise. “Are you trustworthy?”

Koya put a hand on his arm. “What are you
talking about?”

He shook his head. “Koya, this is
important.” He met my gaze again. “Can we trust you?”

I let my head dip briefly as I had seen his
stable master do when answering a question with agreement.

Joven’s eyes lit up and he looked back at
his sister. “Who else knows about this?” He indicated me by opening
his hand as though setting a firefly free.

She thought quickly. “Only Rasmus, his two
captains, and the squires who carried the cage here.”

“
They must be sworn to
secrecy,” Joven said quickly, thinking aloud. “Rasmus can be
trusted, and anyone else can be bought.”

“
I don’t know what
you’re-”

Joven cut his sister off mid-sentence.
“Hush, Koya. There are eyes and ears everywhere. The less spoken
aloud, the better. Let’s return to the garden.”

I limped beside them through the rear
courtyard and felt eyes watching our every step. Joven was
right.

“
Was he limping this bad
earlier?” Joven asked.

Koya shook her head, her voice filled with
concern. “I think he had a fever before we left the garden. I’m
worried he has an infection from the whip wounds, and who knows
what damage Father’s stallion caused. We should get the healers to
look at him.”

I gritted my teeth and tried not to show
such a pronounced limp, but my paw hurt and my left shoulder had
been the first thing to hit the stable wall, adding to the pain.
The heaviness of sickness was settling over my body, making my
muscles ache. The sunlight hurt my eyes but I tried not to let it
show.

Joven looked down at me and appraisal of my
efforts crossed his face. I couldn’t decide how I felt about that.
Wolves didn’t show pain when it could be helped, especially around
strangers. Weakness was something the wild did away with quickly. I
wondered if the same applied to living in a castle.