Ravenwild: Book 01 - Ravenwild (87 page)

“Hold there!”
screamed Brutus in his mind. “
Hold, I say!”

He walked stiffly towards the huge pack of Wolves that now completely encircled their little band.

The air was bristling with tension as they inched closer and closer. There was an occasional growl, but it was mostly silent as the Wolves studied the odd group. Jacqueline sat with her back up against a large log holding Cinnamon on her lap, stroking her nervously. Orie, unseen, stood slightly in front of them, off to the right, sword drawn and at the ready. Forrester also stood in front of them, off to the left. He too had his blade bared. His face was grim as he scanned the pack in front of them, trying to discern which one was their leader. Finally, the newly arrived Wolves parted, allowing one to advance who came to stand directly in front of Brutus. His fur was gray-white and his posture slightly stooped, yet he carried himself proudly. He stopped and glanced all around him, taking in the entirety of the scene, first at Forrester, then over at Jacqueline and Cinnamon, letting his gaze settle on Brutus. He raised his snout in the air for a sniff. A brief look of confusion flashed over his face, after which he put his head beside that of Brutus and nuzzled him slightly. Jacqueline took this all in with her mouth slightly open, inattentively rubbing Cinnamon, who thought, “That will do, dear. You will wear a hole in my coat.”

“Brutus.”

“Patriachus.”

“Well?”

“Well.”

They stood facing each other in silence for perhaps half a minute. To the cat, the two Humans, and the renegade Troll, it seemed like an eternity.

Brutus spoke slowly and loudly so that all present could hear him clearly. “These two,” he said, nodding in the direction of Cinnamon and Jacqueline, “we have adopted, according to the old ways. We believe the girl is part of Prophecy, the prophecy we have all grown up with. She wears the stone.”

“Jacqueline,” Brutus thought forcefully, “please show the stone to everyone here. That’s right. Don’t be afraid.”

Rather than show fear, Jacqueline stood and walked boldly out away from the log, against which she had been sitting, to stand beside Brutus. She withdrew the fiery red, heart-shaped gemstone from under her jerkin and held it up so that all might see it clearly. As she did this, she said, “My name is Jacqueline Elizabeth Strong.” She pointed to where her brother was standing. “This is my brother. I can’t see him, but I can smell him. I’m sure you can too. I don’t know this … this … ”

“Troll,” Orie finished for her. “He is a Troll, and he is my friend.” Jacqueline hurriedly translated for him. “He has already saved my life more than once and … ”

“That will do,” said Patriachus

Behind him the pack was growing restless. “She can’t be the one,” said one. “She’s way too young,” called another. “We need to eat the Troll,” cried yet another. “We need to eat them all,” came from the back.

Patriachus turned and barked, “
Silence!”
Then he turned back to Brutus and said, “We have some sorting out to do. The council of elders will hear all sides. Then we will decide.”

“Decide what?” asked Jacqueline.

“Why, what to do of course.”

“Jacqueline,” said Orie, while the council of elders moved away from the

rest of the pack, “what are these Wolves about? Can they understand us?”

“They’re all about honor,” she said. “And yes, they can. Well, they can understand us,” she nodded at Cinnamon, “and we can understand them too, and each other. And not just by speaking, but by thinking, too. Ever since I got here. Well, not the thinking part. But Cinnamon and I have been talking from the first moment I, we, got here.

“In order to be a part of the Agden Wolf family, you have to honor the code they have. Everything is for the well being of the pack. Everybody makes sure that everybody else is taken care of. It’s a Wolf thing.”

Patriachus and Brutus met with the council of elders. Brutus told them of how they had come upon Jacqueline and her cat, how Roly had noticed that she was wearing the blood-red stone on her neck on the finest of golden chain, and how they had all wondered about whether or not she might be the one named in Prophecy. He went on to explain that she and her cat had bargained in good faith with their only food for nothing more than the right to be heard, and how they had all questioned them to decide if they were worthy of adoption into the Agden Wolf family, saying that all had voted yes with the exception of Stefen, who had died attacking the Troll. He then went on to explain that the only food they had been able to catch in the last several days was another bird brought down by the cat, who, according to the Wolf way, had turned it over without so much as taking a bite, so all might share in the nourishment. These were honorable souls, argued Brutus, and the decision to admit them to the Agden Wolf family was the right one.

Those in the council of elders knew that there was nothing private about their conversations, and that many of the Wolves in the pack were following every word with a hungry belly, as well as the fact that most had a mate in need of food in the faraway Southland.

In the end, it was decided that the two Humans and the cat would be spared.

“But what of the Troll?” asked Brutus.

Now it really heated up. He had, after all, killed one of them, and despite Brutus’s arguing that it had been in self-defense, the council voted that he would die and his body dedicated to first feeding Stefen’s mate, and therefore his pups yet unborn, and thereafter as many of the females in the south as possible.

“No
!” screamed Jacqueline. “This Troll did not kill anybody. Stefen killed himself. He called to me from between life and death and said that I was right and he was wrong. He said he was sorry.”

“Is this true?” Patriachus asked Brutus.

“I cannot say,” he answered honestly. “But I know the girl would not lie.”

“Well, what says the council?” asked Patriachus. “The daylight is wasting.”

The council argued the matter for several minutes. The votes were four for Forrester to live and five for him to die.

Now in a panic, Jacqueline screamed to Orie. “The vote was five to four. They’re going to kill him, Orie! They’re going to kill him!”

“Wait a minute
!” shouted Orie, all eyes turning to the point from which his voice sounded. Jacqueline translated. “There was a vote. I challenge any one of you who voted to kill him to a fight to the death. If I win, the vote is tied, and Forrester lives. Yeah, that’s his name: Forrester Wiley Ragamund. I thought you should know that he has a name. You know. Before you kill him and eat him and all. Anyway, if I lose, do what you will.”

“Orie, I cannot let you do that,” said Forrester.

“I don’t see that either of us has much of a choice here, Forrester. These are not exactly charted waters we’re in, are they.”

Patriachus interrupted them, saying, “That would be a fight that would be completely unfair. We cannot see you. How could we possible defeat you in a fight?”

Orie looked at Jacqueline, who translated.

He walked fearlessly towards the Agden Wolf leader, his footsteps kicking up leaves and small sticks on the forest floor as he walked. “Unfair?” he asked as Jacqueline continued to translate. “Unfair? I’ll tell you what’s unfair. Unfair is hundreds of you against one of us. That’s unfair. Unfair is us being on your world in the first place and having to play by your rules. That’s unfair. I’ll tell you what. You don’t want to fight me, fight him alone, one on one. No weapons. Oh, wait. He would win, wouldn’t he? Too big. Too strong.

“My sister tells me that what you are all about is honor, that each and every one of you would sacrifice himself rather than bring harm upon the pack. We,” he drew arrows in the dirt to Jacqueline, Forrester, and a little one for Cinnamon, “are no different. We, too, hold honor supreme among all principles. Respect for all life forms.” Jacqueline had to tell her brother to slow down so she could continue to translate everything he was saying. “A sense of doing what is right. These are the things that matter most where I come from. Now where do you get off thinking that murdering my friend is doing what is right? He has done
nothing
except defend himself against attack.

“Because he is something to eat? Because he is food? Maybe he could
help
you with your food problem, and provide you with a hundred times the food that is contained in his body. What good are you doing the pack then? Huh?

“Any way you slice it, it’s murder, and murder is always wrong.”

“Trolls have been murdering Agden Wolves since before we were born!” came an angry shout from the pack. Several voices joined in. Orie, of course, heard only growls so Jacqueline translated.

“And you would hold
him
responsible for the actions of others? That is nonsense, and you know it. There is not a shred of sense to the notion of holding him responsible for the past actions of others. But this Troll,” he said, retracing the arrow in the dirt that pointed to Forrester, “has done not a thing against you. I say again, he
defended
himself against
attack
.”

“He killed Stefen,” one of the Wolves barked loudly from the back of the pack. “Stefen was my friend. I will fight him.”

The pack parted once again as one more Wolf made his way to the center of the rough circle. “I will fight him, no weapons, to the death. We will end this. He dies, we eat him. I die. Same. Enough talk.”

He started circling Forrester with a vicious growl. The pack closest to them all moved back, forming two rows for the fight that was about to happen directly in front of them. Jacqueline and Cinnamon heard several hushed whispers and muted conversations among the Wolves around them as the Wolf, whose name they hadn’t yet learned, walked slowly back and forth in front of him, edging closer and closer to where he could lunge at him. Wolves were known to be able to take down and kill an adult Troll. Foam began to appear on the muzzle of the huge Wolf as he crouched low and snarled.

He sprang.

He went straight for Forrester’s slightly outstretched arm. Too fast for the Human eye to follow, it was merely a blur, and Forrester barely had time to lift it out of the way. Even so, the Wolf seized a good-sized bite of skin, muscle, and sinew with his teeth, causing a large show of blood. Forrester gasped and managed to deliver a weak, ineffectual blow to the back of the animal as it lurched away uninjured. Turning back towards his now wounded enemy, the Wolf took his time swallowing the piece of Forrester’s arm. He almost seemed to be wearing a wicked smile as he chewed on it.

Forrester never reached for his blade, which he calmly removed, slipping the baldric over his shoulders and hanging it on a nearby thorny shrub. The fact that he chose to honor the terms by surrendering his weapon was not lost on the rest of the Wolves, as evidenced by the murmuring going on in the heads of Jacqueline and Cinnamon.

After hanging it up, he faced the Wolf. “Is this the only way?”

In answer the Wolf started circling again. He wore the same snarl, but this time there was not a sound except that of his feet scuffing the forest floor as he began the dance with death.

Orie hollered, “This is
not
how it has to be. Jacqueline! Get them to stop. Come on. You said you are
one of them. Make them stop!”

Jacqueline screamed her thoughts out, furiously probing to get into the mind of the Wolf who had bitten Forrester. When she couldn’t, she ran forward and put herself between the Wolf and the Troll, holding up her hand.
“Stop this foolishness right now!”
she screamed.

“Get out of the way or die, little girl,” snarled the Wolf as he bared his fangs at her, saliva dripping off them like water from a leaky spigot. Forrester took a step forward and swatted her out of the way, knocking her roughly to the ground where she rolled to a stop.

“Now,” he said, “I am, regrettably, going to have to kill you.”

He crouched low. It’s almost impossible to think of how low he managed to crouch his large frame. Bending forward at the knees and hips, he assumed an almost sprinter’s stance. This time when the Wolf sprang at him, Forrester sprang too, not forward, but up, so that for an instant he hovered in space over the animal, whereupon he delivered a crushing blow with the side of his huge hand to the base of the Wolf’s neck.