Spice & Wolf II (34 page)

She was taking advantage of human nature. People wouldn’t waste the sacrifice of someone facing near-certain death with a smile and a faint hope. A clever wolf knew how to use that fact.

Liebert was the first to nod his agreement, followed by Norah.

Norah waved her staff, and time seemed to start moving again.

“The fortunes of war be with you,” said Liebert. Norah gave Holo a look more eloquent than words and then soon turned away. As he heard the sound of the sheep starting to run, Liebert followed after them.

Holo watched all this, then turned to Lawrence.

“You’ll need to stay away. If you get close, it could go badly. You understand, I know.”

Instead of answering, Lawrence took Holo’s hand before she dismounted from the horse.

“I won’t let you lose,” he said.

Her hand was surprisingly hot, and she returned his squeeze.

“Were you a proper male, I’d at least get a kiss for my trouble here.” Holo grinned for a moment before her expression tightened, and she hopped off the horse.

“Oh, that’s right. Here, take this for me,” she said, undoing the sash at her waist and taking her robe off quickly.

Her flowing chestnut hair, pointed wolf ears, and fluffy wolf tail were all exposed.

As was the slightly swaying wheat-filled leather pouch around her neck.

“It is my hope that this will all conclude peacefully, but I don’t know how it will go. When we meet up again, it will be cold if I’m naked, and a bit of a problem for you, too, I should think,” she said with a smile and then looked to the forest, unmoving.

Her tail bristled as though struck by lightning.

Lawrence hesitated over what to say.

What finally came out was short: “Let’s meet again.”

He didn’t wait for a reply before spurring the horse on.

Saying he didn’t want to remain there would have been a lie.

But what could he accomplish if he did? Lawrence knew Holo’s true form. Even if she were cornered by mercenaries or bandits, she could get away.

Lawrence drove the horse on. The sleet got heavier.

His face was strained and not just because of the cold.

For the first time in his life, he cursed himself for not being born a knight.

It appeared that Norah and Liebert had traveled some distance ahead in a short time. Lawrence did as he was told and had the horse at a gallop in order to put distance between himself and Holo, but even running at a fair pace, he had yet to catch sight of Norah or Liebert.

He no longer felt those unpleasant gazes, so this was probably a good opportunity to make progress. That was certainly true from Norah and Liebert’s perspective—they would not want to waste Lawrence and Holo’s deaths.

Lawrence smiled grimly to himself at the thought, and the concern about losing his way flitted in and out of his mind.

However, it soon dispersed. He was not especially familiar with the territory, but once the sun went down, he would have to stop, and he couldn’t lose his way while at a standstill.

As long as he kept the hills to his right and the forest to his left, he would not stray too far off course.

Additionally, farther down the way the grass was clipped short and called a road, and if he followed that, it would take him straight to Ruvinheigen.

Even if he never caught up with Norah and Liebert, there was little to be worried about.

Lawrence was more worried that his horse would stumble over a stone and fall, so he pulled back on the reins to slow the animal and then looked back over his shoulder.

Holo had long since disappeared behind him, but if the wolves changed their minds and came after him, they would cover the distance quickly.

He fought back the temptation to stay there and turned forward again, spurring the horse on to a walk.

He had Holo’s robe; it was still warm. It seemed like a bad omen to leave clothing behind as a token. Lawrence felt himself grip the robe tightly.

But if Holo found it necessary to take wolf form, she would be in trouble if she had no clothes to change into.

She was even more rational than Lawrence the merchant.

Lawrence sighed deeply, shaking out the robe, which had a good deal of shed fur on it, probably from Holo’s tail. He folded the garment up and stuffed it inside his own coat, which was already fairly wet, but that was better than holding it under his arm. Holo had taken the most dangerous role of all, so the least he could do was make sure her clothes weren’t soaking wet when she returned.

The drizzle was getting heavier; it would be real rain by nightfall.

Lawrence continued on horseback for a bit, then stopped in the middle of the path, deciding that he had come far enough. Even if he had not put a lot of distance between them, it would require some effort for Holo to catch up with him—assuming she was in human form.

However, standing there in the middle of the road was tantamount to suicide. The cold had already numbed Lawrence’s hands as they gripped the reins. It would be better to take shelter in the forest and keep an eye out for Holo coming down the road. He was worried about freezing to death before she ever found him.

Lawrence dismounted under the trees at the edge of the forest, looking back up the road. The space between the forest and the hills was mostly open. Norah and Liebert had probably already cleared the edge of the forest and were making their way straight to Ruvinheigen.

They were moving faster than normal, so it was entirely possible.

If so, then truly the only thing that remained to be done was feeding the gold to the sheep and entering the city.

As long as that went well, the gold smuggling would have wiped out his debt and turned a large profit for him to boot.

Lawrence’s promised share would clear his debt and leave him with 150
lumione
. That was a staggering amount of money, but still small in comparison to the total profit the smuggling would yield. They had bought up roughly six hundred
lumione
worth of gold, and avoiding the taxes on it meant that it would be multiplied tenfold. If he had been greedier, he probably could have gotten a larger share. After all, he was an accomplice to smuggling, a fact the rest could hardly ignore.

He stopped himself. Being greedy invited misfortune. It was the way of the world.

Lawrence tried to keep his mind off the cold as he gathered up what dry wood he could find, taking some tinder from a carefully waterproofed bag on the horse and starting a fire.

There was nothing around him. It was quiet without so much as a hint of an animal in the area.

As he dried his clothes, Lawrence wondered if Holo was all right, thinking of the robe she had taken off.

Such thoughts did him no good, he realized, but he couldn’t help himself. His was the sin of helplessness, he felt.

He kept watch over the plains as the drizzle continued to fall.

How long had he stared at the unmoving scenery? His clothes were mostly dry. The first log he had set fire to was now ash.

Perhaps he would go check on her.

The seductive thought began to fill his mind.

There was a change in his field of vision. He rubbed his eyes. There was no mistaking it. It was a person.

“Holo!” he shouted, standing in spite of himself and grabbing Holo’s now-dry clothes as he began to run. He would not possibly encounter anybody else in a place like this.

But as he ran out in the rain, he soon realized that it was not Holo.

There were three human forms, and they were on horseback.

“Mr. Lawrence, is that you?”

Apparently they had heard Lawrence’s voice as he called out.

And, when they called his name, Lawrence realized they were from the Remelio Company.

But what where they doing here?

“Mr. Lawrence, are you all right?”

He had no recollection of any of their faces. One had a bow at his back, a sword hung from the belt of another, and the third carried a long spear.

Their faces and postures showed that they were more used to travel than a town merchant like Liebert, and they wore rain gear as though they were used to it and were ready to fight at a moment’s notice.

“We heard from Mr. Liebert—we couldn’t just stay at the company—so we came out and waited at the edge of the forest. Thank goodness you’re—”

The words cut off there.

The men, perhaps slightly older than Lawrence, had caught sight of the robe that he held.

It was Holo’s and thus on the smallish side and obviously for a woman.

The obvious conclusion was not a good one.

They must be thinking he held on to the robe as a last memento, that she had met with tragedy. They had surely heard him call out Holo’s name before.

As Lawrence expected, they looked at him sympathetically.

He tried to think of how he might clear up the misunderstanding when he noticed something strange.

The three men had simultaneously taken a deep breath, and Lawrence caught a glimpse of something like relief on their faces.

No doubt not a one of them thought this showed, but his merchant’s eye caught it. They were probably glad that Lawrence had not succumbed to despair and become impossible to manage.

“And your things?”

If they felt pity for this poor man whose beloved companion had been killed by wolves, the point for broaching the subject had passed. If they dwelt on the topic too long, there was no telling when his emotions would explode. It was often the strangely composed ones who were dangerous.

Knowing it would be foolish to try and explain the misunderstanding, Lawrence merely gestured behind him.

“Over there. The horse, as well.”

“I see. Let’s take some shelter for a bit.”

The tone was casual, but the three men’s expressions were tight as they dismounted.

They were probably wondering if they were going to find the girl’s wolf-mauled body.

Lawrence turned on his heel to lead them to his horse.

Some moments later, his mind went blank from shock.

“I won’t ask you not to think badly of us,” came a calm voice.

Lawrence’s left arm was twisted from behind, and a spear pointed at his flank. There was a sword at his throat.

The droplets that ran down his face were not only rain.

“...So the Remelio Company is betraying me?” Lawrence somehow managed to ask, stifling the cry as he felt his shoulder twisted.

It was luck that kept him from dropping Holo’s clothes.

“It’s insurance.”

The sword at his throat was pulled away so that he could be tied up.

The men confiscated Holo’s robe and bound Lawrence up like a piece of luggage.

“It weighed heavy on us to hear there would be a girl with you, so that’s lucky, anyway.”