Spirit of the Wolves (24 page)

I settled into a slower, steady lope, still basking in the sensation of running with Ázzuen through the night.

I took him to the Barrens first, explaining what they were and how they had come to be. He was silent as he took in the desolate lands. The night was nearly half over when we reached the slope downwind of the streckwolves' gathering place. I slowed to a walk, and Ázzuen followed my example. Together, we crept as silently as we could to the crest of the hill.

The moon was bright enough to allow us to see clearly.
Many of the streckwolves were asleep, but several prowled around the edge of the gathering place. Ázzuen watched in fascination while I shared with him what Neesa had told me about the odd little wolves.

The wind shifted and several of the streckwolves lifted their snouts as they caught our scents.

“Let's go, Kaala,” Ázzuen whispered.

Instead, I crawled forward on my belly. “I want to talk to them,” I told Ázzuen. “Will you wait here? I don't want to challenge them by bringing a second wolf.”

I stood, showing myself, and gave a short, welcoming bark. I didn't want them to think I was sneaking up on them. My heart beat faster. Meeting unknown wolves always made me nervous. Even strange little wolves like these.

A lithe, confident-looking streckwolf ran forward to greet me. I had kept my ears politely lowered and tried not to stare at his oddly shaped head and muzzle. It was only slightly different from an ordinary wolf's but enough so to make me uneasy.

“You're Kaala,” he said before I could speak. He looked at me with such intensity that I stepped back. “I'm glad you've come. I'm Gaanin.”

He knew who I was. And he spoke with confidence. He had the assurance of a leaderwolf, and he looked at me as if I were a long-lost pup. He leaned forward as if to take my muzzle in his jaws. I pulled away. He had no right to assume dominance over me.

He looked startled, then abashed.

“Of course,” he said. “They wouldn't have told you about me.”

“Neesa told me,” I said, trying to figure out why my stomach roiled. “You're the ones the Sentinels say are dangerous.” There was something in his scent that was familiar, but I couldn't figure out what. “Your pack's been spying on me.”

He didn't deny it. “You're important, Kaala, as are the choices you make. I need to know what you're doing with the humans. I'm sorry that I didn't approach you directly about it, but I have good reason not to do so.”

Neesa had told me that the streckwolves were submissive. Gaanin was as assertive as any leaderwolf. His ears, I noticed, looked like those of a normal wolf.

“The Sentinel wolves say that you want to take the humans from us and that the humans will choose you and kill us,” I challenged.

Gaanin looked sharply over my head and growled softly to himself just as Ázzuen woofed a warning. I looked over my shoulder to see a wolf pelting across the plain. I swayed, trying to decide whether or not to bolt. When I saw that it was only Neesa running toward us, I relaxed, but Gaanin huffed in impatience.

“Your mother keeps watch over us,” he growled. “Probably to make sure I don't talk to you. She still thinks she can keep you safe.” He began speaking, much more quickly than before. “They're wrong, Kaala. The Sentinel wolves are wrong about the humans and how we must be with them. They want you to make the humans behave more like wolves, and it won't work. It can't work. The humans fear the wild of the wolf too much, and you can't change that just by hunting with them or playing games with their young.”

He narrowed his eyes at me. “I'll bet that since you and
your packmates have been with them, they've been frightened by you at least once.” I thought of the humans' reaction to Marra and MikLan playing together and their fear of Lallna standing in the moonlight. I said nothing, but something in my face must have given it away.

“I don't need to spy on you to know that, Kaala, because it always happens. There is a way to lessen their fear, but you have to let us help you.”

He looked over my shoulder again.

“There's more.” He spoke more softly, but his expression was urgent. “You must come back again, Daughter of the Moon. Will you do that?”

“How do you know that name?” I demanded. Only my mother had called me that. It was the meaning of “Kaala.”

“Your mother told me,” he answered, but his body had tensed and he didn't quite meet my gaze. He was keeping something from me.

“What is it that the Sentinels don't want me to know about you and your pack?” I asked. My mother was almost upon us. Tlitoo winged above her, easily keeping pace.

Gaanin looked down at his paws for just an instant before returning his gaze to mine. That's when I knew he was going to lie to me. My muzzle tightened with the effort not to snarl.

“What I've just told you about the humans. That's why I need you to come back when Neesa isn't here.”

I couldn't hold back a quiet growl. Gaanin was no better than the Greatwolves, telling me I had to help him and then trying to manipulate me. He probably was trying to steal the humans from me, and if he did, the Greatwolves would kill
me. That was the “help” he offered. I thought of the lush territory Neesa had shown me. Gaanin would steal that from me if I let him. He would steal my chance to have a pack of my own.

My mother skidded to a halt next to me, Ázzuen at her side. Tlitoo landed neatly in front of her.

“What did he tell you, Kaala?” my mother demanded. Her face was pinched with anxiety, as much as it had been when Navdru had threatened us.

“That he thinks the Sentinels are wrong about the humans,” I said. Ázzuen sidled past Neesa to stand next to me.

“That's all?”

“That's all,” Gaanin answered, “but you should tell her more.”

“That's not for you to decide!” my mother snapped. She gave Gaanin a long, measuring look, then closed her lips over her teeth.

“You know I wouldn't do anything to hurt you, Neesa,” Gaanin said softly. “Or your pup.”

“Then let her be, Gaanin,” she said, but her voice had softened, too.

He stared at her so long that she turned away from him. He whuffed in frustration and started to speak to her, then scowled at me.

“I will leave you to your mother, Kaala,” he said. He licked my shoulder as if I were a packmate, dipped his head to Ázzuen, and bounded away.

Neesa put her muzzle under my chin and lifted my head so that my eyes met hers. “You want to know everything,
Kaala,” she said, “but there really are things you need to leave alone.” I pulled away from her.

“You've been watching me,” I accused.

My mother's voice grew sharp. “Not as much as I should have been! The Greatwolves won't let me interfere with you and the humans, so I've watched this place because I knew you'd try to come here. I am doing the best I can to keep Navdru and Yildra from killing you. If they find out you've spoken to Gaanin, I won't be able to stop them. They'll decide you aren't worth the risk and will abandon the humans and the Promise. I stayed with the Sentinel pack after they killed Hiiln because I swore to him I'd do my best to fulfill the Promise. You have to stop being so reckless.”

I could hardly contain a growl.

“Leave it, Kaala,” Ázzuen whispered. Neesa must have heard him, but she kept her gaze on me.

I knew I didn't make good decisions when I was upset. And Ázzuen was usually right.

“All right,” I said. “We won't come back here.”

Neesa sighed. “I wish I believed you. But please, Kaala, stay away from Gaanin and his wolves. Be careful. I will do what I can for you. And get out of here now. Navdru and Yildra are watching both of us.” She took my muzzle in her mouth and warmth suffused me. I couldn't help it. I'd dreamed of having my mother beside me for so long. She pulled away from me and loped back toward the woods.

Tlitoo quorked softly. “I do not think she keeps secrets to hurt you, wolf. I think the streckwolf wishes you no harm as well”—he raised his wings halfway and shook them out—“but I do not know for sure. I will ask Jlela to watch them for us.”

“Thank you,” I said, watching the woods my mother had disappeared into. “What are you doing here in the middle of the night?”

Tlitoo folded his wings against his back. “I would rather be sleeping. But there is something you must see. Come by way of the dead lands, wolves,” he ordered, his uncertainty gone as quickly as it had come. I always envied ravens their ability to shake off trouble.

I still looked after Neesa. Tlitoo tweaked my ear. “If you sulk all night, I am going back to roost.”

I was tired of being serious. I leapt for him. Ázzuen yipped. Tlitoo gave a great caw and took flight, winging back toward the Barrens. He soared and arced above us, challenging us to keep up with him. Ázzuen and I gave chase. I jumped up, almost snatching Tlitoo out of the air, and he screeched happily and dove for my nose and then my ears. Ázzuen stood on his hind legs and batted at the raven. Tlitoo grabbed his tail and pulled, sending Ázzuen paws over ears. By the time we reached the Barrens, I felt lighter than I had since we'd left the valley.

Tlitoo flew out to where the broken landscape began, and I followed him.

“This is a place of death, wolf,” he said to me. “I can easily get to the Inejalun from here.”

I glared at Tlitoo and looked uneasily at Ázzuen. I didn't want him to know what I did with Tlitoo.

“He knows, densewolf,” Tlitoo quorked.

“I've known for moons, Kaala,” Ázzuen said, tilting his head to look sideways at me, watching to see if I was angry. “I figured you'd tell me when you wanted to.”

My voice caught. “You don't think I'm aberrant?” I asked. I'd wanted to tell him, but couldn't bear the thought of him hating me for it.

“I think you're Kaala,” he said, his face suddenly next to mine and his breath hot on my face. “That's all you need to be.”

My heart raced. I could see it. I could see it as easily as if Tlitoo had taken me into the Inejalun. We could have pups together when this was all over. The Stream Lands pack. That could be our name. Ázzuen was my best friend, and if I wanted to I could keep him with me forever. His silvery eyes met mine, and I remembered the first time I noticed their lively glow, when he was no more than a babywolf near death.

“Not
now
, wolflets!” Tlitoo pushed between us. “Why can't wolves find the
right
time to mate?” he grumbled.

Ázzuen turned away, embarrassment flattening his ears.

Before I could snarl at Tlitoo, he plopped onto my back. All scent and sound disappeared, and I had to swallow against nausea as the falling sensation took me too suddenly. Reflexively, I closed my eyes.

When I opened them, I was standing with Tlitoo at the Stone Circle of the Inejalun. Immediately I began to shiver as the Inejalun stole the warmth from my blood.

“We must be quick, wolf,” Tlitoo said. “The more you come here, the more dangerous it is for you. But you must see this. I found it when you were eating the rhino. Then when I was trying to sleep, my dreams of this place would not let me be. It was not hard to find you.”

He flew out of the clearing and I followed, the pads of my feet tender with cold. Already, I couldn't feel my tail, and my
nose was so cold that I couldn't even twitch it. Tlitoo took me to a familiar low hill overlooking the Barrens.

It was not barren now. It was a huge, thriving village, larger and busier even than Kaar. I found myself fascinated by the number of humans striding around it. They were of all sizes and all in excellent health, even though I could tell from the snow on the ground that it was the hungry time of winter.

Tlitoo poked me on the rump. I could barely feel it through the cold.

“There is not time to gawk at humans, wolf. Look at the streckwolves.”

I had seen that there were wolves everywhere in the village. Now I looked more carefully. If the streckwolves of Gaanin's pack were strange, these wolves were so odd they could barely be called wolf. Their heads were even more rounded, and many of them had ears that folded all the way down. Their muzzles were too short to hold the proper number of teeth, and they moved with the eagerness to please that one saw in pups and curl-tails. Neesa had said that over time the streckwolves changed even more. This must have been what she meant.

“Look, wolf. See how they are with the humans.”

I looked. The humans were as relaxed as I'd ever seen them. They sat side by side with the streckwolves as if they were truly of the same pack. Except for our own humans and the village young, the people of Kaar were never so at ease with us. This village also seemed to be even richer than Kaar. There were stacks of preyskin so tall I would have broken a leg falling off them, and piles and piles of meat drying on fires.

“I saw this and wanted to show you, wolf. The humans do
not have any fear of the streckwolves. They treat them as their own young. Almost all of the humans want to be with wolves, not just a few. It is what is different.”

That wasn't the only thing that was different. The streckwolves were behaving like curl-tails, just like Neesa said they would. And suddenly I was overwhelmed with fury. If we let them, streckwolves would slither on their bellies into the village and steal away the humans, as well as our chance to be with them. The humans would choose them over us.

“A lonely creature is a dangerous creature, wolflet,” Tlitoo said, echoing the Shadow Wolf's words to Neesa and Hiiln. “These humans are not lonely.”

I tried to speak so I could tell Tlitoo that such obsequiousness was the very thing the Sentinels would kill us for, but my muzzle had frozen shut and my chest felt full of ice. All I could do was stare at him and shiver.

“Time to go, wolf,” he said, looking at me sharply. He landed on my back and I felt like he lifted me off the ground. It seemed that I fell forever before I landed, and I was so weary I couldn't lift my head to meet Ázzuen's concerned gaze.