Spirit of the Wolves (29 page)

“We can tie a rope around someone and send them down,” IniMin said, eyeing TaLi.

“Or we could drop it to ToMin and LaraMi,” RalZun rasped, glaring at IniMin. The old man stood just behind me. “It's safer.”

I looked over the cliff to see that two humans had run down to stand at the edge of the lake.

“It'll get caught on the rocks,” BreLan said, frowning. He leaned over, bending at the waist to try to swing a looped rope around the sack. He slipped forward. Ázzuen yelped, and TaLi and another human grabbed BreLan by the arms, hauling him back.

“Don't do that again,” TaLi ordered.

Several human children had crept to the edge of the cliff. A small male looked at HesMi, whose back was turned. He was not quite old enough to be considered a hunter but old enough
to want to prove himself one. He flopped down onto his belly at the very edge of the cliff. Several humans shouted. The child scooted forward, reaching out for the unraveling rope.

RalZun prodded my rump with his foot.

“Why are you still standing here?” he rasped.

I darted forward and grabbed the boy's preyskin leg-covering in my teeth. He yipped and looked over his shoulder at me, his mouth open and eyes wide as I dragged him back from the edge.

The humans' shouts changed to laughter and I turned to see several of them looking at me, smiling. HesMi dipped her head in approval, as Rissa might have done when one of us acted quickly to stop trouble before it started. RalZun grinned smugly.

My tail wagged. More and more, the humans treated us as pack. I looked for TaLi to see if she had noticed and saw her watching BreLan worriedly. He was still grimacing down at the sack.

“I can get it,” he said softly.

“You already tried,” TaLi snapped. “You almost fell over.”

Ázzuen watched his human step purposefully toward the cliff. Then he moved so quickly, I couldn't have stopped him even if I'd figured out what he intended. He took a running leap off the cliff, landed with his forelegs on the sack, and took the rope in his teeth.

I yelped and BreLan shouted. My stomach twisted. Ázzuen swung back and forth, so that the rope arced over the lake. He kept his forelegs on top of the sack and scrabbled his back legs until he had chewed through the frayed part of the rope. I yelped again. The rope gave way and the sack, with Ázzuen still
on top of it, fell. I watched in terror, waiting for Ázzuen to crash against the protruding rocks, but he had timed his fall perfectly so that the rope broke just as the sack swung over the water.

Both wolf and sack sank into the lake. Ázzuen surfaced and began to swim to the rocks. The two humans jumped in the lake and hauled the sack ashore. Then, as Ázzuen tried to scramble up the rough rocks, the humans grabbed him by the scruff and pulled him to safety.

BreLan was already picking his way down the long, narrow path to the lake. I nearly tripped him as I sprinted between his legs. The two humans were pulling open the sack, checking its contents, while Ázzuen grinned at them.

“What did you think you were doing?” I demanded when I reached him. “You could have died!”

“I would have fallen into the lake with or without the sack,” Ázzuen said. “I could tell by the angle of the jump. I wouldn't have been hurt.”

Lallna reached him then and almost knocked him over with her enthusiastic leap.

“That was so smart!” Lallna said. “That was the best hunting trick I've ever seen!” She licked the top of his head.

“You can't have known that you'd fall in the lake!” I said. “You could've slipped, you could have lost your balance and hit the rocks.” My throat was so tight the words came out a rasp.

Lallna looked from me to Ázzuen. Her ears twitched. She backed away from us slowly, turning away too late to hide her grin. Tlitoo winged down from above, landing next to her.

“You take risks all the time, Kaala,” Ázzuen said. His intelligent eyes looked huge, staring out at me from wet fur.

It's different
, I wanted to say. I looked down at my paws. I
couldn't win the humans over without his clever ideas and quick mind. I looked up to meet his eyes to tell him so, and what I saw there took my breath away.

Ázzuen had not pursued me as Pell had. He hadn't spoken to me of pups or mating, but in his silvery eyes I saw such a warmth and tenderness that I forgot that I was surrounded by humans, forgot that Lallna was standing next to us smirking.

His voice, when he spoke, was gentle. “You have to know I've always wanted you as my mate. I didn't say anything because I knew you weren't ready, Kaala. I know you need to succeed here first. But I always wanted a pack with you, ever since the first day you helped me get milk in Rissa's den.” He lifted his chin. “I've waited for ten moons. I can wait longer. Next year, when we've won, and we're safe, we can have a pack at the Stream Lands Neesa showed us.”

I'd always wondered how one wolf knew that another was meant to be her mate. Whenever I saw Ruuqo and Rissa together, I couldn't understand how two such different wolves could build a pack together. I'd thought finding my mate would feel like the thrill of the hunt or the giddy, heart-pounding moments just before I brought down prey. But it wasn't. It was like drinking from a sweet, quick-running river when I was thirsty, or finally sinking down into sun-warmed earth after a long journey.

I placed my head over Ázzuen's neck and pulled him close to me.

Tlitoo burbled a soft warning as the bushes next to us rustled and Pell stepped out onto the path. His eyes narrowed and I could see the disappointment and pain in them. I took a step away from Ázzuen. I didn't want to hurt Pell any more than I had to.

“You've chosen him, haven't you?” Pell said.

Lallna surprised me by looking at the three of us, eyes wide, and then slipping discreetly away. Tlitoo stayed, quorking softly.

I met Pell's gaze. I wouldn't lie to him.

“Yes,” and as soon as I said it, I knew it to be so. Ázzuen whuffed in pleasure, but I kept my gaze on Pell. “Are you going to leave?” Pell was a strong wolf. I needed him.

“I stand by my word,” he said. “I'll help you like I said I would. But I'm going back to the Wide Valley for a little while. To check on Marra.” He scuffed his paw in the dirt. “You're doing fine without me, and I'll come back once I find out what's going on at home. And you can send one of the ravens for me if you need me.”

I opened my mouth to protest.

“Let him go, Kaala,” Ázzuen murmured. “I'd need to if I were him.” He briefly met Pell's gaze. “Tell Ruuqo and Rissa that there are strange little wolves trying to get to the humans. They need to watch for them.”

Pell glared at Ázzuen, but said nothing. Then he nipped me lightly on the nose and slipped back into the woods.

As I watched him go, doubt swelled in me. I'd come to depend on Pell's strength and knowledge. Now Ázzuen and I were on our own.

BreLan reached us then and clouted Ázzuen enthusiastically on the ribs. The other humans clustered around, thumping Ázzuen and running their hands through his wet fur. One picked him up and then set him down again. Tlitoo took flight with an annoyed shriek.

TaLi crouched down beside me.

“They're all saying how much they like you and Ázzuen.”

She hugged me close, and I licked her face. “And you still smell awful.” She pushed me away. Ázzuen, still surrounded by grateful humans, caught my eye and grinned.

The humans spread out along the shore of the lake, eating and resting in the warmth of the midday sun. Lallna slept half in, half out of the cool lake water. Ázzuen curled up next to BreLan and TaLi.

I lay down, Ázzuen on one side of me, TaLi on the other. Three other humans settled around us. My heartbeat quickened. We were so close to succeeding. In a quarter moon, the humans would have their festival, and it looked more and more like they would choose TaLi. There would still be work to do if we were to teach the humans they were part of the world around them, but the Sentinels would let us live to do so. And Ázzuen loved me and wanted a pack with me. He snored next to me, and I licked his soft fur.

DavRian's voice rose above the quiet conversations of relaxing humans. He crouched next to IniMin and lowered his voice to a whisper. IniMin frowned and looked at me. They would be even more determined to stop us now, and DavRian was ruthless. Milsindra, too, would do everything possible to make me fail. With Pell gone, I had lost a strong ally. So many things could still go wrong.

I stood and began to prowl along the rocky shore, trying to calm down enough to nap.

I caught a distant wolfscent. The aroma was subtly different from ours, more like pup than grown wolf. It was the scent I had come to associate with the streckwolves. That was another problem. Navdru had said I was just as likely to befriend
streckwolves as to fight against them, and Milsindra would be doing her best to convince the Sentinels I was more loyal to humans than to wolves. That alone could make them decide we were too much of a threat to wolfkind even if we succeeded with the humans.

I could still lose Ázzuen. I could still lose TaLi. I forced myself to stand still and think. If I told Navdru I'd found streckwolves far from their gathering place, it might help convince him I was loyal to wolfkind. It wouldn't solve the problem, but it might help. If he believed me. I needed someone else to confirm what I'd scented.

I looked back at Ázzuen. He was still sleeping next to the cluster of humans, and I couldn't wake him without disturbing them. RalZun was stretched out on his back on a flat rock, snoring in the sun, and his nose was no better than an ordinary human's.

Lallna still napped by the lake. Navdru trusted her, and in the last few days, she had been more an ally than a rival.

I walked as quietly as I could to her side, and nosed her awake.

“Streckwolves,” I said. “Can you smell them?”

She lifted her nose in the air and sniffed twice. Then she grinned at me, rolled to her paws, and took off in the direction of the scent.

I stared after her, too startled at first to move, then followed.

I'd planned to talk to Lallna about the streckwolves and, perhaps, to go with her when she told the Sentinels about them. I should have known better. Lallna was not a patient wolf. I loped after her, following the streckwolves' scent. I
grew uneasy as their aroma strengthened. There was something about it that worried me.

“Don't be a coward,” I told myself. “A leaderwolf shouldn't be afraid of things.”

“You are talking to yourself, wolflet.” Tlitoo had followed me from the lake.

I nipped at the air beneath him. That was when I heard Lallna give three quick, sharp barks. She paused, then barked three times again. I ran faster, then stopped short. The wolfscent was mingled with the aroma of unfamiliar humans. The scent of our own humans at the lake had hidden it from me.

I dropped into a stalk, moving slowly until I reached a wood of elm, birch, and sage. Much of the lands beyond the Wide Valley were made up of the trees that lost their leaves each winter. Now they were lush with the onset of spring, reminding me of how soon the humans would make their decision and the Sentinels theirs. When I reached a birch grove, I lowered myself all the way to my belly. Just beyond the grove stretched a grassless plain. The scent came from there.

I found Lallna crouched at the edge of the plain and lay down beside her. Tlitoo hunched down next to me. Lallna took a deep breath, ready to bark again.

“Wait!” I said.

“What for?” She looked down her muzzle at me. “The strecks won't notice a few barks. That's why Navdru told me to bark instead of howling if I found them with humans. It's our signal.”

Because the Sentinels will kill them if they find them,
I wanted to say. But she knew that. And if I told her I didn't want to see the little wolves die, she would tell Navdru and Yildra.

She barked three more times, then settled on her haunches. I lay next to her, desperately hoping the streckwolves would leave before the Sentinels came.

The streckwolves and humans relaxed together, just as they had in the thriving village Tlitoo had shown me in the Inejalun. There were human young playing like pups with some of the streckwolves, and grown humans stretched out on the warm ground with others. They showed none of the tension or suspicion I was used to seeing from all but the youngest humans in Kaar. Several of the streckwolves sprawled on their backs, their ears folded, allowing the humans to stroke their bellies.

I wanted to be there with the streckwolves, loved by the fearless humans. I couldn't bear the thought of the Sentinels killing them. I crept forward, away from Lallna. If I could catch a streckwolf's eye, I could find a way to make it understand that it had to get its packmates to leave.

Lallna placed her foreleg across my back.

“Where are you going?”

I stared at her stupidly. “To get a closer look,” I managed to say after much too long a pause.

Her eyes narrowed. “If they see you, they'll run away.” She pressed down on my back with her foreleg. “We have to stay until the others get here.”

I could have thrown her off me. I'd beaten her in a fight once before. But then she would know I cared about the streckwolves. She would tell Navdru and Yildra I had chosen them over real wolves.

“You have to stay here, wolf,” Tlitoo whispered. “You must.”

I didn't want the little wolves dead. But if I warned them I
would put everything I cared about at risk. I backed up, and Lallna removed her paw.

“If Navdru and Yildra don't get here in time, we'll tell them what we saw,” she said. “That way the strecks won't know we've seen them.”

A streckwolf smaller than Prannan crawled on his belly to a human, and a burst of fury took me by surprise. We were working so hard to keep the Promise, and these aberrant wolves threatened our very lives. For the briefest moment, I thought the Sentinels might be right to kill them. Then a human girl threw her arms around a small streckwolf and laughed. She sounded like TaLi. As suddenly as it had come, my anger left me and I was ashamed. The little wolves weren't really doing anything wrong. They were just loving the humans the way I loved TaLi. When I was a smallpup, everyone had told me it was wrong to go to the humans and yet I couldn't stay away. I couldn't blame the little wolves for loving the humans as I did.