"I think they were not worse than the mass of humanity—not in the bone—but in order to practice the magical arts they relied upon as a wolf relies upon a strong body and quick mind, they needed to dull themselves to what they were doing. Much of their high magic drew power from death—or rather, from the extinguishing of life. Did you know this?"
Much of what Firekeeper had seen, but had not been able to grasp, in the fragmented artwork she and Blind Seer had uncovered in the ruins now came clearer to her. She also recalled the actions of the sorceress Melina and found them of one piece.
"Yes. I think I did, but not clearly."
Blind Seer tilted his ears back slightly. "I, too, have made myself blinder than I should have been."
"Now follow that trail," Grey Thunder said, "and realize that in order to do the things they must to gain the great powers, the Old World sorcerers had to distance themselves from the natural world into which they had been born. They even had to distance themselves from other humans, to view themselves as somehow superior to the mass of humanity, and to the ethical order that governed these people."
Firekeeper, again thinking of things she had seen, of humans—and wolves—she had known, grunted acknowledgment of the truth in what Grey Thunder said.
"If you learn more of the religion practiced by the Liglimom," Grey Thunder went on, his ears angling back slightly as if he anticipated physical, not intellectual, protest, "you will hear how after the first birds were created as a gift from Fire to Air, the deities decided they must take responsibility for these little lives. They guided mortals through omens and auguries. However, with the coming of great sorcery, humans grew deaf to divine guidance."
"We have been told something of this," Firekeeper said, "and how the humans turned to animals for guidance."
Grey Thunder's attitude was now clearly one of defense.
"Would you listen if I told you that we yarimaimalom have experienced the speech of the deities? That we have indeed felt ourselves conduits for communications from beyond ourselves?"
"We listen," Firekeeper replied, and Blind Seer thumped his tail in concurrence.
Grey Thunder relaxed a trace.
"Not all of us hear as clearly as some. You met the jaguar Truth?"
"We did."
"She comes from a long line of diviners," Grey Thunder said. "Her hearing is very sharp. However, such hearing is not restricted to any one type of beast—or even to yarimaimalom. It is found in Wise and lesser, and in all species. The one advantage Wise have over lesser is that we can better interpret the divine will and better communicate it to humankind."
Cricket interrupted for the first time since she had eased Grey Thunder back into speech.
"I think you walk off the trail, son."
"Not so far," Grey Thunder protested. "For these two to understand what we have done, they must understand why."
Cricket neither agreed nor argued, but Firekeeper noticed that Grey Thunder did return to his original point.
"Now when we made our treaty with humanity, we insisted that these islands be given to us for our land and that no humans be permitted to come here."
"Except for those who reside at the outpost," Blind Seer added, his attitude that of a youngling who wishes to prove he has learned to pounce and so now can be taught to bite.
"Except for the outpost," Grey Thunder repeated. "We chose this place for many reasons. Having been subjected to the cruelty of the Old Country rulers, we did not wish to live among their subjects until we were certain the change of heart was sincere. A more important reason was that from here we could better watch the sea.
"You see, for all their magic, the Old Country rulers have always come from across the ocean. Perhaps large bodies of water interfere with the power they command. Perhaps the sorcerers lacked the ability to use magic to transport themselves over long distances. Whatever the reason, in all our tales the ones from the Old Country have only come from the east, from over the water."
"So," Firekeeper said, "it is told in the northern lands as well. I once asked my parents if any tales remained of humans coming from the west, and they replied that there were none such they knew that did not include the sorcerers traveling from east to west first."
Grey Thunder relaxed even more at this agreement, and continued, "The yarimaimalom took for themselves these lands farthest to the east, where we could keep watch. To this day, the winged folk send representatives out a day's flight to the east each day. The water beasts also keep watch."
Firekeeper wanted to ask about these water beasts. She knew there were Royal Otters, but she had glimpsed seals during their voyage south and had wondered if there might be Royal ones among these creatures as well. She wondered, too, about the huge sea creatures she had glimpsed from time to time: whales and dolphins and the cold-eyed sharks. Could these have Royal-kind?
Now was not the time for such questions. At times like this when her curiosity led her off the trail, Firekeeper knew the bittersweet truth that as much as she was wolf, she was human too.
"We watch the omens as well," Grey Thunder said, and Firekeeper was surprised to see a hint of tension touch him again, and wondered why. Neither she nor Blind Seer had argued against the efficacy of talents. "To this day, no omen has occurred to show that the deities warn us that our enemies are about to return."
Ah, Firekeeper thought. I forgot. We think of divination as simply another talent, but to these Wise Wolves it is communication from the deities. I wonder if Derian's people think that what comes from divination is communication from the ancestors his people revere ? I must ask someday.
But Grey Thunder's tension did not ebb when neither of his listeners questioned whether or not the deities might be responsible for omens. Firekeeper found herself leaning slightly forward, as if to make sure she did not miss some subtle sign on a nearly obliterated game trail.
"Now, remember that you yourselves admitted that talents could be useful," Grey Thunder said, "and remember that in the days of which I speak the Old Country rulers were not creatures departed and vanished for well more than a hundred winters. In those days, the fear was acute that the Fire Plague would run its course, the sorcerers rebuild their power, and the Old Country rulers return in a few seasons. Even as a bitch digs her den in anticipation of the pups she carries, so the yarimaimalom of those days took actions to prepare themselves against their enemies' return."
Cricket added, "The choice we had made to place a good number of ourselves on these islands added to the dread of the sorcerers' return. For all that the islands gave protection from those who lived on the mainland, should the Old Country magics return, many of us would be trapped and so more easily hunted."
Firekeeper felt her spine tingle at the image this conjured.
"You did have kin on the mainland, didn't you?"
"We did and do," Cricket replied, "but the deaths of those here would have been no less real for that the yarimaimalom would not be destroyed all at once."
Blind Seer chewed the pad of his paw a bit nervously, as if the entrapment were about to begin at this very instant.
"The choice to isolate yourselves here seems strange," he said, "but you must have had your reasons."
"We had them," Cricket said sharply, "and hold to them still. Remember what Grey Thunder has told you about those days."
In a sharp instant, like the striking of a bolt of lightning through the blackness of a midnight storm, Firekeeper was sure they were not being told all of the story. She quieted herself, waiting to hear what the rest of Grey Thunder's account would be. It might be that by the time he wended his way to the end, she would have her answers.
In response to the waiting silence, Grey Thunder glanced at Cricket, saw the senior wolf had nothing more to add, and went on.
"The course of action of which I am about to tell you," Grey Thunder said, "was further precipitated by omens that indicated that someday the Old World would once again cast a shadow on the New. Our forebears fel
t that something must be done to prepare against that day."
He paused as if awaiting a challenge that did not come.
"Although the yarimaimalom are strong and clever, the equal at least of humans, in the days when the Old World sought to dominate the New, those qualities did us little good. Magic was what gave our enemies the advantage, and though we did not wish to follow in their ways, we thought to increase the occurrence of the divinely given talents—the fragments of Magic in each individual—among ourselves. We did not so much see this as trying to seize more than the deities had given to us, but as tending what had been given and encouraging it to grow."
"As humans do their gardens," Firekeeper murmured.
"Or as strong hunters do the herds," Grey Thunder agreed. "Even the Wise Elk and Deer, while not liking being hunted, agree that without the culling given by hunters they would suffer."
Firekeeper thought of the Story of the Songbirds, a tale even older than that which Grey Thunder related, and knew the wolf's assessment was correct.
Despite the lack of disagreement, Grey Thunder's stiffness returned as he resumed his account, and Firekeeper knew they were reaching the core of the tale.
"So it was that the yarimaimalom of those days began to choose their mates not in the traditional ways, but by seeking out certain talents and attempting to encourage their appearance. Wolf mated with wolf not for the betterment of the individual pack, but for what was hoped to be the salvation of all packs—indeed of all those living who would choose to resist the great magics if the Old Country rulers returned.
"In pursuit of this plan, many rules of common sense were repeatedly broken. Brother mated with sister, father with daughter, mother with son, all in an attempt to concentrate the talents that lay within us. For a time, it seemed that we had succeeded. Then we saw the price that must be paid for carrying too much of Magic's potency within a single body. It is a price we still pay, though such behavior has been outlawed for generations now."
Grey Thunder's gaze rested on the malformed pups, his expression holding affection laced with pity—and with guilt.
"Not only are good things concentrated," Grey Thunder continued, "but bad things as well. Weakness within the bone or within the mind came forth, emerging alongside the talents we had sought—but so focused were we on those talents that we ignored the evidence of what we were creating, though we had ample examples."
Cricket pricked her ears when Grey Thunder said this and again Firekeeper had the sense of something being withheld.
Blind Seer shifted uneasily. Thumping his ear with one foot as if after a persistent flea, he asked, "But weak pups do not often live. Isn't that so?"
Grey Thunder's eyes grew stormy with sorrow.
"It is indeed so. Did you realize that the borderland pack which first welcomed you to Misheemnekuru had more pups this season than those you met? One was too weak to see more than a few faces of the Moon. Those little ones down there are in many cases the remnants of larger litters."
"But in protecting them so they live and breed," Blind Seer said hesitantly, "isn't the problem they represent also given opportunity to breed?"
Cricket answered when Grey Thunder's only reply was an inarticulate growl.
"We forbid the damaged ones to breed, even if the only evidence of damage is something like a bit of missing tail. However, we do not kill our own children. Did your parents kill you when they thought you might have been born blind? Of course they didn't. Neither do we. Our problem is enhanced by our island situation. Hardly any of those who now live here do not carry within their blood the concentration from those old days. When we mix, even without intent of causing Magic to concentrate, the problems arise."
Blind Seer humbled himself in apology for his thoughtlessness. Licking his ear in acceptance of that apology, Cricket went on.
"We have reasons even greater than love for letting our damaged ones live. There remains the chance that one or more will show some strong talent when they mature, for such talents grow as the pup grows. As not even the most doting parent cannot tell which in a newborn litter will be a great hunter until after stumbling puppy days have passed, so no one can tell which pup may grow into the ability to clearly see divine will."
Vaguely remembering some of Derian and Edlin's discussions on breeding dogs and horses, Firekeeper carefully framed what she hoped would not be an offensive question. Both Cricket and Grey Thunder were visibly tense now and an angry wolf pressed too hard resorts to something far more painful than shouting.
"You say that this island living makes the problem live on, even after you have abandoned the course of action that led to it. Why not leave the island and blend with the packs to the west? Or, if you are reluctant to leave your watch post, why not invite some other wolves to join you? Trade out into the larger world."
"You think we have not thought of that?" Cricket asked scornfully. "Puppies always think they are the first to kill a mouse."
The fact that this last was a proverbial expression did nothing to ease its sting, but Firekeeper, proud of the status she had gained, did not snap back as she might have a few days before.
Cricket, perhaps aware that she had been rude, perhaps merely too angry for continued discourse, rose from where she had lain on the rock and stalked off into the gathering dusk.
Grey Thunder watched the elder go, then turned his perpetually mournful gaze onto the two outliers.
"She has raw wounds on that matter. It is a thing on which I have no firsthand knowledge, but I will do my best."
Firekeeper and Blind Seer waited quietly while Grey Thunder organized his thoughts.
"We will not leave Misheemnekuru," he began, "but we are not forbidden to do so. From time to time, some of our number do go to the mainland. More rarely, one of the mainland yarimaimalom comes here—and that one is more likely to be of the winged or swimming folk. Others would need to arrange for the humans to carry them on a boat.
"Thus, especially between the land dwellers, two communities have grown up, each with their own legends and codes. Sad as it is to say, each of us scorn the other just a little. We of the islands think of the mainlanders as those who have abandoned the watch. They think of us as inbred fanatics. Such attitudes make blending difficult."
"I see," Firekeeper said, "and Cricket?"
"During a wolf year long ago, she was among those chosen to go to the mainland and advise the seetadisdu. She enjoyed the honor, but I understand she was less than pleased with the mainland wolves. Once her year was over, Cricket returned to Misheemnekuru, and has not only expressed a desire never to return to the mainland, she has refused to take part in choosing other representatives for the duty. She says it is a hunt she could not wish on any she loved."
"That explains her anger at my question, then," Firekeeper said. "If you will forgive the old angers my curiosity has stirred up, I would still like to watch the little ones with you. I am not so unlike them, you know. My shape can hardly be said to be that of the ideal wolf."
Grey Thunder looked at Firekeeper, at first confused, then vastly entertained. His tail stirred the dust on the rock.
"Go get to know the pups, then," he said, making clear that his invitation included Blind Seer as well as Firekeeper. "But mind your fingers. They are eager to try their new teeth on everything."
"We will remember," Blind Seer said, "and tonight I myself will carry back from the hunt a haunch with meat and hide attached so the pups can try their teeth on something more challenging than Firekeeper's fingers."
Firekeeper punched Blind Seer gently on one shoulder, then together they joined Rascal down among the pups. Only once did Firekeeper look up, and then she saw that Cricket had rejoined Grey Thunder. That they were disagreeing was obvious, but Firekeeper turned away quickly, lest by her awareness she bury further the secrets she knew must be there, and that she felt with a desperate certainty that she must somehow learn.
Chapter XXI
They sat out in the warm, hor
se-scented night while Varjuna explained the various tensions that had been arising within the community of disdum since the arrival of Firekeeper and the clear evidence of her ability not just to communicate but to converse with the yarimaimalom.
Just a few years before, Derian would have found much of what Varjuna was saying nearly incomprehensible. Religious practices within his own family were relaxed to the point of nonexistence. The family shrine was kept clean and the ancestors appealed to at all the appropriate times, but other than that the family of Vernita and Colby Carter relied on hard work and common sense to get along.
Derian knew that there were families that viewed things differently, families that started every day by invoking the aid and guidance of the ancestors, but" 'Prayer won't shovel any manure,' as my daddy always said" was one of Colby's own favorite sayings. Derian had always taken this to mean that the ancestors, and the vague supernatural powers they communicated with, would be happier if shown more and asked for less.
His horizons had broadened considerably since he had gone west with Earl Kestrel, but oddly it wasn't his exposure to the customs of several foreign lands that helped him understand what Varjuna was explaining. It was his exposure to various levels of political manipulation.
Here in Liglim, beneath the phrases about the will of the deities and appropriate omens, Derian recognized once again the struggle of those who were in power to retain power while those who were without sought the means to gain it. Caught between were the rare creatures like Varjuna who seemed to care little for power except that their positions enabled them to continue doing what they liked best.
An interesting variation was that Ahmyndisdu Tiridanti, who as the supreme representative of Fire and leader in this jaguar year should have been unassailable, was being challenged because she was seen as the instrument of potentially heretical change. Those who actually sought what Derian thought was a more dramatic change—the undermining of an ordained member of u-Liall—could represent themselves as faithful followers of traditional ways.
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