Spirit of the Wolves

by Dorothy Hearst

  TaLi struggled to her feet. She took a few steps, wincing, then sighed.

  “I’ll slow you down if I come,” she admitted, sitting next to me again. I whuffed a sigh of relief. If she had insisted on going with BreLan, injured as she was, I would have had to go along to guard her, and I needed to get to Gaanin.

  “You have to find out if HesMi and RalZun are there, and if DavRian and IniMin survived,” TaLi ordered. “If they did, you have to learn what they’ve said to Laan’s elders. If there’s a chance Laan will let me be their krianan, we need to go there.”

  Pride in her determination and courage filled me. She had grown into a true krianan since we had left the valley. It would do her no good to go to Laan now that DavRian had spread his lies. Still, the sooner she knew that, the better. I would need her to follow us wherever we decided to take her, and if she was trying to go to Laan, she would resist us.

  I padded to BreLan and licked his hand. He smiled, stroked my head, then rubbed Ázzuen’s ears and ducked out of the cave. Ázzuen followed him.

  Tlitoo and Jlela stalked from the back of the cave, blinking sleepily.

  “We heard your plan, wolf,” Tlitoo said. “We will watch the girl until you return.”

  Two ravens weren’t much protection, but TaLi was well hidden, and I needed Ázzuen’s clever mind with me when I talked to the streckwolves.

  “Thank you,” I said, trying not to sound too doubtful.

  I licked TaLi from chin to headfur and loped into the early-morning light.

  BreLan walked with us as far as the edge of the burned land, then set off for Laan. Ázzuen watched him worriedly.

  “You can go with him if you like,” I said, not really meaning it. I wanted Ázzuen with me.

  “I’ll find him after we talk to the streckwolves,” Ázzuen said. “I wouldn’t let you go alone, Kaala.”

  I licked his muzzle. I knew how hard it was for him to let his human walk off unprotected. We watched BreLan until he disappeared into the unburned woods, then we set off for the streckwolves’ gathering place. We ran full pelt past the Barrens and up the slope above their home, which had been spared the fire’s rage. We had just started down the hill when I saw wolf shapes running toward us. Strange wolf shapes with rounded heads.

  Gaanin was in the lead. Two streckwolves ran with him. When they saw us loping toward them, they stopped to watch us approach, sitting straight, with their paws placed neatly before them. When I reached them, I realized that I had no idea what to say.

  I looked at Gaanin and he looked back. There was no reproach in his expression, but no welcome either. I remembered the dead streckwolves on the grassless plain and dropped my gaze.

  “They burned the woods,” I said. Which was stupid. Of course they would know that. The two wolves with Gaanin looked suspiciously at Ázzuen.

  “That’s Ázzuen,” I said. “He’s pack.”

  “Your mate?” one of the streckwolves, a female, asked curiously.

  “Not yet,” I said, then lowered my ears in embarrassment.

  She panted a small smile, then grew serious. “We know they burned the woods, young wild wolf. What are you going to do about it?”

  I’d planned to make an impassioned plea to get the streckwolves to do what I asked. I’d tried the whole way from the cave to find the eloquence to sway them. Instead, I blurted it all out. “I want you to come with me back to the humans. They need wolves that they aren’t afraid of. They need something to love that they don’t fear. I don’t know why they fear us so much, but they do. So, if they have wolves with them like you, wolves they aren’t afraid of, then maybe they’ll stop killing and we can go back to them. You have to get them to accept you and then let us take over.”

  “It is their own wildness that they fear,” Gaanin said. “In you, they see what they once were, one animal among many, a beast rather than a creature separate and greater than all others. In us, they see something they can love that does not challenge their vision of themselves.”

  “You knew that already,” I said.

  “It’s why we have sacrificed what is most wild in us,” Gaanin said. “It’s why we are willing to let the humans command us in the hunt, to take our territory, and rule our packs as if they were our leaderwolves.”

  I couldn’t imagine giving up the thrill of the hunt and the exhilaration of biting into thrashing prey when and where I chose, or the joy of running through my territory with my packmates. Ever since I’d met the streckwolves, I’d thought of them as less than wolf. But they were willing to give up even more for the Promise than I was.

  “It’s what I was trying to tell you before, Kaala,” Gaanin said. “But you weren’t ready to listen.”

  My tail lowered at his reprimand. Then, angry at his presumption that he had the right to scold me, I lifted it back up.

  “You hid other things from me,” I said, jutting my chin at him. “You didn’t tell me you were my father.”

  “It wasn’t my secret to tell,” Gaanin said. He lowered his own tail in apology. “We tried many places to breed wolves that the humans could accept without demanding obedience. I have more wild wolf in me than others in my pack and have fathered many pups. You, of all of them, have come the closest. But it was a foolish hope. They are still too fearful.”

  That’s all I was to him. One more experiment. I thought that when I finally met my father, I’d have a thousand questions for him, but I was no more to him than a tool was to a human. He looked at me expectantly. I liked Gaanin. He was as brave as any wolf I knew and willing to do anything for the Promise. I didn’t want to be nothing more than a tool to him. I shook myself. Trevegg and even Ruuqo had been good fathers to me.

  “You aren’t a submissive wolf,” Ázzuen said to the streckwolf when I remained silent.

  “I am when I’m with the humans,” Gaanin answered. “It is a choice I’ve made. My children’s children will be more so. Those who are not will pretend to be. The humans are frightened, lonely creatures and they need us to teach them that the world is not such a terrible place.” He smiled a little, as if the humans were smallpups just out of the den.

  He cared about the humans as much as I did. It didn’t seem to matter to him that he was my father, but the humans and the Promise were as important to him as pack. More, for his packmates had died trying to teach the humans love. As much as I wanted him to care that I was his pup, I needed him to help us win back the humans more.

  “Neesa told me that if humans lived with wolves like you,” I said, careful not to call them streckwolves, “your children’s children would forget they were wolf. They’d forget the Promise. Like Whitefur and Short Tail.”

  “Yes,” Gaanin replied. “They will remember only that they are to be by the humans’ side. They will not be conflicted about what is best for wolfkind. They will not even know that part of the Promise.”

  Which was why we would have to take over from the streckwolves. The wild had to be preserved so that the humans created no more Barrens. I respected Gaanin’s willingness to go to the humans, only to step aside for us.

  “It is our hope,” Gaanin said, watching me carefully, “that if the humans can love one creature other than themselves, a creature that does not threaten them, they will find a way to love the world around them. We have tried everything else. It’s our last chance. And theirs. But we cannot succeed unless you wild wolves leave us be.”

  “Because the Sentinels keep killing you,” I said.

  “Not just the Sentinels,” the female streckwolf said. “It’s happened before with other packs. The wild wolves hate our kind and have killed us again and again. Your kind is sometimes no better than the Greatwolves.”

  “You saw what happened to my wolves at the grassless plain,” Gaanin said. He glowered, and for a sickening moment I wondered if he knew I’d led the Sentinels there. I waited for him to accuse me. Instead, he whuffed anxiously. “Now the humans have burned the woods. It may be time for us to leave this place and hide
until things have calmed down, as we have done before. But I fear this may be our last chance. If we wait, the humans may be too far gone.”

  I swallowed a yelp of panic. It would certainly be too late for us if Gaanin took his pack away.

  “We’ll find a way to convince the Greatwolves to leave you alone,” Ázzuen said. I had no idea how we could do such a thing, but I tried to look as confident as Ázzuen sounded.

  “IniMin and DavRian are already at Laan, spreading lies about us,” Ázzuen continued. He sounded as calm as if he were discussing an upcoming hunt. “And they said that our krianans convinced us to burn down the woods. What if they are afraid of you, too?”

  “The humans there don’t think of us as wolves, or as wild,” Gaanin said. “Kaala saw that before the Sentinels slaughtered us. IniMin and DavRian pose no threat to us. We can slip past their fear. We will go to Laan and watch the humans there. We will find out if they believe IniMin and DavRian’s tales about your krianans, and if it is safe for your humans to stay nearby. But you must make sure Navdru and his pack do not kill us.”

  “I’ll talk to the Sentinels,” I said.

  “We can wait until moonrise tomorrow.” The female streckwolf shook herself. “We’ll be in the woods near Laan.”

  “If you do not get the Greatwolves to agree,” Gaanin said, “I will need to take my pack into hiding. Again.”

  He dipped his head to us and darted into the woods.

  I waited until they were out of hearing range to turn to Ázzuen.

  “You don’t have a plan to convince the Sentinels, do you?” I knew him well enough to know when he was bluffing.

  “Not yet,” he answered. “But we have to find one, don’t we?”

  I sighed. “We do.”

  He nosed my muzzle. “We’ll figure something out, Kaala, I promise. Can I go find BreLan now?” I saw that his own muzzle was tight with anxiety. He’d probably been worried about his human the entire time we were talking to Gaanin. I thought of TaLi, alone but for a pair of ravens.

  “Yes,” I said. “I’ll meet you back at the cave.”

  He nipped me lightly on the nose, turned, and loped toward Laan. I missed him the moment he was gone, but shook myself and began to make my way back to TaLi.

  I was halfway back to the Hill Rock when a frantic flapping of wings filled the air above me. Jlela flew straight into me, the full impact of her weight knocking me over. I scrambled to my paws, coughing.

  “What are you doing?” I growled.

  Jlela only hissed in answer.

  I bared my teeth at her, then took in her appearance. Her feathers were mussed and her ruff stood almost straight up. There was a desperate look in her eyes.

  “What happened?” I asked, panic tightening my throat.

  “They have taken him.”

  “Who?” I asked. I’d just seen Ázzuen, and I couldn’t think of who might take BreLan anywhere.

  She glared at me and spat a twig right in my eye.

  “Tlitoo! The Grimwolves have taken him! And your girl.”

  “Why?” I asked, frantic. “Where?” I felt as if Jlela had jabbed her beak into my chest and speared my heart. I could face the Sentinel wolves and DavRian and a hundred burning forests, but I couldn’t lose TaLi and Tlitoo.

  “At your girl’s hiding place!” she rasped. She took flight and winged back toward the burned forest. She flew so quickly that by the time I took my first stumbling step, she was no more than a dark speck in the sky. I followed that speck, terrified that by the time I reached TaLi and Tlitoo, it would be too late to save them.

  Jlela waited for me at the bottom of the Hill Rock. As I neared her, she flew halfway up the rock. I squinted up at her through the glare of late sun. She clacked her beak impatiently.

  “I don’t have wings,” I muttered to myself. I also didn’t want the Greatwolves to know I was coming. Every muscle in my body screamed at me to run straight up to the cave to find TaLi, but if I did so, I would be visible long before I got there. If Ázzuen were with me, he’d tell me to find a quiet way up the rock instead of rushing in. I sat and looked up at the cave. I saw that the outcropping in front of it went halfway around the rock. I could sneak up to the very edge of the cave without being seen, then find a way to get to TaLi and Tlitoo. I ran in back of the rock and scrambled up it onto the ledge, then crept along it as quietly as I could. When I neared the entrance to the cave, I lowered myself to my belly and crawled forward, pawswidth by pawswidth.

  I stopped at the mouth of the cave and lay flat. Jlela hung upside down under the ledge, opening and closing her beak silently. I rested my head against the stone and listened. I couldn’t hear a thing, and the air still smelled so much of smoke I couldn’t pick out any scents. I was just about to ask Jlela if she was sure they were in there when hot breath on the top of my head made me look up into Milsindra’s smug gaze.

  “What took you so long, Kaala?” She smiled. She grabbed me by my scruff and rolled me head over tail until I landed in the cave, splayed on my stomach. Greatwolves closed in around me.

  I smelled TaLi and Tlitoo, then, but couldn’t see either of them through the fur of what seemed like a hundred Greatwolves. My throat was so dry with fear that I couldn’t speak even if I could think of what to say. I’d been in such a hurry to get to the cave that I hadn’t thought about what I’d do once I got there. I had been foolish to come alone, without a plan. Now I was trapped, with no way to stop the Greatwolves from killing all of us.

  I needed to calm down and think clearly. I closed my eyes for a moment. Shutting my eyes while surrounded by enemies wasn’t a good idea, but I was under no illusions. If the Greatwolves wanted me dead, keeping my eyes open wouldn’t help me, either. I took several deep breaths, hoping an idea would come to me. None did. I waited a little longer, then opened my eyes. I would do TaLi and Tlitoo no good lying there like stupefied prey.

  I counted eight Greatwolves, not a hundred, including Milsindra and her mate, Kivdru. At first I thought that the other Greatwolves were strangers to me, but then I recognized Galindra and Sundru and several other Wide Valley Greatwolves who supported Milsindra. I still couldn’t see TaLi or Tlitoo. I heard a yelp of pain and then another, and a young Greatwolf scooted forward. Tlitoo swayed behind him, his beak full of fur. TaLi sat next to him, curled against the cold wall of the cave.

  Tlitoo spat out the fur and what looked like a bit of skin. “You should not have come, wolflet,” he said, “but I am glad you did. We will make them sorry now.” He crouched down low, holding one of his wings at an awkward angle. Jlela flew into the cave and darted between Greatwolves to get to him. She quorked something to him, and he answered with a soft, urgent croak. Two Greatwolves lunged for Jlela. She dove between them and, as they tried to snatch her from the air, swooped past them and out of the cave. They started to run after her, but her strong wings had already taken her beyond their reach. All they could do was growl after her. I took advantage of their distraction to bolt to TaLi. No one stopped me.

  TaLi threw her arms around me. Her skin felt damp and cold, and she was shivering. I pressed as close to her as I could and turned to face the Greatwolves. I expected them to snarl at or threaten me, but they just stood watching me. They knew I had no chance to escape.

  “What do you want?” I asked Milsindra, daring to meet her eyes for a moment before looking over her shoulder.

  “We want to know what you do with these two,” she said. “We know that you enter the realm of the spirits. Neesa said that you can go into the minds of other wolves, and the wolf who can do that can also cross into the spirit world. We have all been told so since we were pups. There are secrets there that belong to us, secrets that can help us stop our kind from dying out, and it has been too long since we have been able to talk to the Ancients. That is what the drelshik does, isn’t it?” I couldn’t mistake the envy in her voice. “You will take us there or watch your human die.”

  I didn’t know what the Greatwolves really
wanted in the Inejalun, but I didn’t want to give Milsindra anything that might help her.

  My head pounded, and I thought that if I were any more afraid, it would burst apart. I forced myself to think. I couldn’t get past them, and I couldn’t fight my way out. I had to trick them. Tlitoo clearly had the same thought.

  “It is us,” he clacked. “We are the Neja. You must have me, the wolf, and the human girl.”

  I was angry at first that he had included TaLi, but then grateful. If they didn’t need her, they might have killed her already. Tlitoo looked at me, blinking rapidly. He was plotting something. “If one of you lies next to us, you will be able to see what we see,” he quorked.

  I had no idea what Tlitoo had planned, but also had no ideas of my own. I would follow his lead. Milsindra was watching me. I dipped my head in agreement.

  TaLi chose that moment to try to escape. She stood and took a step toward the cave entrance. Terrified that the Greatwolves would hurt her, I knocked her knees out from under her so that she sat again. Several of the Greatwolves snickered. Then Tlitoo stalked over to crouch beside us. The Greatwolves gathered around us, but none of them came too close to me. I wanted to laugh. They pretended to be so fierce and strong, but they were afraid of what Tlitoo and I could do.

  “What happened to your wing?” I whispered to Tlitoo.

  “It is broken, wolf. I cannot fly,” he said loudly, then dropped his voice to what was barely a whisper. “You must let a Grimwolf lie next to your girl. I have led them to believe that the human opens the gate to the Nejakilakin so they would not kill her. Now we can use that. But you must allow it.”

  I didn’t want to let a Greatwolf anywhere near TaLi, but it was our only choice.

  “All right,” I said.

  “Gruntwolves,” Tlitoo said arrogantly to the huge wolves around him. “One of you must not be a curl-tail. One of you must sit next to the girl. If you hurt her, you will never get to the Inejalun.”