The Princess and the Wolf (The Princess and the Hound)

by Mette Ivie Harrison

  She went back to Tia and tried to speak to her in the calm nonsense words that she had used on the animals. She thought that she could detect a lowering of eyelids, which gave her the confidence to put out a hand and touch the girl’s shoulder.

  Tia twitched, but she did not throw Dagmar off. So Dagmar continued, imagining that she was speaking to Pakira, telling her without words but only sounds, of the pleasure of being back in the stables, away from here, under a roof, with warm food and other humans to care for her.

  But when Dagmar tugged on the girl’s arm and tried to pull her away from the field, the girl kicked at her, her eyes wide open once more, and turned toward the blue wolf.

  Dagmar tried to use her calming words on another human, with even more disastrous results. She had a broken nose and a shoulder bruised so badly she could not move her arm above her head.

  Her power was useless with humans. It was only for animals. She had known that, but she had hoped—

  Now she could see of nothing she could do here.

  The animals were too far away, and if she went into the midst of them, she would be attacked in just a moment. She could not survive that long, even with her calming powers. She did not know how to calm more than one animal at once, and she would surely be dead before she figured it out.

  Chapter Twenty-two: Hans

  Hans moved ahead of Captain Henry and Ina. The scent of the darkness was all around him now. He had never felt it so strongly before. It was like a sky of dark clouds, writhing together.

  “Stay back!” he whispered hoarsely to Captain Henry and Ina.

  “They know me,” said Ina, and she moved forward.

  Hans could smell the darkness on her, and for a moment, he thought that would be enough to protect her. But she was in human form, and the animals of the darkness that the Old Wolfe had touched did not recognize him in her now.

  “Princess!” called out Captain Henry. He leaped after her, brandishing his sword.

  A sword against so many darkness-tinged animals? He had no training with them. He thought they were like other animals, thought Hans.

  Blood spurted from a felfrass and Captain Henry’s expression was one of fierce satisfaction.

  “Don’t turn your back!” shouted Hans.

  But Captain Henry did not pay any attention to him. He turned and used his sword on a wild elk who was rampaging toward the princess.

  She looked up to see it, astonishment on her face.

  She had never been attacked by an animal before, Hans knew instantly. The Olde Wolf had always protected her.

  Hans had failed when he had tried to attack the Olde Wolf directly, as so many others had failed before him. But he had not died. He was still alive to fight another day, and if he could not fight the Olde Wolf himself, he could fight the creatures who had been infected with his darkness.

  Captain Henry thrust his sword into the wild elk’s side. It was at that moment that the wild elk turned and kicked him, as easily as if he were a sapling in the way.

  The man went down with a soft sound.

  But Hans ignored him. He did not know if the man was hurt internally, but it was the princess who was his focus. And Captain Henry would have told him he was right.

  The wild elk turned back to Ina and lifted a hind leg at her.

  She stood there, unmoving.

  There was no fear on her face, Hans thought. She was not like any of the people Hans had ever known. In his home village, the humans had been afraid of animals. They had tamed some, but there had always been a fear underneath that. If the animals did not do as they were commanded immediately, a whip came out, or a prod.

  And in the Order, it had been different. Instead of fear for animals, it was more a disgust. All animals had the potential to be touched by darkness, and so they were always to be kept away from. It was not death that was to be feared so much as the taint spreading. The only thing worse than not coming back from searching after the Olde Wolf in the Order was coming back after an encounter with another dark animal and being changed.

  Hans had seen a few of the Order who were like that. They did not go mad, nothing so easy as that. They were not completely gone. They knew enough of who they were—or had been—to feel the darkness inside of them. It did not seem to grow. It was simply a stain that burned and twisted. Hans had seen one man cut at his side with a knife to try to cut out the stain. He had nearly bled to death, and when he had healed at last, he had found the first knife he could to start all over again.

  But Ina showed only love for the wild elk that was about to kill her. There was a softness to her face that Hans wanted to stop and admire. But he could not let her die, no matter how beautiful her expression.

  The sword was still in the elk’s side, and though there was a small trail of blood dripping out of the wound, it was not much.

  Hans leaned forward and reached for the sword that Captain Henry had left in the wild elk. The animal was still moving forward and Hans had to throw his whole weight behind his motion. He yanked the sword out, and suddenly the elk turned to him.

  “Hans, no!” said Ina.

  But there was no time for her to stop him.

  Hans held up the sword, as if to taunt the elk. The animal’s nostrils flared and it turned back.

  Yes, away from the princess, he thought. If he did only that much, he would have been useful. He might die here and now, but he did not care if he saved her life. Better that than die fighting the Olde Wolf and fail yet again.

  So long as Ina kept herself safe.

  Hans held the sword high and the blood dripped down from the blade to the hilt, and then onto his hands. His grip was slick and uncertain. He could just as easily kill himself if he let go of the blade badly, he thought.

  But as the blood covered his hand, he felt the darkness of the elk stain him. It permeated his skin and entered into his muscles, and from there, it seemed to sink into his very bones, into the marrow at the center. He would never be rid of it, he thought. He would be just like that man he had seen in the Order who had tried to cut it out.

  Better to lose his hand entirely than to live with darkness inside of him. The scent alone made his nose burn.

  The elk lifted its hind leg toward Hans. He could see the leg begin to flex. It would be pulled back and then he would feel the impact in his lungs, his heart, his broken ribs in his chest. And he saw no reason to try to avoid it.

  But the burning darkness of the elk’s blood gave him a momentary glimpse into the animal itself. For that moment, he knew that the elk was tormented, that it hated the darkness as much as Hans himself did. Its anger was as much anger at itself as anger at any creature outside of it. It was full of anger at what it had become, at how the darkness forced it to do its will.

  And Hans looked down at his blood-drenched hand and the sword it held and thrust it back into the elk. He had never had the strength of a warrior before, and would not have believed he could thrust the sword as deep as Captain Henry had, but when the sword touched the hide of the elk, it seemed to slip inside it, as if it was welcomed in.

  The sword went straight through, until Hans’s hands were also inside the elk. The great creature stopped short, panting, and then turned back to look at Hans. This time, its eyes were warm with hope and pleading.

  What was he to do now? No one from the Order had taught him this. They had only been interested in killing the darkness inside the animals, not in making them clean again.

  Hans focused once more on the hand and the blood. He knew what the darkness felt like, knew that burning sensation and the crawling need to get free of it. He closed his eyes and he allowed himself to feel inside the elk. He could map out suddenly every vein and vessel of that dark blood, and he called it to him.

  He did not want the blood to be his own, but he drew it to him as if he had become a sponge, drawing out an infection with an herbal poultice as he had seen some of the healers in the Order do after a battle.

  He choked and thought
he would drown in that darkness.

  Then he heard Ina’s voice and opened his eyes.

  She was standing over the fallen elk.

  The elk, and not him, he thought.

  She had a hand on the elk’s head and was looking into its eyes.

  The elk was still alive. Though Hans could feel the sword still in his hand, and his hand still inside the wet warmth of its chest.

  Slowly, Hans pulled his hand out.

  The sword seemed too heavy now, and he staggered backward.

  Ina looked at the naked blade protruding on the other side of the elk. She looked down at her skirt, tore off a long piece of cloth, and then wrapped it around her hand. She then placed her hand on the blade and pulled it out of the elk on the other side.

  The animal let out a long, honking sound of distress, and then it closed its eyes.

  “No, you must live,” said Ina. “Live.”

  And to Hans, it seemed as if she forced the animal back to life by the sheer power of her will. The elk, with a great wound in its side, stumbled to its feet. It took one more look at Ina, and then bounded back into the forest.

  It was clean, thought Hans. He could scent that about it. The darkness was completely gone out of it.

  And what of himself?

  Hans looked down at his chest and saw the blood spattered over his clothes. The darkness was inside of him now. He could feel it like a sword in his own chest. But it would not be one he could pull out.

  He was uncomfortable with the darkness, but there was a purpose to it. If he took out the darkness from the animals, then they could go free. If that was what had to be, then he would do it again and again, until he could do it no more.

  “What did you do?” asked Ina. She moved back to him, and he saw in her eyes the same look of warmth and tenderness that she had shown the wild elk.

  Hans did not know if that was a good thing or not, but he liked it. He could have happily spent the rest of his life feeling that warmth and doing nothing else.

  “He is gone, out of that elk. You tore out the old magic from him. You cleaned it. How did you do that?”

  “I don’t know,” said Hans honestly.

  Captain Henry was lying to the side of them both, and he stirred them.

  “He’s still alive,” said Ina. “Did you save him, too?”

  “He had no darkness in him to begin with,” said Hans.

  Captain Henry got to his feet and then stepped forward and back rather woozily. “Where? What?” he asked.

  Ina took him by the elbow. “An elk attacked you. You should be well enough in a little bit.”

  “Did I kill it?” asked Captain Henry.

  Ina looked to Hans.

  “No,” said Hans. “You protected the princess, but the elk fled back to the forest.”

  “Oh. I see.”

  How many others of these animals could Henry clean of the darkness? What risk would it be to his own health?

  He suspected that the Order would never take him back if he continued. A stain of darkness was one thing. But what he might do here, taking stain after stain upon himself, that would never be acceptable. He would be dangerous. He might become unable to withstand the darkness.

  But that did not mean he would not do it.

  “It was wonderful, what you did,” Ina whispered to him. Her hair fell over his neck and the tickle of her breath against his ear produced a reaction that was intense fear and equally intense pleasure at once.

  “Thank you,” he said.

  “No, thank you. Thank you for that elk, and for any others you can help. I see now how they have been touched, ruined. They are not themselves anymore, once the Olde Wolf called to them. But you gave them freedom.” She stared at him as if she wanted that for herself.

  But she was not stained with the darkness as the others were. She smelled faintly of it, but it was not the same thing. It was not inside of her. And Hans did not think he could save her from that. He could take the darkness from animals, and perhaps even humans. But her darkness was in her mind and her heart, and only she could clean herself from that.

  He turned from her and looked back at the animals who were gathered.

  He did not look back, but simply walked toward the next dark scent. It was a fox. He raised the sword he had taken from the elk, Captain Henry’s sword, and plunged it deep. The blood spilled onto his hand once more, and this time he knew what to do. He pulled the darkness into himself and watched the change in the fox’s expression.

  When he pulled the sword out again, the fox looked about, then leaped toward the forest from whence it had come.

  It might die, Hans acknowledged. The elk might die. All of the animals Hans helped in this way might die. But nonetheless, he thought his effort was worth it. Because at least they would die free.

  Chapter Twenty-three: Ina

  Hans was focused on the animals he could save from the influence of what he called “darkness,” but Ina began to move for the Olde Wolf who was standing very near the castle gate

  “Stop!” said Captain Henry, still weak from his attack by the wild elk. “We have to take you to your father.”

  “I am going to my father,” said Ina without looking back. The word “father” was tinged with bitterness.

  “No. Your true father. If he does not see you before something happens to you—or to him, I will never forgive myself. Please, let us go around these animals to the castle, if we can. Let him see your face for just a moment.”

  Ina turned for a moment and saw the castle and the humans standing in front of it. “Is he there?” she asked. She had never seen this man who was her true father. She wondered if seeing him would change everything. Would she recognize herself in him? Would she understand everything in her life at that moment?

  Captain Henry hesitated. “I don’t see him yet. But he will come out soon. I cannot imagine King George hiding in his castle while a battle rages around him.”

  “He is a warrior, then?” said Ina. It was what she would have expected, from what the Olde Wolf had said of him, and of all humans. Perhaps that might explain why she was the way she was, as well.

  She wanted so much to see him, to be free of the burden of what the Olde Wolf had done. But she could not step away from this. She had not asked to be used this way, but it had happened. She had been shaped from the first by the Olde Wolf, and now she had to face him. It seemed the only way she could truly regain the identity he had taken from her.

  “King George is a man of courage,” said Captain Henry. “I have never seen him so afraid of something that he did not do what he believed was right.”

  Ina had never seen the blue wolf afraid of anything at all. She had always thought that was what courage was, but now she wondered. Feeling fear was something every animal experienced. Except the Olde Wolf.

  There was something strange and uncanny about that. It was not natural. Was it because he had lived so long and knew that he would not die? Or was it because he did not care about anything enough to fear it? Or because he simply had forgotten how to feel like the other animals he claimed to wish to save?

  Ina watched as humans came toward the Olde Wolf and lay down before him, arms stretched out, lax.

  “Do they think he will show them mercy?” Captain Henry asked, as confused as Ina was.

  “Maybe death would be a mercy, compared to following him,” she said. Did she wish she had died instead of growing up with him? He had taught her strength, but did she want to show that kind of strength?

  “King George will not give himself up,” said Captain Henry. “He will defeat this threat as he has defeated all the others. He has animal magic and no one has ever triumphed against him.”

  Except the night that his daughter had been stolen from the castle, thought Ina. He had been defeated then, and in all the years since then, when she had been kept in ignorance.

  All her life, according to Captain Henry, King George had been searching for her. All his animal magic had not
availed him at all in that. She felt a pang of pity for King George then, and a surge of anger at the Olde Wolf who had pretended to be her father. But she could not think of King George as her father. She felt nothing for him. In that, too, the Olde Wolf had won.

  “Princess, you must trust your father,” said Captain Henry.

  Indeed, she trusted the Olde Wolf to do the worst that he could possibly do, to destroy all humanity as he had always planned, and to do it with her watching. She did not know how to stop him, but she would not let him think that she believed him any longer. It was a small thing to take from him, but it was all she had.

  “Father!” Ina called out.

  “No!” cried Captain Henry. He reached for her, but it was too late.

  The Olde Wolf had turned, recognizing her voice.

  Captain Henry looked toward the humans, then resigned himself and moved to position himself behind the princess.

  “I do not like this form on you, my dear,” said the Olde Wolf, in the language of wolves which Ina knew so well. “You know that. Change back into your proper form, the form of a wolf.”

  “You have taken human form many times. Why should you forbid me that which you do?” asked Ina.

  “Because I only wish what is best for you. And a human form is an abomination I wished to spare you from.” The Olde Wolf circled Ina, cutting her off from Captain Henry.

  “But it isn’t my proper form, is it? I was not born a wolf.”

  “What does it matter how you were born,” said the Olde Wolf. “Surely how you were raised matters far more. What you have become since your birth, since you have been at my side.”

  It would have been so easy to believe him. He was using whispered sounds to add to his words, to make her believe him. But after Ina had seen what Hans did with the animals, she could almost see the darkness that clouded the very air around the Olde Wolf.

  He had never loved her, she realized now. He had never trusted her, or he would not use the old magic on her, as he did with all the others.

  He thought of her as human, as an enemy. He was simply using her, and Ina had to fight against his magic to maintain her own mind and will.