by Blake Smith
“Taika?” he called without thinking. The only sound that came out was a quiet vuh vuh that turned into a yelp of surprise. His voice was gone!
His ears flicked back and forth, searching for the source of the whimper that pierced the air, and a few heartbeats passed before he realized it was coming from him. Ashamed at his fear, he forced himself to keep silent while he took stock of his surroundings.
Gone was the human. In its place lay a wolf.
He twitched his paws, raised and lowered his head, and heard the thump of his tail against the bedding. Once he was sure of the shape of his new body, he carefully rose to his feet and shook himself, nearly falling over at the instinctive but unfamiliar movement.
His first steps were clumsy, but he rapidly gained control over four legs and a tail, nudging aside the leather curtain so he could pace around the house, sniffing at each surface and wondering that the roof seemed so much further away than it had when he was human. His claws sank into the earthen floor like knives.
Once he’d learned the smells of the house, he began to take note of the draft flowing though the gap under the door. A whiff of smoke made his ears flatten against his head, but the scent of fresh meat soon gained his interest and he stuffed his muzzle into the gap, determined to get to that delicious smell but not quite sure how to do it.
The gap was too small and the stone of the doorstep too large to move. Frustrated by his captivity, he whined and raked the door with his claws, unable to grip the latch.
There was the sound of footsteps outside the door and the smell of herbs and smoke and a familiar old woman. Aatu moved aside as the shaman opened the door. He instinctively tucked his tail in submission when she showed her teeth, then realized she was smiling.
“Well, well,” she said, half to herself. “Another one. This is a good night for it. Come along, boy, and see what we’ve wrought.” She stepped aside and gestured him out of the longhouse. He followed her reluctantly to the field beside the longhouse, then stopped and stared.
There were perhaps twenty wolves capering about in the snow, watched by the older men of the village. They rolled about, tussling and chasing each other, learning the limits of their new bodies.
A black wolf gave a joyful yip and bounded toward him. Aatu smiled a wolf smile; it was Onni. It had to be. No one else would bounce over the snow like that, bowling him over then leaping away to roll in a snowdrift like a child at play. And if he needed more evidence, the black wolf was dotted with white marks, just like the human Onni was dotted with scars from his boyhood misadventures.
He rubbed his snout on his itchy foreleg, noting the deep brown fur that was so like his human hair- not quite black but the color of the richest soil. He wondered if his eyes had stayed the same amber brown as they’d been in human form.
Onni bumped into him again and Aatu bumped him back. They pretended to fight for a few minutes, until something more interesting caught their attention.
Someone had slaughtered a young steer and Aatu was irresistibly drawn to the smell of fresh beef. The rest of the pack had the same thought. They flowed toward the carcass in a mass of brown, grey, white, and black fur, jostling each other and occasionally snarling a lower-ranking wolf back into place. Aatu was careful to give way to Veikko and a few others.
The snow around the carcass was stained red in only a few minutes. Whoever had killed the beast had removed most of the offal but not the skin, so the wolves spat out clumps of bloody hair in between bites of meat.
Even their large pack couldn’t completely strip a cow carcass in a short time, though they did their best, gnawing through muscle and tendon until an older man shoved his way into the pack and began separating out the bones with his axe. Aatu snatched the first flung rib and darted away with it. Onni chased after him and they played with the bone for the sheer novelty of it, flipping it through the air to each other and catching it, then running here and there to keep it away from the others. Soon the bones were spread all over the field as small groups of the wolves made off with their chosen prizes.
A madness had spread through them, but it couldn’t last forever. The moon was well advanced on her journey when the gray-muzzled wolf barked loudly. Somehow, Aatu knew Veikko was calling them to order.
No one dared disobey the alpha. They picked up the beef bones, piling them on the bloodstained snow near the remnants of their feast. Aatu snickered to himself at the thought of a neat and clean pack of wolves putting their toys away like small children. Not that they themselves were particularly clean- dismembering a cow without hands or tools was a messy business.
Veikko led them back to the headman’s longhouse and each wolf found his own alcove. Aatu slunk into his, assuming they were about to turn back into their human bodies and disappointed that the experience had ended so suddenly.
He curled up on this pallet and rested his head on his paws. A moment later, Akka knelt in front of him, her old bones creaking with the effort. She looked into his eyes. “Aatu,” she called him quietly. “Come back to us.”
He couldn’t disobey even if he wanted to, and when she held out a piece of bread to him, he took it from her hand and chewed. It tasted like dirt and mold to his altered senses.
Instead of falling asleep as he’d done during the first transformation, Aatu was hazily aware of what was happening. The shaman’s magic made even the changing shapes of his bones, the stretching of muscles and the loss of his fur seem utterly natural, and he was momentarily ashamed of how frightened he’d been. There was nothing to fear.
Until he was lying on the hides, shivering with cold and realizing what he’d become. He leaped to his feet, clumsy at first as his mind remembered how to move as a human, then ducked through the skins, ready to demand an explanation from the first person he met, only to stop short upon seeing the crowd of people standing around the fire. Most of them looked as confused as he felt. He abruptly realized he was naked but felt no shame; there were no women in sight.
“What just happened?” he demanded, wrapping himself in the cloak Onni held out to him. He already missed the warm fur of the wolf.
“Wait until we’ve gathered,” Veikko’s low voice rumbled out of the smoky dimness. “Then all will become clear.”
Five other young men burst from their alcoves, confused and, in one case, belligerent enough that the others had to seize his arms and legs to stop him attacking everyone in sight.
Once the young man- Aatu thought he was called Torsti- was subdued and standing with the others, Veikko emerged from the shadows, the low fire playing over his face and making his eyes gleam strangely.
“This is how we will fight Volkwin and his men,” Veikko said. “This is how we’ve fought our enemies since the beginning of time. There have been no wars for a few years, so there was no need for our young men to undergo the rite. Until now.
“The ritual is only successful at the full moon, or we would have transformed and killed the outlaws as soon as they appeared. You will find that, if you choose, you can turn back into your wolf form at will during the full moon, for the rest of your life. Becoming human again is more difficult, as you’ve already seen.”
“But why did no one tell us?” Aatu asked, indignant at being kept ignorant and embarrassed that he’d reached the age of eighteen without realizing half of the village could turn into wolves. He had to admit, it explained a few things- like the way his father had left them alone on certain nights and his mother hadn’t worried about it.
Veikko’s face grew grim; he looked even more like his brother than usual. “Because the wolf is a wonderful and terrible thing. You might have chosen differently if you had known, but if we’re to fight, we need every man in the village.”
“Do we fight them tonight?” Onni asked.
“There’s no time,” Veikko said, and he sounded disappointed. “The moon is already setting and the sun will be up soon. The ritual takes longer than you realize.”
“We have to wait another month to a
ttack them?” Aatu challenged him. “We could all be dead by then!”
“And if we attack them from a position of weakness, we will all be dead!” Veikko snarled. “Why do you think we’ve been careful not to provoke them? They’re dangerous and suspicious, and they’ll kill us if we give them a reason to do it. But we have a way to stop them,” he added, more calmly. “I know patience is difficult, but we have to do this correctly. If we don’t, we die. Our wives and children die.”
He was right, though Aatu hated to admit it. “I know. I’m sorry,” he said.
Veikko smiled. “You’re not the only one who hates the Sword-Brothers. We all want them gone. But we must hide our feelings, all of us. If the Sword-Brothers learn what we plan, they’ll attack first.”
“Are we allowed to tell our families what we’ve become?” Onni asked.
Before Veikko could answer, another voice rumbled out of the shadows. “You’ll keep silent if you know what’s good for you, boy,” Onni’s father said. Onni nearly jumped out of his skin, and Aatu with him. He hadn’t realized Pekko was part of the wolf pack.
“Yes, Father,” Onni said, ducking his head at the scolding. Aatu smiled despite himself.
“Pekko is right,” Veikko said. “All of you must keep silent. Watch the Sword-Brothers, but avoid any speech with them if possible. Keep away from their camp, and if you see one in the forest, go the other way. They may anger you; they may insult you. Do not retaliate. You’ll have your chance, in time.” He glared around the room. “Every one of you, swear to me now that you’ll follow my orders.”
There was a low murmur of agreement throughout the room. Aatu lent his voice to the clamor, determined not to be the one who broke the fragile truce between the village and the outlaws.
Chapter Six
His resolve to keep the peace lasted nearly four weeks. He’d seen the Sword-Brothers cutting wood in the forest and setting snares, but they’d stayed away from the village. Nor had they been able to cleanse the fort of its spirits, for which Aatu was thankful. The Sword-Brothers had been peaceful so far, but they could not be allowed to stay, and getting rid of them would become difficult if they holed themselves up in the fort. The moon was waxing full as they waited, and every man in the village watched its progress like a hawk watches a hare.
For the moment, Aatu wasn’t watching anything but the hairpin he was carving from reindeer bone. It was meant to be a gift for Sinikka, and since she was sitting nearby at her spinning, he was being very quiet about the task. Night had fallen and the only light came from the fire in the center of the room.
He flinched when someone hammered on the door and nicked his thumb with the knife. Swearing softly, he set the hairpin down and opened the door, knife still in hand.
It was Taika. She burst into the room, eyes wild and hair falling down from under her hood. Her breath was coming in rapid gasps and Aatu wasn’t sure she recognized him.
“Taika? Are you all right? Did you run here?” he asked. Behind him, he heard rather than saw Sinikka jump up at the disturbance and run toward them, concerned for her friend.
“I’m fine,” Taika said, but her voice shook.
“Are you hurt?” he asked. “Let me see.” He gently plucked at her cloak. Taika flung his hand away, inadvertently exposing the torn shoulder of her dress. Her fair skin glowed in the low light until she realized what he was looking at and hastily wrapped her cloak back around her body.
Red mist curled around the edges of Aatu’s vision and he couldn’t hear anything for a moment over the roaring in his ears. “Did someone attack you?” he demanded.
“I’m not hurt,” she said, shaking her head.
“Did someone attack you?” he repeated, not noticing when he took a menacing step toward her. Taika shrank away from him.
“Aatu, shut up!” Sinikka snapped at him. Stunned by the scolding- from Sinikka of all people!- Aatu promptly shut up.
He had no idea how to soothe Taika’s agitation and stood there like a lump while Sinikka took charge. She gently guided Taika to a seat by the fire and handed her a cup of birch ale, then sat beside her, patting her back and talking to her quietly, her voice too low for Aatu to hear the words.
He wanted to kill something but he couldn’t bear to let Taika out of his sight when she looked so small and frightened, so he settled for pacing around and around until the fury had died down a little.
Once he thought he could hear Taika’s story without frightening her even worse, he knelt before her and rested his head on her knee, careful to keep his hands where she could see them. After a moment, her little hand touched his hair.
“I’m sorry if I frightened you,” he said.
“I know. Please don’t do it again.”
“Will you tell me what happened?”
When she didn’t respond immediately, he looked up. Her eyes were too bright and her jaw was set. She took a deep breath but didn’t say anything.
“Tell me,” he said quietly.
“I was coming to see you two,” she whispered. “I was walking up the road, just out of shouting distance from the village. Two of those Sword-Brothers came up behind me. They grabbed me before I could run. I think they were drunk; they smelled like it.” She abruptly cut off whatever she was about to say next. “Aatu, stop it,” she ordered, tapping his hand.
Aatu looked down. His hand was clenched so tightly in her cloak that a tear had appeared in the wool. He let go. Taika smiled faintly.
“I’m not hurt,” she said. “They barely touched me. They tore my dress. That was all. And they said some ugly things.” She tilted her head to one side. “At least, I think that’s what they were saying. They were speaking- well, I don’t know what language they speak, but I couldn’t understand them and I don’t think they understood me. I hit one of them. I think I broke his nose but he didn’t even try to hit me back. He just fell over into the snow. His friend laughed at him. That’s how I got away; they weren’t really paying attention and I run faster than them.”
He didn’t say anything for a moment. He couldn’t believe it- his nightmares were coming true. It was exactly as he’d predicted, when he only wished to be wrong.
“Aatu.” Sinikka’s voice broke through the darkness. He looked up. “The Sword-Brothers aren’t supposed to be in the village. Will you go and tell Veikko they’re here? He should know.”
He nodded. “Will you be safe while I’m gone?”
“Neither of us is defenseless,” Taika spoke up, her voice thick with tears. But she fixed him with a glare that drew a smile to his lips. He would worry for her every moment he was away, but she could take care of anything that came up.
“All right,” he said. “I’ll return as quickly as I can.” He threw on his outer clothing and picked up his hunting spear, just in case.
Veikko was awake when Aatu burst into his house a few minutes later. “I already know about it,” he snapped before Aatu even opened his mouth. “Torsti came and told me that two Sword-Brothers were walking in the village, but they were gone by the time I got there.”
“They attacked Taika!” Aatu said, his hands clenched around the shaft of the spear.
Veikko’s expression darkened. “Is she hurt?”
“No, just shaken. She thinks they were drunk. She’s with my sister at the moment, so unless you want help killing those animals, I need to return home.”
“Would Taika recognize them if she saw them again?”
“I don’t know. I didn’t ask. Why does it matter?” he demanded. “They’re all evil. We need to get rid of them.”
“You know we can’t do that yet,” Veikko said. “But if we could tell Volkwin that his men are out of control, he might have to punish them. I don’t know their laws, but they’re guests here and harming our women breaks any hold they have on our hospitality.”
“Right. I have to get back,” he said, hardly aware of what he was saying. “Will you tell her father what happened? Tell him I’ll bring her home when she�
�s settled down a bit. And Nyyrikki will want to know what’s happening.”
“I’ll tell them,” Veikko promised. Aatu would have turned and bolted for the door, desperate to return home, but Veikko seized his arm. “Don’t do anything stupid,” he ordered. “Do you hear me?”
“I hear you. And I’ll be careful.”
“I know it’s hard to do nothing.”
He bowed his head. “Yes.”
“Go, then. I’m sorry I couldn’t stop this from happening.”
Aatu was gone almost before Veikko finished his sentence.
By the time he got home, Taika had moved past her fright and was on to fury. She was pacing up and down, half-shouting and gesticulating madly while Sinikka looked on, a center of calm in the storm of Taika’s anger.
“Stupid idiots!” she was saying as he opened the door. “By their laws, they’re not allowed to speak to women; no wonder they don’t know how to treat a woman walking in the street! I can’t believe it!” she snarled, and Aatu had to leap out of the way of her pacing or she might have run him over. “Oh. Hello again,” she said when she noticed him. “Did you see Veikko?”
“He’s looking into it. He thinks those men have gone back to their camp. He’ll tell your father what happened,” Aatu relayed the conversation to her as he hung up his coat and set his spear next to the door.
Taika growled low in her throat. “Why doesn’t anyone do something about them?!” she demanded, then looked stricken. “I’m sorry, Aatu. I didn’t mean that. I know you can’t fight all of them by yourself.”
Aatu nodded jerkily. He couldn’t breathe; there was a weight pressing on his chest and throat. It was shame. Taika was hurt and he could do nothing. “I’m sorry,” he said quietly. “I’m sorry I can’t protect you from them.”
She touched his cheek. “I’m sorry. It’s not your fault. It’s not,” she repeated when he shook his head. “I was angry and spoke without thinking about what I was saying.”
“You’re right to be angry. I am. I think everyone is.” He led her back to her abandoned seat. “But there is a plan. Veikko told us to keep it secret, but I think he just wants to be sure the Sword-Brothers don’t learn about it ahead of time. We’re going to fight them. We have to wait until the next full moon, then we’ll kill as many as we can. After that, the rest won’t want to stay here any longer.”