Under the Wolf's Shadow

by A. Katie Rose

  “There they go again,” he snapped, his blue eyes angrier than the situation warranted.

  Just outside out perimeter, Bar and Feria screamed at one another, wings flaring, front talons slashing as they found, yet again, something to quarrel over. By now I knew griffin language well enough to know the two exchanged heated insults. No doubt they cursed each other, offering scathing comments on one another’s parentage and ability to fly. Like everyone else, I’d thought the two would instantly like each other, and coo and bill like a pair of love doves.

  Instead, they hated one another on sight. We all were treated to shrieks of animosity and rage, tempers flaring like outraged wings and the threat of battle at any moment.

  “Maybe that’s the way griffin’s court,” Yuras offered brightly as the two screeched like fishwives on a Soudan dock.

  “Shut up,” Yuri said. “You’re an idiot.”

  “Hey now–”

  “What’s wrong with them?” Witraz complained to me.

  When no one cuffed him for his lack of manners, Witraz paled. Cursing bitterly, he threw his saddle into the snow and stomped away.

  “Bar,” Ly’Tana called wearily.

  “Feria,” I said. “That’s enough. Chill, will you?”

  Bar screeched at Ly’Tana as she flapped a tired hand at him. “I don’t want to hear it. Leave her alone.”

  In a huff, Feria flounced across the snow toward me, complaining at the top of her lungs. While I understood not one griffin word, her attitude told me everything. “If you stay away from him, he can’t bother you, right?”

  That wasn’t the answer she craved. As she began her tirade again, I stopped her with a glare. “Leave him be. You understand?”

  Bar stalked to the far side of the mule train as Feria, bristling and angry, took her insulted feminine outrage to the other end. Both of them sulked, sending one another lightning glances of hate from narrowed, raptor eyes.

  “Bar’s jealous,” Ly’Tana explained with a tired smile. “She stole his thunder, turning the tide of battle appearing as she did. He’ll never forgive her that.”

  “Nor can Feria permit another griffin near me,” I said. “He may be male and not mine, but she doesn’t care. She’s as possessive a female as any I’d ever met.”

  I caught Ly’Tana’s wry grin, a genuine expression of humor. I wrapped her fingers within mine, keeping both the grin and her fingers for a while longer. Alun and Black Tongue died two days ago, but Ly’Tana’s sense of humor didn’t pass on with them. She’ll be all right, in time.

  “Of course she will. She’s as resilient as a wolf.”

  “Bite it,” I replied to Darius’ comment.

  By her drawings in the snow, Feria told her tale of following me for the past several weeks. From afar she watched and waited, patient, keeping me within her predatory vision. Firsthand, she recounted my capture by Ja’Teel, Tashira’s near death experience, our meeting with the Kel’Hallans and our battle with the Tongu. As I’d been, the Kel’Hallans were fascinated by her talent for expressing herself with art. That, of course, set Bar against her from the get-go. We could understand her, but not him.

  As the pair of angry griffins preened feathers as though absolutely unconcerned about anything, I thought back to the night following Alun’s burial. Ly’Tana and Feria walked formally together for the first time while I bit my thumb and sweated. No doubt the two females in my life would stalk about each other like angry cats, and I waited for the tempest to detonate. I sat by the blazing fire, Tuatha dozing in my lap, ready for the impending explosion.

  It never happened. As Ly’Tana spoke and Feria drew, the two communicated like twin sisters. Ly’Tana held up her exposed palm, waiting for Feria to take it. Her beak wide and laughing, Feria grasped it, enclosing Ly’Tana’s soft human hand without harm within her razor talons.

  “It seems your mate and your mistress like each other,” Rygel said in my ear, his tone amused. “One usually keeps them separate, you know.”

  I threw him a pained look. “Bugger off.” I bit my thumb harder.

  “He’s right,” Silverruff said as Rygel giggled his way to Arianne’s side. “They do seem to like one another.”

  Before I snarled a proper response, Tuatha raised his small voice. “Papa?” he asked from the depths of my lap. “What’s a mistress?”

  As Rygel snickered and Silverruff grinned, I glared. “Something you’ll learn to steer clear of,” I replied, a growl in my tone. “Time for bed.”

  “But–” he began, then caught my eye. “Yes, Papa.”

  Having chatted amicably for an hour or so, Ly’Tana and Feria walked back to camp, side by side, talking as though they’d known one another for years. Relief leached into my bones. My mate and my girlfriend found a common bond. Many men in my position might envy me.

  Bar sulked as he watched the pair talk and laugh together, his tufted ears flattened. With an angry twitch to his tail, he stalked away, clicking his beak in anger. His black-tipped tail lashed from side to side as he paused to glare over his tawny shoulder. Ly’Tana no doubt loved him as much as she always did, and Feria could never, ever, sever that. Yet Bar, I’m certain, decided Feria intended to steal Ly’Tana from him.

  Drawn suddenly back into the present, I floundered a bit when Kel’Ratan spoke.

  “We can’t have those two bickering all the way to hell and back.”

  We certainly could not.

  Thinking of the words I’d need to say within the next hour, I kept my arm over Tashira’s heavy neck. Turning his head, he gazed at me with those huge, liquid brown eyes, knowing already what lay within my mind.

  “I won’t agree, you know,” he said.

  “Oh?” I asked, my brow hiked as I stroked his tiny ears. “You seem to think you’ve a choice.”

  “I’ll follow you,” he snapped, his nostrils flaring red. “I did it before.”

  I jerked my head at the ruthless cliffs and rivers of ice that reared high above us. “Take a good look at that, Tashira,” I replied, the torment of the past two days making my tone sharper than I intended. “Take a bloody long look and use your damn head. You cannot survive up there. You almost died through your foolish recklessness. Don’t do it again.”

  “I hate humans,” he snapped, his ears vanishing into the dark depths of his mane.

  “I’m glad I’m not one,” I replied, my humor returning. “You know I’m right.”

  “I hate that most of all.”

  “Come on.” I walked toward the massed group of people, wolves and horses. “I’m hungry.”

  Despite his irritation, Tashira walked with his nose to my shoulder, his dark shadow towering over me. Ly’Tana and Arianne sat on two rocks planted side by side as they ate, Tuatha between them, gazing raptly upward and licking his whiskers. Kel’Ratan, Witraz, Rannon and Corwyn stood behind them, their midday meal in their hands. Left and Right squatted off to one side, munching on cold meat and colder cheese. Lightfoot and Dire curled into furry balls, eyes closed, caught twins naps at their feet.

  Rygel stood with Shardon, their backs to the group. Rygel ate his meal as they stood gazing up at the high range just as I had. No doubt, Rygel and Shardon had reached the same conclusions as I.

  As usual, Yuri, Yuras and Tor formed their own little group outside the main circle, only Tor sitting on a handy rock. He hand fed Kip from his own meal, the smallish wolf accepting daintily. I half-paused, struck by how much Tor had grown since I first met him in the Whoring Whale. While he hadn’t grown much taller, the constant exercise and the fight practice he put in with the blond brothers layered hard muscle onto the young man. Unlike the timid boy I met then, Tor moved with the quick, economic grace of a natural fighter. While I hadn’t seen the entire battle, I did catch quick glimpses of Tor’s ability with his bow.

  Shaking my head, smiling a little, I walked on. Silverruff, Thunder and Digger trotted forward, jaws wide and tails waving.

  “With your permission, Big Dog,” Sil
verruff said. “We’d like to go hunting. Digger scented some elk not far away.”

  I smiled down at him and rubbed his ears. “Give me a few moments, lads,” I said. “I have something that needs said first, and you should be here. Can you wait a bit?”

  “Sounds important,” Thunder said, his tongue caught between his fangs, his ears up. “For some reason, I don’t think we’re going to much like it. Are we?”

  “Probably not,” I answered at the same moment Tashira snorted, “No, you won’t.”

  “Raine,” Ly’Tana called, waving me over. She held up my own fare in invitation for me to join her. I waved my hand, telling her just a moment. I wheeled on Tashira.

  “Don’t you go blasting off your mouth,” I snapped.

  “Oh, and rob me the pleasure of telling them how you plan to pop out of existence again? I don’t think so.”

  Before I could growl at him, Nahar and Little Bull loped toward me from the southern edge of our camp.

  “Big Dog,” Little Bull panted, his tongue lolling. “That cat is back.”

  “What cat–” I began, then stopped. Tenzin’s panther. Shirel.

  “Leave her alone,” I said. “She’s probably hungry and hunting.”

  “You don’t understand,” Nahar said, glancing over his shoulder. “It’s following us. It’s creeping up behind the women even now.”

  Behind the women was a short ravine, choked with broken boulders and the sleeping remains of scanty, tough thorny bramble. If Shirel crept close enough–

  I broke into a run, Tashira clattering to keep up. Nahar and Little Bull scattered left and right, aiming to outflank the panther before she launched her attack. Silverruff, Digger and Thunder raced ahead, planting their huge, snarling bodies between Ly’Tana and Arianne’s vulnerable backs and the ravine.

  Ly’Tana jumped up, spilling her lunch from her lap. “What’s wrong?”

  In that instant, the panther leaped from the cover of the ravine, ears flat, yellow eyes slanted with her sharp fangs bared. She snarled at the massive wolves facing her, her long lean body flat to the ground. She extended her legs outward with those razor-tipped claws out and ready. Her lithe tail lashed from side to side.

  “Stop!” Arianne screeched, stumbling to her feet and spinning, her meal dumped into the snow.

  At the commotion, Rygel and Shardon covered the short distance in a flash, Rygel’s hands ready to blast the cat into ashes. Corwyn cursed, seizing his sword, and also ran into the midst of the conflict. The Kel’Hallan warriors and their wolves forgot everything and drew both weapons and fangs, ready to defend my sister. Even the griffins put aside their irritation and, wings wide, flew low over the ground to the far side of the ravine. Should Shirel break and run, she wouldn’t get past their sharp beaks and wicked talons.

  “Stop, I say. Now!”

  At Arianne’s sharp order, all of us, men, wolves, griffins, Tarbane, halted as though frozen in the moment.

  “She won’t hurt anyone,” Arianne cried, ducking around the wolf barrier to stand between them and the hissing cat.

  “Get away from there,” Kel’Ratan bellowed, striding forward and nocking an arrow to his bow.

  “She’s come for me,” Arianne insisted, not budging.

  “We know that,” I snapped. “Clear the way so she won’t hurt you.”

  “She won’t hurt me, dammit.” Arianne’s temper flared as she turned toward me, tears flowing though her magnificent eyes blazed. “She has no one else. Tenzin is dead. She knows I can care for her.”

  “She wants you for lunch, Princess,” Witraz said, his bow nocked and ready. His single eye squinted down his arrow.

  “Put down your weapons, warriors,” Arianne commanded, her eyes glaring around at us all. “Wolves stand down, now. At ease, soldiers. That’s an order.”

  I blinked. Damn, that tone might have come from my father himself.

  “She’s his daughter after all,” Darius said. “She’s come into her own.”

  “I reckon so,” I replied, too stunned to speak aloud.

  One by one, the wolves melted away, ready to attack should Arianne be proved wrong about the panther. The Kel’Hallans glanced at one another, at Kel’Ratan, at Ly’Tana, before returning swords to sheaths and arrows to quivers. Ly’Tana, still holding her own bow nocked and ready, lowered it to glance first toward me then my sister.

  “Are you sure?” she asked.

  “Of course,” Arianne snapped, still irritated. “She told me, didn’t she?”

  “She did?” I asked, stepping toward her. My hand behind my back commanded Silverruff and the others to relax.

  “Don’t make me repeat myself,” she growled.

  “Told you.”

  As the menace around her collapsed and the threats drew away, Shirel raised her body off the ground. However, her tail still lashed and her ears rose only to half-mast. She, too, growled low in her throat, her slanted yellow eyes moving slowly back and forth as she sized up the danger to her life. When Arianne turned toward her and snapped her fingers, the panther walked, stiff-legged and growling, toward her.

  My hand gripped my sword of its own accord. If she was wrong–

  The big panther lowered her head and rubbed not just against my sister’s hand, but along her body. Her tail rose as she curled tight about Arianne’s legs and waist, just as she did that day when Ja’Teel transported the three of us into Brutal’s grasp. The big cat showed an unusual interest in Arianne, and entwined her lithe cat’s body about her then as she did now.

  As before, Arianne smiled in delight and hugged the panther close. Her hands rubbed up and down her feline body, scratching ears, relieving the itch the silver chain left on her neck, rubbing her cheek against the cat’s in love. I winced at the closeness of Arianne’s throat to those long fangs, but I heard the distant rumble as Shirel purred in contentment.

  “I reckon they like each other,” Rannon said, his voice awed.

  “She’s hungry,” Arianne sighed, resting her cheek against the panther’s neck, her small arms around Shirel’s shoulders. “She doesn’t know how to hunt. Tenzin raised her from a kitten, always fed her. He was cruel, but she didn’t know how to leave him.”

  “Now he’s dead,” Ly’Tana continued, he voice filled with awe. “She sought you out. Because you can understand her.”

  “And because I care,” Arianne said simply. “We can spare something for her, can’t we? She hasn’t eaten for days.”

  Tor, our camp cook, fetched a large roast of elk from our stores and tossed it toward the panther. She pounced like a house cat on a mouse. With her claws digging in deep, she lay down and gnawed on it as though it might yet come alive and escape. Arianne’s hand caressed her from ears to back, again and again, crooning to her in a soft voice.

  “I suspect one more protector couldn’t hurt,” I said, raising a small grin. “She can be Arianne’s bodyguard.”

  “Still want one, Princess?” Rygel grinned, his laughing tawny eyes on Ly’Tana.

  Finally putting up her arrow and lowering her bow, Ly’Tana managed a small grin. She glanced aside as Digger and Thunder sat at her flanks, gazing at her with wide, adoring eyes. At last she met my humorous smile. “I think I like wolves better.”

  “Show’s over,” I said. I waved at the still cautious warriors. “Eat. We’ve one more join us, so what. You’ll accept her quickly enough.”

  By now the griffins returned to their watchful posts of eyeing one another in hate. The wolves relaxed their vigilance and their hackles, as their warriors once more ate their midday meal. I saw no few glances of interest toward the huge panther that devoured the roast at Arianne’s feet.

  I curled my legs under me and sat down beside Ly’Tana on the frozen ground.

  “Time to come clean,” Tashira said, quite loud.

  “Dammit,” I muttered, glowering at him over my shoulder.

  “Come clean about what?” Ly’Tana asked, in the process of handing me my food. “What’s
he talking about?”

  “Raine’s plan to desert us all. Again.”

  Ly’Tana dropped my food from her hand before I reached it.

  I sighed as my lunch tumbled into the churned snow and exposed tundra. Oh, well. Wolves aren’t picky about meat scattered with a little dirt and loose pine needles. I brushed most of the dirt and needles off, raising the cold roast to my mouth.

  It fell again when Ly’Tana grabbed my arm.

  “You bloody well won’t,” she hissed, emerald eyes as menacing as Shirel’s.

  “Please,” I said, pained. “My lunch.”

  “Bugger your lunch,” Ly’Tana screeched, imitating an outraged jackdaw, and flung it from me even as I reached for it. The meat rolled into Shirel’s hungry path. In a lightning move, Shirel extended a paw and snared it onto a sharp claw. She dragged it toward her, hugging it close until she finished the first one.

  “But I’m hungry,” I complained, yearning toward my captured meal.

  “Leave me and you’ll never want for food again,” she warned, her voice low and eyes flashing. “I’ll gut you, stem to stern, if you think you can abandon me.”

  I scowled. “Who said anything about me abandoning anyone?”

  Ly’Tana recoiled. “But, he said–”

  “It’s your own damn fault you listen to that idiot.”

  “I’m not–”

  “I refuse to speak a word until I’m fed,” I declared, crossing my arms over my chest. “Heed that black moron if you choose, but you’ll learn nothing from me.”

  With an irritated sigh, Ly’Tana signaled Tor, who brought me more roast and cheese, and a heel of hard bread. I devoured it with gusto, perversely enjoying the anger and overt hostility Tashira intentionally raised. As they waited with growing irritation, I slowly finished, tossing a few morsels to Silverruff.

  “Get on with it,” Silverruff grumbled. “Say your peace so we can go hunt. We’re hungry.”

  I drank from a skin of water, meeting Ly’Tana’s snapping green eyes. I grinned, wiping my mouth.

  “You’re enjoying this,” she accused. “Aren’t you?”