Keeper of the Wolves

by Cheree Alsop

  Her tone left no room for argument, but the thought of being inside the stone structure again sent a different sort of chill through my body. I refused in the only way I knew how, by turning my head away and pretending I hadn’t heard.

  She let out a muffled laugh and I glanced back to see her holding a delicate hand over her mouth. “The big scary wolf ignores me just like my brother.” She acted like she was offended, but the light that sparkled in her blues eyes made them dance with amusement. The look sent a surge of wonder through me.

  I didn’t know a human could have so many expressions. Wolves made their feelings known through scents, the flick of an ear, the brush of a tail, the slight baring of teeth, and a thousand whines and sounds that meant a myriad of emotions, thoughts, and feelings. In my human form, I felt so inadequate at communicating.

  But the subtle lift of her chin, the slight raise of an eyebrow, a twist of her lips, or the merest touch of her hand could make my heart race as though I had run an entire day without stopping. I would give anything just to be able to watch her, though I wasn’t sure if my heart could stand much more. As it was, it jumped and skittered sideways when she looked at me directly as though she saw past the wolf exterior into my soul. I wished I knew what kind of a soul she saw.

  She stood suddenly; I rose beside her. “I need to think about some things,” she said. “I would appreciate it if you gave me the honor of walking with me.” Her brows creased slightly and a touch of concern colored her eyes. “Unless your paw hurts. I wasn’t thinking of that.”

  I gave a slight huff at the thought that she considered me too weak for a walk. After being confined in the cage for so long, a walk sounded divine. I nudged her leg with my shoulder, surprised at my own forwardness. She laughed and ran her fingers along the top of my head in a way that sent warmth through my body.

  “Alright. I guess I won’t doubt your strength,” she said with a smile. She let her hand trail on my back as we walked through the garden. I limped but tried to keep it to a minimum in case she decided it was bothering me too much and asked me to stay behind. I needed as much fresh air as I could get before I faced the confines of walls again. Walls were too similar to cages, and I had experienced my fair share of cages.

  Chapter 4

  “These are the stables,” she said quietly, continuing the tour that began at the gardens and past the forge that smelled of iron and fire along with the hawkery filled with an amazing assortment of birds bound with hoods and jesses. I pitied the animals, but surprisingly didn’t smell despair or sorrow within the airy confines of the wooden building; instead, I smelled determination, fighting spirit, and strength. The birds, it seemed, enjoyed their lives of service. I wondered how anything wild could stand such a life.

  The strong scent of horses, manure, hay, water in iron buckets, leather worked with grease, and a few dozen families of mice who braved the stalking cats assailed my nose. Horses snorted and whinnied as they nosed through their feed. Flat teeth ground bits of corn and barley while the animals used their sharper front teeth to break stalks of hay down to a manageable size. Different emotions drifted along the scents, the odors of determination and strength mixed with the heady scent of pride and self-confidence. It seemed the horses were well aware of the respect their size and power heralded.

  “What’s this?” a voice demanded in a tone so haughty and angry my hackles rose.

  I turned to see the same man who had demanded my removal from the castle.

  Instead of backing down in the face of his anger, the girl held up a hand. “Joven, hear me out.”

  Joven stopped a few feet away; his blue eyes, a shade paler than the girl’s, burned into my own. “When Stable Master Tragen told me you had the wolf out of his cage, I thought he was mad.” He swung an arm in a grand gesture to indicate my presence. “Yet here I am, made to look a fool by my own sister.”

  The stable master hung near the corner of the stables, his eyes apologetic and studiously glued to the ground at his feet.

  “You don’t need me to make you look like a fool,” the girl replied. Her brother gave her a wide-eyed look of surprise and she ducked her head. “Sorry. That was uncalled for.”

  He nodded, but his tone gentled a notch. “You can’t trust that animal, Koya. He’s dangerous.” He kept his eyes on me as he spoke as if he expected me to turn and attack her at any moment. “Step away and let Master Tragen take him back to the cage before anyone gets hurt.”

  Koya kept her hand on my back. “He’s not just an animal. He has feelings and-”

  He cut her off with a frustrated sweep of his hand. “You’re being ridiculous. Do you know what would happen if the Heirs knew you were walking around alone with a beast that turns into a man and talks to wolves? You would never find a suitor.”

  I glanced up to see Koya’s cheeks touch with red before defiance flashed in her eyes. “Maybe it’s for the best. I don’t want any of them anyway.”

  Joven stepped forward and took his sister’s upper arms in a tight grip. He seemed to have forgotten my presence entirely. “We need them, Koya. We can’t lose Vielkeep.”

  She winced and a snarl rose in my throat. Joven’s eyes widened and he looked from me to his hands on Koya’s arms. He dropped them as though shocked by his own actions. “I’m sorry, Koya. I didn’t mean-”

  “I know,” she cut him off and said to me, “It’s alright.” The snarl died in my throat but I kept my teeth bared. No one would hurt her while I was near.

  He shook his head and rubbed his eyes with one hand. “It’s not,” he said. “You don’t deserve that.” He glanced at me. “But he’s not safe to have around. You know better. It’s not . . . .”

  My attention was caught by a thunder of hooves and the shouting of men from the stables. A scent of fear and rage reached me a second before a great black stallion with hooves the size of tree trunks charged around the corner. His eyes rolled wildly and he snorted, tossing his mane and stomping a hoof before he charged at Joven and Koya; stable hands ran frantically after him.

  There wasn’t time to think. I leaped at the animal just before he reached the siblings and grabbed his nose the way I had many times before to bring down an elk or a moose for the pack. My sudden weight jerked the horse’s head down and he flipped both of us over.

  I was thrown against the wall of the stable by the force of his momentum. I got up the instant I hit the ground and limped back over to the stallion. By that time the stable hands had reached him and threaded ropes through his halter. His nose was bleeding and he snorted, but when he got back up it was obvious the fight had left him. The servants led him away at the stable master’s command.

  “I sincerely apologize, your Highnesses,” Master Tragen said. His cheeks were flushed with the exertion of helping with the horse; anger burned in his eyes. “I will get to the bottom of what is going on around here.”

  “Have that animal put down,” Joven barked in a voice of command.

  My heart skipped a beat for an instant at the thought that he was referring to me, but his eyes were on the retreating stallion as he held Koya protectively to his side. She looked little worse for the danger, but her face was pale and she held her brother’s arm tight enough to turn his skin white. Despite her fear, she shook her head. “No, Joven. Don’t kill it, please.”

  He opened his mouth to argue, but when he glanced down at his sister’s face, he sighed and looked at the stable master. “What’s wrong with the beast?”

  Master Tragen kept his eyes glued to the ground as he stuttered, “H-he was your father’s breeding stallion, my Lord. The animal is always unruly, but his paddock is gated and locked to avoid just such an incident.” His eyes narrowed though he kept his gaze at their feet. “I will find out who is responsible for his escape, my Lord.”

  Joven nodded and brushed his hand in a gesture of dismissal. “See that you do, Master Tragen.”

  “T-thank you, my Lord.” The man bowed so low the hem of his black jerkin brushed
the ground. “My Lord, my Lady.” He spun and disappeared into the stables so fast dust rose at his departure.

  Koya dropped to her knees heedless of the dirt. “Are you alright?” she asked. She put her arms around my neck and I felt her shaking. She hid her fear well, but now that the danger was gone, it seemed she couldn’t hold it back. Her scent of meadow gold and vanilla filled my nose. “He could have killed us.”

  I glanced up to see Joven watching me. I held his eyes until he shifted his gaze to his sister. “Yes, he could have.”

  Koya looked up at his strange tone, but he continued as if he didn’t notice. “A wolf big enough to bring down a charging stallion might turn a few heads.”

  Her eyebrows creased. “What are you talking about?”

  A sudden light of excitement lit his gaze and he crouched so we were eye level. “Koya, do you really think he can be trusted?”

  She watched him with a touch of caution in her eyes. “He just threw himself in front of a horse for us without regard for his own safety. I feel he’s proven himself.”

  “You don’t think the occasional staff member will turn up missing if he’s around?” Joven pressed.

  Koya’s mouth fell open. I snorted in disbelief at what her brother implied. Joven sat back so quickly he almost tripped over his feet. He dusted the knees of his white trousers even though no dirt had gotten on them. “You mean he understands us?” The seriousness of his tone was confirmed by the tightness of his mouth and the way his eyes took me in as though he saw me for the first time.

  She nodded. “I tried to tell you.”

  Joven glanced around, then stood up quickly and pulled Koya up with him. His fingers tightened around her arm and I lifted my lips in the beginning of a snarl. Joven’s eyes widened and he dropped his hand. “I don’t know why I do that,” he said in an apologetic undertone.

  “I know why,” Koya replied softly.

  Joven looked as though her words struck him to the core. He opened his mouth to say something, then shook his head and grimaced. “We’ll talk about that later. Right now, this takes precedence.” He looked at me directly as though he addressed a comrade instead of an animal. His forwardness took me by surprise. “Are you trustworthy?”

  Koya put a hand on his arm. “What are you talking about?”

  He shook his head. “Koya, this is important.” He met my gaze again. “Can we trust you?”

  I let my head dip briefly as I had seen his stable master do when answering a question with agreement.

  Joven’s eyes lit up and he looked back at his sister. “Who else knows about this?” He indicated me by opening his hand as though setting a firefly free.

  She thought quickly. “Only Rasmus, his two captains, and the squires who carried the cage here.”

  “They must be sworn to secrecy,” Joven said quickly, thinking aloud. “Rasmus can be trusted, and anyone else can be bought.”

  “I don’t know what you’re-”

  Joven cut his sister off mid-sentence. “Hush, Koya. There are eyes and ears everywhere. The less spoken aloud, the better. Let’s return to the garden.”

  I limped beside them through the rear courtyard and felt eyes watching our every step. Joven was right.

  “Was he limping this bad earlier?” Joven asked.

  Koya shook her head, her voice filled with concern. “I think he had a fever before we left the garden. I’m worried he has an infection from the whip wounds, and who knows what damage Father’s stallion caused. We should get the healers to look at him.”

  I gritted my teeth and tried not to show such a pronounced limp, but my paw hurt and my left shoulder had been the first thing to hit the stable wall, adding to the pain. The heaviness of sickness was settling over my body, making my muscles ache. The sunlight hurt my eyes but I tried not to let it show.

  Joven looked down at me and appraisal of my efforts crossed his face. I couldn’t decide how I felt about that. Wolves didn’t show pain when it could be helped, especially around strangers. Weakness was something the wild did away with quickly. I wondered if the same applied to living in a castle.

  “No healers. They can’t be trusted. He needs to rest, especially with the Heirs coming soon. There’s a lot to learn.”

  “I was thinking a fire would do- what about the Heirs?” Koya asked in surprise. “What do they have to do with anything?”

  “Hush, sister. One step at a time.” Joven sounded pleased with himself as though he had just worked out a puzzle that had been bothering him for quite a while. He led us through the garden to a side door and we entered a wing of the castle that smelled as if it was seldom used. He pulled open another door to reveal a clean, empty hallway that stretched in both directions. There were no signs of servants and the scent of whoever had cleaned last lingered from at least a week earlier.

  Koya and Joven entered before me. I hesitated at the door, reluctant to leave the fresh air and freedom of the gardens.

  “It’s alright,” Joven said, misunderstanding my reluctance. “No one will see us here.”

  Koya waited with a hand on the door, a knowing light in her eyes. “It’s not that. He’s been in a cage for who knows how long. I wouldn’t want to trade one cage for another, and I’m sure he doesn’t either.”

  Joven’s eyebrows lowered. “Can’t say I blame him.” He turned to me and said with stark honesty, “I don’t know why you’re hanging around. You could’ve run the second my sister opened the door, but I owe you my life and Koya’s after you brought down that stallion. I swear on my life that your freedom is your own. You’re welcome to leave whenever it suits you.” He grabbed a chair made of finely polished oak and used it to prop open the doorway. Sunlight filtered in to illuminate a rectangle of maroon carpet speckled with dancing dots of dust disturbed by our entrance.

  His words filled a hollow place in my chest that I hadn’t known existed. I glanced over my shoulder at the garden lit by the rich noonday sunlight, then took a deep breath and stepped into the hallway. The carpet sank underfoot plush and deep as if I walked through thick moss at the edge of a tranquil pond. Joven gave a nod of approval and led the way down the hall.

  “Why are we in Grandfather’s quarters?” Koya asked. She spoke quietly as though the hallway echoed with the footsteps of the departed.

  “Because he’s not using it,” Joven replied with a laugh that belied Koya’s reverence.

  “Joven, that’s not funny,” Koya said with a sharp edge to her tongue.

  Joven dipped his head to hide a smile. “Sorry, sister. I couldn’t resist. Grandfather would’ve approved.”

  A slight smile touched her lips. “Yes, he would have.”

  Joven took a breath and let it out quickly. “I figure that the best way for our wolf friend here to recuperate is to have space and time to himself, things he probably hasn’t had for a long while. Very few visit this wing and I’ll be careful to ascertain those who do are loyal to me. No reports will leave these quarters without my knowledge.”

  “What reports?”

  He glanced at Koya but didn’t answer the question. He pushed open a door that looked like all of the others except for the sigil of a falcon carved in the thick oak panel that stretched to twice the height of a human overhead.

  Koya let out a sigh of frustration and followed him into the room. “You’re keeping secrets.”

  He stopped like the words bothered him. He glanced from her to me, then pushed the hair back from his face with one hand. The golden circlet around his forehead caught briefly in the sunlight that trickled down through the high windows. “This castle hasn’t been our own for a long time.”

  Her lips pursed slightly as she studied him. “How long have you suspected that?”

  He shook his head. “Not suspected, known. Rasmus has captured and interrogated several spies. There are representatives from each of the other four duchies watching our every move.”

  Koya’s fingers tangled through my fur as she processed the information. H
er touch sent tiny surges of warmth through my skin. I fought to understand the depth of what they discussed through the fog of weariness that filled my mind, but the fact that both siblings were in danger was clear. A sharp chill ran through my body. My muscles gave a spasm in response and my breath caught in my throat. Joven’s eyes locked on me. “He needs a fire right away.”

  The brother and sister worked quickly. I settled onto the thick banterskin rug in front of the fireplace and watched them through a haze that made my head pound. The logs and kindling sent up a faint layer of dust into the air that smelled of cedar, maple, and a faint memory of the wind blowing through the forest challenging the trees to be stronger. An ache of homesickness answered in my chest.

  It was obvious watching the pair that they had never started a fire before. Joven finally had the logs and kindling set to his liking, but couldn’t get the sparks to catch. Koya managed to convince him to let her try, and struck the flint with her brother’s knife. She glanced back at me just as a spark flew onto a scrap of bark and caught.

  “Koya, you’ve got it,” Joven said excitedly. He sat back on his heels and didn’t seem to mind the ashes that coated the knees of his white pants.

  Koya blew on the faint flame until it leapt to life beneath the tinder. She pushed the small pile under the larger stack of logs and both siblings watched until the fire was burning well. The elation on Koya’s face made her eyes sparkle until she glanced down and saw me. I could barely keep my eyes open past a flood of heaviness that filled my limbs.

  “Joven, he’s in trouble,” she said. I felt the banterskin give slightly as she knelt by my side. Her hands touched my fur gently. I closed my eyes and withdrew to a blanket of darkness that consumed the pain and left me alone.

  Chapter 5

  “What’s his name?” a voice asked.

  “I’m not sure,” Koya responded, worry tightening her voice.

  Steady hands touched the whip marks across my back. “This seems to be healing. It’s his hand I’m worried about.”