Keeper of the Wolves

by Cheree Alsop

  A collective intake of breath swept through the crowd and the mood tightened. Joven waited until murmurs slowed, then spoke quietly, “What about the Viel, Herder Thackod?” His voice was carefully calm, but I heard the underlying tension he hid.

  “Well, m’Lord,” the Herder began. He paused and scuffed a toe on the top step, then seemed to realize what he was doing and stopped. He cleared his throat and looked up. “I seen two of ‘em in the field day afore last.”

  The answering shock that met his words turned the air acrid. I studied the crowd, wondering how even the appearance of a creature could send such fear through them. Joven cleared his throat and I realized that the Herder’s admission had startled even him. “I would ask you if you are sure, but we both know the consequences for saying such a thing lightly,” Joven said in a tone laced with caution.

  The Herder nodded. “I know, m’Lord. It was them.”

  I glanced at Joven. He nodded and a line of worry creased his brow. “I’ll speak to the Valley Guardians and find out how any Viel managed to get through.” He said the word Viel as if it tasted like bitter lemonroot. “I’ll have answers by the next Petitioner’s Court.”

  “I’d be obliged,” the Herder replied with an accepting nod. He stepped back into the crowd and was lost amid the now solemn assembly.

  By the time the last petitioner had been heard, the light from the setting sun showed through the high colored windows. The petitioners were grateful for the most part and left quietly. I heard the sound of more than one hungry stomach as they filed out the door to the courtyard.

  “The issues are increasing,” Koya said quietly to Joven.

  “We will continue to handle them with ease,” he replied with a shadow of his jovial smile.

  Koya’s eyebrows lifted. “You call that easy?”

  He laughed and offered a hand to help his sister stand. Rasmus stepped from the other side of Joven’s chair and led the way to the door.

  “Lord Joven?” the Master Recorder called. “May I borrow a moment of your time to verify an item in the records?”

  “Certainly,” Joven replied. He threw us a glance. “Go get some dinner and rest. I’ll catch up.”

  Rasmus led the way out the back door and across the short-trimmed grass. The sun had almost set; only a faint sliver of blushing red and steel gray touched the horizon. A shudder ran through me and I felt the call to change. I paused and closed my eyes, pushing past the need until I was in a place where it wouldn’t compromise everyone. I gritted my teeth against the exhaustion that echoed the self-control. My body had not yet recovered, and the change demanded by moonlight took every bit of strength I had.

  A tiny gasp of surprise brought my head up. Koya was jerked roughly around the corner of the castle into one of the many arched alcoves. Rasmus shouted something in his rough voice. I loped the few feet to the corner, then stopped. My heartbeat thundered in my ears. A stranger held a knife to Koya’s throat. They faced Rasmus so the intruder’s back was to me, but the scent of fear from Koya and hatred from the stranger left no doubt as to his intentions.

  I stalked slowly forward and weighed my options. If I startled him, he could cut her. A horse stomped; I located the midnight black animal waiting near a stand of trees. He intended to get her to the horse and ride away, that much was clear. Rasmus didn’t have a horse and his fear for Koya’s life would keep him from acting. They drew closer to the waiting animal. I had no choice.

  I stalked on silent paws behind the pair, then let out a snarl that held the fury of a dozen demons. The intruder’s muscles tightened and he spun, letting Koya go in his shock. She ducked under his arm and ran to Rasmus. The scent of blood colored the air and I saw a fine line of red across her throat where the knife had cut her. Another snarl tore from my throat and the man’s eyes widened. He glanced from me to his horse, then took off running toward the beast.

  I looked at Rasmus. Every instinct screamed for me to chase the man as he mounted the horse and kicked it into a gallop, but Koya had been hurt. Rasmus met my eyes. “Stop him,” he commanded.

  Fire ran through my limbs. I pressed my ears back against my skull and leaped after the horse. It turned past a line of short-cut shrubs and let out a shrill whinny when it saw it was being chased. The man kicked it, and used the ends of his reins to whip its flanks. The horse’s hooves clattered against the cobblestones as it turned another corner of shrubs and fought to keep its feet.

  My heart pounded with every beat of my paws against the stone walkway. When caged, I could only remember the thrill of the chase with an ache that made the iron bars demons guarding against my freedom. I had forgotten the way blood pulsed through my veins in demand of the pursuit and the wind flowed through my fur with the whisper of the prey beckoning me on. My muscles flexed and contracted in a rhythm my body had never forgotten. My paws barely grazed the ground. The scent of fear from my prey drove me faster. I was a wolf again.

  The last corner the man turned was his mistake. Adrenaline flooded my limbs. I closed the distance between us, then leaped over the shrubs and barreled into the man on the horse’s back. The horse fell with the impact. I grabbed the intruder’s shoulder in my jaws and bit down. He let out a scream. The horse struggled free and trotted a few feet away, its eyes rolling and nostrils flaring.

  Red filled my vision. My heart thundered in my ears so only the rhythmic thud and the sound of the man’s terror-filled yells were all that I heard. It was the same triumph I felt when I brought down a deer with the pack. Koya was safe and the intruder should die. The man struggled. I bit down harder. Bone crunched beneath my jaws.

  A hand touched the fur on my back. Another shudder ran down my body at the unaccustomed sensation. “Let him go,” Joven said. His voice was tight and his breathing was short and fast.

  “We’ve got it from here,” Rasmus echoed in a reassuring tone.

  I didn’t want to let go. Someone stepped in front of me and crouched down. It was Joven, his blue eyes wide and carefully coiffed hair disheveled. “You can let him go, Keeper,” he said quietly. “We’ll take care of him.”

  I blinked at the familiarity of his words. He gave me a tight but reassuring smile. Instincts screamed for me to end the man’s life. When a wolf was threatened, the pack did what it must to end the danger. I didn’t want to let the man go for fear he would try to hurt Koya again. I should kill him. That was the only way to protect her.

  “It’s alright,” Rasmus said. “Koya’s safe. You did well.”

  I met his calm gray eyes. Reassurance washed from him in a confident tide. He wanted to take the man away. He wouldn’t let him hurt Koya again. The human want to give in to his wishes warred with my wolf instincts to end the threat forever. Despair hammered at the back of my thoughts. I was alone in Vielkeep. I wasn’t human, I wasn’t a wolf. I was a scattered mess of both trapped in a single mind, and each side tore at me with the frantic need to be heard. I had to trust someone whose thoughts were clearer than my own.

  Despite instincts that demanded otherwise, I eased the pressure of my bite. The bitter taste of human blood coated my mouth. I opened my jaws and let the man fall to the ground, then took a step back. Rasmus dragged him a few feet away as though he barely weighed anything. Anger burned in the General’s eyes along with something else, fear. He had truly feared for Koya’s life, but had been able to keep it at bay long enough to reason with me.

  Koya! I found her standing near a handful of maids and guards on the walkway where I had left her. Tears showed on her cheeks in the fading light as a maid carefully cleaned the small cut on her neck. My chest heaved and another shudder ran through my body. It was more forceful this time, demanding to be acknowledged.

  Joven was watching me. “Go,” he said urgently.

  I ran down the path past Koya and those who tended to her. I thought I heard her call my name, or at least the name they had given me, but I couldn’t stop. I slid around a corner and dashed through the door someone had thankfully had
the foresight to leave open. My paws sunk in the thick carpet as I loped up the hall and into the room where I had spent my days recovering.

  My body shook with adrenaline and the promise of change. The image of the man holding a knife to Koya’s throat refused to leave my mind. My stomach rolled. I bit back my breakfast’s attempt to escape and took several shuddering deep breaths to calm myself. Moonlight spread across the floor. I couldn’t fight it anymore.

  A groan wrenched from my lips before my limbs stretched and muscles twisted. The pain and frustration of not being in control warred as I contorted and felt my fur disappear to leave me bare and cold. The wounds which had almost healed didn’t hurt as much as before. A healing ache filled me as my body settled into the human form.

  Chapter 7

  I lay on the carpet exhausted. I didn’t have the energy or will to move. My head throbbed from pressing my body far beyond what I should have, and my shoulder hurt. I must have hit it when I brought the rider down. I lay on my back and stared up at the moonlight that filtered through the slits in the wall. They had been filled with colored glass that changed the nighttime glow into a rainbow-hued tapestry across the dark carpet. I stretched my hand toward one and watched green and blue fall in waves along my palm.

  “Are you alright?”

  I sat up at Joven’s voice and pushed back against the bed. I pulled a blanket down to cover my nakedness. I felt exposed and bare without my fur, and the clothing the humans wore hinted that perhaps they felt the same way.

  Joven hesitated at the door to give me a moment to collect myself, then stepped inside. I appreciated his quiet, unassuming manner. Neither he nor Koya had been bothered when I couldn’t find the courage to talk in my human form. I didn’t trust a throat that felt unaccustomed to making wolf calls, let alone speak as they did.

  “I thought you might be exhausted after all that,” he said. He crossed the floor and crouched near the smoldering fireplace. Scents of confusion, frustration, and relief wafted from him. He was quiet for several moments as he arranged a few small logs on the coals and breathed the flames back to life. The flicker of orange and yellow played across his face. He studied the fire as though wishing it could reveal answers to his problems.

  He finally sighed and turned still in a crouch to face me. “I leave her for two seconds and look what happened.” He said the words as though he spoke them to himself, not to me. Regret and disbelief warred across his face. “She could have been killed.” His voice was soft and filled with self-criticism. He blamed himself for what might have happened.

  He glanced at me and a wry smile touched his lips. “Maybe I should have let you kill him.”

  I had thought the same thing when his blood filled my mouth and my teeth ground into the bones of his shoulder, but now I wasn’t so sure. The lingering taste of blood hid around my tongue and I wondered what it would have felt like to kill a man. He wasn’t a deer or a rabbit. He was a living, breathing man. But he had threatened my pack.

  I rubbed my eyes, wondering how I had come to regard humans as part of my pack, yet the same feelings were there. The terror and fury that filled my limbs when I saw Koya in danger were the same way I felt when any of the wolves were threatened. I had fought for them against other wolves, against mountain lions hungry for a share of our kill, and against grizzly bears angry enough at an invasion of their territory to take on a full pack of healthy wolves. For Koya, I would fight any of those creatures and more to keep her safe.

  I pushed my tangled brown hair back from my face. It was matted and soaked with sweat, but I felt healthier despite the exhaustion that weighed down my limbs. I took a deep breath and let it out between my teeth.

  “I know how you feel,” Joven replied quietly. I looked up to find him watching me. His eyes creased, drawing his brows together. “I don’t know how to thank you. I don’t know how you can just throw yourself into danger without regard for your safety, but I appreciate it.” He tipped his head back to indicate the door. “Rasmus is interrogating the prisoner to find out who sent him.”

  A few more seconds of silence filled the room. Rising to leave, he said, “You deserve a break. I should go.”

  He stood and an answering pang of regret tightened my chest. He wasn’t that bad, and sometimes it was nice not to be alone, but I couldn’t say it. I pulled the blanket closer and watched him leave. My shoulder gave an answering throb of pain.

  He walked to the door and was about to step out when a howl sounded. The wolves had howled every night but without the anger, threat, and frustration of the night during my fever. My heart lifted at hearing them. I felt the reassurance in their tone and knew they were healthy and finding enough to eat in the forest outside Vielkeep’s walls. I missed them with a deep ache, but hearing them calmed the turmoil in my mind.

  “I have an idea,” Joven said thoughtfully.

  He disappeared out the door without explaining. I waited by the bed too worn out to inch closer to the fire that now crackled happily in the fireplace. Small waves of heat chased the chill from my limbs. I closed my eyes and listened to the howls fade away. A door opened and footsteps crossed the soft carpet from the outside door toward my room. I recognized Joven’s steps, not rushed but steady. He never seemed to hurry if he could help it, but he wasn’t one to falter if he had something to do.

  “Still awake?” he asked when he pushed open the inner door. He gave me a cheery smile as he set a pile of cloth on the floor near me. “I wouldn’t blame you if you slept. You look like the wrong side of a water ox.

  I rolled my eyes, something I had picked up from the way Rasmus responded to similar comments, and Joven chuckled. “You mimic human behaviors quite well.” He glanced at me. “I wonder if I’ve picked up any wolfish ones.”

  He gave me a long, hard stare. My heart slowed and I fought back the urge to bare my teeth. He had picked up the wolf challenge perfectly. I wondered when he had noticed it. I reminded myself to stay calm. Such a look brought a sure fight among wolves. I had often given the same look during my confinement, but it had been a full year since any creature challenged me so.

  A smile turned up the corners of Joven’s lips and chased away the stare. “You should see yourself,” he said. “You’d have thought I just called your mother something quite unmentionable. Remind me to steer clear of you on a bad day.”

  I breathed through my nose and willed my muscles to relax. I hadn’t noticed that my hands were clenched. When I opened my fingers the skin was white with tension.

  “I brought you some clothes.” At my surprised look, he tipped his head toward the door in another wolflike gesture. “You don’t plan to go traipsing out there nude, do you?” I glanced down at the blanket and he chuckled. “Walking the grounds in a quilt is as close to naked as you can get. I don’t need the whole castle in an uproar, especially if we’re to see the wolves unnoticed.”

  It was my turn to stare. My heart jumped at the thought of being near my pack again, but experience had taught me to be wary of the ways of humans. I waited for him to laugh or say he was kidding, but he just watched me expectantly. When I didn’t move, he held out the bundle of cloth again. “Think you can figure these out?” he asked in a voice that said I better because he wasn’t about to venture in that area.

  I nodded and he rose and left the room without another word. I stared at the clothes for a second in uncertainty, but the chance to see the wolves was too great. I grabbed the brown jerkin and slipped it over my head so it sat the way Joven’s did. The cloth was soft but it felt confining and tight. When I moved my shoulders, they pulled against the seams. I took it as a wolf would, accepting the inevitable and holding onto the things I could control. I pulled on leather leggings that held a lingering scent of yearling buck above the pungent smell of the chemicals used for tanning and dye. I skipped the shoes and socks, preferring instead to feel the contours of the floor and the ground we would walk across. One could tell a lot about the land by the feeling of the ground underfo
ot.

  I walked to the door. My head swam and my body protested walking when it wanted to rest and get over the remains of sickness, but I pushed past it and opened the door. The knob was smooth and the color of wheat. It was cold to the touch when I turned it the way I had seen Joven and Koya do. Two voices met me when I opened it.

  “Do you think it’s a good idea?” Koya asked softly.

  “You should have seen him,” Joven replied. “He needs to see his wolves. He deserves it.” His voice lowered. “We owe him that at least.”

  “I didn’t mean he shouldn’t see them,” she replied. “I just worry about all that’s happened with him being sick and taking down the assassin. I don’t want him to hurt more.”

  My heart gave a strange thump at her voice. I saw the image of her with the knife at her throat. Her eyes were wide with fear, but she didn’t cry even when the blade pricked her skin. She was brave, and I should have been there before she got hurt. The need to see her with my own eyes and make sure she was alright sent me into the hallway.

  Both siblings turned, but my gaze went straight to Koya. She looked composed and beautiful in a light blue dress the color of a robin’s egg wrapped in a dark blue shawl that hinted at midnight walks and quiet conversations. Her fingers were tangled together in front of her, the only sign of the stress she had endured. A white bandage spread along her beautiful pale neck as a reminder of how close I had come to losing her.

  When my eyes finally rested on hers, I read pain in them and well-masked fear. Her gaze widened at my clothes, and the corners of her eyes creased slightly at my bare feet.

  “Is this your doing?” she asked Joven.

  He grinned proudly. “Looks almost human, doesn’t he?” He laughed at his own joke, then gestured toward my feet. “Of course, the lords and ladies wouldn’t approve of such casual footwear.”