Secrets of the Wolves

by Dorothy Hearst

  “TaLi of the Lin tribe,” the old woman said, “I pass to you the responsibilities and privileges of a krianan of Lin. It is your task to ensure that those you serve honor the Balance, that they do not kill too much prey, nor strip bare the forests or the plains. As krianan it will be your responsibility to ensure that those under your protection do not forget that they are creatures of the world of nature, and that their pride does not overcome this knowledge. It is your duty to keep forever the promise the krianans have made to cherish and protect the world that gives us nourishment, shelter, and life itself. If you accept this task, you will not be able to change your mind. It becomes more important than your life, more important than any man you take as mate or children you may bear. You will defend the Balance until your death. If the Lin tribe ceases to exist, you do not cease to be krianan. Wherever you go it is your sacred task. Do you accept?”

  TaLi straightened, every muscle in her body taut with determination. “I do accept it.”

  The old woman smiled. “Good,” she said. She took TaLi’s face in both of her hands and pressed her lips to TaLi’s forehead then looked in the girl’s face for a long time. “Once all of this is over, we will go outside the valley to the other elder krianans, and you can begin your initiation.”

  I almost yelped aloud. As soon as NiaLi had said TaLi was taking over as krianan, I had begun to worry. If she was the Lin tribe’s krianan, it would mean staying in the valley, and I meant to take her with me when I left. I don’t know what expression was on my face, but NiaLi looked at me in concern.

  “I will not take her from you for long, Silvermoon. It is less than a moon’s journey. Or you may come with us, if the krianan wolves allow it.”

  “I want to come with you!” I blurted out. I told her what I had not been able to tell her with the Greatwolves around—about my mother and how I meant to find her.

  “I didn’t know Neesa,” NiaLi said, “but I will be glad to meet her.”

  I felt as if a huge weight had been lifted from me. I had wondered how to get TaLi from the valley. BreLan and MikLan would follow where the girl went. I looked around BreLan and TaLi to catch Ázzuen’s eye. He opened his mouth in a grin.

  But NiaLi wasn’t finished. “As for now, the krianans outside the valley will need to know what we are trying here, and neither TaLi nor I can go to them. BreLan, you will take them news of how things have changed, and prepare them for our arrival. If we succeed here, we will follow at the rise of the Warming Moon.”

  “Warming Moon” was the human’s name for the Denning Moon.

  Next to me, TaLi stiffened.

  “I can’t go,” BreLan protested. “Not when TaLi needs me. HuLin and RinaLi are going to try to give her to the Rian tribe. TaLi says they’ve already invited DavRian to stay with them. They haven’t invited me.” There was no mistaking the anxiety in his voice. “I serve you, NiaLi,” he said respectfully, “but TaLi is mine to protect.”

  “You serve the krianans, BreLan, not any one person,” NiaLi said. “I have just told TaLi of her responsibilities. Have you forgotten yours?”

  BreLan looked down at his feet.

  “It’s all right, BreLan,” TaLi said. “It won’t be for long, and I can handle HuLin.”

  “That’s what I’m worried about,” he said, but he smiled. “You have to promise me not to be reckless, TaLi. You have to promise me not to make him angry. Wait until I get back to do anything that challenges him.”

  “I will,” she said.

  BreLan crouched down and looked me in the eyes.

  “And you have to take care of her while I’m gone, Silver-moon. You have to.”

  “I promise,” I said, touching my nose to the palm of his hand. He couldn’t understand my words, but he knew enough about us to know what I meant.

  He stood and pulled TaLi to him, burying his face in her headfur.

  “Listen for a moment, TaLi,” NiaLi said, “then I will leave you to say your good-byes.”

  The girl turned in BreLan’s arms to look at NiaLi.

  “You will have to prove yourself,” the old woman said. “We do not have witnesses to your new status, and the false krianans will do everything they can to hinder you. But you are a krianan nonetheless.” The old woman looked down at the three of us. “And you must help her, my friends,” she said. “If she can convince the tribe that you hunt at her will, they will value her more.”

  “We will,” I said.

  “I know you will,” she said. Leaning on her stick, she got to her feet and walked slowly to the edge of the poplar grove. She looked at the two young humans and at us, then walked into the woods toward her shelter. Taking the hint, Ázzuen, Trevegg, and I left as well.

  We were planning to return to the human homesite, but we had barely left the poplar grove when I heard scuffling pawsteps and smelled Unnan. I didn’t think he’d be stupid enough to try to attack me with Ázzuen and Trevegg there, so I wasn’t too concerned. He stopped when he reached us.

  “I’m leaving,” Unnan said. “I won’t be part of a packful of human lovers. I’ve been invited to join Wind Lake, and Ruuqo and Rissa have given me permission to do so.”

  “That is not an easy decision to revoke, youngwolf,” Trevegg said.

  Unnan’s tail drooped just a little.

  “But perhaps it’s for the best,” the oldwolf said, looking at me and at Ázzuen. “I know you have not often felt welcome here, and every youngwolf must find his own path. If yours is not with Swift River, so be it.”

  I didn’t say anything. I wasn’t going to pretend I was sorry to see Unnan go.

  Trevegg touched his nose to Unnan’s face.

  “Go in health, and honor the Swift River pack.”

  Unnan touched Trevegg lightly on the nose, then turned his tail to Ázzuen and to me, and walked away.

  “The gathering places will smell better from now on,” Ázzuen said after a moment.

  “And the prey won’t hear us coming from forty wolflengths away.” I laughed.

  “That is more than enough,” Trevegg said. “If you wish to be a leaderwolf someday, Kaala, you had better learn how to get along with wolves you don’t like. Unnan is an adequate hunter and would have helped us feed new pups. You never know which wolves will serve you well. I know for a fact that Werrna dislikes you, but she will stand up for your ideas when she believes in them.”

  I lowered my tail to show him respect, but I couldn’t disguise my glee at Unnan’s departure. I was tired of his spying and his nastiness.

  Trevegg watched me for a moment and rumbled a quiet growl.

  “Frandra and Jandru will be waiting to hear what has happened,” he said. “I will meet you back at the human homesite. Think about what I’ve said, Kaala.”

  As soon as the oldwolf was out of hearing range, Ázzuen slammed into me. “The pack is better off without Unnan, Kaala,” he said. “Now we don’t have to worry about him all the time.”

  I was about to answer when Ázzuen nudged my shoulder.

  “Look,” he said. I followed his gaze. There, in a soft patch of mud, was a large paw print like the one we had seen after we gave the humans the walking bird. We found two more nearby. They smelled of Milsindra and of Kivdru. This time, they hadn’t bothered to hide their scents.

  “They’re still watching us,” Ázzuen said.

  “Good,” I said. “They can see how well things are going. We’ll bring the whole pack with us to the next hunt, and they can watch all they like.” I started to walk away, then stopped. I returned to the paw prints. I squatted over one of them and left a pile of dung atop it. Ázzuen’s eyes were wide in his face.

  “Let them watch that,” I said, and stalked off to the human homesite.

  For nearly a quarter moon, Trevegg, Ázzuen, and I stayed with the humans, hunting with them and sleeping by their fires. We had two more successful hunts, though neither was as spectacular as the hunt at Oldwoods. TaLi and NiaLi came once more to Fallen Tree, this time bringing MikLan
with them. The boy’s infectious good humor made even Werrna laugh. DavRian came to the Lin tribe almost every day, but returned each night to his own tribe, and TaLi seemed less and less worried about him. The humans grew used to seeing us in their homesite and gave us meat as if we were their packmates.

  Then, five days after NiaLi and TaLi first came to Fallen Tree, a wrongness in the air awoke me—a feeling of dread that yanked me from my dreams and drew a whimper from my throat. It was not quite the middle of the day, the best sleeping time, and I had no idea what had woken me, had pulled such panic from deep within me, but I knew that something was terribly amiss.

  My whimper had awoken both Ázzuen and Trevegg.

  “Something’s wrong,” I whispered when Trevegg cracked open an eye.

  The graying of his muzzle had reached the fur around his eyes, and he looked more like an oldwolf than ever. I felt guilty about waking him. He blinked sleepily at me for a moment and yawned. Then his eyes widened and he sniffed the air. He stood and sniffed again, turning in a tight circle three times to catch the complexities of the scents around us. Then he whined. I’d never heard Trevegg whine. Without even stopping to stretch the sleep stiffness from his joints, he ran from one end of the human homesite to the other, nose high in the air, then snuffling close to the ground. Then he dashed into the surrounding woods.

  “What’s he doing?” Ázzuen asked, still half asleep.

  Trevegg bolted back into the homesite, moving more quickly than I’d ever seen him move.

  “We have to go,” he said. “We have to warn the pack. We have to find Jandru and Frandra.” Trevegg was the calmest wolf I knew, but I couldn’t miss the urgency in his voice. He turned once, and then again, his nose held high.

  “Why?” I said. “We can’t just leave. The humans are just starting to trust us. We have to stay with them if we’re going to keep the peace.”

  “There will be no peace. If it is as bad as I think it is, it will not be a question of if we go to war with the humans, but of when.”

  “Why? What’s going on? Trevegg, you have to tell us.”

  Trevegg stopped his anxious circling. “It’s the prey, Kaala. The prey is leaving the valley.”

  11

  There are scents you never notice until they’re no longer there: the aroma of fresh horse dung carried on the wind, the smell of tree bark mixed with the sweat of an aging elk, a draft of wind that tells you the deer are running three miles away. Only when the scents are gone do you realize how much they were a part of your life.

  It was the absence of scent that had awoken me. As soon as Trevegg identified it, it seemed obvious. Once before, some prey had left—when the humans had killed too many of them. This was different. Too much of the prey was leaving, and if the prey left, there would be death in the valley. There would be hunger and there would be war. All the hunters in the valley—humans, wolves, rock lions, long-fangs—would do anything necessary to feed themselves and their young and would fight to the death for whatever prey was left. The peace between wolves and humans would be shattered.

  For once, I didn’t worry about disturbing the humans. I lifted my head and howled for Tlitoo. He would be able to find out where the prey was going, and one way or another, I would make him do so. Ravens couldn’t always understand the complexities of our howls, so I just howled as loudly as I could for him to come, while Trevegg and Ázzuen stood by. One of the humans, annoyed at the noise, threw a stone at me. I ducked it and ran into the woods with Trevegg and Ázzuen.

  The three of us stopped a few paces outside the humans’ homesite, and I prepared to howl again. Before I had finished taking a good, deep breath, Tlitoo dropped down from the trees. Three feathers fell from his back and wings as he landed in front of me.

  “There is no need to yell, wolflet,” he gurgled. “I have been waiting for you to open your furry eyes and come to me. I know already about the prey.” Tlitoo was calm, even more so than he had been at NiaLi’s home.

  “Why didn’t you wake us?” I asked, exasperation rising up in me. Why did he choose now to be so composed?

  “Because it would have done no good. You wish to know where the prey has gone. I do not know. I looked. I found nothing. Jlela looks still. The aurochs remain. And the elkryn. Others, too. Voles. Rabbits. The smallest of the prey. And the largest.”

  “Why have you stopped looking? You can’t have searched the whole valley, even with Jlela helping.”

  “Because there is something I must tell you, wolf. It is time now for me to do so.”

  “Now?” Ázzuen said. “Why now, when you’ve been avoiding us for most of a moon?” I thought Tlitoo would peck at Ázzuen or at least screech an insult at him, but he just raised his wings a little, and then lowered them again.

  “It was not time then,” he said. “It is time now.”

  “Whatever it is you wish to tell them will have to wait, raven,” Trevegg said. The oldwolf pawed at the ground. “You two need to find Frandra and Jandru,” he said, jabbing his muzzle in our direction. “Now. They will know more than we do and will know how the Greatwolf council is reacting to the prey flight. I will speak to the pack. Go.” He turned in a tight circle once more, then ran into the woods.

  “Wolves,” Tlitoo began.

  “Later,” I snapped. I knew that he had his own troubles, but I wasn’t going to be guided by the whims of a raven.

  He cocked his head, then clacked his beak twice.

  “I know where the Grumpwolves are, wolflet,” he said to me. “Once you have talked to them will you see what I have to show you?”

  “Yes,” I said. “Where are they?”

  “At the circle of rocks, talking about you. They told me you are to meet them there at late-sun. They will speak to you then and you are not to be late.”

  We couldn’t wait until late-sun. Ázzuen and I took off at a run. Tlitoo krawked loudly but didn’t follow us. Curiosity about what he had to tell me prickled at the back of my mind, but it would have to wait. It felt good to run. When we traveled with the humans, we had to move at their pace. I stretched my legs and let the smells of the forest stream past my nose, the scents blending as they did only when we ran.

  The shortest path to the Stone Circle took us through the center of Stone Peak territory. We usually crossed the river at the Flat Bank Crossing, which was in the lands that the Greatwolves had set aside for safe passage to and from the human homesite, but if we wanted to get to the Stone Circle quickly we would need to cross farther upstream. Without needing to discuss it, Ázzuen and I pelted toward a place at which a huge alder had fallen across the river, making for a quick crossing not far from the Stone Circle.

  We reached the well-trodden path that led to the crossing. That was when we heard the crashing in the bushes behind us and smelled the unmistakable willow scent of the Stone Peak wolves. We were only three minutes from the river. We might, I thought, still have time to get to our own territory before the Stone Peaks caught up with us.

  “We won’t make it,” Ázzuen said. “The path widens up ahead. They’ll catch us there.”

  “We’ll go around it, back into the woods.” I gasped, leaping over a fallen branch. Since the Stone Peaks are bigger and heavier than we, we could best outrun them in thick undergrowth and dense woods. In open spaces, their long legs gave them the advantage.

  “They’ll circle around and catch us,” Ázzuen responded. “We have to fight them. It’s only Torell and Ceela. We can knock them off balance and then run.”

  It was better than waiting to be caught. It had been generations since a fight between Stone Peak and Swift River had resulted in the death of a wolf, but the animosity between the two packs had grown in the past years. Every year we fought over the contested territories to the north, and Torell hated that Swift River was strong enough to do so. More than that, Torell despised the humans. He considered them worse than hyenas and said that they were the reason there was not enough land for every pack in the valley to have all
the territory it wanted. When he had led his pack, along with the Tree Line wolves, to try to kill the humans at autumn’s end, it was the culmination of a long campaign against them. He knew Ázzuen and I helped stop him that day, and that we were the ones who brought humans and wolves together in the first place. I didn’t think he would kill us if he did catch us. He wouldn’t want to risk Ruuqo and Rissa taking revenge. But he could injure us, and he would certainly delay us. If we couldn’t escape, we would have to fight.

  I let Ázzuen take the lead. He was better than I at finding strategic hiding spots.

  “Here!” he said. We had reached the widening of the path.

  A willow stump stood on one side of it, at a bend in the path. I scrambled up onto the stump while Ázzuen crouched in the bushes across from it. I had time to take two quick breaths before Torell and Ceela, the Stone Peak leaderwolves, came barreling down the path.

  The instant I saw Ázzuen bolt from his hiding place, I leapt. Torell whuffed in surprise as I landed atop him, but even so, he barely moved. I didn’t expect that I’d be able to knock him over, but at least I thought he’d stagger. Instead, he just bent his legs a little, shifted his weight, and let me slide off his back. I landed on my side and rolled over to see Ázzuen entwined in Ceela’s legs. He had been smarter than I, going for the legs. At least he had a chance to topple her that way. Ceela jumped, disentangling herself from Ázzuen, and landing just beside him. I didn’t have time to see what Ázzuen did next. I lunged for Torell again, this time going for the soft part of his belly. I tried to bite at it, but he moved just the slightest bit so that my teeth came together in the air and my nose jabbed into his hard ribs. I didn’t see him angle his hip until it was hitting me in the face, knocking me back to the ground. I leapt up, thinking fast. I’d won every fight I’d had with Unnan and most of the challenge fights I’d had with Ázzuen and Marra, but nothing I did to Torell seemed to work. I lunged, trying to bite at his flank, but then his flank wasn’t there. Finally, in desperation, I dove for one of his rear legs and grabbed it in my teeth.