“No, they won’t change their minds,” I said.
Tlitoo flew from the spruce to land next to me.
“So what now, wolflet? Stay here and whine?”
I didn’t know what now. I’d thought everything would be all right once I told the pack about the Greatwolves’ secret. Now I realized how naive I’d been. Rissa had said that Milsindra would allow us to leave with our humans. Not a moon ago that was all I wanted. I still wanted it.
“We still have the Stone Peaks,” Marra said when I remained silent.
“And the Lan tribe,” Ázzuen added. “We can try hunting with them.”
Their steadfastness made me ashamed of my own weakness. I couldn’t run away when they were so eager to continue the fight.
“I’ll go talk to NiaLi and Trevegg,” I said. “They may have some ideas of what to do.” The thought of their wisdom made me feel better.
Marra leapt to her feet. “I’ll go to the Lan tribe and get MikLan. The old woman can tell him what’s happening.”
“And I’ll tell the Stone Peaks,” Ázzuen said just as eagerly.
“Good,” I said, trying to match the enthusiasm in their voices. “Meet me back at NiaLi’s as soon as you can. Howl that you’ve found good hunting when you’re on your way.”
They darted off. I looked at them. I envied their certainty. I couldn’t help but wonder if I was making a mistake. If the reason the Greatwolves had taken over watching the humans was that we were too weak. I certainly felt like I was.
“I must go tell the raven clan, wolf.”
He took off without waiting for my answer. I took one last look at Fallen Tree. I wouldn’t be returning there. Then I took a deep breath and started toward NiaLi’s.
Indru’s rejuvenating effect on me was wearing off, and I was tired. I forced myself to run anyway; I didn’t know how much time we had. NiaLi’s new shelter was farther than I remembered from Fallen Tree, and my paw was hurting again. I slowed to a lope and then a walk. Finally I reached the tiny clearing that sheltered NiaLi’s home.
I knew immediately that something was wrong. NiaLi’s fire was out, and the scents of fear and anger seeped from the dwelling. I heard a deep-voiced shout and a higher-pitched shriek. Forgetting my fatigue, I bolted for the shelter. I dove under the preyskin at the shelter’s entrance, pulling myself into the old woman’s home on my belly.
At once, I saw three things. NiaLi lay crumpled in a heap next to her quenched fire, her neck bent at an unnatural angle and a deep slash oozing blood from her neck. She wasn’t breathing. Trevegg stood growling in front of TaLi, protecting the girl as she hunched weeping over her grandmother. And DavRian stood over them both, his bloody spear raised.
I should have killed him when I had the chance.
The shelter was small, giving me little room to maneuver and no chance to get a running start. I leapt at DavRian just as he brought down his sharpstick in a vicious sweep, cutting deeply into Trevegg’s chest and stomach. The oldwolf screamed and fell to his side, his legs kicking frantically, running from an enemy he could not escape and then going still. His breath began to come in short, harsh gasps. DavRian raised his spear again, ready to plunge it into Trevegg. An instant later, I hit him full force, knocking him against the side of the shelter.
We have rules about killing. Packmates are always warned before they are badly injured or killed. But there are things that are unforgivable, including killing a packmate for no reason other than greed or anger. The promise said we could not kill any human unless in defense of our lives. It did not mean we had to stand by and watch a human kill. DavRian had murdered NiaLi and probably Trevegg, too. When a wolf goes crazy and kills other wolves, when he breaks the rules of life, he is to be killed. DavRian had lost his right to be protected by the promise.
I would have done it. I would have killed him, but he had moved just as I leapt, and I hit him at an awkward angle. He dropped his sharpstick and shoved me. I landed on my back, and DavRian kicked me hard in the ribs. I twisted away and prepared to leap again, but I was slowed by fatigue and pain. By the time I had gotten to my feet, he had reached over Trevegg, who tried to snap at his arm, and seized up TaLi, gripping her tightly to his chest. She struggled against him, grabbing at his head and kicking at any part of him she could reach. He shifted his grip so that he pinned her arms tight against him and squeezed her so hard that she cried out in pain. I wanted to kill him more than I’d wanted anything in my life, but I couldn’t get to his weak soft neck, because he held TaLi too close to it. Instead, I bit into his leg. His scream made my heart pound with the call to the hunt. His blood filled my mouth like the blood of any other prey, and I released his leg to bite the other. I saw the sharp stone blade the instant before it reached me. I twisted out of the way and the blade missed me. DavRian kicked me in the side of the head. I fell back, whimpering.
DavRian had let go of TaLi with one arm in order to attack me. The girl shrieked in fury, thrashing and fighting DavRian’s now one-armed grip. She drove her elbow up into his face, and he dropped her. She tried to scramble to her feet, but he kicked her brutally in the stomach. She doubled over, gasping, and groped around the old woman’s fire pit, seeking a weapon. As her fist closed around a large, sharp rock, DavRian grabbed his fallen spear and slammed the blunt end against TaLi’s head. She sagged to the ground. I got my feet under me and leapt for DavRian again. I was too slow, and he stepped aside as I reached him and threw me so hard against the side of the shelter that for precious moments, I couldn’t move. DavRian threw something over TaLi—it was the cloak he had given her and she had refused to wear—and picked her up.
I watched helplessly as he limped from the shelter, carrying her away. I tried twice to get to my feet and fell back, dizzy and nauseated. I had to go after them. I began to drag myself to the opening of the shelter. Then I realized that the labored breathing I heard was not my own. Trevegg was still alive. I dragged myself over to him and pressed my cheek to his.
“He came for the girl,” Trevegg said. “He said he would take her as his mate and that he would be krianan for both Lin and Rian. The girl told him she would kill him before she would let him do so, that he was too stupid to be anything other than a rabbit hunter. I think he went crazy. All NiaLi did was rise to stand between them, and he killed her.” Trevegg sounded so sad when he spoke of the old woman’s death. He seemed to care more about that than about his own wound.
I looked at the old woman, pain and guilt welling in my chest. I should have taken better care of TaLi’s grandmother. I looked at her bent neck and the clean cut at her throat. DavRian would pay for her death. The Lin tribe would not allow this.
“Kaala,” Trevegg rasped. I shook myself from my thoughts. I could hardly bear to look at him. No wolf could survive such an injury. “What did the pack say?” he asked.
“They’re going to follow Milsindra,” I said. “They won’t help me with the humans. They want things to be the way they were before.”
The oldwolf’s eyes clouded over with despair. “Then it’s over,” he said. “We gambled and we lost. It was all for nothing.”
“No,” I said, “it wasn’t.” Suddenly it was vital for me to make sure he knew that the fight wasn’t over, that we still had a chance. I wanted him to know that. Before he died.
“It’s not over,” I said. “I found out what the Greatwolves have been hiding from us. We’re supposed to be the ones to watch over the humans. Indru split his pack in two. The Greatwolves were supposed to stay away from humans, and we were supposed to watch over them.”
“It’s true?” he asked. “Frandra and Jandru told us that after you left. The old woman told the girl that they had to find the other krianans, to tell them. But I didn’t believe them. How can you know that it’s true? How do you know they aren’t lying again?”
I looked into his dimming eyes. And I told him. “I saw it. Tlitoo can take me into the spirit world. He can take me into the minds of others.”
“T
he Nejakilakin,” he said. “I heard tales of it when I was a pup but thought they were no more than stories.” He choked and lay panting, barely able to breathe.
“I’m sorry,” I said.
“For what?” He looked up at me, the despair in his eyes replaced by a gleam of excitement. “Don’t you see, Kaala? Even without the pack, you can keep the promise. You must do so. Whatever else happens, you must keep the promise.”
“I don’t feel ready,” I said. I should have been giving him comfort, not asking for it from him.
“It doesn’t matter,” he said. “You will have to make do with what skills and wisdom you have. You must make the best choices you can. So it is with every wolf.”
My choices had not been good so far.
“I should have killed DavRian. I had the chance. I could have killed him and made it look like he had fallen. If I had, NiaLi would still be alive and you wouldn’t . . .” I couldn’t finish the sentence. “I’m sorry, I should have done it.”
“No, Kaala, you should not have. It would have been the easy thing, the convenient thing, but it would not have been the right thing. You are able to keep everything in mind. All of the results and implications of every choice. It will make things harder for you, but it is what is needed now. Keep your courage and your convictions.”
I lay next to him until his harsh breathing slowed and then stopped. I buried my nose in his neck so I could take his scent with me wherever I might go. Grief closed in on me and I shoved it away, as I had so many times forced away other grief. I would mourn for Trevegg, but I couldn’t do so now. TaLi needed me, and I would go to her.
It took me twice as long as it should have to reach the human homesite. I should have been able to get there long before DavRian did, even though he was far ahead of me, but I was having trouble breathing, and with every step I grew more dizzy. DavRian had thrown me so hard against the wall of the shelter that my ribs throbbed with every step.
Despair pushed at me once again as I thought of Trevegg and NiaLi. I pushed back. I let anger roll over me instead, let it drive me forward as I followed DavRian’s trail toward the human homesite. I remembered TaLi slumped in DavRian’s arms and forced myself to move faster. By the time I crossed the river and staggered to the spiny tartberry bushes where I often hid to watch the humans, I was clamping shut my jaws to keep from whimpering aloud.
In spite of his head start and my slow progress, DavRian was just arriving at the human gathering place. He staggered into the homesite under TaLi’s weight, limping from the bite on his leg. I hoped it hurt him. I hoped it festered and killed him. He pulled the cloak from TaLi’s blood-covered head and set her down next to one of the fires that lit the night-darkened village.
All around the gathering place, humans stopped what they were doing and rushed to DavRian and TaLi.
“What happened?” RinaLi demanded, bending over the girl. For all she had been willing to mate TaLi to a man she hated, RinaLi seemed genuinely concerned.
“It was the wolves,” DavRian said. “They killed the old woman and tried to kill TaLi. I slew one of them, but the other one got away. The one she’s always with. Silvermoon. I wounded it, but it ran away.”
He lied so easily, so convincingly. But they would find out soon enough. TaLi would take them to the old woman’s shelter and they would see how she had been killed. RinaLi would see TaLi’s head wound and know it could not have been made by any wolf.
TaLi, now half-conscious, was trying to speak. “Not a wolf,” she mumbled. I heard her, but none of the other humans seemed to. Then RinaLi bent and covered TaLi’s mouth with her hand. She had heard. She had heard and wanted to make sure no one else did.
“We’ll find the wolves,” HuLin said grimly as all around him humans picked up sharpsticks and blades. They weren’t going to check DavRian’s story. They just believed him. “We should have killed them long ago.”
I had underestimated the humans’ willingness to hate us. They wouldn’t question DavRian, wouldn’t believe TaLi when she told them. I had to get TaLi away. But there was no way. There were at least ten sharpstick-wielding humans gathered around HuLin and still more watching from other parts of the gathering place. It was one of the reasons they were so dangerous—there were so many of them. DavRian was hovering over the girl like a hyena at a kill. I couldn’t get to her.
TaLi’s eyes flew open. She looked directly at the tartberry bush. She knew it was where I often hid. Keeping flat on my belly, I crept forward just a few pawswidths so that my nose and the tips of my paws peeked out of the bush and so my eyes would reflect the light of the human’s fires. A grim smile crossed TaLi’s face.
“Stay there,” she mouthed. But I wouldn’t let her fight alone. Her hand tightened, and I realized that she had managed to hold on to the rock she had picked up at NiaLi’s. In a motion as smooth and graceful as any wolf’s she rolled to her feet and threw the rock at DavRian’s head. Her aim was perfect. He staggered, blood flowing from his temple. TaLi scrambled on all fours to pick up the stone, which had fallen next to DavRian. She picked it up and hurled it at HuLin, who had the sense to duck. Two males grabbed TaLi’s arms, holding her between them, and she cried out.
Fury overcame me. Before I knew what I was doing I tore from my bush and ran at the humans who held TaLi.
“There it is!” someone shouted, more fear than anger in his voice.
It seemed like every human in the homesite converged on me. Remembering what Torell had taught me, I thought of a hill dancer. I dodged and danced away from the humans. They stumbled over me, falling over themselves. I pounced on one of the males who held TaLi, slamming into him hard enough that he released his grip. TaLi bit the other one hard on the arm and pulled away. I tripped the human I had knocked into, and TaLi and I began to run to the woods. I kept TaLi in front of me, snapping and growling at any humans who came near. When one of the males tried to cut TaLi off, I ran in front of her and tangled myself in the human’s legs. We both went sprawling as TaLi disappeared into the woods. I got my paws under me and started to follow her.
That was when I saw the sharpstick, the spear, in DavRian’s hand. Raised high above his bleeding head. Aimed at my chest. There were three humans standing next to him, and I couldn’t get past them. As DavRian brought the spear down toward my chest, I twisted away. The spear pierced my right haunch, and I screamed. Then screamed again as DavRian ripped it from my haunch.
I began to drag myself away, only to be surrounded by humans.
“Kill it!” one of the males said. “Before it bites someone.”
DavRian lifted his spear. I was glad TaLi had gotten away. I was glad that my pack would be safe, that they had been smart enough not to trust me when I said I could get the humans to live with us peacefully. I stared up at the spear, unable to take my eyes from its blood-covered tip.
“No, don’t hurt her!” TaLi’s voice made me want to howl. Why hadn’t she kept running? “Don’t kill her, and I will be your mate, DavRian.”
The young man blinked a few times, then a slow grin spread across his face.
“I won’t kill it,” he said. “We’ll keep it here. Then the rest of its pack will come looking for it, and we can kill them all at once.”
A human grabbed each of my hind legs and began dragging me backward. My haunch hurt so much I couldn’t stop whimpering, even though I knew it would distress TaLi to hear me. I turned and snapped at the hands that held me, but one of the humans yanked on my injured leg and I lay still. They dragged me across the village and to a dry, dusty grove just beyond it. Three of them picked me up by my hind end. I saw the pit a moment before they swung me into it. I fell and landed hard on what felt like a pile of sticks, rocks, and soft vegetation. TaLi’s head filled the opening as she flung herself down at the pit’s edge to see me. She was immediately dragged away.
I sat, panting at the bottom of the pit, wishing DavRian had just killed me. I had failed in every way. My pack would not keep their promise, and T
aLi would not be krianan of her tribe. Milsindra had been right—we smallwolves weren’t capable of watching over the humans. Trevegg and NiaLi were dead, and Ázzuen and Marra would be at risk when they tracked my scent from NiaLi’s to the village. TaLi’s tribemates would hunt the wolves of the valley, and there would be war. I would never find my mother. I whimpered.
A large black shape filled the hole at the top of the pit. Tlitoo flew down to me.
“There you are, wolf,” he quorked. “It does not take you long to get into trouble when I am not here. Are you finished feeling sorry for yourself? There is still much to do.”
I looked at him, incredulous. The pit was a little more than a wolflength wide and at least five wolflengths deep. There was no way I could get out of it.
“Your girl bit another one of the humans. On his ear. He now has half an ear. She has been spending too much time with wolves.”
I had to laugh. My despair began to lift in spite of my sorrow and my concern for TaLi. I realized Tlitoo was right. We had work to do.
The Greatwolves had lied and lied again. My pack had betrayed me, and I knew they would not be the last to do so. The Lin tribe was no more trustworthy than a pack of hyenas. But TaLi had come back for me. Trevegg and NiaLi had died to defend the covenant of the wolves. Ázzuen and Marra had not given up, even when our pack had done so. TaLi had risked everything to do what was right when she refused to hunt Aln’s prey. She thought of me as her packmate, so much so that she came back to save me when she could have escaped.
And in spite of what Milsindra had said, in spite of what Ruuqo had always believed, I was not a drelshik for wanting to be with the humans. We were supposed to be watching over them, and I had promised I would do so.
I heard Marra’s distant howl, saying that she had discovered a herd of horses. It was the signal we had agreed upon to mean that she had found MikLan and would meet us at NiaLi’s. Ázzuen answered that he would join the hunt, which meant that he had found the Stone Peaks. Pell added his voice to Ázzuen’s, saying that the Stone Peaks would run the hunt with us. They were all coming for me. Tlitoo could warn them to stay away from the human homesite, that the humans were coming to kill any wolf they could find. But I wanted them to know more than that.
Secrets of the Wolves Page 31