Hishn half turned at the end of the stone expanse. Wolf-walker, come!
Dion’s jaw tightened. “Go, Gray One. I cannot. Go get yourself another den of pups. Gray Yoshi is waiting for you out on the plains. You cannot stay with me.”
But the gray wolf didn’t move. Your voice is alone, but twisted with mine. Your heart is still caught in the grave. You think of death, cold and old, and look toward life, but you move toward neither. Release yourself Wolfwalker!
Dion stepped back toward the stable. The darkness of the doorway seemed to swallow her. “Go.” She forced the words out. “Run free, Hishn.”
Run with me! Run with the pack!
Dion’s fists clenched. “No!”
Then I will not go. Yoshi will greet me here.
Hishn did not move, and Dion snarled. “Go, Gray One, or I shall drive you away. This is no home for you. The worlags would tear your pups from the earth and kill them within days of birthing. The scrub birds would pester you like fleas. You were born to run in snowy peaks, not humid, sandy heat.”
Wolfwalker!
“Go! I can’t bear the guilt of your losing this year’s pups just because I am running away.”
Hishn’s yellow eyes gleamed, and the moons, half obscured by the overcast gray, seemed caught in that lupine gaze. Yoshi found me, the massive beast sent. Your mate will find you, as well.
Dion’s voice was a whisper. “I know.”
Hishn snarled. The gray wolf stared at her through the night.
“Go,” Dion breathed.
The shadows were suddenly empty.
Dion felt her throat muscles tighten. Her eyesight blurred, but it was not the wolves. Hishn! she cried out.
The packsong burst up into her mind. Yellow, slitted eyes gleamed, and images twisted. Dion’s need was like a hand tangling in wet yarn, catching in every voice. Wolf howls flowed back over her, driving into the corners of her skull and filling the cracks in her thoughts. Hishn snarled across them all, drawing them around Dion like a blanket. And she ran. Dion threw back her own head and howled. The sound hung, long and lonely, in the night.
XI
To wash myself in your waters,
To cleanse mv soul in the sea.
Tehena found Dion in the courtyard. “Asuli bunked down?” Dion asked as the other woman approached.
“Uh-huh.” Almost unwillingly, Tehena added, “She had some stamina to stay in the saddle as long as she did, judging by the way she walked up to the bunkroom.”
“Does she need a riding salve?”
Tehena snorted. “If she does, I’d not be the one to give it to her. Let her feel for herself what she’s gotten into. She’s the one who was so eager to join us. Maybe she’ll leave us alone that much sooner when she finds out what it’s like riding with a wolf walker.”
“Thanks,” drawled Dion.
“You’ve never ridden an easy trail, Dion.”
“If I could find one to run, I’d take it as fast as the second moon.”
“Hishn wouldn’t let you.”
Dion hesitated. Her voice, when she spoke, was quiet. “I sent Hishn away.”
“Away.” Tehena’s eyes narrowed as she took in Dion’s tone. “You mean away as in farther than a scouting?”
“Back to Ariye. To mate. To have her pups.”
“What were you thinking?” the other woman said sharply. “That with Asuli here, you had enough fangs out for one group of riders?”
“She’s not that bad to ride with.”
“I’d rather teach a worlag manners.”
“You might get your chance,” Dion returned dryly. “There was worlag sign in the forest near where we picked her up.”
“That only makes sense,” Tehena retorted. “That intern is a worlag’s spawn.” The lanky woman gave Dion a cold look. “We don’t need her with us, Dion. You don’t need her at all.”
“I haven’t the option of turning her away. Not yet, at least.”
Light spilled out of the inn as a couple of villagers left, calling their good-byes over their shoulders. Tehena and Dion, cast suddenly into shadow, were nearly invisible. Neither villager noticed them, but Gamon, who followed the others out, caught their still figures with his sharp eyes. He nodded to them unobtrusively, then moved on to the stable to put the dnu out to graze in the inn’s commons.
Tehena watched him go. “Hells. Maybe if Gamon and I put our brains together, we could get rid of her in just a few days. I’ve seen that old man play some mean jokes on his students.”
Dion’s gaze followed the older man. “He’s proud of you, you know.”
The sidelight from the stable threw Tehena’s too-sharp face into strong relief. “He should be,” she retorted. “It’s his own teaching he’s proud of.”
Dion gave her a sharp look. “He respects you more than you do yourself.”
The other woman snorted again.
“He’s your friend, Tehena.”
“He’s your friend, Dion, not mine. To me, he’s just a grizzled, gray-haired pain in a poolah’s rear.”
“Look who’s talking about gray.”
Tehena grinned slowly and fingered her stringy hair. “Yes, but I’ve had this since I turned thirteen. Back then, I was more concerned about keeping my head than with keeping my hair color brown. As for Gamon, he only claims friendship because he has no sense of my age—or lack of it, as you would say.”
Dion’s voice was quiet. “I wish I could have given you back some of that—the youth you lost.”
“It wasn’t yours to return.”
Dion shrugged. “Ovousibas …”
Tehena’s voice was suddenly sharp. “Ovousibas is an alien soul-sucker sunk deep in your human brain. You’d better watch the way you use it, Dion, or it will steal what’s left of you from yourself.”
“I don’t see you complaining about what it gave you.”
“It wasn’t Ovousibas that gave me anything. It was you.” The woman raised her thin hand, cutting off Dion’s automatic rejoinder. “I’m not ashamed of what you’ve done for me, Wolf-walker. When you met me, I thought I was going to die. Hells, I deserved to die, and you know it. But you gave me hope. You gave me a weapon—your own weapon when you left me. Then, later, when I found you again, you gave me a chance to be a person again. It wasn’t Ovousibas that gave me a reason to live—it was you. It wasn’t Ovousibas that took away my addiction to dator—that was you, too. And it wasn’t your moon-wormed internal healing that removed the drug tattoos—even that was you. You gave everything to me as if you expected nothing in return, and I took it all, without questioning what you offered. Thirteen years, Wolfwalker, and still you don’t ask for payment.”
“The healer’s gift is freely given.”
“Hah.”
“There is no debt between us,” Dion said more sharply.
“There is, Wolfwalker.” Tehena stared into Dion’s violet eyes. “And if there’s anything you know about me, it’s that I always pay my debts.”
“And when,” Dion said softly, “will you finish paying this debt off?”
“The day you stop feeling guilt for your son.” The lanky woman’s voice was as flat as her chest, and she nodded at Dion’s expression. “The day you stop paying everyone else’s price and start living your own life. The day you run free with the Gray Ones and break your leash to the council.”
“My guilt—my debts are not yours, Tehena. You have no right to judge them.”
“No? You chained me to you with your moonwormed generosity, Dion. You might as well have leashed me to your county with steel cable. You think I can break free of you now?”
Dion’s face shuttered. “I refuse that weight. I refuse to be responsible for you.”
“You made yourself responsible for me the day you took my bread and slop and made me beg for my food.”
“That was a long time ago.”
The other woman nodded. “Yes. I hated you, then, you know. I hated your strength, your determination. I hated yo
ur hope. You made me feel small and mean and dirty. And you terrified me.”
“Then why did you follow me? Why come with me to Ariye?”
“Because you were a focus for me—you were the direction I lacked.”
“And you still try to make me that now.”
Tehena tilted her head in acknowledgment.
Dion’s face tightened. “You can’t live your life through mine, Tehena. You have to find your own way. Of all the things you have learned in Ariye, surely you know now that you can do that here.”
The lanky woman shrugged. “Some people weren’t meant for freedom.”
“Worlag piss,” Dion snarled. “If you’re afraid of freedom, say it. Don’t hide behind false obligation.”
“Speak for yourself, Wolf walker.”
Dion stared at her. The shadows seemed suddenly brittle. A light went on in the inn as another pair of riders opened the door and went in. Tehena’s gaunt face was suddenly cast into light and dark planes. Her eyes, dark and embittered by day, were unfathomable by night.
Then Tehena shook her head. “Ah, moon worms, Dion. Freedom’s something tangible to you, but it’s just a word to me. Bottom line is, I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I was on my own.”
For a moment, the wolfwalker didn’t move. Then she laid her hand on the other woman’s arm. They were silent for a long time in the shadows.
When Dion returned to the inn, Tehena remained behind. The lanky woman’s gaze followed Gamon as he closed the common’s gate behind the dnu and started back across the courtyard. But he hesitated when he saw her alone. “Tasting the last of the land air?” he asked as he joined her. “We’ll reach the coast road tomorrow, you know.”
She shrugged. Absently, her fingers stroked her forearm.
Gamon let his gaze seek the inn. “How is she?”
“She sent the wolf away.”
“Sent the—sent Hishn away? Why?”
“Didn’t say. But I’d say that Aranur’s getting close, and she doesn’t want him to find her just yet.”
Gamon’s eyes narrowed. “He might have let her go when he had to face her need so squarely, but he’d not have been able to live with that for long. I figured him for her trail within three or four days.”
“It wouldn’t have been an easy trail to follow.”
“No,” he agreed. “Unless he had a Gray One to help.”
“What do you mean?”
“Hishn’s mate—Gray Yoshi.”
Tehena shook her head. “Aranur’s never run with a wolf. What makes you think he could do so now?”
“Aranur and Dion have been mated a long time. He can hear Hishn as well now as a first-year wolfwalker, and if he wanted to Call a wolf to help him, it’s likely that one would Answer.”
“All right, I’ll buy that. But Yoshi? That’s the one wolf who shouldn’t help.”
“Have you ever seen a mated male wolf separated from his female? They mate for life, you know. There’s a longing in each one that pulls it to the other, no matter how far away they are. Hishn’s a strong-willed female, and she’s got some hold on that gray-eared male. Yoshi might allow Hishn to run with Dion a few months, but not for much longer than that. And it’s growing late into summer. He’ll lose the chance to mate before long. I figure, right now, Yoshi’s urge for Hishn is so strong that he’d run the nine counties to reach that gray mutt.” Gamon eyed the dark road as though expecting the wolf to appear any moment. “And with Aranur to push him,” he added, more to himself, “who knows when they’ll arrive.”
Tehena chewed irritably at her thin lip. “You think the raiders know that Aranur is out after Dion? Dion may be worth taking alive, but Aranur—he is worth killing.”
The older man shrugged. “Aranur is careful. He knows how to keep out of sight—how not to be himself if he needs to.”
“Dion doesn’t.”
“Aye.” He glanced at the inn. “That’s part of the problem, isn’t it?”
* * *
Dawn was overcast again, but the heat was already gathering. By the time they reached the coastal road, the thin clouds had burned off, and they were sticky and hot. Asuli kept her mouth shut so that Kiyun gave her wary glances more than once, but the young woman remained silent.
The valley fields had given way to the low hills of the coast, and the villages were built more on clay and glass industries than on farming. The plains had given way almost abruptly into forest again. Mosses seemed scraggly, but the undergrowth grew more thickly where the thinner canopy let in the light. The stone road felt pressed in by the seaside.
Dion, riding up front beside Kiyun, watched the forest with wary eyes. Even without Hishn, she felt the predators more than saw them. The senses of the other Gray Ones were thick in the back of her mind. She stretched across the distance to feel the gray wolf she knew.
Wolfaalker! the faint voice echoed back. Release yourself! Come with us.
Dion looked down at her hands. They were already clenched on the saddle horn. She forced her fingers to relax. Then she shoved her mind away from Hishn’s and focused on the wolves nearby. It was their senses, not Hishn’s, that expanded her sense of smell and broadened her eyesight to catch each motion that occurred around them. Within half an hour she could taste the acrid scent in her nostrils as she found the predators’ trail. As the wind stiffened into midmorning, the odor didn’t dissipate, but strengthened instead. Dion knew the scent well. “Worlags,” she breathed.
Kiyun caught her sudden tension. “Dion?”
“Worlags,” she repeated. “They’re close.”
Kiyun signaled Gamon, and instantly the grizzled man reached down and loosened the arrows in his quiver. Tehena followed suit. Within seconds, their bows were strung and their arrows ready.
“How many?” Kiyun asked quietiy.
Dion shook her head slightly. “Can’t tell.” But she stretched her senses into the pack, and the Gray Ones in the east Answered.
Woljwalker!
Gray Ones, she returned.
We hear your voice. We see through your eyes. You are part of the pack, Woljwalker.
She sent them the impression she had of the beetle-beasts, and the wolves shot back a jumble of scents and sights. They had crossed the beetle-beasts’ trail the day before. Some of the acrid scents had been strong, but some had been weak as rabbit piss. Dion relaxed imperceptibly. A family pack, she told herself. There would be only a few adults.
But back beside Tehena, Asuli watched their automatic preparations with a strange expression on her face. The intern swallowed visibly. “I don’t know how to use a weapon,” she told Tehena, keeping her voice carefully steady.
The lanky woman barely spared her a glance. “Then keep out of my way.”
“Couldn’t you give me a sword at least?”
“You can use one?”
“No,” Asuli retorted. “But I could try. It would be better than having nothing to fight with.”
“You’ve got your tongue to protect you, girl. Compared to you, the rest of us are defenseless.”
The intern’s lips tightened. Tehena turned away, her faded eyes watching the forest intently while Gamon closed up from behind.
“Stay in the middle,” he ordered sharply. “Stay with Tehena.”
“Thanks a lot, Gamon,” Tehena muttered.
He didn’t bother to respond.
The forest was close enough to the road that they could glimpse four of the beetle-beasts in the shadows, but the wor-lags didn’t move closer. Dion counted the two adults and two yearlings. Their purple-black carapaces almost shone when the sun hit them, and their beetlelike jaws clacked together. Their feet made no sound as they ran, first on four legs, with their middle, almost vestigial arms folded against their bodies, then on six with their middle arms lightly touching the ground. And like a wind in brittle branches, they chittered constantly.
Dion let her ears catalog their sounds. They were pacing the riders, but there was no overt threat as yet
in their noise.
“Can’t we outrun them?” she heard Asuli ask faintly.
“They will not attack,” Dion returned.
“How do you know?”
Tehena snorted. Dion, her senses scanning the forest for a change in the worlags’ manner, didn’t answer. If this family group met up with more worlags, the riders might have to run or fight; but as it was, there were too many of them for the beetle-beasts. Worlags weren’t sentient—not as Dion would define it—but they were clever enough at that. They were as likely to set a trap as a poolah who buried itself in soil, waiting for its prey.
For an hour, they rode with the worlags pacing them while their shoulders prickled with the soft chittering. Then the riders crossed into the swampy lowlands, leaving all but scrub forest behind.
Asuli watched Tehena unstring her bow. “Why don’t they follow us?” she asked Gamon.
“Too wet for worlags.”
“And we’re safe now?”
“From worlags,” he returned.
Kiyun and Dion exchanged glances. They were close enough to the coast that the danger here would be from two-legged, not six-legged, beasts, and Dion shrugged at Kiyun’s unspoken question. Asuli knew the dangers from raiders; if she chose to ride where raiders struck, it was her risk to take. But Dion glanced back at the intern. The younger woman wasn’t as nonchalant as she appeared; her knuckles were white on the reins, and her back just a bit too straight.
Kiyun followed her gaze. “If she had half a brain, she’d have stayed behind, at the inn. We were clear about the dangers.”
“I don’t think that’s the issue with her.”
“Then what is? Pride? Sure, by the second moon, she’s got a sackful of that.”
“Perhaps. And perhaps she really is dedicated to healing.”
He snorted rudely.
“Don’t you think that what she saw me do—or not do,” she corrected, “might have sparked her curiosity enough to risk this ride? She’s smart. She didn’t mistake what I did for what I told her.”
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