Authors: Michelle Paver,Geoff Taylor
Tags: #Good and evil, #Death, #Animals, #Wolves & Coyotes, #Juvenile Fiction, #Philosophy, #Prehistoric peoples, #Battles, #Fiction, #Voyages and travels, #Good & Evil, #Prehistory, #Adventure fiction, #Historical, #Fantasy & Magic, #Demoniac possession, #Friendship, #Murder, #Enemies
Panting faster-
ugh ugh ugh
--the Mage snatched the carcass from the stake and walked back to solid ground.
Torak's head reeled. If not even fire could harm him ... He couldn't do this. He couldn't do it.
and his Oak Clan tattoo. The skin was scored with angry scabs. Torak thought of Bale, clawing his attacker as he fought for life. His souls hardened. It was time to fulfill his oath.
Wiping his palms on his leggings, he nocked the arrow to his bow. He would move away from the tree, into full view. He would shout the challenge, give Thiazzi a chance to seize his weapons. And then ...
The Soul-Eater carried his fluttering burden into the fire, planted the stake, and walked away. Torak couldn't bear it. He took aim and let fly. The hawk hung dead, the arrow quivering in its breast.
"So, Spirit Walker. You obeyed my summons." Torak stepped out from behind the tree. "Take up your weapons, Thiazzi. You killed my kinsman. Now I'm going to kill you." 152
"I wondered who dared follow me from the islands," said Thiazzi, slicing the air with deft twists of his wrist, "so I sent my minion to find out. Since you entered my 153
Forest, I've known every step you've taken, every breath you've drawn. Now it ends."
"You won't find it that easy," said Torak, edging sideways around the fire. "I could have killed you in the Far North. Remember?"
The whip cracked, wrenching Torak's bow from his hand. "My power is greater than yours!" spat Thiazzi, tossing the bow into the flames. "See, even the fire obeys me!" Smoke wafted across Torak's sight. When it cleared, Thiazzi stood no more than two paces from him.
"But since the World Spirit has delivered you into my hands," the Oak Mage went on, "I shall add your power to my own."
"To offer a hunter to the fire is to give it the noblest death of all. It is the Way."
Again the whip cracked, Torak dodged, and the rawhide struck stone. "It's not the clans' way," he panted, "and it's not your Forest."
"I am the Master!" boomed Thiazzi. "I have taken the Deep Forest for my own!" Foam flew from his lips, and his green eyes glittered.
As Torak stared at him, everything fell into place.
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"The war between the clans. You started it. You set them against each other."
Yellow teeth flashed in the russet beard.
The whip bit Torak's wrist, and with a cry he dropped his axe. He lunged for it, but Thiazzi was faster, snatching it and throwing it on the fire. "The clans are
weak"
he snarled. "They've forgotten the True Way, but
I
will unite them. That's why the World Spirit gave this land to me: to root out differences, to return the clans to the Way! No more clan guardians, no more clan Mages. One way. One Forest. One Leader!"
Dashing the sweat from his eyes, Torak pulled his knife from its sheath.
Again, Thiazzi's yellow grin flashed. "I
cannot
be hurt!" He pointed to the mistletoe at his breast. "The deathless heart of the oak shields me from harm! I am invincible!" Torak's knife trembled in his hand.
"But come," taunted the Oak Mage, "try your luck. Let's see if you can break me. Or shall I break you, as easily as I broke your mother and your father?" 155
The red mist descended. Torak saw him through a haze of blood.
"... as I broke your kinsman," boasted the Oak Mage. "As I threw him over the Crag and spattered his brains across the rocks ..."
Torak roared and launched himself at Thiazzi.
Wolf stalked the not-aurochs upwind, which he would never normally do. But this time, he
wanted
them to smell him.
Now the whole herd was anxious. It stopped munching willowherb and started lumbering up the slope. Wolf prowled behind a cluster of young cows who were huffing and showing the whites of their eyes. He chose the edgiest and snapped at her fetlock. The cow squealed, jerked up her tail, and fled. Panicked, the rest of the herd followed.
Up the ridge they went, with Wolf racing after them, loping this way and that, so they'd think they were hunted 156 by many hungry wolves. Rocks fell and branches snapped as they crashed into the next valley, down toward Tall Tailless and the Bitten One. The earth shook as Wolf drove them on, and his heart leaped.
This
was what one wolf could do! 157
He reached the hollies, threw himself at the nearest branch, and swung himself up--as the grove was engulfed by a heaving torrent of hoof and horn. Like a flash flood, the bison swept through, and Torak clung to the shuddering tree. The din pounded through him. It was never going to end. It did. The silence after it had gone was deafening. A pall of smoke and dust hung in the air, with the musky
158
smell of bison. The Great Oak and the Great Yew towered above it: inviolate, their branches pricking the night sky.
As the dust settled, Torak saw sparks from the trampled fire scattered like stars over the ground. He dropped to earth and ran to search the grove. Thiazzi was gone.
"
No
!" shouted Torak. The echoes died. Pebbles fell like a rattle of stony laughter.
He slumped onto a boulder. He'd lost his chance for vengeance.
Wolf bounded out of the darkness and pounced on him joyously. His fur was full of burrs, and fluffed up with excitement. Torak had no idea why.
Much prey,
Torak told Wolf wearily.
Nearly trampled. Good you weren't here.
To Torak's bemusement, Wolf dropped his ears, gave an embarassed yawn, and rolled onto his back, saying
Sorry.
Torak asked him if the Bitten One was close.
Gone,
was all Wolf would say. Torak rubbed a hand over his face. He'd achieved nothing. The only thing to do now was make the long trudge back to the Red Deer camp and try to persuade 159 them that the Forest Horse Mage was indeed Thiazzi. And start all over again.
By moonset, he'd reached the end of the valley of the horses and could go no farther. He found a fallen tree a few paces above the Windriver and made it into an inadequate shelter with branches and moldy bracken. He'd left his sleeping-sack with the Red Deer, but he was too tired to care; he would drag in more bracken for bedding. After chewing a slip of dried horse meat and tucking the last of it in a birch tree for the Forest, he wrapped his nettlestem mantle about him and fell asleep.
This time, he knows he is dreaming. He is lying on his back in the shelter, but above him the sky is a blizzard of stars. He is in a cold sweat of terror, but he cannot move. A shadow darkens the stars as something leans over him. Wet hair slithers over his face. He hears the soft creak of moldering sealhide. His flesh shrinks from icy breath.
It's lonely at the bottom of the Sea.... Fish eat my flesh. The Sea Mother rolls my bones. It's cold. So cold.
Torak tries to speak. His lips won't move.
Why didn't you come to me on the Crag? I was lonely, waiting for you. I'm lonelier now. And so cold...
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Torak woke with a start.
Dawn had not yet come. He hadn't slept long. Wolf was gone, but Rip and Rek were hopping about outside the shelter, cawing.
Wake up, wake up!
Torak dug the heels of his hands into his eyes. "I'm sorry, kinsman. I missed my chance. But I'll find him again, I swear. I will avenge you." The ravens would watch over Tall Tailless, and Wolf would not go far. But he couldn't ignore those howls.
The ravens flew from tree to tree, fluffing up their head-feathers and making stony
chuk-chuk
warning calls. Warning of what? wondered Torak. Dawn was breaking as he left the Windriver and headed north, toward the Red Deer camp. The wind 161 was gusting, the trees moaning. His misgivings grew: a tightness in the chest that made it hard to breathe.
"What's wrong?" he said brusquely. "Is Renn all right?"
"She's safe with the others; it's you we were worried about. We didn't know where you'd gone."
You
fool,
he berated himself. A simple spring trap, and you blunder right into it!
His knife wasn't in its sheath. It lay where it had fallen
162
in a clump of goosefoot, out of reach. Furious, he shouted at the woman to come and cut him down.
She came running up the trail. "You're caught in a trap," she said.
"Well, obviously!" he snapped. "Cut me down!"
Her arms hung limp at her sides.
"No," said the woman.
"What?"
The rope creaked. Rain pattered on the leaves.
"Yes," said the woman in an altered voice.
Upside down, Torak saw her pull off the bark that covered her head and shake out her long, ash-gray hair.
"The fire has escaped," she said. "It is eating the Forest. The Chosen One has set it free."
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