Secrets of the Wolves (18 page)

DavRian stepped back, clutching the cloak to his chest. HuLin looked as if he was going to strike TaLi. I began to move forward. I wouldn’t bite the human leader, but I could put myself between him and TaLi.

RinaLi beat me to it. She placed both hands upon HuLin’s chest and spoke to DavRian.

“TaLi is young and doesn’t yet understand all of her duties,” RinaLi said, soothing the young man. “We welcome your gift, and we welcome you to stay here with us for a little while.”

“To court her,” Ázzuen said in a low growl, “along with BreLan.”

“It’s not unexpected,” Trevegg said, padding up to join us. “The humans often mate to form alliances with other tribes. Your girl should be quiet and then do what she wants.”

TaLi opened her mouth to protest RinaLi’s invitation to DavRian, but the older woman looked at her with such fury that the girl lowered her eyes. I expected to see tears or fear in them, but what I saw was ferocious anger. I pawed her thigh then pressed my nose into her boots, trying to remind her of BreLan’s words, his warning to make her leaders think she would obey them.

DavRian looked from TaLi to RinaLi and HuLin, still clutching the cloak to his chest. Then he thrust it into TaLi’s arms, knocking her back almost to the wall of the herb den.

“Thank you, RinaLi,” DavRian said at last. “I know she’s young, and I accept your offer.”

TaLi’s aunt smiled at him. She took the cloak from TaLi and placed it over the girl’s shoulders. It fell to her knees. A rabbit fur–lined head-covering was attached the rest of the cloak. RinaLi pulled it up over TaLi’s head. It completely hid her face.

“It’s beautiful,” RinaLi said, stroking the fur lining. “Thank you.”

DavRian smiled back. “I’ll tell my father I’ll be spending time here,” he said. He turned as if to go, then stopped and rubbed his hands against his thighs, and turned back to the Lin leader. “You know, HuLin,” he said, his voice quiet and respectful, “that the Rian tribe no longer follows the old way of doing things. We do not follow the old krianans.”

“I had heard that,” HuLin said. “My son, TonLin, told me before he left us. It’s one of the reasons I have considered you for TaLi.” Anger had returned to the Lin leader’s voice, and he glowered at TaLi when he mentioned TonLin.

“He and I were friends,” DavRian said. “It’s for him that I tell you what I haven’t told anyone except my father.” He lowered his eyes as if embarrassed, but looking up at him, I could see an eager smile on his face. “The Ancients have spoken to me directly, as TonLin told me they spoke to him. They have told me, as they told him, that it is the destiny of humankind to command the world around us. The krianans that came before have misunderstood, and the Rian tribe is no longer bound by the whims of those who go into the woods and speak to the trees. We take what’s rightfully ours. The Balance the old krianans speak of is a myth, a way for them to keep power. Trying to maintain it weakens us, makes us no better than these wolves.” He swept his arm down to us. His hand was temptingly near my teeth.

“You’re a fool,” TaLi said, pushing the head-covering off. It had mussed her dark hair, which now fell into her face. “If we don’t keep the Balance, there will be nothing left for us to ‘command.’ You don’t know what you’re talking about.”

DavRian flushed but didn’t answer her. He lifted his head to meet HuLin’s eyes.

“What other creature makes spears and knives? What other creature makes shelters and clothing and rules the power of fire? The old ways no longer serve us, HuLin!” He had raised his voice, and several humans began to make their way over to us. I recognized KiLi, the woman who had helped lead the hunt at Oldwoods.

I could see that HuLin liked what the young man was saying. So could DavRian.

“I’m sorry if I spoke too passionately,” DavRian said. “I tell you this so you will know that if you choose me for TaLi, she will have the status of the krianan as my mate. She will lose nothing.”

TaLi took a deep breath, clearly planning to insult DavRian again. HuLin clutched her arm, hard. I could see the red marks his fingers made, and it was all I could do to keep from leaping at him. Ázzuen and Trevegg both pressed against me.

“Thank you, DavRian,” HuLin said. “I will consider what you’ve said.”

DavRian dipped his head to HuLin, then tried to catch TaLi’s eyes. She kept her head down, her face hidden by her hair. DavRian reached out, as if to touch her, grimaced, then turned and loped into the woods.

TaLi pulled her arm from HuLin’s grasp. He let her do it.

“He’s lying,” TaLi said, looking up at HuLin. “He goes off into the woods and smokes the dream-sage leaves. I’m not surprised he thinks he’s hearing the Ancients. That’s not how true krianans learn of the needs of the Balance.”

“Then how do you?” HuLin demanded. “Neither you nor the old woman will tell me.”

TaLi pushed the hair from her eyes and looked at her feet. She certainly couldn’t tell HuLin that the krianans spoke to the Greatwolves. “You know we have to preserve the Balance,” she said at last.

“She’s right, HuLin,” KiLi said. The female had been hanging back, watching HuLin and DavRian. Now she stepped forward. The male at her side came forward with her. He was tall and strong-looking, and he and the female looked formidable together. Four other humans stood in a loose half-moon shape around them, offering silent support. “We can’t give up our old ways on a whim. And you can’t force us to do so. Your son tried that.”

“And you and your friends humiliated him so much that he left us,” HuLin said through clenched teeth.

KiLi kept her voice calm. “We all want what’s best for the Lin tribe. But we won’t be rushed. We respect you as our leader, but we can’t let you toss aside everything we’ve known. We have no objections to you choosing TaLi’s mate as you will—it’s your right to do so—but we must decide as a tribe what is best for us. You know that.” She placed a hand on his shoulder, and she and the male walked away. The other humans followed.

Once, when I was a smallpup, Ruuqo was furious with me and wanted to send me away. But too many other wolves in the pack considered me a valuable pack member, and he had to accept their will. A leaderwolf only leads if others follow. Clearly it was the same with the humans.

HuLin watched his tribemates go, then turned on TaLi.

“You will not drive the Rian boy away as you drove my son away,” he snarled. “If I choose him as your mate, you will go to him. And I
will
get the tribe to renounce the nonsense that old woman has fed them.”

He stalked off to one of the shelters, threw aside the pelt at its entrance, and ducked inside. As soon as he was gone, TaLi shrugged off the cloak so that it fell into the dirt.

RinaLi hissed at her. “Are you a fool? It is the most valuable gift any woman of Lin has received. And if DavRian is the Rian tribe’s krianan you will have all the status you could want. Though if he still wants you after your behavior today, we’ll be lucky.”

TaLi’s face went pale, then darkened, and she opened her mouth to answer back. Then she took several deep breaths and pressed her lips shut. She grabbed a handful of my fur, and I leaned against her. RinaLi regarded us both for a moment, then nodded. She picked up the cloak, stroking the soft, thick hide.

“He’s a more suitable match than BreLan, but having them both here will make DavRian value you more.” Satisfaction filled her voice. “We’ll give the two of them until the Spring Gathering, then you will take DavRian as your mate.”

TaLi kept her lips pressed tightly together, saying nothing. Her grasp on my fur tightened enough to hurt, but I stayed at her side. After a moment, RinaLi shook her head once, and stalked off, taking the cloak with her.

TaLi released her grip on my fur, reached down for one of the stones at her feet, and hurled it against a nearby tree, sending bark flying from it. I remembered the sound that had woken me and saw several stones around the tree trunk. She stood there next to me, shaking for a moment, then rubbed one of her foot-coverings against the other.

“Come on, Silvermoon,” she said. “I’m not supposed to marry a swamp snake, I am supposed to be this tribe’s krianan.” She pulled herself up to her full scrawny height, then stomped off into the woods toward NiaLi’s shelter. I didn’t try to stop her. I needed to talk to the old krianan, too. I’d hoped to hunt several more times with the humans, to gain their trust more completely before moving on to the next part of our plan, but if TaLi was going to be sent away, we would have to act more quickly.

Ázzuen agreed to stay at the human homesite while Trevegg and I followed TaLi to her grandmother’s shelter. NiaLi lived across the river from the other humans, in our own territory. She had lived with the other humans of TaLi’s tribe, until HuLin had grown tired of her telling him what he could and could not hunt. He hadn’t been able to stop her from being the tribe’s krianan, but he had sent her to live away from the rest of the tribe.

Trevegg and I easily swam the river, then waited for TaLi to pick her way across, stepping from rock to rock in a disturbingly precarious manner. I kept a nervous eye on her, ready to jump back into the water if she fell. The first time I found her was when she had toppled into the river trying to make just such a crossing.

“You need to teach her to swim,” Trevegg said to me, watching TaLi’s unsteady progress. “I can’t believe she doesn’t fall in more often.”

TaLi leapt the last wolflength of the river, landing in a squat on the muddy riverbank. She saw the two of us watching her and made a face.

“I know what I’m doing,” she said.

Trevegg snorted and trotted off into the woods. I followed with TaLi. She moved swiftly for a human, and I expected to get to NiaLi’s home quickly. But when we reached the deer path that led to the old woman’s shelter, TaLi stepped off the path and into the woods, walking in the wrong direction.

“This way, Silvermoon,” she said.

I whined at her and took several steps in the direction we were supposed to be going. When she didn’t follow, I walked back to her, pawed at her thigh, and whined again, looking down the path to NiaLi’s.

“She doesn’t live there anymore, Silvermoon,” TaLi said. “Not since TonLin left the tribe.” She crouched down so that her face was level with mine. I noticed river mud on her ear and licked it off. Trevegg, who had realized we were no longer behind him, padded over to sit beside us.

“After the big snowstorm, HuLin tried to make his son krianan without consulting anyone. Those in the tribe who believe in honoring the Balance wouldn’t let him. Then, when I told TonLin I wouldn’t be his mate, he left, and HuLin blamed my grandmother. So did a lot of other people who want to abandon the old ways. They threatened her and tried to burn her shelter. So she had to find a new place to live, a secret place. BreLan, MikLan, and I built her a new shelter. It’s this way.”

She walked quickly through the woods, avoiding the paths the humans usually liked to use. When she reached a narrow, rocky pathway, she broke into a run. Trevegg and I followed at an easy lope.

We had run only a few minutes when we smelled Greatwolf. We slowed and then stopped when Frandra and Jandru, the Greatwolves who watched over the Swift River pack, stepped out in front of us.

My relief that it was the two of them rather than Milsindra and my surprise that they were not disguising their scents as she had done were quickly replaced with trepidation as I remembered I had promised to meet them at the quarter moon to tell them of our progress with the humans. That quarter moon had come and gone and I had been so involved with the humans that I’d completely forgotten to seek out the Greatwolves.

I lowered my tail and ears as I slunk forward to greet Frandra and Jandru, my mind racing as I tried to think of what I could say to excuse myself. Ázzuen and Marra were both better at thinking up excuses than I was.

As I opened my mouth, hoping that something reasonable would come out, Trevegg whuffed in warning and Jandru’s head snaked out toward me so quickly I saw only a blur of fur and a flash of teeth. The Greatwolf seized my neck fur in his jaws, flipped me over onto my back, and began dragging me through the woods. I was nearly grown, but Jandru pulled me through the dirt as easily as if I were a newpup. I was uncomfortably reminded of the way I had once hauled a shrub-hare around before snapping its neck and eating it.

I twisted around and scrabbled to get my feet under me, but only succeeded in kicking up dirt and leaves into my own face. I tried to dig a paw into Jandru’s chest, but he just shook me hard once and flipped me back over onto my side. Frandra, running beside him, jabbed me hard in the ribs with her muzzle. I decided it would be best to stop struggling. I hung limp, looking at Jandru’s mud-dampened chest fur as he pulled me along.

He and Frandra moved quickly, and I heard Trevegg’s scrabbling pawsteps as he raced to keep up and TaLi’s running feet not far behind him. The humans could move fairly quickly when they wanted to, and Trevegg was fleet for a wolf of his age, but the Greatwolves were faster; they quickly left TaLi and Trevegg behind. They didn’t bother finding a clear, quiet path through the woods. They just pushed through whatever bushes might be in their way. After several jolting minutes, Jandru crashed through a thicket of prickly tartberry bushes and dumped me on my rump in a puddle of muddy snowmelt.

I sat there for a moment, dizzy and disoriented. I smelled Greatwolf fur, mint, spruce trees, berry bushes, and smoke. The most powerful scent, however, was the aroma of human. I also heard the sound of preyskins flapping against stone. I shook my head, confused, and when my dizziness subsided and my vision cleared I saw to my surprise that I was sitting in front of a human shelter. I smelled herbs, and a familiar human scent. It had to be the old woman’s new shelter.

Like her old dwelling, NiaLi’s home was not separate from the woods surrounding it like other human shelters, but rather grew up from the ground, as a tree might. Its stone and mud base made it as sturdy as any of the other human shelters, but NiaLi had cleared only a small space around it, so that it felt as comfortable as any of our gathering places. Or at least it did when there weren’t two angry Greatwolves hovering over me.