Secrets of the Wolves (2 page)

That was when the Greatwolves came to the Wide Valley, and as soon as they arrived, they began to tell lies.

They came down from the eastern mountains and found Lydda and her boy watching, bereft, as their families fought one another. No one had ever seen such huge wolves before, and when they told Lydda that they had been sent down from the sky by the Ancients, she believed them. They forced her to leave the valley, telling her she was a danger to wolfkind.

Then they invented a false legend: that when Indru had spoken to the Ancients, he had promised not to watch over the humans, but rather to stay forever away from them so that humans would not continue to learn so many new things. They said that they had been sent by the Ancients to teach the humans of the Balance from afar and that someday, when the weakness that made the Wide Valley wolves love the humans so much had been bred out of them, the Greatwolves would let them take over this task. Lydda believed them. She took her human boy and left the Wide Valley. Only after her death did she learn the truth. She discovered a way to return to the world of life. And she came to me.

By the time she did so, I was already an outcast from my pack. My mother had mated with a wolf from outside the valley. The Greatwolves carefully controlled the breeding of the Wide Valley wolves, and only they could give permission for mixed-blood pups. Wolves with Outsider blood were considered unlucky, and I had almost been killed as a smallpup because of it. When I grew fascinated by the humans, it only made things worse. I was told that being with the humans was wrong and that my inability to stay away from them made me a danger to my pack and to wolfkind, that it was proof that I was an aberrant wolf. When I saved the life of a human child, I kept it secret from my pack, believing that I was unnatural.

Lydda found me and told me the truth, that wolves and humans were meant to be together—that our survival depended on it. She helped me learn of the Greatwolves’ lies, so that I could stop a battle between wolves and humans that would have led to war. She gave me the confidence to convince my pack that we were to be the guardians of the humans and the strength to take on the promise of wolfkind. Then she left me.

She came to me one last time, a quarter moon after I had stopped the battle. I was crouched against a stout oak, sheltering myself from a sudden windstorm. She spoke urgently, as if she expected any moment to be set upon by a larger hunter.

“You’ve done so well, Kaala,” she had said, touching her nose to mine. “But I can no longer come here to you.”

“Why not?” I needed her. I had promised to take on responsibility for the humans at least in part because she had told me to, because she had made me promise to succeed in the task that she had failed in. She couldn’t leave me to face the consequences alone.

“The leaderwolves of the spirit realm forbade me to come here, and now they know I have disobeyed them,” she said, looking over her shoulder. “They will be watching me carefully. But it’s not just that. Wolves of the spirit realm are not meant to return to the world of life. We cannot endure here for long. If I continue to come, I will not be able to live in either world.”

It was then that I noticed how thin she was, how frail. It had been less than a moon since I’d last seen her, and then she had been sleek and healthy.

“But I need you,” I had said. “I’m supposed to keep wolf and humankind together. I can’t do it alone.”

“I know, Kaala. You have done more than I could have hoped, and I will not abandon you. I have heard of a place where the worlds of life and of death come together. You must find that place.”

She might as well have told me to hunt a herd of elkryn on my own.

“How?” I asked.

“I don’t know, Kaala. The leaderwolves of the spirit realm don’t tell me things, but I have overheard them speaking of such a place, and of one who can travel between the world of life and death to get there. Perhaps you can find this one who travels.”

I heard an angry howl, echoing through the valley. Lydda cringed. “I must go. Will you promise me to try to find this place?”

“Yes,” I said, blinking against the wind.

“Good. Then I know I will see you again soon.”

She spoke to me quickly then, telling me everything she could before she had to go. Then she licked the top of my head, and disappeared into the thick underbrush.

I was not the first wolf to hunt with the humans, but I might very well be the last. It was one of the last things Lydda told me before she had to return to the spirit world: that this time, there would be no more chances.

I
caught the delicate scent of distant prey and stopped, digging my paws into the earth. Lifting my muzzle to the wind, I inhaled, allowing the distinctive ice-and-hoof aroma to sink to the back of my throat. Snow deer, in our territory and on the move. All at once, blood rushed to the sensitive spot just behind my ears. My mouth moistened, and every muscle in my body hungered for the chase. Next to me, Ázzuen stood as still as I was, only his ears twitching. Then his dark gray head began to sway, pulled between the lure of prey and our task.

“We can’t go after them,” I said. “We have to get to Tall Grass.”

“I know that,” he replied, panting hard. We’d run most of the way across our territory at full pelt. “I’m coming.”

Neither of us moved. I could, just barely, restrain myself from following the prey-scent, but I couldn’t bring myself to move away from it. Neither could Ázzuen. The small cluster of pine trees in which we stood blocked out the early morning sun, allowing thick drops of moisture to form on Ázzuen’s fur. His entire body now strained toward the prey. As a fresh gust of deer-scent washed over us, I closed my eyes.

A painful yank on the fur of my chest made me yelp. I glared down to see dark eyes peering at me out of a gleaming black feathered head and a sharp beak poised to jab at my paw. I stepped back. Tlitoo raised his wings as if to take flight, then strode forward to stand under my chin, staying within stabbing distance. His winter plumage made him seem larger than a not-yet-year-old raven should, and his tail and back were speckled with the snow he’d been rolling in. He stared a beady challenge at me, and then at Ázzuen, who jumped aside to get out of beak range and buried his nose in the snow, trying to freeze away the deer-scent.

When Tlitoo saw that he had our attention, he quorked softly.

“The Grimwolves are exactly fourteen minutes behind you, wolflets, and their legs are much longer than yours. They will catch up.”

My throat tightened. I’d thought we had more time. The Greatwolves had ruled the Wide Valley for as long as any wolf could remember, and all wolves were required to obey them.

An angry howl made all three of us cringe.
Stop!
The command in the Greatwolf Frandra’s voice was clear.
And wait for us. Stay at the pine grove. We will come for you.

“How do they know where we are?” I demanded. “Their noses can’t be all that good.” We’d heard rumors that the Greatwolves could read the minds of other wolves. Ázzuen claimed the Greatwolves made up those stories themselves.

“They smell us and they smell pine,” he said firmly. “And they’re guessing.”

“It doesn’t matter, wolves!” Tlitoo rasped. “The longer you blather, the closer they get!”

I took a deep breath, calming myself. The Greatwolves would catch up with us in the end, and when they did they would be angry. But I was determined to make it to the Tall Grass plain before they found us, no matter what the consequence. For on the morning wind there rode another scent, one even more potent than that of the snow deer. A scent of sweat and flesh, of smoke and pine, of meat cooked over fire: the scent of the humans who shared our hunt. The ground beneath our paws was softening with the beginnings of the thaw, and the breeze that ruffled our fur sang of winter’s weakening. For three nights, the Ice Moon had narrowed to the smallest of crescents and then faded to darkness. And with the waning of the Ice Moon, the wolves and humans of the Wide Valley could be together once again.

It had been three moons since we’d last seen our humans, on a cool autumn morning when the humans and wolves of the Wide Valley had nearly gone to war. If we had done so, every wolf and human in the valley would have been killed by order of the Greatwolves. I had stopped that war, with the help of my packmates, and in doing so had convinced the leader of the Greatwolves to spare us. In exchange I had made a promise: that for one year I would ensure that the wolves and humans of the Wide Valley did not fight. If I succeeded, the Wide Valley wolves and humans would live. If I failed, the Greatwolves would kill us all.

The next night, a heavy snowstorm howled into the Wide Valley, warning us that the hungry days of winter neared. Wolves and humans, along with every other creature in the valley, would have to struggle to survive the harsh winter, and so the Greatwolves gave us three moons to prepare before we took on the task of keeping peace between human and wolf—as long as we stayed away from the humans during that time. Today was the day our task was to begin. But two nights ago, the Greatwolves had ordered us to come to them as soon as the Ice Moon waned. Instead, awoken by Tlitoo’s warning, we’d fled.

I met Ázzuen’s eyes and filled my throat with the cool morning air. The Greatwolves had lied to us too many times. With one last look in the direction of the snow deer, I leapt over Tlitoo’s snowy back and sprinted toward the Tall Grass plain, folding my ears against the wrathful howls of the Greatwolves.

When we reached the Wood’s Edge Gathering Place, a few steps from where the trees met the Tall Grass plain, we found Marra pacing restlessly, her pale gray fur flecked with dirt and leaves. She darted over to touch my nose and then Ázzuen’s with her own, her muzzle quivering with impatience.

“Ruuqo and Rissa are on their way here with Trevegg,” Marra said quickly. “The rest of the pack went after the snow deer.” I had sent her on ahead to warn the leaderwolves that the Greatwolves followed us; we hadn’t wanted to risk howling. Tlitoo could have flown to them more quickly than even fleet Marra could run, but he had refused to leave us. He’d been agitated since waking us at dawn. Even now, he stalked back and forth between me and Ázzuen, clacking his beak impatiently.

Marra must have run like a hare to get back to Tall Grass so quickly. She wasn’t even winded. She barely took a breath before speaking again.

“MikLan and BreLan are out there,” she said. They were the two males that she and Ázzuen hunted with. “And your human, too, Kaala.”

I didn’t need her to tell me that. The aroma of humans had grown overpowering, one human-scent in particular nearly knocking me off my paws. I felt a familiar yearning deep in my chest. TaLi and I had run the hunt together and slept side by side. She was as much my packmate as any wolf and her fragrance as much a part of my being as my own skin.

“Did Ruuqo and Rissa want us to wait for them?” Ázzuen asked, taking a few steps toward the plain, then looking back at us. His tail began to wave. Ruuqo and Rissa were the leaderwolves of the Swift River pack. All wolves must obey the will of their leaderwolves, especially wolves like Ázzuen, Marra, and me, who at nine and a half moons old were not yet quite considered adults.

“No,” Marra replied, averting her eyes. “Rissa’s ribs hurt her today, so the pack moves slowly.” Rissa had injured her ribs in a fight with a maddened elkryn three moons before, only steps from where we now stood. It still hurt her when the weather changed.

“Ruuqo said we should try to talk to the humans before the Greatwolves get here.” Marra licked a paw, still not meeting my eyes. “You could have saved me the trouble of warning the pack, Kaala, with all the noise the Greatwolves are making.”

I narrowed my eyes, not entirely sure I believed Marra. She wasn’t above stretching the truth from time to time, and I doubted Ruuqo and Rissa would want youngwolves like us to defy the Greatwolves without our pack leaders at our side. I had worked hard all winter to regain the leaderwolves’ trust and didn’t want to lose it again.

“We could wait,” I said. “The pack will be here soon.”

“So will the Gruntwolves!” Tlitoo retorted, slapping his wings against his back. “You did not run all this way to stop now. What is the point of making the Gripewolves angry for no reason?” He picked up half a pinecone in his beak and hurled it at me. It bounced off my shoulder. “Slugwolf!” he screeched.

“We
are
the ones who know the humans best, Kaala,” Ázzuen said, sensing my indecision.

Just then a furious and startlingly nearby Greatwolf howl shook the air. My legs made up my mind for me. I was running before I realized it, bolting from the safety of Wood’s Edge with Ázzuen and Marra at my tail. We broke through a line of spruce trees and onto the Tall Grass plain where we could at last see our humans again.

Six of them stood around a mound of dirt and snow, poking at it with the blunt ends of the long, deadly sharpsticks they used for hunting. We loped across the plain slowly, not wanting to startle the humans. Tall Grass was a large plain, where we often hunted horses and other grazers. The humans were halfway down the length of it and intent on their dirt mound, so they didn’t notice us at first. TaLi’s scent drifted more strongly than ever across the grass, but I couldn’t pick her out among the humans. All three of the females had flat, dark fur like TaLi’s and were dressed in bear and wolverine skins against the cold. None of them, however, was the right shape to be TaLi. Had I somehow mistaken her scent? I slowed down. Tlitoo lost what little patience he had when Ázzuen and Marra slowed, too.