Secrets of the Wolves (37 page)

She began to run faster. Borlla’s legs were longer than Ázzuen’s or mine, and we had to sprint to keep up with her. My mind raced, too. Could Borlla really be the Greatwolf secret? There had to be more.

“Borlla, is there something else the Greatwolves are hiding? We need to know.”

She ignored me. I wasn’t surprised; she hated me every bit as much as I hated her. I wanted to knock her over, pin her down, and make her tell me, but that would only make us all vulnerable if the Greatwolves returned. I looked at her and noticed that in spite of the fact that she was running well and quickly, her right foreleg was slightly crooked. Maybe I could get her to talk about the Greatwolves after all.

“What happened to your leg?” I asked, trying to sound as if I cared. We had reached the bottom of the poplar hill.

“They broke it,” she said matter-of-factly, beginning to climb the hill, “the first time I tried to get away.”

Marra exhaled sharply through her nose, and I stumbled a little in shock. Borlla’s eyes swept over me. I had forgotten how arrogant, how insulting her gaze could be.

“You don’t know anything about the Greatwolves and what they’re willing to do, do you? Did you really think they’d let you be the humans’ streck? I can’t believe you’re the one that half the council thinks might be wolfkind’s savior. They must be pretty desperate.”

Borlla was as arrogant and selfish as ever. The last thing I wanted was to have her back in my life. But she clearly knew something if she knew the Greatwolves had talked about me. I would have to keep trying.

“What did they say about that?” I panted. The ridge seemed much steeper on the way up. All four of us stopped when we reached the top. Borlla didn’t answer me. She just looked from left to right, deciding which way to go.

“Borlla, it’s important,” I said. “The safety of the pack might depend on our knowing.”

She whipped her head around, fury in her eyes. “Why should I care what happens to them?” she demanded. “They just left me. They left me with the Greatwolves for
five moons
without coming for me.”

“They tried,” Marra said, the only one of us not short of breath.

“Not hard enough,” Borlla replied, looking coolly at Marra. Of the three of us, she was the only one that Borlla had some respect for—the only one she hadn’t called a weakling when we were all smallpups.

“They looked for a long time,” Marra said. “Minn looked for two moons, and Unnan never stopped trying to find out what happened.”

Borlla winced at the mention of Unnan’s name. I tried to imagine what it would have been like for her. Waiting for someone to come. If it had been me, I would have waited every day for Ázzuen or Marra to find me.

“It’s important,” I said again, starting to feel a little sorry for her. “It’s life or death.”

She swung her head back to me. She had spoken somewhat respectfully to Marra, but she had no use for me.

“Do you know what the Greatwolves said to me, when they broke my leg the first time I tried to escape? They told me they’d break all four of my legs if I tried to leave again. They told me they would tear off both my ears. You have no idea of what ‘life or death’ means.”

My throat closed in disgust. I had known Milsindra was ruthless, but even so I’d never imagined the Greatwolves would do such things.

Borlla was looking at me with absolute contempt. “You don’t know anything,” she said.

She dove down the hill and dashed across a short stretch of grass and into a dense patch of forest. I lost sight of her. Then, almost instantly, I heard the impact of body upon body, a desperate scuffle, and a youngwolf’s scream.

Ázzuen, Marra, and I bolted down the hill and into the woods. Borlla was in a small clearing, and she was being held down by one Greatwolf as another stood over her. She scrabbled frantically beneath the wolf who pinned her, but there was no way she could free herself.

“Together!” I barked, instinctively using the term Torell had used when he wanted us to leap as one at an auroch. It worked. Ázzuen, Marra, and I leapt at the same instant to slam into the Greatwolf who had Borlla pinned. I recognized both Greatwolves then. Galindra and Sundru, the two young Greatwolves who had been guarding the cache. Galindra staggered when the three of us hit her, and Borlla scrambled to her feet. I dove under Sundru’s stomach, just as Torell had taught us to do with the aurochs. I saw Ázzuen and Marra darting around Galindra. Borlla took a deep and vicious bite out of Sundru’s flank. The two Greatwolves were as angry as the aurochs, and almost as stupid, and we had them confused and off-balance. When Pell crashed into the clearing, followed by screaming ravens, the Greatwolves ran.

“Get out of here!” Pell said. “I’ll keep them distracted.”

Before I could protest, he had pelted after the Greatwolves, the ravens flying just above his head. I couldn’t believe he was chasing Greatwolves. Borlla was already bolting from the clearing. I stood, stunned for a moment at the realization that we had fought a pair of Greatwolves and won.

“Come
on
, Kaala!” Ázzuen yipped.

I went.

The three of us followed Borlla’s trail, catching up with her as the woods thinned. I noticed she was limping now and running more slowly than before.

We ran through the woods until even Marra was gasping for breath and we had to stop to rest in a copse of pine and oak. Ázzuen’s ribs were heaving and his tongue hung halfway down to the ground. Borlla breathed in quick short pants. My own throat ached, and when I heard the sound of running water, I realized how thirsty I was. The day was cool, but we had hunted two aurochs and fought Greatwolves without even a chance to lap at a pond. The sound of water was just downhill from us. I could smell it now, the fresh, cool scent of a stream. Borlla had been leading us since we had run from the Greatwolves, but when I set off for the stream, she, Ázzuen, and Marra all followed.

The stream water was cool and savory with the taste of damp wood and fish. We gulped at the water, and I barely managed to stop myself from drinking so much that my belly would be too full to allow me to run. Then I looked around. I had been blindly following Borlla, trying to get as far away from the Greatwolves as we could. I realized that she had been leading us south, away from our humans and the pack. We would have to go back.

Ázzuen and Marra were lying down, still panting, still exhausted, but we had to keep moving. We had to let Torell know what we had found, and I wanted to make sure Pell was all right.

“Come on,” I said. “We’re leaving.”

I didn’t want Borlla to come with us, but I wasn’t willing to live with the guilt of her being recaptured by the Greatwolves. She could follow if she wanted.

“Kaala, wait,” Borlla said. Her voice shook. I remembered the terrified look on her face when Galindra held her down.

Reluctantly, I stopped and turned back to her. She was looking at me with dislike, as if she wanted to say something else insulting.

“You helped me,” she said instead. “Otherwise I wouldn’t tell you anything.”

I waited. I heard an impatient rustling from above and looked up to see Tlitoo peering down at us from an oak tree. He had a tuft of light-colored fur in his beak.

Borlla growled softly. “Do you know why the Greatwolves took me?” she asked.

“Because they’re dying and they need wolves to breed with,” Ázzuen answered. “It’s why they took the Wind Lake wolf, too, isn’t it? Nothing else makes sense.”

Borlla looked at him in surprise. She hadn’t spent much time with Ázzuen. She didn’t know how quickly his mind worked.

“They can’t bear any more young,” she said. “No Greatwolf pup has been born for over a hundred moons, and the Greatwolves of breeding age are growing older. Some of them want to mate with smallwolves to keep their bloodlines alive. Others think it might be time for the Greatwolves to die out. Some think only a few smallwolves should be kept alive to breed, and the rest should be killed.”

It didn’t surprise me that they were trying to breed a new race of wolves. Tlitoo had said the Greatwolves were dying, and Frandra and Jandru had wanted to take me from the valley at autumn’s end so that they could mix my blood with that of other wolves. It did surprise me that some of them thought the Greatwolves should die out.

“What happened to the Wind Lake wolf?” I asked. It would be just like Borlla to escape and leave him there.

“His name was Ivvan,” Borlla said. “They kept him with me for a few days, then took him away. I don’t know what happened to him.” She looked at me with distaste. “They talk about you all the time, Kaala. About whether you’re a savior-wolf or a destroyer. They talk about how which one you are will determine whether or not smallwolves should live. Every half moon they have a ritual where they seek guidance from the Ancients. That’s why there were only two Greatwolves guarding me. The rest have gone for the ritual. I heard Kivdru telling one of the younger Greatwolves about it—only the older Greatwolves are allowed to go, because whatever they do is too important for younger Greatwolves to know about. He said they chew the dream-sage and remember the time before time, the time of the Greatwolf Indru. He said they seek answers in the past.”

She looked anxiously over her shoulder and began to speak more quickly. “They’re waiting for some kind of traveler, who can see into the past. They say he will help them figure out how they can continue to survive and lead wolfkind. Until they find him, they look for guidance in memories of the ancestors.”

“Where do they go?” I demanded. I could almost feel Tlitoo’s beady gaze piercing the back of my head. The traveler could only be him, and Lydda had said the gift of the Nejakilakin could find the truth the Greatwolves guarded. I wanted to see those memories of the ancestors.

I thought Borlla might not answer, but she did so, grudgingly. “I don’t know exactly. But they always come back smelling of dream-sage and of Swift River lands.” Her ears and tail drooped. “They come back smelling of home.”

“Did you hear anything else?” I demanded.

“They kept me there for five moons. What do you think?” she snarled.

“So what else can you tell us?” Ázzuen asked.

“Nothing. They could come back here any minute.”

Again, the urge to pin her down and force her to talk overwhelmed me. But the Greatwolves could be upon us at any moment, and Borlla had as much right to do what was best for her as we did.

“Thank you for telling me,” I said, controlling my anger. She didn’t acknowledge my thanks, just turned to go.

“Borlla,” I said, “Unnan is with the Wind Lake pack. He left Swift River and joined them. Because of what happened to you.”

She hesitated for an instant, then turned back and touched her nose to my face.

“Good luck, Bear Food,” she said, and bolted into the woods.

Tlitoo dropped from his oak, landing with a thump on the stream bank. He still had the tuft of fur in his mouth. He spat it out.

“The Stone Peak wolf is fine,” he said before I could ask. “He returns to his pack to tell them of the hiding place. The two Greatworms have gone back to their hill and are very angry. We can go look for the other Gruntwolf place.”

“Did Nlitsa say anything about my mother?” I asked.

“No, wolf. We must go
now
.” He blinked at me and opened his beak to breathe in sharp, quick pants. His heart beat quickly under the smooth feathers of his chest.

I wanted to go just as much as he did. I had no idea how much time we had before the Greatwolves finished their ritual, and we couldn’t wait another half moon.

“We don’t have to be at Fallen Tree until darkfall,” Marra said. “We still have time.”

“Not much time,” Ázzuen said. “As soon as Galindra and Sundru tell the other Greatwolves about Borlla, they’ll want to talk to us.”

“At least,” I said. The Greatwolves wouldn’t know we’d learned of their ritual, but they would know we had helped Borlla escape, and they wouldn’t be happy about it. If we were going to find the Greatwolf ritual, we would have to start looking soon. I didn’t want Ázzuen and Marra with me, though. I didn’t want them seeing what Tlitoo and I did. I was about to suggest we split the territory to save time, when I saw Jlela flying fast above the stream. She landed in a skid and tumbled into Tlitoo.

“You need to come, Moonwolf,” she said to me. “There is trouble.”

“What trouble?” I asked impatiently. I needed to find the Greatwolf sleeping place, and ravens often had strange ideas about what was important.

“Trouble with your girl, wolf. You should come.”

I didn’t ask any more questions. I took off at a run toward the auroch plain. The Greatwolves would have to wait.

I
took one look at the humans on the plain and saw what Jlela meant. Even from the top of the poplar hill I could tell that there was trouble. The humans weren’t fighting or yelling, but there was something in the way HuLin was standing, in the set of TaLi’s shoulders, that told me even from far away that something was wrong. The rest of the humans were standing around sleds already piled high with auroch, or cutting the remaining meat from the carcasses, as they would after any hunt, but they moved stiffly and did not take their eyes from HuLin and TaLi.

We ran down the hill, staying under the cover of the poplars and scrubby bushes as much as we could. When we reached our watching spot at the edge of the plain, I was surprised to find the Vole Eater youngwolf, Prannan, waiting for us at a spot where the woods met the plain.

“The ravens came for me,” he said. “They said to guard the humans until you got here, and I did. One of the humans gave me firemeat!”

Still startled that he was there, I nosed his muzzle in thanks and looked more closely at the humans. I couldn’t find KiLi or her mate, and all the other humans seemed to be doing their best to avoid HuLin and TaLi.

“What’s happening?” I asked Prannan.

“The one called HuLin wants to take the tribe into a place called Aln territory tomorrow,” he answered. “There’s a small herd of elkryn there, and he wants to kill them all before the Aln tribe does. Then he wants to get all the forest pigs, walking birds, and smallprey in another tribe’s forests—I can’t remember their names—before the other humans realize the other prey is leaving. He wants to kill as much prey as he can before the other humans do. And he wants to use you to do it. Your girl is trying to stop him.” He stopped to gulp a breath. “She says it goes against the teachings of the krianans. That it would upset the Balance.”