Secrets of the Wolves (9 page)

Two days later, we crossed the Swift River to bring food directly to the humans’ homesite. Ruuqo wanted to wait longer, to give the humans more time to grow accustomed to the idea of us, but Rissa insisted.

“The sooner the humans get used to seeing us at their homesite, the sooner they will allow wolves to stay with them,” she’d said. I thought Ruuqo would argue more, but he took one look at the determination in Rissa’s eyes and dipped his head in agreement. He did insist that he and Rissa accompany Trevegg, Ázzuen, and me to the human homesite. The humans lived in the heart of Stone Peak territory.

Five packs of wolves shared the Wide Valley, and the Stone Peak pack had been our rivals for as long as any wolf could remember. Like the humans of TaLi’s tribe, they lived across the river from our territory. Wolves don’t encroach on one another’s lands unless they’re looking for a fight. The Greatwolves had decreed that all wolves had safe passage to human homesites so that we could observe them when we needed to, but the Stone Peaks weren’t known for following rules. Two half-grown pups and an oldwolf would be no match for them if they decided to fight. Sure enough, when we waded into the river just before dawn, each carrying a piece of snow deer, we saw three Stone Peaks waiting for us on the other side.

Stone Peaks are large wolves; the smallest wolf in their pack was larger than Ruuqo. It was common knowledge that Stone Peaks only let their strongest pups feed, allowing the smaller, weaker ones to die. They alone among all the wolves in the valley hunted the aurochs—huge, aggressive beasts that roamed the westernmost plains of the valley. Of all the prey in the valley, the aurochs were most likely to kill wolves. The Stone Peaks took great pride in hunting them.

Torell and Ceela, the leaderwolves of the Stone Peak pack, waited on the flat, muddy stretch of riverbank, glaring at Ruuqo and Rissa as we made our way across the river. The third Stone Peak, a younger wolf who held his left rear paw up, as if it hurt him, watched me. I hadn’t expected to find him there. The last time I’d seen him, he was lying injured on the Tall Grass plain, abandoned by his packmates after the battle; the Stone Peaks didn’t believe in weakness. I surprised myself by being glad he hadn’t died from his injuries.

His name was Pell, and he was a tall, sleek wolf who smelled of wind-sage and willow trees. His fur was the color of dry summer grass, and I could see the play of muscles under it as he placed his paw back on the ground and stretched, keeping his gaze on me. I wasn’t tall enough to make it across the river without swimming, and I felt stupid and awkward as he watched me paddling with the meat in my jaws.

Ruuqo and Rissa were first across the river. As soon as they emerged, they shook themselves and set down the meat they carried. The rest of us were not far behind. We set down our own pieces of snow deer and stood, ready to confront the Stone Peaks.

As the four leaderwolves glowered at each other, Pell kept trying to meet my eyes. I ignored him. Our packs were enemies. He shouldn’t be trying to be friendly to me.

“Hello, Kaala,” he said softly when I refused to look at him. I felt my spine go warm and my eyes trying to lift up to meet his. I wouldn’t let them, though. Next to me, Ázzuen rumbled a growl.

It was up to Ruuqo and Rissa, as the wolves entering another pack’s territory, to greet the Stone Peaks first. They inclined their heads the tiniest bit.

“Hello, Torell. Ceela,” Rissa said. “We claim safe passage to the human homesite.”

Torell didn’t even bother to acknowledge her greeting, as a well-mannered wolf would. He sneered at the five of us like we were hyenas. His face, like Werrna’s, was scarred from a battle long ago. But while Werrna’s scars covered only one side of her face, Torell’s entire face seemed to be one large scar. It made him seem even more intimidating than did his great size.

“Is it true?” he demanded. “Can what I hear be true?”

“I don’t know, Torell,” Rissa said, shaking more water from her white coat. I realized I’d been too nervous to shake when I climbed from the river. Suddenly, the water in my fur was intolerable, and I shook hard. Water sprayed all over Ceela, who glowered at me.

Rissa stifled a laugh. So did Pell.

“Why don’t you tell us what it is you have heard, Ceela?” Rissa suggested.

“I hear you bring meat to the humans,” Torell snapped. “I hear you bring it to them as if they are part of your pack.” His gaze took in the shinbone Ruuqo had set down on the ground, at the hunks of belly meat that Trevegg, Ázzuen, and I had carried. A look of revulsion crossed his scarred face. “I did not believe it when I heard it. I thought better of you. And I hear you mean to live with them,” he said, as if speaking of some perversion. “Tell me it isn’t true, Ruuqo.”

“As I have told you more times than I can remember, Torell—what the Swift River pack does and does not do are of no concern to you. Stand aside and let us pass. We don’t have time right now to make you do so.”

Torell snorted at that. He was a large wolf, even for a Stone Peak, and known for his courage in fighting. It would take a very strong wolf to survive in a pack, much less become its leader, with whatever injuries had left him so scarred.

“You don’t deny it?” Ceela was incredulous. “You admit you bring meat to our enemies. Winter is hardly over and the prey still scrawny and you give good meat to the humans? They would kill you as carelessly as you kill a vole. What’s wrong with you?”

“Do the Greatwolves know of this?” Torell said slyly. He curled his lip. “You are always such good little wolves, doing everything the Greatwolves tell you. What will they do, I wonder, if we tell them what you’re doing?”

It was an empty threat. Torell hated the Greatwolves even more than he hated the humans. Still, I could see Rissa took pleasure in answering him.

“It is the Greatwolves who have asked us to do this,” she said.

Asked wasn’t exactly the right word
, I thought.

“We will be calling a Gathering of all the packs in the valley in a half moon’s time,” Rissa said. “If you wish to send a representative, do so. We will be at the verge near Wind Lake territory.”

“You probably don’t want to come yourself, Torell,” Trevegg said with a yawn. “Most wolves still blame you for the fight at Tall Grass.”

All three Stone Peaks growled at that. It was the Stone Peak pack who had tried to attack the humans three moons ago, and every wolf in the valley would remember that. Torell had taken his pack into hiding throughout the winter. They had emerged only half a moon ago, and no one really knew what their status in the valley was.

A crafty look crossed Torell’s face. “Just as many blame your drelshik pup for stopping us from getting rid of the humans,” he said. “Perhaps we should discuss
that
at the Gathering.” I felt my gut clench. A drelshik was a cursed wolf, a wolf despised by the Ancients who brought disaster wherever she went. It wasn’t the first time the accusation had been hurled at me. I wanted to crawl back into the river.

“Perhaps they do,” Trevegg agreed, clearly pleased to have gotten a rise out of Torell. “We appreciate your concern and will give it the attention it deserves.”

Torell narrowed his eyes at the oldwolf, but Trevegg’s tone and expression were too mild to give him reason to take offense.

“We grant you leave to come into our territory,” Torell said at last, turning from the oldwolf to speak instead to Ruuqo. “I’m sure you won’t mind if we guide you? Just to make sure you don’t lose your way.”

Ruuqo regarded him for moment, and I thought he might refuse. Then he dipped his head to the Stone Peak leader, picked up the shinbone he had set down when he confronted Torell, and took off at a run, Rissa at his side, and Torell, Ceela, and Trevegg on their tails. Startled by the quick turn of events, I grabbed up my deer meat and ran after them. Ázzuen and Pell ran with me. I made a point of concentrating on where I was going, but after a moment Pell spoke.

“Hello, Kaala,” he said again. I had been avoiding looking at him, but it would have been rude to ignore his greeting a second time. I looked up into his eyes, and then away when I saw the warmth in his gaze.

“Hello, Pell,” I said, mumbling around the meat I carried. I hadn’t spoken to Pell since the first day I met him—the day Ázzuen, Marra, and I had overheard the Stone Peaks plotting to kill the humans. I had only talked to him that one time, but he had made it clear that he liked me, which made me nervous. He didn’t know me well enough to like me or not.

“I see you’ve done well over the winter,” he said. “You look healthy and strong.”

Many pups did not live through the hungry times of winter. Doing so was evidence of a pup’s strength and likelihood of long-term survival. There was no mistaking the admiration in Pell’s voice.

“We’ve all done well,” Ázzuen said sharply, sprinting to catch up with us. I was shocked to notice he had left his deer meat behind at the river. “All four of us survived the winter. How many Stone Peak pups did?”

I glared at him. It was rude to ask another pack which pups survived the winter. And I couldn’t believe he’d left his deer meat behind. We’d need it to win over the humans.

Pell looked down at him. “Stone Peak had no pups this year.”

I thought about that. Did he mean that none had been born or that none had been allowed to live? At nearly three years old, Pell was the youngest wolf in the Stone Peak pack. If they didn’t start having pups soon, Stone Peak would be no more.

“How was your winter?” I mumbled. Then felt like an idiot. It was a stupid question. Pell had been badly wounded at the battle at the Tall Grass plain. He had hurt his left rear leg so severely that he had trouble walking. I was surprised that he was still allowed in the Stone Peak pack.

When Pell didn’t answer right away, Ázzuen pressed him.

“How’s your leg?” Ázzuen asked.

I almost choked on the deer meat I carried. Calling attention to another wolf’s weakness was incredibly offensive. Now I realized why Ázzuen had left his meat behind—so he could harass Pell. The Stone Peak wolf would have been within his rights to challenge Ázzuen to a fight for his rudeness. But Pell only grimaced.

“I cannot yet run the hunt,” he said. It must have been hard for him to acknowledge that. A wolf who couldn’t hunt wasn’t considered a true wolf. I thought it was brave of him to admit it to us.

Without breaking his stride, he bent down to speak softly to me. His sage-willow scent, made stronger by the damp predawn air, seeped into my nose, distracting me. “I am all but useless,” he said, and there was real pain in his voice. “If I cannot hunt soon, I will leave the valley.”

Startled, I stopped and set down the meat I carried.

“But Torell wouldn’t keep you if he thought you were useless!” I protested. “Have you tried hunting?” Suddenly I didn’t want him to leave.

“Torell has wanted me as his successor since the day I left the den,” Pell said, “but I will not stay to be a burden to my pack. I tried to hunt, but I looked like a fool. I’d rather not do that again.”

“Hunt with me sometime,” I said impulsively. “I’ll help you. Then none of your pack will see you struggling, and you can go back to them when you have regained your strength.”

I had no idea why I said it. He was a member of a rival pack, a pack that hated Swift River. I heard an indignant whuff from Ázzuen. Embarrassed, I picked up my deer meat and began running again.

We loped in silence for several minutes, not wanting to get too far behind the other wolves. Even though he was lame, Pell easily kept pace with Ázzuen and me. When we reached the path that led to the humans’ homesite, we saw the other wolves waiting for us. Without a word, Ceela and Torell ran off into Stone Peak territory, but Pell bent his head to speak softly to me.

“I will think about your offer,” he said. He panted a smile, then noticed Ruuqo and Rissa watching him. “I wish you good luck with the humans,” he said to them. He bent his forelegs to bow deeply to the leaderwolves, then followed his packmates into the woods. Ruuqo and Rissa looked after him in surprise. Ázzuen growled.

“What happened to your meat?” Rissa asked him, when she saw Ázzuen’s empty jaws.

“I dropped it in the river,” Ázzuen lied. “Seeing the Stone Peaks startled me. It won’t happen again.” He spoke respectfully to the leaderwolves but watched the woods Pell had disappeared into. When he looked again at me, his eyes were filled with resentment and betrayal.

F
ire and meat. Burnt stone and dried mud. Sweat, flesh, and old preyskins infused with sun and smoke. Those were the scents that met us as we neared the human homesite. When the sun rose, we would hear the sounds of rock upon rock as the humans shaped and used the elaborate tools that made them so different from other creatures. We would hear their loud, proud voices, echoing through the woods, as if they were completely unconcerned that every hunter within howling range could hear them. Ravens behaved that way, too, but ravens could fly away from danger.

“It’s not as if the humans are trying to hide,” Trevegg had said when I’d asked him about it. It was true. The humans of the Wide Valley lived, in many ways, much as wolves did. But unlike wolves, they lived most of the time in their one gathering place. They would leave it for days at a time for hunts or other journeys, and found warmer shelter for the winter moons, but then they returned to their homesite. It was as if they lived always at a den site. They also lived in groups larger than any pack, and each year their homesites grew larger. They called this permanent gathering place a “village,” TaLi had told me, and it was only in her grandmother’s lifetime that they had begun to live in this strange way.

Ruuqo and Rissa hid in the spiny tartberry bushes on a small hill above the humans’ home, while Trevegg, Ázzuen, and I crept as quietly as we could to stand silently at the very edge of the village. We didn’t want to frighten the humans, so we had decided that the first time we brought meat to their village, we would simply give it to them and leave immediately. If they accepted our gifts, we would bring them more.