Spice & Wolf II (33 page)

Though Holo herself hardly had good memories of the wheat fields, owing to the many things that had happened there, she had still been the god of the harvest.

It didn’t take a harvest god to find the cold rain distasteful. In the worse case, the rain might turn to sleet.

Lawrence got cold just thinking about it, and he briskly tossed another log onto the fire.

There was a bit more time before everybody woke up.

Yet he still hadn’t realized something.

Holo never said anything meaningless.

Chapter 6

White breath trailed behind them as they walked. The exhalations warmed their cheeks momentarily, but with every breath, they soon turned to a painful chill.

The darkening sky had finally lost its patience, and just after midday, a thin drizzle began to fall as if shaved from some giant block of ice. Thus, Lawrence’s face was so cold he wondered if it had actually frozen, but whenever a bit of air found its way into his clothes, it was just pleasantly cool.

They ran—the people, the horses, the sheep, and the dog.

There were eyes on them, many of them. There were presences, too.

But no matter how watchful the group was, not a single howl was heard nor a single clump of fur seen, and eventually the weather and the hard effort robbed them of their ability to worry about wolves.

It was as if something had aimed for that gap.

By the time Holo noticed this, they were already surrounded by the wolves.

“Enek!”

Norah’s voice echoed, and Enek sprinted to the rear of the flock in a blur of black fur and white breath, driving on a lagging lamb.

The lamb sprinted desperately but was unable to distinguish between dog and wolf, and a wolf’s howls echoed as if to mock it.

The situation was clear. The cry had come from a wolf atop the rocky hills to the right as it tried to collect the sheep. In contrast, little howling could be heard from the forest on the left side—what could be heard were footfalls and panting.

On the far side of the ferns and undergrowth beneath the trees, Lawrence and the others ran side by side. Lawrence and Holo sat astride their horse; likewise, Liebert rode his. Norah’s bangs were plastered to her forehead from the sleet and sweat as she used both Enek and her staff to control the sheep.

When it came to the wolves—well, if they were surrounded, that would be the end. Wolves hunted very carefully, making sure none in their pack was injured in the process. There would be no plan to use a single wolf as bait, nor would a single member make a heroic attack on its own. Wolves were cautious to the end and always conducted themselves with cunning.

Thus, if the group could put themselves in a position to kill just one wolf as the pack tried to tighten the noose, they could free themselves from any further harassment.

Lawrence listened to Holo’s hasty explanation and saw that Norah moved to do just that.

A single wolf was visible in brief flashes, trying to get ahead and cut off their route, but it would be instantly diverted by either Enek being sent out ahead or Lawrence himself plunging ahead.

When the wolves moved too slowly close the loop, the sheep would be made to dash in some wild direction, breaking the line. For a shepherd, sheep are not poor children to be protected, but a shield—a weapon to be wielded like any other.

It was not Lawrence’s or Liebert’s time to act. Liebert was fully engaged holding his reins in one hand and keeping the gold within his jacket secure with the other.

For his part, Lawrence could only ask Holo what he should do.

“What to do, eh?”

The road was terrible and much worse on the back of a trotting horse. Impacts were constant, and it felt like one’s head was about to separate from one’s body. Keeping Holo, who sat in front of him, from being thrown off was work enough.

“What to do, indeed.”

Her enunciation was bad, and not necessarily just because the bumpy ride made it easy to bite one’s tongue when talking.

“Listen—”

“What?”

“About my explanation before—I take it back.”

“Explanation before?” Lawrence was about to ask when the grass diagonally behind them in the forest rustled, and immediately thereafter came the sound of claws digging into dirt.

Lawrence felt an intense chill run down his back, as if wings were about to sprout there. It was not a chill that could be described as merely hot or cold. It was a message of danger from the very grave.

“Enek!”

With nearly superhuman intuition, Norah sensed the attack as she ran well ahead with the sheep. She quickly raised her staff to summon her black-furred knight, but their last hope was the hill that lay ahead.

Naturally the wolves realized this as well.

A brown whirl came streaking at the legs of Lawrence’s horse.

It was do or die. Lawrence was about to pull back on the reins with all he had, but Holo put her hand out and stopped him.

Then looking over her shoulder, she spoke.

“Fall back.”

The reason Lawrence understood that she had spoken to none other than the wolves themselves was that the surging pack suddenly wheeled aside and stopped, as if struck by arrows.

Norah, Lawrence, and the others weren’t the only ones surprised. The bemusement of the halted wolves themselves was obvious just by looking at them.

Yet Lawrence could neither praise the feat as amazing nor give his thanks to Holo for saving them.

Holo’s normally red-brown eyes flashed ruby bright.

To look on her was to be afraid; Holo the Wisewolf was among them.

“The humans, as well.”

Her cold voice reminded Lawrence of when he’d first seen her true form.

“Youngsters these days, I suppose I could say.”

Lawrence wondered for a moment what she was talking about, when suddenly he realized what she meant.

Though the immediate danger had passed, Norah did not understand why; doubt tinged her face. But there was no time to think. Preparing to face whatever crisis came next, Enek steadily carried out the rapid-fire orders given to him by his mistress.

Liebert clung desperately to his horse, trying only to avoid dropping the gold.

If they kept going at this speed, they would be able to put the forest behind them by sundown.

And to put this danger behind them, they had no choice but to try.

Then it resounded.

At first it seemed like the wind—there was a whoosh as the icy drizzle was blown back momentarily into the sky.

But it was soon clear that this was a strange wind indeed.

A normal gale didn’t chill one’s core the way this one did.

The wind was immediately followed by the sound.

A tremendous, forest-splitting roar battered their eardrums from one side.

The overwhelming blast was enough to freeze a person’s breath.

The horses stopped. The sheep stopped. Even the gallant sheepdog was frozen in his tracks.

The violent roar seemed to nail everyone to the ground.

They stood as statues, looking into the forest.

“Listen—,” said Holo quietly to Lawrence. Everything was still; the only sound was the drizzle falling on the earth. “This is a trouble I must bear. When I send the girl and the kid on, you’ll have to stay back for a time as well.”

“Wha—why?”

There in the stillness, Norah and Liebert did not seem to take notice of Holo and Lawrence’s exchange as they glared unblinkingly into the forest.

But it wasn’t that they hadn’t noticed.

It was the same as a hound that had cornered a bird—even as the hunter moved its hand to strike, the bird could not fly away.

They were unable to take their eyes off the forest.

“Because what’s in that forest is no normal wolf. You understand, yes?”

Holo slowly looked away from the forest, turning to Lawrence.

His legs went weak at those eyes.

Her expression was well past displeasure; her eyes flashed with such anger that Lawrence wondered if she might rage at the very cobblestones in the road.

Her breath was slow, like the breathing of a demon-horse in hell.

“If I go along with them, the pack will chase the sheep no longer. Those sheep are not their aim.”

She turned back to the forest.

“Such cheap bluster. Such rough pride. Both prized by the young, I suppose.”

Holo was still mostly within Lawrence’s arms, and she seemed almost to swell as she spoke.

It took Lawrence a moment to realize that it was from the swishing of her tail beneath her robe.

“Go! They won’t move until you speak. You’re my partner—and partners cooperate, do they not?”

Holo’s expression was suddenly softer, and Lawrence found himself nodding.

He was a merchant and generally hopeless at anything save business.

For Holo’s part, there was none who knew more of wolves than she did.

“We’ll take it from here. The two of you take the gold and go on as planned!” Lawrence hadn’t planned to shout, but Norah and Liebert snapped out of their reveries as though they had heard voices in the middle of the night.

There were no objections. In situations like this, to leave the seemingly weak ones behind as a sacrifice so that the strong can live on was a well used tactic.

But they did look at him questioningly—“Is it really all right?” their eyes asked.

No matter how established the tactic, what was possible for a grizzled mercenary band was not so for a regular traveler.

“We shall meet at the walls of Ruvinheigen. And we’ll all lie rich.” Of course, Holo had no intentions of becoming a sacrifice, but there was no way for the others to know that. At the same time, she could not very well explain herself, so she just smiled lightly as she spoke.