Spice & Wolf IV (29 page)

Still, there were things about the tunnel that were strange.

If Father Franz had dug it, it was impossible to imagine that the villagers wouldn’t have noticed him doing so, and in any case, the villagers had been worshipping Truyeo long before the church was built.

Lawrence looked at Holo as he thought it over and saw that she was staring vaguely at the cave’s entrance.

Suddenly he understood—the strange twisting of the tunnel, the perfectly carved rocks here and there, and the complete lack of any bats despite the perfection of the cave.'

And there was that raw, fetid smell.

Noticing Lawrence’s look, Holo smiled, then turned to look at the moon that hung in the night sky.

“Come, staying here is like asking them to find us! Let us first head down to the brook,” she said.

There were no arguments.

Elsa and Evan trotted through the dry grass of the hillside as Lawrence blew the candle out and took one last look over the area.

“Is this den real?” He hadn’t dared ask the question in front of Elsa and Evan.

“There was a great snake here. As to how long ago, that even I cannot tell.”

It might not even have been Truyeo.

It might have been sheer coincidence that the church’s cellar intersected with the path of the den. Properly speaking, the cellar had been constructed in the middle of the den, which probably continued past the cellar in the opposite direction.

Lawrence had no idea whether or not there truly was a giant snake curled up somewhere deeper within.

Holo regarded the entrance somehow both sadly and fondly as she spoke. “It just happened to make a burrow here, and yet people continuously come to worship. I doubt it has ever been able to get a proper nap.”

“That’s not the kind of thing a merchant who superstitiously follows the paths of the saints wants to hear.”

Holo smiled and shrugged. “’Tis hardly my fault humans are such queer creatures that they must find something to worship.” Her smile turned malicious. “Do you not wish to worship me?”

Lawrence knew she hated being worshipped and feared as a god, so she was clearly not being serious.

Yet he had no ready retort.

After all, when she was in a foul temper, he would offer her sacrifices to calm her.

Lawrence sighed and looked away; Holo chuckled.

Suddenly he felt her take his hand. “Let us go,” she said, pulling him along as she ran down the hillside.

He looked at her face in profile. She seemed less satisfied over her teasing of him and more relieved about something.

Perhaps seeing the den of Truyeo, who the villagers all worshipped, reminded her of her own past and the village she had once inhabited.

It was surely out of embarrassment over turning suddenly sentimental that Holo had resorted to teasing Lawrence.

She continued to run under the moonlight.

Aside from pretending not to notice, there was little Lawrence could do to help her with these pangs of weakness.

It made him feel completely useless, and yet Holo was still willing to take his hand.

Maybe this was the perfect distance to maintain, he mused
with just a bit of loneliness.

Such were the thoughts that occupied his mind as
they
descended the face of the hill to catch up with the pair that had reached the riverbank ahead of them.

“So, how do we escape?” asked Evan.

Lawrence handed the question off to Holo.

“We’ll need to first make for Enberch.”

“Huh?”

“We’ve been there once before. We’ll need some sense of the lay of the land if we’re to escape undetected.”

Evan nodded, as if to say, “Oh, I see.”

But Holo still looked vaguely displeased as she kicked pebbles around by the bank of the brook. She sighed. “Let me just say this,” she said, facing Evan and Elsa, who were still holding hands. “If you cower in fear, I’ll devour the both of you.”

Lawrence fought back the urge to point out that this statement itself was threatening enough. Holo was probably aware of that.

She was like a child who knew her demands were unreasonable but could not help making them anyway.

The two nodded, unsurprisingly taken aback by Holo’s manner. Holo looked to one side, seeming somewhat embarrassed herself. “Both of you! Turn around and look the other way! And you—”

“Right,” said Lawrence.

Holo pulled her hood back and removed her cape. She handed her clothes to Lawrence piece by piece as she removed each item.

Just watching her was enough to make Lawrence feel cold. Evan looked over his shoulder, apparently unable to resist peeking at the sudden sound of clothes rustling.

Holo did not have to snap at him because Elsa did it for her.

Lawrence sympathized with Evan.

“Truly, why is the human form so weak against cold?” Holo complained.

“It makes me chilly just looking at you,” said Lawrence.

“Hmph.”

She took off her shoes and tossed them to Lawrence, then finally removed the pouch containing wheat grains that dangled from her neck.

There they stood amid the bare-branched trees dimly lit by the moon.

The brook reflected the moonlight like a mirror.

Before that brook stood a strange girl with keen wolf ears and a fluffy tail that seemed to be the only warm part of her body.

It truly was a vision from a dream before daybreak.

White puffs of breath escaped from Holo’s mouth. She suddenly looked at Lawrence.

“Do you want words of praise now?” he asked with a shrug.

Holo gave him a defeated smile in return.

Lawrence turned his back to her, looking away.

There beneath the sparkling moonlight, the maiden became a wolf.

This world did not belong solely to the Church.

The proof of that was now no farther away than the opposite bank of the babbling brook.

“My fur truly is the finest.”

Lawrence turned and looked at the source of the low, rumbling voice and was met by a pair of red-tinged eyes shining back at him, bright as the moon.

“If you ever wish to sell it, just say the word,” said Lawrence.

Holo curled her lips back, revealing a row of sharp teeth.

He knew her well enough to understand this was a smile.

Now all that remained was the test of Elsa and Evan. Holo seemed to sigh, looking at their shapes, their backs still turned in the gloom.

“Hmph. Well, I cannot say my expectations were high. Come, climb upon me. ’Twill be bothersome if we’re discovered.”

A bird stalked by a dog lacks the strength to take off and fly, and despite Holo’s words, this was so of Elsa and Evan.

It was not until Lawrence circled around to stand in front of Elsa and Evan and gestured with his chin that they could bring themselves to turn around.

Even Lawrence had been terrified almost past the ability to stand when he had seen Holo’s true form for the first time.

In his mind, he applauded the couple for not fainting dead away.

“This is naught but a dream before daybreak, remember?” he said, looking particularly at Elsa.

They neither cried out nor tried to run, merely looking back at Lawrence for a moment before facing Holo again.

“So Father Franz wasn’t lying,” murmured Evan, which elicited a long-fanged smile from Holo.

“Come, let’s get on,” said Lawrence.

Holo heaved a great, weary sigh, then crouched down low.

Lawrence, Elsa, and Evan all climbed upon her back, each gripping her stiff, bristly fur.

“If you should fall, I will pick you up with my mouth. Be prepared.”

Evidently this was Holo’s standard warning when bearing humans on her back.

Elsa and Evan took the warning to heart, tightening their grip on her fur, which gave Holo a chuckle.

“Let us be off, then.”

She ran, every bit a wolf.

Riding on Holo’s back was like plunging into freezing water.

Her feet were terrifyingly swift. She traced a wide circle around the village, then made for Enberch, arriving almost immediately at the path she and Lawrence had taken into Tereo with the wagon.

Elsa and Evan were meanwhile feeling something well past mere terror.

Though they shivered uncontrollably, they themselves had no sense of whether this was out of cold or fear.

The path along which Holo ran was barely a path at all; her passengers would be pressed against her back one instant, only to be nearly flung off the next. They could not relax for a moment.

Lawrence clung to Holo’s fur with all his might, praying that Elsa and Evan behind him would not be tossed off.

It was hard to know how much time had passed, but after a span that seemed at once to be a crushing eternity and a brief nap, Holo’s run slowed to a stop, and she crouched down again.

No one asked if they had been spotted.

Holo was unquestionably the least tired of them all, despite carrying three people on her back.

Lawrence’s body was stiff and cramped, and he could not so much as loosen his hands’ grip on Holo’s fur—yet he could hear her tail brushing across the grassy ground.

She did not order her passengers off.

Holo no doubt understood that they could barely move.

She knew that if she had continued to run, one of her three passengers would surely have given out and fallen.

“...How far have we come?” It took Lawrence some time to muster the strength to ask a question.

“Halfway.”

“So is this a break, or—began Lawrence, when behind him, the exhausted Elsa and Evan seemed to twitch at the alternative.

Holo noticed their reaction as well.

“Our flight would be for naught if you die on the way. We've come far enough that it would take a horse some time to catch
up.
We’ll rest awhile.”

The news of their escape from Tereo could only travel as fast as a horse could gallop.

They could afford to rest until then.

At Holo’s words, Lawrence felt fatigue press down on him.

“Don’t sleep on top of me. Climb down.”

She sounded displeased, so Lawrence and Evan were able to somehow climb down—but Elsa was at her limit and had to be lifted off of Holo’s back.