Spirit of the Wolves (22 page)

Too soon for my liking, we left the village in search of the rhino. Its path wasn't hard to follow. It had crashed through the bush like a Greatwolf. I'd never known any one creature to make so much noise or cause such destruction. Sage bushes, junipers, and saplings lay trampled in its path.

RalZun and HesMi walked side by side at the front of the
line of humans. IniMin and DavRian were a step behind them, even though the hunt was TaLi's. She and I walked quietly in the center of the pack of humans. A rustling from above told me the ravens were nearby. Many of the humans were laughing and poking each other, which seemed like odd behavior as we prepared to hunt such vicious prey.

“I'll bet you run screaming back to the village when you see it,” one male said to another.

“I think you'll wet yourself when it looks at you,” the taunted male replied.

“I'll bet my spear draws the first blood,” a girl near TaLi's age said.

“There won't be a rhino to hunt if you all don't shut up,” HesMi said, looking over her shoulder, but she smiled when she said it. Ázzuen whuffed softly next to me, then darted forward in front of the three young humans who had been arguing. He lowered his elbows and lifted his rump in an invitation to play. The humans laughed and one of the males poked a walking stick gently at Ázzuen. He seized it in his teeth and then let it go as he trotted back to me. The humans laughed again. I stared at Ázzuen.

“What was that?”

“It's like our hunt ceremony.” He licked a splinter from his muzzle. Before a hunt, we often played as a way of preparing to risk our lives for each other, and to come together as a pack instead of as individuals.

The humans quieted as the woods thinned. I expected them to lead us to an open plain, like most hunting grounds, but they stopped before the woods opened up. There, rooting among the vines and bushes at the edge of the woods, was the rhino.

It looked even bigger close up.

“There used to be more of them,” RalZun rasped to me, leaning on his spear. “When it was colder here, years ago. Most of the ones that are left live north in the cooler regions.”

“Like the mammoths,” Pell said, stepping up quietly beside us, Prannan panting at his side. “They're twice as big as this beast. We hunted one once.” I didn't know whether to believe him or not; the Stone Peaks were always claiming to hunt dangerous prey. But he was eyeing the rhino calmly, and I was glad to have him there. He certainly had more practice hunting than I did, and that experience could save our lives. I touched my nose to his face in greeting. He gave me a long look, then turned his gaze to the prey.

“They often graze on the plains,” RalZun said, “but they'll feed on forest lichen as well. If we can get it to stay in the woods instead of back out onto the grass where it can charge, we have a better chance.”

The beast snuffled at the edge of the woods. If we could sneak around it, we could scare it deeper into the trees.

IniMin, his arms folded across his chest and sunlight shining off his hairless scalp, spoke loudly. “We cannot afford to lose more hunters.”

The rhino shifted at the sound of his voice, then bent down to pull leaves off a nearby bush.

“That's why I brought the wolves,” TaLi said. To the humans she may have appeared calm. But I could hear her rapidly beating heart and smell her anxiety.

A clattering of wood made me jump and startled the rhino from its browsing. It glared in our direction, snorted out
a great gust of air, and trotted onto the plain, where it lowered its head and stared at us before disappearing behind tall grasses.

DavRian stood over a pile of sharpsticks that had fallen onto the rock-strewn ground.

“I brought extra spears to help in the hunt.” He shrugged.

TaLi eyed him stonily. “You won't stop me, you know.”

DavRian just smiled at her. “I brought too many spears and dropped them by mistake,” he said. “But if your wolves are really as magnificent as you say they are, it shouldn't matter.”

His face was smooth and friendly, but he couldn't keep the sneer from his voice.

TaLi turned from him. “Come on, Kaala.”

Stiffening my spine against the trembling in my legs, I walked at her side. Pell strode forward ahead of us. Prannan ran up to my flank and looked up at me with wide eyes.

“Are you sure we can hunt it?” he said.

“A wolf can hunt any prey, if he's smart enough,” I heard myself say. It was something Ruuqo had told us long ago, when we were smallpups. I believed it when he'd said it, six moons before, but I didn't now. I didn't believe we could hunt the huge beast. But if Prannan was afraid, he wouldn't hunt as well. His ears twitched uncertainly for a moment and then he dipped his head and fell behind me again. He'd believed me. It made me wonder how often Ruuqo and Rissa had pretended a confidence they didn't have.

The rhino had stomped farther out onto the plain, hiding in the tall grass. At first I couldn't see exactly where it was.
Then the grass wavered where there was no wind. Tlitoo and Jlela flew from the woods to circle above the moving grass. A shaggy hump and the tips of sharp horns poked up beneath them.

“You don't have to do this, girl,” an old human said. He spoke kindly and placed his hand on TaLi's shoulder. “A krianan doesn't have to be a great hunter.” But he had called her “girl,” as if she were a child to be taken care of, not a leader to be followed.

She smiled up at him.

“I'm no great hunter,” she said. “But the wolves are. It's just one of the benefits of being one with the world. One of many, and the least of them.” She spoke smoothly. She must have practiced that speech, I thought. I wondered if she was as confident as she sounded, or if she was pretending to be, as I did with Prannan. I looked at RalZun, who was smiling at her, and I felt a chill. I liked the old raven man, but he wouldn't be the first to try to use us for his own ends. Was he willing to sacrifice us? To sacrifice TaLi to win his battle in Kaar? I shook myself. We were here, and TaLi was determined to hunt the rhino.

The old human grunted and removed his hand from TaLi's shoulder.

“Let's see what they can do, then.”

Ázzuen, Pell, and Prannan were immediately at my side. A moment later, Lallna flopped down next to us. She was still spying on us.

“You'd better not get in our way,” Ázzuen said as I lifted my lip at the Sentinel youngwolf.

Lallna's eyes were intent on the waving grasses. “I've always
wanted to hunt one of these. Navdru and Yildra won't let us.” She panted up at TaLi. “I might learn to like some of these humans.”

I couldn't have been more astonished if she'd said she wanted to be friends with a hyena. I looked over at her, taking in her taut muscles, her focused gaze. She could help us kill the rhino. Still, I didn't want her thinking she could take charge.

“It's my hunt,” I said. “You follow me.”

Her pale eyes rested on my face, a spark of defiance in them. I met her gaze steadily and lifted my lip to show a glimpse of fang. Ázzuen growled, too softly for the humans to hear, and Pell pulled back his lips.

“It's your hunt,” Lallna agreed, “as long as you aren't the humans' curl-tails.”

I dipped my head to her. Immediately, I began thinking about how she could help us. She was fast, strong, and fearless. As much as I wished she weren't spying on me, I was glad to have her as part of the hunt.

“You'll be with Pell. The two of you can distract it and dodge away.” It was the most dangerous task, and Lallna knew it. She grinned at me and tensed her haunches. Pell was watching me carefully. I didn't have to say anything to him. He would make sure Lallna didn't interfere with the hunt.

TaLi was watching me, waiting. She couldn't understand us, but was perceptive enough to know when we were communicating with each other. She looked curiously at Lallna, whom she'd never met. Unlike many humans, she could tell one wolf from another.

“We should come back later,” BreLan said to TaLi. “It knows we're here now.”

TaLi shook her head. “We'll drive it back to the woods and kill it there,” she said.

“ToMin tried that already,” DavRian said. “He got a gored leg out of it.” ToMin was one of Kaar's best hunters.

“ToMin didn't have the wolves,” TaLi said.

She hit the blunt end of her spear on the ground hard, three times, calling the hunters together.

“Like the auroch, Kaala,” she said. I licked her hand. We'd hunted the auroch by angering it. When it lost its temper it made fatal mistakes.

TaLi spoke to several hunters, and they trotted into the field. We followed, keeping our eyes, noses, and ears focused on TaLi.

“Now!” TaLi shouted, and several of the humans ran at the waving grasses where the rhino hid.

It actually growled. I'd never heard prey growl before, but it did. Then it bellowed like twenty elkryn, and charged. The humans dodged, agile and quick. They poked at the rhino with their spears, then jumped away. The humans who had not run in surrounded the beast at a distance, holding their spears and spear throwers ready.

“It has the thickest hide of any beast I know,” Pell said. “The humans will have to have perfect aim and strong arms.”

“Go,” TaLi said to us. We ran. Pell loped past the humans and flattened out to run under the low belly of the rhino. Lallna yipped. She charged behind the prey and grabbed its tail in her jaws. She hung on as the rhino kicked and bucked.
When she fell off, she rolled away and tried to grab its tail again.

One of the humans fell on his rump. The rhino turned on him. Other humans standing nearby shouted and pelted the rhino with rocks and spears, trying to distract it, while Tlitoo and Jlela flew at its face. It would not be diverted. It lowered its head and charged the fallen human. TaLi had made a mistake. It wasn't like the auroch, which lost its temper and behaved foolishly. Anger seemed to make this beast even more focused.

Ázzuen realized it, too. “Hurt it,” he said. “
Make
it pay attention.” Pell, who was close enough to hear, whuffed in agreement.

The human had scrambled to his feet but was still in the path of the rhino. Ázzuen and I leapt on the beast and sank our teeth into it. By the time my fangs made it through the thick fur, they barely cut into its hide. Pell grabbed its belly from beneath, allowing the rhino to drag him. Lallna, watching us, made a flying leap and scrambled onto the creature's back. None of it seemed to do much good.

TaLi saw what we were doing and shouted to the other humans. They dashed in and began slicing at the rhino with their spears. Lallna tumbled from its back but managed to grab hold of its tail again. Pell was still hanging onto its belly, and the humans struck it again and again. Finally the rhino turned from the fallen human, bellowing in pain. It smelled of blood and rage.

Now what?
I thought. The beast was distracted, but it was furious—furious with the humans around it, furious with us. But not crazed like an auroch. It was intent on killing someone.

TaLi was shouting something, but I couldn't make out her words.

“Get it to the woods, Kaala!” Pell barked. He had finally released the rhino's belly and lay panting with exhaustion.

I allowed myself to fall off the rhino's broad, shaggy back. I hit the ground rolling and came to my paws. Pell was at my side; Ázzuen stood a wolflength away, while Lallna continued to dart under and around the rhino. Several humans continued to harry the beast. TaLi shouted at them, trying to get them to herd the rhino toward the woods.

“Remember the plains-horse hunt,” I said to Ázzuen and Pell. Ázzuen immediately sprinted off while Pell looked at me. “We herded six horses together over the winter. Just follow what we do.” He looked annoyed, but whuffed in agreement.

Ázzuen and I darted behind the prey, one on each flank.

“Take Lallna and get its front legs,” I said to Pell. He ran past Lallna and spoke to her. Then the two of them were at the beast's forelegs. Ázzuen ran behind it, nipping at its rump. The idea was to trap the prey so it had no choice but to run where we herded it. It had been easy with the horses. They usually went where we wanted them to go. The rhino did not. It kept escaping our trap. It swung its huge head, its horns barely missing Pell and Lallna, then ran off in the wrong direction. It was clever prey.

BreLan was the first human to figure out what we were doing. He gathered others and several of them ran with us. Together we herded the beast to the woods. The rhino lowered its horns and tried to turn. Then the ravens flew at its back and together we drove it deeper into the woods.

It was harder for us to move among the trees than on the
open plain, but not as difficult as it was for the rhino. I expected it to rampage as it had on the plain, but it looked at me and spoke for the first time. Some prey spoke to us and some did not. I hadn't known if the rhino could.

“Why do you help them?” His voice was low and grating. “It is not the way. It is not the way of hunter and of prey.” He swung his head from side to side, snorting gusts of air. “You should fight them. They will kill you as easily as they kill me. There used to be many of us. Many, many. Until they slaughtered us all. That's why I kill them. They will destroy all of us.”

Three humans rushed in. The rhino lowered his horns to gore them, but he couldn't turn quickly enough. The humans jabbed their spears into him. He bucked and ran, trying to maneuver among the dense trees. Ázzuen, Pell, and I wove between the trees, appearing wherever he wasn't looking. Lallna hurled herself at him, biting at his eyes, and barely missed being gored. A shout sounded from overhead. Several humans had climbed into the branches to hurl sharpsticks from above. Three lodged in the rhino's neck and he stumbled and then fell.

“Do not help them,” the beast growled to me. “They take away more than they give.” His voice fell to little more than a grunt.