Spirit of the Wolves (26 page)

A moment later, I realized that the humans had stopped walking and singing and were staring at us. Our own howls tapered off. HesMi looked perplexed and a bit affronted. Prannan trotted up to her and gave a soft tentative howl, wanting to continue the song. HesMi's face broke out in a grin as if she were JaliMin's age instead of a village leader. She tipped back her head and howled like a wolf would. Prannan's ears folded back in surprise. HesMi's voice wasn't as resonant as a wolf's—it wouldn't have carried across territories and, as far as I could tell, it didn't share a message of any kind, like the location of a group of prey or the status of the pack—but she was obviously trying to communicate with us. She ran out of breath and took another. As soon as her next howl began, I joined in. As I howled, I thought of humans and wolves together, of friendship and of two packs coming together as one.

HesMi's howl harmonized with mine. Wolf packs often synchronize howls to express unity. Ázzuen and Prannan joined in and, after a moment, Lallna's voice lifted, too. TaLi and BreLan howled lustily, and several humans added their voices.

HesMi might just have been howling in camaraderie, to indicate that we might be pack someday, but it could have meant that she was ready to join our packs together.

I ran past Prannan, whose tail was in full wag. Before I could reach HesMi, the human leader collapsed to the ground, choking and gasping. I stopped, concerned that she was hurt, then heard similar noises coming from other humans, and I remembered that this was one kind of their laughter. Several others besides HesMi were laughing so hard they were gasping, and some were just grinning. Even TaLi was giggling. None of them seemed to realize the significance of our joined howls.

Prannan looked at them, wagging his tail. He didn't realize the importance of what had happened, either. Ázzuen did, and looked at me in confusion and then back at the humans.

A human male pointed at me.

“Look at its expression!” he snorted. “It looks like LaMin did when he fell in the pond.” He snorted like a forest hog and thumped me on the back. I wasn't ready for the blow and stumbled a little, which made him laugh harder.

Pell walked up to me. He smelled of willow and mud. He'd been watching from the woods.

“I don't understand.” My voice shook a little. I was so sure that howling together meant something.

“They think we're a joke, Kaala,” he said. “That's all.”

“I don't think it's all,” Ázzuen said, lifting his nose to the breeze. A light rain had begun to fall, and a scent wafted from the humans' damp skin. It was like the scent that arose from TaLi when we slept side by side, the one that BreLan exuded when he and Ázzuen wrestled. It wasn't as strong, but it was the scent humans gave off when they were one with us. Our howls had changed them in some way.

“It is a step, wolflet,” Tlitoo said, striding up to me. “It
moves them away from fear. It moves them toward thinking of you as pack.”

A step closer to making them like us as much as the humans in the older village had liked their streckwolves. I licked HesMi's hand and she ran her fingers through my fur.

She wrinkled her nose.

“Your wolf stinks,” she said to TaLi.

I heard a rumble of displeasure coming from the bushes and saw a flash of gray. Milsindra was still tracking us. She had been afraid of how well we'd hunted with the humans. She knew we were doing well.

“They're old,” Ázzuen said thoughtfully. “HesMi and the others. They're older humans.”

“So?” Pell said. “What does that have to do with anything?” I was wondering the same thing, but I knew Ázzuen well enough to wait to catch up with what he was thinking.

“So, TaLi and BreLan are young humans,” Ázzuen said as if talking to a particularly stupid pup. Pell glowered. “They accept new ideas more quickly. The older humans are slower to see new things. They're set in believing that their way of doing things is the right way.” His ears pricked in excitement. “Don't you see, Kaala? We've been expecting them to behave like wolves or like krianans or like human young. We've been expecting them to behave like we do. We have to see them differently. We have to find out what it is that makes them want us.”

The streckwolf Gaanin had said we needed to do more than just hunt with the humans. And the wolves Tlitoo had shown me in the Inejalun had made the humans seem relaxed and happy. HesMi and her pack seemed almost as relaxed
when we howled with them. The humans were so much like us that I kept expecting them to behave like wolves. But they were not wolves. Ázzuen was right. We had to think more like humans if we were going to overcome their fear.

Lallna bit me hard on the ear. I yelped.

“The other humans are coming,” she said. She slipped into the woods. I watched her go, wondering why she'd bothered to warn me. I nosed HesMi and looked in the direction of the approaching humans. A moment later she heard them. She peered down at me, pleased, then ran her fingers gently through my headfur again.

My nose told me that DavRian was among the approaching humans. They were walking from the elk plain back to the village, and their path crossed ours at a large patch of gorse. I sneezed. Gorse always irritated my nose.

DavRian and his group of hunters smelled of frustration and disappointment. There was no smell of dead elk. Hunts fail more often than they succeed, though we seemed to do better when wolf and human hunted together. There was nothing disgraceful about a failed hunt. Yet DavRian also smelled of shame.

We waited for them. TaLi nudged me with her hip and walked to the front of the humans to stand next to HesMi. The girl was carrying a basket of fish that looked much too heavy for her. She wanted DavRian and the others to see how successful we'd been. She couldn't know yet that their hunt had yielded no prey.

DavRian was first into the gorse patch. His eyes darted from TaLi's fish basket to HesMi and back again. Then they rested on me, and a look of defeat flitted across his face. Now
the humans could see as well as we could smell that their hunt had failed.

“Did you catch any grass elk?” TaLi asked, her tone friendly. She rested the heavy basket of fish on her hip. I whuffed at her. I knew what she was doing. The first thing the other humans had seen when they walked into the gorse patch was TaLi standing next to HesMi, holding food for the village, with me at her side. The first things our group of humans, including HesMi, saw were empty hands and dejected expressions. The message would be clear. We had succeeded where they had failed. TaLi's eyes held a fierce, triumphant gleam. I whuffed again. If she made DavRian feel more ashamed, he would only hate us more. A strong leaderwolf would sometimes make a point of humiliating a packmate who had challenged her, but only if she was strong enough to win any resulting fight. TaLi was smaller than DavRian and not fully grown. I didn't think it was wise to shame him that way.

DavRian only smiled, but I noticed his trembling hands.

“We didn't succeed this time,” he said. “There's always the next hunt. Congratulations on your fishing,” he said.

TaLi inclined her head. “I'm glad we can bring the fish to add to the rhino meat. We'll take the wolves to the elk next time. That might help.”

DavRian kicked a small, leafy plant that grew among the spiny gorse. He kicked it so hard that some of its leaves flew up into his own face.

“Careful,” TaLi said, her voice full of false concern. “That's gallin leaf. It's poisonous. You wouldn't want to swallow any.”

DavRian started to snarl something at her, but HesMi suddenly gave a great howl, making DavRian jump back. Several
other humans howled, too. Prannan started to join in, but when the rest of us didn't, he stopped. HesMi laughed and clapped DavRian on the back, much the way humans sometimes thumped us in friendship.

“The girl wins this round, DavRian.”

DavRian grimaced, then stalked away from HesMi.

One of the younger males came to TaLi and held out his arms. “I'll carry that for you,” he said shyly. TaLi blinked at him for a moment. I tugged at her tunic. She needed all the friends she could get.

“Thank you,” she said. The young man blushed and took the basket, lifting it on one shoulder and trotting after the others.

I saw the pain on DavRian's face, and found myself wanting to lean against him to offer comfort. Then he saw me watching him. His face darkened and he pulled his lips back in a snarl as fierce as any wolf's. IniMin stepped up beside him and placed his hand upon the younger man's shoulder. He whispered something into DavRian's ear. I tried to hear what he said, but his words were lost in the wind. DavRian smiled grimly at him and nodded, but he looked after TaLi with longing and despair.

T
he humans walked slowly from the gorse patch. The late-afternoon sun and their sluggish pace made me drowsy. I found myself thinking about the best napping spots in Kaar. I didn't realize there was something wrong until I almost ran into TaLi.

All the humans had stopped. We'd reached the stretch of plain just before the woods that sheltered Kaar. The humans watched a figure moving unsteadily on the field. The grass was shorter there than on the rhino's plain, and we could see the figure clearly even though it was at least a hundred wolflengths away.

“Crazed,” Pell whispered, his voice hoarse with concern. “It's a crazed wolf.”

Then I saw that it was indeed a wolf. It was moving so erratically that I hadn't realized it at first. It was running in circles and bucking and rearing like an elk in its death throes.

“That's what happens with wolves when they go mad,”
DavRian said. “It has poison in its mouth and if it touches you, you'll go crazy and die. You'll die in pain as if you've been stabbed by a thousand spears.” He looked down at me. “Or if you don't die, you'll turn into a mad wolf yourself.”

“Can we kill it?” Prannan asked, his voice shaking only a little.

“Don't try,” I ordered. “DavRian's right. If it bites you, it will poison you.” Ruuqo had told us about crazed wolves. I'd hoped to go my entire life without meeting one.

“It'll die eventually,” Pell said. “But if it bites anyone first . . .”

He didn't have to finish. If it bit another wolf, the disease would spread to that wolf. If it bit a human, it would be disastrous. The crazed wolf caught sight of us then, and charged.

A whirring sound made me cringe. DavRian's arm came down hard at his side and his spear flew through the air. His aim was perfect and he was strong. The spear landed in the crazed wolf's back and it toppled over. It rolled onto its back, kicked its legs several times, and then was still. The humans around us let out great breaths of relief. I looked up to see that most of them had their sharpsticks raised. HesMi gripped DavRian's arm.

“Well thrown,” she said. Then she looked down at me, her face puckered in concern, and I realized that the crazed wolf gave credibility to DavRian's stories.

“There's no reason it should have been here,” Ázzuen said. “Of all the places it could have been in the territories, there's no reason it would be here right now.”

“Milsindra,” I said, remembering her words at the river. I should have known she would do more than just watch us.
She'd seen us succeeding with the humans and had driven the mad wolf to us. And, with a dread as heavy as wet fur after a winter rain, I knew she wasn't done with us yet. When a human male gasped and pointed across the plain, my chest grew tight.

Milsindra stood atop a rock, far enough away that she could claim she didn't know she was visible to the humans, but close enough that it was clear that she was no ordinary wolf.

“That thing is bigger than a rock bear,” HesMi whispered, fear creeping into her voice. She looked at DavRian. “You were right,” she said. “I didn't believe you when you told us about the giant wolves.”

“There are huge wolves and there are mad wolves,” DavRian said. “And you never know which ones are dangerous.”

“I'll get RalZun,” Ázzuen said, and darted off to find the old krianan.

The humans were silent the rest of the way back to Kaar, anxiety rising off them like smoke from their fires.

Word of the crazed wolf and of Milsindra reached the village even as we did. As the humans began the long process of preparing fish for their caches and cooking others for their evening meal, HesMi gathered the village elders. I saw Ázzuen at RalZun's side. The old krianan crouched down and, as he listened to Ázzuen, his shoulders stiffened and he clenched his hands into fists. He stood and stalked toward the other elders. They all ducked into the large structure the humans used for gatherings. TaLi, BreLan, and DavRian followed.

Unlike most of the shelters in the village, this one was made entirely of skins, held up by a complex arrangement of branches and the trunks of young birches.