Spirit of the Wolves (27 page)

RalZun had told me that this kind of structure was called a
shrin
, and that the word meant both the structure itself and to be movable. When the humans used to roam from place to place like ordinary creatures, he'd told me, they carried a shrin with them so that the elders would always have a place to meet. They still used the shrin as a sign of their commitment to meeting together to make decisions for the village. I wondered whether they would continue to do so if DavRian became krianan and they completely gave up their wandering.

The shrin's soft walls meant that we could easily hear what was being said inside. Ázzuen and I lay down up against one of the sides.

“It's exactly what DavRian warned us about,” IniMin was saying. “They seem friendly enough now, but they could turn on us at any moment.”

“Other creatures go mad.” That was RalZun's rasping voice. “I've seen an auroch run straight into a waiting spear and a brain-sick horse leap off a cliff to its death.”

“All the more reason we shouldn't let wild animals into our homes,” IniMin said. “That's why we protect ourselves from the beasts of the forest. We're meant to tame the wild, not invite it to sit at our fires.”

“Humans run mad, too,” TaLi pointed out. “There was a woman back in the Wide Valley who killed three people because she said the Ancients told her to. It has nothing to do with the wolves.”

“DavRian said that the mad wolves have poison in their
teeth. And what about the giant wolf?” The voice was familiar, and I thought it might be HesMi's, but the skins distorted the sound, and I couldn't be sure. I whuffed in frustration.

“If that's true, we can't have them around,” the female continued. I had to know who was talking. I pushed my nose under the bottom of the shrin. When no one noticed, I pushed the rest of my muzzle under. I waited a few more moments and then shoved the heavy skins up so that I could get my entire head inside.

HesMi sat on a small pile of hides. Most of the humans were sitting around her, but TaLi, BreLan, and DavRian stood. I heard a soft clacking from the folds of the shrin to my left. I dared to push my head in a little farther and saw Tlitoo crouched down, his dark form mostly hidden by the shadows. I couldn't see his eyes, but I imagined he was staring beadily at me.

“It isn't true,” RalZun said impatiently. “Those are stories to scare children and those too foolish to know better.” His voice carried enough authority to make several of the humans murmur in agreement. “The wolves TaLi has brought to us have done nothing but help us.”

“It isn't worth the risk,” DavRian said. “We learned that back home. What if just one of them goes mad? It could kill half the village.”

“Has it ever happened?” RalZun countered. “I've never heard of it.”

“My grandmother said we've lived with wolves before,” TaLi said. “None ever went mad. And sometimes wolves grow large, just like people do. I've never known them to be dangerous.”

IniMin coughed softly.

“There is something else you should know,” he said. “Something DavRian told me. I didn't want to say anything. I didn't want to be unfair to TaLi.” He looked at her as if they were friends. “I'm sorry, TaLi, but I must tell them.”

TaLi looked back at him, perplexed.

“DavRian told me that this girl, TaLi, herself has run mad. That she bit two of her tribemates and tore off the ear of one of them. That it has happened to those of the Wide Valley who call themselves krianans. And”—he lowered his eyes as if sorry to speak—“to those here in the wilds around Kaar as well. Those who call themselves the old krianans have abandoned the Ancients. They worship the trees and the bushes of the wilds. They speak to the animals of the forests as if they were human.” He whispered. “Some can even become animals.”

Silence met his speech. TaLi broke it.

“That's the most ridiculous thing I've ever heard.” I wanted to whuff in agreement. He may as well have said that a tree could turn into a rhino.

“I know people who've seen it happen,” DavRian countered.

“Did DavRian tell you he chewed dream-sage and pretended to talk to the Ancients?” TaLi asked.

The humans began to speak over one another as they had our first day in Kaar. One shouted, then another. I wasn't able to hear what they were saying.

HesMi put two fingers in her mouth and whistled, a sound so high-pitched it felt like someone had thrust a thorn through my head. The humans in the shrin quieted.

“I will not let this village be ruled by rumor and fear,” HesMi said. “Nor will I risk the safety of anyone here. We are not in immediate danger, so the wolves may stay. It is clear that some wolves are dangerous, so we will watch them carefully.”

RalZun caught sight of me and frowned. I backed out of the shrin before any of the other humans saw me. Ázzuen was watching me, his eyes wide.

“Now what?” I said, leading him a few paces away from the shrin.

“I don't know, Kaala,” he answered. “We have to make sure nothing we do scares them.”

I sighed. “While not being submissive to them.” That made me wonder where Lallna was. If she'd heard what the humans were saying in the shrin, she'd tell the Sentinels. I lifted my nose to the air, searching for her scent. I found her lying next to a group of young humans, two of whom had their long arms slung over her. When she saw me watching her, she rolled to her feet, shook herself, and darted into the woods.

I started back to the shrin, but several humans now stood outside it. I paced instead, waiting for the humans to finish their long discussion, wishing that the babble of their overlapping voices didn't keep me from understanding what they were saying. Ázzuen watched me silently from where he sat next to a small fire pit. Finally, when the pads of my feet were sore, I settled down next to him.

We sat there side by side as the warm sun set behind the trees and the night air began to cool the village. I kept expecting the humans to come out of the shrin and go into their
shelters to sleep, but it wasn't until dawn that they emerged, clambering in ones and twos from the preyskin folds of the shrin. Several looked concerned, but it was the look of fear on the faces of many of them that worried me. That fear was dangerous. It meant they didn't trust us.

I folded back my ears and softened my expression. Then I trotted to three of the fearful humans—all young males—and let my tail wag. I couldn't offer them my belly with Lallna so near, but I could try to set them at ease. I remembered Ázzuen playing with the humans on the way to the rhino hunt and picked up a bit of wood that had fallen from a fire.

I brought it over to the humans, lowered to a play crouch, and wagged my tail harder.

“Look at its eyes,” one of them said. “It could go crazy any second.”

Another one of them picked up a piece of wood—larger than the one I had—and hurled it at me. He missed.

“Stay away from us, wolf,” he said. The three of them stalked away.

I felt Lallna's gaze. She was watching me from the edge of the woods. She started toward me. Then she froze and lifted her nose. A snarl pulled her lips away from her teeth. She lowered her head and pointed her muzzle to a thick sage bush. Wolf paws stuck out from beneath it, and a nose twitched, taking in the scents of the village.

“Streckwolf,”
Lallna growled. “How dare it come here.” The wolf in the bushes scuffled a little farther into the village and I saw its rounded head and short muzzle. A streckwolf was spying on us again. It might even have heard what the humans said in the shrin, and had certainly seen the human
throwing wood at me. It would tell its packmates that the humans were afraid of us and they would sneak back and take Kaar from us.

Lallna bolted for the woods. The streckwolf yelped, turned itself around, and scrambled away. I chased after Lallna.

I caught up with her as she tried to force her way through a thick tartberry patch. I ran around it, passing her. I quickly found the streckwolf's trail and ran after it, limping a little after a tartberry thorn pierced my forepaw. The scents of sage and gorse and moss blew past me as I ducked under and around bushes and tree roots.

I rounded the huge trunk of an ancient yew to find the streckwolf staring at me, panting. It was a young male. I tackled him, rolled him onto his back, and stood atop him.

“Why were you spying on us?” I demanded.

“I wasn't,” he said. “I wanted to see the humans. It's not fair that we can't. They're ours.”

Standing over the little wolf, I felt the urge to lick his muzzle as if he were a pup. Something about his soft eyes and open, friendly expression made me want to take care of him rather than rebuke him for trespassing.

“Why are they yours?” I asked.

“Because it's our task to be with them, to give them something to cherish other than themselves. Something they never have to fear.”

Lallna slammed into me, knocking me off the streckwolf. Then, in the time it took to pluck a salmon from the river, she ripped his throat out.

“Why did you do that?” I gasped. “Why did you kill him?”

She licked the streckwolf's blood from her muzzle. “It
came to the human gathering place,” she said as if it were obvious. “You can't be soft with them, Kaala. I know they seem like pups, but they're not pups. They're an abomination. They're a threat to all of wolfkind. They give up the wildness of wolf for a few scraps of meat. It's our duty to kill them if they come near the humans.” She stepped off the streckwolf and, with her back paws, kicked dirt over his body before trotting back toward Kaar.

I stood over the dead streckwolf. He looked so much like a pup. I was angry with him for spying on us, but I didn't want him dead. We killed hyenas who challenged us and even other wolves that tried to take our lands, but killing the little streckwolf seemed wrong. He reminded me of my littermates, slaughtered before they'd had a chance to taste their first meat. I shook myself. I had to remember what was at stake. If the streckwolves took our place among the humans, the Promise would fail. They would help the humans create another Barrens, like the strecks Tlitoo had shown me, and Navdru would kill everyone I loved.

I didn't want the little streckwolf dead, but if I had to choose between him and my pack, between him and TaLi, I would have killed him myself.

I
hear something,” Ázzuen said.

He sat perfectly still at the edge of the central clearing, staring into the woods. It had been a full day since Lallna had killed the little streckwolf, and I'd done my best to distract myself from my guilt by studying the humans, trying to figure out which ones DavRian had already won over. Now my head felt like it was full of moss. I was ready for a run or a swim in the river to clear my mind. I padded over to Ázzuen. I hadn't told him yet what Lallna had done. What I had helped her do.

“At the edge of the village,” he said before I had a chance to say anything.

I listened, but heard only the sounds of the forest.

“Is it a wolf?” I asked. I couldn't bear to see another streckwolf killed.

“I'm not sure.”

Then he pricked his ears and pointed his muzzle toward the woods. Then I heard it, too. A soft and urgent mewing.

We loped into the woods. I recognized JaliMin's scent. The other scent was familiar, too: longfang. I could never forget it now.

JaliMin crouched in front of one of the longfang cubs, trying to feed it bits of sourtree fruit. I almost laughed aloud. JaliMin liked to feed us every bit as much as he liked to take food from us. The cub took each piece delicately in its front teeth, then spat it back out. I didn't know if longfangs ate fruit or not, but this cub didn't want it. Each time it spat out the fruit, it mewed again at the boy. It was a sound of desperate, yearning hunger. The cub's ribs poked out sharply through its flat fur.

Neither boy nor cub noticed us at first, so intent were they on each other. The boy held out another piece of fruit. The cub, clearly frustrated, swatted at him. He hadn't extended his claws fully—if he had he could've taken the boy's arms off—but he'd frightened JaliMin, who screeched and ran back to the village. The cub looked at me with hollow, hungry eyes.

Ázzuen took off after JaliMin. I knew I should follow, but I couldn't leave the longfang cub. I knew what it was like to be small and hungry.

“Wait here,” I said. I snuck to the humans' cache and took a small piece of dried rhino meat and brought it back to the cub. He bolted it down.

“What's your name?” I asked him.

“Fierce Hunter of the Golden Plains,” he said with great dignity. I managed not to laugh. “My sister calls me Gold.”

“Are both of you hungry, Gold?” I asked him.

“All of us are,” he answered. “There is not as much food and the humans chase us away. My mother and sister and I are hungrier than the others. We are not liked.”

He reminded me of Prannan. He reminded me of the streckwolf.

“I'll bring you all some food if you wait here,” I said. It was a crazy thing to do. He wasn't wolf. He wasn't pack. I wanted to feed him, though. I couldn't save the streckwolf, but I might be able to help Gold. I dashed back to where I had hidden a salmon. I returned to the cub and set the salmon between my paws.

“Show me where your mother and sister are,” I said. He looked so hungrily at the salmon, I thought he might snatch it away.

“I can bring more to you later if I know where to take it,” I said. Gold cocked his head, then took off into the woods. I grabbed up the salmon and followed.

“What are you doing, wolf?” Tlitoo asked, flying above me. He always asked me questions when my mouth was too full to answer.

“I'm not sure,” I mumbled.

I didn't need Gold to lead me, after all. He took me right back to where I had first seen the longfangs. I wondered why they didn't move from place to place.