Spirit of the Wolves (32 page)

The humans were subdued when they returned home at darkfall, many of them still weeping. HesMi returned to her shelter and stayed there, and no one dared go in after her. The others went about their tasks as they always did, but with such quiet that I wanted to howl. Prannan lay unmoving in the center of the clearing where he and JaliMin played together. When I went to him and tried to take his muzzle in my jaws to comfort him, he turned away from me and lowered his nose to his paws.

I prowled the village with Ázzuen at my side, wanting more than anything to take the humans' sorrow away, but there was nothing I could do. When I could bear their grief no more, I fled to the edge of the village, where I found TaLi and BreLan sitting side by side, their arms wrapped around each
other. I sat next to TaLi, leaning up against her. Ázzuen sidled up to BreLan. My eyes grew heavy. I wanted to comfort the humans, but my own sorrow and guilt over JaliMin's death had drained me of all energy, and I closed my eyes, just for a moment. I could figure out what JaliMin's death meant to our plans later. Without meaning to, I fell hard asleep.

A sharp scream awoke me. I jumped up, knocking over TaLi, who was scrambling to her feet. As I blinked against the midday light, Ázzuen rolled to his side and onto his paws in a swift, graceful movement.

I smelled human blood.

A group of humans gathered around the spot where DavRian had left the poisoned meat. Grief and horror weighed down the air like the damp before a storm. DavRian and IniMin stood next to HesMi, supporting her by her elbows. I looked for RalZun. He was still nowhere to be found.

I peered through the legs of the humans who stood in front of me. A woman lay on the ground, her throat torn out. The blood was not yet dry, and warmth still rose from her body.

I knew what DavRian would say before he opened his mouth. I stood frozen, unable to stop it.

“It's the wolves,” he said. “Look. Their prints are all around her.”

I had paced that spot, trying to make sense of JaliMin's death. My paw prints were everywhere. Ázzuen stumbled up beside me, breathing hard. TaLi stood next to me and gripped my fur. For a horrified moment, I wondered if Milsindra had attacked the woman to make the humans hate us.

Ázzuen shuffled forward just a pawswidth. “It looks like a blade cut, not like teeth, Kaala.” Relief tinged his voice.

He pushed through the humans toward the woman's body. “It's obviously a blade,” he said to them, forgetting for a moment that they didn't understand us.

Then a young female ran panting up to HesMi. “There are four more people dead. With no wounds or anything. Just like JaliMin.” She looked fearfully at me.

I stared at DavRian in horror. JaliMin's death had been an accident. Now he had deliberately killed five people to make us look like a threat. He'd told the humans they should guard against crazed wolves, but he was the one who was mad.

HesMi's composure broke.

“Get it out of here!” she shouted and kicked out at Ázzuen. It sounded like all the grief and sorrow in the world were in her voice. She had lost her grandchild hours before, and now more death haunted the village. She kicked out again, striking Ázzuen in the side. He yelped and rolled away from her as several humans raised their sharpsticks to spear him.

“Run!” I woofed. Ázzuen was already moving. He scrambled between human legs to dash into the woods. I stayed where I was. The humans looked after Ázzuen, fear and anger contorting their faces.

Then BreLan walked into the village looking for us, just to the left of the bushes Ázzuen had used to make his escape.

“The yil-wolf,” DavRian bellowed. “He went into the woods and turned human! I told you! A second ago it was a wolf.”

Someone laughed at DavRian, but someone else shouted in fear. BreLan stared at DavRian, perplexed. He was completely unprepared when DavRian hurled a spear at him.
BreLan was fast, though, and dodged well enough to avoid being pierced through the chest. The blade sliced through his shoulder, making him stagger back. Ázzuen darted from the woods and pulled BreLan back by his tunic.

“Go, Kaala!” TaLi gasped. I ran for the woods. If the humans were distraught enough to believe that a wolf could turn into a man, they could not be depended on to behave rationally. I was several wolflengths beyond the village when I realized TaLi wasn't beside me.

I went back for her. Humans already guarded the edge of the woods, spears raised, staring out into the trees, their fear and anger turning the air rank. I stayed low, trusting they wouldn't see me in the undergrowth.

“It was
not
the wolves,” TaLi shouted. “DavRian did this before, when he killed NiaLi.”

HesMi looked down at TaLi, her face rigid. “Or the wolves have done it before and you have been lying to us all along.”

TaLi stood face-to-face with HesMi, her hands gripped into fists at her sides. “I'll prove it to you,” she said. “The wolves didn't do this.”

HesMi's voice hardened. “I knew NiaLi from when I was no more than a girl,” she said. “And for her I will spare you. But leave this village now or I cannot assure your safety.”

TaLi made her voice soft and reasonable. “I can show you, HesMi,” she said. “I can prove it was DavRian and not the wolves.”

The tall human shoved TaLi and she fell. I growled and moved forward. Shouts greeted my appearance.

“Kaala,” TaLi whispered. She looked from me to HesMi, who had raised her spear. TaLi scrambled to her feet and ran
to me. She grabbed a handful of my fur and pulled. I followed her into the woods.

I led her to Ázzuen and BreLan, who stood at a stretch of the stream shaded by willows. TaLi ran to BreLan's side. His shoulder was still bleeding.

“I'm fine,” he said, his smile shaky. “DavRian doesn't have very good aim.” But he winced when TaLi pressed her hand against the wound.

“It's not deep,” she said. She wrapped her arms around him. They stood enfolded in each other's arms for long moments until I grew restless and pawed at them. They stepped apart.

We heard shouts then, and TaLi and BreLan ducked into a thick patch of pines. We followed.

DavRian and three other males stopped, gasping for breath, just a few wolflengths from us. They set down their spears and crouched to drink from the stream.

“The wolves are easy to kill if you sneak up on them,” DavRian said to the others, splashing water on his face. “They always sleep after they eat.”

“He learned that from watching us,” Ázzuen whispered. After a big meal it is almost impossible for us to stay awake. It is the time when we are the most vulnerable.

The humans finished drinking from the stream and gathered up their spears.

“Let's get rid of them for good,” DavRian said. The other humans murmured in agreement and they set off in search of us, too nose-blind to know we were within wolflengths of them.

TaLi took BreLan by the hand and led him deeper into the woods. She found dark, bitter-smelling leaves and held them to his wound. Then she returned to the stream for some of the
thinnest, most pliant branches of the willow, and used them to bind the leaves to BreLan's shoulder. She had been learning to be a healer back in the Wide Valley. “You're not going anywhere until the bleeding stops,” she said. “Then we'll figure out how to convince HesMi that DavRian's lying.”

She made him sit against a rock, his arms raised, and sat cross-legged in front of him, his spear on her lap.

“Now what?” Ázzuen said. He had watched silently as TaLi tended to his human. He squeezed in between the two of them so that he could sit next to BreLan, who reached his good arm out to stroke him.

If HesMi believed that we had torn out the throat of one human and killed five others with some sort of venom we were supposed to have in our teeth, we would fail disastrously. DavRian would become krianan and the Greatwolves would kill us.

“We have to help TaLi prove that DavRian killed the humans,” I said.

Ázzuen's eyes lit up. “The gallin leaf, Kaala! There's a bush by the gorse patch. If we bring it to your girl, she'll figure out that that's how DavRian killed JaliMin and the others! She knows it's poisonous. Then she can show HesMi.”

“You're brilliant,” I said, standing and stretching.

I looked for Tlitoo. He could get to the gorse patch and back more quickly than I could, and could take the leaves in his beak by the stem.

“Tlitoo!” I called softly. There was no answer. I didn't dare howl for him lest I alert the Sentinels that something was wrong, but I didn't want to leave the humans where DavRian might find them. I paced the woods, waiting for Tlitoo to find
us, as he always did. When the sun was halfway down the sky, I decided I couldn't wait any longer.

“I'm going to get the gallin leaf.” It was less than an hour's lope to the gorse patch. “Don't let the humans leave.”

Ázzuen dipped his head in acknowledgment. As I started off toward the gorse patch, TaLi struggled to her feet. BreLan reached out an arm to her and pulled her down.

“I'll be back soon,” I promised, though I knew she couldn't understand me. She must have recognized something in my expression, for she sat back down and watched me go.

I made it safely to the gorse patch, without anyone, wolf or human, finding me. Gingerly, I took the gallin leaves in my mouth, trying to hold the bitter leaves by their stems. I could only hope it wouldn't hurt me to carry them this way. I had just pulled the leaves from the bush when a shadow darkened the ground in front of me. I looked up to see Lallna standing beside me, scowling. I hadn't been as lucky as I thought.

“You have to come with me, Kaala,” she said. “Yildra and Navdru want to see you.”

She glowered at me. I was tired of her sneaking and spying. I carefully set down the gallin leaves.

“Get out of my way,” I snarled at her.

“Can't do it, Kaala,” she said. “Yildra and Navdru said I had to bring you to them.”

“Not now,” I growled.

“I don't have a choice,” she said, lowering her eyes just a little, then raising them again in defiance. “And neither do you.”

Three wolves closed in on me, all Sentinel Greatwolves I
didn't know. They pulled their lips back in sharp-toothed snarls.

“You'll come with us if we have to chew you bloody first,” one of them said. Another tipped back her head and howled, announcing that they'd found me. There was nothing respectful or kind in their manner, nothing to indicate that I was the potential wolf of legend. One of the wolves pushed in front of me and the two others loped at my sides, forcing me to run in a straight line. Lallna followed behind, nipping at my tail when she thought I wasn't running fast enough.

I thought about asking them what was happening, or if they knew about the deaths in Kaar. Their grim expressions convinced me to wait. To my relief, I saw the shadow of a raven on the ground in front of me. Tlitoo had found me, and he flew overhead, dipping and weaving to keep pace with us.

They took me to a large pine and juniper grove not far from the Hill Rock. Tlitoo cawed in distress. The scent of wolf blood clogged my nose.

Navdru and Yildra stood at the edge of the grove, watching me impassively. Milsindra sat next to them. My mother was there, too, guarded by two Greatwolves. A strong wind blew through the trees, scattering twigs and the smell of death.

The Sentinel leaderwolves prodded me forward, cutting off any opportunity for me to run back the way we'd come. I walked toward the death smell, slowing when the pines began to thin. At the edge of a small clearing I stopped, staring at the bodies of Greatwolves, limp with recent death. Milsindra strode past me to stand in the middle of what was clearly a Sentinel pack gathering place.

“I only walked away for a moment,” Milsindra said to the
Sentinel leaderwolves who had followed behind her. “I chased off some longfangs. When I returned, they were all dead.”

Milsindra had been the wolf on watch. She had left the others unguarded in their sleep to be slaughtered. On purpose, I was sure.