The Sight (40 page)

But as soon as she saw the pair Slavka snarled.  She thought of Huttser’s daughter, still out there somewhere with the human child, and anger and hatred seethed through her body.

‘Gart,’ she snapped, ‘why aren’t they under guard?’

‘But, Slavka, now that—’

‘Silence,’ cried Slavka furiously.  ‘You think that because of what has happened Huttser and Palla shall go free? That they are on our side? No.  Tomorrow sun it is they who shall pay for our defeat.  They shall fight to the death.’

Keeka looked nervously at Karma, and Rar started to growl and shake his head.  But Slavka’s eyes were flaming and already some of the remaining rebels had surrounded Huttser and Palla.

There was something else in Slavka’s anger, though.  Even now, there was a voice in Slavka’s mind that seemed to be trying to control her thoughts.  It had started when the spectre had touched her.  As they ran, it whispered to her, whispered of another way.  It promised her things, and soothed the loneliness that had for so long eaten at her soul.  That same morning it had overcome her; a terrible feeling of hopelessness that made Slavka believe there were traitors everywhere.  She had heard that voice, saying the same thing over and over, just as it did now.  ‘Kill them.  Kill them both.’

‘Slavka,’ snarled Huttser, ‘even now you are unable to see the truth.  You have become no better than Morgra.  But Palla and I shall never fight again.  We will never turn on ourselves, as the Lera are doing.’

‘Huttser,’ whispered Slavka savagely, and it was as though all she had seen at the battle had entered her soul.  ‘You shall fight.  For a quick death at the teeth of the other will be a blessed release, compared to the agony that will face the victor.  Or both of you, if you refuse.  Hobbled in the sun, the skin around your livers torn open to be pecked at by these birds, I will make sure that death will last for a whole moon.  That is why you will fight and fight to kill one another quickly.’

Some of the others looked at Slavka in horror now, but they were too dazed to oppose her will.  Karma turned to Keeka and Rar, and in her eyes she held a message.  But Rar shook his head.  There were too few of them to help the Dragga and Drappa.

‘Gart,’ growled Slavka suddenly, ‘take them away and let them contemplate their fate.  In the morning call me.’

That night as Huttser and Palla lay together, Slavka kept watching them and wondering coldly what they might be saying to one another.  ‘No matter,’ she thought as she did so, ‘all their fond words can lead to nowhere but darkness and death.’ They were all around Slavka now, and as she lay there she heard that voice again, thrumming through her mind.  ‘You are with us,’ it whispered coldly.

Huttser raised his head.  His mind was searching for a way to change their fate, but nothing came to the Dragga except the same terrible thought.

‘Palla,’ he said softly, ‘tomorrow.  You must show me your throat.’

‘But, Huttser.’

‘I’ll make a clean kill, Palla.  It will be over quickly.’

‘Has it come to this, Huttser?’ whimpered Palla bitterly.

‘Has Morgra’s curse finally won?’

‘The curse,’ Huttser snorted, ‘it is not just Morgra’s power that is doing this.  The curse is in our hearts, Palla.  In Slavka’s heart.  In Morgra’s heart.  Sometimes I think it is in all our hearts.  Ours.  The Balkar’s.’

‘And the rebels, too,’ growled Palla looking around her angrily.

‘Rebels,’ snarled Huttser, ‘for a time I thought Skop was right to want to help the rebel pack.  But now it seems there is little to choose between Slavka and Morgra.’

Palla looked up at the stars above them peeking through the leafy canopy.  The air was warm with summer, and a nightingale was singing in some distant tree.  Its note had a mournful beauty, and Palla felt her heart stir with anger at what was to come.  Anger at the massacre.  Anger at the terrible injustice of life.

‘It’s all so wrong,’ growled Palla, lifting her beautiful muzzle to the giant night.  ‘So unjust.’

 ‘What do you mean, Palla?’

‘My sister,’ she growled, ‘was it her fault that nature made her barren? Or that the others so feared the Sight that they drove her out? That’s what made her evil.  And everything must fight to survive.’

Huttser growled, but he had no answer for his mate.

‘If there were time, Huttser, I would lead a revolt.  Such a revolt that all the Lera would remember it, for ever.  A revolt against the sun and the moon and the stars.  A revolt against Tor and Fenris themselves.’

Huttser whimpered, but the wolf had nothing to console his mate.

‘I wonder where they are,’ said Palla suddenly, gazing wistfully into the darkness.  ‘What would they think if they saw what we have to do? Would Larka just be frightened away again?’

‘They will never see it,’ growled Huttser, ‘and never know.  For that secret I am thankful at least.  Though I wish...’

Huttser dropped his muzzle sadly.

‘What, Huttser?’

‘Kar.  I was never very fair to him, Palla.  And I blamed him for Fell, when if anything I...’

Huttser paused and shook his head sadly.

‘You talk of injustice, Palla, but it is we who make injustice.  I wish I had a chance to say sorry. To tell Kar that I know it wasn’t his fault.  To make peace and ask his forgiveness.’ In Huttser’s heart, he was resigned and very tired.  But he had one bitter solace.  He believed that Palla had accepted what was to come.

It was past noon when Gart summoned them.  Slavka was waiting impatiently, surrounded by the rest of the rebels.  They had gathered in a wide ring and they all looked hardened by all that they had been through and witnessed, their eyes blank with misery and confusion.  Keeka and Karma turned away guiltily as Huttser and Palla were pushed into the middle of the circle.

‘It is time,’ cried Slavka bitterly, listening to the birds in the heavens, ‘to pay the price.  When it is over we will make for the higher mountains and hide among the stones.’

The sun beat down on them as the wolves faced each other in the dust and Huttser gazed sadly at Palla.  But he lifted his tail and advanced.

‘Show me your throat, Palla.’

As Huttser stepped even closer and the rebels looked on hungrily, Palla began to snarl proudly.  The skin around her muzzle curled up and her canines glinted.  Even Keeka and Karma turned back to look now.

‘Palla, what are you doing?’

‘Do you think I would let you do this?’ cried Palla, feeling as if her heart would burst open.  ‘Let the father of my cubs be hobbled and tortured?’

‘Palla, I beg of you.’

The rebels’ coats bristled as Huttser and Palla began to circle each other.  But as they saw the dignity with which the Dragga and Drappa met, a shame stirred in them too.

‘I do this for you, Huttser.’

Their eyes were locked and they were both shaking furiously.  But they were showing their teeth and looking for the best point to spring.  They felt a terrible confusion, for they knew it was anger they needed if they were to kill the other, yet it was only love that they felt in their hearts.

Huttser leapt at Palla, opening his great jaws.  Palla sprang too, driven on by the agonizing energy of her feelings for her mate, and Huttser and Palla met once more.  Both were on their hind legs as the wolves began to bite and claw, desperate to save the other from Slavka’s fate.  They had chosen each other because they could do nothing but walk as equals, and they were well-matched.

But as Huttser disengaged momentarily, Palla leapt again and missed.  It was her leg that had been wounded in the fight and she suddenly lost her footing.  Her throat and chest were exposed as she tumbled, and Huttser opened his jaws.  His heart was thundering, but Huttser knew he had beaten Palla and somewhere it was a terrible blessing.  He could see the thin skin below the fur around her gullet and in the memory of all his kills, of the deer beneath the Stone Den, of the buffalo, he suddenly imagined he could see Palla’s blood and tendons and flesh beneath.  Though they were dearer to him than anything in the world, Huttser’s teeth flashed.

Suddenly there was a great sweep of beating wings.  Huttser looked up in amazement as he saw a huge bird sailing between them.  At first he thought it was a scavenger coming to feed on Palla, but then they heard a voice, calm and commanding, ringing out around them.

‘Cease,’ it cried.  ‘Hasn’t there been enough fighting? There must be peace.’

‘There,’ cried Gart.

Through the trees came the white wolf, and the rebels looked at her in awe as they saw the little human child riding on her back.  Palla and Huttser could hardly believe their eyes.  Larka had grown into a magnificent Drappa, but it was their daughter.  For a second the rebels thought that Slavka had suddenly come from the wood, so similar did Larka seem.  Next to her and the strange bird was an old grey Varg.

‘The human,’ hissed Slavka.  ‘Quickly.  Kill them.  Kill them all.’

Slavka snarled and, as Larka looked back at the rebel leader, she shivered too, for she seemed to see her own reflection.

‘Release my parents, Slavka,’ she growled.  ‘They have done nothing to you.  And now we come to help you.’

The wolves were motionless.  Palla and Huttser were both panting violently, their muzzles ranging around the circle as they wondered what the rebels would do.  Even Gart seemed to unable to decide.

‘Gart,’ snarled Slavka, ‘obey me.  Put an end to this evil.’ Several of the rebels stepped up beside Slavka.  Still Gart was motionless, and others among the rebels seemed to be looking to him for a lead.  But three wolves were looking to Huttser and Palla; Rar, Keeka, and Karma.  Karma’s eyes had touched Palla’s, and there was a secret promise in them.  The rebels’ startled gaze was locked on the child.

‘You mustn’t be frightened,’ growled Larka, as she padded amongst them.  ‘Fear and ignorance are your true enemies.  We have come to help you.  Help you fight Morgra and Wolfbane.’

‘Lies,’ snarled Slavka furiously.  ‘What are you thinking? We are wolves.’

But suddenly another voice fought Slavka’s.

‘This Varg does not seem evil to me,’ growled Rar angrily.

‘And there has been enough cruelty and death, Slavka.  She has risked the scavengers and the Night Hunters to save her parents and to help us all.  If she has courage like that...’

The circle around Huttser and Palla broke as Larka and Bran came prowling amongst them.  Tsarr growled dangerously, and again Skart came swooping through the air.  As the eagle settled next to Larka a great hush fell on the rebels.  But Slavka broke it almost immediately.

‘I will kill them myself.’

Even as she moved, Keeka and Karma sprang forwards and stood side by side, barring her way.

‘No,’ growled Karma proudly.  For the first time in her life she was doing something she believed in.

‘Traitors,’ snarled Slavka, backing away, ‘are there traitors everywhere?’

‘The only traitor, Slavka, is in your own heart.’

Slavka hissed as Huttser spoke, but as she thought of that voice in her mind she shuddered, too.

‘Gart,’ she said desperately, almost whining with self-pity, ‘you will help me.  Loyalty always, Gart.  Think of what the humans made me do to my cubs.’

Gart was in an agony of doubt, but in that moment it was decided.  If he had backed the leader more than half of the rebels would have followed him and there would have been a terrible fight.  But Gart dropped his muzzle.

‘I cannot, Slavka.  Larka let me live.’

Rar knew it was over.  He nodded to some of the rebels and immediately four of them stepped up around Slavka.  The tide had turned.  Larka dropped to the ground and, as she tilted her body, Bran slipped down on to the earth and sat there, smiling about him as though nothing at all had happened.  As Larka backed away the fascinated wolves began to pad forward.  Bran looked up, suddenly surrounded by a circle of muzzles, growling and whispering as the wildest of the Putnar gazed down at the little human.

Larka paused as she saw Huttser and Palla and for a moment she remembered with anguish their fight on the ice.  A pang of resentment quivered through her.  But suddenly she leapt towards her parents.  They came together, wagging their tails furiously and whimpering and whining with delight.

‘And only a family that’s loving and true,’ whispered Rar gravely as they watched them, ‘are truly the ones.’

That night, Larka lay watching her parents gravely as they slept.  Slavka had been put under guard, though Larka ordered that she be treated with respect.  But although Larka knew she had saved her parents, her heart was heavy with all she had seen at the massacre.  With all that was happening to the Lera.

‘You are with them again,’ growled Tsarr beside her, ‘that gives us hope.’

‘Hope, Tsarr,’ said Larka.  ‘The ancient verse is almost fulfilled.  Wolfbane is here and death is all around us.  The Searchers are abroad, doing her bidding.  We are lost.’

‘No, Larka, we are not lost,’ whispered Skart urgently.

‘But you must try and close the pathways again.  Stop what is beginning among the Lera.’

‘How, Skart?’

‘You must howl to the dead yourself.’

‘You mean I should try and summon more of these Searchers myself?’ growled Larka fearfully.  ‘To do my bidding?’

‘No, Larka,’ said Skart, flying down and hopping about them, ‘for in this world they bring nothing but fear.  No, you must travel to the realms of the dead yourself.  From there you must call back those who have entered our world.’

Larka shivered with horror, but she suddenly thought of Kar and what he had said about longing to know what lay beyond the life of the Varg.

‘But how could I do such a thing?’ growled Larka.

‘Morgra did not go anywhere when she summoned the Searchers.  We heard her cry.’

‘This time the howl must be different,’ said Tsarr, ‘for by howling Fenris’s name and then by carrying your voice into silence you may follow the sound into the shadows.’

‘And you believe this place exists? And Tor and Va and Dammam, they are there too?’

‘That you must tell us.’ Larka fell quiet.

‘But it will take courage,’ growled Tsarr.  His tail had come up and the wolf’s legs were trembling.  ‘For know this, Larka.  If you attempt this thing, it is fraught with danger.’