The Wolf Tree (29 page)

Hethy shared her blanket with Sally, since hers had been used to clean the wolf. As the girls lay down, Hethy said, “I hope them other wolves don’t come back.”

“He said they wouldn’t,” Sally whispered. And although a part of her was scared that they would, another part—the one that was exhausted—trusted the wolf, and that allowed her to fall into a heavy sleep.

The girls woke to find the wolf sniffing and licking his wounds.

Sally and Hethy stood, stretching and rubbing their sore necks. When the wolf looked over at them, Hethy said, “A thank-you would be all right.”

The wolf growled, but not menacingly. “You have only wasted your time.”

“Why do you keep saying that?” Sally asked crossly. “Do you want them to kill you?”

With eyes half-closed, he replied, “It makes no difference anymore.”

“Why? Why were those wolves so terrible to you?”

“They don’t understand!” He grew agitated. “They have forgotten.”

“Forgotten what?”

The wolf lowered his chin to his forepaws.

Curiosity was burning in Sally, and she tried again. “What was that word you kept saying before?”

The wolf was silent.

“You were asking for something. Toniya—?”

“Toninyan,”
the wolf growled. “But I was wrong.”

“Wrong about what?”

“I thought I sensed it. I thought the man who I gave the
Toninyan
to was with you. I thought he had come back. To help us find … No, I was confused. Mad with desperation and my injuries.”

“What is the
Toninyan?”
Sally asked. “Who is this man?”

The wolf closed his eyes but he was not sleeping. He was ignoring her.

Hethy put her hand to Sally’s shoulder and whispered, “We done what you wanted, Yote. We healed that wolf as best we could. But we got nothing else to do for him. Can we go now?”

“I suppose,” Sally said, casting a disappointed glance at the wolf.

She took out the rabbit’s foot and watched as it turned and pointed toward the west, where the morning sun was throwing rich light across the sea of grass and wildflowers.

“Yote!” Hethy squeaked.

The wolf was getting stiffly to his feet, his blazing eyes on Sally. There was a madness again in those eyes, and Sally worried that Hethy had been right all along. She stepped back, considering whether she could outrun him in his weakened state.

He opened his savage jaws, and dry words struggled out. “The
Toninyan
.”

“Get back!” Sally said, waving her hand feebly at the wolf.

“You? You are the one … you have the
Toninyan…
.” But his eyes were not on her. They were on her hands.

He was staring at the rabbit’s foot.

18
THE ROUGAROU

“L
ET ME SEE THE
T
ONINYAN
,”
THE WOLF DEMANDED
.

Sally wrapped her fingers around the rabbit’s foot. “No! What are you going to do?”

“Let me see it, child!” The wolf jabbed his nose at her hands. “I’m not going to harm you.”

With shaking hands, Sally opened her fingers to show the rabbit’s foot to the wolf.

He inhaled great snorts with his silver nose. “No. What is this? I sense it. The
Toninyan
is here, but this … this is not it! What is this object?”

“My—my father’s hand,” Sally stammered.

“What do you mean?” the wolf asked.

“My father. He lost his hand fighting a Hoarhound and it became this golden foot.”

The wolf shook his ragged muzzle. “I don’t know what a Hoarhound is.”

Sally cupped the rabbit’s foot and held it away from the wolf. “What does it matter? This isn’t your
Toninyan
. It’s his hand. Now get back!”

The wolf retreated a step at the intensity of Sally’s shouts. His head lowered and his entire frame seemed to sag. “I don’t understand. I sense it. I’m certain I do.”

“I’m sorry,” Sally said. “I’m sorry you can’t find your
Toninyan
. But my father is lost, trapped in a world called the Gloaming. He’s lost his powers, and I’m looking for him. I’m going to find him and give him back his hand. This is leading me to him.”

The wolf lifted his head, his ears flattened against his head. “Who is this man? Who is your father?”

Sally wondered at the question and answered slowly, “Bill Cobb.”

“Yes. Yes,” the wolf said. “Your father was with John Henry. They came to the Great Tree long ago. We gave John Henry a branch, and your father the
Toninyan
. Did he ever show it to you?”

“I never knew my father. He disappeared before I was born. What did it look like? What was the
Toninyan?”

“The Seeker’s Stone. A mere rock to your eye, but it is a powerful object—able to guide one to what has been lost.”

“The lodestone?” Sally gasped.

“Yes, a lodestone. Does he still have it? If we can find your father—”

“It’s here! The lodestone is inside the rabbit’s foot.”

Bafflement swirled in the wolf’s silver-blue eyes. Then he stared down at the rabbit’s foot. “But you are just a child. Why are you carrying the
Toninyan?
Child, I must find the Tree. I need the Seeker’s Stone!”

“No!” Sally backed away, fearful of the manic urgency in the wolf’s eyes. “I can’t help you. The stone—the rabbit’s foot—it’s mine. I promised my brother I would keep it safe. I need it. I need to find my father.”

“But the Great Tree …,” the wolf said. “If I don’t find it …” He dropped to the ground, the pain of his injuries seeming to catch up with his desperation.

Sally looked into the wolf’s eyes, where a deep sadness was betrayed in those silver-blue orbs. He caught her stare and said, “If you could be made to understand all that is at stake, you might help me. Let me try to explain. Please. My name is Quorl. I’m one of the rougarou.”

“The what?” Hethy asked.

“The rougarou, the same as the others—the ones who attacked me. We were once the guardians of the
Sumanitu Taka Can
. The Great Tree. It is a sacred pathway. A link between this world and the world beyond. We are the stewards of the Great Tree—”

“But I don’t understand what you are,” Sally interrupted. “Are the rougarou wolves?”

Quorl narrowed his eyes impatiently. “We once appeared as men, although we are not truly human. We would take the form of wolves when we wished. But now—since the disappearance of the Great Tree—we remain as wolves, trapped
this way. We cannot take our true forms. The other rougarou have forgotten what we once were.

“There was a time when the rougarou helped those who sought us. Men like your father and John Henry. Others were seeking knowledge that could only be found by climbing the Great Tree and following its many branches. Each branch, each limb, each twig leads to a place, either in this world or in others. There is nowhere the Great Tree’s path cannot reach. We would guide these seekers on their quests. And a rare few ascended the Great Tree, passing on to the world beyond.”

“What is that world?” Sally asked.

He shook his scarred snout slowly. “I do not know, child. I have never climbed all the way to the Tree’s end. And those who have never return. It is a mystery.”

He closed his eyes a moment to collect his thoughts before continuing. “Not long after your father and John Henry left us, the Great Tree drifted. This did not surprise us at first. The Tree is not like anything else of this world. To move its position was not so uncommon. What was surprising was that we began having difficulty finding it when it disappeared. And we had difficulty taking our true form. And as wolves, slowly—so slowly we hardly noticed—we began to forget who we were. To be away from the Great Tree weakens us.

“Each time we would eventually find the Great Tree and could again take our true forms. Our memories would return as well. The rougarou wondered at what was happening to us and to the Great Tree, but the world itself was changing so
much. New people came into our land. Men built roads of iron and ran wires along tall sticks and drove strange machines. We knew that this world was in transition, but we did not realize how much it would affect us.

“Men no longer sought us. Your father and John Henry were the last to come for our help. It seemed we were forgotten. The Great Tree drifted more and more. Eventually we could not find it at all. One by one, the rougarou forgot who they were. They are becoming mere wolves, descending into common beasts. Now I am the last one who remembers. I have tried to help my pack, but they attack me and drive me away.

“I left for a time, searching for the Great Tree, because I knew that if I could find it again, the pack would return as rougarou. I traveled to the south, where the Great Tree once stood before it began to drift. I found a terrible Darkness has fallen, as if nature itself has been overturned.”

“I seen that Darkness,” Hethy said. “The town I’m from, Omphalosa, that’s the center of all that Dark.”

“Do you know why it’s happened?” Quorl asked.

“My granny told me. She was killed by them people there ’cause they thought she witched up that Darkness. But Granny Sip, she said there was a terrible clockwork that brought on the Dark.”

“A clockwork?” Quorl wondered.

“The Gog’s Machine,” Sally explained. “Have you ever heard of the Gog?”

“Yes, this creature serves the Magog. They must have taken shape once more in this age. Surely their evil is behind
what has come about. And if I don’t find the Great Tree, the repercussions will be terrible. Not just for me or for the pack, but for all living-kind. The roots of the Great Tree run deep. They touch and affect each living being. The Tree is a source of divine energy—of nourishment and vitality, of creation and destruction and rebirth. Mankind will be affected most by the Gog’s plans, although even I can’t see or even imagine all the ways.”

Quorl looked urgently at Sally. “You carry the
Toninyan
, child. The Seeker’s Stone can find the lost Great Tree, as it finds all things lost that one wishes found. But it is a gift for humankind, and only you can wield it. Have you uncovered how to use the
Toninyan?”

Sally was dazzled by all Quorl had told her. “I don’t know,” Sally said. “The rabbit’s foot turns to point the way to go. It’s been leading me to the west, and I’m hoping that it’s leading me to my father. But I don’t know how to make it find your Tree. It’s only ever pulled me toward my father….”

But then Sally remembered: that was not true. The rabbit’s foot had led her to Hethy because she had been lost—lost on the prairie with her pot of beans.

But did she
want
to help him? Shouldn’t she continue searching for her father?

“We’ve hardly eaten in days,” Sally said. “And we have no food left. We’ve had little sleep either. There’s so much to consider, and I can barely think properly, Quorl.”

“Yes,” he said, getting stiffly to his feet. “You need to
eat. I do too. I will try to find us something. I will return soon.”

The rougarou limped out onto the prairie. As soon as he disappeared, Hethy asked, “You think you could use that thing? You reckon you could find his Tree?”

“I’ve been thinking about it. I don’t think Ray really knew how the lodestone worked. He told me how it led him to this pirate named Peter Hobnob and then to the Pirate Queen’s silver dagger. But he never knew why. Now I see. They were both lost, Hethy. Ray must have wanted to find them, just like I wanted to find you.”

“You ain’t even known who I was.”

“But I wanted to find food, and there you were. What about my father? If we help Quorl, how long will it take?”

“I know what you saying, Yote. And I know how terrible you want to find your daddy. But I reckon we’ve got to help this Quorl, as you’re the one with that
Toninyan
and all.”

“I guess you’re right,” Sally said soberly. “I think I know how to find his Tree. I found the answer the other day, when we were trying to find food. Remember? The rabbit’s foot—or this
Toninyan
that’s the lodestone—it couldn’t help us because the food wasn’t lost after all. We were. But I read the answer. My father wrote,
‘place what is lost in your thoughts and follow.’
I suppose that’s all I have to do.”