Girl in the Red Hood (19 page)

"Why?" she breathed.

"The wizard was my ancestor." The look in
his golden-brown eyes was so fierce that Liesel chose to stay
silent after that, simply following Kurt's lead as he walked them
through the remainder of the town. There were a few people that
greeted them, but most simply stared with woeful eyes. He
eventually moved them to the outskirts of the town, no longer
looking at the houses or people but simply walking as they had when
they were younger. Inside, Liesel was dying to ask him all the
questions that were swirling around in her head, but she stayed
silent.

"Liesel, stay still!" Kurt's voice was
strained and low. Liesel suddenly realized she'd wandered off a
bit, still following him, but meandering the way she used to.
Startled by the urgency in his voice, she turned to see Kurt
staring at the ground near her feet. A nest of baby pigs lay just a
few feet from where she stood.

"Walk slowly back to me." Kurt kept a low,
tense tone. "Stay quiet." Liesel held her breath as she stepped
backwards. When she did, however, a deafening crack echoed through
the trees. Too late, she saw the stick she'd snapped, and with its
crack came ear-piercing squeals as one of the little pigs awakened.
Liesel froze in horror as she heard something much larger begin to
run towards them with startling speed.

For a split second, Liesel saw the
beady-eyed sow lock eyes with her. Its fur bristled out as it
charged. Before she could react though, a vicious snarl came from
behind, and a blur of silver fur streaked past her and dove at the
boar. The force of the wolf's blow knocked the sow her over on her
side. Without hesitation, the boar leapt back up and bit the wolf's
neck. Liesel watched in terror as the two creatures rolled around
in the brush, snarls and squeals exchanged ferociously. It seemed
as if neither would ever surrender, when they stopped as quickly as
they began, the sow in front of its nest and the wolf crouched
before her.

"Kurt," Liesel tried to call to him, her
voice nearly inaudible. "Let's go. She was just protecting her
nest." She hoped he would hear her, despite being trapped inside
the wolf, but she had no idea of how much of the man was left
inside the creature. The memory of how he had protected the deer as
a boy tugged at her heart, making her hopeful. There was no
response though. The wolf and the boar continued to stare one
another down. Nearly as tall as her waist, the wolf Kurt was lean
and covered in muscle. The gray fur almost glinted like silver in
the dim light of the woods. Tentatively, she stretched a hand out
and gently laid it on his back.

Without warning, huge jaws snapped down less
than an inch from her hand. Though the golden-brown eyes were still
human, they were flat and dangerous with none of the warmth she
knew. It took Liesel a moment to realize that Kurt had very nearly
just bitten her. Panic filled her as the wolf continued to snarl,
this time at her. Without knowing what she was doing, Liesel began
to slowly move backwards. Once she was a stone's throw away, she
turned and ran as hard as she could. She had imagined a hundred
ways to escape during the night before, but none of them had
involved running from Kurt as a wolf, and she ran aimlessly, driven
on solely by fear.

After crashing and tumbling through the
woods for several hundred yards, Liesel was spent. Despair took her
as she heard her pursuer closing in from behind. Able to run no
further, Liesel dove behind a large tree. Sure enough, the
footsteps continued to grow closer. It wasn't until Kurt found her
huddled on the ground with tears running down her face and her arms
wrapped around her head that she realized the wolf was no longer in
charge.

"Liesel, I'm so sorry!" His voice was filled
with angst as he hovered over her. When she didn't respond, he
gently knelt beside her and tried to lay a hand on her face, but
she flinched. The heartbreak was evident in his expression as he
slowly withdrew his hand, but it couldn't erase what she had
witnessed. After seeing what he was capable of in his wolf form,
she wasn't yet ready to accept both human and creature as the same
being, nor was she ready for his touch. "We can find somewhere more
comfortable...," he stammered, but she shook her head and kept it
tucked in her arms. She heard him give a resigned sigh and sit
further down the way. With a little space to herself, she took a
deep breath and tried to gather her thoughts.

It shouldn't have been such a surprise. But
even as the knowledge had set in the night before, she hadn't been
able to reconcile man and beast in her mind. Kurt had plainly told
her he was a wolf, and yet, she hadn't been able to picture it
until he was standing right there before her. Liesel had never
forgotten the way the people of Ward had looked at him. Now she
understood why. And she hated it because that was how she saw him
now, too.

Opening her eyes, Liesel warily studied him.
He was sitting on a boulder, his eyes distant, and his body hunched
over. His stare was like that of a blind man, unseeing and
lifeless. For the first time, she noticed the dark circles beneath
his eyes. It seemed he'd slept even less than she had lately. His
face had become more angular since she'd last seen him. Still the
color of bark, his unruly hair was as badly cut as ever, but it
looked as if he'd actually attempted to tame it that day. The
clothes he wore were patched in several places, but they were
slightly nicer than the ones he'd always run around in as a boy. He
was still wiry, as he'd always been, but she could distinctly see
the powerful frame beneath the ragged, ill-fitted attire. It made
her heart beat in ways she wanted to ignore. To distract herself,
she asked,

"Is that why so many die?"

But Kurt didn't respond, just continued to
stare dully out into the woods.

"Kurt!"

"What?" Kurt startled.

"You said your mother was your father's
fourth wife." Liesel tried to keep her voice calm and deliberate.
"Do they die because of...incidents like that?" Shame and
understanding filled Kurt's face before he lowered his gaze to the
ground.

"There have been some. Unfortunately, no
Pure Blood is completely safe until she's married. Once she's wed
to the pack leader, the magic protects her from any harm we might
cause her in wolf form. That's why the wedding happens so quickly.
We have one month before the magic dies, but for the sake of the
woman, we try not to wait."

"Only some die of accidents?" Liesel raised
her eyebrows, and Kurt shifted uncomfortably.

"My father's first three wives were all here
for a short time before they died." Kurt stood and gazed out at the
ocean of treetops before them. "My father called it a weak
constitution, but I always thought it was something else." He
turned to Liesel with large, troubled eyes.

"So when you turn, you can't control
it?"

"Fear is what changes us in the first place.
It doesn't matter how much we wish to remain human," Kurt sounded
annoyed. "If we truly want to rule over the animal mind, we must
give up part of our humanity to marry the two. A few, such as my
uncles, are willing to give up much of themselves. But most of us,"
Kurt shivered, "would rather lose control and keep what little
humanity resides. When you turn, instinct takes over, and there is
very little left of the man to inhibit that raw nature until you
settle down again. To control it well, you must accept it, you must
be willing to welcome the wolf as part of you, something few are
willing to do. There are times that are harder, like back there,
that catch me off guard. The only thing that saves us from
ourselves overall, however, is that we must listen to my father. As
pack leader, he can direct us even when we're in animal form."

"How was it that you never turned when we
were together?" Liesel thought particularly of the evening of the
dance. He'd looked terrified.

"You sacrifice what you must," Kurt's words
were nearly inaudible. Liesel frowned.

"Kurt, tell me the truth," she turned and
looked him straight in the eye. "What exactly did you sacrifice to
stay human around me?" But he shook his head and simply said,

"For your sake, it was worth it." Seeing
that he wasn't about to go any further, Liesel went in another
direction.

"So why bring me here now?" She didn't have
to ask the other obvious questions. Why not just take her when she
had arrived in Ward? Why toy with her? Why let her think she had a
fighting chance and send her to Tag?

"I told you that my mother died."

"I heard that...and I'm sorry." As livid as
she was, Liesel meant it. The seven years since her own mother's
death had done very little to heal the gaping hole in her heart.
Nodding a bit, he simply said,

"I saw what being chained to this place did
to my mother. While I couldn't stop the magic, I wanted to spare
you at least a few more years if I could." Liesel considered this.
As much as she hated to admit it, it made sense. Kurt was kind, but
dutiful. After spending as much time with him as she had, she knew
he was telling the truth. And yet, it still hurt to know he had
chosen to keep her in the forest when she had the chance to run.
Twice.

"So what happens if the Pure Blood escapes?"
Liesel was thinking about the girl named Ilsa. Kurt gave her a hard
look.

"Within one month, the people here would
lose themselves to their animal counterparts." Kurt closed his eyes
and rubbed his temples. "No one likes it, Liesel. No one wants it.
But we're stuck, and there's no way out." He nodded back in the
direction of the village. "Perhaps you can see now why my mother
chose to stay. It's not just my humanity at stake, or even my
family's. It's all of them, including the little ones who would be
left behind, such as Steffen and his sister. It would be the people
of Ward and all the other surrounding towns who would have to deal
with hordes of hungry wolves. It would be all those who wish to
keep their own selves, and not lose their minds to the animal." He
shook his head. "When the one named Ilsa escaped, we had to choose
another from Ward, and quickly. If we hadn't, many people would
have died."

"It just doesn't make any sense," Liesel
muttered.

"And why is that?"

"All curses can be broken."

"Says who?"

"Look," Liesel turned to face him. "The
curse allows you to keep your humanity as long as there is a Pure
Blood within the family. That's already a slight break. In the
worst of possibilities, you would all have been wolves from be
start. The line would have begun and continued with ordinary
wolves. But I think this is the Maker's way of saving a remnant,
preventing you all from being lost. The curse is simply waiting to
be broken." When she finished, Kurt stared at her with an
unreadable expression.

"There is one more thing I think you should
see." Getting up, he headed back towards the town, this walk less
eventful than their earlier adventure. Once they were back in the
cabin, Kurt instructed Liesel to wait in the front of the house. He
disappeared down the hall, leaving Liesel to examine the room she
sat in. The walls were a darker wood than the Beckes had in their
house, and the beams had been left round, rather than being cut
flat and smooth the way they were in houses in Tag. Though the room
was sparse, it was oddly warm and friendly. Liesel remembered
walking through it that morning to the front door, but it had been
dark and the fire had been unlit, so she'd seen very little. A cozy
fireplace centered one wall, and a soft, green rug, nicer than
anything Liesel had seen since coming to Ward, lay before it. At
the other end of the room was a simple wooden table with six stools
beneath it. Along that wall, another door was open to what looked
like a kitchen, unusual for the people even of Tag. There, only
well-to-do citizens, such as the Beckes, had separate kitchens.
Everyone else simply cooked over their fireplaces. The only other
piece of furniture was a worn wooden writing desk and matching
stool a few feet from the door. There were two books that lay on
top of it. Liesel stepped closer to see what they were. One was the
Holy Writ, and the other, a small, green leather book.

"Everyone else is gone," he said as he
walked back in, "so we're safe to talk here." Walking over to the
desk, he picked up the little green book and brought it over to the
table.

"Don't tell my father about this," he gave
her a smile that was faintly ornery. "Only the pack leaders and
their sons are supposed to know this exists." He didn't have to
tell her to be careful when he handed it to her. Liesel could tell
immediately that the book was ancient. The pages were yellow and
stained with time, and brittle to the touch. Gently, she opened the
book to discover that it was a journal. The pages were filled with
all sorts of drawings and scribblings. There were countless
sketches of wolves, detailed enough to make Liesel shiver after her
run-in that morning. There were various herbs and flowers, most of
which she knew from her many hours spent with Ely in his shop. One
flower in particular that was unfamiliar to her, however, appeared
again and again. It had long, pointy petals that nearly looked like
needles, hundreds of them, and its center was filled with what
looked like fuzzy spores. The drawing was so intricate that she
could make out the waxy shine of the petals. Liesel was sure she
had never seen this flower in her life. She squinted to make out
the words beneath it, then looked at Kurt in confusion.

"What language is this?"

"This is the journal of the wizard," he
answered. "It is all we have left of him, aside from our stories
and our unusual second natures."

"Does it prescribe how to break the spell?"
He shook his head ruefully.

"No one knows how to read the wizard's
tongue. We keep it though, if nothing else, as a reminder of what
can happen when courage flees us as it fled from him. I pored over
it repeatedly as a boy. I thought I could interpret a few words,
but never got anything specific. You can sense the magic though,
when you hold it close." Liesel held the book up and sniffed.
Immediately, a strange dizziness washed over her, the same feeling
that she got when Kurt stood too close. He nodded as if he knew
what she was thinking. "After years of searching," he turned the
book over in his hands, "I simply decided it was better not to
know. Not that any of us would be foolish enough to dabble in the
dark arts after our ancestor's blunder." A small feather fell out
of the book as he closed it, and Kurt frowned as he picked up the
place marker. "Except for maybe my uncle," he growled. As he spoke,
Liesel had a sudden vision, a memory long stowed away.