Authors: Michelle Paver,Geoff Taylor
Tags: #Good and evil, #Death, #Animals, #Wolves & Coyotes, #Juvenile Fiction, #Philosophy, #Prehistoric peoples, #Battles, #Fiction, #Voyages and travels, #Good & Evil, #Prehistory, #Adventure fiction, #Historical, #Fantasy & Magic, #Demoniac possession, #Friendship, #Murder, #Enemies
Raising his head, he looked straight at her. His eyes widened. She mouthed his name, but he frowned.
Stay out of this.
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Renn guessed she was the Leader. She bowed low to her Mage.
Thiazzi accepted the homage in silence, but Renn caught the glint of eyes behind his mask, and thought, He's enjoying this.
"I was seeking the cure," said Torak. He sounded spent.
"We should have hanged him then," said the Leader. "We should make good the mistake."
People rattled spears on shields in violent assent.
Renn threw herself forward, but two hairy paws held her back. "Stay silent," the old Auroch man hissed in her ear. "You'll only make it worse."
205 This was too much for Renn. "He isn't outcast anymore!" she cried. "Fin-Kedinn took him back, all the clans agreed!" "The Deep Forest never agreed," replied the painted mask. "The Raven Leader sought to change clan law. Clan law cannot be changed." "Except by you," said Torak. "Be silent!" hissed the Forest Horse Leader.
Torak raised his head and glared at Thiazzi. "You break clan law whenever you want. Don't you, Thiazzi?"
Puzzled faces turned to the Mage.
"Slaughtering hunters," Torak went on. "Murdering my father. My bone kin ..."
"Silence!" shrilled the Forest Horse Leader. "How dare you insult our Mage!"
"He's not your Mage," Torak flung back as he struggled to his feet. "He's a Soul-Eater."
Howls of outrage from the crowd, but Thiazzi was triumphant. "By his own mouth he condemns himself! Here's proof of his wickedness!" "What's
wrong
with you all?" thundered Torak.
Trees stirred. Torches flickered. Even the Forest Horse Leader stepped back.
With his scarred chest and glittering eyes, Torak looked terrifying--and exactly what Thiazzi had said he was. "Have you forgotten how to
think?"
he bellowed at 206
the crowd. "Doesn't it seem odd that your new Mage has suddenly grown so warlike? Can't you
see
that he's not one of you?"
Renn had never seen him so angry. His rage was like the freezing white fury of the ice bear, and it frightened her. It frightened the others, too. Thiazzi's laugh broke the spell. "See how desperate he is! He knows he is condemned!"
Relief shuddered through the crowd. The Mage had restored their certainty.
The wind got up. The red tree sighed.
Renn stood aghast.
Torak stared stonily at Thiazzi.
"Although," said the old man, still holding the staff, "if this truce is to stand, the Auroch Mage must also agree."
That brought his clan to their senses, and they watched to see how the Forest Horse Mage would respond.
"Of course he must agree," Thiazzi said between his
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He jolted awake. They had laid him beneath the scarlet tree. Soon they would hang him from it.
He couldn't see how he was going to get out of this. How long did it take to paint a tree red? That was how long he had.
He thought of Renn. She didn't look as if she'd been beaten, so maybe they would let her live. If only she didn't try to help him.
And Wolf? He saw Wolf--if he was still alive--seeking him through the charred Forest. Lost, bewildered, howling for his pack-brother. Never getting an answer. Helpless, Torak slid into a blazing sea of thirst.
Someone was holding his head, pouring water into his mouth.
He coughed and spluttered. His tongue was swollen; he couldn't swallow. "Don't stop," he pleaded. It came out a meaningless mumble. 208
"I saw him yesterday. He's fine." "Thank the
Spirit.
What about--" "The ravens are fine too. Try to sit up; we've got to be quick." "How did you manage this?" he asked as she started on his ankles. "I didn't," she said tersely. "Everyone's asleep; I don't know why. It's as if they've taken a sleeping potion. It can't last much longer."
Biting down on the pain, Torak rubbed the feeling back into his wrists, while Renn washed the blood off his face and told him how Thiazzi had declared a truce among the clans. "He must've tricked the Auroch Mage, and now he's got them all in his power." She paused. "Torak, this is much bigger than we thought. He's turning them against the Open Forest."
He was trying to take that in when they heard a noise outside. A sleepy murmur, horrifyingly close. A rustle of
209
wovenbark that subsided in a snore.
When all was quiet again, Torak breathed out. "Why didn't they tie you up too?"
Renn strapped her knife to her calf and yanked her legging over it. "They're scared of me ... because I'm a Mage."
He met her eyes in the red darkness. Her face was sternly beautiful, and a shiver ran down his spine.
Then she was his friend again, reaching behind her and thrusting a pair of buckskin boots at him. "I stole them from a Lynx. They'd better fit." As he pulled them on, she peered from the shelter. "Can you walk?"
"I'll have to."
"How did you--"
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"I told you, they're all asleep!"
Renn stood in the shallows with her boots strung around her neck, but made no move to get in. "Torak. Turn the boat around."
"What?" he said impatiently.
"We can't go after Thiazzi. Not now."
He stared at her.
"If you killed him now," she whispered, "you'd be confirming every lie he's told them about the Open Forest."
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"But--Renn. What are you saying?"
"We have to go back to the Open Forest. Find Fin-Kedinn. Warn the clans what's happening."
"You can't mean this."
He began to be angry. "I swore an oath, Renn. I swore to avenge my kinsman."
"This is bigger than vengeance. Can't you see? If Thiazzi dies, they'll think it's an Open Forest plot."
"But he's not their Mage! Once he's dead, they'll see that!" "They won't
care!
Torak,
think!
If you killed him, they'd see it as proof of what he said. They'd attack. The Open Forest would fight back. There'd be no stopping it!" He wanted to grab her by the shoulders and shake her. "You said you'd help me. Are you deserting me now?"
"Renn," he said. "I cannot turn around now. I need
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you to come with me. Do this for me."
"Torak--I
can't!"
He looked at her standing there with the black water swirling around her calves. "Then that's how it is," he said. Digging in his paddle, he started upriver. 213
214
A reed tapped her on the shoulder, and the willows murmured a warning:
Better get away from here, fast.
Shadowy hunters dragged her back to land.
"You helped the outcast get away," said the Forest Horse Leader. "Yes."
"Where did he go?"
"B-back to the Open Forest."
"You're in league with him."
"He's my friend."
"You're in league with him against the Deep Forest."
215
"You poisoned us with Magecraft," said the Forest Horse Leader. "No."
"You put a sleeping-draught in our water."
So she'd guessed rightly. But who had done it, and why?
"You put a spell on us!"
The air crackled with fear and hatred. Renn prayed that their fear would prove the stronger.
"Why would we do that?" said the Forest Horse Leader.
"The Auroch Mage has the respect of all," Renn said haughtily. "I will speak only to him."
"You're in no position to bargain," hissed the Leader.
Renn thought fast. "Is this how the Forest Horses respect the truce?" she said. "By scorning the Auroch Mage? What do the Aurochs say about that?" It was the turn of the Forest Horse Leader to hesitate.
The shelter of the Auroch Mage squatted like a toad in the lee of a fallen spruce. 216
She stood with her hands tied behind her back, in a tangle of deadnettle still damp with dew. Above her towered the tree's root disc, smelling of earth and rotting wood. It was pitted with the nests of bats and owls, and hung with auroch horns incised with spirals. From these and the encircling pines, slender ropes of red wovenbark trailed into the shelter's smoke-hole. Renn guessed they were spirit ladders, to help the Mage climb to the spirit world.
"Come inside," said a faint voice.
Awkwardly because of her bound hands, Renn got down on her knees, nosed aside the wovenbark, and shuffled in.
The fire was small, but welcoming. Above it, the red tails of the spirit ladders dangled through the smokehole,
217
dancing in the heat. On the other side of the fire, Renn saw her bow and the stolen arrows lying beside a mound of leaves.
It shifted. "I've sent my people away," wheezed a voice as quiet as a summer breeze in a sapling. "When two Mages meet, it's best if they're not overheard." Renn bowed respectfully. "Mage."