Promise Of The Wolves (15 page)

Before I could change my mind, I turned my back on the river. I took the girl’s shoulder gently in my jaws, careful not to bite down hard enough to hurt her. But she squealed in fright at the feel of my teeth and began to thrash. Concerned that I would hurt her as she threw herself about in my jaws, I let her go. I thought for a moment. How could I carry her without hurting or scaring her? She had no scruff, and surely it would hurt her if I dragged her by her long head fur. Then I remembered the way she had clung to me as I swam in the river, and remembered the way I had seen human children grabbing their adults by the neck and hanging from them as the adults walked.

I lowered myself to the ground and pressed up against the child. After just a moment’s hesitation, she threw her forelegs around my neck and her rear legs over my back. I tried to stumble to my feet, but staggered under the girl’s weight. It had been easier to carry her in the water. Ázzuen watched in confusion.

“What under the moon are you doing?”

“Help me carry her!” Ázzuen could act like a curl-tail when he was frightened or confused, and I didn’t have time to argue.

“How?” he asked.

“I don’t know,” I said, frustrated. “Think of something.”

The girl had slipped off my back when I sagged to the ground, but kept her forelegs tight around my neck. Ázzuen thought for a moment and then lay down next to me, scooping the girl’s rear legs so that they hung onto his back and then onto the ground beside him. The weight on my own back eased, and we both stood. The girl lay across both of our backs, her long legs dragging on the ground beside Ázzuen.

“You really think this will work?” I gasped.

“Do you have a better idea?” he replied.

I couldn’t argue with that. Both Ázzuen and I shook with anxiety as well as with the weight of the child. If I had known what I was starting, I wouldn’t have asked for his help, but I just wanted help up the slippery bank.

I was sure no wolf had ever carried a burden in such a way, but need creates wisdom and we needed to move the girl quickly and quietly. Her front paws were long and curved, and grasped with surprising strength. Her limbs looked weak and spindly, but were not. I could feel her warm breath on my neck and her heart beating against my back. We climbed the bank and began to run. We ran slowly and awkwardly, side by side, and Ázzuen began to laugh. “We must look ridiculous,” he said.

We were also breaking another pack rule. It is unwise to run side by side in enemy territory, and by crossing the river we entered Stone Peak domain. It’s better to run one by one to hide your numbers. But it was too late to worry about that now, and so we kept running. Ázzuen and I both remembered the way to the humans’ gathering place, even though we came at it from a different direction this time. The scent of humans grew strong, and I knew we were not far from them. But I felt the girl shivering and, concerned, I stopped to set her down. Her lips were pale and her face paler. She shook hard. I licked her skin. It was cold and damp.

I curled my body around the girl child, ignoring Ázzuen’s anxious whining. The two of us together could have warmed the girl better, but I didn’t want him to help. I had found her. She was mine. Ázzuen would have left her in the river to drown, left her to be prey for some creature. I felt her heartbeat again, strong and sure, and her long forelegs went around me as far as they could reach. Her rich scent filled me. I had not realized before how sweet their scent was, like firemeat mixed with flowers and fragrant leaves. Because we were supposed to stay away from them, I had not had the chance to distinguish one human-scent from another. Now, inhaling the girl’s unique scent, I came to know her as I did my packmates.

I couldn’t keep her very warm with my fur still wet and the rain coming down, and Ázzuen was edging toward home. So I tried to take her on my back again—this time without Ázzuen’s help. But the child’s back legs dragged heavily on the ground and I couldn’t take even two steps without collapsing. I wasn’t strong enough to carry her on my own. Then, as she had in the river, she began to help me. She stood on her own, and pressed heavily on my back. We staggered toward the human gathering place, the girl gripping my fur and stumbling beside me. Ázzuen hesitated and then followed behind me.

“You can go back, you know,” I said. For some reason I didn’t want him with me now.

“Someone has to keep you out of trouble,” he said, his voice almost steady.

I heard a rustling above us and smelled wet raven. I looked suspiciously up and to the left, where the smell came from. Tlitoo was trying to hide himself in some branches.

“Just what I need,” I gasped, “more help.” Tlitoo stopped trying to hide, cackled, and flew ahead of me toward the human gathering place.

“To keep you
in
trouble,” he said over his wing as he flew into the mist.

Ázzuen and I neared the human homesite, and I began to look for a safe place to leave the girl. I didn’t want to let her go. I wanted to take her back with me. Even though I had started to gain acceptance from some wolves in the pack, I was still an outsider. I wouldn’t feel that way if I brought the human child with me. I wanted to take her back to Fallen Tree and keep her with us as we roamed the winter territories. But the rules of the Wide Valley were clear. I shouldn’t even have pulled the girl from the river, and if Ruuqo found out I had, it could give him the excuse he needed to get rid of me. Still, I thought, perhaps I could hide her somewhere and keep her near.

A sharp pull on my ear brought me to my senses. “Leave her, wolflet,” Tlitoo said. “You still have the winter to get through.” He cocked his head. “Uh-oh,” he said.

Ázzuen, who had been trailing a little way behind me, caught up.

“The Greatwolves are nearby,” he said.

I had been so wrapped up in the girl that I hadn’t noticed the scent of the Greatwolves. I hadn’t seen them since the day they saved my life and I was surprised at how easily I recognized their scent. My heart pounded. What would they do if they found us here? I was grateful to Ázzuen, both for noticing the Greatwolves and for staying by my side. I called on the last of my strength and helped the girl to the very edge of the human gathering place. I wanted badly to venture farther into their home, to see what it was like up close, but I had broken enough rules for one day, and I wanted to avoid a confrontation with the Greatwolves. So I helped the girl sit on the ground and placed my paw on her chest. She clambered to her feet and returned the gesture. I nudged her gently, reinforcing the command to leave with a soft bark.

“Thank you, wolf,” she said. And then she was gone, stumbling toward the warmth of her fires. I looked after her. Ázzuen looked at her and then at me.

“She spoke!” he said. “And I understood her. I thought we might not be able to.”

I dipped my head. There are some creatures whose language is so strange you can’t understand it at all. I was glad the humans were not such creatures.

“They’re not that different from us,” I said. “They are not Other.”

“Less talk, more running,” Tlitoo advised, shaking his wing feathers free of water.

“For once, I agree with him,” Ázzuen said. “Let’s go.”

“Oops.” Tlitoo cocked his head left and right. “Too late.”

I heard breaking twigs and squelching mud, and Frandra and Jandru stepped out through the buckthorn bushes and blocked our path.

“What are you doing in the company of humans?” Frandra demanded. The Greatwolf was clearly angry. “Don’t you know you could be exiled for this? Do you think I saved your life just so you could throw it away?”

I tried to speak but only a frightened whuff of air came out.

“We rescued a human child,” Ázzuen managed.

“I know what you did,” Frandra growled. “Do you think there is anything in these territories I don’t know about? You,” she said to me, “were saved for a reason, and you,” she turned to Ázzuen, “should be helping her, not encouraging bad behavior.”

Frandra’s arrogance made me mad. Long-hidden anger was slowly replacing my fear of her. It was the anger that had helped me fight off three pups when I was very small. It was the anger Tlitoo and Yllin had warned me against. But it felt good. It felt better than being afraid.

“If you know everything that happens in the valley,” I said slowly, doing my best to speak calmly, “why did you let Ruuqo kill my littermates? Why did you let him send my mother away?”
Why didn’t you tell me about the humans?
I wanted to ask.

Ázzuen looked at me in shock. Tlitoo pulled my tail so hard I almost fell over. I ignored them both. I didn’t care if the Greatwolves really were descendants of the Ancients themselves. When I held the human girl close to me I had felt whole for the first time since my mother left. Now I felt the girl’s absence like a bite wound, deep in my flesh, and I missed my mother more than I had since the day she left. Seeing the Greatwolves again after they had all but abandoned me made me feel the loss afresh. No one else in my pack had to feel that way. The Greatwolves knew something about who I was and why I felt the way I did about the human girl. I wanted answers from them.

Frandra looked at me coldly and pulled her lips back in a snarl. “Do not challenge me, wolf,” she said, and took a step forward and bared her sharp teeth. Wet wings flapped above us and Tlitoo landed directly on her head. She turned to snap at him, and he leapt to her rump. When she turned to try to grab him in her jaws he leapt up and tweaked her ear, then flew to a low branch nearby.

To my surprise, Tlitoo’s voice wobbled a little. Frandra swung her head away from me, growled at Tlitoo, and stepped toward him. He gave a shaky caw and flew off. We heard a muffled sound to our right, and turned to find Jandru laughing.

“Don’t try to fight a battle against the ravens, Lifemate,” he said. “You will always lose.” He poked her playfully in the ribs. “As for the pup, what did you expect, Frandra? You’re just unhappy things aren’t going by your plan.”

Frandra looked for a moment as if she was going to strike out at Jandru, but then ducked her head and gave her whuffling laugh, her anger leaving as quickly as it had come. Mine still burned within me. But my senses had returned and Frandra’s fury had scared me. I would not challenge her again. At least not until I was a lot bigger.

“Maybe so, but this complicates things. And I can’t help these two with their packmates.” She swept her eyes over to us.

“You must listen. Your path is not an easy one, Kaala Smallteeth,” she said. “You must resist the temptations of the humans. You must become pack and gain the mark of romma from Ruuqo. If you do not, no wolf will follow you, and you will never be accepted as a full member of any pack. You have learned of this already?”

“I think so,” Ázzuen answered quickly. I think he was afraid of what I would say if I spoke. “We’ve already passed the first test, when we made it to our gathering place from the den. Now we have to participate in our first hunt, and travel the winter with the pack. After we do that, Ruuqo grants us the mark of the Swift River pack. I don’t know what happens if we don’t receive romma. And I am not sure what the mark is,” he concluded.

“It is a scent mark that can be given only by a leaderwolf,” Jandru said, “and you must bear that mark or you will not be able to be a part of a pack, and you will wander alone. Or you must start your own pack, which will be doubly difficult if you do not bear the romma mark.”

“We need you to be accepted by your pack, youngwolf,” Frandra said. “We need you to stay out of trouble. And you absolutely must stay away from the humans.”

Jandru lowered his shaggy head to mine. “Even we cannot control all that happens, littlewolf. We do what we can, but that is not much. You must gain acceptance in your pack. You must shun the humans and hide your difference. If you can do this,” he said, “if you can earn the mark of romma, we will help you find your mother when you are grown. I promise you.”

I swallowed hard. I didn’t know if I should trust him. But he certainly knew more than I did.

“We will not be in the territories much over the next moons,” Frandra said, not waiting for me to agree. “Try to stay out of trouble when we are gone.” And with that, she and Jandru stalked back into the woods. I looked after them. Now my anger was mixed with confusion and frustration. They had left me more upset than when they had first come. I took a step to follow them. I wanted to know more. I wanted to ask them if I was a danger to my pack, and if I was one of the mixed-blood wolves that Trevegg said could be crazy.

“Kaala, we have to get back,” Ázzuen said.

“They will tell you no more, wolf,” Tlitoo added, returning from his rock. “I can follow them,” he suggested. “Try to listen if they say anything else about you.” He pulled the fur on my paw gently.

I sighed. Ázzuen and Tlitoo were both right, but I still wanted to follow the Greatwolves. But I had gotten Ázzuen into this and I owed it to him to get him home. And the Greatwolves were right, too—I had to make it through the winter.

“Come on,” I said wearily. “Let’s go home.”

As soon as we walked into the gathering place, Werrna raised up her nose.

“You smell of humans!” she said. “Where have you been?”