Promise Of The Wolves (26 page)

I
did not see Ázzuen and Marra try to follow me. They were stopped only when Werrna and Minn pinned them to the ground. I didn’t hear Trevegg arguing with Ruuqo, or Yllin speaking softly to Rissa. My head felt like it was stuffed with dried leaves and dirt; my tongue was thick in my mouth, making it hard to breathe. The sound of a thousand flies filled my ears and I didn’t feel the earth beneath my feet or the dense bushes pressing against my fur when I left the path. I knew I should be thinking of some way to help TaLi, some way to get her to safety. And Ázzuen and Marra, too, if Ruuqo chose to fight. But it was all I could do to keep moving. I was so exhausted from the fight that I only made it as far as the river before my legs gave out and I collapsed into the mud.

I don’t know how long I stayed there, listening to the river, feeling the cool, damp air reach deep into my fur and onto my skin. I knew that if Ruuqo found me still in the territory he would probably kill me. But I didn’t care. I think if no one had come along, I might never have gotten up, but instead stayed until the Balance welcomed me into the softness of the earth.

Only when I heard the heavy step of the Greatwolves and smelled their earthy scent did I raise my head.

“Come on, then,” Jandru said.

I still couldn’t bring myself to rise. I lay in the mud blinking up at them.

“You give up easily.” I had hoped for sympathy, but Frandra’s voice was contemptuous. “One fight and you lie here like dead prey. I thought you had more backbone.”

I had nothing to say, so I kept silent, resting my head on my paws.

“What did you expect, when you challenged your leaderwolf?” Jandru demanded, his tone no kinder than Frandra’s. “What did you think would happen?”

“He threatened TaLi.” My voice sounded as if it came from far away. “He said he would kill her. I had to do something.”

“So you did something.” Jandru stretched his great shoulders. “Accept the consequences. You’re no longer Swift River pack. So what are you? Why did you fight to live when you were a pup? Why did you bother to run now, when Ruuqo would have killed you?”

“I don’t know what I am if I am not Swift River,” I said, getting angry. “How can I?”

Frandra snorted. “Well, the surest way not to find out is to sit around feeling sorry for yourself. Let me know when you’re done with that.”

Stung, I got up to face her. She and Jandru turned and walked swiftly into the woods. My feet seemed to move of their own accord, and I followed them.

“Where are we going?” I asked.

They gave no answer. Their legs were so much longer than mine that I had to run to keep up, and was too breathless to ask again. It had been a long, long night and my body was tired. My head wasn’t working right. It was like my thoughts were moving through thick mud. Frandra and Jandru didn’t seem to notice that I was struggling, but at last they slowed a bit, allowing me to walk rather than scramble after them, and then stopped next to an abandoned fox den by several large boulders. I realized we were not far from the circle of stones where they had met the humans for the Speaking.

“We’ll rest here, until nightfall,” Jandru said, his eyes sweeping over me as I shook with exhaustion.

“I have to get TaLi,” I said weakly. “I have to go back.” I was so tired it was all I could do to talk, but I felt like I was leaving part of myself behind.

“We have to get out of the valley,” Jandru said. “As soon as possible.”

That made sense. Ruuqo had said he would kill me. Questions and worry buzzed in my head. I wanted to go back for TaLi. I wanted to know where the Greatwolves were taking me. But I had run from the Stone Peaks, and fought with Ruuqo and been banished from my pack. Exhaustion and despair overcame my will, and I was asleep before I knew I was lying on the ground.

When I opened my eyes, Frandra and Jandru were watching me anxiously.

“Good,” Frandra said shortly. “Get up and get moving. We’re leaving.”

“And be quiet,” Jandru added. “There are other Greatwolves around and if they find us, we’ll all be in danger.”

I forced myself the rest of the way awake. It was already past dusk. I’d slept through the daylight hours without noticing the passage of time.

I stood. The muscles in my haunches and shoulders protested as I tried to stretch. Even the creases between the pads of my feet hurt. But my long sleep and the cool evening air had revived my good sense, and concern for my friends had burned away my confusion. I felt like myself again. It was as if the wolf I had been the day before was a slow, stunned shadow of myself. Something less than me. I was angry with myself that I had let the Greatwolves take me away. That I had let a whole day pass without returning for TaLi, or finding out if Ruuqo was going to fight. It frightened me that I could so easily lose myself. That I had almost betrayed everyone and everything I cared about just because I was scared and tired. I shook myself hard.

Frandra and Jandru had already begun walking. When they noticed I wasn’t following, they stopped and looked back.

“Hurry up,” Jandru ordered.

“I’m not coming,” I said. “I’m going to get TaLi.”

Both Greatwolves stared at me for a moment, as if they couldn’t believe I would defy them.

“No,” Frandra said, and began to walk again.

I stayed where I was. Jandru growled and walked back to me. He prodded me with his muzzle. I dug my paws into the earth. I knew they could drag me if they wanted to. Well, let them, I thought grimly, because it was the only way they were going to get me to budge. Then I realized that the Greatwolves had been very quiet, as if they were hiding. And Jandru had said they were worried about being overheard by other Greatwolves. I stood my ground.

“I won’t leave without my human. Or Ázzuen and Marra.” If Ruuqo joined the fight, I thought, they would need to leave the valley, too.

Jandru whuffed in annoyance.

“There is no time to argue with you,” he snapped. “It is too late for them. They are all already as good as dead.”

I felt as if someone had sucked the air from my lungs.

“What do you mean?” I demanded, forgetting to be quiet. The Greatwolves snarled at me. I lowered my ears in apology, but continued to meet Jandru’s gaze.

“What do you mean they’re already as good as dead?”

“We don’t have time to discuss it now!” Frandra snarled. “We must leave the valley at once. If we are discovered by the other Greatwolves, we will be able to do nothing to help you.”

“But why?” I demanded.

Jandru growled impatiently and took another step toward me, his teeth bared in a terrifying snarl. I was certain he was going to take me in his teeth and drag me away. I stepped back.

“
Wolflet!!
”

We all jumped at the sound. Tlitoo flew from the direction of Fallen Tree, barely visible above the treetops, wings beating hard. He flew straight down from high above, so quickly I thought he would crash into the ground. He pulled up at the last moment, landing at my feet with a thump.

“You should not have run off, wolflet,” he said, his chest heaving. “It was hard to find you.”

“Where have you been?”

“Away,” he panted, “finding answers.”

I was so glad to see him I almost howled. I knew that he was not really protection against the Greatwolves, but I didn’t care. He had come to find me. I was not alone. I turned back to Frandra and Jandru.

“Why are they as good as dead?”

It was Tlitoo who answered.

“All wolves and all humans in the valley are to be killed if there is a fight, any fight,” he said. He turned a beady glare on the Greatwolves. “You have not told all,” he accused, flaring his wings. I realized that he was agitated as well as tired from a fast flight. “You have not told the smallwolves or the human krianans all. You don’t care about the wolves here. It doesn’t matter to you if they die.” He turned to me. “There are other places, wolf.”

“What do you mean?” I said, confused. “Of course there are other places.”

“Other places like this!” he croaked impatiently. “With other wolves and other Bigwolves besides the ones here. I have flown outside the Wide Valley and beyond the grasslands past that. The old human told me to. The Bigwolves don’t care if you live or die, wolflet. You must listen. They have other wolves in other valleys,” he said again.

This seemed to be an important point but I couldn’t figure out what he meant. “They will kill your family and your humans as if they were no better than prey and replace you with others.” He raised his wings daringly at the Greatwolves. “It is true. I saw it. And spoke to my raven brothers and sisters from far away who told me of it.”

I was still trying to sort out what Tlitoo meant and was startled by Jandru’s voice.

“It is true,” he acknowledged, looking coolly at Tlitoo. “What has been done here is an experiment to see if the humans and wolves of this valley can live together. And it is not the only place we have tried this. It’s more than either of you can understand. There’s a great paradox, of wolves and of humans, and if you don’t understand the paradox you cannot understand what we do.”

“The paradox is that humans and wolves must be together but can’t be together,” I interrupted, annoyed by his arrogance. Why did he think I was too stupid to understand? “Humans need us with them to keep them close to nature so they don’t destroy everything. But they fear us too much to keep us near and then we fight with them. That’s the paradox. That’s why you meet with the human krianans each full moon. So you can be close to some of them without causing a war. The human krianan told us. And I saw you.” I said nothing about the spiritwolf. I figured if the Greatwolves had secrets, then so could I.

Frandra’s eyes narrowed. “You were wrong to watch the Speaking,” she said to me. “There are very good reasons we keep the secrets of the legends.” For a brief, terrified moment, I thought she might attack me. Then she sighed.

“You do not understand as much as you think you do. Nor does that old human. What the paradox means is this: If we are not with the humans, the Ancients will kill us. If we are with the humans and fight with them, the Ancients will kill us. The only way we’ve found to avoid both is the Speakings. We Greatwolves have been struggling with the Speakings, the humans, and the paradox for longer than your soft puppy brain can possibly imagine.”

Tlitoo raised his wings at her.

“But now your Speakings no longer work,” he quorked. “Now the Bigwolves are dying.”

“We may be,” Jandru snarled, “or we may not be. But we need to have wolves to take over for us if we are no longer here. That is why you must leave the valley, Kaala. We have believed since your birth that
you
are the one meant to carry on the bloodline. The Greatwolf council disagrees. If you’d been accepted into your pack, like we told you to be, they might have accepted you. Now they will not. They prefer another.”

I remembered what the old woman had said the day I first met her. “You want me to meet with the humans, like you do,” I said, my voice barely a whisper, “with TaLi as my krianan.” I looked around, half expecting them to have the girl hidden away somewhere.

Frandra and Jandru exchanged uncomfortable glances. Tlitoo stalked up to them and gave a strange hiss I had never heard from any raven.

“No,” Jandru said. “It’s too late for that. The girl’s blood is tainted by the violence of her tribe. We cannot rescue her. We are not even supposed to rescue you. The Greatwolf council has determined that the wolves and humans of the Wide Valley have failed. If any humans or wolves fight one another, as it is clear they will, all in the valley must die. The council will kill them all. Otherwise, the war will spread, and wolfkind will be no more. You are too close to the humans, Kaala, to be a watcher yourself, but your children’s children may be the ones to take over for us if need be. You must come with us now, or die as soon as any wolf attacks a human.”

“What about my pack?” I demanded. “What about TaLi and her tribe?”

“What of them?” Frandra answered carelessly. “The future of wolfkind is more important than any wolf, than any wolf pack or human tribe. We will start again elsewhere.”

I was stunned at the Greatwolves’ callousness.

“I told you so, wolflet,” Tlitoo said.

“I won’t,” I said. “I won’t go with you.”

“Then we will drag you by your tail,” Jandru snapped, losing patience. He started toward me. I backed up, knowing I couldn’t outrun him, but ready to try. Tlitoo flared his wings, preparing to take flight or to fight. I wasn’t sure which.

“It isn’t fair!” I cried, not bothering to be quiet. “You lied to me. You lied to all of us. You told us we are to stay away from the humans without telling us why. And without telling us we are really meant to be with them.” The Greatwolves were looking at me furiously. I didn’t care. “The legends say nothing of the paradox and it’s the most important thing of all. Now you’re going to kill all the wolves and humans in the valley when all we’ve done is follow the legends! All because the legends lie!”

“She’s right,” said an ancient voice, a voice of dry sticks and blowing dirt.

Frandra and Jandru swung their heads around. Zorindru, the Greatwolf leader who had presided over the Speaking, sat beside a large boulder. I didn’t know how long he’d been there. Beside him, her hand resting upon his back, stood TaLi’s grandmother.