The Blessed Blend (16 page)

Euan waved it off. “Only Clan chieftains can wear the eagle feathers,” he explained. “An’ I’m nae e’en in line for suich a thing. Besides, all I really wanted was t’ protect Callie an’ a’ she holds dear. Tha’s reward enough.”

Later Callie passed behind Euan as he sat on the sofa with the twins. Mountain Rose and Red Wolf were taking turns reading to their father from a couple of their favorite books as three of the guests listened. Reminding the children that it was time for bed, she told them to wish their father goodnight. The children hugged him about the neck and kissed his cheeks before running up the stairs to brush their teeth. She paused a moment and then gently squeezed his shoulder. “Thank you,” she said softly before padding across the living room and heading up to put the children to bed.

That was the reward he had been praying for.

Three days later John and Euan were riding with Caleb and Mike Cumbow, taking supplies to a couple of the campsites. There was a group of hunters coming in the next day who would use one, and a group of campers who would use the other. The hunters would use the camp near the salt lick up Colley’s Hollow. Both were sheltered places which had been made more amenable with a bit of landscaping to even out the ground, hewn cedar benches, and a stone-lined fire pit. Caches for supplies had been dug into the rock of the mountainside and provided with steel barred gates and steel-reinforced doors to keep the bears and pigs out. Extra medical and shelter supplies were also furnished.

Caleb pulled out a large brass key to open the huge padlock for the gate. “We oil these locks and hinges each time we come here. Keeps ‘em in good working order. The metal is painted every year to prevent rust, usually in early summer. We inventory and update the supplies as needed.”

As Caleb swung the door open and hung the lantern, John brought in a large bundle of fire wood. Looking around at the well-stocked barrow, he noted, “Aye, ‘tis fairly homey in here. A mon could take up residence for awhile and want for naught.”

“There’s people who actually
do
live in modernized cave homes,” Caleb said. “It takes a bit of adjustment and some smart lighting, but they’re energy-efficient, fire safe, and termite resistant. Of course,” he added, “you might have to share the space with some cave critters sometimes.”

“Like bats, d’ ye mean?” Euan asked. With a shake of his head he averred, “Nae thanks!”

Caleb laughed. “More likely crickets and salamanders,” he replied. “They’re a bit slimy but won’t hurt you.”

“Considerin’ some o’ the birds we’ve woken up with after a pub crawl, slimy isna s’ bad,” John joked.

Caleb took stock of the inventory and explained how supplies were rotated. Old or expired items were removed and replaced. First aid supplies were as abundant as the food supplies. There were at least two large grates for cooking food over a fire, cooking pots and utensils, and cooking oil, spices, and vinegar. There were jars of canned greens, plastic five-gallon buckets with snap-tight lids full of flour, cornmeal, beans, rice, dried fruits and vegetables, and dent corn. Spare tents and bedding were also stored in large, sealed plastic bags. Soap and shampoo were kept in smaller plastic bins along with toothpaste and toothbrushes.

Euan considered that these barrows were better stocked than most emergency shelters, lacking only a power generator and electric lights, and his admiration for Callie’s family grew even greater. These people were truly astute business people who channeled their abilities and knowledge in very enterprising ways, and without backstabbing or undercutting any competition.

It was a stark contrast to the way his family did business.

On the way to the second campsite they stopped at Papa’s place. Jolena fixed them a light dinner of fried corn, turnip greens, leftover ham, and egg bread. The Robertson’s great-niece, Belinda Calhoun, was visiting. Judging by the looks she was giving, she was obviously taken with John. In deference to his hosts, he deflected her flirtation with good humor. Euan knew that John was about as randy as he himself had ever been and gave his friend an amused look before asking in Gaelic,
“Do you think she will tumble you as good as Chrissie, then?”

John grinned and chuckled.
“Oh aye! But I’ve yet to bed a lass who hasn’t given me some pleasure.”

“I’m surprised that you haven’t gotten anyone pregnant yet. Then you would have to settle down with just the one for certain,”
Euan warned.

“Little chance of that!”
John retorted.
“There’s too many lasses out there for me to settle on just one!”

Papa looked at John and then Belinda and back again to John. Belinda was about as wild as the west wind and twice as restless, which was one reason she had been sent to stay awhile with Papa and Jolena. The girl had gotten involved with two brothers and caused one of the young men to stab the other in a fight over the manipulative little tramp.

He could see her going after both of the Scotsmen just for sport. While he figured Euan wouldn’t take the bait, Callie would see the whole thing quite differently and it would ruin any chance there was to get the twins’ parents back together. Nope, that just wasn’t going to happen. The trifling little heifer would be sent on her way the next day if need be.

The men returned to the lodge just before sundown and tended to the horses before heading inside to wash up for dinner. Red Wolf and Mountain Rose rushed to their father with huge smiles on their faces and outstretched arms. Euan obliged them by swinging both up in his arms and whirling them around.

“Well, now m’ wee mon an’ lassie!” he exclaimed. “What did ye do a’ the day whilst I was gone?”

Mountain Rose piped up first. “We played with Joshua and Lizzie and Lowell up at Papa’s and Maw-Maw’s. Fugly got in a fight with Mallow -”

“Mallow?” Euan interrupted.
 
“Who’s that?”

Oh, he’s the billy goat that Papa got to breed to Fugly’s daughters on account of…of…” She looked at Red Wolf and asked, “What’s that word that means when critters are close kin?”

“Inbreeding?” Euan asked. When she nodded and said that was the one, he replied, “Oh aye, lass. Ye canna breed animals tha’ arre too closely related. It makes the offspring weaker in many ways. Ye should change the male out every three to four years, or rotate the females between herds. Aye, it’s wha’ we do back home.”

Red Wolf tugged at his father’s collar. “Wha’ is it lad?” Euan asked.

“Can we sleep with you, Daddy?” the boy asked.

“Will yer mathair let ye?” Euan asked in return. “Ye usually sleep wi’ her.”

“Mama left to go hunting with the wolves,” he said. “Sometimes she doesn’t get back until nearly daybreak.”

Euan nearly dropped the twins in shock. “She
what!?
” he bellowed. “Och, of all of the bone-headed things tae do! Wha’ kind o’ person goes prowling aboot the woods at night wi’ a pack of wolves?”

Caleb shrugged. “She goes with them once or twice a week sometimes. It’s part of rehabilitating them. Wolves usually hunt at dusk, and there’s a ritual they go about that…”

Up higher on the mountain a chorus of howls began to ring out. Euan’s hair stood on end as he heard the wolves begin what Red Wolf called their hunting song. There were deeper voices, higher ones, yodels, loops, and other vocals that he couldn’t quite name. Sometimes one or two voices lead and others joined in while other times all of the voices came simultaneously. The effect was eerie, haunting, and yet at the same time struck a chord of memory and belonging down deep in the soul.

In the ancient Celtic traditions, the wolf had been revered as a hunter and protector. The power and ferocity of the animal had balanced with the loyalty to the pack and the bonds between life-mates. It was only with the coming of Christianity that the wolf had become depicted as evil, voracious, and a thing to be despised and destroyed.

Euan had gotten to know Callie’s wolves a bit, admiring their graceful power even if he was still rather leery of them. They lolled about with his children and their cousins, playing gently with them even if the children managed to get a bit rough. What had blown his mind was watching Fugly the goat at play with the wolves as if he were part of the pack. Were he to tell anyone back home that tale he was certain to be labeled a liar or a lunatic.

John listened intently and then asked, “Does yer mathair, uh, howl wi’ the rest o’ ‘em?”

 
“Of course she sings with them!” Mountain Rose answered. “The whole pack sings together.” She listened for a moment and said, “That’s her there.”

John and Euan listened but for the life of them couldn’t pick the human voice apart from those of the wolves. Euan had always known that there was a wildness in Callie, a quality in her spirit that made her very different from most people. Most humans visited the wilderness but never belonged in it. Callie not only belonged, she
became
it.

He had seen it when they camped in the Grampians and she had become more vividly alive than he had ever seen a person be, as if some ancient magic of earth and air had filled her. The very air around her had shimmered and something shone within her. She had belonged there just as surely as if she had been a red deer or wild cat or eagle and he remembered that he had suddenly felt very small in her presence.

While considering that Callie was probably quite able to hunt at night with a pack of wolves, it still worried the hell out of him. Too many things could go wrong and no one would know until she failed to return the next day. It could take hours or even days to find her and help might very well come too late. He hadn’t come all this way to find her and then lose her again.

Red Wolf gave Euan’s cheek a soothing pat. “It’s alright, Daddy,” he said. “Mama knows these mountains better than anyone. The mountains know her, too. They’ll keep her safe.”

Euan took a deep breath and let it out slowly to control the surge of fear he felt for her. “I wish I could be sae certain, lad,” he replied. “I doona want t’ lose her.”

Caleb spoke up. “She always tells us about where they’ll be huntin’, and if anything goes wrong the wolves themselves will call us. Pack looks after its own.”

“How long has she been doin’ this?” asked John, his face showing his struggle to digest the fact of a woman going hunting with a pack of wolves and at night no less. “I’ve nae heert o’ suich a thing!”

Caleb thought a moment before replying but Mike beat him to it. “About two years now with this pack, I think,” he said. “Folks around these parts often hunt possum and ‘coon at night, but usually with a pack of hounds. Callie ain’t doing nothin’ unusual except huntin’ with wolves instead of dogs, except for Brutus. He ran with the pack, too.”

“An’ do the women go huntin’ as well?” Euan asked.

Caleb smiled and shook his head. “Not usually, but then there’s never been anything usual about Callie.”

John suddenly felt rather off-kilter. He looked at Euan, his golden eyebrows raised and blue eyes wide. “’Tis like steppin’ through the mists an’ findin’ yerself in the faerie realm where the old gods hae gone. Yer Callie could be a daughter o’ auld Herne himself.”

Euan nodded. Callie
was
a throwback to some long-ago time when humans were Earth’s children rather than its self-proclaimed masters. If the world as it was known came to a screeching halt and civilization fell, it would be the ones like her who would survive with their humanity intact while the civilized folk sank into barbarism and savagery.

Darlene called the group in for supper and Euan reluctantly went in with the rest. He was worried about Callie no matter how capable she was. When a man loves a woman it’s in his nature to want to protect her and Euan was no exception to that fact. He loved her for exactly who and what she was even if he didn’t understand all of it. His mind just couldn’t let go of the presumption that where she belonged at night was home with her family where she would be warm and safe.

He hoped to God his parents never got wind of any of this. They would use it against Callie any way they could.

The pack sang its hunting song for about fifteen minutes before setting off to the other side of the mountain, away from the hunters camped out in Morrissey’s Hollow. They traveled at an easy trot for about five miles and then stopped to sniff the wind. Keen noses and ears detected all sorts of prey- deer, elk, rabbit, raccoon, opossum, bison, and hog. It was simply a matter of an opportunity presenting itself as to whether the hunt would be successful or not.

Callie was armed with her bow and a quiver full of arrows tipped with razor-sharp hunting points. Although it was illegal to do so, she weighted some of the shafts. This enabled them to sink deeper when they hit and also to penetrate thicker hides, like those of pigs.

If the arrows weren’t enough, she also had a short spear and atlatl to launch it with. Although she often practiced with it, she had actually used it only once for a kill and that was for a wild sow who had attacked her. She had pierced the charging pig through the left side of the neck just inside the collar bone and the shaft had sunk deep enough to pierce the hog’s aorta, heart, and liver. Callie had barely managed to jump aside before the dying sow could trample her. The hog had run twenty yards past her before falling dead. Jim had told her she’d been awfully damned lucky. After watching Hell Hog mow Euan over, she had realized just
how
lucky.

Raze’s ears went up and he focused on something. His tail rose over his back, a signal that he had located prey and was ready for pursuit. The pack would chase the prey for several miles, tiring it out before taking it down. Callie didn’t expect to have to use her weapons as this was practice for the pack, but if her help was needed she would give it.

As they started off, she breathed in the cold night air. She could smell the mountains, taste them. They were alive in her and she in them as it had been for all human beings in the beginning. Their song filled her spirit and ran in her veins. It was pure and primal. It was life.

Callie smelled the musk of a buck deer. The pack had rousted it from its bed in a cedar copse and was pursuing it up the narrow hollow. Raze and Smoke led two of the newer wolves, Mika and Chopper, up one side of the hollow while Snake and Nightside led the other three, Hannah, Midnight, and Nikki, up the other side. They would keep the buck from doubling back as they basically herded him to where they wanted to make the kill. Callie kept pace as she brought up the rear and her human smell only added to the deer’s panic.