The Dog Master (24 page)

“Palloc?” With a wild glance at Bellu, Calli ran after her husband.

Palloc carried the newborn straight to the communal fire, which was crackling merrily as Coco prepared to cook some reindeer meat. Calli's eyes grew—why was he going to the
fire
?

Palloc stepped around the flames and thrust the baby at Coco. “Here,” he said curtly. “I need you to watch your grandchild for a moment.”

Something in Palloc's face made Coco accept the newborn without protest. Calli caught up to them. “What is going on?” she asked shrilly.

Palloc grabbed her hand. “I need you to come with me.”

Several women watched silently as Palloc all but dragged his wife away from the communal area. When Calli stubbornly slowed down, he yanked hard on her arm and it hurt so much she yelped. “Palloc,” she gasped, suddenly terrified. “Please. What are you doing?”

Palloc's eyes were fierce, his jaw grim. He did not answer. He kept walking, pulling her with him.

 

TWENTY-SEVEN

“It is the right thing, what you are doing, Silex,” Fia murmured to her husband as they lay together the night after Silex announced women would be joining the hunt. “You are a better leader than even your father.”

That seemed improbable. “We would not be in this situation if I had stayed,” Silex reminded her, despair in his voice.

“Had you stayed, you would have been compelled to go with Duro, and I would not have a husband. Having women help with the hunt is brilliant.”

“We need more sons, Fia.
Males.
Without more males the Wolfen will die out. We could die this very winter.”

Fia leaned slightly away from him, and the cool air was as unfriendly as the expression on her face. “And so you need me to produce a son,” she stated flatly.

Silex wanted to pull his words back. “I was just trying to say we are in a desperate position!” He dreaded the anger in her eyes.

“There is more you are wanting to say,” Fia said tightly. “I can tell.”

Though it was not how he wanted to broach the subject, he plunged ahead with what he had been thinking. “In the wolf pack, in times of privation, sometimes there will be more than one female allowed to have a litter.”

“Because the dominant male takes more than one mate,” Fia finished for him.

“Yes. Exactly.”

“And this is your proposal for us. That the men take more than one woman to their beds.”

Silex was pleased at how quickly she guessed the solution. “I believe it is the only way our tribe can survive.”

“So this is about you and Ovi, then,” Fia said bitterly.

“What?
No,
it is not about me at all. I am married. So is Brach. But the three young bachelors…” Silex spread his hands.

Fia was staring at him intently. “You are saying that at a time when you might very well argue that you, as our leader, should be lying with all the women of the Wolfen, your position is that our marriage overrules all other consideration? You said that times were desperate.”

“I did say that. That is why I need you to speak to the women. Convince them. I do not imagine they will be happy with this, but it is the only way.”

Fia shook her head impatiently. “Silex. Do not get on the trail of a different animal. Stay with what is important. Despite circumstances, you wish to honor our marriage, to honor me, above all else.”

Silex nodded. “Of course, Fia. What did you think?”

“I think,” she murmured, her breath hot on his face and she leaned toward him, “that I love you, Silex.”

He felt his anxiety relax as she kissed him, stirring his blood. Fia rolled onto her back, holding her arms out to him. “I want you, Silex. Mate with me, Husband.”

*   *   *

Palloc had half dragged Calli all the way to their lean-to, and now he grabbed her with both hands.

Calli was frightened for her life. “Palloc, what are you doing?” she cried.

As an answer he ripped at her garments, violently pulling them off her and tossing them to the ground. She staggered, trying to remain upright. The air felt cold on her nakedness. His face was a stew of dark emotions, his pale eyes intense but unreadable.

Grunting, he all but threw her to the ground, dropping his own skirt.
So this was what he wanted.
Half relieved, she submissively went to her hands and knees, gasping in shock at the brutal way he came at her. “Please,” she said in a tiny voice, a sob lodged in her throat.

Palloc was heedless and urgent. And, thankfully, it was over in just seconds, Palloc making a wild choking noise before collapsing against her.

Calli's tears rolled silently down her cheeks. She remained with her head on her arms even when he sprang up, leaving her there.

When she rolled over to look at him, he was gone.

*   *   *

Calli left Dog and the baby with Coco one afternoon late into winter, when everyone was getting restless to migrate back north. She found Albi alone by her family fire, and waited respectfully for the older woman to notice her. Albi was patiently probing at a mammoth joint with a stick, working to get at the sinew so she could chew it off the bone.

“I see that my son spends his nights sleeping on the men's side,” Albi stated, not looking up from her task.

“Yes, that is true,” Calli replied evenly. This was not what she had come to discuss.

“You two have a little marital spat?” Albi asked nastily.

“Something like that.”

“Well do not look to me to try to fix it for you. When a man is pouting, you just have to let him pout. They come back, eventually.” Albi did glance at her now, her expression sly. “We have something they need.”

“I am not here to ask you to fix my relationship with Palloc,” Calli responded woodenly.

“Ah. This is about the cripple, then.”

“My baby, yes. Your grandchild.”

Albi smirked at her.

“Our arrangement,” Calli continued quietly, “is that in a few years, you will nominate me for council mother. We both agree that with your endorsement, my election is assured. But why, when you are still so healthy, should we even think of such a transition now? My proposal is simply this: I will not be council mother. You need not endorse me. You will not resign. All will continue as it is.”

“And then the cursed child…”

Calli carefully did not react to the provocation. “And then my child will be named in his third summer, and he will do what he can to help the Kindred. He will learn a skill—perhaps he could help tool master Hardy—and life will go on.”

“Life will go on,” Albi repeated. She was grinning manically, her expression so odd that Calli frowned. “You tell me you would give up being council mother, but do you not realize that the position is no longer yours to give? You insisted on keeping the baby, and I let it be, because I knew that everyone would see that it was cursed, would know you had put your selfish desire to keep a crippled child ahead of the good of the Kindred. If you had not protested, the curse would be ended and the women would have already voted you council mother.
Do not for a moment think I was not aware of your treachery!
But you picked it, a child with a hideous deformity, ending all chance that you could replace me.”

“He is
not
hideous!” Calli snapped, her anger flaring.

“You think that over the next three years, you will somehow convince people to love your baby. But that will never happen. He came out of the womb with an abhorrent leg. They fear it and they are disgusted by it. As long as he lives, he is a reminder of something horrible. Can you imagine what an awful life he will lead, now, with everyone hating him so?”

Calli bit her lip.

“And as long as he lives,” Albi continued with a smile, “I will remain the council mother of the Kindred. Every time I demand his death, you will fight me, and when you win, girl of mists and shadows, I will have more years in control. The baby is a curse for the Kindred, but he is a gift to me.”

*   *   *

Calli left the council mother without a word and went straight to Renne, who watched Calli's determined approach with widened eyes. “Renne, how is it that Albi knew to thwart our plans to vote against her by calling for an early migration?” Calli asked bluntly.

The answer was on Renne's stricken face. “Calli…,” Renne started to say.

Calli held up a hand. “I just have one question. Do you still report everything I say to the council mother?”

“No,” Renne cried, anguished. “I am not sure why … Oh, Calli, all my life I have just wanted a family. I do not even remember my parents; they died when I was so young. And no one on the council cared that I wanted a husband!”

“And now you are betrothed to Nix. You did Albi a great service, and she returned the favor,” Calli noted.

Renne hung her head.

“I do not blame you. I am not angry,” Calli said softly. “You are right. We were so concerned with everything else, no one was paying attention to your needs. But I can count on your help, now? In three years' time, after my son's naming, Albi will pounce, I am sure of it. And I will be ready for her. But I want to be able to depend on you.”

“Yes, Calli,” Renne replied, her eyes bright. “Yes you can.”

Calli embraced her friend, and then turned to go.

“Calli…”

She turned back with a questioning look.

“There's something else,” Renne said. “A secret I am not supposed to reveal, but I believe it will help.”

 

TWENTY-EIGHT

Year Seven

Denix had changed in the three years since her first hunt. She was still lithe, with taut leg muscles, but her hips were subtly larger than a child's, her breasts recognizably a woman's.

She did not, though, behave like a woman. She dressed as did all the hunters, in summer skins and winter fox furs. She could throw a spear as far and as deadly as anyone. She deliberately kept her chest covered in loosely gathered folds regardless of the weather, so that the men would not take notice of her femininity.

Silex reinforced her obvious preferences by treating her as he did all the men, though there were times when he clearly favored her. She was with him now, just the two of them, carrying a slab of elk meat in a sling. “Up there,” Silex murmured to Denix. “See her?”

Denix instinctively crouched, but when Silex remained erect she leaped back up to a standing position, her cheeks red. “I do see her.”

The large she-wolf with the handprint mark was watching them.

“She has had another litter this past spring. See her teats? The pups have not long been weaned, so she is still swollen.”

“What do we do now?” Denix asked.

“Let us see if we can get a little closer,” Silex responded. Denix glanced at him in amazement but followed as Silex closed the distance to the she-wolf. “You look well and have another litter,” Silex called to her. “We heard your howl several nights ago.”

The she-wolf watched the two of them come closer. The female human carried a faint scent of blood between her legs and there was fear in her sweat, but her face held the same expression as the man who had been feeding the wolf these several years—eyebrows up, teeth slightly bared, mouth open.

Silex stopped a respectful ten paces away. “Your children are not with you,” he noted, “but I have seen the ones from two years ago and some bear the same mark on their forehead as do you.”

The wolf tensed a bit when the two humans unstrapped the elk meat, but when it flew in the air, arcing toward her, she did not flinch. It landed in the dirt right in front of her. She sniffed it, then gazed at the man.

“She is thanking us,” Silex told Denix, who stared. Silex grinned at her expression. “I know. It is the same for me, every time.” He took in a deep breath of cool, dry air. A perfect summer day—he felt exultant. Denix smiled back and he knew she shared his mood.

Back at camp, Fia was standing with her arms folded, awaiting their return. “You fed the wolf, though hunting has been very poor lately,” she greeted crossly.

Denix ducked her head and slid past Fia, who gave the younger woman a cold glare. “Husband,” Fia said, halting Silex as he tried the same maneuver, “you and Denix were gone a long time.”

Silex was hungry and looked longingly at the fire, where the hunters were eating cooked elk steak and dried sweet berries for breakfast. “I knew the wolf was out there, but she has had a litter and probably did not want to stray far from the den, so she was not close,” he explained.

“And you do not think what the men might say when my husband heads off for the entire morning with young, unmarried Denix?” Fia's face was hot.

Silex was baffled. “Denix?” He looked over to the hunters. There were now enough babies back at the gathering site that the women no longer came on the hunt, except for Fia and, of course, Denix, who in Silex's mind was almost a man.

“Denix,” Fia nodded, her face stern.

Silex sighed. Twice Fia's pregnancies had ended prematurely, both times on the hunt. Since the second loss, Fia's joy seemed to have left her—she still had passion, but she expressed it mostly as anger.

“I did not consider such a thing and I am sorry,” Silex replied.

“Father!” Cragg, age five and along on the hunt for the first time, rushed up to them. Orphaned when Duro took the boy's father to fight the Cohort, Cragg had been more or less adopted by Silex, with Ovi acting as the little boy's mother. “Did you feed the wolf?” he asked eagerly.

Silex seized the boy and swung him up onto his hip, glad for the interruption. “I did, yes.” He turned his grin on Fia, but she was already walking away.

“Did you see a lion?”

“I did not. I do not want to see a lion, Cragg.”

“I do.”

Silex looked indulgently at his son.