The Light-Bearer's Daughter (20 page)

Dana surfaced from the water to put her arms around the wolf. Burying her face in the soft fur, she hid her tears.

They decided to have lunch on the lakeshore.

“What meat have you?” asked the she-wolf eagerly, as Dana dug into her satchel.

“None. I’m a vegetarian.”

Dana spread out the curranty bread, cheese, iced buns, and fruit.

“A
herbivore
? But you have the canines of a flesh-eater, as I do!”

Dana mumbled through a mouthful of bread.

“I won’t eat anything that had a face.”

The wolf shook her head, mystified. After chomping on an apple and nosing under the stones for insects, she loped away up the nearby slope.

Dana had finished eating and packed up her satchel, when she heard the cry. She raced up the hillside toward the sound.

There stood the wolf over the remains of a wild rabbit. Blood smeared her snout and the heather around her. She was chewing raw meat.

“The poor little thing!” Dana cried, thinking of her own beloved pet. “How could you? I thought you were good, not evil!”

Finishing her meal, the wolf licked her chops. Then she trained her golden gaze on Dana.

“I do not hunt on a full stomach, as your kind do. And I honor the creature who dies that I may live. In turn, my death will give life one day. It is the Great Round.” She growled low in her throat. “Climb on my back, little cub. I will show you evil so that you may know the difference.”

Though she was still upset, Dana did as she was told. It was like riding a pony who ran like a racehorse. She held on tightly as the landscape sped past. They traveled north, leaving the mountains behind as they moved into the lowlands around Blessington Lake. Dana cringed at the sight of tilled fields and farmhouses, meadows with cattle, and pine plantations. She was afraid they might be sighted; but they passed no one, and she wondered if the wolf had arranged that somehow. At one point she was shocked to spot her own face staring back from a poster on a telephone pole.

HAVE YOU SEEN HER? MISSING CHILD. REWARD.

She hunched down on the wolf’s back as if to hide.

They came to a forest protected by a wire fence and a gate with a sign:
WILDLIFE SANCTUARY.
With one great leap the wolf cleared the gate and landed on the other side. Dana slid off her back.

They crept through the trees, the wolf leading the way.

Dana heard the loud laughter before she saw them, and immediately hunkered in the undergrowth. Crawling forward, she came to a clearing.

There were three men sitting on fallen logs, drinking beer. Empty cans were strewn around them, as well as cigarette butts and plastic cartons of leftover food. It wasn’t at the men that Dana stared in horror, but the cages stacked around them. All were crammed with terrified animals—rabbits, hares, squirrels, even cats. One cage held a fox that stared bleakly through the bars. Each animal was wounded in some way, its fur streaked with blood. Some were half dead, kicking feebly. Others lay still and would never move again.

“Will they take them if they’re dead?” one of the men said, kicking at the fox’s cage.

Beyond hope, the small creature didn’t react.

“Doesn’t matter either way,” said another. “No questions asked. They’re skinned at the factory … kids’ toys and accessories.”

As Dana gazed, sickened, at the cages, the wolf rested a paw on her shoulder. Images streamed through her mind, things she had seen on the television and in Gabe’s animal rights magazines: trucks jammed with cattle, sheep, and horses crossing Europe without food or water; battery hens crammed into boxes, laying eggs until they died without ever having seen grass or sky; scenes of the daily torture in the laboratories of scientists and pharmaceutical, pet food, and cosmetics companies. Her stomach churned. So many animals, countless numbers, strapped into machines with their innards exposed, trembling in the snarl of electrodes or suffering the agony of toxic testing. As well as the cruelty, it was the powerlessness that struck her. They could not fight for their lives, as was their right.

“Where there is no respect for life,” the wolf said quietly, “
there
you will find evil.”

Dana couldn’t bear it any longer. The poachers were gathering up their snares to set them again. Enraged beyond thinking, she burst out of the trees.

“Can’t you
see
? What’s right in front of you? Can’t you see how much they suffer?”

The three men jumped to their feet, dropping their equipment. They looked beyond her, for an adult, perhaps the game warden.

Then one peered drunkenly at her.

“It’s the missing kid from Bray!”

Greed replaced the fear on their faces.

“There’s a reward for her!”

Dana was suddenly aware of how big they were and how many, but she had no intentions of abandoning the animals. As long as the silver nails kept her moving, she would open as many cages as possible before they caught her.

The men stepped menacingly toward her. She was about to dash out of their way, when she saw the terror in their eyes.

Behind her, the wolf growled.

As the poachers ran screaming into the woods, Dana hurried to release the animals. The fox was gone in a flash of red. Many of the others scratched and clawed her in their panic to escape, but she didn’t care. She only wished she had gotten there sooner. But even those who were badly wounded and missing a limb managed to drag themselves away.

As the last disappeared into the underbrush, Dana picked up a rock to smash the traps and cages.

“We must go!” the wolf urged her. “The hunters will return with weapons.”

“We’ve got to get rid of these!” Dana cried fiercely, breaking up a snare.

The wolf was right. Somewhere nearby, car doors slammed. Soon the first poacher came crashing through the trees with a rifle in his hand.

Dana scrambled onto the wolf’s back. A shot rang out. She screamed. In a gray streak of motion, the wolf raced away.

here was blood on the wolf’s flank.

“You’re hurt!” Dana cried.

She kept insisting they stop, but the guardian wouldn’t halt until all sounds of pursuit had died out and the Wildlife Sanctuary was far behind.

Dana slid off the wolf’s back.

“We’ve got to get help!” She looked around wildly. They were back in the mountains. Out in the middle of nowhere. Not a house or telephone box in sight. She was wracked with worry and guilt. “It’s all my fault. If I’d—”

“Peace. It is only a scratch,” the wolf said mildly. “His drunkenness threw off his aim.” She licked at her wound. “You were right to act as you did. It is when good people do nothing that evil thrives.”

Dana was comforted. The graze looked clean and was no longer bleeding.

They were about to set off again when the wolf suddenly pricked up her ears. She sniffed the air, nose quivering. A low growl murmured in her throat.

“What is it?” Dana said, instantly alert and on guard. She could see nothing around them but rolling hills and bog.

“I do not know,” came the answer, low and pensive. “But I can name its nature. It seems our lesson on evil has not yet ended. Follow me.”

Once again Dana ran with the wolf, though she was mystified by her guardian’s words. She was also surprised that they were traveling southeast, instead of southwest where Lugnaquillia lay. The mystery deepened when they drew up on a height above the Wicklow Gap, overlooking the road. In the distance a jeep approached. Dana’s stomach lurched. Was it the poachers? But how did they get there so fast? And why would the guardian want to meet them? The wolf’s hackles had risen and she was growling again.

Dana panicked. They were visible on the hillside. And in rifle range.

“We’ve got to hide!”

There was no cover on the grassy slope. The roadside ditch was their only hope. Dana raced down the hill with the wolf behind her. They had just tumbled into the wet hollow when the vehicle stopped nearby.

Dana’s heart pounded as she heard a car door open and the tread of boots on gravel. Whoever it was seemed to be moving slowly. Was he looking around? Had he seen them on the hill? Afraid to raise her head, hunkering as low as she could, she imagined the man with his gun. What if he found them? She wouldn’t let him kill the guardian. The wolf’s lips had curled back in a silent snarl, but her breathing was steady. She wasn’t afraid. As the warm lupine body pressed against her, Dana’s courage rose.

A man’s voice rang out, talking loudly on a cell phone.

Dana’s heart jumped.

Murta! Again?

He was giving directions to his location.

“Yeah, well, plans change,” he said curtly. “This is where I am. Step on it.”

He lit up a cigarette, and flung the burning match into the ditch. It landed near Dana, hissing as the damp ground extinguished it. After a while, a cigarette butt followed. Then more matches and more butts. It seemed forever before the second car arrived, bringing another man. Dana was now determined to find out what was going on. Why was Murta wandering in the mountains? And what did her guardian want her to know?

The two men stood near their cars, speaking in low tones. Dana needed to get closer to hear what they were saying. Before the wolf could stop her, she had crawled along the ditch and beside the vehicles.

The men were arguing.

“I don’t care what it takes!” said the new arrival. He was a Dubliner, with the kind of educated accent Dana considered posh. “Call a meeting, throw a party, whatever. Just create a diversion and get them out of the way!”

“You’re not listening!” Murta said angrily. “They aren’t complete idiots. They won’t leave the site!”

“Look, time’s running out on the European grant. The date is set. August first. It’s up to you to get them out of the damn trees. Can you do it or do we need to find someone else?”

Murta spat on the ground.

“It’s
my
job. What time are you moving the equipment?”

“Sunset. A bit of darkness always helps. We won’t be working long. With the first line cut, we’ll have won the battle. It’ll knock the fight out of them.” The stranger let out a short laugh. “You can’t put a tree back up when it’s down.”

Murta laughed too, but it sounded more like a cough.

There was a rustle of paper.

“I work for the company, not you,” Murta said coldly.

“Consider it a bonus. There’s a lot of brown envelopes flying around. Might as well grab your share.”

The two were parting when the Dublin man made a startled noise.

“What are you doing with a gun? Are you planning to murder someone?”

Murta coughed up another laugh. “I like to hunt. Gets the blood pumping.”

The other man snorted in agreement. “I love the thrill of the kill myself, but I prefer to do it in court.”

When the cars drove off, Dana waited for a while before climbing out of the ditch. She and the wolf stood alone on the road.

“I’ve got to get back! I’ve got to warn Big Bob and the others!”

To her surprise, the wolf disagreed.

“We cannot turn back.”

“You don’t understand!” Dana said urgently. “If I don’t go back, we’ll lose the woods! We’ll lose the battle!”

The wolf’s tone was grave.

“If you do go back, we may lose the war.”

Dana looked at her, stunned.

“What do you mean?!”

The wolf didn’t answer right away. She stood silent and brooding. A growl rumbled deep in her chest.

“Evil I sensed and evil it is,” she said at last. “Both the human and the thing that feeds on him. I can protect you from the first, but the second …”

The guardian sounded troubled and uncertain; she who had seemed so invincible till now. Dana felt the ground shift beneath her feet. She suddenly remembered the time when she was little and she found her father collapsed on the floor, sobbing violently, a photo of his wife crumpled in his hands. Now, as then, she felt overwhelmed and terrified.

“Courage, dear heart,” the wolf said quietly. “Whatever comes, we shall face it together.”

They resumed their journey, heading westward once more. Though they kept a steady pace, they no longer ran like the wind. Dana noticed that her guardian seemed strangely weighed down, as if by some invisible burden. She wanted to ask what was wrong, but was too afraid. She was already sick with worry. Murta’s betrayal of the eco-warriors plagued her thoughts. Would he succeed in tricking them? There was also the question of what he was doing in the mountains. Who or what was he hunting? A shudder ran through her, and she drew closer to the wolf.