Wolves and War

by Candy Rae

On the low stool, inside her and Kolyei’s daga, Tara sat and stared at the bundle of equipment sitting on the ground in front of her, front and back armour, arm and leg guards, helm on top; to one side the gloves reinforced with steelwood plates, to the other side the neck guard.

  As she glanced over to the bed she saw her sword, newly sharpened.

  She shivered and wished Janice, Winston and the others still lived in the daga, small and cramped as it had been. She could do with some company.

  In six days, unless the call came before, she would ride out to war. In six days what they had been training for these last months would be another step closer. Kath and Matvei were to leave next morning with the other Lind who had been posted to the settlement.

  Tara wrapped her shawl tighter and shivered.

  Kolyei was out hunting so she was alone, alone with her thoughts.

  Kath found her there as the light was fading.

  “Care for some company?”

  Tara raised her head.

  “Company?”

  “Us twelve original starters are meeting at Moira and Andei’s daga. It was Alan’s idea. He didn’t think any of us should be alone tonight.”

  “But we didn’t really start it all, did we?” asked Tara scrambling to her feet.

  “No, but Alan thought it’d be nice to have a last chin-wag.”

  What neither of them said aloud was the chance that this would be the last time they might all be together. People were killed in wars. All the history books said so. Kolyei had said so.

  Anything was better than sitting alone in misery. “I think I’ll come,” Tara announced.

  Geoff and Bill appeared to be running things. There was a table simply covered with titbits, not made by them Tara was convinced, but she was sure that Yvonne and Brenda would have obliged. These two and Moira were sitting together as usual as were Thomas and Emily. Mark, Alan and Peter made up the last group.

  “At last,” cried Alan, “she’s got here eventually. Told you she would.”

  “Come and sit down,” said Mark, patting the ground between him and Peter. “It’s a bit hard though.”

  Tara grinned. How often had he said that? She sat down, accepting a mug of root beer from Alan.

  Geoff and Bill were to fight with the Vada under Francis and Asya. They were eager to go and avenge the deaths of the rest of their family.

  “I’m going to kill as many as I can,” stated Bill.

  “Me too,” agreed Geoff, fingering his knife.

  “Don’t do anything stupid,” warned Kath. “Your parents would want you to live, not throw your lives away.”

  The twins looked at her as if she was a particularly stupid kura.

  Tara shivered. She did not like what she saw in Bill’s face.

  By now Tara had reached a modicum of acceptance of what had happened to her parents, as had Alan, but she didn’t think Bill and Geoff would pay much attention to Kath’s warning.

  Tomorrow their fellowship would split up.

  The next hours passed in a pleasant blur of laughter and reminiscences. Geoff and Bill drank too much as usual. Moira, Yvonne and Brenda giggled too much, also as usual. No one spoke more about the war.

  They would have sat there all night but Kath reminded them of her early start and the party broke up with the promise to meet up again once it was all over.

  As the eldest of the original twelve, Kath felt it was up to her to speak the last words.

  “Me and Matvei leave in the morning,” she said. “We twelve started out together.” There was a catch in her voice. “You’re all like brothers and sisters to me and when all this is over and we come home I want us all to meet here again, so be careful.”

  Kath and James spent the night in Tara’s daga, giving Rozya and Matvei time to be alone. Tara and Kolyei squeezed in with the Randalls.

  Tara rose early the next morning to say a private goodbye to Kath.

  “You and Kolyei keep an eye on the twins,” said Kath as she leant down from Matvei’s back to plant a quick kiss on Tara’s forehead. “They’re so full of hate I’m scared for them.”

  “I’ll try,” promised Tara, “and so will Kolyei but it is Francis and Asya you should be asking.”

  “Don’t think I haven’t but do it anyway.”

  Tara nodded and stepped back. She watched as the small group detailed to the defence of the settlement sped away in the pre-dawn light.

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