Spirit of the Wolves

by Dorothy Hearst

  Milsindra stepped forward. She was shaking, and her fear gave me pleasure. TaLi shrank away from her as she drew near. But I nudged her toward the Greatwolf and licked her hand. “You need to sit next to her,” I said to TaLi for Milsindra’s benefit. “Stay there.”

  TaLi stayed still, shaking almost as much as Milsindra did.

  “She obeys you?” one of the Greatwolves asked.

  I didn’t answer him. It went against every instinct I had to let Milsindra near TaLi, and even the thought of it made me so sick to my stomach I had to swallow to keep from vomiting in front of the Greatwolves. I dipped my head to Tlitoo. He hopped awkwardly onto my back.

  Tlitoo took me straight to the Inejalun. The sensation of falling, the lack of smell and taste, and the shock of the cold hit me so quickly I didn’t have time to adjust. My thoughts froze. We landed in the Stone Circle, exactly where we always found ourselves when we first entered the Inejalun. But this time, the Shadow Wolf did not come to greet us. Tlitoo cawed loudly several times, and I tried to put aside my fear that the Greatwolves could hear us and would attack TaLi in revenge. I heard answering raven calls from somewhere beyond the Stone Circle.

  “Listen, wolf,” Tlitoo said. “We will escape the cave and then you must follow me. You must not be exhausted and frozen, so there is no time to explain. Will you trust me? Will you do whatever I say?”

  Out of the corner of my eye, I saw a shadow move.

  “Wait,” I said, stepping away from Tlitoo.

  I followed the shadow behind a large rock. The Shadow Wolf was just about to slip into the woods.

  “Is it true?” I asked. “Can we bring others to the Inejalun?”

  The Shadow Wolf stopped and looked over his shoulder. “I have heard that it is so,” he said, “but I cannot guarantee what will happen if you do. I do not like the solution you have found. I do not like the wolves that are not wolves taking what is ours.” He muttered something to himself, then raised his head. “But we forsook the Promise, and our attempts to fix what we have broken have failed. It is no longer for us to say what is the right thing to do.”

  “I need your help,” I said. “You have to tell the Sentinels not to kill the streckwolves.” My tongue was thick with cold.

  He shifted restlessly. “I can try,” he said. “But if I do, you cannot falter. If we let the little not-wolves live, it will mean the end of our kind. The humans will be strong enough to kill us. If I agree to make that sacrifice and let the little wolves live, you must promise me you will do whatever you must to honor that sacrifice.”

  “I promise,” I said.

  The Shadow Wolf lowered his great head. “Then I will try. The time of the Greatwolf is past, but yours may not yet be.”

  “Wolf,” Tlitoo rasped, “you cannot stay longer. If you fall asleep we cannot fight.”

  “I can help with that, this one time,” the Shadow Wolf said. “You will be weakened, but will be able to go on.” He touched his nose to my chest, and for just a moment I felt warm.

  Tlitoo hurled himself against me and I found myself lying on the ground of the cave, which seemed much too warm after the cold of the Inejalun. I was tired, but the Shadow Wolf’s touch had made it possible for me to stay awake.

  Tlitoo flapped his good wing and looked up at the Greatwolves. “It does not work here, surrounded by rocks,” he said. “The Ancients cannot reach us.”

  The Greatwolves grumbled and some of them moved forward, teeth bared.

  “I cannot help it, Grumpwolves,” Tlitoo said. “I do not choose when and where the spirits speak to us. There is a place they have always come to us before. I can take you there.”

  Milsindra growled low in her throat, but Tlitoo just blinked at her. She growled again, more ferociously. Tlitoo clacked his beak and turned his head from side to side. Then he began poking at bits of dirt as if looking for worms. Milsindra whuffed impatiently, then led the way out of the cave. If she weren’t a Greatwolf trying to kill me, I might have felt sorry for her. She needed Tlitoo to help her save her own pack, and I’d never met a wolf that could force a raven to do anything it didn’t want to do.

  Four Greatwolves kept close to us as we made our way down the hill and into the woods. Two more herded TaLi, who was limping badly. Tlitoo rode upon my back, holding out his broken wing.

  Then, between one breath and the next, Tlitoo took flight, his supposedly broken wing slicing through the wind. I darted to stand in front of TaLi, trying to protect her from the Greatwolves. She had other ideas. She took several sharp rocks from her clothing and threw them, one by one, at the Greatwolves, striking them with fierce accuracy between their eyes. They snarled and stalked toward her. I had no choice but to fight. I bit down hard on Milsindra’s leg and she yowled. I grinned in spite of my terror. I’d always wanted to bite her.

  I don’t think it had occurred to the Greatwolves that we would attack them. Milsindra and Kivdru growled and snapped, but Galindra and Sundru just blinked stupidly. Tlitoo returned to smack the Greatwolves with his wings and stab at their vulnerable eyes with his sharp beak. TaLi and I ran.

  We made it as far as a small grove of elms before they caught us. Kivdru tackled me there, knocking the air from my lungs. He laughed, then stepped off me. Two Greatwolves trapped TaLi between them. Before I could get up, Kivdru whuffed a command, and Galindra and Sundru sauntered into the grove. Sundru gripped Jlela between his sharp teeth. Galindra held Tlitoo. She dropped him at Sundru’s feet. Before the raven could move, Sundru pinned him beneath his great paw. Tlitoo croaked in fury. I scrambled to my paws and darted to stand as close to TaLi as I could get.

  “I’ll go tell Milsindra you found the stupid pup,” Galindra said and trotted away.

  Sundru grinned as he tightened his grip on Jlela, his teeth piercing the bird’s breast. Jlela kept perfectly still, blood from several puncture wounds—bite marks—dripping from her wings down Sundru’s chest and into Tlitoo’s feathers.

  I was frozen in place, immobilized by horror and helplessness. One bite of the Greatwolf’s huge jaws and Jlela would be dead. There was no way I could get to the Greatwolf quickly enough to do anything.

  Milsindra loped into the grove. Kivdru whuffed in greeting.

  “You will not try to escape us again,” Milsindra said. She didn’t even bother to look at me. “You will take us where you go with the Neja. If you do not, I will kill that raven”—she pointed her muzzle at Jlela—“and then the Neja.”

  I looked down at Tlitoo. His body trembled beneath Sundru’s paw. At first I thought he was as terrified as I was, but then I saw the look in his eye, and it was a look of rage.

  “Let her go,” he croaked, staring at Jlela, gripped between Sundru’s teeth. “You do not threaten the raven clan.”

  Sundru laughed, stepping down hard enough to make Tlitoo cry out in pain.

  “It is too late, Greatworms,” Jlela rasped from between Sundru’s teeth. “You can no longer see the memories without the ravens and we will not take you. Wolflet”—her beady eyes met mine—“Gripewolves can come with the Neja and the Moonwolf. That is what they want from us. They can see the spirit world with us and cannot see it without us and they think to find ways to keep their power. But we will never take them again.” Sundru closed his jaws more tightly around her, forcing her into silence.

  “It is simple, Kaala,” Milsindra said. “Make the raven take us with you, or we will kill not only these two but each and every one of your friends. Smallwolves and humans are as easy to kill as ravens. We will not allow ourselves to be supplanted by wolves such as you.”

  I found myself trembling as much as Tlitoo was, and with just as much fury. Milsindra was not only willing to kill all of us to save her kind, she was willing to shatter the Promise. I opened my mouth, trying to think of something to stall the Greatwolves.

  “You must not, wolf,” Jlela rasped, trying to flap her wings against Sundru’s jaws. “The Nejakilakin must not be compromised.”

  Kivdru huf
fed a command to Sundru, who closed his great jaws so quickly, I couldn’t even yelp in protest. Jlela’s eyes did not leave mine, and I watched as the life faded from them.

  Tlitoo hissed in anger and in grief. “You will never walk safely again,” he rasped. “Your time is done. Your kind will soon no longer walk these lands.” The Greatwolves ignored him. Furious and grieving for Jlela, I hurled myself at Sundru. He stumbled and loosened his hold on Tlitoo, who flew high up into the trees, screeching.

  Sundru flung me to the ground and stood on my chest, forcing the air from my lungs, then took my neck in his sharp teeth. TaLi shrieked and tried to run forward, but two Greatwolves blocked her path. I looked high up into the leaves above me. For some reason, the only thought in my head was that there shouldn’t be so many leaves on the elms after the fire.

  Then the leaves began to shift and seethe as if blowing in the wind. But there was no wind. The rustling was suddenly very near me and a raven landed on a rock just to my left. Another alighted in the dirt beside me, and then another. The trees above me teemed. What I had thought was thick foliage was really the motion of hundreds of wings. That was where Jlela had gone when she flew from the cave: to get the other ravens. A loud, deep-throated croaking filled the woods as more ravens than I could count dropped from the trees to surround us. Others hovered just above the Greatwolves’ heads. The Greatwolves snarled, then growled and stepped back. I struggled from beneath Sundru’s paws and ran to TaLi. Raven after raven descended, croaking and screeching, flying just above Greatwolf heads and just past Greatwolf tails.

  “Better scramble, wolflet,” Tlitoo rasped, flying past my ear.

  I scrambled, buffeted by wings and scratched by talons as the ravens attacked their prey. TaLi and I stumbled together from the grove. Kivdru and Sundru howled in shock and pain. Milsindra bellowed in fury. As soon as I had TaLi safely out of range, I had to turn back to look. The Greatwolves were so quickly buried under a writhing mass of wings and beaks and talons that it was as if they’d suddenly disappeared and been replaced by a seething river of ravens, their cries drowned out by the shrieks of the furious birds.

  I couldn’t stop watching. One bird flew past me with a large paw in his beak. Another grasped what looked suspiciously like an ear. A tail, bloody at one end, hung from a low branch. The ravens surrounded what was left of the Greatwolves’ bodies and began to hum. At Tlitoo’s call, they rose and flew away.

  26

  Milsindra was dead. She had stalked me and haunted my dreams. She would have killed me if she could, and all of those I loved. She would not have the chance now. Yet horror was mingled with my relief. I’d known Tlitoo for most of my life and had no idea that ravens could be so deadly. I’d never known that they could kill us anytime they liked.

  I hid with TaLi in the bushes and tried to stop trembling. All that was left of the Greatwolves was a scattering of fur, blood, and chunks of flesh.

  Tlitoo landed among the remnants of the Greatwolves and stalked over to us. His legs were scraped and bloody, and his chest heaved with the effort of breathing.

  “You’re hurt,” I said.

  “I am fine, wolflet. It is the Grumpwolves who are hurt. They should not have angered the raven clan. They should not have murdered Jlela.”

  TaLi watched him, her eyes wide. Then she reached out and gently stroked his chest feathers with the back of her hand.

  “Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for saving me. And for saving Kaala.”

  Tlitoo warbled, pleased. “Your girl has more sense than you do, wolf. Which is not saying much.” But he ran his bloodied beak through my headfur. “We do not hurt those who are our friends. You must be strong now, wolflet. We have angered the Grimwolves and there will be war because of it. We will win, and their kind will be no more, but it will be bloody. You must not waste our effort.” He gave a mournful croak. “You must not waste Jlela’s life.” He shook out his wings. “Your friends wait for you at the Hill Rock. It is time to finish what we started.”

  He spread his wings and cawed loudly, then took flight.

  I stood and stretched my fear-stiffened muscles. I looked up at TaLi. I needed to get back to the cave. BreLan and Ázzuen would be waiting for us there.

  “We have to go,” I said, and tugged at her tunic. She looked down at me and, as she sometimes did, understood what I meant even though we did not speak the same language.

  “All right, Kaala,” she said wearily. “I’m coming.”

  Ázzuen and BreLan stood on the ledge outside the cave, two wolves at their side. I halted, unsure whether the wolves were friend or foe. When the wind changed and I caught their scent, I yipped in welcome.

  Pell and Marra pelted down the steep face of the rock. Ázzuen and his human made their way down more slowly. Marra and Pell tackled me, dumping me into the dirt. I rolled on top of Marra and nipped her ear, then licked Pell’s muzzle. I got to my paws, my tail wagging just a little. So many wolves and humans had died. We all might be dead before darkfall, either at the hands of the humans or by the teeth of the Sentinels, but we had a much better chance of surviving now that my pack was together again.

  “We saw the fire and thought you were dead,” Marra said. She stood on her hind legs and placed her paws on my back. “We thought you were all dead.” She dropped down to all fours.

  “Prannan and Amma died,” I said, my tail drooping as guilt and sorrow hit me once again. “And Lallna didn’t survive.” My throat clenched as I realized others might be dead. “Is Swift River all right? Did the Greatwolves kill them?”

  “They’re fine. At least for now,” Pell answered. “But those odd wolves have come to the valley. They were hiding with the Vole Eater pack. Now they’re living with the humans at the Lin and Rian villages. The Greatwolf council is waiting to hear about what happened here before they decide what to do about them. That’s what we came to tell you. The council is waiting for you and Milsindra to come back.”

  “Milsindra won’t be going back,” Tlitoo croaked.

  Ázzuen and BreLan reached us then. BreLan held his arms out to TaLi and she limped over to him.

  “Did you go to Laan?” she asked him.

  He grimaced. “I tried, but two of their hunters chased me away before I got to the village. They don’t know me. We’ll have to go back and talk to their elders.”

  I didn’t want them to go to Laan. DavRian and IniMin had been there, telling lies. I whuffed in frustration, desperate to be able to talk to our humans.

  BreLan held TaLi so tightly that they looked like one creature. That was when I realized that Pell and Marra were standing very close together, too. Like mates did.

  Marra saw me staring at her and grinned. Pell averted his eyes. He certainly hadn’t waited long to find another wolf once I’d rejected him.

  Tlitoo poked me in the rump. “They must know the rest, wolflet.”

  I told them about how Milsindra and her followers had died at the beaks of the ravens, and about the humans who had saved me. I told them of our plan to get the streckwolves to open the way for us to be with the humans. And, reluctantly, I told them what Tlitoo and I could do together, about the Shadow Wolf and our plan to bring the Sentinels to meet him.

  I waited for them to turn from me in revulsion or even in anger. Pell watched me for a long moment, then laughed.

  “I should have known there were things you weren’t telling me.”

  Marra’s eyes were bright with curiosity. “So you can bring the Sentinel pack with you? You can show them the Shadow Wolf?”

  “I think so,” I said, relief almost knocking me off my paws. I had been so certain that my packmates would despise me when they found out what Tlitoo and I did together. I’d been afraid that once they knew how abnormal I was, they would shun me and I would be alone. Instead, they treated my journeys to the spirit world as if they were no stranger than Marra’s quick legs or Ázzuen’s cleverness.

  A warning howl echoed through the burned-out lands. It was m
y mother’s voice. I longed to run to her. Now that my pack was together, I felt I should be able to go somewhere safe with them and leave all the trouble and sorrow of Kaar behind. But I could not. Neesa wasn’t calling us to a hunt or to explore new territories. It was a howl of warning. The Sentinels had found our trail.

  “Run!” she howled. I looked at the determined expressions of my packmates and our humans. I was through with running. It was too late, anyway. The huge shapes of Greatwolves crested a rise on the plain before us. The fire had burned away the trees and bushes that would have hidden us, and they could see us as easily as we saw them in the fading evening light.

  Neesa was in the lead, running before them. They overtook her, charging toward us.

  “Stand firm, wolf,” Tlitoo said, and I looked up to see at least twenty ravens hovering above us. Many had bloodied beaks and talons.

  Pell, Ázzuen, and Marra stood at my flanks. The humans stood behind us, their sharpsticks raised. Ravens hummed above us. The Sentinels, led by Navdru and Yildra, ran faster. There were only six of them, and I found myself thinking that we might have a fair fight.

  Navdru must have thought so, too, for he skidded to a halt when he reached us. Neesa bolted past him to stand at my side. Navdru looked from the five of us wolves to TaLi and BreLan with their deadly spears, and then up at the hovering ravens. The fear in his eyes when he saw them told me that he’d heard of the other Greatwolves’ deaths.

  “The rest of the pack is coming,” he said, his voice raspy from smoke. He looked up at the ravens.

  “They may not get here in time,” a raven warbled.

  Navdru inclined his head. “Perhaps not in time to stop you from killing us, though I am not sure you can, but in time to stop this drelshik wolf and her pack from destroying all of wolfkind.”

  He raised his chin, and in that moment I saw everything it meant to be a leaderwolf. Navdru was willing to die to do what he thought was right and I had to admire that. Even if what he thought was right was killing me.

  His gaze met mine.