Wolf Hunting

by Jane Lindskold

  "Lady Archer," the ambassador said, rising for her as he had not for Derian. "You have arrived for our language lessons at an opportune time. Counselor Derian has brought some interesting news."

  Derian turned to greet Elise, a warm smile coming involuntarily to his lips. Unlike himself and the ambassador, Elise wore a modified version of their native costume. Summer gowns were far less confining, and she admitted that while she rather liked tailored riding trousers, the baggy version favored by the locals left her feeling a bit odd. She did like the local cotton fabrics, though, and her current gown was made from a fabric printed with a pattern that mingled exotic flowers and stylized cats.

  Elise and Derian knew each other very well, having traveled together on two rather eventful trips into New Kelvin. Her arrival in Liglim eight days before had lessened Derian's feeling that his station here was an exile rather than an honor.

  "News?" Elise said, returning Derian's smile. "Of at?"

  "Firekeeper. She's on her way to the mainland. I'm wondering if she might have gotten wind of your arrival, id come to say hello."

  "I hope so!" Elise was genuinely delighted. She had been very disappointed to learn that it would be almost -possible to get a message to Firekeeper. "There's something in your eyes that tells me you aren't so certain my arrival is the reason that Firekeeper's coming."

  Now that the subject had been broached, Derian pulled at Firekeeper's note and read it aloud in its entirety.

  "We were wondering," Ambassador Sailor said to Elise when Derian had finished, "about the mention of this jaguar, Truth. Derian suggested we send a missive to Ahmyndisdu Tiridanti, just in case she doesn't know to expect company. Would you like to help me draft one?"

  In reply, Elise gestured toward the desk. She was very talented with languages, and already spoke and read Liglimosh as well as Derian did, having studied not only the teaching primer Derian had brought home with him, but with the Liglimom's ambassadorial staff stationed in Hawk Haven.

  Between the three of them, they had soon crafted an appropriate note, and when Ambassador Sailor called in his resident translator to check it, the man assured them that they could have done without his services.

  "If you wish, I will arrange to have it taken to Heeranenahalm," the translator said.

  "I do so wish," Ambassador Sailor replied. "Come back in an hour or so, would you? I'd like you to review my lessons."

  The translator bowed stiffly in the fashion followed in the north, and excused himself.

  "He's going to be wearing a waistcoat, tricorn, and brass-buckled shoes soon enough," the ambassador said with a chuckle. "I think he envisions himself transferring to one of the northern embassies and wants to show willing."

  "And he's likely right," Elise said. "Now that Bright Haven has opened relations with Liglim, the Isles want their own embassy - and so do Waterland, Stonehold, and New Kelvin. Familiarity with Pellish will see him far in any of those lands."

  "Except possibly New Kelvin," Derian said, remembering. "Even when they knew Pellish, they usually didn't admit it."

  "I suspect our translator knows that," Elise said. "He's already asked me to teach him New Kelvinese when I have time."

  They laughed over this, then Derian said, "Firekeeper asked me to meet her at the harbor this evening. She wasn't precise-about time, but I can probably get an idea from the harbormaster's office when a boat would be likely to arrive from the outpost. Would anyone like to come?"

  Elise nodded. "Definitely."

  Ambassador Sailor shook his head. "By all means, bring Lady Blysse back here if she wishes to come, but my presence would make what should be the reunion of old friends into something far too formal."

  Derian admired Fairwind Sailor's tact, and thought it was time to exercise some of his own. "Then I'll meet you in the courtyard, Elise. Now, I'll leave you two to your lessons, and make arrangements just in case Firekeeper - and Blind Seer, and maybe Truth - decide to stay here."

  He took his leave, heart light at the thought of seeing his friends - the euphoria almost enough to banish the apprehension that had come to him the moment he had unrolled Firekeeper's note.

  ABOARD THE LIGHT, fast sailing vessel that was carrying her, Blind Seer, and Truth to the mainland, Firekeeper sat very still and did her best to keep from moving her head. Her gaze was fastened on the coastline, and perhaps only Blind Seer, in whose neck ruff she had locked her fingers, knew how much of a struggle she had to maintain her composure while her head roiled, her skin trickled with sweat, and her stomach threatened upheaval.

  The cool evening breeze did help, as did the skill of the nail crew who manned the craft, but Firekeeper found herself wondering if she should have tried to talk a pod of dolphins into escorting her to shore. Then, of course, she would have arrived naked, with her hair and skin stiff from the bay's brackish waters, I rather than neatly dressed in clothing she had borrowed from one of the disdum at the Misheemnekuru outpost. But then again, she could have asked the dolphins to land her outside of the harbor proper. She could have carrier clothing in a waterproof bag. Blind Seer and nth might have had difficulties swimming to shore, but they didn't get seasick. They could have ridden in the boat. The Liglimom wouldn't have found anything at all strange about being asked to ferry a wolf and a jaguar. With such thoughts, Firekeeper kept herself from thinking about just how close to vomiting she was. At long, long last, the sailboat slid smoothly up to one of the many piers that jutted out from the edges of the harbor.

  Truth and a sailor leapt onto the wooden planks almost as one. Firekeeper and Blind Seer followed more slowly. Then Firekeeper must wait for the boards underfoot to stop their annoying pitching. Only then could she turn and walk to the shore, alert for sight of Derian. Blind Seer found him before she did.

  "There," he said with a pleased whuff of air. "And with him .. Look!"

  Wolves neither bark nor wag their tails, but Blind Seer did the adult wolves' equivalent, giving an almost puppyish yelp of pleasure, and standing with his ears pricked high and forward.

  Firekeeper followed the line of his body and saw Derian's tall shape, the red of his hair visible even in the fading light. Beside him stood a slender, fair-haired woman wearing the long gowns favored by women in Hawk Haven, and beside her a man of medium height and build, with dark hair and a distinctly hawk-like profile.

  "Elise! Doc!" Firekeeper cried, the remnants of her seasickness vanishing in a wash of pleasure. She hurried down the pier, her bare feet glad for the firmness of the boards.

  Wolves are exuberant when greeting those they love, and Firekeeper had spent the last year among wolves. She threw her arms around Elise, then Doc, and lastly around Derian. Each received a squeeze that set them gasping for air and a sloppy kiss - almost a lick on the cheek.

  Blind Seer joined Firekeeper in her greeting, bumping himself against the humans, his body wriggling with delight.

  "Firekeeper, Firekeeper..." Elise said, gasping with laughter. "Gently! You'll have us on the dock."

  Firekeeper drew back, folding some of her usual reserve around her, but she didn't bother to hide her pleasure.

  "You two, here!" she said, rummaging through her memory for disused human speech. "When?"

  "We arrived several days ago," Elise said. "Derian said that you were nearly impossible to reach, but we were going to at least leave a message at the outpost in case you went there."

  Firekeeper shook her head. "Not be there. Been at other side of islands. Derian right."

  Derian grinned at her. "I see you cleaned up for the trip in. I thought I was going to need to arrange a flea bath. You even had someone trim your hair."

  "Disdu, at outpost."

  Firekeeper shrugged this away as unimportant, just as she ignored the surrounding Liglimom who were watching the reunion with fascination, though they deliberately went on with their business. She had noticed something interesting in how Elise and Doc were standing, close, if not touching, but without that prickly sense of
each being too aware of the other.

  Tilting her head to one side, she looked them over. "You two, here. What Baron Archer think?"

  Elise beamed and slipped her hand through Doc's arm. "My father thinks it's just fine, thank you. Doc and I were married at the New Year festivals this spring - married on my family's lands, and later blessed at the castle at Eagle's Nest."

  Doc's smile wasn't as open as Elise's but his happiness was just as apparent. "I came back from New Kelvin with some interesting medical information, and then Elise and I decided that the time had come to stop worrying and start doing. Baron Archer was quicker to accept than we had hoped. I think he'd had time to get used to the idea that his heir wasn't going to make a politically advantageous marriage."

  "About time," Firekeeper said with a grunt. Elise and Doc had been interested in each other since they had fallen into each other's company in the small circle of those humans who had befriended the wolf-woman. That had been four years ago, and Firekeeper had found their courtship - if such it could be called - both frustrating and confusing.

  Derian had begun to lead the way away from the harbor, and the group trailed along together, still talking.

  "I think it helped," Elise said, "that my father adopted my cousin Deste, so I am no longer his sole heir. Deste isn't adverse to playing courtship games. In fact, ever since her cousin Ruby made a good marriage to a scion of one of Bright Bay's Great Houses, I think Deste has been panting to have a try at the game. She's turned out to be a better archer than me, too."

  Firekeeper considered this news in light of past events. "So is this why you here?"

  "If you mean, was I thrown out," Elise said with a laugh, "no, I wasn't. However, I did point out to my father that I would go insane if I did nothing more for the next several decades than apprentice to someday be Baroness Archer. When Derian returned with news of Liglim, I immediately started studying the language and culture. I didn't make the first cut for the ambassadorial staff, but I didn't leave Sapphire much peace, and here we are!"

  "Am pleased," Firekeeper said.

  Derian had been very quiet, and for the first time Firekeeper realized why. Truth paced alongside him. Derian was more accustomed than most to the Royal, or Wise, Beasts, but even so the proximity of a great cat of such size - and with a reputation for insanity - would quiet the bravest man.

  "Truth," Firekeeper said. "You are with us? I thought you would go to the ahmyndisdu."

  "In time," the jaguar replied. "I thought to be with you when you told these about your find. I may not go to the ahmyndisdu in any case. Another has my place in that house. I will probably go to the forests."

  Firekeeper nodded. "Fine, but is that any reason to make Derian nervous?"

  Truth's reply was to step slightly farther away and a few steps ahead of Derian.

  "Firekeeper, we thought you might have come to the mainland to see Elise," Derian said, "but clearly that's not why. What brought you here?"

  Firekeeper shook her head. "Not here. We... find something."

  Beside her, Blind Seer said, "Find something or were guided to something ...Or a little bit of both."

  "Find," Firekeeper said firmly, remembering how she had had to search for those bits of stone beneath the water, but thinking of Truth's Voice, she wished she were certain.

  BEFORE FIREKEEPER COULD SETTLE IN and tell what had brought her to the mainland, she had to meet Ambassador Sailor. She thought the man inoffensive enough. Remembering that he was One of this small northern pack, she did her best to make herself pleasant. She thought Derian approved.

  Telling her tale took Firekeeper a long time, long enough that a late meal was brought in and cleared away by the time she had finished.

  Part of the reason for this was because Firekeeper had lost a great deal of her facility in Pellish in the time she had been on Misheemnekuru. Part was because of the human predilection for asking questions or requesting clarification or speculating before the information had been id out in an orderly fashion.

  Firekeeper had not forgotten this tendency, but she had forgotten how much it annoyed her. However, she needed these humans' help, and so reined in a desire to growl and snap as she would have at Moon Frost's puppies.

  When Firekeeper finished speaking, and the little stone figurines had been passed around and examined by all resent, Derian said, "So, you want us to find out if the Liglimom know the meaning of these strange symbols. You're sure that no one on Misheemnekuru knew where they came from?"

  He put a slight emphasis on the words "no one," and Firekeeper knew precisely what he was asking, and why he didn't ask more directly. Derian was one of a hand's worth of fingers of living humans who knew about the beast-souled - the maimalodalum, as they were called in the language of Liglim.

  "No one," Firekeeper said firmly, "and I ask."

  "Of course," Doc commented thoughtfully, "animals' eyes seem to see differently than do ours. They might know the symbols, but not see them as we do."

  "True," Firekeeper said, "but they not know. Someone mainland, maybe?"

  "The best one to ask," Derian said, rather uncomfortably, "would be the aridisdu Harjeedian. As I recall, he s studied the older languages of the Liglim. He is well placed in his own temple, and his sister is one of u-Liall. Therefore, he will have access to resources unavailable to e average researcher."

  These words all came out very quickly. Derian had been intimately involved with Harjeedian's sister, Rahniseeta. Firekeeper knew that Derian had almost refused to return to the land of the Liglim because to do so would mean encountering Rahniseeta again. Only Derian's personal loyalty to King Tedric, and the fact that he was the sole Hawk Havenese expert on the Liglimom, had made him return.

  "Harjeedian," Elise said. "I believe we met him at the reception that was held upon our arrival. He's the one who..."

  Firekeeper interrupted, tired of long stories. She also didn't much like Harjeedian, but agreed with Derian's assessment.

  "He bring us here," Firekeeper said. "Yes. Let Harjeedian work for us. Tonight too soon?"

  "Tonight is definitely too soon," Derian replied firmly. "Harjeedian is not a personal friend upon whom we can impose at a moment's notice. I can, however, write out a message and send it to him tonight. He knows how impatient you can be, and so won't be surprised."

  "Why we care?" Firekeeper asked. "We owe him surprise."

  Elise gave Firekeeper a reproving frown. "Is what you have found something you want everyone talking about, Firekeeper? You've stumbled on something potentially volatile. This Voice seems to have been somehow associated with two who dealt in forbidden magic - and we have suspicions that these unknowns may also be involved with magical lore. Do you want Harjeedian's meeting with us and his later research to be noticed so that he must report to his superiors?" Firekeeper shook her head violently. "Then a little less haste, a little more care," said Elise, sounding rather like Blind Seer when he was quoting proverbs.

  Firekeeper rose, and Blind Seer and Truth rose with her. "Then if we must wait until tomorrow, we go now."

  "We have prepared rooms for you," Derian said with a certain degree of resignation, as does one who makes an offer he knows will be refused. "No rooms," Firekeeper said. "Night is good." And with that the three were gone. The building that housed the embassy was near Heeranenahalm, the section of the city where the rulers lived. Forests backed onto this, and Firekeeper and her companions well knew their way into those wooded refuges.

  Firekeeper hardly noticed when Truth left them to pursue her own hunting. The wolf-woman's thoughts were a living thicket, one that threatened to snare her. Miserably, she shook her head clear of the thorns. Then she ran with Blind Seer, pretending that they were wild and free for just a little time longer.

  TRUTH PADDED OVER THE DUFF, slipping beneath thick curtains of vines, prowling along the trunks of fallen trees, wading in the living waters of running streams. In one of these she caught a large water turtle and cracked open its shell wi
th her powerful jaws.

  The fishy flesh tasted very good. The maimalodalum had done their best to care for her, but turtle and tortoise had not been on the menu, although Powerful Tenderness had a bear's fondness for fresh fish. Standing chest-deep in rapidly flowing water, Truth indulged herself by catching and eating the minnows that shot over the polished rock. She missed a great many, and not entirely because she was out of practice - but she didn't think about this. There was too much good to enjoy.

  Truth was truly alone for the first time since her sanity had returned to her, and she luxuriated in her solitude as much as she did in the taste of her meal. She concentrated on reality, feeling how the pads of her paws sank into the damp earth, sheathing and unsheathing her claws, licking them clean of mud and traces of blood.

  Then she began on her fur, pulling with her teeth at the snags and mats that had accumulated during her separation from her body. Powerful Tenderness had done his best to care for her, but even he had stopped short of grooming a Wise Jaguar.

  As her teeth worried at the matted clumps of fur, Truths mind worried at another, more tangled mess.

  The Voice. What was he? Why had he been locked in the strange apartment - assuming it was he who had been imprisoned there, and this seemed likely.

  Had he escaped when they opened the door? None of those who had been closest had seen anything. Although all admitted that they had been flash-blinded by the silver light that had attended the opening of the door, all swore with equal firmness that they could not have missed someone slipping past.

  Truth was inclined to believe them. She herself had been present - or at least her body had been - and she had no memory of anyone going past her as she dove through the door. That would seem to suggest that whoever had left the apartment - if anyone had done so - whoever had carved those figurines - had been ...

  Truth broke this chain of thought, for it only led to frustration. All the options led simply to more questions. As once she had focused on various streams of probability, now she forced herself from speculation into planning a course of action.