Wolf Hunting

by Jane Lindskold

  "Others?"

  "I smell others. Animals and humans, both."

  "I expect you smell the animals in the forest," Isende replied, speaking with care, her mind obviously groping with whether or not she should address his question in full. "Are you sure the humans you smell aren't my brother and me?"

  Plik just stared at her, trying to make his gaze appealing, that of a child who doesn't want to argue, but doesn't quite believe. The twins had no means of judging his age, and treated him as if he were seven years old instead of as many decades and more.

  Isende frowned and began picking at her yarn. His question had distracted her enough that she had lost her count, that much was certain.

  "When can I go outside?" Plik asked. "I'm sure the blood briar poison is gone from me. I'm restless. I want to climb a tree or go fishing or something ..."

  "You can't go outside," Isende said, her tone permitting no argument. "It would be unwise."

  For all the severity of her tone, Plik also heard something like longing in her voice. He studied her and found confirmation in the manner in which Isende's gaze went to the window and lingered.

  Plik looked at his captor afresh. A new, frightening perspective on the situation rose in his mind, making him struggle to keep from crying aloud in frustration and astonishment.

  From their very first meeting, Plik had noted that beneath the natural brown of their skins, the twins were pallid, that despite their youth, they were both fleshy, bearing extra weight. Coming from a loose-skinned, loose-furred stock, he had not considered the implications of these traits, but now he compared Tiniel and Isende with the other humans of his acquaintance,

  These were not many, true, but even Aridisdu Harjee-dian had lost his remaining fat and gained muscle as the hardships of travel exacted their toll. Now none of the three humans carried any extra weight at all. Even Plik, beneath his fur, had toughened, but his heritage did not lend itself to leanness - and autumn's abundance combined with traveling with several excellent hunters had meant that he had never to go long without food.

  But Tiniel and Isende were both running to fat, and both showed ample signs that they were out of condition. How could this be? They had brought no servants with them when they left Gak. Nor had they carried any tremendous supplies of food. Hadn't Night's Terror related how over the preceding winter the local yarimaimalom had fed the newcomers out of curiosity and pity?

  So why did both twins show no signs that they were working at all to sustain what was obviously a comfortable - if not opulent - lifestyle? Why did Isende look so wistful when Plik lamented his own desire for physical freedom? Was there another reason for the hard note in her voice when she told Plik he could not go outside of his room? Might she, too, desire a chance to go outside?

  All this time, Plik had thought of himself as the prisoner, and these two, for all their solicitude, as his jailers. What if the situation was quite different? What if they were prisoners as well? If so, who was it that kept the prison?

  ALTHOUGH THE DAYS HAD GROWN markedly shorter since their departure from u-Seeheera, and even since they had crossed the border from the land of the Liglim into the city-states, there was ample daylight for their venture when camp was packed up, and the group had gone to the segment of forest that grew closest to the copse.

  "We will leave from here," Firekeeper said, "Truth and I. Do not leave this cover until you see or hear our signal."

  She spoke with more confidence than she felt, wishing with heart and soul that Blind Seer could go with them. She had asked Truth, but the jaguar had replied rather tartly that she was not entirely certain she could move Firekeeper, let alone Firekeeper and Blind Seer.

  "How will we know?" Derian asked.

  "I will howl," Firekeeper said, "or some such thing. Let Lovable hide high in tree branches, well behind leaves so no one see."

  Harjeedian nodded. "I agree there is no need for a subtle signal. Your opening the door into the copse may be enough - if not, our crossing in will be."

  Firekeeper tried not to glower at the aridisdu. She knew he only spoke in that way to cover his own concerns - for those who went ahead, about what might await. Harjeedian might be the one most out of his depth in these matters. His training had never been intended for this. Neither had Derian's, but Derian had become very adaptable over the last few years.

  Without a word, Firekeeper embraced this oldest human friend; then she knelt and hugged Blind Seer so hard the wolf whuffed mild protest in her ear, but from how he licked her when she released him, he didn't really mind.

  Offering the others a polite inclination of her head by way of farewell, Firekeeper turned to Truth.

  "If you are done acting like you '11 never see your pack mates again," the jaguar said, "we can go. I must say that your behavior does not express tremendous confidence in my abilities."

  Firekeeper walked over to the jaguar and straddled her as they had planned. She did not sit on Truth as she might have on a horse, but let her legs grip against the jaguar's flanks.

  "If you're going to do it," she replied, speaking Pellish for the benefit of those who listened, "then do it before the briars bear word of our being here."

  The jaguar growled something deep and wordless in her chest, a vibration that carried up Firekeeper's legs and rumbled in her very bones. Then everything changed.

  She had no idea what she expected. When Firekeeper had asked so she might be able to prepare herself, Truth had not been able to tell her, saying that there were no words to describe the sensation. Nor, after sharing the experience herself, did Firekeeper disagree.

  There were no words for the sensation. Firekeeper might say she felt an icy breath of cold all around her, but she would be equally accurate were she to say she felt feverishly hot. She might say she was smothered by clinging darkness so heavy she could roll it between her hands, but she would be equally accurate to say there was a flash of brilliance that seared rainbows on her inner eyelids and gave colors tastes and textures.

  What Firekeeper knew was that the experience was not the same for her and for the jaguar. Truth could navigate through this confusion of sensations, navigate and with some skill. When Firekeeper was next certain of what her senses told her, she was still standing over the jaguar but the forest edge was gone. In its place was a stone wall, its iron gate hanging open and slightly lopsided. Beyond the gate was a towering structure built mostly of stone, except for the shutters that covered its windows. These were wooden, and showed what more than a hundred years of passing seasons could do to wood. Even so, they had kept their trust well. The old house stood solid and strong - and decisively empty.

  "We have come to the right place," Firekeeper said, not wishing to phrase this as a question lest she anger the great cat she held so dangerously close.

  "We have," Truth replied. "See, it is not so without sign that others have been here as I first thought. Look around the side. There is a trail as would have been made by daily foot traffic."

  "It doesn't look as if it has been used for a good time," Firekeeper said. "Nor do I smell wood smoke or any of the other signs humans leave. Do you find more?"

  "No," Truth said. "But this is the place. I know it as surely as I know I bore us here. Do we investigate, or do we see if we can bring the others in?"

  "Bring the others," Firekeeper said. "They will worry, and the humans may see signs that would be invisible to you or me."

  "How then might we open a gate without letting those who guard this place know?" Truth asked.

  Firekeeper thought the great cat was musing aloud, but she heard the distant touch of the Meddler's voice in her ears, and realized the jaguar spoke to purpose.

  'Turn slowly, side to side," the Meddler said. "Show me what you see, and I may be able to interpret it for you."

  Truth did so, moving out from beneath Firekeeper, but not before Firekeeper saw how her fur lifted. From this, she knew the jaguar detested the Meddler's contact.

  We may have tha
t jaguar figurine the Meddler carved, Firekeeper thought, but he has kept some link with her. Will it be so with the twins, I wonder?

  She said nothing aloud, but turned her attention to studying the undergrowth that framed the derelict estate. From within the copse was more clearly a false front. If she concentrated, she could even see the tall grasses growing without.

  "There!" the Meddler said triumphantly.

  "I really think," Firekeeper said dryly, "we might have figured this out on our own."

  Truth snorted, and for the first time in quite a while Firekeeper felt a friendly connection with the Wise Jaguar.

  What they had both located was a place along the copse's edge where a section of otherwise unremarkable greenery was flanked by a pair of the bracken beasts. They were dormant. By someone who had not battled them, they might be taken for shrubs clipped into ornamental shapes. One was a bear standing on its hind legs. The other was a great cat of some sort, though specifics of species could not really be told.

  The bracken beasts were positioned to face the same direction. It did not take much to imagine them coming to life and lumbering out what must be a door.

  "But why a door?" Firekeeper wondered. "If all this forest is false, wouldn't anywhere do?"

  The Meddler's voice, tinged with mockery, sounded in her head. "So you do not know everything, then, sweet Firekeeper?"

  "I never claimed to," she replied, bristling inwardly. "I only said I thought we could have found this place with our eyes."

  "Why a door?" the Meddler said, not really acknowledging her clarification, a thing Firekeeper found very annoying. "For much the same reason as there are doors in the walls of other structures. It is better for the continued existence of the structure. The analogy is not precise, because what creates the image of a copse of trees here is closer to a fabric than to a wall of stone or wood."

  Truth, who liked both pillows and rugs very much, understood. "And a fabric can only be torn so many times before it begins to fray."

  "Correct. This door was created to enable passage through the fabric that would not destroy the fabric itself."

  "Good," Firekeeper said. She was eager to get out and bring Blind Seer to her, and afraid, just a little, of what this continued intimate discourse with the Meddler might bring. Once the door was open, she could tell him to stop bothering her. "So we open the door - or better, I think, push aside the fabric."

  "And why do you think that?" the Meddler asked.

  Firekeeper gestured at the two waiting bracken beasts. "These not have hands for turning knobs or lifting latches, but they - and we - can push."

  She hefted a sturdy piece of hardwood. 'Truth, you push. I be ready to hit."

  The jaguar agreed, padding between the two bracken beasts, shifting her head from one side to the other, letting her sensitive whiskers test what she found.

  Firekeeper watched, waiting for the slightest twitch from either "bear" or "cat," but they stood as unmoving as the garden sculptures they seemed to be.

  Tram gave a satisfied hiss, and then her front end began to vanish through what now looked very much like a curtain printed with the image of a group of trees - though no printed image had ever shifted with the passing wind. When Firekeeper thought that the curtain was sufficiently raised, she gave her promised howl.

  "Come," she called to me others waiting outside, "but carefully. We will need to guide you through."

  Blind Seer came at an all-out ran, a ripple in the grass, halting beside Truth. The jaguar gave instructions, and the wolf passed safely under the curtain. He stopped almost immediately, sniffing curiously at the air.

  "This place is empty," he said. "Empty of all but bugs and little things that live in the dirt"

  "I know," Firekeeper said. "Scout dear heart, but take great care. I will guide the others through, then send Lovable with a message for Eshinarvash."

  "I can go," Truth said, "then come in as I did before."

  "Good," Firekeeper agreed, moving to take Truth's place holding up me curtain. The sensation was as if thousands of bees walked over her skin, delicate buzzing accompanied by the prickling of tiny feet

  Tram slipped under, gliding away through the tall grass just as Derian arrived.

  "What's with her?"

  "She goes to speak with Eshinarvash. Walk beneath the curtain."

  "What curtain?"

  Firekeeper immediately grasped that the curtain could not be seen from without. It made sense of a sort - as much as anything was making sense of late.

  "You will understand," she promised. "For now, pretend I have a fine woven curtain held up over my arm. Duck under it, coming close to me so you do not touch cloth."

  This wasn't easy, for Derian was quite tall and he bore with him a pack of things the humans had thought might be needed. He tossed the pack through first then bent and went under. Firekeeper smelled him, familiar and comforting, clean man sweat mingled with that of horse.

  When Derian was through, Harjeedian followed. He was shorter than Derian, though not a short man, but his passage was more complicated. While Firekeeper and Derian were comfortable with each other, despite all the days he had traveled with them, Harjeedian still kept himself somewhat apart. Nonetheless, he managed to get under without touching the curtain. Lovable strutted under after him. Firekeeper trusted that Truth could make her return as promised and carefully lowered the curtain into place.

  The bracken beasts had not yet stirred, so Firekeeper hoped they had run this course undetected. She realized something else. With Truth's departure, the sense of the Meddler touching her mind had also vanished. Either the Meddler had gone to watch his student or in his wearied state he needed the jaguar to help him bridge the gap between his spirit existence and this one.

  "You're right" Derian said, "the entire copse is like a curtain. This part of the estate is nothing like what I expected. It looks deserted."

  Blind Seer came up at that moment "Deserted now, but there are signs of past denning, and denning since the days when this place was sealed behind the illusion of trees. Come. I will show you."

  Firekeeper translated, but she laid a hand on Blind Seer's shoulder in sign that he should wait.

  "First," Firekeeper said, "we must set rules."

  Derian grinned at her, and she knew why. Usually, she was the one who balked at rules, but she had learned some things when leading her pack on Misheemnekuru, and one was that rules kept pups alive - and in this place, not one of them could be counted less than a pup.

  "First, as before, speak Pellish and only that If any listen, they may know Liglimosh, for Harjeedian's people are a great pack even in these lands, but they may not know Pellish.

  "Second, stay close to each other. No flying high and clever or running fast Each here has different senses, and we will need them all.

  'Third, no courage, only care. Many, many yarimaimalom disappeared in this place. We are no greater than they, and maybe lesser."

  She looked around, but saw no protest, not even in the lines of Truth. The jaguar had flickered into sight as Firekeeper had begun speaking, and had waited with listening patience. Now Truth spoke.

  "Eshinarvash knows that we have not found either Plik or the twins as we had hoped. He plans to drive the horses with their packs back to beyond the second of the streams we passed. None of us can recall having seen the briars before that point Then he will return."

  "The packs will give the horses sores!" Derian protested.

  "Eshinarvash knew you would be concerned," Truth said, "and told me to tell you that he is rather clever with straps and knots. He thinks he can remove the gear if needed."

  Derian looked as if he wished to argue the matter, but knew there were things more important here than a pack horse getting a sore.

  Firekeeper resumed. "Blind Seer and Truth will lead. I will take behind. But first one thing ... Derian, you have roper'

  "I do."

  "Good." She gestured back to the watching bracken beasts
. "Blind Seer tell me he have looked, and these are only two here. Perhaps we have broken most and more must grow. I not want to break these. That might alert someone, but I not mink we must make easy their coming after us, or after Eshinarvash."

  With Derian's help and a considerable quantity of rope, they rigged a sort of snare. Should the bracken beasts move, either to go through the curtain or to come deeper into the stronghold, they would trip a line and that line would bring down upon them a sizable chunk of timber.

  "If they not move," Firekeeper said, slapping her hands against her pants legs to remove the worst of the dirt, "they be fine, if they move..."

  "They'll be flattened," Derian said, looking quite pleased.

  "Now," Firekeeper said, gesturing for Derian to take his place in their loose ranks, "let us go see what this strange place holds."

  XXI

  DERIAN COULD NOT HELP being nervous as they moved through the open iron gate and into the Setting Sun estate's interior. In many ways, the fly layout was familiar to him. The main house, which could serve as a second fortification as needed; outer buildings, including an outside kitchen, a smokehouse, various workshops, stables, and even a chicken coop.

  There was a walled-off area that looked like it had been a garden, containing a well and a small pond. That last might have been ornamental, but Derian would have been willing to bet, based upon its location, that it had been used to keep fish fresh for the table.

  They walked around the outside of the main house first, and Blind Seer showed them signs that someone - probably the twins - had camped here. There were burnt areas from old, but not ancient, fires. One of the workshops had clearly been used as a residence, another as a stable. The original stable proved to have a collapsed roof. The wolf's keen nose even found where a privy had been dug.

  Wood had been cut, timbers moved, and vines pulled down. One section of the kitchen garden, after close inspection, proved to have been tended.

  "Mints and other hardy herbs," Harjeedian said. "Either they brought seeds with them, or they found a few surviving plants and cultivated them."