by Claudia King
"I suppose you are right, as usual," she sighed, setting down her wooden cup and rising to her feet with a groan. "I wish I could rest today. I have had enough of herbs and medicine."
"Tell Adel I would like to speak with her about the new men later. It has been some time since we talked. Perhaps she will let you finish your work early."
"I doubt it," Netya said, but she smiled as Caspian brought her hand in for a kiss. "I will ask, though."
The tea helped a little, but the morning's discomfort lingered after she made her way up the side of the valley to Adel's cave. The smell of mixed herbs inside felt cloying that day.
"Take this," the den mother said as Netya approached, spitting a mouthful of pulpy yellow plant matter into her hand and passing it to her apprentice. "Pick out the husks and then put the rest in the pot to boil. You can start chewing some more while you do it." She slid over a strip of rabbit hide lined with hard black pods. "Do not swallow any, and wash your mouth with hot water afterwards. We will be brewing a warriors' draught this morning."
Netya nodded and sat down to do as she had been told, grimacing at the prospect of chewing up a mouthful of their ingredients. The plants they used rarely tasted pleasant, and the ones she was instructed not to swallow had a habit of burning her mouth or leaving it numb. But the black pods contained a surprisingly mild flavour once her teeth split them open to release their yellow contents, and rather than exacerbating her nausea they instead helped to soothe it.
"What will this draught do for our warriors?" She asked once her mouth was no longer full.
"Much the same as any other. Make them bold, sharpen their focus, give them the strength to fight on despite pain. These seeds are tough, but when boiled they release a poison that can help imbue warriors with such strength in small amounts."
"Do the Moon People often fight with the aid of these blessings? The men of my village never did."
"Sometimes," Adel replied. "The magic we make often comes with a price, as you may see in your years to come. Every time we touch the spirit world, it leaves a part of itself within us. It happens to seers most often, but also to those who partake of our strongest remedies. You remember the elders in Khelt's clan who spent all day in the grip of the spirit world?"
Netya nodded.
"Those are the ones who have spent so long wrapped in visions that they lose the ability to distinguish between one world and the next. They ramble and rave, and any wisdom they might possess becomes confused and meaningless as their minds drift away."
"And this happens to the warriors who use these spirit draughts too?"
"Yes, quickly and without remorse. That is why most packs only resort to them in desperate times. When I was a girl my father's warriors drank such potions often. They had no other way to muster the courage and strength they needed after so much bloodshed and so many defeats. They fought like demons, so I was told." Adel gave the simmering pot a contemplative look. "And after a time, the demons refused to leave their bodies. The bloodlust took such a hold of those men that they stopped caring who was friend and who was foe, tearing apart anyone who stood before them. Many of my father's warriors had to die by his own hand once they were too far gone."
"Then our warriors should not use this kind of magic," Netya said.
"Indeed, but we may be faced with no other choice. Used sparingly and in small amounts it is unlikely to do much harm, but it is always wise to be cautious. The same goes for all spirit magic. The stronger its effect, the more dangerous it often is."
"Is that why you allow the others to burn the valley weeds so freely?"
Adel nodded. "The effect is weak. I doubt it will do much harm."
"I do not like the way it smells." Netya wrinkled her nose. "And it makes me dream more than usual."
"Do your dreams still trouble you?"
"Not often, though the vision of the water still returns some nights."
Adel grunted, tossing another handful of yellow pulp into the pot. "The spirits saw your death that night in the cave. Their echo continues to warn you of it, even though the danger is passed. Many dreams are meaningless, but those that return are often the ones that hold some important message."
Netya hesitated for a moment, then looked up from her handful of husks. "Another dream has visited me in its place."
Adel paused and looked over at her. "It has?"
"It comes every few nights. In it my spirit guide leads me across a great field covered with blue moonlight. Then I come to the place of the gathering, where every clan in the world looks up to a woman standing upon an outcrop at its centre."
"Who is this woman?"
Netya shrugged. "I do not know. It seems like she is me at first, but then the dream fades and I can no longer tell. I see Syr sometimes, too, and it seems she is asking a question of me."
Adel pondered for a moment, stirring the pot with a short cooking stick. "And what do you feel when you see this vision?"
"Nothing. Nothing strong, anyway. I sometimes wake up feeling strange, but it is not frightening."
"Nor is it joyous? Confusing? Inspiring?"
Netya shook her head. "It is just a vision. It started after we left the gathering."
"Hm." Adel poked the contents of the pot around a little more. "Strange. It does not seem like a warning. Remember that Syr is a trickster spirit, also. She often appears in visions meant only to confuse us."
"Even visions that keep returning?"
Adel grumbled something under her breath. "Perhaps. I must think on it more. Tell me if you have this dream again, and pay attention the next time you are there. You know how little faith I put in premonitions, but some of them still prove to be useful. If your vision is a glimpse of things to come, we may be wise to heed it at a time like this."
"What could it mean?" Netya said, more to herself than to Adel.
"You see a person of importance, maybe. Someone who holds significance among the clans. Whoever this woman in your vision is, she may be the answer to its meaning." The den mother took Netya's handful of freshly chewed pulp once she had picked the husks out and dropped it into the pot with the rest, then wrapped the remaining pods up in the strip of rabbit skin and put them aside. "Enough about this for now. Stay focused on our work. I need you to watch the pot until a froth forms on the surface. Keep stirring, and move it off the fire if it starts to boil over."
Knowing that sharp reprimands would be in order if she let her attention wander, Netya put the visions to the back of her mind. The next time she stepped into the blue world, she would seek to confront the woman who stood alone upon the outcrop.
—25—
The Way of the Spear
It completely slipped Netya's mind that Caspian had given her a reason to excuse herself early, so engrossed had she become in the daily rhythm of her work at Adel's side. But as fortune would have it, the den mother called her apprentice's training to an end shortly before mid afternoon regardless.
"I must spare some of my attention for the other apprentices," she explained, "as is a den mother's duty to all of her acolytes."
"Are they doing well?" Netya asked as Adel led her out of the cave.
"Some better than others, though none of them are as quick to learn as you. You take your talents for granted, Netya, but you have a sharp mind for the ways of the spirits."
"Is that why you are always scolding me for my mistakes?"
The den mother snorted, the sound as close to a laugh as Netya had ever heard from her mentor. "A mind can never be sharp enough. Would you rather be an adequate seer, or a great one?"
"A great one, of course."
"Then you will have to endure my instruction." Adel gestured to one of the caves near the base of the waterfalls as they stepped outside, where the rest of the apprentices had gathered with their mentors. "I fear Meadow is too soft on her girl. She will learn nothing if she believes her mistakes are acceptable. And the dark one, Kolami, she is talented, but her clan's seers are very differ
ent from ours. She struggles to grasp the ways of the spirits as we know them." She shook her head abruptly, waving Netya off. "Go and make yourself useful with the others now. We will continue again tomorrow morning."
Netya bowed her head respectfully and left Adel to her business with the other apprentices. There was always foraging to be done now that the pack had so many mouths to feed, and so she decided to venture down the valley to a place where edible mushrooms grew beneath a damp overhang. Without a foraging partner she had no one to help with the awkward task of slinging a carrying bundle over her wolf's back, so she deigned to make the journey on two legs instead of four, with her spear balanced over one shoulder and a woven basket hanging from each end.
As she walked down from the caves she came across Caspian and the other men, all six of them watching him with blunt wooden poles in their hands as he demonstrated how to use a flint-tipped spear.
"Netya!" he called over to her. "Have you come to join us?"
She shook her head with a grin. "I cannot handle a spear alongside such strong warriors."
"You can handle it better than most. Come, tell them how you used that weapon to keep a mountain cat at bay when it had you cornered." He rested his spear over his shoulder and nodded in Kin's direction. "Our brother here still thinks it a useless skill to master."
"These are weapons of the Sun People," Kin complained. "They are clumsy and weak."
"I convinced you of a javelin's usefulness, did I not?"
"That is different. A javelin can be thrown far, not like these heavy things." Kin thumped the tip of his pole against the ground, the supple wood reverberating with the impact.
"Have you ever seen the way the Sun People fight with them?" Netya said. She had never witnessed her people use spears in battle either, but she remembered the men of her village training, and the tales they had told of their victories.
Kin shot her a heated look. "I know that anyone wielding this weapon would fall to the fangs of a wolf before they could even thrust it."
"Then try and sink your fangs into me." Caspian swung his spear off his shoulder and gripped it in both hands. "Gently, of course."
Kin flashed his teeth eagerly, tossing his own pole to the ground as he stepped away from the group and transformed into the shape of his wolf. He barked at his opponent, flicking his tail in the air in a taunting gesture, then lunged forward. But no sooner had his paws left the ground than he found himself stumbling to an awkward stop, forced to catch himself as the tip of Caspian's spear hovered inches from his muzzle. With a growl of annoyance Kin regained his footing and lunged again, his sandy fur rippling in the wind as he dashed to the side to try and get around the sharp flint blade. Caspian circled counter to the wolf's movements, taking several quick steps back so that the spear stayed level with Kin's muzzle. Again the aggressor found his attack thwarted. And again, and again as Caspian kept on circling and retreating, keeping the tip of his spear firmly between himself and the set of snapping jaws trying to reach him.
Soon the others were grinning at their companion's futile efforts to get around the weapon he had mocked moments earlier. Netya could not help but feel a tickle of amusement too. Of her own volition, she dropped her grass baskets to the ground and hurried forward to join Caspian with her spear in hand. She set her feet firmly, adopting the stance he himself had taught her, and lowered her weapon to hem Kin in from a second angle. Surprised, and more than a little indignant at this second new adversary, the wolf turned his attention to Netya, snapping at the red feathers trailing from the crosspiece of her weapon. Mimicking Caspian's movements, she circled and backed away, feeling the tempo of her heartbeat match the pace of every footfall.
She nearly stumbled as she retreated over a tuft of uneven grass, but she trusted her feet to find their own way, keeping her focus on the spear tip and its distance from Kin's muzzle. It was just like fighting the mountain cat, except this time she had many more months of experience with her spear to draw on. The weight that had once felt so lopsided and unnatural in her hands was now easy and comfortable, and she knew exactly when and how to shift her grip to make sure it stayed in the place she wanted. She might not have been a master of the spear, but even her simple familiarity with the weapon was more experience than Kin had in fighting against it
Caspian circled in from the side, maintaining a safe distance between himself and Netya so that neither of them would stumble into the other, and tapped Kin on the back of the neck with the tip of his spear. The wolf growled and whirled around, and as soon as his attention was diverted Netya hopped forward and tapped him a second time on the flank. Confused and angry, Kin rounded on her one last time, then seemed to realise the futility of his position. One spear had been enough to keep him at bay, but two proved impossible for him to deal with.
Netya allowed herself a proud smile, easing out of her stance and propping her spear up at her side as the young man reverted from the shape of his wolf and slumped back on the ground. She had certainly come a long way since the night she cowered in fear while Fern snapped this spear in half like a twig.
"Now imagine facing three times as many spears," Caspian said, offering Kin his hand and hauling him back to his feet. "That is how the Sun People fight. They are no match for a wolf's teeth and claws, so they use weapons that keep us at a distance and take away our advantage."
"Cowardly things," Kin growled.
"Cunning things," Caspian countered. "No man or woman has ever beaten a stronger foe by fighting them on even ground. We will not defeat the warriors of any rival clan unless we learn to fight with a cunning of our own." He picked up Kin's pole and pressed it back into the man's hands. "Do you understand now?"
Kin cast a furtive look to his companions, refusing to make eye contact. The gesture might have incurred a sharp blow from a less tolerant senior male, but Caspian only smiled patiently and waited for his charge to step back into line.
"Yes, Alpha," Kin ground out eventually.
Caspian's expression hardened, the patience suddenly dropping from his voice. "I am not your alpha. If you have one then it is Adel, not me." He winced as soon as the words had left his mouth, realising that, in contrast to his statement, he had spoken with an alpha's undeniable authority. He turned to Netya and leaned in close, lowering his voice to a whisper. "Will you stay for a while longer? They could use a second teacher."
"You seem to be doing wonderfully on your own," she replied, giving his forearm a squeeze.
"But every time they call me Alpha..." A conflicted look crossed his face. "That is not the person I want them to see me as."
Netya wanted to encourage him to press on by himself, but she knew Caspian was different from most men. Holding power over others made him uncomfortable. Perhaps that was precisely why he made a better leader than most, seeking always to do the right thing rather than whatever best served his pride. She moved her hand down to clasp his fingers, and gave him a nod.
"Very well. I can stay for a while."
He smiled with relief. "Thank you. Now the rest of you," he turned to the others, raising his voice again. "You see how Netya and I hold the spear? Try for yourselves, then we shall see who can fend off a wolf with their new weapon."
The six men spread apart into a loose group, each trying their best to mimic Caspian and Netya. Even Kin's begrudging efforts eventually gave way to genuine enthusiasm as the competitive nature of the young males reared its head, each one of them trying to outdo the others in mastering the new weapon first.
Netya followed Caspian's lead as he spent some time with each of them in turn, showing them how to set their feet and balance their poles correctly. It felt strange for her to be instructing grown men, many of whom towered over her by a head or more and dwarfed her small physique with their muscular bodies. They clearly did not favour her instruction as much as they did Caspian's, but after the first man she had been helping deftly knocked Kin's pole from his hands when they tried to spar the others quickly warmed up to
their second mentor.
"You were a warrior of the Sun People?" one of them questioned her as she guided his hands farther apart on the haft of his pole. His name was Eyan, a seldom-spoken mountain of a man who often found himself the butt of his brothers' jokes, both regarding his size and implicit lack of wits. But despite his towering height and tree trunk-thick body, Netya had found him among the more meek and respectful of Kin's small group.
"I was never a warrior, no," she replied. "Only a girl living in a village."
"Then who taught Caspian the spear?"
She paused. "I do not know. He understands a great many things, doesn't he?"
"I have my friend Khelt to thank for that," Caspian cut in as he walked over to check Eyan's stance, nodding his approval. "He was a late heir to an alpha who was already long in years. His father knew Khelt would have to take leadership of the pack while he was still young, so to prepare him he had his finest warriors, craftsmen, even seers teach him everything they knew. Of course, Khelt would rather have been running around on the plains than learning back at the outcrop, so most of the time that was exactly where he ended up. Since I was his closest friend, he brought me along to his lessons too, except I tended to be the one who stayed behind and listened after he ran off." He smiled wistfully. "Thankfully I was always there to remind him of all the things he missed in the years after."
"Alpha Khelt is a great man," Eyan observed.
Caspian clapped a hand on the young man's shoulder. Even he had to reach a little to get there. "As shall we all be, with a little practise." He leaned over in the other direction and gave Kin a sharp jab in the back with the blunt end of his spear, where the other male was in the shape of his wolf trying his luck a second time at circumventing the weapon of his partner. "Remember that learning to use a weapon also helps you understand how to fight against it. If you are ever forced to defend yourself against the Sun People, then think back to what you learn here. Think about the difficulties of using a spear, the things that threaten to wrest it from your grasp, the movements that make you trip over yourself. Then use those against your opponent."
