Wolf in Night

by Tara K. Harper

  Run them down. The hunt!

  “Yes,” Nori ground out. She was laid low in a wild gallop with two other chovas. “Ki’s team. Now!” Her violet eyes gleamed. She passed two more outriders as if they stood still, then another pair that jerked away, leaving them to the chase. The hunt-lust was a fire in her blood. Someone shouted to clear her way, but she barely noticed. She just plunged through another knot of riders who had started after Ki’s wagon and left them behind like moss.

  She didn’t know that her lips were wrinkled back, her teeth bared as she raced up on the side of Ki’s wild wagon. All she knew was that the prey was ahead, there, to the right, on the footboard by the driver while the wagon careened down the rootroad, swaying with its speed. She beat Wakje there by four heartbeats.

  Leanna clung to the jolting wood and gave her a terrified look. Then Nori reached out, caught the girl’s forearm, and jerked her across to the saddle. Her hands bruised the girl, but young as she was, Leanna was a child of the Wolven Guard. She went with the motion, wrapped her slim arm around the wolfwalker’s waist, and clung like a barney limpet. Nori swung away through the trees.

  A moment later, Ki’s wagon rod snapped free of its hitch. The driver went off the footboard like a fish on a pole and was dragged, arms-out, a full forty meters before he finally let go. Other cozar sprinted to drag him out of the way before any other teams panicked and crushed him.

  No one seemed to notice the tano that dragged itself up on top of Repa’s ruined wagon. One of its legs had been caught and pinched in the accordion folds of the ultralight panels, and now it crouched like a lepa, licking its wounded leg. Hunter pulled up beside B’Kosan, and as a knot of men tried to get Repa’s dnu to back out of the bushes he asked warily, “Should we help?”

  “With your shoulder?” B’Kosan snorted. “They’ve got it. Besides, too many hands will spook them worse.”

  B’Kosan raised his arm to wave a signal down the line, and the tano screeched and leapt. It hit B’Kosan’s mount like a mudsucker. The man reacted instantly. With one gloved hand, he caught the tano and flung it instinctively off his mount—

  Right into the Tamrani. The six-legged beast hit Hunter’s chest like a small, ham-sized spider. “What the—” Hunter swiped at the furred body, but it swarmed onto his neck like a rast. “Piss of a—” He started to grab it. Claws pierced flesh near his throat, just above his wounded shoulder. The blood-scent made the tano’s eyes gleam. It dug in, instead of fleeing.

  “Hunter, freeze,” cried Nori. Her voice was a knife through the melee. The Tamrani froze, his body half twisted, as his dnu skittered beneath him.

  Beside Nori, Wakje’s eyes narrowed. Then he caught the expression on her face. She was the predator now, focused on the tano. He reached out and transferred Leanna neatly to his own saddle. The wolfwalker was away almost before it was done.

  She eased her dnu close to Hunter’s. “Don’t move,” she snapped at the Tamrani, then at B’Kosan, whose dnu still skittered nearby. The tano raised its head and bared its fangs like a worlag. Instantly, Nori looked down and away, keeping her eyes hidden. The tano watched the wolfwalker with a hiss, then finally subsided.

  Kevinel Runitdown rode up. “Black Wolf, it’s right on his—”

  “I see it,” she cut in tersely. Rishte was growling loud in her mind, and she shoved the wolf back down. “No, don’t dismount,” she said to Hunter. “Stay in the saddle. Can you turn slowly—slowly to the front? Good. Now don’t stop riding. It’s got your blood-scent. It won’t let go, not for a while. Keep it to a walk and ride straight ahead.”

  He wasn’t about to argue. The tano’s claws now lightly pierced his neck around his throat and carotid. He managed, “I’m thinking that’s good advice—” The tano’s claws dug in harder, and he broke off.

  “And hush,” Nori added sharply. She almost snarled at B’Kosan as the chovas shrugged his apology. If someone really was after the Tamrani, not just after her and Payne, they could not have planned this better.

  Hunter slanted her a look, but her eyes weren’t unfocused. She was thinking like a scout, not a wolf. That, at least, was reassuring.

  Kevinel Runitdown eyed the Tamrani and the two small trickles of blood that were now running down his neck. “I’ll get Brean,” he said and spurred away, unaware that the tano rose and hissed after him.

  To Hunter’s credit, he rode quietly while the cozar line slowly stopped. Up the road, the Hafell reined in and slowed his dnu so that Hunter’s beast caught up. The tano bared its four fangs more clearly, but the Hafell made no sudden moves. After a few tense minutes, Brean was riding side by side with the wolfwalker and the Tamrani.

  The Hafell noted the tano’s perch and kept his voice calm. “Can you remove it?”

  Nori didn’t shake her head. “They don’t usually respond to humming.”

  Hunter opened his mouth to ask what humming was, and the tano hissed in his ear. One claw snapped out and hooked around his jaw. He closed his mouth abruptly.

  “Alright, then, can you kill it?” Brean asked.

  She studied the angles. “Probably not before it bites him.”

  Hunter slanted them another look. The Hafell caught his expression. “Don’t worry, Tamrani. If there’s a way to do it, we’ll save your skin. It’s a rich enough hide to warrant it.”

  Hunter muttered a curse under his breath at all nine moons on a solstice.

  Nori glanced at Brean. “What about getting Mian back here? The tano’s hers. It knows her voice, her hands. It might be more comfortable with her.”

  Brean didn’t quite give her a look of disbelief. He reminded himself that the Wolfwalker’s Daughter had been raised since birth with creatures like the tano. It probably hadn’t occurred to her that one didn’t usually expose a child to such dangers when they weren’t already caged. He said instead, “Mian is already under Trial Silence. Either way, I wouldn’t want her near that thing again till it’s calmed down. What about simply grabbing it?”

  Nori smiled without humor. “Even I am not that fast.” She shot Hunter a considering look. “We could let it ride.”

  The Hafell raised his eyebrows. “Let it ride?”

  She nodded. “Look at its legs and its eyes. It’s all spiked up right now. Give it half an hour, maybe more, and it will settle down on its own and go to sleep. They always do after they hunt. Then we pluck it off and put it away.”

  “You want him to ride for half an hour with that thing on his neck?”

  “Unless you have a better idea?”

  “Black Wolf, I don’t,” the Hafell said wryly. He looked back along the line, saw that the teams were being calmed and reharnessed. Ki’s wagon had been pushed to the side of the road, and the Ell and others now examined it and the wreck of Repa’s wagon. One didn’t often see such damage. Cozar wagons were remarkably strong for their light weight. With more than eight hundred years to experiment, they had perfected the use of laminated thinwood, coated chancloth, and their formulas for fish glue and proteins. The spring-loaded panels on the sides and tops of each wagon were light as silk, and strong enough to snap back into place even after a hard bash. But even with their design and strength, one of the few things they couldn’t withstand was a direct collision or a roll.

  Now there was wood and chancloth debris all over the road, not to mention smashed boxes, limp bags, and the personal gear that Repa Ripping White had carried. The vari birds had been recaptured and were being put back in their cages, but they wouldn’t lay again for ninans. Mian was lucky the expensive chameleon birds hadn’t been trampled. She was luckier still that the Ell was still looking over the wreckage, and had yet to address the girl. From the quick survey the Hafell had made, Repa’s wagon would have to be completely rebuilt. Ki’s wagon and the other one could be repaired, possibly even at the next circle, but neither job would be easy.

  Damaged wagons, tainted lice wash, an attack inside the circle, and now this? Brean shot Nori a sharp look. The wolfwalker had reacte
d too quickly when the teams panicked, almost as if she had expected it. He looked ahead to Mian. The girl, perched behind one of the outriders, tried not to cry as she looked at the damage, but her small face was pinched and pale. It ought to be. The Tamrani’s family wielded power that reached across the nine settled counties. Should he die among the cozar as a result of Mian’s pet . . . The Hafell glanced at Black Wolf and then back at Mian. He had thought the wolfwalker’s words last ninan had been harsh enough for the girl to take them to heart. This time, it would be Trial judgment, not Black Wolf’s, and like a grave, the words of the council were final.

  XXVIII

  Decisions are easy. Anyone can make decisions.

  It’s making the decisions stick, that’s difficult.

  Making them come out right in the end,

  Now that’s the real challenge.

  —Jonha Thalker, in The Chevres Play, traditional staging

  The claws that pinched into Hunter’s neck were hot needles that kept on shifting. His dnu’s pace was a dog-slow walk along the halted caravan, but he was starting to sweat at the tension. Drivers and other cozar watched him warily as he passed. All it would take was one man waving his arms, one woman to scream at the tano, one dog to lunge, and the well-grooved fangs would snap down.

  He was almost ready for it when it happened. One of the outriders wheeled her dnu unexpectedly. The tano screeched and half rose on his neck. Nori reacted instantly, shouldering the chovas dnu aside. Then the Hafell jumped in between them. “Watch out,” Brean snapped.

  “Sorry,” maSera returned quickly. The woman backed her dnu away, but Nori stared after her. MaSera was out of Sidisport and was friends with B’Kosan and Murton. And a woman had been in their wagon.

  Brean caught her taut expression, but thought it was for Hunter’s safety. “He’ll be lucky to make it five more minutes, Black Wolf, let alone half an hour,” he said sharply. “I can see more riders coming up from behind, and there are ring-runners ahead on the southbound track.”

  Nori took a breath. “Then there is one other option.”

  The Hafell had been watching the Tamrani with sharp eyes. Now he looked back at Nori. She had rarely spoken to him so much before, and he wasn’t sure how to judge her. He waited.

  Her voice was flat. “I can try to call it off him.”

  She had his attention now, and Hunter’s. Brean frowned. “I thought you said they don’t respond well to humming?”

  “They don’t. I would try to call a prey tone, like a wounded jackbraw or a young pelan, not hum to soothe it. It might be willing to jump to someone else if its hunting instincts were triggered.”

  Hunter started to speak, but stopped himself in time. The Hafell was already shaking his head. “No. No, Black Wolf, I cannot allow it.”

  Nori held up her hand to halt him. “I’ll wear a double jerkin and a second pair of gloves under full gauntlets. We wrap my neck and upper arms with leather, and someone rides close by with the cage.”

  “No,” Hunter said clearly. The tano’s head whipped around to his jaw, and its claws stiffened on his neck.

  “Quiet, Tamrani,” the cozar snapped. “Black Wolf—” he started.

  She cut him off. “Hafell, I acknowledge your braid, and I take this Choice from you.”

  Brean stopped midword. Hunter stared at Nori. For a moment, her violet eyes looked almost frightened, as if she couldn’t believe what she’d said. Then she raised her chin stubbornly and met the Hafell’s gaze.

  With the tano on his carotid, Hunter could do nothing. He had heard of the Choice, but he’d never heard the actual words spoken. Nori had just taken the duties of the Hafell onto her shoulders for the task of caging the tano. The words had been simple, but the reality was not. A Hafell was, basically, a second Ell. He was responsible for the safety and needs of the entire caravan, not just for the one person who was in trouble at the moment. Among the cozar, a Hafell had the authority of a Lloroi. He could command someone into danger, cut someone out of the train, judge, sentence, banish, even order a death. Any action he took or refused to take was judged with full hindsight, and not tempered with might-have-beens. The only real difference between a Hafell and an Ell was that the Ell’s wagon was the head of the train, while the Hafell’s wagon was last.

  With her words, Nori had just become the Hafell for this task. Brean could still step in as his duties required, to fix the mess she might make of the job, but the task now belonged to Nori. Should Hunter—or any other cozar or rider—be endangered or hurt by her decision or her actions, she could forfeit everything. She would stand Trial anyway, even if it was simply the Hafell judging the way things worked out. The Choice was always judged.

  The Hafell looked at her unflinching expression. She was afraid, yes, but she wasn’t backing down. And there was . . . conviction in her eyes, he realized. It was not something he’d seen before when she had faced elders in the past. But here, now, she was as certain as her mother. He waited a long moment for her to take back her words, but she said nothing. Finally, he said quietly, “You have a second Choice, maDione. Make sure it is not out of pride.”

  It was a deliberate use of the name she’d inherited, and she blinked. He was offering her an out. In spite of her words, he would let her back away without risk to herself, without trying to step into the shoes of her legendary mother. No one could truly be like Ember Dione maMarin; Nori and Payne knew that better than most. The Hafell had just reminded her of that in the clearest way he could.

  Nori stared at the man without seeing him. Grey and yellow stirred in her mind as she reached inside herself. It might have been the yellow taint that did it, the sense of power behind Aiueven eyes. It might have been Payne’s words from before. It might even have been the grey strength of the wolves, but she realized with clarity it was not the tano she feared, but that one of her kind was in danger.

  She knew without looking how the tano’s ruff bristled against Hunter’s thick hair. How the venom sacs pulsed up inside the hollow claws. How the dark blood trickled down and mixed with the sweat on Hunter’s weathered neck. She met Brean’s gaze steadily. “I see no second Choice.”

  The older man regarded her for another moment, but although her violet-grey eyes seemed to glint in the sun, they were clear and her voice was calm. Finally he nodded. “The Choice is yours, as is the judgment.” He added softly, “May the speed of the wolves be in your hands.” He stated simply, “You have needs.”

  “Work gloves. Medium, but broad-palmed, with the fingers cut out.” Quickly, she tugged on her own gloves and held up one hand so he could judge her size. “Also venge gauntlets or work gauntlets, again with the fingers cut out. A venge jerkin, yours or one size smaller than yours. A leather wrap for my neck. Overwraps for my arms. A smithy apron or venge chaps that will cover my legs but leave me free to ride. And a towel with a deep pile.”

  He frowned, not understanding. “Would bandages not be better?”

  “It’s for the tano, not me, to tie onto my front to help its claws tangle as soon as it leaps.”

  The Hafell nodded and reined away. Nori glanced at Hunter. “And no,” she told him evenly, as his green eyes glinted. “You don’t have a choice, either.” She dropped back at the tano’s hissing, and he could only glare as she left.

  She used a knife to cut the fingers off her gloves. Then she let herself reach toward the grey. She could feel the taint in her mind. It was watching her, almost stretching toward her as she tried instead to grasp the grey.

  The wolf had been moving along the road, paralleling her as she rode. Now his mental voice grew stronger, clearer, and she knew he loped near the barrier bushes, just inside the forest. She closed her eyes and gathered her mind. If this was to work, she would need all the speed she could get. Rishte, can you open the packsong to me?

  Danger, threat, danger—

  Aye, she answered. I need your reflexes, your instincts. Will you help me?

  She could feel him reaching out to her.
There was an underlying excitement in his voice from the racing dnu and wagons. In spite of the damage, in spite of the danger to Hunter, in spite of what she was going to try to do, Nori echoed that animal joy. It was the first seductive hedonism, the one most often fought by wolfwalkers to keep their human selves separate, but she didn’t draw back from it.

  She caught a glimpse of grey as he came through one of the barrier channels. For a moment, their minds meshed as his golden eyes met hers. Packmate, trouble.

  His nostrils flared, and she wondered if he could smell the tano through her nose or if he saw it through her eyes.

  Sharp venom, burning venom, Rishte identified. The death-fang from the shadows.

  “Aye,” she breathed softly. Hunter’s gaze flickered, and she knew he had glimpsed the wolf before Rishte slunk back into the forest. She said softly, “Aye, your chances just improved.”

  A few minutes later, Payne, Wakje, and another outrider wrapped Nori in as much metal and leather mesh as they could lash on her and still give her movement. The outrider handed the tano’s cage over to Payne, and Wakje got out a knife.

  Hunter stiffened, but Payne said dryly, “Don’t worry, Tamrani. He won’t skewer the beast right on your throat—not unless he has to.” Behind them, knots of cozar watched from a distance, some with binoculars, as others cleared debris.

  Nori ignored them. “Watch its thighs,” she told her brother softly. “Its eyes will stay on me, but its thighs will start to flex when it’s getting ready to leap.” She got a small strip of metal from her pocket and fit it onto a small, U-shaped piece of wood. “It will dig in hard,” she added to Hunter. “Don’t flinch, or it may not actually leave you. Even to a tano, a palt in the hand is worth two in the bush.” She checked her gauntlets one more time. “When it hits me, I’ll try to catch it around the neck or arms. It’s got carry nerves there, like a kitten.”

  She closed her eyes for a moment. Rishte?

  Hereherehere.