Catch a Wolf

by A. Katie Rose

  Within the protective circle of Kel’Ratan’s arms sat Ly’Tana.

  Blood still oozed from the gash in her forehead and crept in a small red river down her cheek. Her red-gold hair, now a dark brown with river water, lay plastered against her neck and shoulders. Where it touched, blood turned her tendrils black. Her skin, normally a light almond shade, now appeared an unhealthy pale yellow.

  Yet, invariably, her green eyes fastened on me.

  Her bright emerald eyes alight with life and pain rested on me with love and laughter.

  I grinned. With the aid of my two living crutches, I limped to her. I had no use of either hand, but I needed none. Staring up into her flashing eyes, I kissed her with my gaze. Her lips pursed in an answering kiss before they curved into a faint smile.

  “Ly’Tana, my love,” I murmured. “Care to dance?”

  Her smile widened into a wan grin. “Not tonight, dear,” she said. “I have a headache.”

  We chuckled together for a moment. With the adrenaline rush past, my body began to ache in earnest. White fire coursed through my veins, setting every beat of my pulse ablaze. Nausea and dizziness now made their presence known and felt. Had I not had Witraz’s strong shoulder, I know I’d fall on my face. Peering up into Ly’Tana’s eyes, I suspected her skull felt like it was going to split.

  “How do you feel?” I asked muzzily.

  “Oh,” she breathed. “Like I been rode hard, put up wet.”

  My laugh almost dropped me to the ground. Kel’Ratan tightened his arms about her, his mustache bristling more stiffly than usual. Were his eyes moist or was that a figment from my dizzying nausea?

  He scowled. “She almost died,” he snapped.

  That silenced the low-voiced talk and my laughter. Witraz stiffened. I exchanged a long slow glance with him and gazed back up at Ly’Tana. She smiled faintly and offered a wry half-shrug.

  “If you hadn’t gotten to her so quick—” Kel’Ratan choked off.

  “Relax, Kel’Ratan,” Ly’Tana said, squeezing his arms about her waist with her hands. “I’ll be fine.”

  “You were dead, girl,” he growled. His fierce intense blue gaze never left me. “If you’d missed, or been slower—”

  He glanced up, jerking his chin upward where Bar circled lazily, his own eagle’s eyes watching us, his ears perked to listen to every word. “If Bar hadn’t been there, she’d be dead right now.”

  “Well—” I began but Kel’Ratan cut me off with a savage scowl.

  “She wasn’t breathing when Bar took her from you,” he said, his voice thick. “I laid her face down and pushed the water from her lungs. She still didn’t breathe. She had no heartbeat. In panic, I hit her hard between her shoulders.”

  “Bloody hell,” Ly’Tana murmured. “That’s why my back hurts.”

  “Only then did she cough and choke and start breathing again.”

  I quirked a brow. “Then I reckon she owes her life to all three of us.”

  “That’s not—”

  Unable to use either hand, I scowled to silence him. He shut his mouth and looked away from me, staring down at the dirt and rocks under his stirrup. “I know,” I said quietly. “But she’s alive, Kel’Ratan. Against all odds, we are all still alive.”

  “How’s her horse, m’lord?” Rannon asked. “Was he injured?”

  By the expression on Ly’Tana’s face, I knew the news wasn’t good. Her pale expression didn’t change, but tears tracked down her cheeks, joining the river water that still streamed down from her hair. Kel’Ratan sniffed, his lips, almost buried under the thick red mustache, pursed.

  “He’s hurt pretty good,” he said gruffly. “Dead lame. He’s over yonder with Rygel’s black and Raine’s bay. Alun is caring for him.”

  “Across the river?” I asked.

  “Yes.” He nodded.

  “Can we cross it?”

  “Barring any more earthquakes, yes.”

  I dreaded the idea of walking chest deep across the river. Maybe they’d let me stay on this side of the river for a while. For maybe a day or ten, until I felt a little better. Sitting down, or maybe even lying down, sounded very attractive.

  Don’t even think it.

  I sighed. That was a mistake. Pain shot through my chest and shoulder, setting off a chain reaction in other areas also battered by the pounding given by the river and rocks.

  “Witraz, put him on your horse.”

  I didn’t even realize Kel’Ratan spoke of me until Rannon took Witraz’s place under my shoulder, Arianne disappeared and the piebald stallion stepped up.

  “Sorry, but you aren’t strong enough,” I murmured as Rannon steered me toward the fur-covered saddle.

  “Oh, I think we’re strong enough, m’lord,” Witraz said from behind me.

  Before I could react, the two warriors ducked their shoulders and caught me low, then literally heaved me upward. Not wishing to topple headfirst over the piebald’s off side, I grabbed the pommel and lifted my leg. That set me squarely in Witraz’s saddle. I did, however, gasp with pain, earning me a worried glance from Ly’Tana.

  “No worries, Your Highness,” Witraz said cheerfully. “He’s a tough nut.”

  I managed to stay upright with an effort. The piebald’s tense ears told me he didn’t like me there.

  Kel’Ratan turned his bay around, and at a careful walk, set the pace downhill, back along the narrow trail. Left and Right, with identical salutes to me, turned their mounts to follow directly behind them.

  Witraz took up his horse’s reins and began to walk. I turned my head, quite a feat considering my dizziness, to find Arianne and Tor once more on the grey with Corwyn leading. He offered me a half-salute and no smile. Rannon vaulted into his horse’s saddle to ride directly behind me, while Yuri and Yuras once more rode rear guard.

  The piebald pinned his ears and tossed his head, clearly not liking the situation. I’d a hundred pounds or more on the lean, broad-shouldered Witraz and his horse didn’t like the addition. I hoped he wasn’t thinking of bucking me off. In my current state, I’d never stay on.

  Witraz merely hissed through his teeth and the stallion settled immediately. Belatedly, I realized that none of the Kel’Hallans ever hit or struck their horses. Any disciplinary action, while few, consisted of words, clucks or hisses. While they all rode with spurs, I had yet to see a warrior use them.

  Witraz led his stallion down the incline and into the now calm river. While the river itself had returned to its peaceful route, it now flowed through and over carnage. Broken trees and huge rocks filled the previous quiet course. Its bed had been altered radically.

  The cliff top, having fallen into the depths, formed a new churning set of rapids. Where once the river’s graceful turn and bend had sent the river peacefully downstream, now the rapids had grown by a hundred rods or so. While I didn’t think we could traverse the newly formed rapids, Kel’Ratan found a new ford just above them. Once across, we were forced to ride along the far side among the broken rock to the game trail and up onto the plains.

  The water came up chest high on Witraz. He flashed me a quick grin as the cold river soaked me to the thigh. The flow, while swifter than previous, wasn’t as dangerous as the earthquake’s effect. None of the horses, nor people, had any difficulty in traversing the once deadly river.

  Witraz trotted up the incline of the other side, the lower half of his strawberry hair wet and everything below his chest streaming water. Behind us, Corwyn loped his gelding up the steep incline, towing the frightened grey mare and her spooked passengers. Rannon’s horse kicked a bit when he reached the top, a quick buck before settling down, his hide drenched. Yuri and Yuras galloped over the top before reining sharply in, their heads turned over their shoulders as they watched our backtrail for unwanted additions.

  Leaving Ly’Tana’s stricken buckskin, Alun ran forward. He didn’t help her out of Kel’Ratan’s lap as much as pick Ly’Tana off it to lie in his strong arms. Ly’Tana didn’t protest, but
wrapped her arms about his neck. She shut her eyes, clearly pained by the movement.

  My two crutches, Witraz and Rannon, caught my weight as I slid down from the wet piebald. While they tried to be gentle, too many places on my body felt either bent or broken. Without their aid, I might simply have dropped to the ground in a disorganized heap and curled into a fetal position. Taking on much of my weight with their arms under my shoulders, they helped me to gingerly sit in the shade of a large oak. The only tree in the large meadow this side of the river.

  I leaned back on my relatively uninjured right shoulder, while my badly damaged left burned, bled and throbbed. I grasped my left arm with my right hand, trying to find a position where it didn’t hurt so much and hold it still. Fortunately, the sun’s power warmed me despite my chilling dunk in the river. My clothes and hair, still wringing wet, began to slowly dry in the late summer heat.

  From across the meadow, the wolf pup’s cries blew across the breeze sharp and clear. In the last half hour of near death for both Ly’Tana and I, I’d forgotten the poor infant. He cried from the saddlebag I had pushed him into to keep him safe and my hands clear.

  Arianne shoved Witraz aside to kneel beside me. Her hand on my brow, she peered anxiously into my eyes as though she had the slightest clue as to how to heal.

  “Where does it hurt?” she asked.

  I chuckled and caught my breath. “Where doesn’t it?”

  Alun dropped to his knees, Ly’Tana still in his arms. As though the slightest movement might strike her dead, he slowly and carefully set her in the shade beside me. The others dismounted their horses, loosened saddle girths and set the animals to grazing.

  After the hard work of the last hour, no few beasts walked to the river for a drink, Rufus among them. The pup, alone, frightened and hungry, howled.

  “Do me a favor.” I cupped Arianne’s chin in my sort of healthy right hand. “Go fetch the kid, will you? He’s hungry and scared silly.”

  Arianne nodded. Hiking up her skirts, she ran across the meadow toward Rufus. Fortunately, he ambled back up the incline from his drink, shortening the distance. Belatedly, I realized my error in sending her. Rufus hadn’t mellowed at all in the last several weeks and his I-don’t-much-like-you attitude hadn’t changed. The Kel’Hallans had gotten very good, and very nimble, at dodging his teeth and hooves. Would he bite her? Kick her? Her tiny body and his great feet….

  I straightened in rising alarm.

  Arianne discovered her small size and his large height didn’t match up very well. She couldn’t reach my saddlebags much less the crying whelp inside. Rufus looked down on her from his great height, as though at an interesting new specimen he’d never encountered before.

  Without the slightest fear, she grabbed him by the bridle and all but dragged him to a nearby boulder. With short words and shoves she positioned him to her liking. Rufus endured her pushing and orders with a resigned patience. He turned his blazed head to watch her curiously, his reins hanging to his knees. Climbing on the rock, she could fetch the pup from his leather prison.

  With a slap on his rump, she sent Rufus on his way. She jumped clumsily down, the wolf whelp overflowing her small arms. Snorting, Rufus ambled away, his nose to the grass.

  I sagged back, in shock.

  “She’s no threat to him, m’lord,” Witraz murmured. “He knows that. He’s incredibly intelligent.”

  “Like you have to tell me,” I muttered.

  Bar flew in, his great wings cupping the breeze to slow his descent. Settling onto the grassy earth, he furled his wings over his shoulders. With a chirp that sounded like concern, to my ears, he ambled toward the tree and his beloved mistress.

  She managed a smile and a weak flip of her hand to him. He shook his neck feathers, chirped at me and walked to the river to get his own drink, his lion tail flipping quietly back and forth. I had no idea what he might have said to me, and didn’t care enough to ask Ly’Tana to translate.

  Kel’Ratan returned from another examination of Ly’Tana’s horse, shaking his head.

  “He’ll be all right with time,” he said gruffly. “Unfortunately, we don’t have that luxury.”

  “Brutal will get another army together,” Ly’Tana said wearily, leaning her battered head against the tree trunk and closing her eyes. “This time he won’t try to negotiate.”

  “Rufus is the strongest,” I murmured, imitating Ly’Tana. The world spinning and dipping made my nausea that much worse. While shutting my eyes didn’t help matters, at least I didn’t have to look at the world spinning and dipping. “He can carry us both. We can go on, stay ahead of him.”

  “That may very well be,” Kel’Ratan snapped, moving about restlessly. “But we can only move as fast as Mikk and at his pace a crippled snail will overtake us.”

  “Maybe we should just shoot him,” Tor offered brightly.

  Knowing how Ly’Tana felt about her horse, I stiffened, expecting her female fury to descend.

  “I’ll shoot you first, Tor,” Ly’Tana replied tiredly. “Then I’ll rid myself of your damn mouth.”

  “He’s just a horse,” Tor said, his tone now sullen.

  I don’t know who did the deed, but someone cuffed him sharply. I distinctly heard the smack of flesh on bone, Tor’s yelp of pain and the quick scurry of his feet as he fled.

  “Much better,” Ly’Tana sighed.

  I both heard and felt her slide sideways and downward until her head pillowed on my lap. I took my strong right hand off my left arm and cupped her still-wet cheek.

  “Very much better,” she murmured on a soft gust of breath.

  “And what will we do with you two?” Kel’Ratan demanded. “Neither of you are fit to ride a donkey.”

  “Oh, please feel free to shoot me,” I said. Sleep, or unconsciousness, hovered close. My head had taken almost as much of a pounding as Ly’Tana’s. “Put me out of my misery.”

  “Me, too,” Ly’Tana muttered sleepily.

  “Don’t you dare.” Arianne tried for a growl but what emerged sounded more of a low-voiced plea.

  I opened one eye blearily. With the wolf filling her arms, she looked lost and as frightened as the pup. He nuzzled under her chin, licking with a tiny tongue as though trying to comfort.

  “He’s trying to be funny, girl.” Kel’Ratan could growl effectively when he wanted to.

  Soothed by the quiet breeze, the distant river and the low-voiced conversations, I drifted.

  A loud, vibrating whistling sound, as though gravel propelled by a fierce wind tore through the treetops, startled me awake. I sat up, jolting Ly’Tana and all my various aches into crying aloud.

  Kel’Ratan, squatting nearby, jumped to his feet and drew his sword. Arianne tightened her hold on the pup, looking around, fear thinning her lips and widening her glorious grey-blue eyes. Alun, Rannon and Witraz, having wandered a short distance away to keep weather eye on the horses and potential danger, also seized steel and ran toward the lone tree. The twins, just behind its bulk, stepped close to flank Ly’Tana. I didn’t see Yuri, Yuras or Tor.

  The sound grew louder, sharper, filling the air with its vibration. I looked up. Bar galloped back from the river, his wings half-furled, his huge beak wide as he gazed upward. Whatever it was, it came from the sky. I started to my feet, my shoulder and ribs protesting mightily.

  A dark object blew past the tree and struck the earth. Grass and dirt flew up in a shower, cascading around and concealing the form that hit the earth like a meteor.

  Rygel’s body maintained its forward momentum even after hitting ground, his legs running at a fast stagger to keep his feet under him. His black cloak flying like a banner, his arms flailed to keep some semblance of balance. He finally arrived at a jangling halt several rods past the tree.

  With the eyes of every man, woman, horse and griffin on him, Rygel walked back, brushing dirt and grass from his clothing. He froze, his hand on his shoulder to straighten his cloak, our condition registering at last. His h
ands on his hips, he scowled, his wild mane of blonde hair lifting under the light meadow breeze.

  “Just what the hell did I miss?” he demanded.

  With a low cry, Arianne dropped the pup on my legs and launched herself toward him. Throwing herself into his arms with enough force to make him stagger, she began to cry. He held her close for a moment, his tawny eyes shut in either relief or pain.

  I sat back as the Kel’Hallans returned swords to sheaths. My wolf child sat down and whined until I seized him by his ruff and snuggled him next to Ly’Tana. There he quieted when her hand reached out to rub him. The horses dropped heads to graze and Bar sat down, coiling his tail around his talons. Its black furry tip twitched spasmodically. Ly’Tana groaned, her arm around the wolf, and buried her face in my belly.

  In a very un-Arianne like motion, Arianne stepped away and suddenly smacked Rygel hard on the arm.

  “Where the bloody hell have you been?” she screeched. “I’ve been worried sick!”

  Rygel yelped in pain and clutched his arm. “Damn, woman,” he gasped. “Careful, I’m injured.”

  I lifted my head to peer more closely.

  Blood oozed down from a cut over his left eye, another over his cheekbone. More blood stained his tunic over his right shoulder, the arm he clutched in pain. Sweat had dampened his hair into dark yellow tendrils that clung to his face and neck. Only then did I notice his exhaustion, his pale pallor, the deep lines drawn around his mouth.

  “What happened?” I asked. “Ja’Teel get the better of you?”

  Rygel grimaced, taking a now apologetic Arianne into his healthy left arm. “He’s a fine swordsman,” he admitted. “I couldn’t get past his guard. I only outlasted him by being more stubborn than he.”

  “You still didn’t kill him?” Kel’Ratan roared.

  Rygel winced and looked away. He shook his head without speaking.

  “What the bloody hell good are you then?” Kel’Ratan stalked toward him, waving his arms. “You can’t kill that bloody devil-boy, you can’t heal worth a tinker’s damn and you’re never around when we need you. Why don’t you just fly away so we don’t have to feed you anymore?”