Catch a Wolf

by A. Katie Rose

  “Wincing is permissible. You can check, it’s in all the books.”

  While Ly’Tana slept in Arianne’s arms, Rygel lay curled up in the grass, dead to the world. I leaned back against the tree to catch as much rest as I could, I idly watched as Kel’Ratan and his pair of big nurses rolled Rygel onto his back. Stripping him of his cloak and tunic, Kel’Ratan fairly hummed as he stitched and salved his unconscious patient. Occasionally he asked for and received items from his kit, busy repairing my brother.

  Like an eel, I slid sideways and down, into the soft, sweet-smelling grass. Shutting my eyes, I thought I just might manage to sleep a little.

  * * *

  “Someone tried to kill her,” Kel’Ratan fumed.

  Riding through the late afternoon, after resting our injured for the two hours I let Kel’Ratan talk me into, we rode not at a trot or canter, but at a fast walk.

  Ly’Tana, after sleeping the entire two hours, woke feeling almost her old self again. Though Rygel hadn’t healed her completely, her head wound ceased bleeding, and her pain, she said, wasn’t more than an irritation. Her almond skin regained its healthy tone.

  Mikk all but danced under her, wanting to run. Only the state of mine and Rygel’s health kept us from the faster pace he requested. Rygel, his right arm also in a sling, needed far more than two hours of rest.

  His chin bounced on his chest as he rode, dozing, his black gelding trailing Kel’Ratan’s stallion with no guidance from Rygel. Alun kept a watchful eye on him, making sure he didn’t fall out of his saddle. Should Rygel’s slack body slide toward the left or right, Alun’s hand steered him upright.

  Witraz, as though bound to my side with a sturdy chain, kept a watchful eye on me. Though I didn’t drowse as I rode, the constant jostling of Rufus’s steps kept me in a constant state of pain. A concoction of Rygel’s kept the nausea at bay, but I felt horribly weak and very much in danger of falling out of my saddle.

  Ly’Tana turned an irritated glare on her cousin. “Don’t be ridiculous,” she snapped. She fingered her gold torque about her slender neck. “It was an earthquake. An act of nature.”

  “Oh, sure,” he retorted. “A freak act of nature the moment you ride into the river alone. Give me a break.”

  “You’re so bloody superstitious.”

  “Maybe you should learn a few superstitions. They’ll keep you alive.”

  “Oh, blow it out your—”

  “He’s right.”

  Ly’Tana rounded on me in a whirl of red-gold hair and feminine fury. Turned in her saddle, she rested her hand on her horse’s cream rump as she glared at me. “What do you know?” she demanded.

  “I heard it.”

  Her green glare halted. Kel’Ratan, Rannon and Alun stared at me. Even Rygel woke and lifted his head to peer blearily across, trying to focus.

  “Heard it?”

  I dropped my reins on Rufus’s neck to tap my head with my finger. “In here.”

  “What was it?” Kel’Ratan asked.

  I couldn’t shrug, so instead I tipped my head sideways, trying to find the words to describe the evil snarl of rage I heard the instant I heaved Ly’Tana into Bar’s talons. Bar himself, having trotted out ahead of the group, turned back to better hear what I said.

  “Hate,” I answered slowly. “Death. Someone or something is really pissed that Ly’Tana escaped it.”

  “What do you think it is?”

  I knew it wasn’t the voice I occasionally heard in my head, but I wasn’t about to tell them that. I dared not enlighten them. Then I wouldn’t be alone in thinking I was slowly growing insane.

  “You’re hardly insane.”

  “Something very powerful,” I said. “Something not of this world.”

  “Targeting me?” Ly’Tana’s voice sounded very small.

  I nodded. “Targeting you.”

  “Why me?”

  “I don’t know. However, I think we should find out.”

  “Before it kills me.”

  “Yes.”

  “She is also well loved and protected.”

  “By whom?”

  “Tell them that.”

  “But,” I said slowly. “You are also well loved and protected.”

  Ly’Tana and Kel’Ratan exchanged a glance. “How do you know?”

  “Tell them I told you.”

  I stammered, looking away, tripping over my tongue. Caught between the truth and my reluctance to speak it, I said nothing. They’ll think me crazy. I can’t tell them I’m hearing voices in my head. I am crazy. I have to be.

  “Raine?”

  “Er.” I coughed. “My sight.”

  For the first time I heard humor deep within the mysterious voice in my head.

  “Big weenie.”

  While I could see from their faces they didn’t quite believe me, they at least dropped the inquisition. I always felt grateful for the smallest of favors.

  “Sooner or later, they’ll know about me.”

  “Let it be later.”

  As though hearing the exchange, Witraz watched me curiously. Embarrassed, I could only shake my head at him.

  Behind me, Arianne cooed over the pup. Without another hand with which to hold him, I elected Arianne as his caretaker. Corwyn returned to his post as guide, once more leading the grey mare by her reins. That left Arianne’s hands free to hold him. She needed them, for he filled both, arms included. Tor, riding pillion behind her, now found the wolf fascinating. I could hear his giggles as he reached around Arianne to tickle and play with the pup. Yuri and Yuras currently rode rear guard, leaving Tor alone and bored, save for the wolf baby.

  “How will we find out who or what is trying to kill her?” Kel’Ratan demanded staring at me fiercely, as though I alone held all the answers.

  “Find a priest.”

  Startled, I didn’t realize I spoke aloud until the words left my mouth. “A priest?”

  Now I garnered the attention of everyone save Left and Right, riding van guard and the blonde boys, riding rear guard. Even Arianne and Tor ceased their giggles over the wolf. Bar stared at me, his ears perked. The entire column ground to a halt. Ly’Tana reined her stallion around and nudged him up beside me. Knee to knee, she tried to cover her small hand over my big one on my reins.

  “What do you know?” she asked softly.

  I fumbled, panicked. “Nothing,” I said hastily. “I just thought—you know—er, if something, um, supernatural were around, a priest might help.”

  “Nice save.”

  Ly’Tana leaned over in a way I didn’t much like, staring hard into my eyes. “You’re hiding something.”

  “Halleluiah,” Arianne said from down the line. “At last someone else sees that.”

  Trapped, I tried to smile. “Don’t be absurd. What would I know? I wouldn’t hide anything from you.”

  “Oh, please,” she snapped. “Who do you think I am? Your sister?”

  “Hey, now.”

  With her fair lips thinned and an emerald edge in her eyes, Ly’Tana backed her stallion. Turning him, she once more led the way. Kel’Ratan followed her, his mustache bristling indignantly as he, too, eyed me with suspicion. The column once more traveled forward. I grit my teeth.

  “You’re getting me into trouble.”

  “You don’t need my help for that.”

  “Tell me who the hell you are!”

  “You are my son.”

  Fury roared through me. I fought to keep from showing it, staring hard between Rufus’s ears, my eyes straight ahead. I forced my face into calm neutrality, but I knew if anyone looked into my eyes, those weird orbs would betray me.

  “You are not my father. My father is dead.”

  “Nonetheless, you are my son.”

  “What do you want from me?”

  “Turn yourself into a wolf and you’ll know.”

  “Never.”

  “You are both wolf and man. Deal with it.”

  I grit my teeth hard. My pain, forgotten i
n the last moments, reared its ugly head. I used it, reveled in it, let it claim me. By concentrating on the hot throbbing that coursed through my veins with every beat of my pulse, I was able to calm the daemon before he got loose and ran amok. He yanked, screaming, against his chain, wanting his freedom. I breathed deep, finding my calm center, asking the disciplined warrior deep inside me, deeper than the daemon, to rise and conquer.

  Little by little, breath by breath, the daemon quieted, and retreated, talons sheathing, fangs once more hidden behind a shut mouth. I defeated it yet again. How long before it slips its collar and rampages loose?

  That’s the last thing I need, I thought, morose. I may know I’m pissed at the mysterious voice in my head, but to the people riding alongside me I was angry for no apparent reason. Only crazy people got angry for no reason. Crazy men elicited no end of stares and whispered comments. Gods above and below. I reckoned there was more than enough of that already.

  “M’lord?” Witraz asked. “Are you all right?”

  Not trusting myself to speak, I nodded shortly and took yet another deep breath. My calm center steadied, took over control. I scrubbed the sweat from my face with my free hand.

  Yuri cantered down the line with the news the wolves still followed.

  Of course they did. My day could not possibly be complete without wolves, loose daemons, and sidelong glances to torment me.

  “What else is new,” I muttered sourly.

  * * *

  Rygel nudged me with his toe.

  I grumbled, dragging my blanket close over my shoulder, trying to wrap sleep about me along with it. My pain kept me awake most of the night, tossing and trying to find a place to lie where the hot throbbing didn’t reach. Only when the stars dimmed did I finally drop into something resembling rest. Until, a mere few hours later, at breaking daylight, Rygel came calling.

  His toe nudged again. “Time to get healed.”

  “Go ’way,” I mumbled thickly.

  “You’re slowing us down, nitwit,” Rygel said. “We have to ride faster than the crawl you’re forcing us to.”

  I snarled wordlessly. The pup, cuddled under the blanket against my chest, mewled in sleepy protest. He wasn’t a morning wolf, either.

  “Just heal him as he sleeps, Rygel,” said Ly’Tana.

  “That takes all the fun out of waking him up.”

  Now how could she possibly think that was funny? I cursed roundly.

  “Don’t be such a wuss,” Rygel said.

  “Now cease aggravating him, Rygel,” Kel’Ratan said.

  I silently blessed his taking my side. That was until his smarmy voice continued.

  “You know bloody well he’s impossible to live with when he’s cranky.”

  I invited them all to commit the anatomically impossible.

  “Raine!” Arianne’s shocked voice came through despite the various chuckles, laughs and giggles my invitation created.

  “Just heal him, Rygel,” Ly’Tana commanded through her laughter.

  “Touch me and I’ll kill you,” I snarled.

  “As my princess commands,” Rygel sighed. His shadow fell across my face as he bent down. “For future reference, you may be interested to know her orders counterman your threats.”

  “I’ll tear you limb from—”

  His icy cold magic hit me before I could respond with dire threats to his safety and life. Ice and flames raced through my veins, up through my heart and into my brain, freezing and setting me on fire at the same time. I shut my jaw against the shock, my body locked into a rigid pose, my fists clenched. I felt a pulling, a strange drawing sensation, as though the very blood in my body was sucked out. Dizziness, my hated enemy, swamped me. The hot throbbing in my shoulder and chest increased, nearly brought a scream—

  The next thing I knew, my wolf child whimpered, nuzzling against my chest, seeking my hand, my comfort. My head still spun, yet without the earlier horrid effects. I reached out a reasonably steady hand and brought him in close, under my neck. His warm nose touched my chin, his tiny tongue licked, tasting the salt of my sweat. I kicked the blanket off us both, suddenly too hot to have it on. I peered blearily about in the suddenly bright sunshine, my eyes squinted against the glare.

  “Raine?”

  I tilted my head upward. She knelt behind me, gazing down with a sweet smile. Her fingers brushed my oily hair off my brow.

  “How do you feel?” she asked.

  “Like killing him.”

  “Have at it, bro,” Rygel said from his spot squatting across the fire. He fought a yawn, sweat dampening his face and neck. Healing me had taken its toll, after all.

  I squinted at him. “Come here and I will.”

  “Big weenie.”

  Scooping the pup into my hand, I sat up, yawning. “What’s the time?”

  “Two hours past we should be riding,” Kel’Ratan snapped as Ly’Tana gracefully rose from her knees.

  “Noon, in other words,” Ly’Tana translated.

  “Don’t wait on me,” I said, stumbling to my feet.

  I staggered a bit, my legs not quite cooperating. I forced them under control at last, pin-wheeling my free arm for balance. The pup’s heavy weight didn’t help matters, though. I needed my other hand, still strapped close to my ribs, to maintain any semblance of balance.

  Ly’Tana reached to help me as I staggered sideways. She pushed me with both hands and a grunt, helping me to stand upright. Offering her a lopsided grin, I bent at the waist, endangering myself again, and bussed her cheek.

  Of course, she giggled, snatching her own kiss from my lips.

  The pup wiggled in my hand in a wolfish request to be put down. Regaining control of my recalcitrant body, I took a deep breath. The world steadied at last.

  Pain-free, I bent down and put the whelp on the ground. I watched, oddly fascinated by the lupine need for tidiness and the exact spot. Waddling some distance away, belly brushing through long grass and dead leaves, he sniffed, discarded that spot, sniffed again, then hustled on, tiny tail waving. Back and forth he wandered, that perfect moment calling him ever onward, nosing the ground. Finding, at last, that perfect location, he squatted.

  My wolf child thus occupied for the moment, I could attend to other matters. With no further need of bandages and slings, I sought to get them off. I reached behind me, trying with one arm to seize hold of my tunic. As Kel’Ratan pulled a fresh tunic over my head after wrapping me up in my swaddling clothes, that had to come off first. Somehow, what one finds easy and does without thought with two hands, one finds to be a struggle with just one.

  Ly’Tana stood back and grinned, arms akimbo, watching avidly.

  “Need help?” she asked, polite.

  I aimed a smile in her general direction. “Thanks, but I’m good.”

  Twisting and grunting, I managed to grab hold of my tunic just behind my shoulder blades and pulled. At first it seemed I’d succeed. Suddenly, the inevitable happened. My tunic rode high on my back and stalled there. Bent over, I tugged harder. I fought for, and gained, another inch or two. The light cloth caught on my too-big shoulders and once more got stuck.

  Damn it, get loose will you? Bucking my hips back and forth brought more momentum. Ah, got it. Almost. Now most of it was wrapped behind my neck.

  Below me, my dark son returned, waddling about on stumpy legs, his tiny tail waving. He found my boots, sniffed, and promptly collapsed. Now, should I need to move my feet to maintain necessary balance while struggling with my one arm up over my shoulder, I couldn’t. Damn, he settled in for a nap, on my foot. Should I move, I risked stepping on him.

  The silence from all around alerted me. Oh, shit.

  Everyone, and I mean everyone, in camp had ceased his or her activity and stood watching. Left and Right had paused in identical positions of lifting saddles to their horses’ backs, their dark eyes wide. Tor, Yuri and Yuras ceased their dice tossing, all kneeling around a saddle blanket laid flat on the ground. Their dice and stick wagers
sat forlorn and forgotten. Alun, frozen in the act of pouring water on the fire to kill it, watched me from a bent over position. Rygel, of course, grinned impudently, arms akimbo. Even Bar sat just beyond Kel’Ratan, towering over the heads of the tallest warriors, watched with avid curiosity in his predatory eyes. His tail never flickered.

  Arianne alone moved. Rolling her grey-blue eyes, she stepped past the slow fire from where she busily packed food into saddlebags. With a long-suffering sigh, she seized my tunic by the shoulders.

  “I can get it,” I protested.

  “Of course you can,” she replied. “We just can’t wait until noon before you do.”

  Ly’Tana snickered. Kel’Ratan chuckled. Rygel roared. The rest at least had enough respect for my size and royal stature to cover their grins with their hands. Arianne deftly pulled the tunic over my head.

  I straightened. She gazed up at me, eyes bright, ill-concealed humor shining deep in their depths. While the warriors had respect enough not to laugh too loud, my diminutive sister had no such restraint.

  “Want help with the bandages?” she inquired politely, full of solicitous regard.

  “Leave off,” I snapped.

  “Oh, fine,” she sighed, stepping daintily away. “I was only trying to help.”

  I glared at the grins, the averted heads, the inactivity.

  “Don’t you have something better to do?” I growled.

  I lifted my left arm.

  The layers of bandages ripped away with a deep purring sound. The heavy cotton cloth fell away, leaving thick strings of bound thread behind. Flexing my bare muscles, I pulled off the rest, and flicked the threads off my back, neck and shoulders. Raising my arms to stretch out the cramps, I bunched every muscle in my bare chest, biceps, lower arms and clenched fists. As an after show event, I carelessly dropped the bloody bandages on Arianne’s head.

  Respectful salutes abounded as the camp became, once more, a busy industrious hive. Rygel gulped, and suddenly decamped to saddle his black gelding. Yuri and Yuras seized the blanket, flipping it up, tossing dice and wagers in every direction. They abandoned Tor to ready their own mounts, while Tor, in panic, grabbed his dice and ran to follow them. Kel’Ratan, who’d yet to ever salute me, offered me a quick half-bow and retreated a short ways. Bar suddenly discovered his left wing needed preening as of yesterday.