by Claudia King
“You mean to keep Vaya here, then, until she is of use to you? Until you have punished her enough?”
Adel nodded. “She will not be allowed within the valley. Our guardians will keep a close watch. Perhaps you and her will never have to cross paths at all.”
“I would rather be free to visit our friends in Orec's pack without feeling as if a dark spirit haunts my step.” Netya's shoulders slumped. Regardless of how far she had come, she still felt like she was being dragged back into her mentor's shadow. There was no changing Adel's mind. The den mother wanted Kiren, and she wanted Vaya as leverage over her.
Both Netya's new apprentice and her old rival were here to stay.
—3—
The Wolf Pup
Vaya stepped out into the sunlight, her face wrinkling from the sudden heat. Summer was still lingering, and it boasted a hot and humid afternoon that day. The sun drew out the stark white colour of the rocks around her, standing in contrast to the spots of shade cast by Orec's dwellings and the wind breaks made of leathery hide beneath which his pack members lounged. It was the kind of day that invited a break from work, but Vaya had no desire to join the men and women she saw bathing in a strange rock pool nearby, nor the lazy wolves swatting flies from their muzzles around the edge. The bathing spot reminded her of the tidal pools she had seen at the coast of the great water, back when she had walked the beaches on the western edge of Octavia's territory. How such a pool had found its way here she could never guess.
Her curiosity kept her watching until a pair of muscular wolves approached, panting heavily in the heat as they trotted up from the bottom of the ridge. Both carried four huge sacks slung across their backs on either side. The bathers greeted them with cheers, relieving the pair of their burdens and upending the bags into the pool. Fresh water gushed out, raising the level another few fingers by the time all eight of the waterproofed sacks had been emptied. The wolves settled down, exhausted, and another pair of men climbed out to take their turn fetching water.
Perhaps, in their late summer frivolity, they would all continue ignoring her. Vaya followed Alpha Orec's diminishing silhouette down the ridge, gazing out over the land surrounding them. This was a good vantage point for Adel's guardians to have made their den, she realised. Having arrived in pitch darkness without the eyes of her wolf she had missed much of the nearby terrain. The ridge bordering the southern side of the witches' hidden valley faced a broad swathe of forest to the south and west, making for both an excellent scouting overlook and an easily visible encampment to warn off any foes who spied Orec's fires from afar. Vaya suspected there was good hunting to be had beneath the trees, and while no river touched Orec's den directly, the bathers must have been getting their water from a fresh source somewhere close by. The ridges and valleys in the distance were easy to distinguish, creating natural choke points in the landscape that could be watched for intruders more easily than open forest.
Adel had dug herself a deep and snug hiding spot within this land, and with a whole clan of warriors to defend her it seemed unlikely that any rival alpha would ever set foot within the witches' valley without invitation.
Almost without realising, Vaya began to scan the landscape for paths that might go unwatched by the scouts. Difficult ridges that no sane traveller would climb. Boggy or overgrown patches of forest that most would skirt around.
You are not leaving, she reminded herself, gritting her teeth as she noticed the wandering eyes of Orec's followers drifting her way. When they looked at her, what did they see? A disgraced, honourless traitor? A captive humbled by their alpha? A pet bound by Adel's wicked will?
Anger boiled Vaya's blood, the heat of the sun searing against her skin. When the sound of footsteps approached behind her she whirled around, sensing another pair of intrusive eyes upon her back.
“Keep your scorn to yourself!” she exclaimed, startling a yelp from the boy who had been following her down the slope, and a bark from the squirming wolf pup he held in his arms. Before the boy could recover from the shock of the wild-faced huntress yelling at him, his furry burden managed to wriggle free, hopping to the ground with a yip and attempting to dart between Vaya's legs. With seasoned reflexes she snatched up the beast before it could flee, seizing it by the scruff and tensing her hand to perform the quick jerk that she always used to snap the necks of small prey.
“Please don't!” the boy said, recovering himself enough to hurry forward and make a grab for the pup.
Vaya held it up out of his reach, glaring at the youngster. Strangely enough, he seemed more concerned with his escaped animal than the shamed huntress standing before him.
“What were you thinking, bringing prey like this into your den?” she said. Wild wolves were often pests to the Moon People, hunted out of necessity or sometimes in the name of prestige, but the unspoken bond of kinship between the Moon People and their feral brethren meant that it was unusual to kill wolves for their meat. Besides which, keeping live prey within one's own den was the practice of the Sun People.
“I took him out of the cave, I already said I would,” the boy grumbled, hopping on his tiptoes to try and reach for the pup.
“You keep animals like this in a cave?” Vaya asked. The squirming pup licked her face, and she flinched away with a growl.
“No,” the boy said, finally dropping his arms and sticking out his lower lip dejectedly. “Just Pup.”
“And your alpha allowed this?”
“Alpha did.” The boy looked over his shoulder. “Father and Mother wish he didn't.”
Annoyed by the animal's constant licking and yapping, Vaya lifted it away from her face and dropped it back into the boy's arms when he reached out. The youngster flashed his teeth in a smile, giggling as the pup pawed at the air in Vaya's direction.
“He likes you.”
“It's a beast. What do I care whether it likes me?”
“He bit me all the way home when I found him. He licks people he likes, though.”
Vaya snorted in frustration. Disgraced, and now saddled with a pack of fools. Boys like this should have been out training hard for the hunt, not mothering prey like it was a person. Whatever qualities Orec might have possessed as an alpha, he was clearly too soft with his youngsters.
“Will you come and watch him?” the boy asked, looking hopeful. “Pup never lets anyone else hold him, and I can't cut the wood if he's trying to run off all the time.”
“I do not watch animals. I hunt them.”
“Oh.” The boy looked down, shifting his grip as Pup tried to climb out over his arms.
Curse her luck. If this beast had gotten the scent of her it would be sniffing around her heels all day. At any other time she would not have thought twice about killing it to save herself the annoyance, but if Orec actually approved of keeping animals like this in his pack...
As Vaya stood before the boy she realised that no one else had approached her throughout the noisy exchange. The people nearby were watching her carefully, some of them tense as if ready to move, but none had abandoned their comfortable nooks in the shade. To her surprise, she heard the nearest woman mutter something to her mate about the wolf pup instead. It sounded as if this beast was just as much of a burden to them as the newly arrived huntress.
Something made Vaya resist the urge to turn her back on the boy and his wolf. Perhaps an annoying little pup and a disgraced enemy together were too much trouble for most of Orec's clan to bother themselves with on a hot summer's day. And as absurd as it seemed, she realised that she had no desire to wander aimlessly around Orec's den for the rest of the afternoon, even if the alternative meant enduring the presence of this boy and his wild animal.
“I will cut the wood,” she conceded. “You watch the pup.”
The boy's face lit up. He held Pup out to Vaya again, but she shook her head.
“Who are you?” he asked, tucking Pup under one arm with some difficulty and motioning for her to follow him up the ridge. “Did you come to join
the clan?”
“Why would I do that?”
“Brave warriors come from all the clans to be here. You look brave.” He glanced back at her. “And tough.”
Vaya grunted, but did not deign to answer. Instead she asked, “Your father and mother, did they come to serve?”
“Yes. They are warriors too. When the witches picked Sephonie to be an apprentice we went with her.”
“Who is Sephonie?” Vaya asked, only half-listening to the boy as they walked. Their continued conversation seemed to be insulating them from the rest of the pack if nothing else.
“Big cousin. She's the daughter of Mother's sister. She got to be a witch because she was the best apprentice.”
Vaya grimaced. Did clans have no loyalty to their own any more? They sent their best seers and warriors away to serve Adel in the hopes of absorbing some of her prestige, like fleas swarming from the back of a sick beast to a healthy one. She quickly stamped out that thought, however, when she realised that Clan Mother Octavia had done exactly the same thing in sending Kiren.
“What do they call you, boy?” she said.
“I asked you first.”
“Watch your tongue. I am your elder.”
He scowled a little. “If you're not from our clan then I don't have to do what you say.”
Was this what she had been reduced to? Her status meaningless, even to children? Would she end up bowing to the wolf pup next? As if in response to her thoughts, Pup offered a high-pitched ruff. The thing had given up squirming for now, facing backwards beneath the boy's arm as its legs and tail dangled gormlessly in the air. Its eager eyes and lolling tongue looked so absurd that Vaya forgot her anger for a moment, chuckling at the stupid animal instead.
“My name is Vaya, huntress of Octavia's clan.”
“I'm Yunau. And this is Pup.”
Lifting his animal companion ahead of him, the boy clambered up to a flat circle of ground outside one of the caves. Tufts of grass poked out from between the chalky boulders around the edge, yellowed and drooping from the constant heat of the sun. Bundles of dry wood had been stacked up outside the cave's entrance, and though the inside was dark Vaya could glimpse woven grass mats just beyond the opening. A pile of forlorn crafting refuse had tumbled over nearby, swept up into a corner in the hopes that someone else would clear it out. The outside work area was in a similar state of chaos, splinters of wood and chips of flint strewn everywhere. At some point Yunau looked to have been chopping through a bundle of firewood with a long-handled stone axe, but the tool had been tossed aside and forgotten at the edge of the work area after leaving its mark on only a scant few of the forearm-thick logs.
The boy sat down at the edge of a small fire, wiggling a long piece of wood that had been resting across it until the charred midsection cracked and left him with two separate halves. Scraping a few clumps of mud away from the burnt sections, he tossed the wood into a heap of shorter pieces and grabbed another uncut log from the pile. Once he had dipped his fire-cracked handful of mud into a bowl of water and softened it again, he slapped two thick clumps on top of his new log close to the centre, smearing them around until they formed a protective layer that would shield the wood from the flames. Only a small gap remained exposed in the middle, leaving just enough room for the fire to eat its way through the wood without consuming too much of it. Once all of the mud was layered on he set the new log atop the fire and left it to burn in half.
Vaya stooped to pick up the axe, nudging the wolf pup aside when it began to paw at her feet.
“You waste wood that way,” she said, gesturing to the fire.
“But now I can leave the logs to burn while I do something else,” Yunau replied. “Using the axe is hard.”
“It would not make you strong if it wasn't. Why do you think your elders set you this task?” Vaya swung the axe hard at one of the thinner logs propped up against the edge of the pile. The rounded stone head cracked it like splitting bone, giving her enough leverage to wrench the splintered limb back and forth until it tore in half.
“I can't do it like that,” Yunau said.
“Because you don't try.” Vaya shoved the axe into the boy's hands. “Do it. Swing that tool every day, and a season from now it will weigh nothing at all.”
“You said you'd cut the wood.”
“I changed my mind. Does your father want his son to grow weak and lazy with his duties?”
Yunau huffed, swinging the handle around. He seemed like he had little interest in physical work and even less in listening to Vaya, but when she sat down and dragged the restless wolf pup into her lap he conceded to their bargain.
His swings were clumsy, guided by the weight of the axe more than the direction of his arms, but he managed to begin cracking his way through the logs as Vaya kept a patient watch on him. Him, and the annoying animal writhing about atop her legs. It was on its back now, pawing up at her as if it wanted to play some sort of game.
Vaya shook her head in distaste, letting the wolf bat at her hands as she watched Yunau work. Pups like this should have been out among their own kind, learning how to tussle and hunt with their siblings. What would this one learn from being coddled by the Moon People? Sooner or later it would grow too big to stay in the den. Harmless nips from its jaws would become bites strong enough to draw blood, and this boy's furry companion would become a danger to his clan. It was not like a bird or a rodent that could be kept in hand forever.
Back when she had hunted the far eastern forests in her youth she had seen how the Sun People made many beasts obey them, both large and small. They must have used some strange magic of their own design, but she doubted that even they could have tamed wild predators like wolves. Then again, she was in the heart of Den Mother Adel's territory. That woman courted both the Sun People's ways and the dark magic that most seers feared. The thought made Vaya's skin crawl. Warriors and beasts she could understand, but the women dwelling on the other side of the ridge were a mystery to her. She had no desire to find out what blasphemies took place within that valley.
The wolf pup nipped at her fingers, and she pulled back with a glare. The thing was growling up at her, the noise little more than a ticklish purring in the back of its throat.
“You want something to bite, do you?”
He continued to growl, turning his attention to a strip of leather dangling from Vaya's wrist. She had bound it there at the beginning of her journey, using it to tie back her hair whenever she shaved down the clean side of her scalp. The strip had gone unused for many days now, and it was flecked with dry blood.
Vaya moved her hand away from her lap, and Pup followed, chasing after the binding as it trailed through the dirt. Just as he was about to grab it she whipped her hand back in the other direction, causing the animal to flail and fall over itself as it reared back too quickly. She chuckled, unwinding the piece of leather to give herself more room.
She soon found that she could make the pup chase his own tail if she swirled the leather in a circle, or make small leaps into the air if she jerked it out of his reach. Most interesting of all, however, was when she managed to make him hunker down and stalk it, prowling after the binding as if it were a mouse crawling over the scattered wood chippings.
“Too quick,” she admonished the animal as he tripped over his own paws, falling just short of the leather when she yanked it away at the last moment. She picked him back up by the scruff and set him down a few yards away, then laid out the strip again and began to tug on it, making the blood-flecked tip dance with tantalising motion. Pup tried again, prowling after it slowly, but one of his forepaws slipped on a piece of wood and he lunged too early, falling far short of the leather when Vaya yanked it away.
She sighed in frustration. This would be so much simpler if she could just show him herself. Perhaps if she took the shape of her wolf and had someone else hold the leather...
The huntress caught herself just as she began to feel the prickle of fur rising up beneath her sk
in. She wasn't training a youngster stumbling around in the body of their wolf for the first time. Realising that the sound of stone against wood had stopped, she looked up to find Yunau staring at her with interest.
Vaya's body tensed up. It wasn't just the boy. Two passers by, a man and a woman fetching wood from the cave, had stopped to watch her. Wrenching the leather strip off her wrist, she tossed it down for Pup to tangle himself up in.
“What?!” she snarled. “The boy asked me to—” How could she say it? There was no answer that did not make her sound like a simpleton or an overgrown child herself. Heat rose to her face. She was not good with words. She was a huntress. When people looked at her they were supposed to see a fearless warrior, not someone who played with animals.
Angry at herself for having been sucked into the game, she rose to her feet, fists clenched.
“Don't go,” Yunau said. “You were doing so well with him. He never listens to me like that.”
“I'm not a pup's mother, boy!” She drew back her hand sharply, not sure whether she meant to strike Yunau or simply scare him. The boy flinched away.
In an instant the man who had been watching from the cave was in front of her, a stick of firewood pointed at her collarbone like a club.
“You don't raise your hand to our young, outsider.”
She bared her teeth at him. “I wasn't going to hurt the boy.”
“A woman who comes out of the night and plays with wolf pups?” The man cocked his head. “Not sure I could trust anything you say. Strange ways have strange ends.”
“You'd stand before me and say that when you serve witches?”
“They speak with the spirits. You?” He wrinkled his nose at the dishevelled huntress. “You are nothing. Adel told us the stories. Go and play with the other beasts in the forest.” He shoved Pup toward her with his foot, eliciting a yelp from the small wolf. “They seem more like your kind.”
