Secrets of the Wolves Page 5

  Then a gust of wind blew across the plain, and a strong scent of juniper, wolf, and smoke wafted across my nose. At first I thought I was imagining it, so many times had I wished to catch that scent again. I shook my head to clear it, and the aroma only grew stronger. I could not mistake it. The scent seemed to be coming from behind me. Keeping my feet planted where they were, I turned my head as far around as I could.

  “Kaala!” Trevegg hissed. “Pay attention! You’re not a smallpup to be distracted by a windstorm. Do I have to tell Ruuqo you’re not ready to accompany me to the humans?”

  It was all I could do not to growl in frustration. I had to follow that scent, but I also had to give the humans their gift of meat. The wind died down and the scent faded. I lowered my ears to Trevegg.

  “Sorry,” I said.

  He was starting to say something else to me when the sound of human footsteps told us they were near. He glared at me instead. He would have plenty to say to me later.

  The humans, when they emerged from the woods, were a scant forty wolflengths from where we waited, almost directly in front of where Trevegg and I stood. True to his word, Tlitoo had brought BreLan and TaLi, along with several other humans. He flew above them, calling, then landed just in front of them, so that one of the humans, a large, stocky young male, tripped over him and sprawled on his hands and knees, dropping the two sharpsticks he carried. None of the other humans carried more than one. The male stood, glaring at the raven. A second raven landed next to Tlitoo and immediately began preening.

  Some of the humans were young, but some were full-grown and dangerous-looking. I knew that we needed the grown humans to accept us if our plan was to work, but for the first time I was afraid of the humans, afraid of what we were about to do. I met TaLi’s eyes and felt myself relax a little in the warmth of her gaze. Still, I was glad to have Trevegg by my side.

  One by one, the humans noticed us and their soft conversations stopped. Some of them stepped back. Many raised sharpsticks. I saw a small, trembling boy pick up a rock. BreLan whispered to him, and the little boy lowered his arm, dropped the rock, and smiled. Trevegg and I each picked up a large piece of meat, took a few cautious steps toward the humans, then stopped.

  A lean, strong male stepped forward. I remembered him from when we stole food from the humans many moons before. He was the leader of TaLi’s tribe, the one she called HuLin. He was not the largest of the humans, or the strongest, but he held himself proudly, and I could tell by the way the other humans watched him that they respected him. He smelled a little bit of fear and a little bit of anger, but mostly of determination. I recognized that scent. It was what Ruuqo and Rissa smelled like when the pack faced a threat or was about to hunt dangerous prey. It was the resolve to care for one’s pack at any cost. There are wolves who say that humans have no sense of family, that they are selfish and do not care for one another. When I saw the human leader step forward in spite of his fear, I knew that they were wrong.

  HuLin’s fear smell had intensified when he moved toward us, but I didn’t miss his quick, sharp glance at the meat we carried. It was still winter, and the humans were all thin from its hungry times. The preyskins they wore against the cold hung loosely off their bodies, and some of them looked like the Vole Eater wolves, who had barely made it through the winter alive. I could tell the human leader was trying to decide whether to run, fight, or to wait to see what we did. All leaderwolves have to face fear if they are to feed their packs, and all wolves must learn to balance the fear of danger with the need to eat. I found it fascinating to watch the human leader weighing the risk of allowing us near his followers and the promise of the meat we carried. The humans were so much like wolves it made the fur around my muzzle prickle.

  Trevegg whuffed very softly and began to trot toward the humans. I followed him. We held the meat high up to keep it off the ground but kept our ears relaxed and unthreatening. The stocky male Tlitoo had tripped spoke to HuLin, his voice much louder than it needed to be.

  “I’ll stop them if you want, HuLin,” he said, a sharpstick gripped tightly in each of his hands. I could tell by the way he stood, with both feet planted far apart, and by the stiff set of his shoulders that he wanted to impress HuLin. I also heard the fear in his voice and the rapid beating of his heart, and remembered how quickly fear can turn to anger. I paused, and Trevegg stopped beside me, setting down the rib bone he carried. I let go of the haunch meat I’d been holding. The young male’s heartbeat slowed. Trevegg and I both lowered our ears and tails even farther, and tried to make our faces soft and welcoming. Trevegg had told me that was the way that adult wolves greeted frightened pups. I didn’t remember that from my own puphood. I had been too busy trying to stay alive.

  When none of the humans raised sharpsticks again, we picked up our offerings and started forward once more. This time, we allowed the meat to drag on the ground so we could keep our heads low. When we got within four wolflengths of the humans, we stopped and set down the meat we carried. The smoke and juniper wolfscent blew across my nose again. I shook my head and sneezed it away.

  The small boy who had been holding the rock darted forward, running until he was face-to-face with Trevegg. HuLin grabbed at him, trying to pull him back. A look of mischief lit Trevegg’s eyes. Before HuLin could pull the boy away, the oldwolf’s tongue shot out, and he licked the child from chin to forehead, and then from ear to ear. The boy shrieked with laughter and Trevegg rolled over onto his back, waving his legs in the air and grunting like a forest pig before shaking himself all over and standing again.

  “Ridiculous oldwolf,” Tlitoo muttered in disgust. “No raven would ever behave that way.”

  Trevegg didn’t dignify Tlitoo’s comment with a response. He shook himself once more, pelting the laughing boy with leaves and dirt. HuLin’s stiffly held shoulders relaxed.

  TaLi stepped forward and placed a hand upon my back. BreLan stepped up beside her.

  “You don’t have to be afraid,” TaLi told the other humans. “They’re friends.”

  I felt a surge of gratitude. We had not had the chance to tell our humans the details of our plan, but TaLi was quickwitted, and I’d hoped she would be able to figure out what we were up to. I could tell that she was a little confused, but she was smart enough to follow our lead.

  “Friends?” the young, stocky male said incredulously. “Wolves aren’t friends, TaLi. They’re dangerous.”

  “They’re not dangerous and they are friends, DavRian,” TaLi said, annoyance making her voice sharp. I had to stop myself from growling my concern. I’d never heard her take that tone before.

  “TaLi!” HuLin said harshly, making the girl jump. “You’re rude to a guest of our tribe.”

  TaLi lowered her eyes and mumbled an apology. HuLin nodded and spoke again. “Now, what are you talking about? What do you mean, ‘friends’?”

  At first, I thought TaLi would not be able to speak, she trembled so. I knew how she felt. I found few things as unnerving as speaking to Ruuqo and Rissa when they were angry with me. She dug her hands into my fur.

  “We have hunted with these wolves,” she said, stumbling a little over her words, “BreLan, MikLan, and I.” BreLan placed his arm over her shoulder. I noticed the stocky male, DavRian, tensed when BreLan touched TaLi. TaLi’s voice steadied. “That time we brought home the deer meat that helped ShanLi when she was so sick was from when they hunted with us,” she said. “And all those rabbits we caught when it was first getting cold. And now they’ve brought us meat on their own.”

  The human leader looked at her as if she had suddenly grown antlers on her head.

  “This is nonsense,” he said softly.

  “No,” BreLan said respectfully. “I was there. We hunted with them, and now they bring us gifts.” BreLan was a little overbearing sometimes, but right then I wanted to lick him from head to toe. Our humans were finding ways to communicate what we could not. I noticed that BreLan was scanning the plain behind us, clearly searching fo
r Ázzuen. I picked the haunch meat out again, trying to offer it to him. Trevegg picked up his deer rib and held it out to the human leader.

  “It’s impossible,” HuLin said. “Wolves steal from us, compete with us; they don’t bring us food.”

  “Then what is that in their mouths, HuLin? Moss?” a cross voice said. The old woman walked forward, leaning on a branch from an oak tree. It was all I could do to keep from running forward to greet her. She must have been walking behind the other humans, slowed by her aging joints. NiaLi was TaLi’s grandmother, and the krianan—the spiritual leader—of the Lin tribe. She had been trained since childhood to speak with and understand wolfkind.

  It was through the krianans that wolfkind had kept humans in touch with the natural world. Each moon, the human krianans met with the Greatwolves in ceremonies called Speakings. The krianans would take what they learned from the Greatwolves back to their tribes. NiaLi was the one who had helped me convince the Greatwolves to let us try to keep peace with the humans. She had once commanded great respect among the humans, TaLi had told me, but she had lost much of her influence since HuLin had taken over as the tribe’s leader several years before. When I had not been able to find her before, I feared she had died over the winter, as old creatures do, or that HuLin had sent her away for good.

  HuLin’s face darkened. It didn’t take much to realize how much he disliked NiaLi. The old woman held her hand out to me.

  “May I have that, Silvermoon?” she asked, using TaLi’s name for me.

  I walked slowly to her, aware of all of the sharpsticks raised around me. I dropped the haunch meat at NiaLi’s feet.

  “We want the humans to come hunt with us,” I told her. I could only hope that Frandra and Jandru would have told her of the new task.

  The old woman dipped her head the slightest bit. I took several steps back. My ears moved back and forth, listening for any potential attack. I had so many questions I wanted to ask her, but they would have to wait.

  I heard very soft, slow pawsteps, and out of the corner of my eye, saw Trevegg stepping slowly toward the human leader. He set his meat down and flattened his ears. But something in his manner disturbed HuLin, and the human leader stiffened, raising his sharpstick.

  “Move away,” Trevegg whispered. “Now.” Reluctantly, I obeyed. If we left when HuLin was not comfortable with us, we might not get another chance to win the humans’ favor. But if I disobeyed Trevegg, the pack would not trust me with the humans. Slowly, I began to back up.

  I had taken no more than three steps when I heard the sounds of a quick scuffle, a yelp, and a frantic scrabbling. Startled, I turned to see Ázzuen pelting across the plain, and a very angry Minn staring after him. Minn started to follow, but Ruuqo spoke softly to him and the youngwolf sat down again. I knew what Ruuqo was thinking. It was bad enough to have one wolf charging across the plain. Two of them running full pelt would certainly upset the humans. I looked for Marra and saw that Yllin was now lying completely on top of her as Marra stared resentfully after Ázzuen.

  Ázzuen was going to be in a lot of trouble, but I didn’t blame him. If our situations had been reversed, I would have done the same thing. It would have been intolerable to be so close to the humans and not go to them. Still, of all of us pups, Ázzuen was the one who most often followed the rules. Until now.

  Ázzuen, barely pausing by the pile of meat, snatched up a good-size hunk of deer belly in his jaws and continued across the plain at a gallop. He had the good sense to slow to a trot and then a walk as he neared us. The humans watched him with varying degrees of interest and fear. By the time he reached us, he had lowered himself all the way to his belly. He crawled pawswidth by pawswidth to HuLin, still clutching the deer meat in his jaws.

  When he reached the human leader, he immediately rolled over onto his back, lying perfectly still, and offering his belly and neck as a submissive wolf would do to a leaderwolf. Every muscle in my body tensed. How could he do that? How could he make himself so vulnerable to an unpredictable human? We offered our bellies and necks only when we knew the wolf we so honored was reliable, when we knew that the wolf would not attack us. I couldn’t believe Ázzuen would take such a risk. I heard NiaLi’s sharp intake of breath and knew that she, at least, knew how open to danger Ázzuen was making himself. HuLin did not. He had no idea what Ázzuen was offering. But he did lower his sharpstick a little and smile cautiously, keeping his eyes on Ázzuen’s teeth. Ázzuen began to emit the calming scent that adult wolves use to put pups at ease and let the chunk of deer meat fall from his jaws. HuLin slowly reached for Ázzuen’s meat and for the rib bone Trevegg had set down, as if he expected that one of us would snatch them back. He set the meat behind his legs. BreLan stepped away from TaLi’s side, knelt down, and stroked Ázzuen’s chest. Ázzuen licked the young human’s hand.

  At a blink from Trevegg, Ázzuen stood, and the three of us began to back away. I wanted to stay longer, to follow them back to their homesite, but Ruuqo and Rissa had insisted that we stay only long enough to allow the humans to accept our offering. We would leave the extra meat in the pile for them to take.

  When we had backed several wolflengths away from the humans, we turned and began to run. Out of the corner of my eye I saw that Ruuqo and the others who had been hiding behind the rock were racing to the carcass.

  Trevegg hissed angrily at Ázzuen. “What do you think you’re doing?” he demanded. He couldn’t snarl or growl at Ázzuen without upsetting the humans, but he narrowed his eyes in reproach.

  “You know I should be here,” Ázzuen said. “You know that Kaala, Marra, and I are the best ones to be with the humans. You know Ruuqo is wrong to leave us out of it.”

  “I do, as a matter of fact, know that, youngwolf,” Trevegg said, winning a surprised glance from Ázzuen. “You are not the only wolf in the pack capable of thought. However, there are ways to do things and there is more at stake here than what happens with this one pack of humans. If you are not bright enough to see that, I will see to it that you are let nowhere near those humans.”

  Ázzuen started to protest.

  “Later!” Trevegg snapped.

  We kept running, sprinting past the meat pile and past our packmates, who were dragging what was left of the carcass into the woods. We didn’t stop to help them but kept running, as Ruuqo had ordered, until the pine trees concealed us. Once I was well hidden, I did stop, unable to resist looking back at the humans. I watched as they loped across the plain, stopping every ten paces or so to make sure they were safe. I watched as they came upon the pile of good, rich meat. And I watched as HuLin looked from the meat to the woods where we hid, and as he smiled the bared-tooth human smile at the bounty left to him by the wolves of the Swift River pack.

  4

  The instant we were all safely hidden in the woods, Ruuqo grabbed Ázzuen by his neck fur and slammed him to the ground. Ázzuen’s breath left his lungs with a whoosh that made me wince.

  “What in the name of the moon were you thinking?” Ruuqo bared his teeth just above Ázzuen’s throat and pressed his front paws into Ázzuen’s ribs. “How dare you disobey? How dare you risk the safety of your pack? This isn’t a game. It’s far more important than whether or not you get to play with your humans!”

  Ázzuen, lying flat on his back, tucked his tail between his legs, curled all four paws flat against his belly, and licked Ruuqo’s muzzle in apology.

  “It wasn’t working,” he gasped, when he regained his breath. “Trevegg and Kaala were trying, but the humans were still afraid. The young male wanted to fight, and the leader was going to refuse Trevegg’s meat.” He gulped another breath and licked Ruuqo’s muzzle again. “I knew we had to find a way to make the humans more comfortable with us. I know how important it is. That’s why I didn’t ask you first, there wasn’t time.”

  “He could have ruined everything,” Unnan said. “He knew what he was doing.”

  I held my breath. Unnan was right. Ázzuen hadn’t asked Ruuqo beca
use Ruuqo would’ve said no. Ruuqo knew that as well as anyone. I had to think of something to say to help Ázzuen. I turned to Marra for help, but she was scowling at Ázzuen.

  I looked to Trevegg, but his face was stern; he was still angry. Looking around at the rest of the pack, I caught Yllin’s eye. She dipped her head to me and stepped forward to speak to Ruuqo. She was almost as tall as he was, though not as broad through the chest. It was easy to see her lean muscles, even through her winter-thick fur, and she stood with confidence. I felt my chest loosen. If Yllin spoke up for Ázzuen, Ruuqo might listen.

  “He acted recklessly, leaderwolf,” she said, lowering her ears deferentially, “but the human leader accepted a gift from him and seems to like him. There isn’t any way to predict which wolf a human might like. And Ázzuen is smart enough to help us influence the humans.” She lowered her head and pressed her ears even farther back, so that there was no way Ruuqo could think she was challenging his authority. “I think we should allow him to go to the humans.”

  Rissa looked at Yllin, amusement in her gaze. She knew as well as anyone that Yllin was no more submissive than she was. She nudged Ruuqo gently with her nose.

  “We need all the help we can get, Lifemate,” she said. “It could mean the difference between failure and success. We don’t have enough time to ignore anything that gives us an advantage.”

  “I realize that,” Ruuqo snapped. “I’m not a fool.” He bit down on Ázzuen’s neck, not hard enough to draw blood, but hard enough to make Ázzuen whimper. “You are lucky, youngwolf,” he said, still glaring down at Ázzuen, “that it turned out well. I have no choice but to allow you to accompany Kaala and Trevegg to the humans. But you defied me and you threatened the safety of my pack. Do so again, I will leave you to Milsindra and her friends. And you are not in my favor.”