Wolfwalker - Wolf In Night Part 34

Brean glanced from Nori to Payne. The brother and sister had changed on this trip, he realized. Black Wolf had stood up to him twice, and The Brother was looking more serious than he had ever seen. He said slowly, "The Brother has always been welcome to offer his opinion."

Payne's jaw tightened for an instant, but he said, "Keep Mian on Trial Silence. Say nothing about the cage. Let it come out at fireside. Let us bring it up."

The Hafell glanced at the approaching train. "You're talking about a child at Trial, neBentar. There's a burden of compa.s.sion, not just truth here."

"Aye."

But Payne didn't turn a hair, and Hunter suddenly realized that there was one thing the songsters never seemed to mention: Payne had been raised by raiders.

The Hafell studied the brother and sister. "There could be Trial for you as well."

Payne nodded. "If Mian wishes it."

Brean said flatly, "You've played too much with girls, neBentar. You know she'll be so grateful at the verdict that she won't blame you for putting her through that. Black Wolf, what do you say?"

He was deferring to her like an elder, and she hesitated. "There is more going on-" She broke off as both Hunter and Payne flashed her warning glances. She shook her head at them both. The Hafell didn't miss it.

His voice was cold. "Black Wolf?"

Nori met his gaze without flinching. "Whoever did this has been among us for some time. There have been more . . . incidents than you know of. We believe we can flush out some of the doers at Trial when they hear what we have to say."

"And for this, you want Mian to suffer."

She glanced at Payne, but said softly, "Aye." She hesitated. "Hafell," she began. "I respe-"

"No, Black Wolf." He cut her off with a sharp gesture. "This Choice is mine. I just want to know why I should make it at all."

She felt her stomach untense with relief. One Choice had been enough for her. She glanced at Payne one more time, but he didn't stop her as she answered, "Weapons have been sabotaged, Hafell. Gear has been ruined in ways that might not be noticed before it was used. I found two ring-runners dead on the trail to Bell Rocks, where raiders were camping out. Last night, well, Condari didn't fall into the shrub line. He was shot, and possibly by Harumen, not raiders. The wolves . . ." She took a breath. "The wolves themselves are uneasy, and I cannot tell you why." Would not, she added silently.

Brean regarded her thoughtfully. "Three questions, Black Wolf. Three answers." Payne took a half step forward, but the Hafell held up his hand to stop the younger man. "If you leave the caravan, does this trouble leave with you?"

Nori hesitated again. She didn't look at Hunter. "This trouble is countywide, Hafell Brean. It will not stop with us."

He leaned across the saddle horn and asked harshly, "Black Wolf, are you bonding?"

It was unexpected, and she stared at him. Rishte growled in her mind. She couldn't seem to move her lips, but her bared teeth and her silence were their own answer.

"If I hold Trial at fireside, you believe that, through the wolves, like your mother, you can feel out the raiders?"

Again, she couldn't answer. Finally, she jerked a nod.

"So be it." He straightened. "Be ready at first flame, Wolfwalker."

He started to rein around, but she stopped him. "Hafell, if you're willing, don't call me that. Not here, not yet."

He studied her, then Payne. She had always been reserved, distant even from the cozar, and he had wondered sometimes if she was even half connected to the humanity she so avoided. Now he saw something in her violet eyes that made him think she was too connected. Emotions churned there like a plunging river. With the wolf, she could no longer hide it. He glanced at Payne and saw the set of the younger man's jaw, and the way his hand rested on his knife. So. The Brother was still protecting her, though why the t.i.tle she deserved should make her fear come out . . . He shook his head to himself, but nodded curtly. "Black Wolf," he acknowledged. Then he reined around sharply and cantered back to the wagons.

Hunter murmured down at her, "He must respect you two a great deal to take that."

Payne frowned. "Take what?"

"You telling him what to do so flatly when it goes against the grain."

The younger man scowled. "We didn't tell him what to do. We made a request."

Hunter's voice was dry. "It must be the cozar way, to be that direct when asking. If atondi servant made a request like that, he'd be looking for other work." He rubbed at his neck, looked at the blood on his fingers, then back down at Nori. "I didn't say thank you yet for saving my life."

She shrugged. "I'm a vet and a caller. It was mine to do."

"No, it wasn't. Not when they loosed a tano at us."

"That can't have been aimed at us. No one could predict whom the tano would attack once it got loose.

And it's pure luck I was close enough to help."

"You weren't that close at first, and it was more predictable than you think." He nodded at her frown.

"As you say, you're an animal healer. According to fireside gossip, you've taken the duty position, even if it's unacknowledged. And you spend a lot of time with that girl, teaching her to care for her pets. All a Haruman would have to do is wait till you're in with the girl, then startle the animals." Payne gave him a sharp look, but he kept his eyes on Nori. "The tano would break out. You'd try to catch it. It would have bitten you like a mudsucker, and there's the end of Black Wolf."

"It might not have bitten me," she said sharply. "And don't call me that."

"The cozar do."

"They've done it all my life. I don't notice it from them."

"But you do from me?" He smiled slowly. "How very interesting." He leaned close and kissed her, quick and hard. He let go almost before she jerked back. He grinned down at her. "Interesting indeed. I look forward to fireside." Then he mounted his dnu and trotted down the road.

Nori scowled darkly after him, but he didn't look back.

Down the road, Wakje gave the Tamrani a hard look as he trotted past, but the Tamrani merely raised an eyebrow and went on by. Wakje looked back at Nori. It was the first time he'd seen her take a kiss.

She could have dodged the Tamrani before he grasped her chin. She could have taken Brithanas down completely before the man had actually kissed her. But she'd stood there like a four-legged deer with three of its legs in a rast hole. And that wasn't all. She'd taken a Choice. He'd never heard her do that.

She was changing, he realized. Changing to be like her mother. He followed her gaze toward the forest and knew she was reaching for the wolf to steady herself. Soon, she would no longer need him.

Nori couldn't meet Wakje's eyes, or Payne's. Instead, she pretended to listen for Rishte as the wolf loped back from the road. It was an excuse that couldn't last, and she finally turned and took her own reins from a brother who was carefully trying not to grin. She was swinging up into the saddle when he teased in a whisper, "Big, bad Black Wolf. Can't hit a Tamrani when he's right in your face."

"Leave it alone, Payne." But she could feel her face burning. She nudged her dnu into a fast-paced trot, and left Payne chuckling behind her.

XXIX.

Lady Sinial looks at the mess of tangled dnu and wagons. "Who did this?"

Grasp looks guiltily down.

"Was it you?" she demands.

He shakes his head.

"Was it you?" she demands again.

He looks up. "No, Madam. It was my arm, and aye, My wrist, and even my hand on the blade, But it was not I who did this."

-fromPlaying with Swords, traditional staging The cozar wasted no time on the road. The caravan had already snaked its way to meet them as they rode back. Cy's lamed dnu was tethered behind his wagon, and its thin middle leg was drawn up tightly against its body in a quickcast. Extra mounts were harnessed in place to replace teams that were bruised or damaged. Repa's wagon and goods had been broken down and packed onto other wagons. Repa, Nonnie Ninelegs, and Ed Proving, who'd broken his wrist, had been seen to by the healer.

Ki's wagon had suffered little damage, considering the force with which Cy had hit him. Ki's gear and goods had had to be repacked around the splintered back corner of the wagon, and a broken shaft replaced, but that was all. Ki's driver, bruised and sc.r.a.ped as he was, went on with Leanna beside him.

On the Ell's wagon, where everyone approaching the caravan could see her, young Mian sat silently beside the old Ell. Trial Silence had been invoked, and she would not speak or be spoken to until the cozar held their council. The sick expression on Mian's young face was visible even from where Nori rode. The Hafell reached over, tucked the girl behind him in the saddle, and rode her, crying now, back to her own wagon. He could do that, at least. Even though her parents couldn't speak to her, she could stay inside their wagon.

Nori, Payne, Kettre, and Wakje rode in a tight knot far to one side of the wagons. They spoke little, listening instead to the cozar andchovas around them. Sober faces, tense drivers; even the wagon banners seemed to hang flat, as if they were afraid to wave and flutter.

Nori glanced at Rezuku as they pa.s.sed his wagon. Like the Tamrani and other wealthy merchants, he dressed carefully. Today he'd chosen a somber green cloak with black edging and silver embroidery. He looked serious as he spoke with one of the cozar elders. How terrible about all that damage, all the injuries, and how careless the girl must have been to let such a beastie loose, and moons, but they'd been twice blessed that the Tamrani hadn't died. Why, if he had, just think of it. His family might even hunt each one of the cozar down and destroy their fortunes in revenge. It had happened before, you know . . .

Nori looked away so that he didn't see the anger in her gaze when he glanced at her. There had been a glint in his eye that made her think of a sly tamrin. She wondered how much gold he could make with some of those cozar out of the way of his trade. She also hadn't liked the looks of some of the outriders who had worked the wrecks. Several of them seemed to hinder more than help the repair work. On top of which, there was a weight of rain in the clouds overhead, which seemed to slow the cozar further. By the time they pa.s.sed Grimwood, both the Ell and the Hafell were up and down the line, urging the teams faster and even snapping at the message master when the old woman's dnu wouldn't hurry.

When Hunter joined Nori, Kettre murmured to the others, and they fell back to leave the two together.

Nori scowled after her friend.

Hunter glanced at her frown. "Something wrong? Is it your wolf?"

"Condari," she warned. She looked around quickly at the cozar on the road.

"No one heard me," he rea.s.sured in a low voice. "And you called me Hunter when you thought I was in danger. Is it? Your . . . other?"

She said sourly, "It's the thought of Trial, my well-bruised back, and Kettre abandoning me so obviously to you."

He chuckled. "That last can't be the end of the world."

The end of the world . . . On his neck, the marks of the tano seemed to pulse, and fire seemed to burn in her blood. Memory flashed in the grey. Plague, burning in the womb, plague killing the wolves. Disease striking the Ancients down and leaving them dead as they fell. And Harumen and raiders like rats after the dead. Yellow, slitted eyes flickered, and Nori tried to pull back, but the wolf s.h.i.+vered into the pack.

Even at their distance, Nori felt it echo. Close, too close.Death, alone, alone, fear. Lonely, wolfwalker. Need.

Hunter glanced at her as she didn't answer. His cool green eyes narrowed. She had stiffened, and her face was tense. There was something in her gaze akin to a deep-seated fear. "Noriana?" He frowned.

"It's not Kettre who's bothering you. That's your-" He glanced around to make sure no one was near.

"-partner."

His words seemed to anchor her, and she shook off the sense of slitted eyes. The sense of men with the plague was closer, as if, since the wagon wreck, such men were now among them. It was crazy. She stared straight ahead until she got control of her mind. It wasn't easy. That flash of fear had been an icy fire. The sense of plague lurked in the packsong, and she would swear it was growing stronger, not weaker as her link with Rishte tightened. It was as if the alien mother-mother in the back of her mind was using the wolves to reach her, while each moment of tension over the Harumen made her more susceptible to fear. She glanced at Hunter and grasped at the yearling for an excuse. "It's Rishte," she said finally. "He's alone, away from the pack, and running through worlag country. I'm just . . . worried."

"He's a wolf. He's got fangs and the speed of a wilding to back them up. Why, by the ruins of the Ponduit Bridge, would you worry?"

She fingered the reins, pulled in spite of herself to the west. "He's barely a year old."

"Old enough to bond."

"Any wolf can bond," she returned sharply.

"I don't see the problem."

She was almost relieved. This she could talk about. "Rishte isn't an adult yet," she explained. "He doesn't have the experience of years in the woods to draw on. This is not . . ." She looked west and felt for that danger sense. Now that she knew what to listen for, she could feel it hovering on the edge of the grey. "This is not the safest place to be," she said finally. "And judging from what's happened in the last three days, I'm not the safest person to be around, either. Yet he's left the pack to follow me. I'm all he has right now."

"You sound almost . . . sad," he observed.

"Aye." Her voice was quiet. "If I stayed near his pack, it wouldn't be an issue. He'd have guides, mentors among the wolves to teach him what he should learn. But as long as I am on the road, he'll be alone for the rest of his life. He'll have no pack, only meetings with Grey Ones in pa.s.sing."

"What if you formed your own pack?"

Her gaze flicked back to him. "I don't understand."

"You're running with your brother and uncle right now. The wolf can never be part of that because you have too much history among the three of you. What if you formed a new pack, new friends to ride with?

He'd be part of those new bonds as they strengthened out of nothing. He would feel as if they were his pack, too."

She had started to frown at his words. Now she scowled. "Moons, Condari. It has nothing to do with who I ride with. I could Journey with no one but the Grey Ones and still not give him a pack. It's the link, not the pack, that matters. That's what separates him from others of his kind, since he's bound to me, not them."

"Then why don't you Journey? You can't say you're not qualified. You're, what, a second? A third in Abis?"

Her face grew expressionless. "That was feeble, Condari. You know I've never Tested."

"Do you want to?"

She wanted to snap, but she forced herself to say simply, "No."

"You're sure? A wolfwalker like you. All these open trails . . ."

She gave him a long look. To have the recognition of rank, to have the elders stop accusing her of wasting her skills. It wasn't the first time she'd wondered what it would be like to be able to stand up to the elders with pride, instead of the stubborn shame of knowing they thought her a coward.

Wolfwalkerwolfwalkerwolfwalker . . .

She pushed the wolf down and turned her face away. She was wearing Hunter's s.h.i.+rt again over her own, and she rubbed the fabric absently. She surprised herself by wanting to answer him truthfully. She liked the strength in him. She liked the way he talked to her, that he teased her like Payne did, instead of treating her like a legend. To have someone other than her brother to confide in, someone who understood? She almost answered, but behind them, Payne called out a greeting to a ring-runner who cantered past. Nori shut her mouth with a snap. The man was a G.o.dsd.a.m.ned Tamrani, practically a councilman by birth, and carrying secrets in that belt of his that might tear her life apart.

Hunter watched curiously as the expressions flickered through her violet eyes. He said softly, "So you do want to Test, and you do want to Journey. I didn't know if you hid your desire or if you were simply unsure about it."

"You're wrong." She forced her words to be firm. "And I'm as sure as the sea hits the sh.o.r.e."

"Ah."

She said sharply, "What does 'ah' mean?"

He shrugged. "Considering what you did for me with the tano, and that you now have your own wolf to work with, I'd think, after living so long in your mother's shadow, that you would jump at the chance to Journey."

"Not hardly."

"By the First House, Black Wolf, you could be anyone, anywhere in the nine counties, if you'd just let yourself take the road."