Spirit of the Wolves (38 page)

I looked down at Tlitoo. His body trembled beneath Sundru's paw. At first I thought he was as terrified as I was, but then I saw the look in his eye, and it was a look of rage.

“Let her go,” he croaked, staring at Jlela, gripped between Sundru's teeth. “You do not threaten the raven clan.”

Sundru laughed, stepping down hard enough to make Tlitoo cry out in pain.

“It is too late, Greatworms,” Jlela rasped from between Sundru's teeth. “You can no longer see the memories without the ravens and we will not take you. Wolflet”—her beady eyes met mine—“Gripewolves can come with the Neja and the Moonwolf. That is what they want from us. They can see the spirit world with us and cannot see it without us and they think to find ways
to keep their power. But we will never take them again.” Sundru closed his jaws more tightly around her, forcing her into silence.

“It is simple, Kaala,” Milsindra said. “Make the raven take us with you, or we will kill not only these two but each and every one of your friends. Smallwolves and humans are as easy to kill as ravens. We will not allow ourselves to be supplanted by wolves such as you.”

I found myself trembling as much as Tlitoo was, and with just as much fury. Milsindra was not only willing to kill all of us to save her kind, she was willing to shatter the Promise. I opened my mouth, trying to think of something to stall the Greatwolves.

“You must not, wolf,” Jlela rasped, trying to flap her wings against Sundru's jaws. “The Nejakilakin must not be compromised.”

Kivdru huffed a command to Sundru, who closed his great jaws so quickly, I couldn't even yelp in protest. Jlela's eyes did not leave mine, and I watched as the life faded from them.

Tlitoo hissed in anger and in grief. “You will never walk safely again,” he rasped. “Your time is done. Your kind will soon no longer walk these lands.” The Greatwolves ignored him. Furious and grieving for Jlela, I hurled myself at Sundru. He stumbled and loosened his hold on Tlitoo, who flew high up into the trees, screeching.

Sundru flung me to the ground and stood on my chest, forcing the air from my lungs, then took my neck in his sharp teeth. TaLi shrieked and tried to run forward, but two Greatwolves blocked her path. I looked high up into the leaves above me. For some reason, the only thought in my head was that there shouldn't be so many leaves on the elms after the fire.

Then the leaves began to shift and seethe as if blowing in the wind. But there was no wind. The rustling was suddenly very near me and a raven landed on a rock just to my left. Another alighted in the dirt beside me, and then another. The trees above me teemed. What I had thought was thick foliage was really the motion of hundreds of wings. That was where Jlela had gone when she flew from the cave: to get the other ravens. A loud, deep-throated croaking filled the woods as more ravens than I could count dropped from the trees to surround us. Others hovered just above the Greatwolves' heads. The Greatwolves snarled, then growled and stepped back. I struggled from beneath Sundru's paws and ran to TaLi. Raven after raven descended, croaking and screeching, flying just above Greatwolf heads and just past Greatwolf tails.

“Better scramble, wolflet,” Tlitoo rasped, flying past my ear.

I scrambled, buffeted by wings and scratched by talons as the ravens attacked their prey. TaLi and I stumbled together from the grove. Kivdru and Sundru howled in shock and pain. Milsindra bellowed in fury. As soon as I had TaLi safely out of range, I had to turn back to look. The Greatwolves were so quickly buried under a writhing mass of wings and beaks and talons that it was as if they'd suddenly disappeared and been replaced by a seething river of ravens, their cries drowned out by the shrieks of the furious birds.

I couldn't stop watching. One bird flew past me with a large paw in his beak. Another grasped what looked suspiciously like an ear. A tail, bloody at one end, hung from a low branch. The ravens surrounded what was left of the Greatwolves' bodies and began to hum. At Tlitoo's call, they rose and flew away.

M
ilsindra was dead. She had stalked me and haunted my dreams. She would have killed me if she could, and all of those I loved. She would not have the chance now. Yet horror was mingled with my relief. I'd known Tlitoo for most of my life and had no idea that ravens could be so deadly. I'd never known that they could kill us anytime they liked.

I hid with TaLi in the bushes and tried to stop trembling. All that was left of the Greatwolves was a scattering of fur, blood, and chunks of flesh.

Tlitoo landed among the remnants of the Greatwolves and stalked over to us. His legs were scraped and bloody, and his chest heaved with the effort of breathing.

“You're hurt,” I said.

“I am fine, wolflet. It is the Grumpwolves who are hurt. They should not have angered the raven clan. They should not have murdered Jlela.”

TaLi watched him, her eyes wide. Then she reached out and gently stroked his chest feathers with the back of her hand.

“Thank you,” she said. “Thank you for saving me. And for saving Kaala.”

Tlitoo warbled, pleased. “Your girl has more sense than you do, wolf. Which is not saying much.” But he ran his bloodied beak through my headfur. “We do not hurt those who are our friends. You must be strong now, wolflet. We have angered the Grimwolves and there will be war because of it. We will win, and their kind will be no more, but it will be bloody. You must not waste our effort.” He gave a mournful croak. “You must not waste Jlela's life.” He shook out his wings. “Your friends wait for you at the Hill Rock. It is time to finish what we started.”

He spread his wings and cawed loudly, then took flight.

I stood and stretched my fear-stiffened muscles. I looked up at TaLi. I needed to get back to the cave. BreLan and Ázzuen would be waiting for us there.

“We have to go,” I said, and tugged at her tunic. She looked down at me and, as she sometimes did, understood what I meant even though we did not speak the same language.

“All right, Kaala,” she said wearily. “I'm coming.”

Ázzuen and BreLan stood on the ledge outside the cave, two wolves at their side. I halted, unsure whether the wolves were friend or foe. When the wind changed and I caught their scent, I yipped in welcome.

Pell and Marra pelted down the steep face of the rock. Ázzuen and his human made their way down more slowly. Marra and Pell tackled me, dumping me into the dirt. I rolled on top of Marra and nipped her ear, then licked Pell's muzzle. I got to my paws, my tail wagging just a little. So many wolves and humans had died. We all might be dead before darkfall, either at the hands of the humans or by the teeth of the Sentinels, but we had a much better chance of surviving now that my pack was together again.

“We saw the fire and thought you were dead,” Marra said. She stood on her hind legs and placed her paws on my back. “We thought you were all dead.” She dropped down to all fours.

“Prannan and Amma died,” I said, my tail drooping as guilt and sorrow hit me once again. “And Lallna didn't survive.” My throat clenched as I realized others might be dead. “Is Swift River all right? Did the Greatwolves kill them?”

“They're fine. At least for now,” Pell answered. “But those odd wolves have come to the valley. They were hiding with the Vole Eater pack. Now they're living with the humans at the Lin and Rian villages. The Greatwolf council is waiting to hear about what happened here before they decide what to do about them. That's what we came to tell you. The council is waiting for you and Milsindra to come back.”

“Milsindra won't be going back,” Tlitoo croaked.

Ázzuen and BreLan reached us then. BreLan held his arms out to TaLi and she limped over to him.

“Did you go to Laan?” she asked him.

He grimaced. “I tried, but two of their hunters chased me away before I got to the village. They don't know me. We'll have to go back and talk to their elders.”

I didn't want them to go to Laan. DavRian and IniMin had been there, telling lies. I whuffed in frustration, desperate to be able to talk to our humans.

BreLan held TaLi so tightly that they looked like one creature. That was when I realized that Pell and Marra were standing very close together, too. Like mates did.

Marra saw me staring at her and grinned. Pell averted his eyes. He certainly hadn't waited long to find another wolf once I'd rejected him.

Tlitoo poked me in the rump. “They must know the rest, wolflet.”

I told them about how Milsindra and her followers had died at the beaks of the ravens, and about the humans who had saved me. I told them of our plan to get the streckwolves to open the way for us to be with the humans. And, reluctantly, I told them what Tlitoo and I could do together, about the Shadow Wolf and our plan to bring the Sentinels to meet him.

I waited for them to turn from me in revulsion or even in anger. Pell watched me for a long moment, then laughed.

“I should have known there were things you weren't telling me.”

Marra's eyes were bright with curiosity. “So you can bring the Sentinel pack with you? You can show them the Shadow Wolf?”

“I think so,” I said, relief almost knocking me off my paws. I had been so certain that my packmates would despise me when they found out what Tlitoo and I did together. I'd been afraid that once they knew how abnormal I was, they would shun me and I would be alone. Instead, they treated
my journeys to the spirit world as if they were no stranger than Marra's quick legs or Ázzuen's cleverness.

A warning howl echoed through the burned-out lands. It was my mother's voice. I longed to run to her. Now that my pack was together, I felt I should be able to go somewhere safe with them and leave all the trouble and sorrow of Kaar behind. But I could not. Neesa wasn't calling us to a hunt or to explore new territories. It was a howl of warning. The Sentinels had found our trail.

“Run!” she howled. I looked at the determined expressions of my packmates and our humans. I was through with running. It was too late, anyway. The huge shapes of Greatwolves crested a rise on the plain before us. The fire had burned away the trees and bushes that would have hidden us, and they could see us as easily as we saw them in the fading evening light.

Neesa was in the lead, running before them. They overtook her, charging toward us.

“Stand firm, wolf,” Tlitoo said, and I looked up to see at least twenty ravens hovering above us. Many had bloodied beaks and talons.

Pell, Ázzuen, and Marra stood at my flanks. The humans stood behind us, their sharpsticks raised. Ravens hummed above us. The Sentinels, led by Navdru and Yildra, ran faster. There were only six of them, and I found myself thinking that we might have a fair fight.

Navdru must have thought so, too, for he skidded to a halt when he reached us. Neesa bolted past him to stand at my side. Navdru looked from the five of us wolves to TaLi and
BreLan with their deadly spears, and then up at the hovering ravens. The fear in his eyes when he saw them told me that he'd heard of the other Greatwolves' deaths.

“The rest of the pack is coming,” he said, his voice raspy from smoke. He looked up at the ravens.

“They may not get here in time,” a raven warbled.

Navdru inclined his head. “Perhaps not in time to stop you from killing us, though I am not sure you can, but in time to stop this drelshik wolf and her pack from destroying all of wolfkind.”

He raised his chin, and in that moment I saw everything it meant to be a leaderwolf. Navdru was willing to die to do what he thought was right and I had to admire that. Even if what he thought was right was killing me.

His gaze met mine.

“Now do you believe us?” he said. “Now do you see what the humans do when they fear us?”

He expected me to apologize. In some ways, I was sorry. I'd made mistakes with the humans, and that was one of the reasons they'd burned the woods. But the time for apologies had passed.

“We have a plan,” I said.

My mother interrupted me. “Let her go. Let her take her humans and go. I will make sure they stay away from the humans.”

“I'm not leaving,” I said, and Yildra snarled.

“It's too late for that, Neesa, you know that,” Yildra said. “They have failed in everything they have tried, as has every wolf before them.”

A distant Greatwolf howl sounded across the land. The rest of the Sentinel wolves were on their way. We were running out of time.

“Now we know more than we did before,” I said, “and you need to know it, too.” Neesa whuffed a warning.

“I think they need to meet the Shadow Wolf,” I told her.

“But they can't!” she said.

“They can,” I said.
At least I hope so
, I added to myself. I didn't know what I'd do if Tlitoo couldn't really take them with us to the Inejalun.

“What is she talking about?” Navdru growled.

“Milsindra was right,” I told him. “There is a place between the worlds, and Tlitoo can take me there. He can take other wolves with us, too.” I paused, gathering courage for what I said next. “I am the drelwolf.” I pointed my muzzle at Tlitoo. “We are the Nejakilakin.”