Chronicles of Ancient Darkness
Chapter 143 : 'His mother was Seal Clan, he always wore it.' He swallowed. 'He left i

'His mother was Seal Clan, he always wore it.' He swallowed. 'He left it as a sign. He's been begging me for help. And I turned my back on him to find Wolf.'

'You had to,' said Renn. 'Wolf needs you.'

'I turned my back on Fa. That's why he left me this.'

'No.' Her tone was hard. 'This was left by tokoroths.'

'You can't know that!' he cried. 'How can you possibly know that?'

'I don't, not for sure. But I know this. Eostra sent her tokoroths and her owl and the ice storm to separate us but she failed. And she will fail to keep us apart from Wolf.'

'And Fa?' he demanded. 'What about Fa?'

She turned to the ruined Forest, then back to him. 'It might not be him.'

'And if it is? What then?'

'And if it is,' she said, unflinching, 'you were still right to follow Wolf. Because Wolf is alive. Your father is dead. You cannot have dealings with the dead.'

Torak glared at her, but she did not back down.

'He's dead, Torak. Nothing can bring him back. Wolf needs you more.'

In p.r.i.c.kly silence they returned to the shelter, where they gathered as much firewood as they could carry, and Renn made masks of slit buckskin to s.h.i.+eld them from the glare. Torak checked their provisions: a bag of hazelnuts, some salmon cakes, dried horse meat and lingonberries. He wanted to take Fa's clan-creature fur, but Renn shook her head. 'No, Torak. You can't take a dead man's things.'

He gave in to that, but determined to keep the seal amulet. When she saw his face, she did not protest, merely insisting that he wrap it in rowan bast before putting it in his medicine pouch.

He could feel her wanting to make things better between them, but he stayed stubbornly silent. She hadn't heard his father's spirit calling in the night. How could she understand?

The ice storm had obliterated all hope of a trail, but the day before, Wolf had headed south, so that was where they went.

It proved almost impossible. The ice was the snow's evil sister. When they broke through frozen branches, it sent shards flying at their eyes. It made them fall, and punished them when they did. Soon they were covered in bruises.

Now and then, Torak stopped to howl. I am seeking you, pack-brother! The Forest threw back his howls unanswered.

At last they reached the frozen river. Torak saw the corpse of a mallard trapped in reeds, its brilliant green head carapaced in ice. He put his hands to his lips and howled.

No reply.

The river was so slippery they had to cross it on hands and knees, but when they reached the opposite bank, they found the way blocked by a stand of fallen beech. They had no choice but to head upstream.

Torak howled till he was hoa.r.s.e.

'Don't stop,' said Renn. 'He will hear you. He will howl back.'

But Wolf did not howl back, and Torak feared that he never would. This was the valley of the Redwater, where the demon bear had killed his father. Maybe it was where Wolf, too, had met his death.

Around mid-afternoon, the trees thinned and a bitter wind rattled the leaves. It was the wind off the fells. They were nearing the edge of the Forest.

They came to a grove of crushed pines, and a boulder hung with icicles longer than spears.

Beneath the boulder, they found Wolf.

TWELVE.

Wolf was alive but only just. Ice caked his fur, and his muzzle was white with frozen breath. When Torak swung his axe and sent the icicles clattering from the boulder, Wolf opened his eyes. Renn was shocked. His gaze was dull. It didn't light up when he saw his pack-brother.

Renn watched Torak crawl in beside him, trying to rea.s.sure with glance and touch and whine. Wolf's tail barely twitched.

'We've got to get him warm,' said Torak, clawing ice from Wolf's pelt.

'I'll wake a fire,' said Renn, 'you build a shelter around us.'

They worked in silence, Torak dragging fallen saplings, chipping off the ice, setting them against the boulder to close in the s.p.a.ce; Renn rousing a smoky, reluctant blaze. In the warmth, Wolf's fur began to steam, but his eyes remained incurious, their amber light quenched.

Renn set a salmon cake by his muzzle. He ignored it. Alarmed, she tried to tempt him with a few dried lingonberries. He ignored them too. When Rip and Rek stalked in and stole the lot, he didn't turn a whisker.

'Thank the Spirit we found him in time,' said Torak, dragging the door shut behind him. 'He'll be all right once he's warmed up.'

Renn bit her lip. 'Give me your medicine horn. I'll try a healing rite.'

Feeling Torak watching her, she shook earthblood into her palm and daubed some on Wolf's forehead, muttering a charm.

'He'll get better now,' said Torak. 'Won't he? Renn?'

She did not reply. Wolf was sick to his souls with grief. And from that you can die.

As the moon rose, they got into their sleeping-sacks. Torak lay with one arm over Wolf, trying to comfort by his nearness, as in the past, Wolf had comforted him. At times, Wolf's tail stirred listlessly, but Renn could see that he was giving up.

Next day dawned icily clear, with no sign of a thaw. As light stole into the shelter, Renn saw with a clutch of terror that Wolf was no better.

Torak saw it too, but said nothing. Renn guessed that he was staring into the abyss of a future without Wolf.

Worried about their supplies, she said she would set some snares. Torak would not leave Wolf, so she went alone, not going far for fear of tokoroths. When she got back, she tried every healing rite she knew. Wolf submitted without so much as a twitch of his ears. He didn't care.

'I've done all I can,' Renn said at last.

'There must be something more,' said Torak.

'If there is, I don't know it.'

'But he's better than when we found him. He could barely move, he's stronger now.'

'Torak. You know what's happening as well as I do.'

She saw the terror in his face.

'But he's still got us,' he insisted. 'We're part of the pack, too.'

He was right. But whether that was enough to keep Wolf alive, Renn didn't know.

As dusk came on, she went to check the snares. Her hunting luck had held; one held a frozen hare. She told herself this was a good sign, but on her way back, she saw tracks. Small. Human. With claws.

At camp, she found Torak standing outside. His lips moved in silent prayer, and for one terrible moment, she thought Wolf had died. Then she saw the lock of dark hair tied to a branch. Torak was offering part of himself to the Forest in return for Wolf's life.

'Torak,' she said gently. 'You can't do this.' She reached out to untie the offering, but Torak pushed her hand away.

'What are you doing?' he cried. 'It's for Wolf!'

'I know, but think! Your hair contains part of your world-soul. There are tokoroths about. If they got hold of it, there's no knowing what they might do.'

In furious silence he watched her untie the hair and stow it in her medicine pouch. 'You think Wolf's going to die, don't you?' he said. He made it sound like a betrayal.

'If he doesn't want to live,' she said in a low voice, 'then no spells, or prayers, or offerings can make him.'

Angrily, Torak turned his back on her.

Feeling shaky and sick, she stowed her catch in the shelter, and fed the fire, and stroked Wolf, and asked Rip and Rek to watch over him. Then she went to draw lines of power around the camp. To keep the tokoroths away.

Renn was right about Wolf, and Torak came close to hating her for it.

But what he really hated was what was happening to his pack-brother. He hated that he couldn't stop it. He hated the eagle owl. Most of all, he hated Eostra.

He slept fitfully, waking often, and always finding Wolf gazing at the fire. I'm here, pack-brother, Torak told him.

I miss them, Wolf replied.

I know. I'm here.

Torak sank his fingers into the warm fur of his pack-brother's chest, and felt the beat of his heart. He willed it to carry on.

Next time Torak wakes, it is to utter blackness. Wolf is gone. Renn is gone. He is alone.

He walks, but he can't feel the ground beneath his feet. He is cold, but he can't feel the wind in his face, or hear the creak of the trees. It is so dark that he can't see his hand when he holds it before him.

This is not spirit walking: he feels no wrenching pain. This is worse. He is still himself, Torak, but something is missing. Inside him there is a terrible, yawning emptiness.

'Renn? Wolf?' he calls, but his voice stays trapped inside his head. There is nowhere for it to go. He is alone in nothingness.

'Renn!' he screams as he spins in endless dark. 'Wolf!'

Wolf woke with a start.

He heard the growls of the Bright Beast-that-Bites-Hot, and the pack-sister whiffling in her sleep. Tall Tailless was gone.

Worry gripped Wolf from nose to tail. Tall Tailless was clever, but he could hardly smell or hear, and in the Dark he was as helpless as a cub.

Swivelling his ears, Wolf caught sounds outside the Den. He heard trees s.h.i.+vering beneath the Bright Hard Cold, and voles scrabbling to break out of their burrows. He couldn't hear his pack-brother, but he sensed that Tall Tailless needed him.

Stepping silently over the pack-sister, Wolf left the Den. Hunger made him weak, but his senses p.r.i.c.kled.

Lifting his muzzle, he snuffed the scents. His hackles rose as he caught the smell of demon.

Placing each paw with stalking care, Wolf moved noiselessly over the brittle ground.

Tall Tailless stood a few lopes away, beneath a spruce tree. He was swaying. His eyes were open, but he did not see, and Wolf knew that he slept.

In the tree above Tall Tailless' head, a shadow moved.

In a snap, Wolf took in everything. He saw the tailless cub-demon crouched on the branch above his pack-brother. He sensed its hunger and hatred, he saw the great stone claw in its forepaw, ready to strike.

With a snarl, Wolf sped across the Bright Hard Cold.

Something smashed into Torak and felled him.

He caught the glitter of demon eyes, the glint of a knife then Wolf Wolf was leaping at the tokoroth, and it was scrambling up a tree and into the dark.

'Are you all right?' cried Renn, running towards him.

Dazed, he struggled to his feet. Branches cracked as the tokoroth escaped from tree to tree, and Wolf a silver arrow in the moonlight raced after it.

Torak tried to go after him, but his knees buckled.

'Come back inside,' urged Renn.

'I've got to help Wolf.'

'You're not wearing your parka. Inside before you freeze!'

Once they were in the shelter, Torak found that he was shaking, but not with cold. 'Wh-at happened to me?'

'You were sleepwalking.' In the firelight, Renn's face was ashen. 'I woke up, you were gone. I went out, saw you standing beyond the lines of power. You looked right through me. It was horrible. I saw the tokoroth in the tree, it was aiming at your head. Then Wolf came out of nowhere. He saved you.'

Torak thought of Wolf chasing the demon.

'I think Eostra made you sleepwalk,' said Renn, wrenching him back.

'How?'

'I don't know. But I think she tried it once before, in the Deep Forest. Remember?'