Part 45 (1/2)

”MaDione?” the Tamrani said more sharply.

She shook her head again, trying to make sense of his words. She could still feel the tips of the claws that had pierced her back, but the badgerbear was young, and it had made only small punctures, blunted by her jerkin. The blood was sticky across her back, but there wasn't much of it, for all that the taste of it was in her mouth. She got to her feet shakily. It was Rishte's tongue she tasted, and she tried to shut him out. He paused and snarled at her, and she had to close her eyes.Back off, back off, she growled back.I can't have you in me now.

Hunger, hungry,he growled.

Deliberately, she formed the words, but they came out more like snarls. Eat, then. Fill your belly.

There's time for that, at least.

He turned back to the dead beast eagerly. When he dragged a strand of something ugly out of one of the punctures, Nori turned away. She was shaking, and her vision wasn't yet right. She needed to . . .

needed to tear at the badgerbear, taste it again.

Fentris moved around to the other side of the beast. His sword had been wrenched out of his hand when he'd cut deeply into the spine, and the bones had locked around the steel. He muttered a curse and worked it free, then wiped it carefully on the gra.s.s. He gave Nori a wary look as he slid it back in its scabbard. ”Black Wolf,” he started. Then, harder, ”Black Wolf, shouldn't we go?”

Nori shook her head in answer, but it was a s.h.a.ggy motion. She closed her eyes and scrunched up her face, then rolled her neck and shoulders until she felt her own muscles, not those of the wolf. ”No,” she managed. She opened her eyes and looked at the wary Tamrani. ”If the adults had heard this, they'd have been here by now. They'll be occupied for hours with the dnu. We'll wait for Hunter.”

”He's here?” Fentris looked around quickly.

She nodded shakily down the slope. ”He's coming up now.”

Carefully, she set her hunting blade in the gra.s.s. Then she wiped her longknife on a handful of leaves, but the blood was already drying. She had to spit and work the leaves over the blade before she could put it away. Then she took her hunting knife, nudged the wolf aside, and started to skin the beast.

Fentris stared at her. ”What are you doing?”

She jammed two fingers into one of the slits she'd made and slid the blade between them. ”I want the fur.” She cut the pelt back in a long line toward the abdomen. She left the inner membrane as intact as she could, and had to snarl at Rishte when he tried to tear through it again.Not yet, she snapped.

”Hmm, Wolfwalker, I know this is your wilderness and all, but it seems to me that there might be better times to take a fur.”

”It's not for me,” she returned sharply. ”It's for the Harumen.” Her hands were b.l.o.o.d.y, and she had to grip the knife sharply to cut down the insides of the legs.Just a minute, she snarled at the wolf. She cut away a large, b.l.o.o.d.y chunk of haunch, and the Grey One almost took off her fingers when he yanked it from her grip. By the time she'd freed the fur of both rear legs, Hunter was at the edge of the clearing.

He took one look at Nori's b.l.o.o.d.y arms, another long look at the carca.s.s. ”What the h.e.l.l happened here?”

”My fault,” Fentris said flatly. ”I left blood on the trail.”

Hunter's expression closed, and his cold green eyes seemed to pierce the other man. Nori glanced at him. ”And mine,” she told him. ”I didn't notice he'd been injured.” She went back to work on the carca.s.s and explained tersely before he could ask, ”I'm taking the pelt. We can use it against the Harumen. We need every advantage now.” If they hadn't run into that trap, she'd have tried to hunt something like this down herself, once the Harumen got closer.

Hunter reached for his hunting knife, but its leather hanger was torn and the blade was gone. Fentris silently handed him his own knife, and Hunter tried not to snort at the patterned steel and inlaid handle.

The blade was still master-sharpened and unscratched, and Fentris almost winced as Hunter stropped it twice on his trousers to wipe off any oil. But when he started to squat beside the wolfwalker, she snarled at him and refused to s.h.i.+ft over. Carefully, he eased back. He kept his voice calm. ”Use the pelt how?”

he asked instead.

She reached in through the abdomen to cut out the tissue around the glands inside the a.n.a.l cavity, and Fentris looked quickly away. ”Tied to a bent-back on a thread-release.” Her voice was still too much of a growl, and she steadied it. She didn't touch the glands with her knife. Instead, she took a leaf from the pile nearby, and used one to pinch each gland shut, so she could pull it gently out and set it carefully on the ground. She had to force herself to add, ”It will spook their dnu. It might even put some of them afoot like us.”

She rolled the pelt up against the spine of the beast, then grabbed its knees and heaved it onto its other side. The head stayed where it was, the neck twisted limply. The ribs sagged where they had supported the guts. All three tongues tangled in the sunken circle of fangs, and the slashed gums drained blood and saliva onto crushed gra.s.s. There was something obscene about it. Fentris swallowed again but, with some sort of horrified fascination, couldn't look away.

The wolfwalker had worked the pelt up to the shoulders when both she and Rishte stiffened. Hunter whipped to his feet, and Fentris slid out his sword. ”Stay still,” Nori snapped at both.

She crouched over the carca.s.s and stared into the brush. She could hear it now in her own ears, the quieting of birds just over there, the stopping of the insects that then started up again as the somethings, the creatures, pa.s.sed. A moment later, the first wolf slunk into view. Rishte growled. Then the pack leader slipped into the clearing, to the left, forcing Nori to turn. He bristled at her as the other wolves moved in then and made a half circle around the carca.s.s. Two of them licked their teeth.

Slowly, Nori straightened. She could almost hear the quickened heartbeats in Fentris's and Hunter's chests. Her own was pounding like hooves on a hard, stone road. Her lips curled back as she fingered the knife.

The pack leader growled.Back away. Ours now. Back away.

She didn't have to meet the wild wolf's eyes to hear his intent. Rishte started forward and she snapped, Back. He froze, startled. She glared at the pack leader.My kill. Mine first. You wait.

Golden eyes gleamed as they took in the humans.Weak pack. He bared his fangs.Hungry. Our kill.

Nori's lips curled into a feral smile.My kill. Mine first, and I am well armed. Do not challenge me.

Human. Hungryhungry pack. We take the beast now.

”No.” All eight wolves flinched at the spoken word. Rishte growled low, and automatically Nori hushed him.Twenty minutes for me to finish, and Rishte gets first meat. Then the beast is yours.

Ours then. Our meat, our pack.

Aye.

The male wolf licked white fangs and considered that. Nori noted the broken tooth in front, the scar that split one ear where he had fought another wolf in the past. She could feel the strength in his voice from the years he had led. He had seen humans before, but had always avoided them. Now she stared him down.

Wolfwalker,he acknowledged.

”Aye,” she said softly. She didn't turn her head, but she ordered the two Tamrani, ”Stay where you are, make no threatening moves. I'll be done here in a few minutes.” She waited till the pack leader sat. A minute later, the other wolves did also, and the wolfwalker turned back to the carca.s.s. Rishte didn't lower his head. She snarled at him, and he finally dropped his head and began tearing at the haunch.

Around them, the other wolves watched. They looked as patient as poolah, but Nori could feel the edge in them. They were poised, ready to leap forward when the pack leader gave the signal. They would fight for the meat if she let them. She looked up every few seconds to meet the male's gaze and let him feel the taint in her mind. It made the wolf more wary.

She worked the pelt off over the skull. Then she rolled it up, blood-side out, to keep the mites from jumping from fur to her. Finally, she stood and looked at Fentris. ”Let me have your s.h.i.+rt?”

Quickly, he shrugged out of his jerkin and stripped off his s.h.i.+rt. He was putting his jerkin on again when he realized what she intended. ”Wait, what are you-”

Hunter snorted a laugh. She had tied the sleeves around the bundle, turning his s.h.i.+rt into a makes.h.i.+ft bag.

The blood had already stained the fine cloth. Nori merely slung it onto her shoulder, then looked at Rishte. He had torn and glulped about half the meat from the haunch, and she waited patiently till he finished. Then she called him softly in her mind.

He looked up at her.Wolfwalker. There was a new note in his voice, and he didn't argue when she gestured for him to leave with the Tamrani. Instead, he trotted past the two men, then through the other wolf pack, bristling only slightly.

Nori looked into the gaze of the pack leader one more time. The Grey One snarled in response, then stalked forward and, ignoring her, began tearing at the carca.s.s. The other wolves s.h.i.+ed away as she walked through them after the Tamrani, but they lunged eagerly forward as she cleared away from the badgerbear. She glanced back only once. They were growling over the guts and limbs, eating as fast as they could.

x.x.xVI.

Knife in hand Wolf in mind -Randonnen saying Payne had seen Nori throw herself into the trees, dragging Fentris with her. He had no time for more.

When his dnu panicked, he could only hunch low on the neck and pray he could stay in the saddle.