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Wolf smelled the other and gave chase. It disappeared over the hide. Wolf went to sniff the fallen tailless cub to make sure it was really Not-Breath. Yes. The meat was cooling. But Wolf saw the demon which had hidden inside the carcass slip out and scurry off to find a new body. He raced after 218 it, cornered it in a Den where it couldn't escape, and chased it into the rocks. There. Now it couldn't get out again. When he got back to the hide, he found the Breath-that-Walks of the tailless cub shivering beside its carcass. It was bewildered. After so long trapped with the demon, it didn't know what to do. Wolf felt a lick of pity. It was only a cub. He nosed it up the tunnel toward the others. Go on, up there. You won't be lonely, we passed lots of your kind on the way down. Whimpering, the Breath-that-Walks wandered off to find its pack. From the other side of the hide came many noises. Wolf caught the growls of dogs and the click of cub-demon claws; the sly hiss of owl wings; and the distant whisper of a Fast Wet, all coming from far below. He smelled his pack-brother, and another tailless he'd once known, but couldn't remember. Then the air shifted and he caught a smell that made his fur stand on end: the Stone-Faced One with the terrible, stiff muzzle. Wild to reach his pack-brother, Wolf made a desperate leap at the hide. It was too high, he couldn't get over. He tried to tear it with his fangs, but it was too flat, he couldn't get his jaws around it. He had to find another way. Turning tail, he hurtled up the Den. Through the 219 twisting tunnels he loped, bumping his nose and stubbing his paws. He burst into a bigger Den, where air from many smaller ones swirled around him. Faint and far, he caught a scent that gave him hope. It was the scent of the new tailless with the white head-fur, and with him-- Wolf could hardly believe his nose-- with him was the pack-sister. 220 [Image: A white bird.] THIRTY-FOUR '"Who are you?" demanded Renn. "Dark," the boy replied. "What?" Twisting out of his grip, she drew her knife. "My name. It's Dark!" Renn tossed her head. "Whoever you are, you say you know Torak, but how do I know that's true?" "I knew your name, didn't I?" "You could've made him tell." "You've got red hair. He's got a strand of it around his medicine horn. There! Now d'you believe me?" Renn hesitated. "Where is he?" "I told you, in the Mountain! I tried to go in too but 221 they shut me out. But there's another way in. You coming or not?" Still she hung back. A white bird swooped onto his shoulder. A raven. A white guardian. Renn threw off her waterskin and sleeping-sack. "Let's go," she said. Grabbing her wrist again, he set off at a run, the white raven flying ahead. The boy called Dark must have the eyes of a bat to see in this murk--Renn could hardly make out the ground in front of her-- and he was surefooted. "I won't let you fall," he told her, as if he'd heard her thoughts. And somehow, she believed him. After a stiff, winding climb her ankle was hurting, and she was relieved when he halted at the foot of a rock face. At least, she thought it was a rock face. Clouds blotted out the stars; the night was black as basalt. She watched the raven fly off, a white glimmer swallowed by the dark. "Light," muttered the boy, dropping to his knees. A birch-bark torch flickered awake, lighting his strange, pale face. "In there," he said. Renn's belly clenched. It was a jagged fissure, like a mouth with broken teeth, and hardly big enough for a badger. They would have to crawl in on their bellies. "I can't go in there," she said. 222 "You won't get stuck. I'll go first, you push your axe and bow in front, I'll take them. It'll be all right, you'll see." As Renn crawled in after him, she felt the stone jaws clamp shut, squeezing the breath from her chest. She wriggled forward, trying not to think of the Mountain on top of her. Panic surged. Her arms were squashed against her chest. She couldn't move. She was stuck, as she'd been stuck in the Far North. But this time she wasn't getting out. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ] |