Blood for Wolves (25 page)

“Climbing?” Alex said.

“You know, up a tree?” She glanced
back and forth between us before making a disgusted face. “You can see farther
up there, you know.”

I laughed. I couldn’t help it. Sometimes
kids were so much smarter than adults. I gave her a one-armed hug.

“You’re right. That is a good idea.
Are you really that good of a climber?”

She gave me a tiny smile. “I’ve
always loved to climb trees.”

“That sounds like a plan then.”

After a few more minutes, we set
off again. Marianne walked between us, one of her small hands in mine. No one
spoke. What was there to say? We certainly looked a haggard group. Me in
nothing but shorts, a fancy brown stained with blood, a rapier at my side, and
sad-looking daypack hanging from my shoulders. Marianne in her somehow still
miraculously blue dress, though her hair was definitely mussed and her face and
hands smudged with dirt. Alex in his Wyatt Earp getup, minus the hat, a
crossbow instead of a gun, and only three bolts left in the quiver. I smirked a
little. He’d never looked—or been—so badass. His dad would probably be proud.

For a long time we trudged through
the forest, keeping a sharp eye out for werewolves and regular wolves, though
by this point we kept an eye out for anyone. At length we finally came upon a
stream, happily burbling along through the greenery of the forest.

“Thank God,” Alex sighed.

I tilted my head. Something didn’t
sound right.

Alex strode toward it eagerly,
Marianne skipping after him. I tried to listen closer.
What is that? It
sounds like…

Alex and Marianne knelt and dipped
their cupped hands into the water.

“NO! Don’t!”

The two stared
at me like I’d gone unhinged. I heard it as clear as a bell now. The stream
sang:

A fearsome beast
thee will be,

Should
thee choose to drink from me.

“It’s cursed. That spring is
cursed. That woman must have done it. If you drink from it, you’ll turn into,”
I paused, uncertain, “something bad. We’ll have to find another one.”

Alex dumped the water back into the
stream and hung his head with a huge sigh. He mumbled about being thirsty,
coupled with a few swear words. Marianne stood up, a dejected look on her face.
I put my hand on her head.

“Don’t worry, she can’t have gotten
to all of them,” I said.

I pulled out the map again. There
were at least three more waterways in our path before we reached the castle. Surely
one of them had to be safe. I made a mental note of the area we were most
likely to be in before slipping the map back into a pocket.

A few hours went by as we trekked
through the forest, occasionally hiking up and down a few gullies. Alex and I—more
accustomed to hiking long distances—carried Marianne piggyback once and a while
to ease her tired little legs. But after the day’s excitement, even we were
starting to wind down. I hoped not too many of the wolves got hurt during the
werewolf fight. So far I assumed they’d done a good job; nothing was tracking
us yet. Probably why the stream was cursed.

Finally we came to the second
creek. Marianne slid from Alex’s shoulders and the two ran toward it, lured by
the happy burbling of the clear water over the rocks. I listened carefully.

“What do you say Caroline?” Alex
asked, his cupped hands full of water.

For a second I
heard nothing, and I was about to nod when it came through:

Ruled by the
seasons thee will be

Should
thee choose to drink from me.

“Stop.”

Alex halted, the water almost at
his lips.

I shook my head sadly. “This one
too.”

“Are you serious?”

“It sounds like it turns you into a
tree.”

He flung the water back into the
stream, swearing. “There’s got to be somewhere we can get some water.”

“We just have to keep going I
guess.” I felt like a broken record. “I don’t see how she could get every
single water source. Other people would notice it.”

“Big fucking deal,” Alex muttered.

I crouched. Marianne, tiredly
rubbing her eyes and wiping away a few tears in doing so, climbed on my back
again. I stood, feeling like she looked, but doing my best not to show it.

“Come on,” I said to Alex, keeping
my voice calm. “People can go for a few days without water. We’ll just have to
deal with it until we find some.”

He nodded, giving in.

Our progress was slow. Usually, the
two of us could hike along and cover several miles in an hour. But now I
thought we would be lucky just to make a few. The sun slowly shifted into a
burning orange ball as it sank closer to the horizon.

After a long time of seemingly
endless hiking, we stopped at a fallen log. My feet screamed for fresh air. My
hiking boots looked like they’d been put through hell and back. I pulled them
off, closing my eyes and tilting my head back. I wanted to sleep, or nap at
least.

“You hear anything, Care?” Alex
said behind me.

I didn’t move. “Nope.”

“You sure?”

What the hell was he talking about?

“Fuck it. Drink up kid.”

My eyes flew open.
There is no
way he is that stupid!
I scrambled over the log in time to see Alex and
Marianne drinking from a stream ten feet away.

“No! No, no, no!”

I didn’t see it earlier because the
setting sun cast it in shadow. For one heart stopping moment, I thought perhaps
it might be okay, that maybe we’d outstripped the werewoman’s influence.

Then, over the
gentle murmur of the stream, the faintest of whispers wafted through the air.

Drink from me

And
thy true self and purpose thee shall be.

I stared at them on my hands and
knees, horrified. For a moment nothing happened and the two looked content
despite my warnings. Then their smiles faded, and their mouths opened as if
locked in silent screams. They fell back, and the moment they hit the forest
floor, a violent flash of light blinded me—and then they were gone.

At least, Marianne was nowhere to
be seen, but in Alex’s place stood a massive buck, or what I assumed a buck
looked like in this place. The kind Alex would have squealed like a girl over
if he bagged it. Its antlers were huge, regal, astonishing. White fur circled
its eyes and then arched down its face and neck into its white chest. It was
like a mix between a stag and an antelope. It blinked and looked around like it
had no idea how it got there. Then its gaze fell on me.

“Alex?”

The buck opened its mouth and
bellowed, a bizarre cross between a regular deer and an elk. It abruptly
stopped, a confused look on its face.

“Oh my God.” I quickly crawled
forward, searching for Marianne. I expected to find a bluebell flower. Instead
I found a large brassy key with a blue string running through it. I stared at
the key, unable to grasp what had just happened. My stepbrother had turned into
a stag. Marianne into a key. Their true selves. Their true purposes. I picked
up the key. What a weird curse.

I sat down hard and drew my knees
into my chest and put my forehead on them. Wolf had betrayed me. My brother was
a deer. Marianne was a key. We were being chased by werewolves. I was tired,
thirsty, hungry, and the worst Guardian in the history of guardians. I squeezed
my eyes shut as a wave of dizziness swept over me. It felt like the entire week
had caught up with me and punched me across the face. I curled my fingers into
my hair and tried to keep my exhaustion at bay. The sun slipped over the edge
of the world, leaving us in dimly lit darkness.

Alex nudged my shoulder. I sniffed
and wiped my nose on the coat sleeve.

“Can you still understand me?” I
asked, my voice wavering.

He snorted in answer. I put my arm
around his neck.

“I’m so sorry I dragged you into
this,” I said through uneven breaths. “This whole thing is a mess.”

Alex let out a small grunt and
nibbled on my sleeve. I took up the crossbow and quiver of bolts Alex had
dropped on the ground before drinking. Then I crawled back to my boots and
laced them up. I took in a deep breath and let it out slowly. We had to keep
going. We had werewolves on our trail. We needed to reach the castle. Perhaps
there someone had the power to change Marianne and Alex back. At the very least,
we’d be protected by the Sentries.

“All right,” I
said with one last deep breath, “let’s go.”

I slouched my way through the
forest, one hand on Alex and the other rubbing fiercely at my eyes. We’d walked
all night and all the next day. The sun disappeared over the horizon again and
the darkness grew deeper. Alex could see much better in the dark with his deer
eyes. It seemed like transforming into a buck gave him renewed energy. But I
wanted to lie down. I wanted to sleep for a million years and wake up on a
beach in an orange-red-yellow bikini with a huge strawberry margarita next to
me. The key—Marianne—was heavy around my neck. Every muscle in my body seemed
to ache. I tripped over roots, got caught up in viney undergrowth. If we didn’t
keep going, the werewoman would find us. They would drag us back. Kill Alex. Imprison
Marianne for the rest of time. Imprison me as well. For the rest of Wolf’s
life. He’d have to look at me as the war between humans and wolves began,
lasted, ended. And he probably wouldn’t care. I’d be his trophy. A frozen glass
doll.

I fell to my knees. Exhaustion
swept over me. Alex snorted and nudged my shoulder. I closed my eyes, reaching
blindly up to touch his nose.

“If I ride you, I’ll just fall
off,” I said.

Maybe it would be safe to stop. The
other wolves had done a fine job of keeping the werewolves away so far. Before
her war started, the werewolves would have to deal with the regular wolves and
half-wolves first. The thought eased me slightly. Alex lay down beside me. He made
an impressive buck with his massive rack of antlers and flawless hide. I patted
his side in what I hoped was a reassuring way.

“Just a little bit,” I told him.

And then I
passed out.

I knew it was a dream the same way
all people know they’re in a dream.

I sat in the prison cell of the
fortress, except the cell was outside, in the forest and without doors. Outside,
howls came from all directions. I tried to howl back, but only succeeded in
crying pitifully. Then I looked at the ground.

Two pulsing chunks of meat lay
there, blood oozing out around them. My heart, torn in two. I picked up the
pieces, one in each hand, and watched the blood drip around my fingers.

I set them down again and turned
around. Behind me in the cell wall was a roaring hearth. I took up a hammer and
pulled two bands of metal from the fire, red and glowing. Then I struck them
with all my might. I smashed them and forged them and bent them to my will. When
they were ready, I picked up my heart again and put it back together. It beat
harder than before. I held it in place as I pieced together the metal bands. The
muscle sizzled and seared under their heat. Pain stabbed into my chest but I
ignored it. I held the bands in place until they fused together. Eventually
they cooled, and I examined my work. It would do.

Someone snorted, and I looked up to
see Wolf standing in the open doorway. He stared hungrily at my heart.

“Let me have some of that.”

I stared back at him, unmoving. “I’ve
already given you enough.”

Around us the air moved, yet it
didn’t. Not wind, words. The old witch.

“Reach so high until you are
burning up. Burning so brightly as you reach for the stars.”

This was my heart. Broken, but
still strong. And I wasn’t going to hide in the dark, waiting for someone to
look for me.

“You will reach for the stars. You
will try so long and so hard, you will forget all those around you. And you
will burn up once you touch them.”

Yes. I will burn.

I awoke with a start, kicking up a
few leaves as I bolted upright.

“Calm down dear, it’s just a
dream.”

It took my brain several seconds to
register what was in front of my face. A fire burned between me and an old
woman. Alex lay docilely beside me, unperturbed by the woman’s presence. It
took a few moments for my brain to register that she was the old witch who gave
me the necklace and Alex his Sentry uniform. She prodded at the fire, sending a
shower of orange sparks into the air.

“That’s what Henry did,” she said.

“Who?” was all I could manage.

“Henry. The servant to Prince
Gerald, long ago when the Prince was transformed into a frog.”

I closed my eyes for a moment. My
head pounded. How long had I slept?

“I’m sorry,” I said, rubbing my
forehead. “What did he do?”

“When Prince Gerald was cursed to
become a frog, his manservant Henry was so distraught he had to band his heart
so it wouldn’t break.”

I warmed myself by the fire, but
kept my eyes on the old woman. Strange. She didn’t seem quite as old as before.

“Who
are
you?” I finally
asked.

She gave me a grandmotherly smile. “Now
that is a good question.”

I waited. She continued to poke at
the fire. It reminded me of Wolf. I quickly banished the thought from my mind.

“Well?”

“Wolves were not always bad.”

Okay, not an answer to my question.
But I let her go on. I didn’t have the energy or the desire to try arguing with
a witch.

“In fact, there was great peace
between them and the people here. True, the occasional sheep or cow would go
missing, but there was never any cause for worry. The people and the wolves
were great friends and often enjoyed one another’s company. After a time, it
came to be that both men and maids fell in love with those of wolf packs, and
likewise wolves fell in love with humans.