The Wolf Road (13 page)

But this demon weren’t Trapper, weren’t Kreagar. Couldn’t a’ been. Kreagar couldn’t find me, I said so, I said he ain’t never finding me and I ain’t seen no sign a’ him since afore Dalston, ’less it really was his legs I seen in Matthews’s basement. Ain’t no matter, Lyon must a’ caught up with him by now. I twisted away and I saw nothing but darkness in that
thing
. I didn’t know what it was. My brain hurt and ached and I couldn’t think in straight lines. The demon said something, words what didn’t make sense to me, words like “You learning, you learning.”

He was gone fast as I could blink. Woods fell quick silent and I didn’t hear no more footsteps. I figured it had to a’ been a demon or a ghost to disappear like that. I didn’t know much a’ what happened next ’cept I woke up on the shore a’ that lake, knife still in my hand and a pool of dark blood next to me.

I slept all night and almost all through the next day after that. Body was drained and empty. Didn’t remember last time I ate. A heavy cloud weighed on my head and no amount a’ sleep seemed to lift it. But hell, my heart swelled when I went down to the water one morning and I saw Wolf standing, tight and tense, halfway ’round the lake.

“Hey, Wolf!” I said loud, saw his ears prick at the sound a’ me. Forgot all ’bout that demon.

Wolf came ’round the lake on them fat pad paws. Didn’t have no snow on him so he couldn’t a’ gone far. He was a hell of a sight, that’s for sure, all muscle and claws and teeth, and that fur, mixes of white and gray and that brown you get just when the leaves are turning. That black line down his head, ’tween his eyes. I tell you, that feeling is something no number a’ pretty words can make real. That’s ancient, old-time respect ’tween beasts. We could both kill each other quicker’n you could snap your fingers and maybe one day we will, but by that lake and in them forests, I felt more kinship with that wolf than I ever did with a human.

He came close to me and sniffed, still a bit a’ nerves running through him. I knelt down and held out my hand.

“Got no rabbit heads for you no more,” I said, and he came up, nuzzled his nose ’gainst my hand.

Then he clamped his jaws right ’round my arm.

I fell onto my backside and tried to pull away. Cursed myself for leaving my knife in my hut. Felt his teeth pressing into my skin, but he weren’t biting me. He was just holding my arm in his mouth. Right gentle like he was carrying a pup by the scruff.

My shock went away slow but I kept looking in his eyes and there weren’t no hate there, no snarling. But he weren’t letting go neither. He started tugging me. Pulling me away from the water and toward my hut. I was so confused by it I went along, bending down all awkward to keep my arm straight.

He let me go when we got to my shelter. Then he started jumping about, running away into the trees and then coming rushing back at me. He wanted me to follow him, that was plain.

“I got all I need here, Wolf,” I said, dizzy for straightening up. “I got water and heat and food, I ain’t goin’ nowhere.”

I turned away then heard a mighty growl behind me. Wolf weren’t playing games. Soon as I turned back he started dashing about again.

“Where you want me to go, huh?” I said to him.

I folded my arms and shook my head at him.

He growled again, fiercer.

“Where you been?” I said, fiercer too. “You just up and leave me then come back like nothin’ happened, tellin’ me to leave my cushy setup? What you thinkin’, Wolf?”

I knew he didn’t know my words, I weren’t touched in the head like that. I figured he might get my meaning though, wolves ain’t stupid, they’re meant to be part of a pack and all packs got their issues.

Wolf yapped and run quicker into the forest and back. His eyes was full of something close to worry. Maybe he’d seen something while I was away, some kind a’ danger that was headed this way. Maybe he’d seen the demon and knew I was in trouble. Something was wrong in that lake. Something in the deep, dark part that put this whole area into a fog a’ forget. The North weren’t no more’n a compass point to me no more.

Maybe whatever bomb was in that lake was leeching out something nasty. Maybe it was drinking that water, eating meat what lapped it, bathing in it, letting it in my blood. No wonder them rabbits and squirrels were so easy to catch, they were all drunk and stupid.

Wolf was right. Time to go.

“Should call you Wise Wolf from now on,” I said, and nodded firm to him. I quick gathered up my stuff, still had a can or two left from the reverend, and figured filling up my flask from that water was a fool’s idea of a good time.

He didn’t growl at me. I suppose he knew us humans weren’t well equipped for outdoors in just our skins. Once my pack was strapped to my back, I followed Wolf away from the lake. Maybe he had some kind of plan told to him by the wolf god; maybe he just wanted a change of scene or to punish me for not giving him better cuts of rabbit, but damn that beast, he took me straight to Lyon’s front door.

There weren’t no snow.

Least, not big drifts of it I expected from a winter in these parts. There were a few branches still laden with white but that was old fall. It hadn’t snowed in days. Ground was wet and muddy with melt and my heart dropped right out my stomach. It was spring. I’d been by that lake near half a year.

That first night away from the water I wished I was dead. Had shakes and shivers and they weren’t from the cold. I screamed at high heaven to strike me down and I must a’ told all them hungry woken-up bears just where to find me. Wolf stayed close, kept me warm with his fur, kept me still with his weight. Woke up the next morning breathing him in, my face right up in his neck.

Took me two days away from that poison lake, but I soon started to feel more like old Elka. I was a bit slower, bit quieter, but I felt my wits coming back. Felt my tongue sharpening up. Felt all them things I forgot coming back to me.
Tell my little girl, I love you
. Them words hit me first and hardest. I was getting closer to my momma and daddy. I was looking forward ’stead a’ looking back. I didn’t want no life with Trapper no more. Trapper weren’t really Trapper after all. But my parents, they was real and they was waiting in the Far North.

Their words came back to me but so did pictures a’ Matthews’s basement. Them legs I saw walking ’round, they came clearer in my head, saw stitching and red stains. Seen the stranger’s hand on the table next to my head. Scar on it
.
More a’ them words spoke in my head, like they was struggling through a snowdrift.
Ain’t no sport in killin’ something caught in someone else’s snare.
There was more. More words what was still buried, more smells and sights what my brain couldn’t pull out. Could a’ just been some crazy-ass bastard what hated the reverend. Could a’ been Kreagar. But shit, Lyon must a’ caught him by now. All that ice and bluster in her, all that law she got on her side.

When I saw a town from the top of a rise, I dropped flat onto my stomach and cursed the wolf. I weren’t in no mood for humans. He lay flat beside me and didn’t say a word. Felt like he was rolling his eyes at me like my nana did when I said something stupid. But when I thought about it more, I said all right then, Wolf.

I needed to know where I was and how far it was to Halveston. Trapper told me stories of fools rushing up there hundred years afore the Damn Stupid and they all went through Dawson City. Dawson weren’t there no more. It got hit nasty in the Second Conflict when them over the ocean tried their luck few years after the Damn Stupid but from a different direction, down ’stead a’ up. Shit, them Ruski folks Trapper spat about, they tried it every which way, but the Mussa Valley men cut ’em off at the knees, so says the old’uns in Ridgeway anyways. They said with an actor running our show and a woman in charge ’cross the ocean, it weren’t no surprise that them Ruskis got as far as they did. It was the Mussa men what single-handed won the Second Conflict if you believe the talk. Hard to put too much stock in what them sodden men say. Damn Stupid and Second Conflict, hell, they was what they was and they both done and dead now, ain’t no sense in dwelling.

Dawson was gone but I figured another town must a’ sprung up in its place, figured that might be Halveston. Just like the reverend said, the North is big and I admit I didn’t know what road was leading me where.

This town was built up at a crossroads. One road ran east-west, the other north-south, and the north-south was wider and more traveled. Wooden arches over each road marked the boundaries. Even saw a few folks heading north, dragging sleds and bulky packs. This was one a’ them “gateway” towns. It was maybe twice the size of Dalston and mostly acted as a trading post for them passing through.

“You go in that town,” I said to the wolf, “and they’re going to string you up and skin you.”

Wolf huffed and crawled forward.

I put my hand firm on the back of his neck and said, “They’d kill you soon as look at you. Stay here.”

I think he got my meaning ’cause when I stood up, he didn’t. Looked right forlorn he did, gave me a few yaps, few little howls, but it was for the best. He knew it same as me.

I turned up my collar as I went ’neath the town’s south arch. Few folks milled about, old-timers sat outside stores and chewed on ’bacco, a rifle resting on their bony knees. Nobody paid me much attention. Streets were quieter than I expected and the buildings, all wood boards, were bigger’n they looked from the rise. Never been in a town this big and it sent prickles running up my neck. Kept my knife close to hand. Kept my wits. Get in, get out, and get back to Wolf.

I came to a general store. Usually them shopkeepers are gossips a’ the worst kind. They know everything and everyone what has passed through their town and if anyone was going to point me in the right direction, it’d be them.

Stuck up in the window was one a’ them charcoal posters a’ Kreagar. Strange seeing his face after so long away from him. Made me miss him, but that passed quick like gas. Couldn’t tell if the poster was an old’un and he was caught already or if he was still running. I sure as shit weren’t ’bout to ask no questions to find out.

A tin bell tinkled when I pushed open the door. Two freestanding shelves stood taller’n me, running down the center of the shop. Walls was covered in goods and produce and on the far side, a thickset woman sat behind a counter, scraping at her nails with a file.

“Morning, love,” she said as I got to the counter, “help you?”

“Wonderin’ if you can tell me what this town calls itself?” I said.

Woman put the file down and looked at me, caterpillar eyebrows meeting in the middle of her head. “Can’t read the name on the arches?”

Shook my head.

“This here is Genesis and this is Maud’s General Store. I’m titular Maud.” She chuckled though I didn’t get the joke. My eyes went to her chest and she sure was titular, didn’t do much to hide it neither.

“Where are you headed?” she said.

Weren’t no point in lying. Don’t get no fruit out a’ good folks when all you feed them is lies. I could tell by this woman’s voice she was a good’un. Had kindness deep in her though I wouldn’t want to push it too far.

“Halveston. Heard about a yellow metal makin’ men rich. Figured I’d get mine.”

Maud smiled, showed off teeth black from ’bacco.

“Ha!” she laughed like a donkey braying. “You and the rest of the world, darlin’.”

I turned my face meek, like her words had hurt my delicate feelings.

“Aw, hell, child, I didn’t mean nothing by it,” she said, and put a meaty hand over mine. With her other she took a map out the rack and spread it ’cross the counter. Was ’bout the same as Matthews’s map.

“All those guys who are looking for the gold and stones got to pass through Halveston, so be mindful. You take the road north through the mountain pass, cross the lake, careful though, only a handful of towns from here to there. Just follow the trail of fools.” She winked at me and I felt a mite of discomfort at how familiar she was.

Found the lake, skinny and long, and north of that by a fair way, ’neath her finger, was Halveston. Felt good to have firm points what meant I didn’t have to go on that road. Mountain pass. Long, narrow lake. Long as I kept that road close, I weren’t getting lost.

“Thank you, ma’am,” I said, and went to leave.

“Hold up,” Maud shouted, didn’t stand up, didn’t think she could easy lift all that bulk. “Hope you’re going to stick around town; we got a hanging today, whole town will be in the square for the celebration.”

“Who you hangin’?”

“A woman who kept quiet about her kid shooting up a store.”

Big cold rock sat in my throat. “They hang people for that?”

“Hang them for less than that around here.”

“Is that right?” I said, and I tried my damnedest to keep the tremble out my voice.

Maud nodded. “The kid turned the gun on himself when the law caught up. He got his, now the one who helped him hide is going to get hers.”

“Damn awful,” I said, but I couldn’t bring myself to feel like it was right. Sounded like the momma didn’t do nothing bad. Sure not bad enough to be hanged for it.