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it, as if they'd guessed his plan. In their dugouts they made it with ease. He watched
them hoist the boats on their shoulders and climb the bank. They meant to carry
them around the rapids and lie in wait for him above.
He had no choice but to go on.
The river turned rougher, crashing over rocks and soaking him in spray. As he
clambered past the rapids, he watched for his pursuers on the other side. From
memory, he guessed he was nearing the place where-- on the opposite bank--two
gullies led off from the Axehandle valley. The autumn before last, he and Renn had
found a fallen oak and used it to get across. Maybe ...
The oak was gone, washed away by floods.
For a moment Torak didn't know what to do. His
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head felt tight. A buzzing in his ears made it hard to think. There had to be some
way of crossing.
There was. Ahead, the valley narrowed, drowned thickets giving way to boulders
and straggling trees. A pine had fallen and now spanned the river, ten paces above
it. As a walkway, it wasn't promising: the bark was slimy, branches stuck out, and
when Torak put his hand on the trunk, it wobbled.
Good enough, he told himself.
Part of him knew this was a mistake--but strangely, he kept going.
Wolf raced lightly along the trunk, leaping the branches. When he reached the other
side, he turned to Torak, wagging his tail.Easy!
No it's not, Torak wanted to say. Not on your hands and knees in slippery wet
buckskin, with a sleeping-sack, bow, and quiver on your back--and no claws. He
was nearly across when he heard voices. He glanced down--and nearly fell off in
alarm.
Blue water and white foam swirled around moss-green boulders. On one, directly
beneath him, stood Aki and Raut.
Torak held his breath. If one of them looked up ...
"I've had enough," said Raut. "I'm going back."
"Well, I'm not!" snarled Aki.
Torak tried to move forward, but Renn's rowanberry wristband snagged on a
branch. He tried
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to unsnag it. The tree shook.
"The others have gone back," said Raut, "and so should we. We're out of our
range."
Again Torak tugged the wristband. It snapped. Rowanberries bounced onto the
rocks. Luckily, Aki was too incensed to notice. "If you go now, you'll be going on
foot! I'm keeping the boat!"
"You do that!" retorted Raut. Then more quietly, "Aki, this isn't right! Why do you
hate him so much?
"I don't," snapped Aki.
"Then why all this?"
"I said I'd get him! I told Fa. I can't go back if I fail."
"Well, you'll have to do it without me. We'll split the provisions--then you're on
your own!"
Weak with relief, Torak watched them head off downstream.
He'd just begun to move when Aki's voice rang out. "I know you're out there, Soul-
Eater! I'll find you, I swear it on my souls! I'll find you and I'll hunt you down!"
Wolf was waiting for him on the other side, but Torak barely greeted him. Huddled
in his wet clothes, he thought about Aki's threat. Such determination.
He glanced at Wolf. Every moment they spent together put him at risk. Clan law
forbade the killing of a hunter,exceptin self-defense. What if it came to a fight and
Wolf tried to defend his pack-brother and Aki shot him?
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A moment of pure panic. He couldn't be without Wolf.
It's the only way, he told himself. And it isn't forever.
Split up, Torak told his pack-brother in wolf talk. Wolf threw him a puzzled glance.
Impossible to get across that this wasn't for good, but only while Aki was close.
With an effort, Torak hardened his heart and repeated the command.Split up! Wolf
looked offended. Then he shook himself and trotted off into the bracken.
Torak hadn't heard Aki or his dogs for a while, or seen any sign of Wolf.
The buzzing in his ears came and went, and the wound in his chest throbbed.
Belatedly, he'd smeared it with chewed willow bast, but it refused to heal. The pain
was a constant reminder that it wasn't only Aki who hunted him. The Soul-Eaters
had hooked him with an unseen harpoon, and were drawing him in. The ground
became stonier. From where he stood, the riverbank dropped steeply to the
Axehandle. He'd passed the rapids some time ago, but their thunder still filled his
ears.
Leaning against a birch tree, he gulped the last of Renn's blood sausage. He didn't
bother with an offering; he needed it all for himself. He was thirsty, but it was a
tough climb down to the
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river, so instead he slashed the birch trunk and drank. He left the bark oozing tree-
blood and stumbled on. He knew that was wrong, but he did it anyway. Something
was getting between him and the Forest. He was too tired to fight it.
Below him the river ran swift and deep. Should he stay this close, or get under
cover? He decided to stay close. [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]