Chapter Sixteen
“Oh, sure, because why not wolves?” I say, too drained to be afraid. “Why don’t some mountain bears and snow leopards show up while we’re at it?”
The wolves cock their ears, almost as if they’re paying attention, but make no move toward me. There’s no snarling, either. A large, black wolf with a patch of white on its chest takes a step closer.
“I know you’re hungry,” I say conversationally, as if wolves can understand me. I realize that the recent events in my life may have shaken loose my grasp on reality.
But I don’t care. It feels right to talk to them.
“I know you’re hungry,” I repeat. “And if you’re willing to not eat me, I promise to share some of our provisions with you.” We have half an antelope left from Kaelen and Andras’s hunt yesterday.
The lead wolf tilts her head, and the oddest thing happens, so unexpected I don’t understand at first.
The amulet, safely encased in the bespelled locket, pulses with heat against my skin.
I gasp and grab the chain, yank the locket out from beneath my shirt, and hold it out in front of me. It’s glowing with soft green light, but it doesn’t heat up.
“At least it’s not shooting flames,” I mutter to the wolves, who don’t answer me.
But then, in fact, they do.
Not that the wolves speak to me. That would be ridiculous. Animals can’t talk except in myth or the most far-fetched of children’s tales. No, they … they seem to pay attention to the amulet, which continues to glow. Still no heat. It’s not burning me.
Yet.
The wolves watch the glowing object as if mesmerized, until a crashing sound startles all seven of us. Horses.
Kaelen must be coming for me.
“You should go now,” I tell the wolves, feeling almost compelled to do so. “I promise we’ll leave the meat for you at the edge of the woods.”
With one last glance at me and then at the amulet, the pack lopes off into the trees, vanishing from view.
When Kaelen and Andras arrive, I tell them what happened, expecting they won’t believe me, but they only nod, scanning the area.
By the time we rejoin the others, the amulet has stopped glowing and pulsing.
Everyone talks at once, but I won’t answer questions until we pull out the rest of the antelope we salted and packed into parcels last night.
Neville, Bern, and Andras help me unwrap the meat and make a neat pile just inside the tree line.
“This makes no sense, Soli,” Trick says, exasperation heavy in both his voice and his hands-on-hips stance. “They’re animals. They can catch their own food.”
“And we can hunt and catch more for ourselves,” I say, stubbornness grinding my words until they drop like stones from my lips. “I gave my word.”
“To an animal,” he says, exaggerating the word to show that I’m being unreasonable, I guess. Or too naive to understand how the real world works.
Maybe I’m both. But I gave my word, and we’re doing this.
When we’re finished, I clean my hands, put my water flask away, and climb back on poor, patient Cloud.
She has been so calm, waiting for me, but now she raises her head and whinnies a note of distress.
I almost smile, proud of myself for learning her different moods and sounds so quickly, but then focus on what might be upsetting her.
“Soli,” Chitai calls out quietly. “Your wolves are here.”
The six of them stand just at the edge of the trees, the alpha in front, watching me.
“Good hunting, my friend,” I murmur, nodding to her.
Just as I click my teeth to Cloud to move forward, I hear Elianna gasp. The wolves have all bowed their heads to me in return.
Kaelen canters up next to me and matches his horse’s pace to mine. “That’s one thing sorted out,” he says, his lips quirking a little despite his bleak expression.
“What’s that?” I ask absently as I watch the wolves carry off the meat we left for them and vanish back into the woods.
“There’s no reason for you to be afraid of a few draugrs when you can tame an entire pack of wolves.”
Hours later, I’m still thinking about the wolves. And about Kaelen kissing me, and about the look on his face when he said he wanted to drag me into the forest and …
Elianna, for once alone on the wagon seat, pulls up next to me and Cloud.
I nod hello. “Are you as hungry as I am?”
“He’s not for you, Soli,” she says, frowning.
It startles me to hear her voice my own thoughts so precisely. Maybe magic? Or am I so transparent? “I know. Of course I know. He’s a prince, and I’m only a—”
She snorts. “You’re not only anything. You just held your own with a pack of wolves, for Artemisen’s sake.
But that’s just it. For Artemisen’s sake.
That’s why we’re doing this. The amulet—I saw it glowing.
Her magic is reaching out to you, through you.
Even if, by some miracle, we survive this and succeed, do you really believe she’ll ever let you go? ”
My mouth falls open. For all my careful thinking, this is a result that never once crossed my mind. I guess I had vague notions of Artemisen taking her amulet, curing Altarra of everything bad Corvynne put in place over the past century, patting me on the head, and sending me on my way.
To go live in that cottage filled with books, maybe.
A lovely daydream but probably leagues and leagues away from reality. “Do you really think … why would she want me?”
Elianna’s voice is kind but somber. “I don’t know. I don’t even pretend to know. Maybe she won’t. But the goddesses have always jealously clung to their own. Artemisen, may she be restored, didn’t even allow the Sylvan people out of her forest for many long centuries, or so I’ve heard.”
I’m shaking my head. “I don’t … Why would she think I’m hers?”
The sorcerer glances down at my somewhat grubby white shirt, beneath which rests the locket. “Oh, I don’t know. Maybe because you’re the first person in a hundred years who could touch that and live?”
“Respectfully, Elianna, you’re wrong. You make it sound like I’m some sort of chosen one, when all I am is a nobody. So much of a nobody that I fulfilled the Oracles’ weird riddle.” I wrap my arms around myself and huddle in my cloak.
She shrugs. “Maybe you’re right. Maybe Artemisen will thank you and let you ride happily off into the sunset. But do you really want to involve your heart where it may have no possibility of a future?”
I look up and watch Kaelen riding and talking to Neville for several moments. “I’m not sure I have a choice. My heart may already be involved.”
She sighs. “I thought as much but hoped I could offer a bit of wisdom. Just … be careful.”
I can’t help the laughter that escapes. “Be careful? We’re headed to the Barrows, Elianna. That’s the opposite of being careful.”
After that, we travel at a fast clip for more than an hour, and I try to think about anything except the key we need to retrieve. Or the draugrs. Or kisses. Kaelen periodically swings back to check on me, but he doesn’t speak, just nods, so I do the same.
At one point, he and Andras ride off in the direction we came from, and don’t come back for an hour. When they return, they report no sign of the two who were following us.
“Maybe the wolves ate them,” Trick, riding next to me, says dryly.
“Hello, the wagon,” Chitai calls out. She was ranging ahead of us on the road. When she stops her horse beside us, her eyes are sparkling. “I found a beautiful stream. We can camp and wash our clothes and maybe even ourselves.” Chitai gives Elianna a wicked smile. “You can wash my back, sorcerer.”
Elianna tosses her head. “Unlikely, warrior.”
When Chitai raises an eyebrow, not deterred in the slightest, Elianna glances at her from beneath her long lashes. “But maybe, if you’re very lucky, I’ll let you wash mine.”
Turns out the water is far too cold for our backs or any other body parts. The stream is a tributary that flows into the Altarran River, Kaelen says, and I can picture it on one of the many maps I studied in the library.
Trick and Kaelen have a temporary truce going, it appears. They go out together to hunt for our dinner. Both refrain from commenting about how they wouldn’t have to hunt if I hadn’t given all our meat to a pack of wolves, which I appreciate.
While we’re eating, I bring up the horrible truth hanging over our heads. “The Barrows. We need to come up with a plan. We won’t be able to just ride in there and ask nicely for the draugrs to hand over the key.”
“Soli—” Kaelen begins, but I hold up a hand.
“The Barrows,” I repeat. “Home of the draugrs, which, if you haven’t heard, are also called the spirits of the restless dead. Ideas for how we survive that?”
Chitai points at me. “You’re the reader, riverlander. You know many, many things about many, many things, even those you’ve never seen. So, you tell us. What do you know about defeating the draugrs and surviving the Barrows?”
Everybody looks at me.
I look back at them.
They say nothing.
I say nothing.
Finally, I sigh and rub my temples, where a monstrous headache is pounding. “Well. There may be one way, but it’s so far-fetched … No. It can’t be real.”
“What, Soli?” Elianna taps her fingers against her cup. “What can’t be real?”
I shake my head.
“What?” Chitai demands. “No matter how arduous, dangerous, or deadly, we can take on this task. Just tell us.”
“It’s really, really horrible,” I mutter.
“Out with it,” Andras says, his dark gaze intent on me.
“Well. Somebody has to sing.”