Zara the Wolf (24 page)

Bradley went straight to Shelly, who
was sitting by the fire preparing to eat.

"Lady Shelly, I'm glad you are
well, but I'm surprised you didn’t join us in Monis." He remained
standing, I presumed to assert his importance. Shelly didn't appear impressed
and looked to Lutz with a scowl on her face.

"Lutz, I told you to tell Baron
Bradley we had wounded and would remain until they were fit to travel."

"I did, Baroness Shelly,"
Lutz replied, playing along with the game by emphasizing her title.

"You expect me to leave wounded
behind to die, Baron Bradley?"

"Of course not, but—"

"Zara and Sonya were wounded in a
fight with five Sirens and sixteen soldiers. Zara could have travel yesterday,
but Sonya still isn't fit. So, we will be here a couple more days." Shelly
picked a piece of meat out of her stew and chewed it quietly. Bradley stood
there looking stunned.

"You let three Sirens get away.
Why aren't you chasing them?" His tone was harsh and angry.

"Because we had wounded. I thought
you would be here the next day, since it is your responsibility to catch them.
You have thirty troops with you. Zara, which way did they go?" Shelly said,
looking at me. I marveled at the discipline it took for her not to laugh or at
least smile. I pointed to the trail they had used to enter the mountains.
"There, and you certainly have enough troopers to find and capture
them." She took a sip of her stew.

"How can we be expected to find
them in the mountains?"

"You have thirty troopers and are
telling me you are incapable of finding three Sirens on foot, but you expect me
to find them with only ten troopers—two seriously wounded. Either sit and
have something to eat, or go away. You're tired and not making any sense."
She was smart in that her voice remained normal and couldn't be heard by anyone
but Eaton, Sonya, and me. He sat. I guess he knew he wasn't going to win this
argument, and he was beginning to look foolish. Shelly had a valid point.

"What do you think are their odds
of surviving in the mountains?" he asked, looking at me.

"The Siren posing as a corporal
will most likely die of a loss of blood. He won’t be able to keep up, and I
doubt the other two will stop for him. The other two are wounded but not with
life-threating wounds. If the Indians find them, they will kill them, since
they are too old to make good slaves. I don't know anything about the two men,
so I can't give you a better answer. The Abbot knows the men and could
therefore give you a better answer."

"Could you track them?"
Bradley asked liked a dog with a bone—with me the bone.

"After this many days, that’s
unlikely. It's rained at least twice on the mountain." I shrugged. He
accepted a bowl of stew and ate without saying anything. When he finished, he
spoke.

"We entered the castle without any
trouble. Much like at Arucci, Earl Nguyen and his family were murdered in a
faked coup, which Baron Woods claimed to have stopped. He then assumed command.
That's why I was several days late coming here." He seemed somewhat
deflated and looked tired. "Any suggestions, Zara?"

"I think you have accomplished
what Duke Phipps asked you to do. You ousted the Sirens from Arucci and Monis
and killed all but … two, whose odds of survival are poor. It's now the Abbot's
responsibility to adopt new rules for talented students who don't measure up to
the standards for Monk."

"You're right, but you know dukes.
You and Zara will have to come back with me to explain the situation."
Bradley actually smiled. Shelly leapt to her feet, hate written in her face and
eyes blazing fury. I jumped up and stood face to face with her.

"Don't, please. Neither Bradley nor
Phipps is worth it. Bradley is a petrified mouse, and Phipps a dangerous
fool," I said in a whisper so soft I doubted Shelly would have understood if
she hadn't been able to read my lips. She nodded, and I turned back to Bradley.

"Baron Bradley, I will lead you
and your thirty troopers into the mountains to search for your three
Sirens."

"Why thirty troopers?"

"There are Indians in those
mountains. A smaller force would be too much of a temptation."

"Why me?"

"Because you wouldn't believe
anything I told you. So I need a witness Duke Phipps will believe." If I
hadn't been so angry, I would have had a tough time not laughing. I had trapped
the arrogant bastard. His options were few: agree he had done his job and let
Shelly and me go, or go into the mountains with me. Considering what I knew
about Phipps, they weren't good options. "You can wait for the other
thirty troopers if you want."

"I thought you said you couldn't
track them," he said with a small smile, thinking he had found a flaw in
my argument.

"I didn't say I'd track them. I
said I'd lead you and your troopers to search for the Sirens. If they are dead,
we should be able to find remains. If they are camping, we may even find them.
I'm not a god, Baron Bradley, as much as you and Duke Phipps seem to
think—"

"We do not—"

"Yes you do. You expect me to know
who the Sirens are, how to find them, and to kill them when I do. Three of them
would have killed me if it hadn't been for Sonya. I'm just a woman who the
Indians took for a slave after murdering her parents and who is trying to adapt
to civilization. Commoners like me aren't gods. You want a god, force the Monks
out here to look. They created the Sirens." I had lost it and knew it.
Anything could happen after talking back to a Baron like I just had. But I
would die fighting, and I prepared my mind.

"Zara's right." Shelly
interjected just in time to stop Bradley from reacting. "She's willing to
take you into the mountains if you feel it's necessary. The Sirens did their
best to kill her, and it's taken days for her to recover. How is she supposed
to know if they are dead or alive, where they are, or where they’re going?"

"Let me think about it,"
Bradley said and walked back to the tent his troops had set up for him. My
suggestion was stupid now that I thought about it. Thirty troopers thrashing
around the mountain would be easy bait for any sizeable tribe. And if they were
slaughtered, I would be held to blame. And if we didn't find any trace, would
that satisfy Phipps? And what if the Indians had captured the Sirens? On my own,
I might have been able to determine that, but with thirty inexperienced
troopers along, the tribe would just move on until we gave up—which wouldn't
take long. I went to bed with a headache.

The next day, Bradley joined us at
breakfast. He said nothing until he had finished.

"Yes, we have a delicate situation
here which has us all rightly nervous. Duke Phipps expects me … us to make the
problem go away. He isn't going to be happy with partial solutions or ‘we don't
know’ answers. That's just the way it is, and we have to live with it."

"Baron Bradley, I'll make you a
proposition. You let Lady Shelly go back to Duke Wetzel, and I will go and look
for the three Sirens. I will make my best effort to capture or kill any I find
or to verify their deaths."

"How can I trust you won't just
disappear or come back and tell me what I want to hear?"

"Between us, you have already
accomplished Duke Phipps's goal. The Sirens have been cleared out of the
castles and are possibly all dead—only the Abbot will know whether that
is true or not. Duke Phipps won't. As you indicated, dukes expect a perfect outcome
whether it’s possible or not. Beside the three that are in the mountain, there
may be twenty more living in the cities."

"What?" Bradley choked out.

"As I said, only the Monks know
how many talented students they rejected, and nobody knows how many chose to
join the group we call the Sirens. So telling the duke you accomplished the
assignment he gave you is true to the best of our knowledge, and there is no
way to dispute that," I said, and waited for him to nod. "But I will
give you my word to do my best and to report back to you at Monis or Arucci and
tell you what I find. But I want your word that you will let me go after that,
no dragging me back to Duke Phipps."

"Baron Bradley, Duke Wetzel and I
trust her word. You may consider her a savage, but she has demonstrated more
integrity than most nobles I know," Shelly said. Bradley rose and walked
off by himself. An hour later, he returned and sat down by Shelly.

"Lady Shelly, what are you going
to tell Duke Wetzel?"

"That Zara and I visited the
cities he designated and did what he asked—looked. We reported our
finding to Duke Phipps and participated with a detail headed by Baron Bradley,
which he sent to free Arucci and Monis. And that you freed the cities and
ousted the Sirens, who were subsequently killed."

"Were they killed?"

"Zara will verify it one way or
the other. And if she can't, I think it is reasonable to assume they died in
the mountains. Personally, it isn't important. You accomplished what Duke
Phipps wanted done—don't confuse him with details. It could keep you from
being appointed earl of Arucci or Monis. If he asks whether they were all
killed, I'd tell him the truth if I were you: only the Abbot knows how many
there were. I doubt he'll ask, and even if he does, you weren't charged with
killing every talented Trasslat Monastery trained person."

"I agree. But I'm going to report
that all the Sirens were killed in the battle at Monis Pass. Initially, a few
fled into the mountains, but you subsequently verified they died of their
wounds. I'll leave Sergeant Rhodes at Monis castle for … "

"Four weeks," I said, hoping
the Indians weren't too high in the mountains. "If he has to wait longer
than that, then I'm dead. The Iappo aren't my friends."

"Alright, contact him with what
you find. I trust him. Good luck, Zara, and thanks. Lady Shelly, will you need
an escort?" He gave a wry smile.

"No, but thank you for the
thought. I'll stay here until Sonya can travel, then take her and Joanna back
to Trasslat. My detail is sufficient." He gave her the traditional kiss on
both cheeks and wandered back to his area.

"I wish you would just wait three
weeks and then report you found them dead or something, but knowing you, you're
actually going to go looking." She gave me an angry glare. "Since I'm
a Baroness in Hipula, I'll wait there for you, and you had better meet me
there."

"I'm not suicidal, Baroness
Shelly. I'll be there as soon as I can. Take care of Greystone for me? I won't
need her in the mountains." I spent the next hour packing my bedroll with
the things I wouldn't need and left it on Greystone. When I finished, I stopped
to say goodbye to Sonya before trotting onto the rocky trail leading higher into
the mountains.

For the next three days, I followed
well-used animal trails leading higher up the mountain, finding occasional signs
I thought had been made by the Sirens: campfires, tree limbs cut for some
purpose, shit which didn't look like it was from an Indian diet, and an
occasional boot print. Toward the end of the third day, I came upon the
decomposed body of the corporal. The animals had done a good job of cleaning up,
but between the clothes, size, and what remained of the skull I was positive it
was him. Two days later, I found the bodies of two Indians with warrior
tattoos. One had the tattoo of a raccoon and the other a wolf. I spent the day
building a tree platform for the two bodies. It was late by the time I had the
bodies settled on the burial pallet. I laughed when I finally finished.
I spent too much time with the Ojaza,
I
mused. Maybe it was the warrior's wolf tattoo or maybe it was that the Sirens
had stolen their identity.

I knew there wouldn't be any fires in
the village, so I set some traps then found a spot off the trail with good
cover and slept. As the grey light of dawn began to creep across the side of
the mountain, I fetched the rabbit my trap had snared, cooked and ate, and was
back on the trail before the sun rose. I moved slowly, staying off any obvious
paths, knowing I must be close to the village or a temporary hunting camp. Just
before sunset, I located their temporary summer camp. I estimated a little more
than fifty: about forty-plus warriors, a medicine man, eight or so non-warrior
women, and two slaves. And I saw the Siren captain—actually, I saw a
wolf-warrior with a sporadic blue aura. I worked my way around the camp and
headed higher into the mountains. It took me the entire next day to find what I
was looking for—a watering hole with obvious activity. I used water and
plants to reduce my smell and settled down in a tree with a fair view of the
path to the water.

When the animals began leaving the area
in a rush, I went on alert. A few minutes later, a full-grown male wolf entered
the trail. I nocked an arrow, pulled back the string, and cursed myself, but
like before, it was a matter of survival. My arrow struck true, and he dropped within
seconds. After cleaning him, I carried him back to my hideout and spent the
next several hours skinning him, leaving all but a small piece of thigh for the
scavengers. It was late by the time I found a new campsite for the night, far
away from the kill.

The next day I spent cutting up the
skin and making slots for my arms and legs. Then I moved closer to the Iappo
camp. With dirt and the wolf's scent on me, a wolf's skin covering me, and
naked except for my sword and dagger, I must have been a once-in-a-lifetime sight
when I entered the Iappo camp screaming.

"You have a coyote, a trickster
among you, and a serpent who will spread darkness among the Iappo. The wolf-spirit
demands the blood of the coyote that slew his warrior and the serpent that helped
him. The animal spirits cry for the Iappo's honor," I shouted and heard an
eerie echo that scared even me for a moment. I raised my sword and pointed it
at the captain. "Coyote!"

It had the desired effect; the warriors
began moving away from the captain and the sergeant. I howled like a wolf as I
advanced on the pair at a run, letting the wolf skin drop away so everyone
could see my wolf tattoo. The pair realized they couldn't choose the blue
dimension without giving away their disguises, which would verify what I had
said, so they drew their swords and waited.

When I was within a few feet, the
sergeant lunged at me with a two-handed strike to my head—a very non-Indian-like
technique. I ducked under it, slashed through his knee, and was past him before
he could reverse his stroke. He collapsed onto his knees. The captain had begun
scrambling backward before I had even reached the sergeant. I could imagine the
look on the warriors' faces—warriors didn't back away from a fight. It
wasn't their style. I think from the look on the captain's face he realized his
mistake and stopped and lunged at me with a vicious strike to the ribs. I
imagine he thought he could overpower a woman. His sword slammed into mine and
slid into my guard and was momentarily trapped. I spun in a circle, and the
pressure snapped his wrist. His freed sword arched high into the air. I stepped
away from him.

"The spirits demand their deaths
or they will abandon the Iappo," I shouted. The captain and sergeant had
lost their illusions and were trying to leave while arrows by the tens scored
direct hits. I waved to the medicine man, who approached cautiously. I
explained to him where he could find the Indian bodies and left the camp. Now
that it was over, my heart was beating like a horse at full gallop. While I was
acting the wolf-spirit it had felt right somehow, but now I thought it a miracle
the Iappo didn't kill me. Maybe they too were caught in the moment or maybe
their minds didn't want to trust their eyes. I made my way back to my camp and
the next day headed in the direction of Monis to avoid running into the Iappo by
accident.

Bradley had given me a letter with his
seal, so I had no trouble entering the city a week later or finding Sergeant
Rhodes at the castle.

"I thought Baron Bradley a fool
trusting you, although I agreed with you that he had accomplished what Phipps
had sent him to do. Did you find anything?"

"I found the remains of the
corporal. I don't know his or the others’ names. He died of wounds he received
in the battle at the Pass. Three days later, I discovered they had killed two
Indians and replaced them with their illusions. It didn't work, and the Iappo
killed them. If I were the baron, I wouldn't repeat that because it would raise
more questions and suspicions. But he can feel comfortable that those three are
dead. He has my word on it. I saw the bodies."

"I'll tell him. I understand you
and a Cheyo Guard took on a troop of sixteen—and lived. That must be some
story."

"I'll tell you this, if you ever
have to arrest a Cheyo Guard, you need at least twenty experienced troopers at
your back, and I'd only give you even odds of living through the encounter. She
was like a goddess of death."

"Wish I had seen it. I'll be
leaving tomorrow. You want company?" he asked, looking around. "Do
you need a horse?"

"Thank you, but no to both
questions. I'm leaving now, and a horse would slow me down. They need to rest
often, whereas I can run all day and night without stopping." I left him
with his mouth hanging open.