WOLF CAPTURED by Lindskold Jane

Author:Lindskold, Jane
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Published: 2011-02-04T05:00:00+00:00

XXII

HE’D FORGOTTEN HOW strange she was. Derian hadn’t thought this was possible. He knew he’d gotten used to the wolf-woman, but at the moment when Firekeeper stepped out of the forest’s edge and came to greet him, he realized he’d been expecting someone else—someone other …

Her hair needed a good combing. Her clothing—trousers and blouse after the style worn by the Liglimom—was definitely the worse for wear. It needed a wash, and the cotton fabric had never been intended for the hard use to which she had put it. But it wasn’t just that Firekeeper needed grooming to bring her image into harmony with the person Derian expected. He’d forgotten the barely suppressed wildness in her every step, the assessing darkness in her eyes, the hundred and one little characteristics that made Firekeeper somehow other than human.

In contrast, Blind Seer, padding with his usual contained swagger at her left, looked positively familiar.

Harjeedian and Derian had discussed the various problems at length on the voyage over to Misheemnekuru, but once they had docked, the aridisdu had left Derian.

“I’m going to visit with the residents of the outpost,” Harjeedian said. “Lady Blysse holds no liking for me, and I will not complicate an already too complicated matter with my presence. If she does not appear, you are welcome in the outpost. I know from my fellows’ letters that she has not hesitated to come there.”

Derian had agreed that he would do better to wait for Firekeeper alone. He didn’t know if he’d ever like Harjeedian, but the more he learned of the reasons that had led to the aridisdu’s role in their kidnapping, the more he didn’t actively dislike him. Harjeedian was another person who seemed to be transforming under his eyes the longer Derian knew him. Was that the problem with this strangeness he now saw in Firekeeper—that Derian had thought he knew her and now must face how little he did know?

Doing his best not to show his disquiet, Derian moved to meet Firekeeper halfway between the forest’s edge and the dock.

“I thought someone might tell you I was coming,” he said, knowing the wolf-woman’s disdain for empty conversation. “Nice to know you’ve made some friends.”

“Some,” Firekeeper replied with a slight smile, the monosyllable saying more than sentences would have done. “We speak nearer forest? Blind Seer hot in this sun.”

Derian had noticed the wolf was panting. Indeed, his own shirt was sticking to his back.

“I’d be glad to go into the forest, as long as I don’t trespass over any boundaries. I promised not to violate any of the agreements between the yarimaimalom and the Liglimom.”

“I keep you safe,” Firekeeper replied, and without another word she turned and led the way into the greenshaded coolness.

A double handful of paces within the curtain of larger trees they came upon a camp in whose compact design Derian recognized Firekeeper’s mark. There was a stone circle in which banked coals glowed. Over these a spitted rabbit was slowly roasting, fat dripping intermittently to sizzle in the embers.

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