Homecoming
“Mmmph,” Shenshen mumbled as she slowly regained consciousness. “Is it morning?” She felt miserably hungover; merely opening her eyes required an effort she didn’t think herself capable of. Behind her she heard her night’s lovemates, Rosh and Halek, moan with equal pain. “I’ll never forgive the Wolfriders for planting those dreamberries here,” she groaned as she pulled the cloth blanket about her body. She staggered to her feet, rubbing her sore temples. Light shone beyond the bead curtain hanging across the window, yet it was a strange silvery dawn. Shenshen slowly parted the clay beads, only to gasp in wonder at the shining palace standing on her front lawn.
Screams from the Sun Villagers, some of fear, some of delight echoed throughout the rocks as they raced up towards the opening doors. “Someone get Savah and Sun-Toucher,” someone shouted. “It is the Palace, it must be!” someone else cried out. The first set of villagers reached the threshold of the Palace just as a tall dark-skinned elf strode confidently through the open doors.
“It’s Rayek!” “He’s come back!” “He’s brought the Palace to us!”
The maidens rushed to greet the handsome hunter, marvelling at the extra inches he had gained, praising his amazing feat. Sun-Toucher and Savah appeared to embrace him warmly, then turned their eyes to the wolf-chief who followed behind him.
“You should not cheer for me alone,” Rayek smiled, slipping an arm around Swift’s waist.
“My dear ones,” Savah wrapped a long slender arm about them both. “This is the gift of gifts.”
“Rainsong!” Pike cried, racing across the sand to sweep his sister into his arms. “Come on, you have to meet Skot! That’s right, I’ve got a lifemate now!” he exclaimed before Rainsong could question him. Woodlock and little ten-year-old Wing followed as fast as they could.
“This is Skot!” Pike threw an arm around the handsome Go-Back's neck and pulled him about in a headlock, spinning him around so Rainsong could inspect him from every angle. “And this is Vaya,” he drew the Go-Back maiden forward. “She’s our lovemate sometimes. Isn’t she great? And this is Skot!” he returned his attention to his lifemate, and Rainsong couldn’t help but laugh in delight. Suddenly a strange light-that-was-not-light caught her eyes and she turned around, her attention drawn to the doors of the palace. Swift and Skywise were walking out together now, a white wolf pacing between them.
“She is Timmain, the High One, with us again,” Swift explained.
Savah wept with joy and bent down to embrace to the wolf.
“Is... is she really?” Rainsong asked, biting her lip.
“Uh-huh,” Pike nodded. “We found her in the Palace over three years ago. She turned from wolf to elf, and then back to wolf again before we knew it – said something about not being needed as a wolf now that the Palace was back, and then not being needed as an elf now that the tribes were united.”
Rainsong blinked.
“Yeah,” Skot scratched his head. “It’s all muck to me too.”
“She makes more sense as a wolf than as an elf, that’s for sure,” Vaya agreed.
“Dart!” Moonshade broke through the crowd to embrace her son. “My hands touch with joy!”
“I wanted to meet you at Blue Mountain,” Dart whispered as he hugged her back. “When Suntop went out to tell Savah you had left the Frozen Mountains, that you had gone south to face Winnowill.... I wanted to bring the Jackwolf Riders to your aid. But I couldn’t leave the village defenseless...”
“I know,” Moonshade nodded. “I know.” She stepped back as her lifemate approached uncertainly. Strongbow stared at his son, at a loss, his eyes burning with tears.
“You... look like a thistle...” Strongbow whispered.
“Chieftess, chieftess!” Newstar threw her arms about Swift’s neck. “Remember me?”
“Newstar,” Swift laughed. “How could you have grown so in just three years?” She blinked, sensing a change in the tall maiden. Her wolf-senses now gone, washed away, she could not pinpoint it immediately, but Newstar saw her questioning gaze and nodded, smiling broadly. Her hand dropped to touch her stomach lightly.
“I Recognized!” she confirmed. “I will have a cub. Teru! Teru, come up here,” she motioned.
A handsome, well-muscled Sun Villager, with black hair and dark brown skin, slowly approached, looking incongruously bashful as he stood clad in only a scant white loincloth of linen. “You remember Teru, don’t you?” Newstar raved, as she laced her arm through her lifemate’s. “He’s one of the farmers who till the same field as Rayek’s parents. I must confess I hardly noticed him until just over two months ago...” she smiled slyly up at the flustered Sun Villager.
“You’re only eight-and-seven!” Swift marvelled.
“Amazing Recognitions seem to run in my family,” Newstar giggled. “I know I’m still a cub... and I know it won’t be the easiest thing to bear a cub at my age. But you can’t fight Recognition, can you?”
Swift smiled softly. “No, you can’t.”
“Chieftess?” Newstar blinked. “Is something wrong?” Her tip-tilted nose twitched for an instant, like that of a small mouse. “Your scent... it’s different.”
Swift’s smile dropped as the memory rushed back to her, barely a month old. The cold touch of Winnowill’s fingers, the icy agony as she felt the Black Snake’s powers burrow into her blood, forcibly tearing out the wolf-element. Winnowill’s “gift” to the wolf-chief. “You are pure now,” she had laughed lightly as Swift lay on the bed, semi-conscious. “Why do you not smile?”
One of the Sun Villagers cried out in amazement – and no small amount of terror – as Tyldak strode out of the Palace, his large bat-wings drawn up behind his shoulder-blades, one arm supporting his one-year-old son Windkin. Swift was glad for the diversion, as now Newstar and Teru stared at the shape-changed elf.
“You have not, after all, brought the palace here to stay,” Savah remarked as she saw the worry in Rayek’s eyes. “How soon will you leave us again?”
“That, unfortunately, is not for me to say,” Rayek said with a wry smile.
Swift turned back to her lifemate. “Rayek and I made a pact,” she explained. “His is the power to summon the Palace, to make it fly.” She summoned a smile as she joined Rayek. “Mine is the power to say when.”
“Must you fling this private matter to the crowd?” Rayek teased, catching her about the waist in an embrace.
“Then surely this is no homecoming,” Savah remarked. “What is at the heart of this mission?”
“It’s me, Savah,” Suntop announced as he ventured forth. Savah caught him up in her arms and frowned at his wide, glazed eyes. “It’s the cry, Savah,” Suntop confessed. “It won’t stop. I tried calling you, to tell you what happened when the cry started, but I couldn’t. My head was too full... so I called Father, all the way up in the Frozen Mountains. He brought the Gliders’ souls to make it fly, and he flew the Palace back to find me. But we don’t know where the cry is yet. The other Wolfriders were afraid to fly in the Palace, so we came here first, to... to prove Father could make it fly.... And... oh Savah, it’s terrible.”
“Shh, kitling,” Savah soothed as she held Suntop in her arms. “I will send you a song that will lie like a soft, muffling blanket over the cry. You will sleep.”
“Thank you, Savah,” Swift smiled as she saw her son fall into a deep slumber. “He hasn’t been able to sleep for over two days now.”
“Nor have you rested much,” Savah’s golden eyes bored into the wolf-chief. “I sense a change in you, Chieftess. One that weighs heavily on your mind.”
Swift averted her eyes. “Winnowill... I never realized what she was capable of. Thank the High Ones her spirit was gentled when Blue Mountain collapsed about her. Her spirit sleeps inside the Palace – she can’t even remember what she did to me. Venka,” she smiled. “Innocent Venka – she suggested I go and seek out Winnowill’s spirit, to make peace with her. But she... she couldn’t even remember what she did...”
“She wounded you deeply.”
“She changed me!” Swift cursed. “She drained me of all my wolf-blood! She... she wanted Suntop and Venka, just as Suntop told you when he went out to warn you. She wanted to use them as a link to Timmain and all the power of the Palace. But she caught me instead. She... called it a gift to me. She said she would purify me. And... while I lay paralyzed on her bed, she drew out my wolf-blood.”
Savah shook her head sadly.
Swift sank down on the steps leading up to the Mother of Memory’s throne. “Rayek is overjoyed – I know he worries about me, I know he’s pained by my pain, but I know he is happy that I am immortal.”
“Can you blame him, truly?” she touched the younger elf’s shoulder. “You know how hard it was for him to accept that he would have to lose you one day.”
Swift nodded. “That was the main reason he hesitated after we Recognized. The Wolfrider way, the short life, the hard death, was so alien to him. And the thought that he would lose me one day, even thousands of turns from now..... And I can’t blame him for being pleased.” She sighed. “Skywise... even he is happy. He... he would never confess it, but I think he’s toying with the thought of losing his wolf-blood willingly. I can feel it when we talk of things. Skywise fears death, as does Rayek. As... do I.”
“Swift?”
Swift leapt to her feet. “How many nights did I fleetingly wonder what it would be like to be immortal like Rayek, like our cubs? Ever since we won the Palace, ever since Timmain told us all the wolf-blooded ones would one day die – I never wanted to believe it until then. And so many times I watched the cubs sleep and I wondered what it would be like to purge the mortality in my blood.”
“And you think you are being punished for your wish? You think you somehow caused your fate.”
“Maybe,” Swift turned away. “It’s eating at me, Savah. The other Wolfriders dance around the mention of it. I’ve seen Strongbow glare at me uncertainly – I wonder if he’ll try to challenge me again, now that I’m ‘unfit.’”
“Venka bears no wolf-blood. Did they challenge your naming her Blood of Chiefs?”
“No.”
“Then why would they doubt you?” Savah sat down in her throne, cradling Suntop in her lap. “I see the love, the respect in their eyes. They do not scorn you, they do not reject you.”
“I’ve never been a typical Wolfrider, and I know the elders are baffled by my children’s ways. Strongbow has told me more than once that I am destroying the Way – by going to Blue Mountain, by insisting on finding the Palace, by settling the Wolfriders in the Frozen Mountains rather than returning to the forest. I tell them that the Way cannot exist isolated – that we can’t remain unchanging. But now... maybe I have changed too much, too fast.”
“Change cannot be stopped, or even slowed,” Savah cautioned. “You saw the effects of that at Blue Mountain, did you not?”
“Yes.”
“Go,” Savah insisted. “Go join the celebration – stand alongside your lifemate. I will watch over your son. Be with your tribe. If this a time of great uncertainty for the Wolfriders, then they will need you all the more.”
Swift nodded.
Starjumper snarled at one of the jackwolves, who backed away in submission, whining plaintively. “Hah!” Skywise laughed in relief. He had been worried when the jackwolf Skimsand had challenged his wolf-friend, but despite being almost forty years old, Starjumper was still strong enough to send the jackwolf running. He could already tell from the body language that there would not be another challenge.
Venka nibbled on a fresh pear, then tentatively approached one of the Jackwolf Riders, sitting on a mat alongside his mount. “Zhantee?” she asked.
The youth smiled broadly as he gathered her into his arms. “Venka, you remember me.”
“You made Mother a clay pot,” she nodded. “And you made me a little cup to keep my beads in. You’re a Wolfrider now?”
“I guess I am,” he blushed.
Venka wrapped her arms about his neck in a swift embrace, and Zhantee blushed even brighter. “Ah - a little too tight!” he coughed.
“Rayek’s handsome as ever, isn’t he?” Shenshen nudged her sister Leetah.
“Mmm,” Leetah replied cooly.
“Rayek,” the Sun-Toucher announced. “Your deep hunger for growth and your courage to pursue it as far and wise as you must, has brought us all to this happy moment. We are more than we were, because of you.”
“Were you my own flesh and blood, I could not be more proud,” Ekuar beamed.
Swift smiled proudly from the sidelines, and motioned for Rayek to join her.
“So I am to be a great-grandfather.... again,” Rain marvelled as he sat with his daughter and grand-daughter. “Well... Teru,” he shot the Sun Villager a wry smile. “You have your work cut out for you. It is no easy task to be father to a Wolfrider.”
“I think it’s a son, Grandfather,” Newstar said. “Can you tell?”
“I...” he paused as a sending star struck him. He turned and saw Nightfall and Redlance staring at him from across the dancemat. Leaving Rainsong and Newstar to exchange puzzled glances, he got up and moved over to join them.
**Now?**
**Now!** Nightfall confirmed. The three stood and walked towards the doorway to the Palace.
“What’s up?” Woodlock frowned.
“Ah... they’ve had heads together for months now,” Pike shook his head. “Mother?” he turned towards Moonsbreath and his eyes lit up at her knowing smile. “Mother! You know something. What are they doing, what are they doing?” he asked insistantly as Rainsong and Woodlock began to laugh heartily.
“Something your father and I did a long time ago...” Moonsbreath smiled slyly.
Pike sat up in amazement. “He’s going to force Recognition?” he exclaimed, far too loudly, and whispers spread through both tribes before Rain had closed the door behind the two lifemates.
The dancing accelerated into the night, until, nearly an hour later, Rain appeared outside the Palace, noticeably out of breath. Moonsbreath leapt up from the mat and hurried to meet her lifemate. “Rain! Did it work?”
“We’ll know by morning... but yes, I think it did.” His expression turned from weary to intense, and Moonsbreath and the healer swiftly disappeared into the night. As the festival began to die down lovemates and lifemates walked hand-in-hand back to their huts. Three maidens besieged Ekuar, begging him to join them. Newstar and Teru hurried back to their own home. Scouter, left alone as he watched his once-lovemate disappear with Tyldak, cast his gaze towards a young member of the Jackwolf Riders.
I usually don’t look to the lads... ahh... why not? he thought, slowly approaching the youth. It worked for Grayling and Hansha, after all.
“What’s your name,” he asked, wincing inwardly. He had lived in the Sun Village for seven years – why could he never remember names?
“Shushen,” the youth smiled back, throwing Scouter a flirtatious wink.
Rayek parted the bead curtain, looking in on Savah and the sleeping child she held. “We should be gone already,” he whispered.
“Let him sleep,” Swift counselled. “The cry will still be here in the morning.”
“Skywise?” Shale sat down next to his son. He had imagined the stargazer would have run off with Vurdah or another one of the maidens from the Sun Village. But instead he sat alone on the rocks, scratching Starjumper behind the ear.
“What’s wrong?” Eyes High sat down at his other side.
“I’ve been thinking...”
“You’ve always been thinking – it usually never sends you into such a mood. What is it?”
“It’s... it’s Swift, Mother... and... I’ve been thinking about her... losing her wolfblood, and being... well being able to live forever now. And I can’t stop wondering... I can’t stop thinking...”
He wouldn’t say the words, but his parents sensed the heart of his worries.
**You think what it would be like to be like her, Fahr.**
**It’s wrong, it’s... horrible to even think it. Timmain said that our wolfblood is the only thing that ties us to this world. She... she very nearly said that immortals like Rayek and Savah don’t belong here. But now Swift is immortal – and does that mean she’s not fit to be a Wolfrider? But... I want to be like that – I really do. I want to be part of the starsong, like the High Ones before us. I never want to fear the death-sleep season. I never want Swift and the twins to watch me die – but I don’t want to watch you die,” he amended hastily. “Or anyone else. Stars! You don’t know how happy I was when I heard that Windkin – that Yun! – was immortal. When I saw Mardu unwrap that fawnskin – when I saw that I had a daughter, my only thought was – does she have wolfblood? Does she have to die? I... want... I can’t say it.**
**There is no judgement here, Fahr,** Shale sent softly. **Never between parent and child.**
**I want us all to lose our wolfblood!** he sent, so fiercely it burned in their minds. **I want us all to outlive death.** He hung his head miserably. “I’m afraid Timmain will hear my thoughts. I’m afraid of what she would think of me.”
“Shh,” Eyes High rubbed his shoulders. “There is no shame in dreaming.”
“Grandfather could...” he whispered under his breath.
“Yes, he could,” Shale nodded. “And he probably would, if you asked him, if he knew you were sincere in your desire.”
“Father?”
“But you would have to be certain giving up your wolfblood is what you really want. You cannot decide it on a whim.”
Skywise nodded solemnly.
“These are confusing times for us all, dear one,” Eyes High sighed. “The Way has been misplaced, or perhaps it is changing into something new.... Either way it will be a while until things make sense again. Don’t rush yourself in your search for answers. Be patient. Think, once we find the source of this cry, we can return to the Frozen Mountains and you can see Yun again.”
Skywise smiled wistfully. He still held fresh the memory of hugging his yearling child one last time, before handing her back to her mother, Mardu. He had pulled out his old leather headband and tied it about her blond hair. The headband had promptly fallen down about her neck, and as Skywise and Mardu laughed, the baby began to gum it contently.
Yes... perhaps things would make more sense once he saw his daughter again.
The Wolfriders surged into the Palace at dawn, seeking out their wolfpack, still slumbering inside. Nightfall and Redlance sat on the floor, surrounded by their bond-beasts. “Rain!” Nightfall cried as she got to her feet. She flung her arms around the elder, hugging him fiercely in thanks.
“It did work then,” the healer laughed.
“Agghkk!” Rayek cried out. “Wolf-filth!”
Timmain growled low. Swift gave the wolf a slap upside the ears. “Leave the Master alone, High One,” she told her. To Rayek she laughed. “Be glad the High One didn’t decide to become a zwoot.”
“Send it out,” Savah urged Suntop. “Send it out so that all may hear.”
Suddenly the cry leapt from Suntop’s mind, a piercing sending star that struck every elf in the village. At length the boy collapsed, exhausted. “That’s all,” he gasped out as Venka hurried to help her twin brother rise.
“Let us go!” Rayek insisted, only further inspired. “The boy will be my lodestone. He will guide us all to the source of the cry that torments him.”
“Yes,” Swift decided. “We have to leave, now. Timmain – Timmain?” The wolf was gone. She reappeared a moment later, pushing Zhantee and Shenshen in through the palace archway.
“Hah,” Swift laughed. “It seems the Wolfriders have just grown in ranks.”
But Timmain was not done. She ran back outside and drew Dart inside by the hem of his two-panelled loincloth. She disappeared, only to nudge Teru and Newstar inside.
Swift sized up her new band of travellers. All the Wolfriders who had flown with the Palace to Sorrow’s End – save for Scouter, who lingered outside and whom Timmain had not selected, plus Dart, Newstar, Teru, and the two Sun Villagers. “A good mix,” she decided at last.
“But.... Nightfall,” Redlance protested.
“Don’t worry,” Nightfall reassured him. “I won’t begin to grow heavy for a full turn of seasons, and neither will Newstar. We are needed now.”
“Scouter, will you truly stay here?” Dewshine asked anxiously. Tethered to her waist, Windkin floated in the air above her.
Scouter smiled goodnaturedly. “You no longer need me. If... Dart is going with you, and Zhantee too, Grayling will need others to fill the ranks of the Jackwolf Riders. Shushen’s asked me to stay and bring my wolf into the Sorrow’s End pack. I... I think I’ll stay here a while at least.”
“You know I do love you,” Dewshine smiled. “Just...”
“I know. Those days are behind us. I was a fool to think I could hold onto the past. It’s not very Wolfrider of me.”
“So we part here,” Dart extended a hand to his uncle Grayling.
“You know I’ll be protecting the Sun Village,” Grayling nodded. “But you need to be with your parents now, and our birth tribe. Hansha and I will howl for you, Dart. And you’ll hear us.”
Dart embraced his uncle, then turned back to the Palace.
Suntop lay on the flat bier in front of the Scroll of Colours, where once he had stood and spoken Timmain’s words. **Now, son, you and will guide the Palace together,** Rayek sent gently. The boy bit his lip once in trepidation, then nodded bravely.
Father and son sent out a call to the Palace itself, their mental voices merging, mingling into one. Swift clutched Venka tight as she watched the Scrolls rise and turn.
**We go to the source of the cry,** they spoke together, **to that place where it first sounded... and still sounds. **
**Fly, fly,** they urged together. **Fly.**
The Wolfriders felt the Palace shake, tremble once, as it rose from the ground. They seemed to move, and yet they didn’t. The floor vibrated, yet no one stumbled. **I can see,** Suntop called. **I can see the Vastdeep Water...**
**I can see right through the walls...** Venka joined in.
**Right where we’re going,** Skywise marvelled.
**We’ll be of part it... the New Land.** the chant rose within the crystalline walls.
The New Land... it called to them, a force as strong as Recognition.
Almost before they knew it, the Palace settled, shifted around them. The sculpted walls merged into an organic flow. The spires smoothed into crystalline shards. Magic auras shimmered about them as they edged, uncertainly towards the door.
The door shaped itself out the walls, and Swift led the elves into the open air. She smiled at the scent of evergreens and fresh earth, mingled with seasalt and wildflower pollen. The Palace stood on a cliff, overlooking a lush forest that sparkled with life. A river could just be seen, coursing through the plain below.
Suntop moaned, slowly sitting up from the bier. Rayek bent down and embraced him. “You are a splendid guide, Suntop. Though the Palace is disguised, the elves who have called us will surely sense its presense.”
“But I still hear the cry. The screaming....”
“That will end soon,” he reassured the child. “Very soon. When they receive our sending, our kindred will have no more reason to cry out.” He straightened. “Quickly – together! Open send. Do not stop until you are answered.”
They formed a circle around the bier, around the child who still shuddered in pain, and sent out a message of peace and reassurance. **Friends, we’ve come... the Palace is here... where are you? Where are you? Whatever your need, we’ve come to air you. Where are you? Answer! Answer!**
They fought, they struggled to maintain the sending. But after heartbeats, minutes, almost an hour, at last the chain broke, as the elves stepped back, exhausted, their skins slick with sweat. “No!” Rayek roared. “Impossible! Together our range is almost limitless.”
Suntop leapt up from the bier and ran crying into the open air. “Where are you? Where are you?” he cried, stumbling over his feet. He ran to the edge of the cliff, then collapsed, sobbing miserably.
“Oh kitling,” Swift dropped to his side.
“Mother, my head hurts...” he whimpered.
She held him close, smoothing out his hair as he continued to weep.
“Didn’t mean to upset you... just... so tired...” he sobbed. He glanced up as Rayek crouched next to him. “I’m sorry, Father.”
“No, no, my son,” Rayek took him from Swift, holding him fast against him. “You’ve done all you can. Your burden should be mine.” He held Suntop back, a strange light filling his eyes. “Yes, it should be mine.”
“Rayek...” Swift began.
Rayek leaned forward and touched his forehead to Suntop’s. Swift saw what he was doing, and reached forward to stop him, to ask him to wait. But it was over in a moment. Without healer’s help, without any pain, the cry flowed effortlessly out of Suntop’s mind, releasing him at last. Rayek hugged his son to his chest, then released him with a sigh. Suntop collapsed to the ground, breathing easy for the first day in days.
“Shut the door, Suntop,” Swift whispered as she gathered him up in her arms. “Your father will deal with the strangers.”
“Father?” Venka, silently edging closer all this time, laid a hand on her father’s shoulder. “Are you all right?”
“Brownskin?” Ekuar asked.
Rayek slowly got to his feet. “This is the place,” he whispered. “They are right on top of us... and yet... a cruel riddle... what... what will become of the strangers if we fail to solve it?”
“Steady,” Swift helped him rise. She turned him to face her when he would have looked away. “Only you would attempt such a thing,” she marvelled. She kissed him softly, then helped him walk back to the Palace.
“Your eyes are bright as Mother’s sword,” they heard Venka say.
**I could not let him suffer a moment longer, Tam,** Rayek sent.
“I know. You have a mountain lion’s heart.”
**I will solve this riddle.**
She smiled as she laid her head on his shoulder. “I know you will.”
The days passed slowly. The Wolfriders went on a hunt, then a ride-out, then another hunt. Swift brought down a boar-dog, and Strongbow shot a fat buck without even seeing it. Redlance began to experiment with the trees, and found he could shape them into whimsical formations beyond even his work at the fledgling Forbidden Grove Holt. Shenshen and Teru began to send effortlessly. But there was danger, as well, in the New Land. A fallen branch almost killed Skot and Vaya – only a mysterious shield, cast it seemed by the unassuming Zhantee, had saved them.
“I feel... oh, it is maddening,” Rayek sighed. “There are moments when I think I can almost make out words. Thoughts rather,” he amended. “Feelings. Much more than fear. A loss! A shattering of hope. Love betrayed.” He hung his head.
Suntop touched his hand reassuringly. Rayek smiled and touched his cheek.
“What if the strange elves aren’t really here, Father?” Venka piped up. “Maybe their cry is... like an echo... bouncing off the mountain. Of course, the echo has to come from somewhere...”
“I am failing everyone,” Rayek sighed.
Swift knelt at the foot of his chair. “Suntop is free because of you. The Palace flies because of you.”
“It is not enough. I cannot leave our kindred alone...”
“You’ll find them. I know you will.”
Rayek closed his eyes. His brow furrowed. Swift got to her feet, sensing the charge in the air. “Rayek. Rayek, what are you doing?”
The Palace began to scream, sending out the cry, channeling the din in Rayek’s mind, and casting it out to the ends of the New Land.
“Rayek, stop it!” Swift had to shout to be heard.
**Your own voices!** Rayek sent with the cry. **Now you cannot doubt we have heard you! Answer!**
“Stop it!”
“Father, it hurts!” Venka clapped her hands over her ears.
“Father, please,” Suntop wailed, tears in his eyes.
“Rayek!” Skywise shouted, rushing into the scroll room astride Starjumper.
Rayek broke from the trance, staggering. “Why... why do you interrupt?”
“You’ll never get a response that way. One voice! There’s just one voice you should be searching for. Just one! Timmain said–”
“Timmain?” Rayek’s eyes hazed over in thought.
“Why can’t you talk to him?” Moonshade asked at council. She hugged her knees close, her standard posture whenever she felt too threatened to challenge.
“We told you all,” Skywise explained. “Till he’s chewed this new bone to the nub, Rayek wants us to leave him alone... as usual.”
“It may take time,” Swift fretted.
**Time we have,** Strongbow sent. **But does he? Or his bow too tightly strung already?**
Swift leapt to her feet. “That is your chief’s lifemate you insult!” she spat.
**In sending there is only truth,** he replied, his expression sour. **He has been... wrong, ever since he took the cry out of Suntop’s mind...**
“He did it to spare his son – our son – the pain. Who are you to question him?”
**He is hungry for power... and the Palace feeds that hunger. How are we to know he will find these strangers – if they even exist? What if he loses himself in the Palace’s power? This is not right.**
“And High Ones help anything you do not find right!” Swift spat.
**I only think of the tribe, of our welfare. Does it benefit the tribe to have our chief’s lifemate turn himself into a creature of Blue Mountain?**
“Don’t forget Rayek helped destroy Blue Mountain. Don’t forget you might all be slaves to Winnowill, like her human pets, if not for my lifemate!”
**Or all drained of our wolfblood...**
A hushed gasp went up from the tribe. Even Moonshade drew back in shock.
Swift leapt across the circle and caught Strongbow by the collar of his tunic. She tugged him up to his feet. “Do you challenge?”
**No,** still he glared at her defiantly.
“Do you question my right to wear the chief’s lock?”
He hesitated, until at last he averted his eyes. **No.**
“Then think before you send, for once,” she shoved him back to the rock. “That does not go against the Way, I think.”
With that Swift stalked away.
She waited until she was out of earshot of even the keenest Wolfrider before she began to cry.
Swift awoke with a start. In an instant she was there again, lying on the bed, staring up at Winnowill as the icy claws dug into her skin, as she felt her own blood burn. In the nightmare Rayek entered the chamber boldly, professing to understand Winnowill, professing to love her. As in real life, Rayek kissed Winnowill long on the lips, then bent to nibble her neck. But in real life Rayek had then drew his dagger and stabbed her in the breast. In the nightmare he tore off her dress of fur and feathers and ravished her under the Great Egg, in front of Swift’s paralysed form.
Swift blinked, regaining her wits. No, Rayek had only feigned devotion to Winnowill, and the injury his dagger had inflicted had given Rain and the twins the time to break into the Egg chamber and cast their own powerful magic against the Black Snake. Rayek had left the bleeding creature to rush to Swift’s side, to ply all his ancient arts in trying to free her limbs of the paralysis. But though Swift reminded herself of the truth every night, the nightmare returned.
Suntop and Venka slept at her side, under the heavy furs piled on the bed. They had slept in this room in the Palace for three years now. Yet now Swift found no rest. Knowing... knowing that Winnowill’s spirit, no matter how tamed, no matter how senseless, floating within the walls...
She got to her feet and drew a fur about her body as she padded barefoot towards the scroll chamber. Rayek continued to sit in his chair, in a trance, listening to the silent music of the Scroll of Colours.
Swift sighed, and turned back to their bedroom.
“We might as well,” Redlance continued. “Who knows how long we’ll stay?”
“A holt – here in the New Land?” Swift found herself smiling at the thought.
“Oh, Swift,” he smiled. “Those trees will bend and yield to my magic like lovemates!”
Nightfall looped her arm through his. “I know I won’t sleep better until we are back in tree-dens like in the Frozen Mountains.”
“Timmain –Timmain!” Rayek’s cried pierced the air. “It is your voice, High One!” he snak to one knees before the wolf. “Yours! You were there.” He buried his face in her soft voice. “I am sorry, I am sorry you for... for all the Firstcomers...”
“You mean Suntop heard...”
“The scream of the High Ones,” Rayek nodded, breathless.
The scream of the High Ones, Swift thought to herself as she sat alone on the rocky promontory. The other elves milled out, talking and sending excitedly.
“I wish I could go to them,” Suntop had said only hours ago. “And say everything will be all right.”
“And I wish they could have known about you, my little one,” Rayek had smiled. Then once more the light had appeared in Rayek’s eyes and he had turned, dashing back into the Palace.
One-Eye turned to gaze out over the valley. “Clearbrook, if they means we’ve no more reason to stay here, I’ll be sad.”
“I too, beloved,” she nodded. “Everything has a soul, even a land. I could almost say I Recognized this one.”
Swift smiled wistfully at the fresh memory. If only it were that simple. If only they could turn their backs on this land with heavy hearts and return to Sorrow’s End, return to the Frozen Mountains...
The truth was far more terrifying.
The truth that only she and her family knew.
“We can be there to greet the Firstcomers!” Rayek had cried as he stared into the hypnotizing whirl of the Scroll. “We can prevent the troll rebellion which hurled them back into the wrong place and time. The cry still resounds in my mind. It is the torch we shall follow in the dark.With the power of the Palace we will go from now to then and rescue the High Ones. Their cry of terror will never exist. And neither, I daresay, will the offspring of those betraying trolls. We – we will leave this time behind – this Palace, and that of the Firstcomings, are one and the same. We will merge them and find our true fortunes among the stars!”
Ekuar and Skywise had stared at him in horror. No one had dared speak until Swift at least found her voice.
“If... if I heard right... you – you rescue the High Ones and everything their children have done, everything they have – we have – fought for through the many seasons will disappear. Home, kin, life itself... Rayek... this world has been ours for ten thousands years... how can you want to destroy all that we have accomplished – all that our children might?”
Rayek stopped, stared at her, half-ready to challenge, half-ready to cry. He blinked, the strange light leaving his eyes. He looked around and Skywise, Ekuar, and the twins, anywhere but at his lifemate. “But... the greater good... the things we could accomplish. This... banishment, this grounding cannot be what the High Ones wanted. It can un-happen – yet we can live, and so can all the spirits who now dwell in the Palace.”
“What if you’re wrong?” Swift asked. “What if... one little mistake, one stumble as you try to guide the Palace – it could destroy everything.”
He had turned from her, ashamed to meet her eyes. Ashamed because he clung to the hope of the stars, the hope of seeing the High Ones manifest in flesh once more.
And now he sat in self-exile within the Palace rooms, deep in thought. And she sat on her little rock, her shoulders hunched, her posture driving away anyone who would comfort her.
Who am I to say his idea is wrong? We have already gone against the Way, against this world. Am I no longer of this world now? Indeed, who am I to champion the Wolfrider life now? Perhaps a fresh start...
No, she shook her head. What about the Wolfrider spirits that roamed the land? What about Tanner and Goodtree and all the spirits who had hugged the wood of Father Tree Holt? What about the generations of elves who had lived and died? Even if their spirits lived in the Palace, Rayek’s action would wipe out all they had accomplished.
And what of elves who had yet to be discovered? What of the trolls, the preservers?
What of their children? Suntop and Venka carried no wolfblood, but – stars! – was this earth not theirs by right? How could they deny them their birthright? Go to the stars, yes, but do not turn your back on the earth that nurtured you.
And if Rayek’s plan did not work... one shudder of the Palace at the wrong time could wipe out everything, all souls, all elves – everything!
She ought to march into the Palace and order him to stand down.
She ought to go to him and tell him she understood.
But she could do neither. She was hamstrung.
I’ve lost my Way.
She gathered her fur blanket and trudged down the mountainside, seeking a solitary rest.
“Where is Mother?” Venka asked. “Why aren’t she and Father together?”
Skywise could only shrug. It had been ten days since Rayek had first designed his plan to rescue the High Ones. Since then he had not emerged from the Palace. Since then Swift only returned from the deep woods for fleeting moments, to oversee the shaping of the new Holt, to guide in the hunt. Always she disappeared again.
“This is all my fault,” Suntop sighed.
“No, no it’s not, cub,” Skywise shook his head. “Your mother’s... just working out some problems. You know how I like to go away and think – well she just needs to do a lot of thinking. So does your father. Don’t worry. Hey, look–” he pointed to the tree branches high overhead. “Look at the Holt Redlance is shaping.”
“Are we going to sleep there?” Venka asked. “We always slept in the Palace in the Frozen Mountains.”
“Don’t you want to see what it’s like to sleep in a tree?”
“Maybe,” Venka wrinkled her nose. “Why is it high in the trees?”
“For fun. And to keep humans from nosing around.”
“Swift hasn’t chosen a den yet,” Redlance mourned as he finished shaping the contours of Pike and Skot’s den.
“Give her time,” Nightfall urged.
**It’s like Bearclaw all over again** Strongbow grumbled.
“I’ll be sure to tell her you said that,” Pike snickered.
**Oh shut it, dreamberries!** Strongbow shot back. **This is more important than your jokes. Rayek’s gone mad as a hornet, and our chief has abandoned us.**
“She hasn’t abandoned us,” Nightfall snapped. “She’ll come back.”
Swift sat out alone in the field. The grasses were high and soft, and she enjoyed their pleasant feel against her bare arms. No, she could never give up this world for the stars. She wanted nothing more than to see Skywise realize his dream of visiting the star that spawned the lodestone, but she would always be drawn back to the familiar sights and smells of her home.
Smells... her sense of smell was not as strong as it once had been.
Why should we be denied this world because we have no wolfblood? After generations here – haven’t Rayek’s parents earned the right to be of this world? Haven’t all the Sun Folk, the Go-Backs? The Gliders decided they wanted nothing to do with this world, and they are all dead. But by Timmain’s reasoning anyone who isn’t a descendant of Timmorn is just as bad.
“Is that what you want?” she shouted to the clear night sky. “Did you want to breed one tribe greater than others, superior because of their blood, their ‘taint’! Answer me, High One. Why do you hide in wolf form when your children need you?”
She saw a ghostly white form on the ridge. The wolf watched her calmly.
“Am I still your daughter?” Swift demanded.
Timmain lowered her head.
“Am I worthless now that I am beyond the cycle of life and death? You extoll the wolf blood, but you are pure elf! Answer me. You double-talk and then hide behind the mask of a wolf. Is this still my world?”
Timmain began to turn.
“What mother are you to ignore your children’s pain?”
The wolf fixed her with its brilliant gold eyes. **Find your own voice.**
“What does that mean?”
**I cannot tell you what to be. You must find your own way.**
“I can’t! I don’t have that choice. I am chief of the Wolfriders! I will be challenged. They will not support me if I change the Way.”
**You are Swift the Seeker. Find your own voice.**
Timmain turned and disappeared over the ridge.
Rayek sat alone in the scroll room. He had not slept, he had not eaten for ten days now. He barely noticed the passage of time. He felt as if he were sealed in wrapstuff.
Swift was right. How could he risk the entire existence of the elfin race? But the cry, the cry haunted him, pleading for help. In ten thousand years the Palace would appear on this very spot, for one fleeting moment, before the troll rebellion cast it into the past. The High Ones would cry out in panic and fear. Then they would be gone. All dead, save Timmain. Murdered by the cruel world they had not intended to know.
He remembered the tale of Madcoil, how it have been born of a pool of tainted magic, created by dying High Ones struggling to survive. Born of betrayed hope and shattered dreams. He had the power to save them, to quench the cry before it began. They could begin again, free and whole.
He thought of Picknose and the cursed trolls in the Frozen Mountains. It was no great loss to damn them to non-existence.
But they had saved Swift and the Wolfriders from the fire, even if only to maroon them in the desert. They had helped them win the Palace. Rayek owed them something at least.
Perhaps the Palace could take them all, trolls and elves.
Could the Palace hold them all? Could it find them all?
And would the High Ones, when they learned what Rayek had sacrificed to save them, would they turn their disapproving glares on the Palacemaster? Would they turn away, betrayed by their own children?
He fought against his weariness, pulled himself up from the chair. He staggered out of the Palace, into the clear night air. Ekuar was nowhere to be found, probably sleeping in one of the many chambers of the crystalline ship. Ekuar – a greater father to Rayek than his own sire had ever been. He had lost one finger to the trolls who had enslaved him and his kin mere years after the Palace first landed, but he had been the lucky one. His companion Osek had been forced to march south to found Greymung’s kingdom, and the youngest Mekda had been battered and mutilated into a frail husk of an elf, devoid of arms and legs. Ekuar had been saved by Kahvi and the Go-Backs millennia ago, before the push south. He had been mentor and guide to the snow elves for ages. Yet now, after only three years with Rayek, he had left his tribe to follow his young pupil. Ekuar had not once spoken against Rayek’s plan, yet now as his senses began to return to him, Rayek wondered if Ekuar might not prefer oblivion to a future betrayed.
No, no, how could anyone speak against his plan, once they understood?
Or was it the cry, driving him mad?
Where was Swift? Where was his Tam? Why had she not returned to him?
Only now did he remember her own quiet torment, and he cursed himself for letting the cry deafen him to his lifemate’s needs.
He strode down the hillside, his panelled loincloth flapping in the gentle night breeze. It was the new-green, and the scent of blooming flowers filled the air, mingling with the crisp tang of evergreen needles. He slowly transversed the rocks and the river that separated the crest of the mountain from the Holt Redlance had begun amid the briar patches.
A snag caught his back panel and he swore, bending to free the cloth. They ought to call it Thorny Mountain.
He heard the voices of elfin children, and he parted the curtain of moss and trailing willow branches to see Suntop and Venka chasing the little fireflies that twinkled in the glade.
“Father!” Suntop wheeled around.
“Father!” Venka cried in delight.
The twins tackled him, embracing him tightly. The force of their assault toppled him, and he fell back to the grass, the cubs in his arms. “Hello, hello,” he laughed, clasping them close. “What have you two been up to these last few days?”
“Pike and Skot are teaching me how to fish,” Suntop piped up.
“Nightfall says I’m getting better and better at the bow and arrow,” Venka added.
“Where have you been, Father? Did you find out how to make the cry stop?”
“I don’t know yet, Suntop. Where is your mother?”
Suntop shrugged. “She goes away a lot.”
“She hasn’t been back to camp for three days now,” Venka added.
“Do you know where she went?”
“No. Skywise says he thinks she might be on a spirit quest... or... or something.”
“Strongbow’s really angry,” Suntop confided. “He says Mother has abandoned us.”
“I told him to stop saying those things,” Venka insisted. “But he doesn’t listen.”
“He seldom does,” Rayek muttered under his breath. Curse the archer, did he not understand the pain his chieftess was struggling to deal with? “Here, will you two find Skywise for me?”
“Uh-huh,” Suntop got to his feet. “Come on, Venka.”
Rayek sat back as he watched his children disappear into the shadows. Suddenly Swift’s words came back to him, and he fought back a sob of utter terror. One little mistake, one tiny misalignment of the stars, and his children could be wiped out from history forever. The panic rose in his throat and he struggled for breath. Instantly he saw himself back in Shenshen’s hut, holding Swift’s hand tight as the birth pangs struck her.
“Another one!” Shenshen cried out, at a loss.
“Sunny, sunny sun-top,” Swift cooed as she held her second-born in her arms.
“No child of mine is going to live in a cave, at the mercy of the winds,” Rayek scoffed.
“Look at me,” a five-year-old Venka cried out as she leapt into the air to catch hold of Swift’s legs. Chieftess and daughter hung from the tree, laughing together as Rayek and Suntop watched from below.
He could not do it. He could never do it. The risk, even the faintest chance, that his children might be harmed, outweighed even the most persuasive arguments. Not even the cry held power over him. At that realization, the weight lifted from his shoulders and the panic subsided. He let out a long, healing sigh, and amazingly, the cry began to fade from his mind.
He was scarcely aware of the tears flowing down his cheeks.
He had to find Swift, he had to tell her that everything would be all right now.
Swift lay back against the spring grass, staring up at the constellations Skywise had named over the years. There was the wolf, and the human hunter, and the pair of stars he had given to her and Rayek on the night of their joining celebration. She had wondered if she would see the stars in a new light, now that she was an immortal. But they seemed the same. Beautiful, alive, yet out of reach.
Maybe all things were still the same now.
She had not eaten in days. She had not slept. She had simply lain there, waiting to find her voice, waiting to understand the nuances of her altered soul.
**Tam.**
The word cut into her, releasing a flood of relief. It sounded the same. It triggered the same emotions in her. Her soul was the same. She was still the Tam she had been before Blue Mountain. Rayek and Skywise had called her by her soulname many times since that night, yet it was not until now that she understood the truth.
“Rayek,” she turned, looking up at him. “Rayek...” her voice faltered as she saw the tears coursing down his face. “Rayek, what is it?”
He sank down to his knees at her side. He kissed her fiercely, then folded his arms about her.
“What is it?” she asked as he wept against her hair. “What’s happened.”
“I understand, Tam,” he whispered. “I understand now. What I wanted to do – it was wrong. What happened happened, and for good or ill, it was what was meant to happen. The cry deafened me to the truth, lured me into visions. But I see now. This world, this life, this is what was meant for us. Oh, Tam, I’m so sorry. I lost myself. I almost... I almost did something horrible.”
“Shh, shh. You found yourself, my love. It’s over now.”
He lifted his head. “These years I’ve spent with you.... understand, Swift – if I had been handed the Palace eleven years ago, if I had been giving the option of rewriting time, I would have. Without question. I would have left this world and all its inhabitants behind, I would have condemned unknown numbers of elves... preservers, even those cursed trolls, without a second thought. This world – it was a prison to me before I met you. I wanted to escape it. But with you... and the cubs, and the Wolfriders... even that arrogant archer.”
“I know,” Swift tenderly brushed a lock of black hair back under his headband. “It doesn’t matter what happened in the past. You’re with us now. And we’re with you.”
“And you’re still the same Swift you’ve always been,” he countered, framing her face. “Forgive me, I’ve been blind to what you’ve suffered.”
“You were happy I was immortal. We can be together until the end of time, now.”
“But I should have seen.”
She hugged him tightly. “We both had our own trials. But they’re over now. And... maybe now... we’re both ready to truly be chiefs.”
Redlance had shaped a flat surface joining four of the trees that made up the newly-named Thorny Mountain Holt. The tribe sat on the wood platform, waiting as their chieftess slowly moved to the head of the circle.
“The cry from beyond has ended,” Swift announced. “While the spot where the Palace now rests will forever ring with the cry, it will not longer reach our ears. We are free, the Palace is fully restored, and the whole world is open to us.”
The Wolfriders howled with delight.
Swift lowered her head. “We have faced many changes of late. Some have said that we’ve lost our Way. And perhaps we have. But now I say we have a new Way, one to guide us in this new time.” She drew a breath. “Your chieftess no longer has her wolfblood. But I am still a Wolfrider – let no one here doubt that. This new tribe – many here are not born to the wolfblood, but all who choose to be are welcome as Wolfriders.” She met Skywise’s eyes. “And all who choose to embrace the starsong instead will always have a place in our tribe. Let our wolfsong be a chorus of many voices.”
“Are you saying you shun the Way?” Moonshade asked.
**You haven’t the right,** Strongbow grumbled in a locked sending.
“Ways change!” Swift declared. “The High Ones came here expecting to be welcomed by humans of the future. If they had remained as they were they would have all died. But they changed, they adapted. Now we have a circle of four tribes. Shall we cling blindly to the Way we held when we thought ourselves the only elves in the world? The old Way did not include the Sun Folk,” sh bve glanced at Rayek, then at Teru, Zhantee and Shenshen. “It did not include the Go-Backs,” she looked to Skot and Vaya, “or the Gliders,” she nodded to Tyldak, seated on the platform, his infant son in his lap. “I say we have a new Way. It is not enough for us to hunt, howl and survive. Now we will live to hunt, howl, and thrive. We will grow, we will seek out the mysteries of our ancestors. With the Palace we will fully unite the tribes, until we become one family.”
**The Wolfriders have always been content with the forest,** Strongbow growled.
“And those who choose the forest will never be challenged. But neither will those who choose the stars. Let everyone who chooses to run with the pack be called Wolfriders, regardless of blood or birth, and let any Wolfriders who want equal portions of the sun and stars say so without fear of judgement. The days of mere survival are past. We need no longer live in fear of the unknown.”
“But the Way,” Moonshade insisted.
“What did Nightfall say, when we found the Palace? A small truth inside a larger one? Let the Way live on as the smaller truth. But let us not be ashamed to embrace the larger one.”
“You do not speak as a Wolfrider,” Moonshade said.
“I do not speak as Wolfriders past,” Swift countered. “I speak for the future. The Now cannot live in isolation. We used to say things can only grow in the Now. But if we only think of the Now, how can we know what to grow towards.”
“I’m confused,” Pike scratched his head.
**Perhaps you have forgotten how to speak as a Wolfrider!**
“Venka bears no wolfblood!” Swift snapped. “Do you challenge her right to succeed me? Bearclaw bore the wolfblood, yet he would have led us to our deaths, because he could not see beyond the moment! You followed Joyleaf when she led us down a new path. Now I ask you to follow me to the crossroads. Let each one of you choose your own path, but only if you do so free of judgement for those who take another road. We cannot be Wolfriders unless we howl together, but we cannot be elves unless we are free.”
“Well said, chieftess,” Rain stepped forward. “You have tempered the wisdom of your forefathers with a vision of what may be.” He looked back to the tribe. “As the eldest Wolfrider, I say it is a good Way.”
Nightfall got to her feet as well. But instead of stepping forward, she threw her head back and howled. Redlance joined her, as did Pike and the Go-Backs. The song was contagious, and Swift howled too, as one by one the elves rose to salute chieftess and tribe. Even Moonshade howled as she knelt on the wood, while Strongbow remained skeptically silent. But he did not rise, he did not challenge.
As always declining to join the howl, Rayek threw Tyldak a wry smile. The bird-elf shrugged, casting a glance at his lifemate, her eyes closed, her throat arched back as she howled.
The wolves, down below on the ground, added their own voices. The mountain echoed with the chorus.
Two nights later, Skywise found his grandfather Rain sitting by the river. Fireflies swarmed around the healer, sparkling silver-green against the verdant forest.
Skywise knelt down in front of Rain, and slowly removed his smoky-blue faceguard.
“Are you sure?” Rain asked.
Skywise nodded.
“Once I start, I cannot go back.”
“I understand. I’m ready.”
Rain touched his cheek. “You are brave, my grandson, to choose this path. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.” He waited a moment longer, gazing deep into Skywise’s gray eyes, before he moved his hands, placing them against the stargazer’s temples.
**Will it hurt?** Skywise asked, flinching against his will.
“No, Skywise,” he smiled. “It will be as a gentle rain.”
Skywise closed his eyes and nodded his final assent. Closing his eyes as well, Rain began to sink into the healing trance.
Swift lay back on the grass, her head resting on the furred shoulder of her wolf Skyfrost. She had found the grizzled female in the Frozen Mountains, in the pit of the mountain trolls. The bond, even three years old, was still tentative, but for tonight Skyfrost let her elf-friend cuddle up close.
Rayek sat down at Swift’s side and Skyfrost lifted her head, whining for a scratch behind the ear. Rayek obliged with a wry smile, and the wolf lay her head back down, satisfied.
“Skywise is one of us now,” Swift breathed.
“You knew he would be.”
“I am glad,” she admitted. “I dreaded the day I might see him die.”
“Do you think more will choose our path?”
“It will take time. Some may well choose to lie down and shed their skins. Even then they will always be with us. Still, I think I would rather have my tribe in flesh.”
“I think Strongbow could stand to shed his skin.”
“Shut it, you!” Swift slapped his leg. They laughed together a moment, and Swift shifted, leaning her head against Rayek’s shoulder instead of Skyfrost’s. “You know, we can still die. A human arrow, a troll spear.”
“Rain healed the scar well.”
“I know,” she hugged his arm. “I still shudder when I think of that troll pinning you against that rock. Stubborn fool you were, you kept fighting until I thought you’d bleed out.”
“Thank the High Ones I was as pretty as I was, or Kahvi might well have left me in the snow.”
“Strutter-cock!” she elbowed him in the ribs. “And what is this ‘was’? Ah...” she sighed as she leaned back against him, and he obligingly pulled her into his lap. “I know Skywise will want you to fly him back to the Frozen Mountains as soon as possible so he can see Yun again. But I think most of the tribe will be just as happy to settle here on Thorny Mountain. This New Land is magical – no wonder the High Ones chose to first appear here.”
“I will have the Palace mastered in no time. We can fly to the Frozen Mountains, or Sorrow’s End, or anywhere we wish, for as long as we wish.”
“I would like to see this new son of Kahvi’s,” Swift mused. “So would Vaya, I’m sure. Poor timing it was she gave birth just after we had left for Blue Mountain. What is his name?”
“Teir.”
“Teir,” she smiled. “And Vok the father?”
“He seems the most likely candidate.”
“Mm,” she chuckled at the memory. “He does seem her favorite, doesn’t he? Pity we don’t share, hmm?” she teased. “You could have been the father.”
“As if I would sleep with that snarling she-bear for all the Palace and the Scroll of Colours.”
“Glad to hear it,” she settled back against him.
“Tam,” he smiled, nuzzling his cheek against her hair. “You will always be Tam, no matter what happens.”
“This is a homecoming, after all,” she mused contentedly. She looked up, and saw Timmain standing on the ridge, a silhouette in the bright moonlight.
**Timmain?**
The wolf silently paced across the field to join them. As Skyfrost looked up, bored with the packmate she had once run with, before the trolls had captured them, Timmain nuzzled Swift tenderly and licked her cheek.
“All right,” Swift laughed, ruffling Timmain’s white fur. “You’re forgiven. You’re forgiven.” She gave the wolf playful rap on the head. “Though you could speak more plainly next time.”
“You are disrespectful of the High One,” Rayek teased.
“You’re the one who stepped in her–” Swift began, but Rayek cut her off with a fit of feigned coughing. Timmain barked once, a laugh or a reprimand, they could not tell, then turned and raced across the meadow, back to the woods.
“We should head back to the Holt soon, I suppose,” Swift decided at length.
“No, no, not just yet,” Rayek leaned back against Skyfrost, gathering Swift in his arms anew. “Let’s... sit and try to see what Skywise find so fascinating about these stars.
Elfquest copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. Elfquest, its logos, characters, situations, all related indicia, and their distinctive likenesses are trademarks of Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Some dialogue taken from Elfquest comics. All such dialogue copyright 2014 Warp Graphics, Inc. All rights reserved. Alternaverse characters and insanity copyright 2014 Jane Senese and Erin Roberts.