Free The Wolf Age by James Enge Page A

ever get out of this place."
    "I don't dream."
    "Everybody dreams, Morlock. Are you sure what the word means?"
    "I don't dream since they put the spike in my head."
    "What?" Rokhlenu asked.
    So, with a little prompting and vocabulary assistance from Rokhlenu, Morlock told the tale of how he had been captured. He didn't mention why he had been using his Sight: that wasn't something he wanted the guards to hear, if they were listening, and ever since Hrutnefdhu's humiliation he tried to stay aware that they were always listening. But he said that he had used his Sight and narrated what happened after, as far as he could remember it.
    "A ghost-sniffer," Rokhlenu said, when Morlock described the wolf who had detected his Sight. "They travel with the raiders, in case they run afoul of any magic-users, like you used to be, I guess. I understand they get their powers from sleeping with pigs during the dark of the moons. Of course, all the Sardhluun try that sometimes."
    This was mere slander, for the ears of the ever-listening guards, who twitched angrily but did not intervene.
    "How did you end up so deep in the north, though?" Rokhlenu asked. "And what happened to those people who were travelling with you? I remember that young man. Thund?"
    "Thend."
    "Thend. Not the dullest tool in the drawer, but he had more nerve than brains at that. I remember how he crept down into the Vale of the Mother, leaving a trail as dark as ink through the tall grass! But his family was down there, and he wasn't going to let fear or common sense stop him from getting killed with them. It's a miracle he wasn't."
    "You played a part in that miracle."
    "A small matter. It added nothing to my bite when I told the story back home, believe me. Anyway, how are they?"
    "Well, or so I hope. I left them so they'd have a better chance at that."
    "Oh? Anything I should know about?"
    Morlock glumly pondered how much he could or should tell Rokhlenu about Merlin. "I have a powerful enemy. When he attacks me ... those around me may be harmed."
    "Yurr. Well, we'll meet him together, if it comes to that. But you haven't asked me what I'm doing here."
    "Bad manners."
    "In a prison? I guess you're right. I've never been in one before. Have you?"
    "A few times. Nothing like this." Morlock tapped the side of his head and shrugged.
    "Well, since you can't ask, I'll just tell you. I was born, poor but honest-"
    "Poor in imagination, anyway."
    "To the Stone Tree with you, you ill-tempered, ape-footed son of a walrus-fondling pimp."
    "That's a little better," Morlock conceded.
    "I was horn, anyway: you won't quibble with me about that?"
    Morlock almost did, just for something to do, but there was a limit anyone could stand to this abrasive humor, and they had no escape from each other's company. So he shrugged and opened one hand.
    "Three shadows by sunlight," Rokhlenu swore. "Do you talk any more when you know the language better?"
    The joke was already overfamiliar. "No," Morlock said curtly. "You were born?"
    "Yes, although they didn't throw me in prison right away because of that. Actually, I was lying like a were-weasel earlier: my family had a lot of bite when I was growing up in the Aruukaiaduun pack-"
    "What's `bite'?" Morlock asked.
    "You can't be serious. Don't you know what bite is?"
    "I thought I did," Morlock said. He pointed at a ragged scar on his arm. "That's from a bite. Or am I using the wrong word?"
    "No," Rokhlenu said, "but it means more than just one thing. Bite is ... You know, they gave you that honor-tooth after you ripped old Khretnurrliu's head off."
    "Khretnurrliu." The name meant man-killer if Morlock understood it right. "That was his name?"
    "Yes, but so what? It's not like you'll be seeing him again."
    Morlock didn't tell him how wrong he was but said, "I remember the tooth. And the guards wear teeth. They show ..." He wanted to say status, but he didn't know the word for it.
    "They show bite: the more teeth the greater the individual's bite.