Free Secrets of the Wolves by Dorothy Hearst Page A

her.
    I waited, hoping she would come to me there. No one came. Then I caught a flicker of movement to my right. I whirled toward it, half expecting to see the spiritwolf there. Instead, I saw a large, scruffy raven perched high on a rock. He screeched at me once, then fell silent.
    He was an old raven, his eyes clouded and his legs so thin I didn’t see how he could stand on them. His feathers were so ragged I could see patches of skin showing through them, and one of his wings was crooked, as if it had once been broken.
    “What do you look at, mewler?” the old raven croaked.
    “Nothing,” I said. I wasn’t going to tell some bird I was looking for a spiritwolf. I lifted my nose in the air, trying to find Lydda’s scent again.
    “Then you waste time,” he said. He dove from his rock straight at my head. I ducked. He pecked my left forepaw, then screeched in my ear and flew away. I leapt upon a low rock and whipped my head from side to side in case the raven returned for another attack. When I heard heavy wings retreating, I relaxed my guard and jumped down from the rock.
    I sat in the center of the circle, closed my eyes, and waited. Nothing. No scent, no spiritwolf coming to me as she had done before. I don’t know what I had expected. I would have to call to her. Feeling a little foolish, I opened my eyes and spoke.
    “Lydda?” I said aloud. “I need your help.”
    Nothing. Then footsteps in the underbrush, but they were human footsteps, not wolf. TaLi’s grandmother, NiaLi, walked slowly into the clearing. Embarrassed to have been caught talking to no one, I lowered my ears.
    “You are looking for the youngwolf who used to come from the spirit lands?” the old woman asked. “I sensed her nearby, too, and thought she might come here. Though she told me moons ago she could no longer come into this world.”
    I could only look at her in surprise. Then I remembered that on the night TaLi and I had spied on the Speaking, Lydda had walked at NiaLi’s side. I also remembered that I had not greeted the old woman properly at the Great Plain and did so now, licking her hands to let her know I was glad she had survived the winter.
    “She told me that, too,” I said. “But I need her.”
    “You have not been able to find her?” The old woman stroked the fur between my ears.
    “No,” I said.
    NiaLi looked disappointed. “There are stories among the krianans of one who can travel between the worlds of life and death. When I saw you with the young spiritwolf at the Speaking, I thought you might be such a one. Perhaps you are and cannot yet find the way because you are not yet grown.” She sounded dubious.
    “Why would I be able to do that?” I asked. Lydda had told me of one who could travel between the world of life and the world of death. I’d never thought it might be me.
    “Because she came to you. Because no such spirit has come to the world of the living in my memory. Keep trying to find her, Kaala.” Although she called me Silvermoon when TaLi was near, she knew my real name and used it when we were alone. “The teachings of the krianans say that the traveler can discover things vital to ensuring that we learn to live as one with the world.”
    A howl echoed off the boulders in the clearing. Ruuqo was calling us back early.
    “I have to go,” I said.
    “Don’t stop trying to find her, Kaala,” NiaLi said, taking my muzzle gently in her hand, her voice urgent. “If you are the traveler, we must know.”
    She released me, turned away, and walked back into the woods. Astonished, I watched her go.

    Two days later, we crossed the Swift River to bring food directly to the humans’ homesite. Ruuqo wanted to wait longer, to give the humans more time to grow accustomed to the idea of us, but Rissa insisted.
    “The sooner the humans get used to seeing us at their homesite, the sooner they will allow wolves to stay with them,” she’d said. I thought Ruuqo would argue more, but he took one look at