Read Through Wolf's Eyes for Free Online

carry
hunting horns. Three short blasts will signal a return to camp. Two a
request for aid. Remember, if at all possible, save first contact for
me. Are there any questions?"
    Five heads shook a negative.
    "Get ready, then. Valet has made up packets of cold
food for the midday meal. If you have anything to be repaired, give it
to Derian."
    A few moments later, in their shared tent, Derian accepted from Ox some leggings that needed mending.
    "Earl Kestrel isn't wasting any time, is he?" he
commented. "Yesterday we slogged across a pass still spotted with snow.
Today he orders a full day's search, even though a holiday would be a
fair reward."
    "You forget," Ox replied, checking the edge on the
axe he carried with him as both weapon and tool, "that our time here is
limited. Even if Race succeeds in augmenting our supplies by hunting
and fishing, we need fodder for the horses. It's too early in the year
for them to do much grazing."
    "I haven't forgotten," Derian protested. "Remember, my folks own stables in three towns!"
    "I know," Ox said mildly. "I simply didn't know that you did."
    When the others had departed, leaving behind enough
chores to occupy Derian and Valet for a week, Derian sighed, regretting
now that his blistered feet kept him out of the adventure. Then,
sitting cross-legged on the ground, he took a torn shirt into his lap
and doggedly began to sew.

    F ROM THE CONCEALMENT of thick shrub growth atop a rise overlooking the two-legs' camp,
Firekeeper studied the occupants. The animals amazed her, but her
response to their keepers mingled astonishment and admiration.
    "They are so noisy," she said to Blind Seer, watching one of their number go to a stream for water. "Yet so bold!"
    Blind Seer snorted. "What do they know to fear? The red-spotted white animal sees more than any of them, but theyignore her. Did you see their One kick at her when she tried to tell him we were watching?"
    "I did," Firekeeper agreed. "I am not certain,
though, that he is the One. The other one, smaller, with the hooked
nose and silver-shot black hair, they all seem to defer to him."
    "True," Blind Seer admitted, "but how could he defeat
even the next smallest in a fight? Certainly he couldn't defeat the
huge one."
    "Maybe they are not a full pack," Firekeeper speculated. "They are all males and how could a pack survive without females?"
    "All male?" asked the wolf in astonishment. "How can you tell? They smell of smoke and sweat to me."
    "Not by scent," the woman admitted. "I could be wrong, but it seems that I remember ways of telling."
    "She is right," came a shrill voice from above them. "Males all."
    The speaker was the peregrine falcon, Elation, who
had been introduced to Firekeeper soon after sunrise. Elation was a
beautiful example of her kind, compact of body, with plumage of a deep
blue-grey. Her head was capped with feathers the color of slate and her
white throat and underbody were marked with darker bars. Brown eyes
ringed with bright yellow missed nothing.
    "If you say so," Blind Seer said, immediately
deferring to the bird's greater experience, "then it must be so, but
I'd prefer to be able to trust my nose."
    Ignoring the conversation between falcon and wolf,
Fire-keeper studied the six gathered below, feeling memories stirring
and teasing just beyond what she could grasp.
    The men possessed a certain degree of grace, neither
toppling over nor lumbering like bears as they made their way about on
two legs. Firekeeper knew this was how she herself moved, had even
glimpsed her reflection and studied the distorted image of her shadow,
but seeing others move this way was a revelation. Before she had always
felt vaguely like a freak. Now she felt justified in her choice.
    Already Firekeeper had observed many things she planned to adapt to her use. All of the men wore their hair caughtbehind
their heads with a thong—a thing much more convenient than her own
short cropping with its heritage of odd-length ends that dangled in