The Sight Read Free Page B

her tail delightedly.
    The wolf that trotted into the cave was only a little smaller than Huttser, though distinguished by a great bushy tail, tinged with red.  His eyes sparkled as he acknowledged Kipcha and dipped his head to the Dragga, for in his mouth he was carrying a hunk of fresh meat.  It was this that had distorted the shadow thrown on to the cave wall from the world outside.  As Khaz threw the meat on the cave floor he shivered and shook the snow from his thick coat.
    ‘There,’ he cried, ‘not much I’m afraid, but enough to give strength to Palla and her little ones.  This cold could freeze the claws off a bear.’
    ‘Good for you, Khaz,’ growled Huttser.  But he was thinking, too, of those huge paw prints in the snow, ‘I was wondering where you’d got to.’
    ‘I would have caught up with your tracks sooner,’ panted Khaz, lying down and nuzzling up to Kipcha for warmth, ‘but I was checking for Night Hunters.  No sign at all, thank Fenris, though I met another family fleeing the edict.’
    The freezing wind began to whistle through the willow tree now and its movement sent swaying shadows dancing like crabbed fingers across the cave floor.  Palla began to gnaw at the flesh, chewing at it with the side of her powerful jaws.  It was tough, but her teeth were very sharp and to an appetite enlivened by hunger it tasted delicious.  Bran’s eyes looked longingly at her across the cave.
    ‘And I saw other things to worry us, Huttser,’ growled Khaz.  ‘Humans, hunting near the village.’
    ‘Man,’ snorted Brassa, lifting her paw as if in evidence of what she was saying, ‘they are evil, as Palla says.  They are cruel and kill without hunger.’
    ‘So do we, Brassa,’ said Khaz rather cheerfully, staring at Palla too as she fed, ‘for we are Putnar also.’
    Putnar was the wolves’ word for a predator.  Among the titles Morgra’s Balkar gave themselves to intimidate the free wolves they called themselves ‘First Among the Putnar’.  Khaz bared his teeth.  He couldn’t hide the saliva beginning to drip from his jaws as he gazed at Palla, for although he had made the kill and eaten a little himself, it was only a small calf and he hadn’t lingered to feed properly.
     ‘Some things not even the Putnar can control,’ Khaz went on, growling to himself thoughtfully.  ‘I got into one of their sheep folds last spring.  I wasn’t hungry by the time I left but I...  I couldn’t help myself.  I killed them all.’
    ‘The bloodlust was on you, Khaz,’ smiled Huttser indulgently, ‘that’s all.  And when they bring so many tamed Lera together in once place, it’s difficult to resist.’
    As the wolves thought of Man’s strange habit of taming the Lera, they all nodded gravely.  It was fundamental in Varg lore that the wolf was the only Lera that could never be truly tamed.  Freedom is a wild wolf’s birth right.
    Palla finished her meal and licked her lips as the others tried to swallow nothing but their disappointment.  It wasn’t really difficult because, though they were all bitterly hungry, there are few bonds in nature as strong as a wolf pack and their co-operation is remarkable, especially when the Drappa is pregnant.  They will all hunt to feed the expectant mother and nothing is allowed to get in the way of the pack’s future, now symbolized by the life stirring in Palla’s belly.
    ‘I’m glad of one thing at least,’ said Bran mournfully, promising himself that tomorrow he would take the very fattest snow rabbit he could find, ‘that the humans are always fighting each other.  Just think if they really turned their attention on the Lera.’
    ‘Coward,’ muttered Khaz under his breath.  He didn’t have much time for the Sikla.
    ‘Hush, Khaz,’ said Huttser.
    The Dragga turned to Bran and his expression was meant to make up for his anger earlier.
    ‘Which is why the wolf should walk as a shadow when Man is about,’ he said softly, ‘and why