Blood for Wolves (18 page)

“He’s a wolf. Show it!”

“Do you know him, miss?” the man
holding me asked.

He’d spoke loud enough for Wolf to
hear, and even in his panic, he gazed and me and shook his head fiercely.

“I…” Then it dawned on me. “No. I
don’t. I saw him come in here. I thought maybe he was hurt, so I came to help
him.”

“Leading young women astray to eat
them!” a farmer yelled, grabbing Wolf’s face with one hand.

“No!” Wolf barked.

Two men closest to him pulled off
Wolf’s belt. Another behind him yanked down the hem of Wolf’s pants, freeing
his tail.

A roar of triumph and anger went up
from the men.

“Burn him! Burn the wolf! He’s
killed our sheep and our cows! Put him out of his misery!”

At the mention of the cows, Wolf’s
eyes went wide.

“No! No, I didn’t! It’s a lie!”

They half dragged, half carried him
from the barn as he howled away. The man finally let me go, and I stared after
them, racking my brain for an idea.

“Say miss, where are you from
anyway?”

I didn’t answer. Instead I sprinted
back to the village, outstripping the mob and almost crashing to the ground
when my feet hit the worn smooth cobblestones. I found Alex sitting against a
wall, toying with the crossbow the witch had given him. The building Marianne
was in was still asleep, almost like it was waiting for something.

“Caroline, what is it?” Alex asked
as I came to a stop near him.

For a moment I couldn’t speak, only
able to suck in deep breaths of air after my hard run.

“Wolf,” I finally managed. “They
took him. A bunch of farmers. Some of their livestock was killed last night. They
think he did it. They’re going to burn him.”

Alex sprang to his feet. “Well, did
he do it? He is a wolf, right?”

“Half wolf. And what the hell does
it matter? They’re going to burn him
alive
.”

“Jesus.” Alex ran a hand over his
forehead.

“They said sheep and cows were
killed, but that doesn’t make sense. Even if Wolf was responsible, he wouldn’t
have killed that many. I know they’re different around here, but I still don’t
think they kill just for the sake of killing. It’s all food. I just don’t
believe it. We’ve got to get him out of there. We can’t let them do this.”

“Okay. Uh.” Alex ran a hand through
his hair. “Okay. I’ll go to the fields and see if I can find tracks or anything
else.” He paused. “Wait, what about this thing?”

We stared at the building for a few
moments. A few streets away, the roar of the crowd grew louder. I closed my
eyes and delved into the strange magic sensation the place gave off.

“It won’t wake up for a while yet. We
still have some time.”

Alex looked down on me like he
wanted to ask how I knew that, but instead ran off towards the fields, his
black coat flapping around him.

“Wait,” I shouted, an idea popping
into my mind. “You have both our radios right? Give them to me.”

Alex dug into his canvas sack and
pulled them out. “What are you going to do?”

I took two boji stones from our
magic stash and the shrinking roll of duct tape from my daypack. I taped a
stone to each radio.

“Here.” I handed one of the radios
to Alex. He looked at it like I’d just given him a porcupine.

“And what’s this supposed to do?”

I fiddled with my radio. “The books
said boji stones can be used to boost communication. I thought that maybe we
could get these going again with a little magic aid.”

He shook his head. “Caroline, you
don’t really think that just because you tied a rock to these that they’ll
work.”

We both turned them on. Alex’s
mouth fell open as a faint crackle emitted from them.

“Apparently they will,” I said into
the radio, my voice coming out on Alex’s. I was surprised myself, but now
wasn’t the time to marvel over our little success. The roar of the mob drew
near the town.

“All right, see what you can find
out. I’ll try to stall them.”

I made my way back to the town
square. Already a large pole was erected, with piles of brush and sticks being
stacked around it by the villagers. They shouted and some cheered, excited
about the prospect of burning the fanged perpetrator that had eaten their
livestock. I ran up to one of the men.

“Where’s the wolf now?” I asked,
trying to sound just as eager for his demise.

“Bein’ held at the House of
Judgment.” The man nodded in the direction of a whitewashed building that
looked just like the others, save the sign hanging from it that clearly read
“Judgment” underneath some sort of crest involving arrows.

The door was flanked by two men
holding pikes. I tried to look angry, which wasn’t hard, so that maybe they
thought I’d come to taunt him.

“I want to see the wolf,” I said,
my hands fisting at my sides.

“Wolves are dangerous, miss. You
ought to wait until we bring him out.”

I scoffed. “Certainly he’s no
threat locked up. And besides, you’ll be right outside the door.”

The men glanced at one another and
then nodded. I went in, making sure to shut the door behind me. Wolf paced back
and forth inside a barred room, just like a jail cell back at home. He spun
around the moment I stepped forward.

“Oh Caroline,” he said. His eyes
were full of panic.

I went up to the bars, holding onto
them tightly. “Wolf, what did you do?”

He took my hands and stuck his face
through the bars as much as possible. “Nothing! I mean, yes, I ate one of the
sheep, I remembered, but I didn’t kill the rest of the flock or any of the
cows, I swear.”

I hung my head. So he’d really done
it. Some of it, at least. That still didn’t justify burning him to death, but I
didn’t know what Alex could find to help prove Wolf was innocent. Even so,
they’d still burn him over one sheep.

“Caroline, you have to help me. You
have to get me out of here. I’m sorry. I was so hungry and so miserable and
I’ve already hurt you so much. If you don’t want to help I’ll understand, but
they’re going to burn me.” His knuckles were white where he gripped the bars.
I’d never seen him so terrified. “They’re going to burn me just like all the
others…”

He started to cry. Not a human cry,
but a faint whimpering, whining noise like a sad dog.

“Don’t cry,” I begged, putting my
hands on his cheeks. An uncomfortable twinge went through my heart. “Please don’t
cry, babe. I’ll help you. It’s okay. I already sent Alex to the fields to try
and figure something out.”

“You have?” he gasped. “Oh Caroline,
my sweet, my wonderful mate. I love you and I swear I’ll never hurt you again.”

“But I can’t guarantee it’ll work,”
I said, ignoring his outburst. “I don’t know if he’ll be able to find
anything.”

“It’s a lie. I didn’t kill those
cows. I never went anywhere near them. It’s all still kind of muddled in my
head, but I’ve never liked cows. I’ve always been partial to sheep.”

“Keep your voice down. I don’t know
how long Alex needs, so hopefully he’ll be back before these people try
anything. If not, I’ll do everything I can to stall them.”

Suddenly Wolf backed into a corner.
For a split second I didn’t understand why, then the door opened and a dozen
men came into the room. One of them looked at me suspiciously, but another
chuckled.

“This girly puttin’ the fear of the
fire in you? Rightly so. It’s gonna
hurt
.”

They made for the cell door.
Stall!
Stall!
my brain screamed.

“I don’t think he did it,” I
blurted out. Every man in the room turned and looked at me as though I’d grown
a pair of antlers. I swallowed.

“Well… Look at him. I mean, he’s
too timid and weak to go around killing sheep just outside of villages.”

Wolf whimpered as if to emphasize
my point.

“That’s what these creatures want
you to think,” said one man, opening the cell door. “They’re crafty wretches. One
minute you’re offering them a slice of pie from your sack, the next they’re
offering a slice of you to their pack.”

I registered this as some sort of
proverb, but I let it go and continued as the men hauled Wolf to his feet and
dragged him out of the cell.

“But five animals? That’s a lot of
food for just one half-wolf.”

They ignored me, lugging Wolf into
the town square with me right at their feet.

“It doesn’t make sense,” I shouted,
getting desperate for someone to even listen to me.

“Where did you say you were from?”
asked the man who’d given me a questioning look earlier.

I mentally ran around in circles
for a moment. “King Thrushbeard’s Kingdom. I’m visiting…my niece. She lives by
the sea.”

“And what’s your name?”

I pushed him out of the way and ran
after the crowd with Wolf.

“Alex,” I said into the radio,
“what have you got?”

“A lot of scratch marks around
here,” he replied. “Way too big to be wolf claws.”

The men carried him over the pile
of kindling and pushed him against the pole. He howled.

“Forget it,” I told Alex. “These
people are serious. Get back here. Make something up.” I pushed aside a group
of men, making my way to the pyre. “Let him go!” I screamed. “What is wrong
with you people? Don’t you see how inhuman this is? Why do you have to burn
him? Why can’t you just make him pay for the sheep?”

I realized how asinine I sounded. No
one listened anyway. No one cared. Fine. If words didn’t work, perhaps brute
force would.

I charged at the men tying Wolf’s
hands behind his back and knocked them off the pile. But before I could do
anything else, two more men grabbed my arms and dragged me away, holding me at
the edge of the fire as if making sure I had a good vantage point for the
burning.

“Leave him alone!” I yelled,
straining against them.

Wolf howled. The men finished tying
him to the pole and got down. My breath caught in my throat when another farmer
came around the corner with a burning torch.

“Caroline,” the radio crackled in
my hand. I could barely hear it over the roar of the crowd. “There’s something
here.”

The man neared the wood. I slammed
my heel down on the foot of one of my captors. He shouted in pain and released
my arm. I jabbed my elbow into his gut and then swung my fist around and
smashed it into the other man’s face. The moment he let go, I bolted back onto
the pile and stood in front of Wolf, my arms outstretched.

“Stop!” I bellowed. “If you want to
burn this wolf, you’ll have to burn me too. An innocent woman.”

A stunned silence fell over the
crowd. People stared up at me, unable to make out what they were seeing. Then
one man’s face contorted in revulsion, and he pointed at me.

“Wolf lover!”

The mob erupted again. I backed up
until I pressed against Wolf’s chest. I had no ideas left. More men trampled up
the wood pile and grabbed me. I struggled against them, kicking and pulling. I
shoved one of the back into the crowd. My foot connected with another man’s
knee and sent him tumbling off the pyre. Wolf snapped, straining against the
loops of rope, his eyes flashing gold.

“No! NO! Get off of her! Leave her
alone! She never did anything to you! Let her go!”

Finally the men managed to grab my
hands and arms. I lost my grip on the radio, and it fell onto the sticks at my
feet. They turned me around so I was facing Wolf and pulled my hands to reach
around him at the pole. Rough lengths of rope wrapped around my wrists, chafing
my skin. I kept pulling and tugging, making things as difficult for them as
possible. Then I realized the position they’d put me in. I had better access to
Wolf’s bonds this way.

“You love this wolf so much, you
can die with him,” one of the men said nastily in my ear.

Hurry up Alex!

Wolf kept screaming at them to let
me go, but no one listened. The rope circled my waist a few times then was tied
off. I rested my head against Wolf’s chest, staring down into the tangle of
branches and sticks. They meant to do it. These people were going to burn me
along with him. Did they really hate wolves that much? For once I wished for
the ranchers in Wyoming and their guns. A gun would be so much better to die by
than fire. The second the men left the pyre, I tried picking at the thick rope
around Wolf’s wrists. Moving my hands proved difficult. I didn’t stop.

“Caroline, you there?” Alex’s faint
voice floated up from the kindling. “Caroline? There is something really
fucking big out here…”

 “Caroline, I’m so sorry,” Wolf
said, pressing his head against mine.

I could feel his tears against my
temple. I didn’t look up, keeping my focus on loosening the ropes. “I know.”

“Caroline,
where the hell are
you?
” Alex yelled over the radio.

Behind me, fire crackled on the
torch. I didn’t know where Alex was, what he’d seen. But he didn’t know what
was going on. He wouldn’t get here in time. I closed my eyes, willing the rope
around Wolf’s wrists to loosen. They’d used a lot. There was no way I could fail
Wolf. Fail Marianne. I would
not
be this useless.

I savagely dug my fingernails into
the knots. One of them loosened slightly. But the crackle of the torch was
louder now, right at my back. I needed more time. More time! The hammering of
Wolf’s heart told me we were out. He pressed his lips to my temple, and I
wished it could be the last thing I felt in this world.

Alex pushed his way through the
crowd, though most of them jumped out of his way, and made his way to the front
where Wolf and I stood tied at the stake. “Hey! HEY! STOP!”

The crowd went silent again and the
man with the torch paused. Alex glared at me as if to say, “Could you be any
more trouble?”

He faced the crowd, pointing at
Wolf. “This man is not responsible for the killing of your livestock.”