'They've gone,' he said in disbelief. 'The pack is gone.'
Renn stood with her hands on her hips, looking about her. 'Where would they take the cubs?'
Torak thought for a moment. 'When they get big enough, the pack takes them to a new place, to learn to hunt.' He breathed out. 'Yes, that must be it.'
'Will it be far?' said Bale, his voice strained.
'A day's lope, maybe more.'
'So it'll be off the island?' said Renn.
'Yes,' said Torak. 'But Wolf will come back for me, or we'll find each other by howling '
'Torak,' cut in Bale, 'don't you see what this means? If the wolves have left the island, it means '
'Yes,' said the Viper Mage, 'it does.'
THIRTY-ONE.
She sat cross-legged on the boulder above the Den, gazing down at them with her mocking sideways smile. 'The wolves are gone,' she told Torak. 'I sent them all away.'
'Don't listen to her,' said Renn.
'Why, what harm can I do?' said the Viper Mage without taking her eyes off Torak. 'It's three against one, and I have no weapons.' Her voice was as smooth as water that wears away stone, and she made him feel as if she spoke to him alone: as if they were the only ones here in this hot, airless dusk. 'No weapons,' she murmured, 'not even a knife.'
Torak felt the sweat starting out between his shoulder blades. He darted a glance at his friends. Bale stood transfixed, his axe forgotten in his hand. Renn gripped bow and arrow, but did not take aim.
'Not even a knife,' repeated the Viper Mage, drawing his gaze back to her. At her breast the medicine pouch softly rose and fell. In the failing light her eyes were black, unblinking as a snake's. 'You lied to me,' she told him. 'You deceived me and ran away. I thought you were braver than that.'
Torak swayed. 'You can't make me go with you,' he said with an effort.
'Ah, but I can.' She touched the pouch. You know I can. I have your stone, caught fast in the coils of the green clay serpent. You cannot defy me!
'Don't listen to her,' snarled Renn again.
'So this is Renn,' said Seshru, leaning back on her hands and regarding her with amusement. 'What a little vixen! It was you who helped him resist me, wasn't it? You must have some small talent for Magecraft.' She paused. 'But of course you do! And we both know why.'
Shakily, Renn nocked an arrow to her bow.
Torak grabbed her arm. 'Renn, no!'
'You can't, she's not armed!' cried Bale.
Seshru laughed, baring her white throat. 'Oh, she won't shoot! She can't. Can you, Renn?'
Trembling from head to foot, Renn lowered her bow.
'I knew she wouldn't,' said the Viper Mage with contempt. She turned her gaze on Bale. 'To kill a weaponless woman . . . who could do such a thing? Could you?'
Her beauty caught him in its web, and his axe slid from his grasp.
'I didn't think so,' she said. 'That would be the mark of a weak man, and you're not weak. You're a Seal Clan hunter. You're strong.'
Bale shook himself and drew a deep breath, as if coming up for air. But his arms hung limp at his sides.
The Viper Mage withdrew her gaze from him, and again Torak felt its force. It was like staring at the sun.
'Don't look at her,' said Renn. 'Don't listen to her!'
Torak gripped his knife-hilt till his knuckles were white. This knife had belonged to Fa. Fa had had the strength to resist the Soul-Eaters. So must he. 'I won't go with you,' he said at last. 'I won't help you find the fire-opal.'
'Oh, but you will,' said Seshru, and her lips parted in noiseless laughter. 'When you know the truth, you will!'
'No.'
'You see,' she continued as if he hadn't spoken, 'I can make you leave your friends I can cut you out from your safe little herd just as easily as snapping my fingers.'
'No,' whispered Torak.
'She's lying,' said Renn in an odd, pleading tone. 'That's what she does, Torak, she lies! She takes credit for things she didn't do; she denies the crimes she did. You can't believe anything she says!'
'Some things you can,' Seshru told Renn, her voice tinged with venom. 'We both know that, don't we, Renn? Although I must say, I'm surprised that you never told him. If he's your friend if you care for him as much as he cares for you and he does care, he really does . . . Not to have told him! Such a mistake! But then,' she added slyly, 'you already know it was a mistake. Don't you, Renn?'
Torak saw that Renn's face had gone chalk-white. 'Renn?' he said. 'What's wrong?'
Renn's eyes were shadowy hollows, her expression unreadable. 'I was going to tell you,' she said in a strangled voice. 'But I could never . . . It was never the right time.'
He began to feel cold. 'Tell me what?'
'Haven't you guessed?' said Seshru, leaning forwards and watching him with the fixity of a snake closing on its prey.
'Guessed what?' said Torak. 'Renn, what is it?'
Seshru smiled her carrion smile. 'Tell him, Renn. Tell him!'
Renn opened her mouth, but no sound came.
'What?' shouted Torak.
The Viper Mage licked her black lips and hissed, 'She is my daughter!'
THIRTY-TWO.
Renn wished Torak would say something anything but he just stood there, staring at her. And that was worse.
'I wanted to tell you,' she said. 'It was never the right time.'
He looked as if he'd been kicked in the chest. He looked as if he didn't know who she was.
She said, 'I couldn't tell you in the beginning. You would never have been friends with me.'
'Two summers,' he said quietly. 'You hid this for two whole summers.'
She felt cold: a deep inner cold that went beyond shivering. 'I thought maybe you'd guessed. When you spirit walked in that elk. And the viper. I thought you were angry.'
'No. You hid it too well.'
She flinched. 'You you hid things too,' she faltered. 'You didn't tell me about the Soul-Eater tattoo. But I got over it. I understood.'
'That was for two moons. Not two summers.' He took a few steps away, then turned and confronted her. The blood had left his face. His lips had a greyish tinge. 'The first time I met you,' he said slowly. 'I felt there was something. I didn't trust you.' He paused. 'Turns out I was right.'
'How can you say that?' she burst out. 'Of course you can trust me!'
He was shaking his head in disbelief. 'Two whole summers. I was your friend and you lied to me, every single day.'
'You're still my friend!' she cried. 'I'm still Renn! Still the same person!'
Bale stepped between them. 'Torak. She never meant to hurt you.'
'What do you know?' snapped Torak. 'Keep out of this, it's got nothing to do with you!'
'Torak, please,' said Renn. 'I know I should've told you . . . '
'Get away from me!' His face worked. 'I never want to see you again! Just get away!'
She turned and fled.
'Renn, come back!' shouted Bale. 'No Torak don't you go too! Renn! We've got to keep together! This is just what she wants!'
Renn tore through the bracken, not caring where she went. As she ran, she saw that the Viper Mage was gone from the boulder. She had scattered them just as she'd said she would: as easily as snapping her fingers.
Torak's only thought was to be on his own. He could hear Bale crashing after him, but the Seal boy was no match for him in a darkened Forest, and he was soon left behind.
At last, Torak reached the shore and had to stop. The reeds stood deathly still, like a thicket of spears. He hardly saw them. It was a hot, still night and the sweat was pouring off him, but he was shaking with cold.
Images from the past flashed before him. Renn's talent for Magecraft. Her reluctance to practise it. Her refusal to explain why.
She and the Viper Mage even looked alike! The same pale skin and high-boned, regular features. Why hadn't he seen it?
But what hit hardest and hurt the most was that she'd kept this from him for so long. That she could be capable of such deception. It turned her into someone else, someone he didn't know. And that was the worst, because it meant that he'd lost her. He was alone again, just like when Fa was killed.
No, he thought, not alone. Never alone, while you've got Wolf.
Wolf never lied to him. Wolf wouldn't know how.
Putting up his head, Torak howled. Come to me, pack-brother! I need you! Reckless of the Viper Mage, he shut his eyes and put all his pain and loneliness into his howls.
At first, he heard nothing. Then, very faint, came an answering howl.
At least Torak thought it was Wolf, but it was too far away to make out. Maybe it wasn't Wolf at all, but one of the others. Maybe it was nothing to do with him.
Bereft, he wandered along the shore.
Much later, he found himself sitting at the southern tip of the island, gazing over the Lake. He had no idea how he'd got there. He only knew that he was very, very tired.
Far to the south, he made out the lights of the Otter camp; nearer, to the west, the glimmer of campfires. Distractedly, he wondered what that meant. Maybe the clans were coming after him. He couldn't bring himself to care.
On the Lake, a shadow slid towards him.
He couldn't summon the strength to hide. With his axe in one hand, he rose to his feet.
Whoever it was moved skilfully, nosing towards him as silently as a pike.
'Torak. Get in.' Bale spoke quietly from the gloom.
Torak didn't move.
'Torak! Come on, the Viper Mage could be anywhere! And judging from those campfires, half the clans have come after you!'
When Torak still didn't move, Bale sighed. 'I know this is hard, but there's no time! We'll head for the north shore, they won't dare hunt us there; then we'll look for Renn.'
'No,' said Torak. 'You do what you like. I'm going to find Wolf.'
'Wolf will find you, but Renn's out there alone, and that creature could be anywhere!'
'I don't care.'
'Yes you do. If anything happened to Renn, you'd never forgive yourself and neither would I. Now get in!'
The Bright White Eye was shining in the Up as Wolf paced the ridge.
During the Light, he'd told himself that all was well: that once he knew the cubs were safe at their new resting place, he could race back and fetch Tall Tailless. Then, far in the distance, he'd heard his pack-brother's desperate howl.