Renn froze.
'Boy! Wake up!'
'So you found him,' said another woman a little further off. Her voice was low and musical, like water rippling over stones. Renn's skin prickled.
'I can't wake him up,' said the Bat Mage. To Renn's surprise, she sounded concerned.
'He took too much root,' the other said scornfully. 'Leave him. We don't need him till tomorrow.'
The eagle spread its wings as far as it could, warding Renn back. Back where? She had nowhere to go. She tried to make herself even smaller, and an eagle pellet crunched beneath her palm.
The Soul-eaters went silent. Had they heard?
'What are you doing?' said the soft-voiced Soul-Eater.
'Turning him over,' replied the Bat Mage. 'Can't let him sleep on his back. If he's sick, he'll choke.'
'Oh Nef, why bother? He isn't worth ' she broke off.
'What is it?' said Nef.
'I feel something,' said the other. 'Souls. I feel souls, in the air around us.'
Silence. Again that high, thin squeak.
Renn blinked. The stink of birdlime was making her eyes water and her nose run. She tried not to sniff.
'Your bat feels them too,' said the soft-voiced one.
'There, my beauty,' crooned the Bat Mage. 'But whose souls? Could one of the offerings be dead?'
'I don't think so,' murmured the other. 'It's more . . . No, it doesn't feel like one of them.'
'Still, we'd better check them.'
Terror settled on Renn like a covering of ice.
'Hold my torch,' said the Bat Mage, her voice receding as she moved away.
Renn heard the scrape of stone a few paces away, then the ferocious hiss of a wolverine.
'Well he's not dead yet!' laughed the soft-voiced one.
The Bat Mage grunted as she pushed back the stone.
Another slab was scraped aside, nearer Renn's hiding-place. She caught the squeak of an otter.
One by one, the Soul-Eaters checked the offerings, drawing steadily closer to where she huddled. Her mind raced. There was no way out. If she bolted, they'd see her. If she stayed where she was, she'd be caught like a weasel in a trap. She had to stop them looking inside. If she didn't, she was dead.
A fox barked in the hollow next to hers. They were almost upon her. Think.
Only one thing to do.
Screwing her eyes shut, she crossed her arms over her face and kicked the eagle.
It lashed out with an ear-splitting 'klek-klek-klek' and she felt a chill on her wrists as talons sliced a hair's breadth from her skin.
On the other side of the slab, the Soul-Eaters stopped.
The eagle shook itself angrily, and began preening its ruffled feathers.
Renn cowered with her arms over her face, unable to believe that she was unhurt.
'No point checking that one,' said the Bat Mage.
'Though it sounds like she's hungry again.'
'Oh, leave her!' cried the other impatiently. 'Leave the boy, leave them all! I need rest, and so do you! Let's go!'
Yes, go! Renn pleaded silently.
The Bat Mage hesitated. 'You're right,' she said. 'After all, they've only got to live one more day.'
Their footsteps receded down the tunnel.
Renn sagged with relief. With her fingertips she traced the zigzag tattoos on her wrists, and saw again Tanugeak's round, shrewd face. You'll be needing them, I think.
It was some time later, and the eagle was becoming restive again, before Renn dared to move. As she rubbed the feeling back into her legs, she heard someone stir on the other side of the slab.
'You can come out now,' whispered Torak.
He still couldn't believe it was really her.
'Renn?' he mumbled.
'Thank the Spirit, you're awake!' With her hair stained black, she looked eerily unfamiliar. But she was Renn all right: showing her small, sharp teeth in a wobbly smile, and giving him awkward little pats on the chest.
'Renn . . .' he said again. The dizziness seized him, and he shut his eyes.
He wanted to tell her everything. About spirit walking in the ice bear, and getting trapped. About hearing Wolf howling howling inside his head and breaking free of the bear. Above all, he wanted to tell her how incredible, how wonderful it was that she'd made her way through the darkness, and found him.
But when he tried, the bitter bile rose in his throat, and all he managed was, 'I'm going to be sick.'
He got on all fours and retched, and she knelt beside him, holding back his hair.
When it was over, she helped him stagger to his feet. As they moved into the torchlight, she saw his face for the first time. 'Torak, what happened to you? Your lips are black! There's blood on your forehead!'
He flinched from her touch. 'Don't, it's tainted.'
'What happened?' she said again.
He couldn't bring himself to tell her. Instead he said, 'I know where they've got Wolf. Let's go.'
But as he staggered down the tunnel, she held him back. 'Wait. There's something I've got to tell you.' She paused. 'The Soul-Eaters. They're not only after Wolf. They want to sacrifice you, too!'
Then she told him a story that turned him sick all over again, about a chant she'd overheard in the forest of stone. 'It's a charm that will give them great power, and protect them from the demons.'
His knees buckled, and he leaned against the wall. 'The nine hunters. I heard them say it, but I never thought . . .' With a scowl, he snatched up the torch. 'Come on. Not much time.'
Renn looked puzzled. 'But isn't Wolf here, with the others?'
'No. I'll tell you as we go.'
His head was clearing fast, and as he led her through the tunnels trying to remember the scent trails smelt by the bear, and pausing to listen for sounds of pursuit he told her of the message from across the Sea, which had prompted the Soul-Eaters to keep Wolf separate. Then he told her what he'd witnessed in the caves. The finding of the Door. The Soul-Eaters' plan for flooding the land with terror. The fire-opal.
Once again, Renn halted. 'The fire-opal? They've found the fire-opal?'
He stared at her. 'You know about it?'
'Well yes. But not much.'
'Why haven't you told me?'
'I never thought . . .' She hesitated. 'It's something you hear about in stories, if if you grow up in a clan.'
'Tell me now.'
She moved closer, and he felt her breath on his cheek. 'The fire-opal,' she whispered, 'is light from the eye of the Great Auroch. That's why the demons are drawn to it.'
He met her gaze, and in the fathomless black he saw two tiny, flickering torches. 'So whoever wields it,' he said, 'controls them.'
She nodded. 'As long as it touches neither earth nor stone, the demons are in thrall, and must do the bidding of the bearer.'
He remembered the crimson glow in the forest of stone. 'But it was so beautiful.'
'Evil can be beautiful,' said Renn with startling coldness. 'Didn't you know that?'
He was still trying to take it in. 'How old is it? When did it '
'No-one knows.'
'But now it's found,' he murmured.
She licked her lips. 'Who has it?'
'Eostra, the Eagle Owl Mage. But after they found the Door, she disappeared.'
They fell silent, listening to the flutter of bats overhead, and a distant trickle of water; wondering what else thronged the dark.
It was Torak who spoke first. 'Come on. We're nearly there.'
Again, Renn was puzzled. 'How do you know where to go?'
He hesitated. 'I just do.'
They climbed higher, and eventually reached a dank little cave where a dirty brown stream pooled before disappearing down an echoing hole. A birchbark pail stood beside it, with a wovenbark pouch containing a few scraps of mouldering cod. In a corner they found what appeared to be a pit, covered by a sturdy wattle screen weighted with rocks. Torak's heart raced. He knew he knew that Wolf was in the pit.
Handing the torch to Renn, he rolled the rocks away, and threw the screen aside.
Wolf lay in a tiny, filthy hole scarcely bigger than he was. He was painfully thin: the bones of his haunches jutted sharply. From his matted fur rose a stink of rottenness. He lay on his belly with his head on his paws, not moving at all, and for one terrible moment, Torak thought he was dead.
'Wolf!' he breathed.
The great silver head twitched but the amber eyes were dull.
'His muzzle,' whispered Renn, 'look at his muzzle!'
It was bound with a length of rawhide, cruelly tight.
Rage burned in Torak's breast. 'I'll fix that,' he said between his teeth. 'Give me your knife.'
Jumping into the pit, he cut the binding. 'Pack-brother,' he said in a shaky grunt-whine, 'it's me!'
Wolf's tail didn't even twitch.
'Torak,' Renn said uneasily.
'Pack-brother,' Torak said again, more urgently.
'Torak!' cried Renn. 'Get out!'
Wolf's lips drew back in a snarl, and he staggered to his feet. The instant before he sprang, Torak grabbed the edge of the pit and heaved himself up while Renn seized his parka and pulled with all her might. He shot out, and they shoved the screen and the rocks back on top just as Wolf leapt, hitting it with a thud.
Renn clamped both hands over her mouth.
Torak stared at her, aghast. 'He doesn't know me,' he said.
TWENTY-SEVEN.
Wolf leapt at the strange, half-grown tailless but the Den snapped shut, and he fell back onto the stone.