Lindskold, Jane [Firekeeper 02] Wolf's Head, Wolf's Heart

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.Even the white-tailed doe, wide eyes reflecting concerns that Firekeeper could only guess at, stomped a forehoof firmlythrice."Human Firekeeper," the raven said, sleeking his feathers then ruffling them again, "we have called you here not only toadd your report to that of the peregrine Elation, but so that we might set a charge upon you."Firekeeper frowned and would have spoken, but to her surprise the One Female nipped at her arm, warning her to silence."We want you," the raven continued, "to find these three objects and steal them from their current possessor.Bring them tous and we in our turn shall make certain that they are never again used."Firekeeper spoke, heedless of the snap of her mother's fangs against her bare skin."Steal them?" she asked, her voice high and clear with amazement."For you? What use do the Royal Beasts have forthings made by humans, for humans?"From seeming sleep the bear said in a voice thick with honey, "Because they were made by humans, for humans that iswhy we want them.You are a naked wolf.I accept the evidence of my ears even though it violates the evidence of my nose.Surely you know that nakedness is a human's greatest strength."Firekeeper stared at him."I cannot solve your riddle, wise bear."But the bear appeared to have drifted off to sleep again and it was the fox who replied."Because I am smaller than a wolf, I must dig hiding places through all my territory.Humans are even weaker than I andso they make dens out of the bones of the earth and the flesh of the trees.They make fangs from metal and from stone.Theywear our skins or those of our Cousins lest they freeze."Firekeeper nodded slowly."I begin to understand.And these objects what are they? I have heard humans speak of theold magic as a thing to fear, but I lack the knowledge to sort the stories a bard sings from the truth.""We owe the wolf cub a tale," the puma drawled from his rock."I will begin."Firekeeper sat, leaned back against Blind Seer, and opened both ears and heart to listen.Chapter XII"First of all, little wolfling," the puma began in a voice like velvet, "even the humans know themselves strangers tothis land.They call it the New World or the New Countries, as if they had created it by stumbling upon it, but like alllands this one has been here since the oceans suffered portions of the earth to rise above them."You may have also heard their tales of how these lands were uninhabited, ripe for settlement, eager for the axe andthe plow.This is not true.We Royal Beasts lived here and our tales say we have always lived here, though our talesmay miss some fragment of the truth."Suffice to say that we lived here long before the coming of the humans.Were it not for the tales the wing�d folk broughtback from their migrations, we might have thought that there were no other peoples than those we already knew."Firekeeper, who had been living and breathing politics since her departure with Earl Kestrel the previous spring, thoughtshe detected a ripple of uneasiness on the part of some of the Beasts.The doe folded back her ears and the boar grunted tohimself, but no one challenged the puma, so he continued his tale unchecked."When the humans first landed their boats on these shores it was at a place far from here.Some of our kind went to meetwith them and indeed for a time the humans behaved as visitors in our land.They agreed to the limits we set and we evenmade treaties after the human fashion."The bear shook himself and muttered sleepily, "They had not the wit to read the warnings in claw-marked trees or thenoses to scent other kinds of markings.""Nor," the puma continued, "did they seem able to share the land with others.I have my territory, but it is the territory ofthe wolves as well, and of birds and even of fish.Sometimes we challenge each other, but when a challenge is ended and aparticular conflict solved, we go back to sharing.Humans cannot even share land with each other and never with those theyfear."The doe spoke, taking up the thread of the tale with an enigmatic glance at the puma."And so, Firekeeper, the time came that the humans exceeded the amount of land the Royal Beasts had permitted them.More humans came across the oceans, wanting still more land.Some of the Beasts fought challenging the human right toclaim our territories as their own.And then we learned that they had claws sharper than the puma's, armies larger than packsof wolves.Lastly, we learned that these seemingly naked creatures had weapons more terrible than any we had been born to the power of what humans now call Old Country magic.""When first the humans came," the One Female said her storytelling recalled to Firekeeper the many stories she hadheard in her childhood "they were mostly sailors and merchants and farmers.Later, as the colonies grew and were foundedby many nations of the Old Country, the humans began to contest among themselves.Clearing away trees a hundred andmore years old is great labor.A beaver enjoys damming streams, but digging courses to carry water to fields would defy themost optimistic mole.You have seen the dens humans build, the trails they cut& None of this happens easily.Soon thenewcomers thought that it would be more efficient to take the first comers' lands from them as a bear might steal a youngwolf's kill."The bear opened both eyes and reared in astonished protest.The raven squawked, enjoying his role as meeting head, flapping wings that spanned nearly Firekeeper's full height whenspread [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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