Ghost Hunter by Michelle Paver, Geoff Taylor Read Free Book Online Page B

ice, setting them against the boulder to close in the space; Renn rousing a smoky, reluctant blaze. In the warmth, Wolf's fur began to steam, but his eyes remained incurious, their amber light quenched.

    Renn set a salmon cake by his muzzle. He ignored it. Alarmed, she tried to tempt him with a few dried lingonberries. He ignored them too. When Rip and Rek stalked in and stole them all, he didn't turn a whisker.

    "Thank the Spirit we found him in time," said Torak, dragging the door shut behind him. "He'll be all right once he's warmed up."

    Renn bit her lip. "Give me your medicine horn. I'll try a healing rite."

    Feeling Torak watching her, she shook earthblood into her palm and daubed some on Wolf's forehead, muttering a charm.

    "He'll get better now," said Torak. "Won't he? Renn?"

    She did not reply. Wolf was sick to his souls with grief. And from that you can die.

    As the moon rose, they got into their sleeping-sacks. Torak lay with one arm over Wolf, trying to comfort by his nearness, as in the past, Wolf had comforted him. At times, Wolf's tail stirred listlessly, but Renn could see

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    that he was giving up.

    Next day dawned icily clear, with no sign of a thaw. As light stole into the shelter, Renn saw with a clutch of terror that Wolf was no better.

    Torak saw it too, but said nothing. Renn guessed that he was staring into the abyss of a future without Wolf.

    Worried about their supplies, she said she would set some snares. Torak would not leave Wolf, so she went alone, not going far for fear of tokoroths. When she got back, she tried every healing rite she knew. Wolf submitted without so much as a twitch of his ears. He didn't care.

    "I've done all I can," Renn said at last.

    "There must be something more," said Torak.

    "If there is, I don't know it."

    "But he's better than when we found him. He could barely move--he's stronger now."

    "Torak. You know what's happening as well as I do." She saw the terror in his face.

    "But he's still got us," he insisted. "We're part of the pack, too."

    He was right. But whether that was enough to keep Wolf alive, Renn didn't know.

    As dusk came on, she went to check the snares. Her hunting luck had held; one held a frozen hare. She told herself this was a good sign, but on her way back, she saw

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    tracks. Small. Human. With claws.

    At camp, she found Torak standing outside. His lips moved in silent prayer, and for one terrible moment, she thought Wolf had died. Then she saw the lock of dark hair tied to a branch. Torak was offering part of himself to the Forest in return for Wolf's life.

    "Torak," she said gently, "you can't do this." She reached out to untie the offering, but Torak pushed her hand away.

    "What are you doing?" he cried. "It's for Wolf!"

    "I know, but think! Your hair contains part of your world-soul. There are tokoroths about. If they got hold of it, there's no knowing what they might do."

    In furious silence he watched her untie the hair and stow it in her medicine pouch. "You think Wolf's going to die, don't you?" he said. He made it sound like a betrayal.

    "If he doesn't want to live," she said in a low voice, "then no spells, or prayers, or offerings can make him."

    Angrily, Torak turned his back on her.

    Feeling shaky and sick, she stowed her catch in the shelter, and fed the fire, and stroked Wolf, and asked Rip and Rek to watch over him. Then she went to draw lines of power around the camp. To keep the tokoroths away.

    ***

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    Renn was right about Wolf, and Torak came close to hating her for it.

    But what he really hated was what was happening to his pack-brother. He hated that he couldn't stop it. He hated the eagle owl. Most of all, he hated Eostra.

    He slept fitfully, waking often, and always finding Wolf gazing at the fire. I'm here, pack-brother, Torak told him.

    I miss them, Wolf replied.

    I know. I'm here.

    Torak sank his fingers into the warm fur of his pack-brother's chest, and felt the beat of his heart. He