The Dog Master by W. Bruce Cameron Read Free Book Online Page A

need a hunt master. Hardy is the best we have ever had.”
    â€œBut someday,” Calli argued. “Is it not a natural progression, from spear master to hunt master?”
    â€œWell maybe.”
    â€œYou should be hunt master,” Calli declared glowingly.
    Urs allowed himself a small smile, and Calli felt her affections for him soar. A thought he had apparently entertained only in his mind was revealing itself to her in that smile.
    â€œWhat would you do, as hunt master?” Calli probed.
    Urs looked at her eagerly. “We need to send the stalkers back out. That is what they are for. They split from the hunt and search for prey and then return to tell the spearmen. It is how the Kindred have always hunted.”
    â€œI do not understand what you are saying. ‘Back out’?”
    Urs’s expression turned grim. “We know that the stalkers who vanished two summers ago were taken by the Valley Cohort. Hardy is afraid to send anyone out, now. We stay together as a group. When we do manage to spear prey, Hardy releases the stalkers to pursue and club the animal, but only as a full body of men.”
    â€œThat makes sense to me.” Calli nodded. “If the Cohort is out there, we should not risk another encounter.”
    â€œYou are telling me how to hunt?” Urs’s eyebrows were arched.
    Calli regarded him, reading his defensive reaction perfectly. “I am not telling you, Urs. Of course you know better,” she placated. “I am just saying I am afraid of the Cohort.”
    â€œHunting is not going well. We need to send the men out to stalk.”
    â€œDo the men of the hunt agree with you?”
    â€œSome do. Most do. But Hardy says it is not worth the risk.”
    â€œThe women’s council has its own disagreements,” Calli said after a pause. “Everyone despises Albi as council mother. We all wish we had an excuse to vote her out.”
    â€œReally?” Urs stopped and stared at her. “Because that would solve everything.”
    â€œI am not sure I understand,” Calli replied slowly.
    â€œYou must come up with a way to get the council to get rid of Albi as council mother. Elect someone reasonable, someone who will endorse our marriage.”
    Urs’s expression was so optimistic that Calli wanted to hug him. “Oh Urs, for men it is all so simple: if it is hunt business, any member of the hunt can raise an issue.”
    â€œWell, the hunt master is the decider,” Urs corrected.
    â€œYes, but anyone can pronounce their opinion without fear of retribution. The women’s council, though, is … hushed. Albi’s job is to put to voice our consensus, but often she suppresses discussion. You think that if a majority of women want Albi out, she would be out. I understand that is how it might work for the hunt, but for us that is so, so far from the case. You just do not understand about Albi,” Calli said sadly.
    â€œUnderstand what?” came a loud voice from behind them. They turned, startled, and there, of course, her hands on her hips and a suspicious scowl on her face, was Albi.
    Year Nineteen
    The big mother-wolf opened her eyes and suspiciously regarded the man who had been feeding her. He was approaching her at a crawl. There was fear on his breath and an earthen smell, wet and pungent, coming from his hands. The animal skin he carried, into which he often reached for food to give her, lent a delicious aroma of freshly killed meat to the mixture.
    He halted near to her, so near that with a single lunge she could close her jaws on his throat. And, for a moment, her instincts told her to do this, to protect her pups from this human’s encroachment. She drew her lips back from her teeth and the man inhaled audibly, frozen in place.
    After a time, though, the mother-wolf’s alarm receded. When he resumed his motion, she did not react, but just regarded him drowsily as he made his