Lindskold, Jane [Firekeeper 05] Wolf Hunting

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distance, out on the waters in their boats. My kind does not ingle with humanity - and mingles very little with the
beasts."
"Ah ..." Blind Seer said. "Well, the ravens may be of sip there."
The Royal Wolf might have elucidated more of his thoughts, but at that moment Firekeeper re-entered the am.
She had shed her loincloth. Water streamed from her naked body and wet hair. She was strapping her leather knife belt
back around her waist, the blade in her hand, held away from any chance contact with damp.
Apparently, merely groping around with her hands in the water had not been sufficient. She had gone diving, and,
judging from what she held wrapped in the discarded loincloth, her efforts had not been without reward.
"Look at these," the wolf-woman said, dropping the bundled loincloth beside the figurines. It fell open to reveal
few more carved pieces of stone. "I need to dry off."
Plik reached for the first thing that came to hand. A male figure, clad in dress like, but not like that of the
Liglimom. He began to dry the stone against his coat, but stopped when his grey and brown hairs stuck to the stone.
Instead he reached for a piece of fabric.
Firekeeper returned almost as quickly as she had left, now wrapped in some of the unknown occupant's bedding.
Her hair, hastily toweled off to stop the worst of the dripping, stood out at odd, spiky angles. Plik thought for the first
time how odd it was that humans, alone among almost all the beasts, had hair that grew without limit. It certainly did
not seem to be a useful trait, and he was glad for his own shaggy coat.
Squatting, Firekeeper picked a small bit of broken stone from the wet heap she had just brought in. "I think this is
the head that goes with the other northern body. It is chipped but..."
She fitted head to body, and held the reassembled whole before Blind Seer. The blue-eyed wolf studied it with
thoughtful calm. Then, almost as an afterthought, Firekeeper handed the two pieces to Plik.
"A woman in northern attire," Plik said. "Do either of you know this woman as you did the other?"
Blind Seer replied, "I cannot say I see any resemblance to any we know in that face. The nose is gone for one. But
once again there are symbols etched into the base. One is that of House Gyrfalcon, the other that of the land of New
Kelvin. There is only one woman I know to whom that pairing would apply."
"Melina." Firekeeper's voice held a flat anger that sealed Plik's questions behind his teeth. "So I thought. Blind
Seer, I do not like this."
"Nor I," Blind Seer nosed the heap of stones. "Take these outside and ask Bitter and Lovable if they see anyone
they know among those sculpted here."
Firekeeper glanced at him. "You suspect?"
"I do, but I prefer not to say."
Firekeeper dropped the sheet where she stood. Apparently, she was dry enough for her comfort.
"I will go," she said. "Will you stay?"
"Someone should guard Plik."
Firekeeper nodded. "Well enough. Do not remain in here too long. More and more, I fear this is a place wherein
we should not linger."
Left alone with Blind Seer, Plik asked the questions he had held back until Firekeeper had taken her anger and
agitation away with her.
"This Melina ... Another northerner you know?"
"Yes. A woman who loved magic too much. She is dead now."
Plik waited, but no further details were forthcoming. He remembered how the one figure had been broken, the
other not.
"But this Queen Valora, she lives?"
"She lives. As far as we know, she lives."
Plik waited for more, and when nothing came set himself to work. He had bagged almost all the books. With their
northern aversion to magic, Firekeeper and Blind Seer had resisted his taking the brazier. The bedding was interesting.
He couldn't see a use for the basin in the water chamber. Neither the silver block, nor the light panels would come free
without damage. Then he remembered the chandelier in the entryway. rely they would not care if he took a stone or
two from , Over a century had passed since magic had been practiced, but Plik knew that sometimes an item could
retain the signature of the one who had made or used it. A light crystal was a long shot, but better than nothing. Blind
Seer dragged one of the bags of books forward. Pausing and running his tongue around his teeth, he watched as Plik
moved a chair over to beneath the chandelier.
"What are you doing?"
"I was going to ..." Plik then stopped, realizing something. He removed one of the crystals and held it where the
wolf could inspect it. "See anything here?"
Blind Seer sniffed, his ears laying back against his skull, his lips wrinkling back from some very impressive
fangs.
"I think I might. These are the same type of stone from which the figurines were made. These pieces are larger,:
then they would be."
Plik was inspecting the fixture. "There are a dozen or so crystals missing, mostly from the upper tier. Firekeeper
found, what? Five figurines? Six?"
"About that," the wolf agreed. "Either there are others, or not all the stonecutter's hunts came to good ends."
"I'd bet the latter," Plik said. "We've seen no cutting tools, so he may have had to use what was left to him."
Given his company, Plik did not say "magic," but from how Blind Seer's ears pressed even flatter, the wolf
understood.
"We need to take a sample," Plik said firmly, "and, I we cannot leave the brazier or the bowl. Those wiser than me
in the ways magic was practiced may learn something from them." They had both forgotten Powerful Tenderness and
Truth, for the pair had waited silently in the exterior darkness. Now Truth spoke.
"There are no omens indicating harm will come to you for doing this," she said, "but I will be the first to admit
that my sight is not what it once was."
Blind Seer gave a shuddering sigh. "Very well. You will have your way, Plik, but be quick about your collecting.
"
Plik was, and when they had taken all away, even Firekeeper's abandoned loincloth, even the wet bedding,
Powerful Tenderness stood out of the doorway. No one was surprised when it closed of its own accord, nor when pale
white light rippled across its surface, leaving the silver seamlessly melded into place once again.
"I felt that," Powerful Tenderness said, stooping to lift Truth. "Old magic, like in an amulet, but this was made to
renew itself."
"A great expenditure of power must have gone into that making," Plik agreed. "I wish I understood better what
this place is."
Truth, passive as a huge toy in Powerful Tenderness's arms, said softly, "A place for keeping in. A place for
keeping out. A place where the worlds meet - worlds that perhaps should not meet."
But when questioned, the jaguar claimed to have no idea what she had said. With this the thoroughly unsettled
band had to be content.
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