Secrets of the Wolves Read Online Free PDF Page B

doing so later and cleaning up the mess you leave behind.”
    She raised her chin to Zorindru. “She must meet all of the conditions, Zorindru, or you will have your challenge.” Her gaze, when it returned to me, was sly. “We will see how things work when you really spend time with your humans.”
    She shook her head hard, then turned and strode out of the clearing, followed by the four Greatwolves who had stood with her against Zorindru. I was watching Zorindru’s face when I heard an angry yelp and turned to see a stone bounce off Milsindra’s rump. She snarled up into the trees where Tlitoo stood preening his wings. He cocked his head at Milsindra. She growled, but when Tlitoo picked up another stone, she stalked off into the woods.

    It seemed that even the trees breathed a sigh of relief when the angry Greatwolves left the clearing. My legs decided they’d held me up long enough. I sat down hard.
    “What was that about?” Rissa asked, staring after the Greatwolves. “Even Milsindra is not usually as bad-tempered as that.”
    Frandra stretched and stalked over to a pine stump we used as a lookout spot and leapt upon it. “It’s about your youngwolf not knowing when to follow orders,” the Greatwolf said. “I thought you taught your pups better, Rissa.”
    Zorindru spoke before Rissa could respond to Frandra’s insult. “Milsindra and Kivdru would have caused trouble sooner or later. Still, you should have waited for us, Kaala. Had I not been nearby, Milsindra could have caused your pack real harm. She could have killed your packmates.”
    “I heard that you’d changed your minds,” I said.
    Unexpectedly, Zorindru opened his jaws in a huge smile. “Yes,” he said, “the ravens will have told you that. You would think that I would have learned by now to look in the trees before I discuss anything I wish to keep secret.”
    Tlitoo left his perch and glided down to land in front of me. He stood facing Zorindru, his head just below my chin. It was where he stood when he thought I needed defending.
    “It is what you said,” he quorked.
    “Yes, it is,” the Greatwolf answered. “You did not, however, wait to hear all that we said. Your flight was too hasty.”
    Tlitoo croaked an insult. Zorindru shot him the same quelling glance that had so intimidated Milsindra. Tlitoo blinked back at him, unimpressed. The old Greatwolf laughed.
    “Very well,” he said. “I will tell you what you would have learned if Kaala had come to us this morning as she should have.”
    Zorindru stretched, and I heard his old joints pop. Ruuqo and Rissa quickly stepped forward to guide him to the best resting spot in our gathering place, a soft mound of earth next to the pine stump Frandra had claimed. Frandra quickly jumped down from the stump so that she would not be standing above her leaderwolf. She sat to one side of Zorindru, and Jandru stood on the other, as if protecting the ancient Greatwolf. Tlitoo took over Frandra’s perch on the stump. When the rest of us had settled uneasily around them, Zorindru watched me for a long moment, and then spoke.
    “What I did not know at autumn’s end, Kaala, was the effect your actions would have on the Greatwolf council. When you stopped the battle at Tall Grass, and when I convinced the council to give you a year to keep the peace, it helped Milsindra win more wolves over to her side.”
    When he hesitated, Jandru spoke up. I couldn’t miss the resentment in his voice.
    “Most on the council already believed you smallwolves incapable of taking on responsibility for the humans. They believe that you are certain to fail, and that when you do, it will be disastrous for wolfkind.”
    “You promised!” Tlitoo said, interrupting the Greatwolf. “You promised you would give the smallwolves one year. Now you renege. Now you change your minds. It is not fair.
    “What Gruntwolves say and
    What they do are not the same
    Always, they tell lies!”
     
    Jandru and Frandra growled up at