The Dog Master Read Online Free PDF

venture down the steep ice to find out what had happened. They stopped, panting, nuzzling each other for reassurance.
    Eventually they raised their snouts, picking up a new scent. Meat, plus a living animal of some kind. They turned to follow their noses.
    As for their prey: the elk landed with cruel impact on some rocks midway toward the base of the cliff, breaking her spine, but the spray of intensely cold water from the glacier numbed her, and the pain didn’t register as fully as it would have otherwise. If anything, she felt relief—she had evaded the wolves. Now she was in landscape more alien than anything she’d ever encountered, slippery white ice coating everything, a constant rain of meltwater pelting her. Immobilized, peering without grasp at the frozen sheet, she was surprised to see, staring blankly back, another elk, an older female, shallowly buried beneath a layer of ice. Other animals had come this way before, perhaps for the same reason, and had fallen the same way.
    A herd animal, the elk drew comfort from the presence of another. The pain had faded, the wolves were gone, and she felt sleepy and warm. In a way, she had never known such peace.
    *   *   *
    Silex gasped. After so many days of tracking them, the three wolves were suddenly on the trail in front of him, less than fifty paces away.
    Breathing raggedly, his mouth dry, he began fumbling with the sling tying the deer meat around his shoulders. The wolves trotted forward, their advance casual, their looks sly. This animal did not look dangerous, and it was alone. And the juveniles detected something else—the tantalizing odor of blood and meat—this, and their inexperience, led them to be incautious.
    They weren’t experienced enough to encircle, to outflank. Instead they bunched together on the path, as if they were meeting other wolves instead of prey. When they were less than a dozen paces away, they stopped, their boldness evaporating as they warily eyed the spear pointing at them.
    â€œIt has been a good year. You have led us to good hunting,” Silex greeted, his voice quavering. “Soon the summer will withdraw and you will lead us through the snows to where the herds winter. We thank you.”
    The males had no reaction to his voice—they sniffed and paced and drew ever closer, working up their nerve to attack. They were both wary and eager, enticed by the smell of the blood hammering through the human’s veins. Silex wanted to drop the meat and run, but it was important, now, to stand his ground. It was not a tribute if he fled.
    â€œPlease,” he whispered. He pictured the wolves setting upon him, tearing him open with their teeth, and he nearly could not breathe.
    When Silex glanced at the enormous female he was shocked to see her staring him full in the face. No wolf ever did that—their glances were always furtive and clever, never telegraphing their interest.
    She was by far the biggest wolf he had ever seen. She was mostly grey, black, and white, but on her forehead was a white mark that looked remarkably like a handprint of a man.
    Still staring, the she-wolf took several steps forward, her nose twitching. Silex realized it was to this wolf that he should offer tribute. Could he kneel down and present the gift with humility? No, he was not that brave, so he gripped the foreleg and swung it, tossing it half the distance to the female.
    The males shied back at the sudden movement, but the female simply regarded the offering calmly as it dropped to earth in front of her, as if she had been expecting it. She bent to feed, but not before giving Silex one last, contemplative look.
    Silex backed away slowly, but the wolves were ignoring him now, content to tear into the reindeer meat. He kept his eyes on them until he was far enough away that they were mere brown specks on the trail, then he turned and headed back down the path in a near run, elated.
    He would tell his father