The Ascension Page 6

  “I know, I saw it too. But you can’t say anything, Gem.”

  Gem knew he was right. It would be dangerously presumptuous to tel the werewolves that she thought they were lying, especial y when they stil surrounded the pair of them. Al they could do was keep up the il usion of believing the werewolves, and hope that somewhere they would slip up enough to reveal what they real y knew.

  The werewolf leader didn’t give Gem much chance to think about how she might do that, though.

  chance to think about how she might do that, though.

  As though sensing the discomfort his announcement had caused, he stepped between Gem and Rio, throwing one gregarious arm around each of their shoulders.

  “I’m Mul igan. People cal me Mul . Come. It isn’t often we get to meet more of the Iron Claw tribe.

  We wil take you to our vil age. You wil be our guests.”

  Gem nodded her agreement. After al , it sounded like their best chance of having a bed for the night sometime soon. It also sounded like their best chance of finding out what this Mul knew about Henry Word, because, whatever the werewolf leader had said before, he definitely knew something.

  Chapter 8

  Along with Gem, Rio fol owed Mul through the woods, along a seemingly trackless route that the werewolf leader nevertheless picked his way along with ease. Things were not quite so facile for Rio, who had not grown up around forests, although Gem seem to adjust wel to it. Apparently she had been spending a lot of time in Anachronia’s Wickedly Woods. The rest of Mul ’s pack loped along beside them, flitting in and out of the trees in wolf and human forms while slipping between the two easily.

  “Tel me about your pack,” Rio said to Mul , as much as a way of slowing him down as anything.

  “We’re a smal offshoot of the Iron Claw tribe.” Rio looked over to Gem, who shrugged. She clearly hadn’t heard of them either. But then, why would she? Rio doubted that esoteric knowledge about werewolves cropped up a lot in her life, any more than it did in his. Of course, in his case, he was probably going to have to get used to it.

  “The Iron Claw tribe?” Rio repeated. Mul grinned affably.

  “That’s right. The tribe extends far beyond Myriad. They don’t fear steel and iron the way the fairies,” he almost spat the word, “do.”

  “So they work with machines?” Rio asked.

  “Like mechanics?”

  Mul nodded.

  “They are ingenious. They can even make ways between worlds. Portals… what is that on your shoulder?”

  The sudden question had an edge to it, and Rio felt the urge to turn away. The older man was too quick though, grabbing his arm so that he could peruse the tattoo on Rio’s shoulder better.

  “But this is their sign!” Mul exclaimed. “I knew you were from far off, but I had not noticed this. You say you are from East LA? Is that far beyond Myriad?”

  “Definitely.” Rio nodded. “At least, I think so. I couldn’t exactly give you a map reference. Let’s just say that it’s a pretty serious excursion.”

  “And you bear their mark.” Mul sounded thoughtful. “What about machines?”

  “Wel , I suppose I can use some machines, like phones and computers and things,” Rio said. It was true, even if some of the stuff in the house he shared with his grandmother and his brother was a b i t antiquated. Mul nodded. He seemed to be getting more animated by the second.

  “What about building ways between worlds?

  Can you do that?”

  “Um… not personal y, no.”

  “But Henry Word can,” Gem pointed out.

  “After al , that’s what Wordwick is, isn’t it?” Rio thought about it for a moment before nodding.

  “I guess so, yes.”

  Gem seemed to have a thought.

  “This Iron Claw tribe is from our world, isn’t it?”

  To Rio’s surprise, Mul nodded.

  “That’s right, and they promised to send their best warrior to help in the battle against the Winter Queen.” Mul pul ed Rio into a bear hug that seemed to bring forth a profuse wave of good wil in the other man. “Boys,” he yel ed to the surrounding wolves, “run on ahead and let them know we’l need a feast to welcome our brother and his friend. After al , it’s not every day people come to help us to victory!”

  A chorus of yaps from the verdant green of the forest suggested agreement, though Rio couldn’t see the wolves in question. As they ran on ahead, he and Gem kept walking in Mul ’s wake, letting the werewolf break their path through the forest. He werewolf break their path through the forest. He seemed to take a fairly whimsical approach to picking a route out, taking random twists and turns that made no sense to Rio, but pretty soon they reached the edge of the trees, and with it, a vil age.

  The vil age was large, constructed with low tents and log houses whose windows were covered with hides. Fire pits were already burning between them, giving off tremendous heat for the cooking to come as they forced huge hunks of wood into combustion. Women and children moved between the huts, some rushing forward to welcome the returning wolves, others working busily to help with the preparation of the feast.

  And what a feast it turned out to be. Where the Summer Court had built their celebration around the fruits its gardens had to offer, the werewolves clearly preferred meat as their staple diet. Rio found himself offered slabs of venison, perfectly cooked rabbit, and just about everything else that could be hunted through the forest. Just the compelling scent of the cooking had been enough to leave Rio ravenous, and now he picked meat from the bone with scrupulous care so as not to miss any.

  The celebrations kept going as the light started to fade, leaving the light from the fires to trace hot after images in the dusk. Rio saw Gem trapped among a cluster of smal children and wolf puppies, at least one of which seemed to be stalking her playful y. Rio rescued her from that, but then they both had to sit through a lengthy oration from Mul on how Rio had come to them and would be helping them. It seemed that the werewolf could be garrulous after al when he set his mind on it.

  Final y, after enough eating and drinking to satiate the strongest appetite, the celebration started to die down a little. Mul offered to show the two of them where they would be spending the night, and Rio accepted nearly as grateful y as Gem did.

  He even managed to keep up a semblance of that gratitude when he saw that they would be staying in a tent. After al , that was where most of the other people in the vil age lived.

  Mul wished them a good night and walked off, leaving Rio and Gem to look inside alone. The tent wasn’t particularly large, but there was enough space to contain warm furs along with the kind of easy to transport cot for a bed that you often found with people with a more nomadic lifestyle.

  Just one, though.

  Rio stood staring at it, unsure what to say next until Gem let out a laugh.

  “I guess Mul has a scurrilous sense of humor.”

  “Or he thinks that we’re a couple,” Rio suggested. Gem appeared to think about it for a moment.

  “Yes, I suppose he would. Out there, al the werewolves our age seemed to have wives and children running up to them as they came back. They must marry young here, like they do in Anachronia.”

  “Yes,” Rio said, and kept staring at the interior of the tent, “like in Anachronia. I missed you, afterwards, you know.”

  It took an effort to admit that, even to Gem.

  Especially to Gem.

  “I missed you too,” Gem said.

  “Things

  just

  weren’t

  the

  same

  after

  Anachronia.” Rio took the opportunity to take Gem’s hand. It felt so soft in his, so much more delicate than his own.

  his own.

  “I’l never forget al the times you stood by me there, Gem. People don’t do that for me, but you did.”

  “Anyone would have,” Gem pointed out, but Rio shook his head. That wasn’t true.

 
“You were the only one who risked her life coming back to help me with that trol at the roadblock. I owe you my life, Gem, though you’l probably be glad to know that I’ve been practicing my ruler words since.”

  “You

  have?”

  Gem

  sounded

  slightly

  disbelieving.

  “Sure. I mean, before, my solipsistic approach to life meant that I didn’t care about communicating with anyone much, so the whole exercise seemed pretty speculative and I let my vocabulary stagnate…”

  “Al right, al right.” Gem threw up her hands. “I believe you.”

  “Plus, nearly getting eaten tends to spur you on a little.”

  “There is that.” Gem grinned. “Of course, now that you know the words, there’s nothing to stop you getting into a good col ege.”

  Rio laughed at that. He couldn’t see that happening any time soon.

  “Yeah, right.”

  “I’m serious,” Gem insisted. “You could even try for the one I’m planning on going to, if you wanted.

  I bet that would be an incentive.”

  Rio had to admit that it would. Even so, there seemed to be one odd note in the whole thing, and he felt it was incumbent on him to point it out.

  “Gem, you’re the ruler of a magical kingdom, not to mention the daughter of one of the richest men I have heard of. Al that, and you stil want to go to col ege?”

  “Of course. I don’t want to stop learning, Rio.” There was another moment of silence, but this one wasn’t uncomfortable. On impulse, Rio reached out and kissed Gem, meeting her lips almost tenderly. Almost. They stayed like that for several seconds before Gem broke away.

  “So,” she said, a little too brightly, “how did you end up as a werewolf, anyway?”

  Rio hid the brief moment of disappointment he felt at that as wel as he could, though it took a strenuous effort to do it.

  “I guess… I guess it must have happened in Anachronia. We fought so many wolves then, and if one of them turned out to be a werewolf, it would only have taken a smal bite. At least, I hope that’s how it happened.”

  The alternative, that he might always have been this and simply remained oblivious to it, seemed a lot worse. What if Tomas was the same, for one thing? What would Rio do if it turned out that he had to look after his little brother as he went through the same terrifying first transformation that Rio had?

  “So you’ve changed before this?” Gem insisted. Rio shook his head.

  “That’s why I was so exhausted by it, I think.

  I’ve known that something has been happening to me, but I have been fighting it as best I could.”

  “You didn’t say anything about it back at the castle.”

  “What should I have said?” Rio demanded.

  “Sparks had just given his big speech about being fol owed by some fairy or other, and al I had to add was that I felt weird and was hairier than usual. You wouldn’t have listened.”

  “I would,” Gem insisted, but Rio knew better than that.

  “Gem, do you want to know why I final y lost control? I was angry. Al right, angry and probably a bit drunk, thanks to that fairy juice. That didn’t make things any better, but neither did watching you with Sparks, seeing you hang on every nuance of what he said and completely ignore me.”

  Gem stepped back from him.

  “So it’s somehow my fault that you’re a werewolf?”

  “That’s not what I mean.” Rio paused trying to work out exactly what he did mean. Why did everything he felt always turn so nebulous around Gem? Rio stepped forward, raising his hand to Gem’s cheek and tracing the soft smoothness of it.

  He wasn’t sure if he would get the chance again.

  “What I’m saying is that right now, you seem to be content feeling something for him and for me. It just isn’t fair, Gem. One of us always ends up on the outside looking in, and al too often, it’s me. I’m not saying that you need to choose between us right saying that you need to choose between us right now, but sooner or later you do need to choose. We can’t just go on like this.”

  Rio stopped, but in the silence that fol owed, Gem didn’t say anything. He’d gone too far, he knew it, but it had stil needed to be said. Suddenly, the interior of the tent seemed far too cramped for both of them.

  “I… I’l go and find somewhere else to sleep tonight.”

  Rio turned from Gem, stalking back into the vil age. He’d said that she needed to make a choice.

  Of course, the fear pumping through him as he walked away from the tent, eating at the back of his mind with every step, was that she already might have.

  Chapter 9

  Gem crept from the tent in the early light, having aborted her attempts to get back to sleep.

  There was no sign of Rio, and for the moment at least that seemed to Gem to be a good thing, because it meant that she could defer the moment when she would final y have to talk to him again. She stil didn’t have a clue what she was going to say when she did, so Rio’s continuing absence was a reprieve.

  Of course, it wasn’t a permanent solution, or even one likely to last beyond breakfast, but at least it gave Gem time to think. Not that al the time she’d had last night had helped much. With a sigh, Gem looked around until she found a group of werewolves eating the remains of the previous evening’s feast for breakfast. She joined them, savoring the taste of the cold meats and washing it down with cool water.

  Gem didn’t ask how the werewolves managed to find potable water out in the woods. She was just grateful for the cool taste of it, which seemed to wash away the last of her sleepiness.

  Gem decided then that it was probably time to face up to the conversation she needed to have with Rio, and left the group to look for him. There didn’t seem to be any sign of him, or indeed of most of the other young men. After looking for a while, she final y asked one of the women of the tribe, a beautiful young woman with flame-red hair, if she had seen them.

  “They went out to hunt at first light. They won’t be back for hours yet.”

  Gem hadn’t considered the thought that maybe Rio might want to avoid her too this morning, but that seemed to be just what he was doing. The female werewolf gave her a sanguine smile.

  “Some of us saw that your man didn’t stay in the same tent as you. You had an argument?”

  “It’s complicated,” Gem said, “and Rio isn’t…

  if I say that it’s complicated again wil that make me sound stupid?”

  “No. It usual y is, with men. They can be so…

  sophomoric sometimes, can’t they? I’m Nina.”

  “Gem.”

  Gem found herself walking with the werewolf as she wandered over to one of the fire pits and started rebuilding it.

  “That’s the problem with parties,” Nina said.

  “They always leave such a mess. Have you thought about what you’l do today? The hunters won’t be back for a while, and you don’t strike me as the sort for a sedentary life.”

  “I don’t know,” Gem admitted. “We’re supposed to be looking for someone. I suppose I might ask around about him.”

  “Who are you looking for?”

  Gem explained about Henry Word and everything that had happened. Just because Mul igan either hadn’t heard anything or wasn’t wil ing to share it, that didn’t mean Gem might not be able to find the information elsewhere. She just had to be persistent.

  “I haven’t heard of anyone like that,” Nina said, and Gem found that she believed her. “I suppose someone else might have. If you get bored, seek me out. I’m looking after a few of the cubs today, and they always find new ruses to make life interesting.”

  Gem could just imagine the sort of trouble smal children might get themselves into if they could also turn into wolves. Even so, she said that she might, before setting off on a rough circuit of the vil age, asking everyone she met if they had seen anything of her father. None of them seemed to have, and as Gem found her
self starting to run short of and as Gem found herself starting to run short of ideas, the task grew more onerous. She had assumed that people would know something, but now Gem suspected otherwise or they just did not trust to tel anything yet.

  In the end, she decided to seek Nina and her col ection of cubs out before the series of succinct rejections wore her down any further. Gem found her sitting with a couple of other werewolf women, watching over a cluster of nearly a dozen children and wolf pups. One of the latter ran up to Gem, growling softly before her. Nina stepped forward to pick it up and put it back with the others.

  “Now Serrin, what have I said about growling at people? He’s just trying to get you to play,” Nina added softly. “Come over and I’l introduce you to the others.”

  “The others” turned out to be a dark-haired young woman of about Nina’s age, whom Nina introduced as Sophie, and an older woman with greying hair cal ed Petra. Between them, they watched over the children indulgently, sitting on a fal en log and keeping an eye on them even as a couple made inept attempts to leap on them. Those only resulted in them buffeting against one another as the adults moved just enough to get out of the way. The older woman, Petra, laughed at it.

  “You’re too noisy,” she insisted. “Noisy wolves don’t catch lunch. They are lunch.” It sounded to Gem like a maxim that got repeated at lot, though it didn’t seem to do much for the ingenuous attempts of the cubs to catch one another.

  “Gem’s from the world of the Iron Claw clan,” Nina said once the little ones were ful y occupied.

  “Is she?” Sophie asked. The dark-haired werewolf seemed impressed. For her part, Gem found herself shaking her head as she sat down on the edge of the log.

  “I stil can’t believe that people here have heard of my world.”

  “Why not?” Nina asked. “There are lots of the Iron Claw tribe there, you know. They do a lot to keep your world safe.”

  “They do?” Gem could imagine how she had to sound.

  “Of course, girl,” Petra put in from further over.

  “Why do you think your world isn’t overrun with fairy folk? Our kind are their enemies, and we guard those around us wel .”