Page 82 of Moonless

“He’ll smell me. We have to go.”

Rauk’s arm lifts from my waist, and I back up with him, staying behind the leaves, until Mel’s white hair disappears. I have to look at the ground to put my feet where Rauk points.

At the first low hollow Rauk crouches, and I climb onto his back with my right arm across his shoulders while he catches my legs. I hate this.

“Go.”

He runs. At least the field’s still there.

I look back until there’s nothing but trees.

“He’ll know it was me.”

Rauk keeps moving, his breaths rough beneath my arm.

“I still smell like me. Under your fur and all that smoke, I still smell like me, and he’ll know.”

He takes a narrower turn between two stands of pine. “He has his family.”

“He’ll get them somewhere safe. Then he’ll bring Axan.” I have to duck against his neck to clear a branch.

“They’ll come looking, Rauk. He won’t let this go.”

He runs harder, and I grip his shoulder to stay in place.

His smoke has rubbed into my shirt. Birdie was on Keer’s hip, with one hand caught in his collar. He brought all of them. A month ago he’d have sent somebody with Mel and stayed home with the pups. I could’ve called from there. I could’ve made him turn that last little bit.

Rauk’s left hand shifts beneath my leg.

I look ahead.

We stop for water where the trees grow thick around a narrow stream. He sets me down and bends over his knees while I kneel at the bank, and my right hand shakes when I cup it, spilling most of the first mouthful.

Again with the shaking.

He stays bent until I’ve finished, then drinks and looks back the way we came.

I listen too. I can hear water, his breathing, and a bird somewhere above us, and Keer could be right behind us and that’s all I’d hear.

He turns around. “Ready?”

I stand, tucking the knife case farther under the belt so it won’t catch when he lifts me.

He walks the next steep climb, and I keep my questions to myself until his breathing settles, and at the top he starts running again.

The sun’s low by the time the river below his mountain comes into view, and he sets me down again beneath the last slope. I eat the piece of dried meat he gives me while he stands with a hand against the rock and his ears turned downhill.

Keer could be on our trail by now, and we’re standing here chewing. I finish the meat before he’s ready to carry me again.

I hang on tight for the last climb and try to keep the weight off my bad shoulder. He carries me through the hanging growth and lowers me just inside the entrance, where my legs nearly fold when he lets go.

Stand up.

I brace against the wall while he turns back to listen, and the slope beyond him is empty, for whatever that’s worth when I can’t see past the trees.

He lifts the slab into place, cutting off the last of the light. So we’re back to that.

He doesn’t even let go of the slab. “You ran toward wolves!”