The Will of the Wolf Father

Eldrick’s head throbbed with each step he took. Elanari, still chained, led him gently down the worn track of the South Road. Eldrick would have laughed if the pain had allowed him to. Led like a child by his own slave. “Fenric is about”, that’s what his father would have said. “The Great Wolf is sowing mischief in the world.” And he would have hung a juniper branch over the door to fend off the wickedness of Fenric the Deceiver.

They had thrown him out of the Hind’s Heart like a common criminal. Someone had taken his crossbow in the scuffle and it was all he could do to hold onto Elanari and his cloak before they tossed him into the street. The inn keep, a fat Midlander, had taken his purse for “room repairs”. It seems the incident with the rubbing had started a small fire. Eldrick tried to explain that he had fallen asleep in bed with his pipe lit. He was not sure they had believed him but he left before they could call the constable and put him to the question.

His vision was beginning to clear but a mist clung to the corners of his eyes and he blinked rapidly trying to clear it away. The flash had burned his eyebrows and some of his hair had been singed but he could walk and it seemed that there would be no lasting damage. The land around him looked much the same as it had earlier in the journey though the thickets were growing farther and farther apart giving way to more grassland as they continued south. He missed the forests of his birth and despite his beleaguered state the thought that he was headed toward the tall pines and deep, cold lakes of his homeland cheered him.

A horse whickered nearby and Eldrick turned toward the sound. A dozen Golvi tribesmen sat astride their shaggy ponies fifty paces from where he stood. Horse bows decorated each saddle and long, curved, swords hung from every hip. The wind whipped up a skiff of snow and Elanari shivered next to him. As if her movement were a signal the riders advanced, kicking their ponies into a slow trot. They knew there was no hurry.

Eldrick cursed himself under his breath. He should have been more wary. There was no chance of escape now. The nearest thicket was nearly seventy paces off to his right, too far to outrun mounted archers. He doubted he could have made thirty paces in his condition and so he held his ground. They were close now. Leather and chain peaked from the folds of richly embroidered coats and dark eyes stared from below the rims of thickly furred hats. Twenty paces from where he stood they stopped a ragged line of men and horse flesh drawn across the South Road.

Two riders cantered to within ten paces of Eldrick and dismounted. They were of similar height, a hand shorter than Eldrick, and smelled strongly of smoke and horse. One man continued forward. Hard eyes regarded Eldrick from beneath the fur trimmed rim of his cap and his hand rested lightly on the pommel of his sword. Eldrick ventured a glance at Elanari standing next to him, fists on hips, chains gleaming dully under the muted suns, a shackled goddess waiting to pronounce judgment on the world.

The approaching rider stopped a spear’s length from Eldrick and smoothed his drooping mustaches before bending at the waist in a shallow bow. “I am Linu. I greet you in the name of the suns and the moon.” Eldrick bowed his head slightly and eased his footman’s hammer in its hanger. Linu waited expectantly for a reply and when he realized that none was forthcoming he nodded to himself and continued. “My brother Kona wishes to buy your woman.” Linu gestured to the Golvi standing behind him holding the ponies’ reins. “He wishes to know what you will take in trade.”

“Tell him she’s not for sale,” Eldrick tried to sound confident but anxiety strained his voice.

Linu turned to Kona and shouted a short phrase in Golvi. Kona spat back a word and Linu shrugged and turned to Eldrick. “He will fight you for her then.” Kona pulled a steel buckler from his back, lashed it securely to his forearm and drew his sword.

“Tell him that I do not wish to fight,” Eldrick said quickly not sure whether to draw his hammer or not. He settled by resting his palm on the cold, steel head.

Linu barked a laugh, turned and walked toward his mount. “Then he will kill you,” he called over his shoulder.

“A’ti’larili,” Eldrick whispered to Elanari, “Go from this place.” Eldrick dropped the chains that held her. Elanari backed away slowly, eyes flicking between the two combatants and the mounted Golvi which had moved in to form a wide circle around the two men.

Eldrick pulled the footman’s hammer free from its hanger and readied himself. The weapon had been his brother Caen’s. Eldrick had taken it up when Caen had been killed fighting for their lord, Collin Kingshammer, in the mountains east of Modara. It had been Eldrick’s twelfth summer, his last summer of boyhood. The ash haft was worn smooth from use and the head forged from good Skarnish steel still bore the craftsman’s engraving, a winter scene of a tiger standing over a freshly killed stag.

Kona circled warily, buckler at the ready, sword held high. Eldrick squinted in the gray light and shuffled in a slow circle trying to keep the dark-eyed swordsman in front of him. His head felt like a smith’s anvil on shoeing day and it took all of his concentration to focus on his opponent. Eldrick stumbled over a rut in the road and Kona wasted no time darting in with a deadly thrust. The armored swordsman skewered Eldrick cleanly through the chest. Eldrick's eyes widened in shock. He stiffened for a moment on the end of the sword before his body went limp. Kona heaved, pulling his blade freem, and Eldrick slid silently from the Golvi’s sword collapsing on the snowy ground in a heap. Elanari screamed, throwing herself at Kona, kicking him hard in the groin. Kona barely had time to groan before Elanari brought her knee up into his face as he doubled over. The others laughed as Kona wiped the blood from his broken nose and lashed out with his buckler smashing Elanari to the ground beside Eldrick’s motionless body. She lay stunned for a moment staring into Eldrick’s glassy eyes before Kona dragged her to her feet, wrapping the chains tightly around her shaking form.

Linu dismounted and handed Kona a handful of silver coins. Kona grunted and motioned to Eldrick’s body. Linu knelt and stood hefting the masterwork hammer in his gloved hands. It was a marvelous weapon. Linu spoke the Death Rites over Eldrick’s still form bidding the moon take his soul to its place of rest where Shan’Lak would welcome the fallen to his Garden and assign him his eternal task according to his deeds in life.

A wolf howled nearby. Linu mounted and fell into line behind his brothers as they journeyed home. He had done what he could for the dead warrior’s soul. His body would be left as a gift to the Wolf Father.