Wolfsangel

44

No drumming, no chanting. The remaining Noaidis were numb, slumped on the bare rock as if still entranced. Already the birds were descending, ravens and crows dropping from the sky, their cracked cries sounding something like delight.

Noaidis helped Feileg pile more stones over the boulder to ensure that the beast could not escape. Adisla watched helpless, her leg now agony after the initial shock had subsided. When a Noaidi approached her, Feileg snarled at the man, but he had a small bag and made a sign for the wolfman to be calm. Feileg allowed him to draw the arrow and dress the wound. Adisla was beyond screaming as the arrow was withdrawn and sat vacantly on the rock. The Noaidi pushed water to her lips, gave her reindeer meat and flatbread while Feileg returned to pile on more stones.

Feileg could hear the screams from the shaft. He wondered how long the creature’s resolve to stay in the pit would last. It had food in the shape of the sorcerer. Would that feed its growth? Would it become strong enough to get out? Never mind. They would be long gone by then.

When they could get no more stones on the pile, Feileg rejoined Adisla and put his arms around her. She returned his embrace but not as warmly as he wanted. She was grateful to him and pleased they were both alive, but she did not love him. He had heard what she had said to Vali and knew she was prepared to die for her prince. Despite herself, tears came into Adisla’s eyes. Feileg stroked her hair. He had vowed to kill Vali because the prince had captured him and taken him from a wolf’s life. But for that moment in the cave, knowing what it was to love someone and to feel that love in his arms, Feileg should have regarded him as his saviour.

‘We will free him.’

‘How?’

‘I told you I have many treasures in the hills, and I spoke the truth. I will present them to the witches, put myself at their mercy and ask them to save your prince.’

‘And then?’

‘I am a wolf,’ he said, ‘and have had enough of tomorrow and yesterday. I will die or I will not. I will go to the hills or I will not. I will exist or I will not.’

She thought of Vali looking up at her from the pit. She had seen something of the man in those strange green eyes. She loved and admired him more than ever when she thought of his courage. He had allowed them to seal him in. He, unlike her, had the bravery to die. But then she looked at Feileg, so like him in appearance, so different in personality. In some ways it was as if the gods had answered her prayers, given her a low-born man in Vali’s image — someone she could marry, perhaps could love.

‘I will follow you,’ said Adisla.

‘There is no need. The witches are not always merciful.’

‘More merciful than the fates?’ said Adisla. She looked at him and squeezed his hand.

‘There will be great danger,’ he said.

‘Feileg, I’ll follow you because you came here for me and you saved me. I see that you are the first among men. I’ll follow you because I want my Vali back, but I’ll follow you for baser reasons too. I have no home to go to. My mother is dead in the most awful way and I can never look on that place again without that memory. If I cannot be with him, I’ll be with you. And if I cannot be with you then my life is over.’

Feileg now knew that he would have what he so desperately wanted if only the prince died in that hole. All he had to do was fetch bigger and bigger rocks, perhaps even persuade the Noaidis to bring some over by boat, and make sure that thing was sealed in until it starved.

Adisla had tears on her face as her eyes turned to the great heap of stones over the shaft.

‘Come on,’ said Feileg. ‘We will go to the witches.’