The Steele Wolf (Iron Butterfly #2)

The Steele Wolf (Iron Butterfly #2) Page 5

Hold on! Faraway warned as he ran towards the man and rose up on his hind legs, striking out with deadly hooves. The man was so shocked he dropped his sword and fell onto his back as he tried to duck the hooves. The grey wolf lunged for his neck and I heard snarling and a gurgled scream that quickly ended as his throat was torn out.

I knelt by my father who had fallen on the ground and was pale as death. Pressing my ear to his bloody chest I tried to listen for the life giving rhythm to his heart. Not being able to hear it, I grabbed a leaf and held it to his mouth. The faint flutter of the leaf told me he was alive.

“Oh, what do I do? What do I do?” I cried, the tears freely falling, as I heard a blood curdled cough erupt from his large chest. “I don’t know how to do this!”  I fervently wished that I had taken a healing course.

“Bearen, I don’t think I can take the pain and heal you at the same time. In fact, I’m not even sure I can heal you.”

Odin came over and leaned down to look at Bearen’s wounds. “It’s pierced a lung, Thalia.” He looked at me gravely. “There’s nothing we can do now but pray that his spirit finds peace.”

“No! I just got him back,” I glared angrily. “I won’t let him die.” Reaching forward, I gritted my teeth and pulled out the arrow that was piercing his lung.

“THALIA! What are you doing? You are just killing him faster!”

Placing my hands over the wound, I tried to open my senses and follow the instructions Healer Prentiss had given to the students when they healed my leg. I could see the hole in his lung and the blood flowing in, filling it up. I reached deep inside myself for the power to heal it and found none. What?

“NO, NO, NO, NO!” I chanted.

FARAWAY! HELP! I mentally called. I felt a rush of power, his, and I sent it towards the hole, siphoning the blood out and at the same time encouraging his lungs to keep breathing. Faraway was giving me his strength. I focused the energy into the surrounding tissues and encouraged them to reknit and grow. A grunt and cough erupted from my father, as sweat beaded off his forehead. He gritted his teeth in pain.

“I’m so sorry, Father,” I tried to reassure him. The tissue was healing, but very slowly. I didn’t think my father had that much time, and I felt myself begin to panic when another wave of power washed over me and I felt a cold nose press into my shoulder. Without looking I knew it was the wolf. I was drained from vision searching and my arrow stunt from earlier and I was using all of Faraway’s strength to do the healing, so I took what the wolf was willing to give, pulling that power into the healing process. The lung reknit itself faster and I was able to quickly heal any other damage.  Before moving on to the second arrow, I released his lungs and watched him breathe on his own for a minute or so.

Odin’s eyes had gone wide and his face turned grey when he saw what I was doing. My hands trembling in exhaustion, I reached for the second arrow, but he stopped me.

“Thalia, I wouldn’t have believed it if I didn’t see it for myself. I will do it.” His strong hands pulled out the arrow from Bearen’s shoulder, who grunted in pain. Desperately wishing that I had Joss’s abilities, I did what I could to heal the shoulder wound, albeit slower this time.

When I was done, and my father was breathing on his own and seemed fine except for the pain. I leaned down and rested my head on his large chest and cried.

I cried for what I had almost lost, realizing that my heart remembered my father even if my mind didn’t. My tears made my father’s vest damp with their wetness, and the smell of dried blood tickled my nose, but neither one of us moved. I knew he was well because I could, in this position, listen to the beating of his heart and I prayed a prayer of protection over him. When I felt a light touch on my head, I almost moved, but the touch began to stroke the back of my hair and I sighed in relief, as my father tried to comfort me as I comforted him.

Chapter 3

We stayed the night. My skin crawled as I tried to help with the cleanup. Odin and Fenri kept shooing me away and telling me to watch over Bearen, who was on the mend but just tired and sore. After all, the healing process was painful. I wasn’t talented at taking away pain, and I myself felt drained and sluggish. So after numerous requests, I collapsed on the ground and stared at the bonfire that lit up the night sky.

The smell of the dead burning made me want to retch, so I pulled a spare piece of cloth and tied it around my face.  Odin had counted thirteen bodies, and saw the tracks of at least two that had escaped back into the forest.

“Well, Thalia, my girl,” he had said to me earlier. “It didn’t look good for us. Fifteen to six were not good odds.”

“Seven.  Fifteen to seven,” I countered, raising my eyebrow at him, daring him to dispute me.

“Aye, girl,” he chuckled. “Fifteen to seven, and they had the high ground advantage and an archer. We would have been hard put to come out on top without more casualties.” Odin solemnly looked past the bonfire to the wrapped body of Forsk that was slung over one of the horses.

Aldo had gone on ahead and brought him back to camp. He would be brought back to the village and his body given to his family.

A sad howl filled the night, which made Odin jump and curse. “Darn wolves,” he swore. “They are what tipped the scale in our favor, and I’m grateful, for if it weren’t for them we wouldn’t have made it. But why do they continue to hang around?” He walked away and picked up a stick and threw it into the woods, screaming.

The wolves spooked Odin and many of my clansmen.  They wouldn’t understand that they were there because I asked them to stay and guard us. I was already getting strange looks from Eviir, Gotte, and Hemi, who were kept in the dark about what I had done to heal Bearen. They knew something had happened, because they saw him go down, but no one wanted to voice aloud any speculation. Because what I had done, no matter how good, or how right it was, went against everything they believed in. I knew deep down that it was too soon to tell them about the wolves.

Bearen was propped up against a stump and was staring into the large bonfire. He hadn’t spoken since I healed him and I wasn’t yet ready to address the situation either. I was a coward. I also hadn’t seen to the other small injuries of my clansmen. They set to bandaging and stitching up each other’s wounds with practiced ease. Thankfully, they were only light flesh wounds.

The men had stripped down anything of value from the dead bodies and found nothing to signify who they were or what clan they were from. They could have just been a band of mountain bandits, but Fenri didn’t think so.

“We came this way four days ago, and saw no sign of bandits. We don’t tolerate them on our lands. Most people know better than to trespass. This was something else.”

He was right. I had to agree. But that was hours ago, and now all I wanted to do was sleep and I felt my eyes start to droop when I felt another touch in my mind.

Nothing’s out here but rabbits. Want to chase rabbits. Rabbit is good.

I felt my mouth start to drool at the thought of eating rabbit, but the flavor that came to my mind and mouth was not cooked rabbit, but raw and bloody. I coughed to try and clear the taste out of my mouth. That was weird. I can usually see through Faraway’s eyes if I wanted to, and we can sense each other’s feelings, but this was the first time I had shared taste. And with the wolf, no less.