Wolves of the Calla

splashed them from the rain barrel. Standing in the barn doorway was Zalman, Zalia's very own brother. Almost seven feet tall was he, big as Lord Perth, tall as Andy, and as empty of face as the girl. A strapping young man watching a strapping young woman with her breasts out on show like that might well have been sporting a bulge in his pants, but there was none in Zally's. Nor ever would be. He was roont.

She turned back to Tian. They looked at each other, a man and a woman not roont, but only because of dumb luck. So far as either of them knew, it could just as easily have been Zal and Tia standing in here and watching Tian and Zalia out by the barn, grown large of body and empty of head.

'Of course I see,' she told him. 'Does thee think I'm blind?'

'Don't it sometimes make you wish you was?' he asked. 'To see em so?'

Zalia made no reply.

'Not right, woman. Not right. Never has been.'

'But since time out of mind-'

'Bugger time out of mind, too!' Tian cried. 'They's children! Our children!'

'Would you have the Wolves burn the Calla to the ground, then? Leave us all with our throats cut and our eyes fried in our heads? For it's happened before. You know it has.'

He knew, all right. But who would put matters right, if not the men of Calla Bryn Sturgis? Certainly there were no authorities, not so much as a sheriff, either high or low, in these parts. They were on their own. Even long ago, when the Inner Baronies had glowed with light and order, they would have seen precious little sign of that bright-life out here. These were the borderlands, and life here had always been strange. Then the Wolves had begun coming and life had grown far stranger. How long ago had it begun? How many generations? Tian didn't know, but he thought 'time out of mind' was too long. The Wolves had been raiding into the borderland villages when Gran-pere was young, certainly-Gran-pere's own twin had been snatched as the two of them sat in the dust, playing at jacks. 'Dey tuk im cos he closer to de rud,' Gran-pere had told them (many times). 'If Ah come out of dee house firs' dat day, Ah be closer to de rud an dey take me, God is good!' Then he would kiss the wooden crucie the Old Fella had given him, hold it skyward, and cackle.

Yet Gran-pere's own Gran-pere had told him that in his day-which would have been five or perhaps even six generations back, if Tian's calculations were right-there had been no Wolves sweeping out of Thunderclap on their gray horses. Once Tian had asked the old man, And did all but a few of the babbies come in twos back then? Did any of the old folks ever say? Gran-pere had considered this long, then had shaken his head. No, he couldn't remember what the old-timers had ever said about that, one way or the other.

Zalia was looking at him anxiously. 'Ye're in no mood to think of such things, I wot, after spending your morning in that rocky patch.'

'My frame of mind won't change when they come or who they'll take,' Tian said.

'Ye'll not do something foolish, T, will you? Something foolish and all on your own?'

'No,' he said.

No hesitation. He's already begun to lay plans, she thought, and allowed herself a thin gleam of hope. Surely there was nothing Tian could do against the Wolves-nothing any of them could do-but he was far from stupid. In a farming village where most men could think no further than planting the next row (or planting their stiffies on Saturday night), Tian was something of an anomaly. He could write his name; he could write words that said I LOVE YOU ZALLIE (and had won her by so doing, even though she couldn't read them there in the dirt); he could add the numbers and also call them back from big to small, which he said was even more difficult. Was it possible…?

Part of her didn't want to complete that thought. And yet, when she turned her mother's heart and mind to Hedda and Heddon, Lia and Lyman, part of her wanted to hope. 'What, then?'

'I'm going to call a Town Gathering. I'll send the feather.'

'Will they come?'

'When they hear this news, every man in the Calla will turn up. We'll talk it over. Mayhap they'll want to fight this time. Mayhap they'll want to fight for their babbies.'

From behind them, a cracked old voice said, ' 'Ye foolish killin.'

Tian and Zalia turned, hand in hand, to look at the old man. Killin a harsh word, but Tian judged the old man was looking at them-at him -kindly enough.

'Why d'ye say so, Gran-pere?' he asked.

'Men'd go forrad from such a meetin as ye plan on and burn down half the countryside, were dey in drink,' the old man said. 'Men sober-' He shook his head. ''Ye'll never move such.'

'I think this time you might be wrong, Grand-pere,' Tian said, and Zalia felt cold terror squeeze her heart. And yet buried in it, warm, was that hope.

THREE

There would have been less grumbling it he'd given them at least one night's notice, but Tian wouldn't do that. They didn't have the luxury of even a single fallow night. And when he sent Heddon and Hedda with the feather, they did come. He'd known they would.

The Calla's Gathering Hall stood at the end of the village high street, beyond Took's General Store and eater-corner from the town Pavilion, which was now dusty and dark with the end of summer. Soon enough the ladies of the town would begin decorating it for Reap, but they'd never made a lot of Reaping Night in the Calla. The children always enjoyed seeing the stuffy-guys thrown on the fire, of course, and the bolder fellows would steal their share of kisses as the night itself approached, but that was about it. Your fripperies and festivals might do for Mid-World and In-World, but this was neither. Out here they had more serious things to worry about than Reaping Day Fairs.

Things like the Wolves.

Some of the men-from the well-to-do farms to the west and the three ranches to the south-came on horses. Eisenhart of the Rocking B even brought his rifle and wore crisscrossed ammunition bandoliers. (Tian Jaffords doubted if the bullets were any good, or that the ancient rifle would fire even if some of them were.) A delegation of the Manni-folk came crammed into a bucka drawn by a pair of mutie geldings-one with three eyes, the other with a pylon of raw pink flesh poking out of its back. Most of the Calla men came on donks and burros, dressed in their white pants and long, colorful shirts. They knocked their dusty sombreros back on the tugstrings with callused thumbs as they stepped into the Gathering Hall, looking uneasily at each other. The benches were of plain pine. With no womenfolk and none of the roont ones, the men filled fewer than thirty of the ninety benches. There was some talk, but no laughter at all.

Tian stood out front with the feather now in his hands, watching the sun as it sank toward the horizon, its gold steadily deepening to a color that was like infected blood. When it touched the land, he took one more look up the high street. It was empty except for three or four roont fellas sitting on the steps of Took's. All of them huge and good for nothing more than yanking rocks out of the ground. He saw no more men, no more approaching donkeys. He took a deep breath, let it out, then drew in another and looked up at the deepening sky.

'Man Jesus, I don't believe in you,' he said. 'But if you're there, help me now. Tell God thankee.'

Then he went inside and closed the Gathering Hall doors a little harder than was stricty necessary. The talk stopped. A hundred and forty men, most of them farmers, watched him walk to the front of the hall, the wide legs of his white pants swishing, his shor'boots clacking on the hardwood floor. He had expected to be terrified by this point, perhaps even to find himself speechless. He was a farmer, not a stage performer or a politician. Then he thought of his children, and when he looked up at the men, he found he had no trouble meeting their eyes. The feather in his hands did not tremble. When he spoke, his words followed each other easily, naturally, and coherently. They might not do as he hoped they would-Gran-pere could be right about that-but they looked willing enough to listen.

'You all know who I am,' he said as he stood there with his hands clasped around the reddish feather's ancient stalk. 'Tian Jaffords, son of Luke, husband of Zalia Hoonik that was. She and I have five, two pairs and a singleton.'

Low murmurs at that, most probably having to do with how lucky Tian and Zalia were to have their Aaron. Tian waited for the voices to die away.

'I've lived in the Calla all my life. I've shared your khef and you have shared mine. Now hear what I say, I beg.'

'We say thankee-sai,' they murmured. It was little more than a stock response, yet Tian was encouraged.

'The Wolves are coming,' he said. 'I have this news from Andy. Thirty days from moon to moon and then they're here.'

More low murmurs. Tian heard dismay and outrage, but no surprise. When it came to spreading news, Andy was extremely efficient.

'Even those of us who can read and write a little have almost no paper to write on,' Tian said, 'so I cannot tell ye with any real certainty when last they came. There are no records, ye ken, just one mouth to another. I know I was well-breeched, so it's longer than twenty years-'

'It's twenty-four,' said a voice in the back of the room.

'Nay, twenty-three,' said a voice closer to the front. Reuben Caverra stood up. He was a plump man with a round, cheerful face. The cheer was gone from it now, however, and it showed only distress. 'They took Ruth, my sissa, hear me, I beg.'

A murmur-really no more than a vocalized sigh of agreement-came from the men sitting crammed together on the benches. They could have spread out, but had chosen shoulder-to-shoulder instead. Sometimes there was comfort in discomfort, Tian reckoned.

Reuben said, 'We were playing under the big pine in the front yard when they came. I made a mark on that tree each year after. Even after they brung her back, I went on with em. It's twenty-three marks and twenty-three years.' With that he sat down.

'Twenty-three or twenty-four, makes no difference,' Tian said. 'Those who were kiddies when the Wolves came last time have grown up since and had kiddies of their own. There's a fine crop here for those bastards. A fine crop of children.' He paused, giving them a chance to think of the next idea for themselves before speaking it aloud, 'If we let it happen,' he said at last. 'If we let the Wolves take our children into Thunderclap and then send them back to us roont.'

'What the hell else can we do?' cried a man sitting on one of the middle benches. 'They's not human!' At this there was a general (and miserable) mumble of agreement.

One of the Manni stood up, pulling his dark-blue cloak tight against his bony shoulders. He looked around at the others with baleful eyes. They weren't mad, those eyes, but to Tian they looked a long league from reasonable. 'Hear me, I beg,' he said.

'We say thankee-sai.' Respectful but reserved. To see a Manni in town was a rare thing, and here were eight, all in a bunch. Tian was delighted they had come. If anything would underline the deadly seriousness of this business, the appearance of the Manni would do it.

The Gathering Hall door opened and one more man slipped inside. He wore a long black coat. There was a scar on his forehead. None of the men, including Tian, noticed. They were watching the Manni.