Wolf Who Rules

The sekasha escorted in Tooloo, who must have walked up the hill from her store. Tinker stared at her with new eyes. Not that the female had changed; Tooloo was as she had always been Tinker's entire life. There were no new creases in the face full of wrinkles. Her silver hair still reached her ankles. Tinker even recognized her faded, purple silk gown and battered high-top tennis shoes - Tooloo had been wearing them when Tinker and Pony helped her milk her cows two months ago.

Only now Tinker realized how odd it was for an elf in a world of elves to live alone. What clan and caste had she been born into? Why wasn't she part of a household? Was it because she was a half-elf? If she was half human, born and raised on Earth, how could she be so fluid in High Elvish, and know all things arcane? If she was a full, blooded elf, trapped on Earth when the pathways were dismantled, why hadn't she gone back to her people? The three centuries was a short time for elves.

Tinker doubted if Tooloo would tell her if she asked. Tooloo had always refused to be known. She went by an obvious nickname, neither human nor elfin in origin. Not once, in eighteen years that Tinker knew her, had she ever mentioned her parents. She would not commit to an age, the length of time she lived on earth, not even a favorite color.

Tooloo squirmed in Cloudwalker's hold. "Oh, you murderous little thing! You had to satisfy that little monkey brain of yours. I told you, starve the beast called curiosity - but noooo, you had to play with Czernowski and now you've killed him."

Tinker felt sad as she realized she'd lost yet another part of her life. "I didn't mean for Nathan to get killed."

"Oh, you didn't mean to! Do you think those threadbare words will heal his family, all off grieving over his headless body?"

"I'm sorry it happened." Tinker swallowed down on the pain that words caused her. "I-I-wasn't paying attention when I should have been - and I'm so sorry - but there's nothing I can do. I was wrong. I should have listened to you from the very start - but I didn't see where all this was going to lead."

"Pawgh, this is all Windwolf's fault - killing my bright wee human and making a dirty Skin Clan scumbag in her image." Tooloo spat.

"This has nothing to do with Windwolf making me an elf."

"Does it? My wee one never had such superciliousness of power."

"Supercil-whatis?"

Tooloo glanced at Pony standing behind Tinker. "Giving you sekasha is like giving an elephant roller-skates - stupid, ridiculous and dangerous."

Tooloo could say what she wanted about her, but now she was going too far to include the sekasha too.

"Yes, I killed Nathan," Tinker said, "but I'm not the only one to blame. I'm a stupid clueless little girl, but you've lived with humans for over 200 years - you knew exactly how Nathan would react if -" and then it dawned on Tinker and she gasped with horror. "Oh sweet gods, you wanted him to think I was a whore! You deliberately misled him! You evil she-goat!"

Tooloo slapped her hard across the face enough to make stars dance in her vision.

Tinker heard the sekasha draw their blades and threw out her hands to keep Nathan's death from repeating. "No! No! Don't you dare hurt her!" Once she was sure that she was obeyed, she turned back to the stranger who raised her. "Why? Why did you do that to Nathan? You had to see it coming!"

"Because nothing else would have slapped you out of wallowing in your own piss. The city is about to run with blood unless you do something. Czernowski was the sacrificial lamb to save this city."

"I was trying to! I don't know how!"

"Use that little monkey brain of yours! The elves are about to march all over this city with jack boots. I've lived with humans for hundreds of years. They are good, compassionate people. I lived through the American Revolutionary War, its Civil War, the fight for woman suffrage, and the struggle for civil rights - and all those advancements for equality among humans is about to be flushed down the crapper. It's already started - they're searching through Chinatown, dragging people out of their homes and testing them and killing them where they stand."

Tinker glanced to Stormsong since the rant had been in English. Stormsong nodded in confirmation. "Why didn't anyone tell me?"

"You've been too fragile."

She couldn't trust Tooloo's version of this; the 'lone one' kept whatever truths she had to herself. Nor, as much as she loved them, count on the elves in her life to understand what it was to be human. Tinker gathered up the newspapers; she needed their human-biased facts. And Maynard - she needed to talk to Maynard.

***

Red was becoming a predominant color in Pittsburgh, like an early autumn. They encountered four roadblocks on the way to the EIA offices; all manned by laedin caste Fire Clan soldiers.