Read Online Outcast by Michelle Paver - Free Book Online Page B

narrowed, drowned thickets giving way to boulders and straggling trees. A pine had fallen and now spanned the river, ten paces above it. As a walkway, it wasn't promising: the bark was slimy, branches stuck out, and when Torak put his hand on the trunk, it wobbled.
    Good enough, he told himself.
Part of him knew this was a mistake--but strangely, he kept going.
Wolf raced lightly along the trunk, leaping the branches. When he reached the other side, he turned to Torak, wagging his tail. Easy!
No it's not, Torak wanted to say. Not on your hands and knees in slippery wet buckskin, with a sleeping-sack, bow, and quiver on your back--and no claws. He was nearly across when he heard voices. He glanced down--and nearly fell off in alarm.
Blue water and white foam swirled around moss-green boulders. On one, directly beneath him, stood Aki and Raut.
Torak held his breath. If one of them looked up ...
"I've had enough," said Raut. "I'm going back."
"Well, I'm not!" snarled Aki.
Torak tried to move forward, but Renn's rowanberry wristband snagged on a branch. He tried
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to unsnag it. The tree shook.
"The others have gone back," said Raut, "and so should we. We're out of our range."
Again Torak tugged the wristband. It snapped. Rowanberries bounced onto the rocks. Luckily, Aki was too incensed to notice. "If you go now, you'll be going on foot! I'm keeping the boat!"
"You do that!" retorted Raut. Then more quietly, "Aki, this isn't right! Why do you hate him so much?
"I don't," snapped Aki.
"Then why all this?"
"I said I'd get him! I told Fa. I can't go back if I fail."
"Well, you'll have to do it without me. We'll split the provisions--then you're on your own!"
Weak with relief, Torak watched them head off downstream.
He'd just begun to move when Aki's voice rang out. "I know you're out there, Soul-Eater! I'll find you, I swear it on my souls! I'll find you and I'll hunt you down!" Wolf was waiting for him on the other side, but Torak barely greeted him. Huddled in his wet clothes, he thought about Aki's threat. Such determination.
He glanced at Wolf. Every moment they spent together put him at risk. Clan law forbade the killing of a hunter, except in self-defense. What if it came to a fight and Wolf tried to defend his pack-brother and Aki shot him?
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A moment of pure panic. He couldn't be without Wolf.
It's the only way, he told himself. And it isn't forever.
    Split up, Torak told his pack-brother in wolf talk. Wolf threw him a puzzled glance.
Impossible to get across that this wasn't for good, but only while Aki was close. With an effort, Torak hardened his heart and repeated the command. Split up! Wolf looked offended. Then he shook himself and trotted off into the bracken.
Torak hadn't heard Aki or his dogs for a while, or seen any sign of Wolf.
The buzzing in his ears came and went, and the wound in his chest throbbed. Belatedly, he'd smeared it with chewed willow bast, but it refused to heal. The pain was a constant reminder that it wasn't only Aki who hunted him. The Soul-Eaters had hooked him with an unseen harpoon, and were drawing him in. The ground became stonier. From where he stood, the riverbank dropped steeply to the Axehandle. He'd passed the rapids some time ago, but their thunder still filled his ears.
    Leaning against a birch tree, he gulped the last of Renn's blood sausage. He didn't bother with an offering; he needed it all for himself. He was thirsty, but it was a tough climb down to the
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river, so instead he slashed the birch trunk and drank. He left the bark oozing tree-blood and stumbled on. He knew that was wrong, but he did it anyway. Something was getting between him and the Forest. He was too tired to fight it.
    Below him the river ran swift and deep. Should he stay this close, or get under cover? He decided to stay close.
Wrong choice. The boulders were treacherous with moss and he fell, bumping and rolling down the slope.
He ended up sprawled on a rock by the water's edge. The trees grew sparsely