Becca woke with the dawn, thinking for a moment that this was like every other morning waking up with the Pack…except for the dead werebear at the bottom of the cliffs, the overwhelming scent of blood and the commotion amongst the other Pack members. Becca got up slowly but when she came back from peeing, she caught Shelly’s eye as she started to walk up to the ledge above them to look down at what the others had already seen. Shelly shook her head and began herding them all back down the slope.
The morning was brisk and they had a chilly cleanup of the clearing ahead, getting rid of some of the evidence of the battle they had fought. Becca had slipped into a walking daydream by the time she’d checked on Erin and they were done. It took her a few more moments to notice their somewhat unexpected guest hidden behind some boulders.
Annie was looking considerably worse for the wear. She was covered in blood and one of her eyes was swollen shut. Her right back leg was twisted at an awkward angle and she didn’t respond when Shelly called her name.
Adelía gave Shelly a cautious glance, then knelt near Annie’s head with a water bottle. The wolf-woman looked unconscious from what Becca could see of her face, but she gave a slight cough when Adelía ran a wet bandanna over her face. Lin grabbed her medical bag and crouched down next to the two of them.
The rest of them drank what water they had and ate the last of the supply of jerky and energy bars they all carried with them now. Becca woke Erin up and got some jerky into her. When Erin had drunk heavily from her water bottle and was looking more alert, Becca gave her a tremulous smile. “How are you doing?”
Erin gave her a wry grin. “Could be better. Feels like a couple of busted ribs, maybe. At least it doesn’t hurt as much as it did yesterday.” She looked like she was going to say something more, but Shelly cleared her throat just then to get their attention.
“We’ve got to get her down the mountain. I’d prefer the clinic, but she’s telling us that she’ll only go to the cave. Not like she can stop us, but I’m not sure that Dr. Green can save her either. But either way, we’ll have to carry her and we don’t have any way to build a stretcher.”
This far above the tree line, there weren’t any handy big sticks for it anyway, even if they could piece together enough cloth to make one. Becca took a quick look around just to be sure. Adelía followed the direction of her gaze and shook her head. “Nothing we can use for poles up here. We’ll have to improvise.”
Molly groaned. “Jackets?” Adelía nodded, taking off her own. She and Molly knelt down and started knotting the assembled pile together while the Pack members who weren’t tending to Annie or helping tie jackets together stomped around and rubbed their arms.
When Becca looked back up from getting dressed, Lin was cleaning Annie’s arms and exposed skin with a wet bandanna and the coat sling looked just about ready. Molly and Adelía stood up and stretched it, testing the knots in each direction until they were sure it was secure. They brought it over and laid it down at Annie’s side, and very slowly, they eased her onto it. Molly, Adelía, Becca and Shelly each slung a sleeve over their shoulders and lifted Annie before beginning a slow walk back down the mountain.
It was hard going, between the loose rocks, the cloudy morning’s dim light and Annie’s nearly dead weight suspended off their shoulders. By the time they reached the ledge up the mountain from the cave, Becca could see stars and was having an active fantasy about seeing both a chiropractor and a massage therapist in the very near future.
“Break time,” Shelly announced and they lowered Annie very carefully to the ground. Lin came over and applied more herbs and ointments while the Pack members who’d been carrying the stretcher sat or lay down and pulled out their water bottles.
Erin came over and sat down next to Becca. “How are you holding up?”
Becca snorted, “I think I should be asking you that. She’s not getting any lighter, that’s for sure.” She collapsed on the ground, crossing her arms behind her head for a cushion, and studied Erin for a minute. “When we get back and we get all this…fixed, I want a do-over. Every conversation, everything for the last couple of weeks, rewound to when I first moved into your place. I’ve missed so many things going through life half asleep. And I don’t want this to be one of them.” She could feel her ears turn red as she blushed, but she’d been rehearsing this speech in her head for days now.
“I think Lizzie and the sheriff might have some thoughts about that, but otherwise, I really like where you’re going with this.” Erin gave her a wry, sideways grin.
Shelly got up and they all stood up with her. “Let’s get this done. Lin, could you please reach out to the Circle and see if a few of them would be willing to meet us at the cave? I think we’ll need all the help we can get.” She glanced around and Becca and the others moved over to stand by Annie’s makeshift stretcher.
At least she was asleep now. Becca still didn’t pity her, but she couldn’t find it in her heart to wish that much pain on anyone else, even an enemy. They picked her up as gently as they could, the other Pack members going on ahead to make calls, to organize and to set up the cave for whatever they were going to do next. Becca made herself focus on that, and not the pain in her shoulders or the cold that was nipping at her exposed skin. You could never summon a hot flash when you needed one.
Adelía began to sing softly and Becca let herself drift a bit with the tune. Her Spanish was pretty rusty, but it sounded like a song about lost love and winning your beloved back. Adelía had a sweet, quiet voice and it made the hike go a bit faster than the first half, even though portions of the trail were harder to navigate.
All four of them collapsed after they lowered Annie gently to the ground on the ledge outside the cave. Becca squinted over at Erin from where she lay, noting that at least she looked better than she had. She was glad someone did. A chorus of quiet groans seemed to echo her thoughts.
Lin walked quickly over to Annie’s side, medical supplies in hand, and Becca struggled to sit up, hoping to be helpful. Annie opened her good eye a slit and reached out one clawed hand with a speed that almost made it blur. She grabbed Lin’s hand and growled, “The cave.”
Lin growled back, her face twisting up like she smelled something bad. Becca was closest and grabbed Annie’s arm. “We’re there and we’ll get you inside soon. But right now, you need to let go of her.”
Annie didn’t look as if she heard her for a long second and Lin bared her teeth. Becca wondered if she was going to have to bite Annie’s hand; those claws were sharp and she could see a few drops of blood on the older wolf’s arm. But then Annie let out a breath like a sigh and loosened her grip.
Lin yanked herself free and inspected her arm for damage. She took a few minutes to apply ointment to the cuts and cautiously flex her fingers. She glanced up and nodded to Becca. “Thank you. Can you keep her calm while I check her?”
Becca sighed, but made herself sit up and get closer to Annie’s side. “I can try?”
Lin nodded and pulled a couple of packets from her bag. She applied something to the wounds on Annie’s face. The latter jerked convulsively and Becca grabbed her arms before she could reach for Lin. Adelía reached over and grabbed her shoulders, murmuring soothingly in Spanish as Lin swiftly bandaged her eye. She checked her over and added some more ointment and another bandage to her stomach wounds before sitting back. “That’s the best I can do. I think we can move her again.”
Becca sighed quietly and rolled her shoulders. She and the others each stood up and grabbed a sleeve. Erin stepped up next to Becca, who looked at her and said, “Not a chance. You can keep me company, though.”
Erin nodded. “What happened with Kari?”
“Shelly had Carla and Lizzie take her to town. She’s under arrest, I assume.”
Becca got Erin caught up with what had happened since the fight. Everyone else chimed in occasionally. The look of relief on Erin’s face when she heard that Kari had been arrested, even without all the answers that they were all hoping for, was worth every stumble and every shoulder ache of the trip down, as far as Becca was concerned.
When she finally got a chance to look around, she could see that someone had pulled back a painted cloth that had been hanging over the cave entrance. There was a cheery fire going just inside, with a kettle hanging over it. A couple of lanterns lit up the interior and a pallet of blankets was laid out in the middle of the cave, presumably for Annie.
The wolf-woman looked unconscious now and her breathing was labored. They picked her up carefully and set her down on the pallet before gathering in a loose semicircle near the entrance. Shelly arched an eyebrow back at Annie. “Why does she think that Erin can fix her?”
Becca shrugged and murmured, “Because she thinks we made her this way to begin with, possibly on purpose? And Erin was around for her transformation when we did the first ritual and convenient this time?”
Erin sighed and asked the question they were all thinking, “Even if we or I can, do we want to?”
Shelly wrinkled her nose. “Valid question. Well, she is my cousin so I feel some responsibility there. It should get her out of the Pack’s hair, if we can pull it off. Once she changes back, I’m pretty sure I can get her to swear on things that she cares about that she won’t come back. I suspect this is why she went up against Jim. It’s meant to be an exchange, a redemption of sorts, I think, from what I know of her personality. The question is: do we agree with that? I think we all need to weigh in. There isn’t time to bring everyone up here, so it will have to be those of us who are here.” She gestured at the group around her.
Becca murmured, “I feel like we’re at the end of an Agatha Christie story and you’re about to tell us who the murderer is.”
Shelly snorted. “Except we already know that part, absent a few details. For that matter, we already have a pretty lengthy list of sins that we know Annie to be guilty of. The question is what we want to do about her. Thoughts?”
Adelía spoke up, her voice soft, “I think we should try to heal her, if we can.” Lin wrinkled her nose, but after a long moment, nodded her assent. Gladys looked even more reluctant, but in the end, she nodded as well.
Molly frowned. “After everything she’s done? Even if we are able to cure her and make her human or the magic takes her back and makes her part of the Pack, how do we know that she won’t just make more trouble? It’s not like we can trust her.”
Shelly glanced over at Erin. “You’ve spent the most time with her in her current state. What do you think?”
Erin blew out a breath and frowned at the ground for a minute before looking back up. “I can see both sides. When she came here with those guys, it was like she was on some sort of religious crusade to make us convert or die. She took that very, very seriously and I truly believe that she still wants to stop changing forever. She hated being a werewolf before this happened, I can only imagine that she hates it even more now. I suspect, though I can’t say for certain, that if we could heal her, she’d leave town and not look back. But I’m not sure how we could enforce it, without, you know, going all wolfy and letting nature takes its course. That said, I’m equally sure that there’s no danger of the magic changing her back into one of us. I think our foremothers want her gone almost as badly as we do.”
Becca gave her a little smile, then turned back to Shelly with a much more solemn expression. “Is there some place for her to go if we can change her back?”
“Looks like we got here just in time for the fun part.” Becca spun around, startled, to find Robin standing behind her with a couple of the other women from Circle House. Carla and Lizzie were with them too, and they all stepped forward into the circle as she and the other Pack members made room.
Robin smiled at Becca, then focused on Shelly and the others. “She was family and she could be so again, even in a distant place. If the issue is punishment and you feel that she hasn’t experienced enough of that, what would be sufficient to pay for her crimes? Shelly, what do you think?”
Shelly glanced sidelong at the still form in the middle of the cave floor. “Exile,” she said at last. “We can never trust her again and while Margaret made mistakes, she didn’t deserve to die for them.” All of them nodded in agreement.
“Do you think we can cure…turn her back into a human?” Adelía asked. “She seems to hate what she is so very much. And being all alone in the mountains after always being in a group…” She shook her head as she trailed off.
One of the other women from Circle House, one whose name Becca hadn’t caught yet, tilted her head like a wolf. “So you would make her human, then exile her?” After a moment, Adelía nodded. “Any objections or other thoughts? No? Looks like you have your recommendation, Shelly.”
Shelly nodded in turn. “But how do we do it? I mean I think we can reconstruct the ritual we made that called the paintings, but what if they don’t want to change her back?”
Lin glanced around at the walls and answered, “I’m not sure we ever have that much control over what the magic chooses and how it does so. Look at all of us, or her, for that matter. It finds something within each of us, something it values for reasons of its own. I think we can only channel it and call it up, then let it decide.”
Becca blinked at her, processing her words. It occurred to her that this was the longest speech she had ever heard the other woman give and wondered if she needed to be listening more or they all needed to be more encouraging. It was definitely the best explanation she’d heard for how they’d all gotten into this particular situation.
Shelly nodded. “Excellent point, Lin. Do we have a plan for how to tap into the magic, one that works for sure instead of trial and error?” She glanced at Robin and the other women from Circle House, and they looked at each other.
Finally, Robin reached into her backpack and pulled out a crumpled and stained notebook. “I found this in the wreckage that was left after the Women’s Club burned. You remember, Shelly, you asked me to poke around a little after the ashes cooled? This was in the box of stuff I brought back for us to sort through. From the dates, it’s about fifty years old and it’s got some records about how the Pack used to organize things back then.”
Shelly held her hand out and Robin carefully handed it to her, with a small wince as a bit of paper flaked off and landed on the stone floor of the cave. Shelly opened the book slowly and carefully, holding it up so she could see the pages in the dim light. A quiet silence followed, then Lizzie stepped forward and handed her a small flashlight. “Thanks, cos.”
Becca tried to keep herself from standing on tiptoe to see what was on the pages. Some of it was fueled by curiosity, some by the excitement of discovering that they hadn’t lost everything in the fire after all. There was Pack history to study and learn from! The intensity of her reaction took her aback for a few moments; she’d never been this excited about studying before, but then, maybe werewolf lore would be different.
Shelly began reading excerpts out loud, pausing when the writing was hard to read. After a few minutes of paging through the crumbling pages, she found what they were all hoping would be there. “Here it is. An old ritual for calling the paintings.” She drew in a deep breath and let it out. “Well, let’s see if it works.” She began calling out directions.
Erin nudged Becca. “Penny for your thoughts, assuming anyone has one of those anymore? Shelly wants us to try and stabilize the labyrinth that I started.”
Becca shook her head a bit to clear it. “Candles too?”
“Yep, we’ll need four, one for each direction.”
“How are you feeling? Do you want to rest while I finish the circles?”
Erin rubbed her head a little. “Might not be the worst idea. How about I’ll follow you around and make witty conversation while you finish up?”
Becca grinned. “Sounds like a fine Saturday night to me. Except it’s Sunday morning now, I think. Make that early afternoon. I wonder if we have to wait until nightfall to do all this stuff.”
“Maybe. Shelly sent a delegation off to get some more food and cook us dinner. Lin and Adelía think they have Annie stabilized for now, so I think the plan is to do setup and eat first, then tackle the magic making afterwards.” Erin made a jazz hands gesture at the walls and wrinkled her nose. “I don’t know whether to hope this works or that we’ll get to see them carry her off to Wolfy Valhalla.”
“I don’t think she’s earned Valhalla, not even with taking on Kari and Jim. I do think making her completely human again might be the best way to make her mostly harmless though. Man, this would have been the weirdest conversation in the world a few months ago!” They shared a quiet laugh as Becca finished trailing sand on the floor to finish the pattern. It sparkled a little in the sunlight from the entrance, making it look like magic already.
“Human or weird hybrid or wolf, she’s gotta leave the valley,” Erin added somberly. “I don’t know what she had to do with Leroy and our weird neighbors, but I’m guessing that they’re all connected somehow.”
Becca nodded as Shelly walked over to hand her a couple of candles and give them both some more directions. They went to work, and after a few minutes, had something set up that almost any TV watcher would recognize as a ritual space. Erin murmured, “Now we just need some flaming torches and those long monks’ robes.” Becca smirked and finished setting up the last of the four candles.
“Chow time!” Molly called from the entrance, summoning them all to the fire she and the others had been tending outside. Whatever they were cooking made the wolf in the back of Becca’s brain salivate, and she shook her head to clear that particular image. Breakfast seemed like days ago now. She resisted the temptation to go over and take a look at Annie; what if the other woman died while they were getting all this set up? Would she haunt them forever then?
From the corner of her eye, she saw Adelía take a couple of bowls of stew over to Lin and sighed a bit with relief. The Pack was doing as well as it could by their fallen foe and erstwhile member. There wasn’t anything much that she could add.
She and Erin got in line at the campfire and Molly quickly served up bowls of stew from the big pot. Soon, all of them were sitting on the ground or on the rocks on the ledge outside the cave, enjoying the venison stew that had been filling the air with luscious scents. “When did anyone have time to hunt a deer?” she murmured at Erin.
“A couple of days ago. Jonas and Carla went hunting and I made stew and a bunch of extra stuff and froze it because I knew we’d need it. Which reminds me: you two are on meal duty next month.” Molly smiled cheerfully at them over her spoon.
“Wait, there’s meal duty? I didn’t realize…” Becca trailed off, feeling silly.
“We share it around. It’ll be easier when we have the Women’s Club building back again since then we can cook there or have stuff brought in and so forth. But that’ll be a while yet.”
“Which reminds me—” Becca started to ask about the Club and the non-Pack members and a bunch of other things that were suddenly crowding her brain, wanting to get out, when Shelly stood up and motioned for silence.
“Once we finish and clean up, please form a circle in the cave. Stand just inside the outer ring that Becca and Erin made on the floor.” She looked a little apprehensive, at least to Becca, but otherwise medium-sized and in charge. Whether they succeeded or not today, they were going to give it their best shot.