Read free book excerpt from Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver, plus multiple reviews, author biography & more

Excerpt of Wolf Brother by Michelle Paver
(Page 2 of 6)

 Printer Friendly Excerpt


Torak's knee had started to bleed. He kept digging. He tried not to picture his father on the Death Journey. He tried not to picture himself alone in the Forest. He was only twelve summers old. He couldn't survive on his own. He didn't know how.

"Torak! Move!"

Blinking furiously, Torak reached for his father's weapons and laid them by his side. He divided up the arrows, pricking his fingers on the sharp flint points. Then he shouldered his quiver and bow and scrabbled in the wreckage for his small black basalt axe. His hazelwood pack had been smashed in the attack; he'd have to cram everything else into his jerkin, or tie it to his belt.

He reached for his reindeer-hide sleeping sack.

"Take mine," murmured his father. "You never did—repair yours. And—swap knives."

Torak was aghast. "Not your knife! You'll need it!"

"You'll need it more. And—it'll be good to have something of yours on the Death-Journey."

"Fa, please. Don't—"

In the Forest, a twig snapped.

Torak spun round.

Nothing.

Just the crackle of the fire and the thud of his heart.

His father licked the sweat from his lips. "It's not here yet," he said. "Soon. It will come for me soon. . . . Quick. The knives."

Clenching his jaw so hard that it hurt, Torak took his own knife and put it into Fa's hand. Then he untied the buckskin sheath from his father's belt. Fa's knife was beautiful and deadly, with a blade of banded blue slate shaped like a willow leaf, and a haft of red deer antler that was bound with elk sinew for a better grip. As Torak looked down at it, the truth hit him. He was getting ready for a life without Fa. "I'm not leaving you!" he cried. "I'll fight it, I—"

"No! No one can fight this bear!"

Ravens flew up from the trees.

"Listen to me," hissed his father. "A bear—any bear—is the strongest hunter in the Forest. You know that. But this bear—much stronger."

Torak felt the hairs on his arms rise. Looking down into his father's eyes, he saw the tiny scarlet veins and, at the centers, the fathomless dark. "What do you mean?" he whispered.

"It is—possessed." His father's face was grim; he didn't seem like Fa anymore. "Some—demon—from the Otherworld—has entered it and made it evil."

An ember spat. The dark trees leaned closer to listen.

"A demon?" said Torak.

His father shut his eyes, mustering his strength. "It lives only to kill," he said at last. "With each kill—its power will grow. It will slaughter—everything. The prey. The clans. All will die. The Forest will die . . ." He broke off. "In one moon—it will be too late. The demon—too strong."

"One moon? But what—"

"Think, Torak! When the red eye is highest in the night sky, that's when demons are strongest. You know this. That's when the bear will be—invincible." He fought for breath. In the firelight, Torak saw the pulse beating in his throat. So faint: as if it might stop at any moment. "I need you—to swear something," said Fa.

"Anything."

Fa swallowed. "Head north. Many daywalks. Find—the Mountain—of the World Spirit."

Torak stared at him. What?

His father's eyes opened, and he gazed into the branches overhead, as if he saw things there that no one else could. "Find it," he said again. "It's the only hope."

"But—no one's ever found it. No one can."

"You can."

"How? I don't—"

"Your guide—will find you."

Torak was bewildered. Never before had his father talked like this. He was a practical man; a hunter. "I don't understand any of this!" he cried. "What guide? Why must I find the Mountain? Will I be safe there? Is that it? Safe from the bear?"

Wolf Brother © 2005 by Michelle Paver. All rights reserved. HarperCollins Children's Books