“I'm so sorry, Lyth,” Sasha said quietly. “I don't know what to say.”
Alythia sniffed and wiped at her eyes. She stroked Tashyna's head. “Well, I still have Tashyna,” she said, attempting lightness.
“Elra will need you, once she's woken,” Sasha added. “Errollyn's made her sleep for now, he says she'll heal faster that way. But she'll need a familiar face when she wakes.”
Alythia nodded. “I'll be there. Can you help look after Tashyna? She's not good with most company, and Elra's scared of her. I thought…I thought if anyone could help me look after a wolf, it'd be you.”
Sasha blinked in astonishment. A compliment. Of sorts. It was the first she could remember in…well, ever. “Of course,” she said. “Of course I will.”
“There were rumours that you'd met with Marya,” said Alythia with a dark, level gaze. “Did you?”
Sasha nodded. “She stuck me in the back of the neck with a needle. I should have seen it. We're now her second family, Lyth. Steiner are her first. The ones that matter.”
“I'm going to kill her,” Alythia said in a low voice. “If I ever get close enough again, I'm going to slit her throat.” Sasha had heard Alythia offer threats before, usually in high temper at the top of her lungs. This was the first time she believed Alythia really meant it.
Sasha didn't reply. She didn't hate Marya like that, despite what had happened. Marya was who she was-a good mother, a devoted wife, the perfect woman of the household in Lenayin or Petrodor. Alythia might have seen death, but she'd never killed. Killing enemies was hard enough. Killing sisters…dear spirits. She didn't want to think it. Marya had been the other great friend of her childhood, besides Krystoff. One did not banish such memories easily. And Krystoff's spirit would never forgive her. Nor her mother's. Nor all her other, still living siblings. Everyone loved Marya. Or had done, before the sides were chosen.
Tashyna squirmed in discomfort and tried to lick Alythia's face Sasha noticed that the water bowl by the bed was empty. “Here,” she volunteered, “I'll get her some more water.”
When she returned to Alythia's room, she placed the bowl on the floor. Tashyna waited until Sasha was sitting once more, then jumped from the bed and drank thirstily.
“Look,” said Sasha, as the idea formed, “she'll need some exercise, I don't imagine she got much in Halmady.”
Alythia shook her head. “Just a small pen. She ran lots of circles, it must have driven her mad.”
“Well, I can take her on my run easily enough. She just needs to trust me. The first step's easy, here.” Sasha got up and sat on the bed beside Alythia. Tashyna paused drinking and looked at them with big, yellowish eyes. “See?” said Sasha to the wolf, putting an arm around Alythia's shoulders. “My sister. I'm a part of your pack too. See?”
She put her head on Alythia's shoulder. Alythia felt stiff and uncomfortable. Tashyna cocked her head, ears pricked. Sasha smiled-she could see the wolf thinking. Reasoning. Doubting. Alythia seemed to relax-Sasha looked, and saw she was smiling too. And put her arm, too, around Sasha.
Tashyna went back to drinking, still watching from the corner of her eye. “Don't think this makes us sisters or anything,” said Alythia. A joke, Sasha realised after a moment. With heavy irony. She was trying. Lords, it couldn't have been easy.
“Perish the thought,” she replied, smiling. “Lyth, you're safe here. Or as safe as you could be in Petrodor, anyhow. No one here will hurt you in any way. Just…just know that.”
Alythia nodded, biting the inside of her cheek. “Thanks” did not quite escape her lips. But that was fine. Sasha could wait.
Tashyna finished drinking and looked at the sisters. She stepped forward, wanting Alythia's lap once more, but pausing. Sasha eased herself slowly to the floor and, kneeling, held out her hand. Tashyna sniffed, cautiously, but no longer with such obvious worry. She licked. And lowered her head, paws braced, observing this new person from several angles.
Sasha planted her hands on the floor and imitated the wolf on all fours. Whined at her. Tashyna's ears pricked. Her tail wagged, then stopped. “Sasha, what in the world are you doing?” Alythia asked, a trace of that old, imperious tone returning. Sasha ignored her and risked a small jump, bracing her arms straight out in front, head and shoulders low. Tashyna jumped as well, backing a little. Sasha repeated it, several times. Then panted. Tashyna jumped at her, then backed away.
Sasha jumped at the wolf and Tashyna sprang up onto the bed. And then, to Alythia's exclamation, jumped straight onto Sasha from that height. Sasha rolled and Tashyna sprang aside, darting to the far wall and crouching. Her tongue was lolling now, excitedly. Sasha laughed.
“Oh, Sasha, stop it,” Alythia complained, half wearily as if having expected no better. “That's undignified, even for you. You shouldn't go down to her level, she's just a wolf!”
“That's no way to speak of a friend,” Sasha retorted and sprang at the wolf. Tashyna leapt sideways, with far greater agility, then jumped on Sasha's side. Sasha grabbed her and wrestled. Tashyna was nice enough not to bite hard, and jumped away, tail wagging madly.
Soon even Alythia was having to smother a smile behind her hand. Sasha had worked up a sweat by the time Kessligh pushed open the door, to stare with some concern at the cause of all the noise. Tashyna immediately backed away from the door, nervously. Sasha put a comforting arm around her and scratched her neck. “Oh look, Tashyna,” she said brightly, “it's the dominant male!”
Kessligh raised an eyebrow. “Just checking. I thought maybe someone was dying.”
“Oh, come on, if Alythia and I were fighting, it wouldn't last very long.”
“Oh that's charming,” said Alythia drily.
Kessligh squatted opposite Tashyna and offered a hand. Tashyna stretched forward hopefully, tail high and curled. “She's at least known some good treatment,” Kessligh observed, “or she'd be impossible.” Tashyna sniffed his hand. “She looks like a northern wolf. She's a little lighter on the chest and her coat's thicker.”
“Aye,” Sasha agreed, still on her haunches by the bed, breathing hard. “She's probably Hadryn. Which would make her the most agreeable Hadryn I've met in ages.”
“Just as likely Taneryn,” said Kessligh. Tashyna stopped sniffing and went to take a drink. Which was remarkable in itself, Sasha reckoned. Some new people, at least, no longer terrified her into demanding her full attention. Some could safely be ignored. “Better hope it's a cold winter, or she'll be hot in her new coat.”
The wolf jumped back onto the bed and nudged at Alythia's shoulder. New friends or not, Alythia would remain her best friend. And deservedly so, Sasha conceded to herself thoughtfully. Wild animals did not give loyalty lightly. Alythia must have earned it.
“Come on Lyth,” said Sasha, rising to her feet. “There's breakfast downstairs, we'll see if we can find some scraps for Tashyna.”
“Give her a few more months and she'll need a lot more than scraps,” Kessligh warned, leading the way to the stairs.
“Oh but Kessligh!” Sasha complained, in her best, well-remembered little girl voice. “Can't we keep her? Please? She won't be any trouble, honest!”
Behind her, fixing a lead to Tashyna's collar, Sasha could have sworn she saw Alythia smile.
Taking a young wolf on a leash for a run was not as simple as Sasha had thought. Tashyna reacted to everything, sometimes with fear and, at other times, with uncontainable excitement. She leaped from one side of the alley to the other, avoiding strange-looking people who stared, then bounding toward doorways from which wafted interesting food smells. Her ears would prick pleasantly upon the sight of children, tail raised, her whole posture alert and positive. And then she would halt, go sideways, or retreat at the sight of a man with a sword at his hip. Then Sasha would have to halt and yank her onward, and say reassuring words while she growled and slunk past the man in question…who usually pressed himself against the opposite wall for good measure. Thankfully most men with hip-worn swords were sailors who rarely ventured far from the docks.