“Knows what?”
“He knows what I do. What we all do. You’re different, somehow. Stronger. Smarter. Why do you think Wiktor spends so much time going through those books with you?”
“He enjoys teaching.”
“Oh, is that what he’s told you?” Nikita grunted. “Well, why didn’t he want to teach me? Or Franco, or Alekza? Or any of the others? Did he think we had rocks in our heads?” He answered his question himself: “No. He spends his time teaching you because he thinks you’re worth the effort. And why is that? Because you want to know.” He nodded when Mikhail scoffed. “It’s true! I’ve heard Wiktor say it: he believes there’s a future for you.”
“A future? There’s a future for all of us, isn’t there?”
“That’s not what I mean. A future beyond this.” He made an expansive gesture that enfolded the forest. “Where we are now.”
“You mean…” Mikhail leaned forward. “Leave here?”
“That’s right. Or, at least, that’s what Wiktor believes. He thinks that someday you might leave the forest, and that you could even take care of yourself out there.”
“Alone? Without the pack?”
Nikita nodded. “Yes. Alone.”
It was too incredible to consider. How could any member of the pack survive, alone? No, no; it was unthinkable! Mikhail was going to stay here forever, with the pack. There would always be a pack. Wouldn’t there? “If I left the forest, who would take care of Alekza and Petyr?”
“That I don’t know. But Alekza has what she’s been living for: a boy child. The way she smiles… well, she doesn’t even look like the same person anymore. Alekza wouldn’t survive out there”-he jerked a finger toward the west-“and Wiktor knows it. Alekza knows it, too. She’ll live out the rest of her life here. And so will I, Wiktor, Franco, and Renati. We’re old, hairy relics, aren’t we?” He grinned broadly, but there was a little sadness in his smile. His grin faded. “Who knows about Petyr? Who knows if he’ll even live another week, or what his mind will be like when he gets older? He might be like that woman who cried in the corner all day long. Or…” He glanced at Mikhail. “Or he might be like you. Who knows?” Nikita cocked his head again, listening. His eyes narrowed. He put a finger on the rail, and Mikhail saw him smile faintly. “The train’s coming. Fast, too. He’s running late!”
Mikhail touched the rail and felt the distant train’s power vibrating in it. Drops of rain began to fall, pocking up little puffs of dust from along the tracks. Nikita stood up and moved into the shelter of some trees next to the tunnel opening. Mikhail went with him, and they crouched down like sprinters ready for bursts of speed. The rain was falling harder. In another moment it was coming down in sheets, and the rails were drenched. Also, the ground was rapidly turning to mud. Mikhail didn’t like this; their footing would be unstable. He pushed his wet hair out of his eyes. Now they could hear the thunder of the train, fast approaching. Mikhail said, “I don’t think we should go tonight.”
“Why not? Because of a little rain?” Nikita shook his head, his body tensed for the race. “I’ve run in rain worse than this!”
“The ground… there’s too much mud.”
“I’m not afraid!” Nikita snapped. “Oh, I’ve had dreams about that red lamp on the last car! Winking at me like Satan’s eye! I’m going to beat the train tonight! I feel it, Mikhail! I can do it if I run just a little faster! Just a little bit-”
The train’s headlamp exploded from the tunnel, the long black engine and the boxcars following. The new engineer had no fear of wet tracks. Rain and wind gusted into Mikhail’s face, and he yelled, “No!” and reached for Nikita but Nikita was already gone, a white blur running alongside the rails. Mikhail sprinted after him, trying to stop him; the rain and wind were too strong, the train going too fast. His feet slid in the mud, and he almost fell against the speeding train. He could hear the rain hissing off the hot engine like a chorus of snakes. He kept going, trying to run Nikita down, and he saw that Nikita’s footprints in the mud were changing to the paws of a wolf.
Nikita was contorted forward, almost running on all fours. His body was no longer white. Rain whirled around him-and then Mikhail lost his balance, falling forward and sliding in the mud. Rain crashed down on his shoulders and mud blinded him. He tried to scramble up, fell again, and lay there as the train roared along its track and into the eastern tunnel. It vanished, leaving a scrawl of red light on the tunnel’s rock; then that, too, was gone.
Mikhail sat up in the downpour, rain streaming over his face. “Nikita!” he shouted. Neither human nor wolf replied. Mikhail stood up and began walking through the mud toward the eastern tunnel. “Nikita! Where are you?”
He couldn’t see Nikita. The rain was still slamming down. Whirling cinders hissed out long before they touched the ground. The air smelled of scorched iron and wet heat.
“Nikita?” There was no sign of him on this side of the tracks. He made it! Mikhail thought, and felt a burst of joy. He made it! He made-
Something lay over on the other side of the tracks. A shapeless, trembling form.
Steam rose from the rails. On the tunnel’s floor, cinders still glowed. And about eight feet from its entrance, lying sprawled in the weeds, was Nikita.
The wolf had leaped in front of the train, but the train had won. Its cowcatcher had torn Nikita’s hindquarters away. His back legs were gone, and what remained of Nikita made Mikhail gasp and fall to his knees. He couldn’t help it; he was sick, and that mingled with the blood washing along the railroad tracks.
Nikita made a noise: a soft, terrible moan.
Mikhail lifted his face to the sky, and let the rain beat it. He heard Nikita’s moan again, ending in a whimper. He forced himself to look at his friend, and saw Nikita’s eyes staring back at him, the noble head twisted like a frail flower on a dark stalk. The mouth opened, and emitted that awful noise again. The eyes were dimmed, but they fixed on Mikhail and held him, and he read their message.
Kill me.
Nikita’s body trembled in agony. The front legs tried to pull the rest of the ruined body away from the tracks, but there was no power left in them. The head thrashed, then fell back into the mud. With a mighty effort, Nikita lifted his head and stared once more, imploringly, at the boy who sat on his knees in the downpour.
Nikita was dying, of course. But not fast enough. Not nearly fast enough.
Mikhail lowered his face and stared into the mud. Pieces of Nikita’s body, stippled with wolf hair and human flesh, lay around him like tattered pieces of a magnificent puzzle. Mikhail heard Nikita groan and closed his eyes; in his mind he saw a dying deer beside the tracks, and Nikita’s hands gripping the animal’s skull. He remembered the sharp twist Nikita had given the deer’s neck, followed by a noise of cracking bones. It had been an act of mercy, pure and simple. And it was no less than what Nikita now asked for.
Mikhail stood up, staggered and almost went down again. He felt dreamlike, floating; in this sea of rain there were no edges. Nikita shivered and stared at him and waited. At last Mikhail moved. The mud caught his feet, but he pulled free and he knelt down beside his friend.
Nikita lifted his head, offering his neck.
Mikhail grasped the sides of the wolf’s skull. Nikita’s eyes closed, and the low moan continued in his throat.
We could fix him, Mikhail thought. I don’t have to kill him. We could fix him. Wiktor would know how. We fixed Franco, didn’t we?
But in his heart he knew this was far worse than Franco’s mangled leg. Nikita was near death, and he was only asking for deliverance from pain. It had all happened so quickly: the downpour, the train, the steaming tracks… so quickly, so quickly.