Bear Naked 4: The Sons of Garm

Chapter 55

"Are you sure you'll be okay?" Connor asked his dad as he hugged him a second time.

"Yes," Dad replied. "Promise. Don't worry. They've declared a hunt on one of yours," he reminded Connor. "That would be the pretext for an attack. With you guys gone and out of the way, to attack the rest of us would be an act of war. I don't think Fenrir wants that, not right now. On his own terms maybe, but not now."

Connor met his dad's eyes and then nodded. It made sense. But it still didn't make it easier to just sneak off in the middle of the night.

Robbie, as if guessing his mind, added. "Otters are cunning. If it comes to war, we might need them. Go, get to the conclave. Do whatever Jay, I mean, Eva, says. Get them on our side."

Connor nodded. If felt better, thinking he was sneaking off to the conclave instead of running away. He turned. The back corner of the pavilion had been pulled up by Courtney, who had slipped back underneath in otter form and pulled up the stake on that side. The rest of the pack had already crawled out while Connor had said his goodbyes. He gave one last look at the two older packs and crawled through the hole.

The night was thick and clammy around them. It had been in the nineties during the day and it had felt hotter cooped up in the pavilion for the entire afternoon. Now it was in the seventies and by comparison it felt almost cold.

It was mid July, Connor tried to recall the exact date but couldn't. They'd left for the council in mid June. Had a month passed? And yet with everything that had happened, the changes to his pack, it felt much longer.

They were gathered in a circle, waiting, but for what Connor didn't know. Brianna gave him a wan look. She'd come through her assault and seemed okay, but there was a wariness in her eyes that hadn't been there before. Jonathan looked the same as always, but underneath there was a darkness. How could it be otherwise, spending the month with his father, rediscovering his sister? Erica stood with Myrna at her shoulder. A fierce defiance remained in Erica's eyes. They'd all come through so much. How much was yet ahead of them, Connor didn't know.

Jay, now Eva, stepped into their midst suddenly. Somewhere behind, Courtney was in otter form again, chittering some message to Eva. Eva put a finger to her lips to indicate they should be silent and led them off through the fog and into the woods beyond.

They walked a winding path, sometimes on a trail, other times follow deer paths or some other markers that Connor couldn't make out in the fog. Courtney led the way in otter form, slipping ahead to check things at times. Once Eva turned and gave an even more emphatic silent gesture and pointed. They crept almost underneath a deer blind half way up a spruce. Connor could have leapt and touched the foot of the Fleischer sitting guard duty, unaware of their passage.

The sight of the guard made him both angry and unaccountably happy. Jonathan had spied a guard when Erica and he had led the Skinwalkers out, but this brought home to Connor that they were being spied on, their comings and going monitored by the Fleischers. Had they intended to betray the peace from the start?

Underneath was the triumphant joy, they would show them bastards, walk out just under their noses. Part of him wanted to get to the edge of the guard's territory and then thumb his nose at the man, show him how they tricked him.

As if guessing his thoughts, Tanner turned and silently stuck his tongue out a few yards passed the guard. He smiled at Connor and Connor gave him a nod.

Their trail went slowly down until they came to a small stream. Two rowboats were beached on the edge, even though the stream here was barely wide enough for them. Two people waited for them there. The woman was dishwater blond and short, she could have easily passed for Jay's distant cousin, and she probably was. She greeted them warmly with a gesture. They took the hint and none spoke, but waved back their own greeting.

The man was dark and bushy, with hair like Courtney's. He didn't greet them or even seem to know they were there. He was sitting towards the back of one boat lost in trance. He mumbled softly, fog flowing from his mouth at times. It could only be Uncle Johann, who was training Eva, Connor thought. He thought of the time last summer that Eva had created a fog in the Border Lands so they could win the canoe trip.

That had been a game, though, and this was deadly serious. Courtney swam downstream while Eva and the woman helped them load into the boats. It was a tight fit, but they fit. Wordlessly Tanner and Jonathan found poles and helped the other two get the boats into the water and facing downstream. Eva took the stern and steered the first boat downstream.

They drifted downstream for what seemed like a long time. Eva was in the lead. Tanner was at the front of that boat, using the pole to push them away from the shore at times, but mostly the two just let them drift. Connor was in the second boat, Jonathan using his pole to guide them behind the lead boat. The woman sat in the stern, steering and stroking the man's hair in an abstract gesture.

The stream emptied into a larger stream, just shy of being a river proper and then it became long wetland area that could have been a lazy river or small lake. Courtney's head stuck up along the edge of their boat and Connor reached over and lifted her into the boat.

Connor looked away as Courtney transformed. He'd gotten a lot more casual about nudity hanging out with Amanda and her pagan friends, but it still wasn't polite to stare and she could have two seconds privacy to dress. He discovered the fog had lifted, or they had moved mostly out of it and he could see the stars above them.

"We are clear," Courtney said, bring Connor's attention back down to the boat. She was dressed in a sarong, lounging in the bow at Jonathan's feet. The woman bent and kissed the man's forehead and whispered something in his ears. He stopped singing and began to rouse.

"Eva?" the woman called.

"I heard," Eva's voice came back across the water. A lantern was lit and hung on the bow of each ship. There was a sudden roar as Eva yanked on the cord for the boat's motor and then a louder rumble as it came to life. The woman got their boat's motor going to and the noise subsided to a drone as the two boats slid across the water.

They spoke quietly after that, relief flooding Connor as he realised they were away from the camp and the Fleischers. The anxiety spiked back whenever he thought of his dad and Arthur's pack, still trapped there. He wouldn't be able to completely relax until he knew they were all safe.

The woman now introduced herself as Sofia, Courtney's aunt. She offered them food, smoked fish, goat cheese and bread from a small basket.

"Such an escape," the man, who was in fact Johann, put in, "deserves a toast." He had a bottle he uncorked. He poured a small measure over the lip of the boat with a prayer of thanks and then drank from the bottle before passing it around.

It was sweet but with an after burn of alcohol. Connor was a little shocked to be freely given alcohol at his age, but then again otters, he'd been told, had different feelings about age.

"Mead for ritual occasions," Amanda told him, as though she had guessed his thoughts. "It's not like they are inviting you to have a kegger on their watch." She drank a sip.

Sofia pulled the boat forward and Amanda handed the bottle across to Eva. "To our escape," Eva said. She, too, poured a bit over the edge and then drank and then passed it around that boat.

After that it was jugs of water and food. The waterway narrowed into a river and then widened again. "Lake Taneycomo," Johann told him. "We'll cross into Arkansas soon. We will go as far south as Bull Shoals. Then upstream along another branch. Can't tell you more, Misstress Jarvinen wouldn't want the exact location of her farm known outside the clan."

Connor nodded his understanding. He watched the dark banks slide by. At times they saw the lights of over boats and glimpsed fishermen, rods hanging over the water. Once someone called out to ask if they'd had any luck. "Haven't gotten to our site," Johann lied. "You?"

Amanda moved around in her seat, laying herself on his lap looking up at the stars. "Is it okay?" she asked. "You want to lay?"

"No, it's fine," he said, stroking her hair. It was more than fine, it was perfect. For the first time in a long time he felt content, stroking his alpha's hair while she starred at the stars and then rested, the river lulling her to sleep.