Mango Chiefton's Arc

Chapter 5 of 7

Dawn broke gray over the marsh. Mango wiped the last musk from the jar bottom and rubbed it into his fresh cuts. The stink covered his blood one final time. But the woman who gave him that cover sat by the door with bare arms and no scent to hide behind. He had taken her only shield. Now the wolf that hunted them both would smell her first. Valentina stared at the reeds where the beast had slunk off. "It'll come back," she said. "For me now. Not you." Mango knew she was right. She'd traded her life for his runes. He had nineteen marks and dozens still to carve. If the wolf killed her, he lost the only helper who could keep his skin masked. He needed her alive as much as she needed shelter. "Riko," Mango said. "Where's the closest safe roof?" Riko wiped ink from his small hands. "The tree house. Upriver. It's built like a cage. Bars all around one side. Nothing gets in." Mango pictured it. A home wrapped in iron latticework, raised on a thick trunk above the water. The wolf could climb, but it could not bend those bars. "We move now," Mango said. "Before the sun's full up." They ran. Mango smeared the dregs of musk across Valentina's shoulders, sharing what little cover was left. It was thin. It would not last. But it might buy them the trip. Halfway there the reeds thrashed behind them. Six eyes gleamed low in the mist. The wolf had caught her scent under the fading musk. It lunged. Mango shoved Valentina ahead and hurled the empty jar at the beast's snout. It flinched. Riko scrambled up the trunk first, quick as his name, and swung down a rope of vine. Valentina climbed. The wolf snapped at her heels. Mango grabbed a hanging root and kicked hard at the beast's jaw. Teeth grazed his calf. Blood welled. The wolf smelled it and surged up the trunk after him. Mango hauled himself onto the platform. Riko slammed the caged door and dropped the bone latch. The wolf hit the bars full force. The whole house shook. Six eyes glared through the iron. It could not fit its head between the gaps. Inside, on a shelf, sat a strange offering left by whoever built the place. Half a banana, half raw meat, fused into one uncanny slab. Riko grabbed it and flung it through the bars. The wolf tore into the meat side and dragged it off into the reeds. Valentina slid down the wall, shaking, alive. "You came back for me," she said. "You gave me your cover," Mango said. "Now you've got walls instead." He looked at his bleeding calf, then at the nineteen runes on his ribs. The safe roof held. But the musk was gone. He had no scent-cover left to carve behind. He needed a new way to hide his blood, and soon.