Chapter 96: The Pack at the Headland

I stood at the top of the slip with the whole co-op on the shoulder of the headland behind Mairéad and the sea below me and Eileen's grey coat ten feet away.

“The hunt,” I said. “There is a thing about the hunt that the charter says and that you have not said. A wolf who is hunted is hunted on the headland and the whole pack runs and the wolf who is taken is put out of the territory. And a wolf who is hunted has the right to a witness and the witness runs with the pack and if the witness is a wolf of the blood the hunt is set aside until the witness is heard.”

Mairéad did not move.

“That is not in the charter,” she said.

“It is in the second charter and Ahern has it and the whole co-op has heard it read out loud this morning.” I put my hand in my coat and took out the black book and held it up. “And there is a thing about the hunt that is in the first charter and that you have not said either. A wolf who is hunted must be given the moon and the moon is not up until nine and it is eleven in the morning. So the hunt cannot be called before the moon is up and there is a whole day between now and then and a whole day is a long time in this village.”

The co-op stirred. Tom was at the front with his red face and his grey moustache and he looked at Mairéad and then at me and did not say anything.

“Then I will hold the hunt until the moon is up,” Mairéad said. “And in the meantime the rogue stays in the cove and the co-op goes back to the village and there is a wolf on the border.”

“No,” I said. “The rogue stays in the cove and the co-op goes back to the village and the witness runs with the pack. And there is a thing about the witness that I have to say before the whole co-op. The witness is Eileen and she is not a rogue. She is a wolf who was taken out of this village in 1975 and given to a woman who was going to Galway and who brought her up to be a claimant. And she has been in the north for twenty years and she has been used by a man in Galway and she has come down this coast to put a grey coat on and make a claim in a name that is not hers. And she is the one wolf in this village who can tell the co-op where the whole of it is buried.”

Mairéad came down the slip. She came down it slowly with her silver hair in the wind and her black coat and she stopped in front of me.

“You have been in this village for a week,” she said. “A week. And you have taken the hall and the book and the vote and the whole of it. And there is a thing about you that I have been watching since the first night and that I am going to say now in front of the whole co-op. You are not a wolf of this pack. You are a woman from Dublin who came to bury a sister and who found a village she could take apart. And there is not a wolf on this headland who is going to run behind you tonight.”

“Then let them choose,” I said.

The whole co-op was silent.

“Let them choose,” I said again. “There is a thing about a hunt that the charter says. The pack runs and the pack chooses and the wolf who is not chosen is a wolf who is not of the pack. So let the co-op choose. Not a vote. Not a claim. A hunt. The moon is up at nine and the whole pack is on the headland and the whole pack chooses who it runs behind.”

Mairéad looked at me for a long moment.

“Then the hunt is at nine,” she said. “And there is a thing about the hunt that I am going to say before the whole co-op. A wolf who is hunted and who is taken is put out of the territory and a wolf who is hunted and who is not taken is a rogue for the rest of her life. And there is a third thing that the charter says and that the woman from Dublin has not read. A wolf who shields a rogue is a wolf who is a rogue. And there is a wolf on this headland who has been shielding her since the first night and the whole co-op knows it.” She turned round and looked at Declan. “The Beta. The man who has been in the harbor office for twenty years and who has been writing letters to a woman in Athlone and who has been lying to this co-op since April.”

Declan stood on the slip with his hands at his sides.

“I am the Beta of this pack,” he said. “And I have been the Beta for twenty years and I have done a great many things in that time that I am not proud of. And there is a thing about tonight that I am going to say in front of the whole co-op. If the woman from Dublin is hunted on that headland then I am going to run beside her and I am going to shield her and I am going to take whatever the co-op gives me for it. And if that makes me a rogue then I am a rogue and the rank can go to a wolf who wants it.”

The whole headland went up. The whole co-op was shouting at once and Tom was shouting at Hannah and the eleven wolves behind Mairéad were shouting at the thirty four who had voted for me and the two wolves on the slip had shifted and were standing with their heads down and their shoulders up.

And then Cormac came down the slip and stood in the middle of it.

“Stop,” he said. “The whole of you. Stop and listen to me because there is a thing I have been carrying since March and I am not going to carry it another hour.” He looked at the whole co-op and his grey eyes were steady and his face was white. “I was in the hall on the Thursday night in March. I was behind the table with my hands over my ears and I heard the whole of it. I heard the Alpha come in with two wolves and I heard her put the weight on the table and I heard her say, hold her, and I heard the woman Siobhan go down on the floor. And I heard the Alpha say a thing that I have been told not to say and that I am going to say now. She said, this was ordered. And she said it three times and she said it to my father and she said it to me.”

The whole headland was silent.

“I have been told since I was fourteen that I am a wolf who cannot say no to the Alpha,” Cormac said. “And there is a thing about that which is worse than a lie. I have been a coward and I have been a thing she put in a hall and I have done what she told me and I have watched my father do what she told him. And there is not a wolf on this headland who is going to be told by me what to do tonight. But there is a thing I can do and it is the only thing I have. I can say the whole of it in front of the whole co-op and let them hear it and let them decide what to do with a woman who says this was ordered in her own hall with a boy behind the table with his hands over his ears.”

Mairéad was standing on the slip with her hands at her sides.

“You are a boy who has been in my hand since he was fourteen,” she said. “And there is not a wolf on this headland who is going to believe a boy who has been in my hand since he was fourteen.”

“Then let them hear the rest of it,” Cormac said. “Because there is a thing I have not said and that I am going to say now. In April I went to the harbor office and I sat outside the door and I heard my father on the telephone to a man in Galway. And my father said, there is a claimant in Athlone and she is alive and she is not to be touched. And the man in Galway said a thing and my father said, no, and the man in Galway said it again and my father said, then I will come up to Galway and I will say the whole of it to the co-op. And the man in Galway said, if you come up to Galway there will be a hunter on this coast before the week is out.” He looked at his father. “I have been carrying that since April and I have not said it and I am saying it now.”

The whole co-op turned and looked at Declan.

Declan stood on the slip with the wind in his auburn hair and his face grey.

“That was Kern,” he said. “That was the man in Galway and I have been on the telephone to him every week since April and I have been writing letters to your sister because Kern told me to write them and told me to keep her in Athlone. And I have been a man who did what he was told by a man in Galway because I was frightened of what would happen to this village if I did not.” He looked at me. “And there is a thing about it that I have to say in front of the whole co-op and that I have not said to a living soul. I did not write the letters to your sister because I was frightened for her. I wrote them because Kern told me to and because I was frightened for my son.”

The whole headland was silent.

And then Mairéad said, “Then there is a thing about tonight that the whole co-op has just heard and that I am going to say out loud. The Beta of this pack has been in the pay of a man in Galway since April. He has been writing letters to a claimant and keeping her out of this territory and he has been on the telephone to a man who has been buying the shore for thirty six years. And there is not a wolf on this headland who is going to run behind a woman who has been in the village for a week when the Beta who stands beside her has been working for the man in Galway since April.”