Chapter 108: Wren Alone

The archivist stood at the end of the mill road with the warrant in his hand and the car behind him and the other wolf beside him.

"Alpha," he said. "I am going to read the warrant."

"Read it," I said.

He read it. It was short and it was in the chief clerk's hand, and it said the Alphas of the north had ruled the claim of blood void and the curse void and the deed of 1891 void, and that the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack was to be taken to Boise and held until the full moon.

"The chief clerk is in a cell," I said.

"The chief clerk is in a cell," the archivist said. "And this warrant was signed by him before he went into it. He signed forty of them in one night and gave them to the riders and the riders have been carrying them north for a week."

I stood in the road.

"You have a paper," I said. "And I have a ruling from the full Council of Alphas that says the claim is granted and the land is the Luna's line. Which paper is worth more?"

"The ruling of the full Council is suspended," the archivist said. "The Alphas of the north have filed a contest and the contest suspends the ruling until it is heard."

"And when will it be heard?"

"At the full moon," the archivist said. "In the north. In the chamber of the Alphas of the north."

I stood in the road with the cold coming up through my boots.

"Then it is a court in the north," I said. "And the Alphas of the north are eleven wolves who have been signing the chief clerk's paper for forty years."

The archivist did not answer.

"Alpha," Dale said behind me. "Let me take the warrant."

I turned around.

"What?"

"I am the Alpha of the mill land," Dale said. "The Council appointed me and the paper is in my hand. And the warrant is for the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack." He came and stood beside me. "If I take the warrant and I sign it and I say that the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack is under my protection and that the challenge will be heard in the circle at the full moon, then the warrant is answered and the archivist has a paper to take back to Boise."

The archivist looked at him.

"You cannot answer a warrant for another Alpha," he said.

"I can answer it as the Alpha of the mill land," Dale said. "The warrant says the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack is to be taken to Boise. It does not say the Alpha of the mill land cannot stand for her." He held out his hand. "Give me the paper."

The archivist stood in the road.

And then he gave Dale the paper.

Dale took it and folded it and put it in his coat.

"Then it is answered," he said. "And the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack is under my protection until the full moon. And the challenge will be heard in the circle at the full moon in front of the Alphas and the packs."

The archivist looked at him for a long moment.

"The Alphas of the north will hear of this," he said.

"Let them hear of it," Dale said.

The archivist got in the car and the car went back up the co-op road and the taillights went away over the ridge.

I stood in the road.

"Dale," I said.

"Alpha," he said.

"You just answered a warrant for me."

"I did."

"You are the wolf who killed my brother and you just answered a warrant for me."

Dale put his hands in his pockets.

"I am the wolf who killed your brother," he said. "And I am going to answer for it. But not tonight and not in a cell in Boise. Tonight I am the Alpha of the mill land and the mill land is going to be claimed at the full moon and the whole of it is going to be decided in one night." He looked at me. "And there is a thing I have not told you. About the challenge. About the circle."

"What thing?"

"The challenge is not a fight," Dale said. "The challenge is a claim. Two Alphas stand in the circle and each one speaks the words of the old tongue and the circle chooses. And the circle does not choose the stronger wolf. It chooses the wolf the land wants." He looked at the circle at the end of the field. "And the land has been waiting for the Luna's line for eighty-five years."

I stood in the road.

"Then it is not a fight," I said.

"It is not a fight," Dale said. "It is a claim."

And then Silas came up the road with the second rider.

"Alpha," he said. "There is a thing I have to tell you and I have been putting it off since Boise." He looked at me. "The eleven Alphas in the north have sent a company to this territory. They sent it the day the ruling was suspended. It is on the north road and it is not twelve men. It is forty."

The road was quiet.

"Forty," I said.

"Forty men and four trucks and a cannon," Silas said. "They are at the gap and they have not come through and they are waiting for the full moon."

I stood in the road.

"Then we have until the full moon," I said.

"Three days," Silas said.

I looked at the mill road and the field and the circle at the end of it.

"Three days," I said. "And then the whole of it."

I went back up the co-op road to the pack house and I sat down at the table in the Alpha's office and I put the stone from the doll on the table in front of me and I looked at it.

And then June came in.

"Wren," she said. "There is a thing I have to tell you and I have been putting it off because I did not know how to say it."

I looked up.

"What thing?"

June sat down across from me.

"I have been sick," she said. "For a week. In the mornings."

I sat very still.

"June," I said.

"I went to Maeve," she said. "And Maeve told me what it is." She put her hands on the table. "Wren, I am going to have a baby."

The office was quiet.

"A baby," I said.

"A baby," June said. "And there is a thing about it that I have not told anybody and I am going to tell you now because you are the Alpha and because you are my sister and because I cannot carry it alone." She looked at me. "The father is gone. He was a wolf from the Kessler pack and he went east in July and I have not heard from him since and I do not know if he is alive."

I stood up and went around the table and put my arms around her.

"June," I said.

"I am not sorry," she said. "I am frightened and I am not sorry."

I held her.

And then the door opened and Elias came in with his face white.

"Wren," he said. "The stones. The heart and the piece. They are cold again."

I turned around.

"What?"

"They are cold," Elias said. "I put them in the vault under the circle and I locked the vault and I came up and they were cold. And there is a thing I saw when I came up." He put his hand on the table. "There is a light in the north. It is not a fire and it is not a lantern. It is the same light that came out of the stones on the night the mill burned."

I stood in the office.

"The stone from the doll," I said.

I put my hand in my pocket and took it out.

It was cold.

And then the light in the north got brighter.