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Chapter 110: The Trade
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2026-10-26 00:18:52The howl went down the north road and the company answered it and Elias went into the road with his fur up and his teeth showing.
I went after him.
“Elias,” I said. “Elias. Do not.”
He did not hear me. He was a wolf and the wolf did not know my name and the wolf was looking at the nine stones and the gray wolf in the middle of them and the piece of the boundary stone on the flat rock.
Halloran came off the flat rock and stood in the road.
He was old and he was gray and he was thin and the scar through his eyebrow was white in the lantern light. He was not a big wolf. He was the kind of wolf who had been strong once and had gone thin in a cell.
“Beta,” he said. He was not speaking out loud. It came through the mind link and it came into my head like a voice in a room. “I am not going to fight your mate. I am going to make you a trade.”
I stood in the road.
“Say it,” I said.
“The company is forty men and a cannon and the cannon is loaded with silver shot,” Halloran said. “If your mate runs at us he will be dead before he reaches the first truck. If you call him off and you come into this circle and you speak the words of the old tongue and you claim the north stones for the Palouse, I will let the company stand down and I will go back to Boise and I will tell the Alphas of the north that the claim was heard and the land was the Luna’s.”
“And if I do not?”
“Then the cannon fires and your mate dies and the company comes down the co-op road and the whole of the territory goes with it.”
I stood in the road with the wolf at my side.
“You wrote the letter that killed my brother,” I said.
“I wrote the letter,” Halloran said. “And I have been in a cell since Boise and I have had a great deal of time to think about it.” He looked at me. “I am not asking you to forgive me. I am asking you to make a trade.”
And then Silas came out of the trees behind me.
“Alpha,” he said quietly. “Do not make the trade.”
I turned.
“What?”
“The cannon is not loaded with silver shot,” Silas said. “I have been in the trees for an hour and I have been watching the company and the cannon is not loaded at all. It is a parade cannon. It has no shot and no powder and it has not been fired since 1918.” He put his hand on my arm. “It is a bluff. Halloran is bluffing.”
I looked at the cannon.
It was old and it was green and it had a brass barrel and it was sitting on a carriage with wooden wheels and there was a rope tied around the barrel.
“Then why is he here?” I said.
“Because he wants the circle,” Silas said. “The nine stones are a founders’ circle and the piece of the boundary stone is in it and if he can get you to stand in it and speak the words of the old tongue and claim it for the north, the founders’ claim is renewed and the whole of the ruling in Boise is void.” He looked at Halloran. “He is not here to fight. He is here to make you claim the north stones.”
I stood in the road.
And then Elias moved.
He went down the road at a run and the company raised their rifles and Halloran turned and the whole of it happened in three seconds. I went after him and I put my hand in his fur and I held on and the rope between us pulled tight and I pulled him back.
“Elias,” I said. “Stop.”
He stopped.
He stood in the road with his fur up and his breath going and he did not take his eyes off Halloran.
“Good,” Halloran said. “Good. Now. The trade.”
I stood in the road with my hand in the wolf’s fur.
“There is no trade,” I said.
Halloran looked at me.
“Alpha,” he said.
“There is no trade because there is no cannon and there is no silver shot and there is no company that is going to fire on a pack in its own territory in front of the whole of the north.” I let go of Elias and walked into the road. “You have forty men and a parade cannon and a piece of stone. And I have a hundred wolves on the co-op road behind me and the heart of the territory in a vault and the whole of the Luna’s line in a pack house.”
Halloran stood in the road.
And then he laughed.
It was a dry sound and it did not last long.
“Beta,” he said. “You are right. There is no cannon and there is no silver shot. But there is a thing I have that you do not have and it is the piece of the boundary stone.” He picked it up off the flat rock. “And if I take it back to Boise and put it in the vault and the vault is sealed and the full moon comes and the heart is in the circle and the piece is in Boise, the circle does not close and the curse does not break.” He held it up. “So I am going to make you a different trade. I am going to give you the piece and I am going to go back to Boise and I am going to tell the Alphas of the north that I have seen the Luna and that the claim is true. And in exchange I want one thing.”
“What thing?”
“I want to be in the circle at the full moon,” Halloran said. “I want to stand in the circle with the Luna and the cursed wolf and the whole of the pack and I want to see the curse break.” He put the stone in his hand. “I have been on the Council for thirty years and I have signed four hundred claims and I have written the letter that killed your brother. And I want to see the thing I spent my life preventing. I want to see it happen.”
I stood in the road.
And then Silas stepped forward.
“Alpha,” he said. “I will take the trade.”
I turned.
“What?”
“I will take the trade,” Silas said. “I will take the piece and I will take Halloran to the circle and I will stand with him and I will answer for the whole of it in front of the Alphas.” He looked at me. “And I will do it because there is a thing I have been hiding from you since Boise and I am going to tell you now.” He put his hand in his coat and took out a folded paper. “This is a deed. It is the deed to the grain land. It was drawn in Boise in June and it has your name on the annex and it has the Council seal on it and it has been in my folder since the day I came to this territory.”
I looked at the paper.
“I know,” I said. “You showed it to the tribunal.”
“I showed the tribunal the deed,” Silas said. “I did not show the tribunal the second page.” He unfolded it. “The second page is an annex and the annex lists the parcels and the parcels are the grain land and the east field and the mill road and the circle. And there is a note at the bottom in the chief clerk’s hand.” He held it up. “It says the deed is void if the Luna is alive.”
The road was quiet.
“What?” I said.
“The deed is void if the Luna is alive,” Silas said. “The Council has been buying land from the Luna’s line for eighty-five years under a deed that says it is void if the Luna is alive. And the Luna is alive.” He looked at me. “You are the Luna and you are alive and the deed is void and every deed in the vault is void and the whole of the Council’s claim on this territory is void.”
I stood in the road.
“Then we do not need the circle,” I said. “We do not need the full moon. We only need this paper.”
“We need this paper,” Silas said. “And we need Halloran to swear to it in front of the Alphas of the north.” He looked at Halloran. “And that is the trade. The piece for the paper and the paper for the circle.”
Halloran stood in the road with the stone in his hand.
“I will swear to it,” he said.
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