Chapter 111: The Hunting Party

We took the piece and we took Halloran and we went back down the co-op road at dawn.

The company stayed at the gap. They had no orders without Halloran and Halloran was walking in front of me with his hands in his coat and his gray hair down and the wolves of the Palouse on either side of him.

Elias was still a wolf. He walked at my side with his fur up and his ears back and he did not leave the rope between us. He would not change back until the moon went down and the moon was not going down for hours.

We came into the pack square and June was there with the heart and the piece from the vault in her arms and her face white.

“Alpha,” she said. “The stones are cold.”

“I know.”

“They have been cold since the light went out.”

I put my hand in my pocket and took out the piece from the doll and the piece from Halloran and I put them on the table and the heart and the piece from the vault beside them and the four of them were cold.

“They are not warm,” June said.

“They will be warm when they are in the circle with the whole of them,” I said. “The old Alpha broke the stone into pieces and scattered them and the founders collected them and the Council kept them in a vault. And there are sixteen in this territory and four in Boise and the four in Boise are the ones we do not have.”

I looked at Halloran.

“The four in the vault in Boise,” I said. “Can you get them?”

Halloran looked at me.

“The vault in Boise has a founders’ lock and a Council lock and the Council lock has a key and the key is in the chief clerk’s desk and the chief clerk is in a cell,” he said. “But the founders’ lock is the lock that matters and it opens with a mark and the mark is on the piece in your hand.” He put his hand out. “Give me the piece and I will go to Boise and I will open the vault and I will bring the four back.”

I stood in the square.

“You are a wolf who wrote a letter that killed my brother,” I said. “And you want me to give you the piece and let you go to Boise.”

“I am a wolf who wrote a letter that killed your brother,” Halloran said. “And I am going to answer for it. But not before the full moon. I want to see the curse break and I am the only wolf in this territory who can get into the vault in Boise.”

I looked at him for a long time.

“Silas,” I said. “Go with him.”

Silas came forward.

“Alpha,” he said.

“You go with him and you do not let him out of your sight and if he tries anything you put a knife in his ribs and you do not stop to ask the Alphas.” I looked at Halloran. “And if you come back with the four pieces, you come back to a circle and a curse and the whole of the north watching. And if you do not come back, you are a dead wolf and your name is struck from the Council register and the Alphas of the north will hear what you did from a hundred wolves in this territory.”

Halloran took the piece.

“I will be back before the full moon,” he said.

They went at noon with a truck and four wolves and the piece in Halloran’s coat.

And then Mrs. Bell came running across the square.

“Alpha,” she said. “The company has moved. They are not at the gap any more. They are on the north road and they are coming down the co-op road and there are four trucks and forty men and they are carrying something in the back.”

I stood in the square.

“Carrying what?”

“I do not know. It is a barrel and it has a mark on it and there are two men sitting on it.”

I turned and looked at the north road.

“Elias,” I said.

The wolf was at my side with his ears up.

“Elias,” I said again. “I need you to change back. I need you to be a man.”

He looked at me and the amber eyes were steady and the wolf sat down in the square and put his head back and closed his eyes and the change began.

It took a long time and it hurt him and when it was done he was on his knees in the square with the coat over his shoulders and his hair in his eyes and his face gray.

“The barrel,” he said. “It is lamp oil. The Council uses lamp oil in its offices and the oil has a mark on it and the mark is the founders’ mark.” He looked up at me. “Wren. The company is not coming for the territory. It is coming for the circle.”

“The circle is in the trees,” I said. “It has been there for eighty-five years.”

“It has been there for eighty-five years and the Council has been looking for it for eighty-five years and now they know where it is,” Elias said. “Because we put the heart and the piece in it and the circle lit up and the whole of the north saw the light.” He got to his feet. “They are going to burn it. They are going to put the lamp oil on the circle and they are going to burn the trees and the moss and the stones and the whole of it.”

I stood in the square.

“Then we stop them,” I said.

“With what?” Mrs. Bell said. “Forty men and four trucks and a barrel of oil.”

I looked at the pack in the square.

“With the pack,” I said.

And then June said, “Wren. The company is not the only thing on the north road.”

I turned.

“What?”

“There is a second company behind it,” June said. “It is on the ridge road and it has twelve trucks and it is not Council gray. It is not the north. It is the Riverside pack and the Kessler pack and the Walla Walla pack and the Palouse pack and there are wolves on the ridge road from here to the gap.”

I looked at the ridge.

There was a line of trucks on the ridge road and a line of wolves and the sun was on them and they were coming down.

“Ruth,” I said.

“Ruth,” June said. “And Hannah. And Ada Kessler in a truck with a blanket over her knees.”

I stood in the square.

“Then we have a hundred wolves,” I said.

“We have two hundred,” June said. “And Wren. There is a thing you should know. I sent the wires.”

I turned around.

“What?”

“I sent the wires,” June said. “The day the Alphas ruled in Boise. I sent a wire to every pack that is the Luna’s line and I told them the full moon is the night and the circle is the place and the whole of it is going to be decided.” She put her hand on my arm. “And they came.”

I stood in the square.

“Then we go to the circle,” I said.