Chapter 122: The Wolf's Jaws

The old woman at the table was not Ilse.

She was older than Ilse and smaller and her face was brown and lined and her eyes were the pale gray of the north and she wore a shawl that had been mended in a dozen places and she had a pen in her hand.

“You are not Ilse,” I said.

“I am not Ilse,” she said. “I am Ada of the north. I am the keeper of the circle and I have been the keeper since 1897 and I have been in this room since 1897 and I am the one who wrote the journal that the Kessler pack has been keeping for eighty-five years.”

I stood in the doorway.

“The journal,” I said.

“The journal,” Ada of the north said. “I wrote it in this room and I gave it to the pack when the founders came and I have been waiting for the Luna’s line to come and read it.”

“You have been in this room for eighty-five years,” Elias said.

“I have been in this room for eighty-five years and I have not aged a day since I came in and I do not know why.” She put her pen down. “The room is part of the circle and the circle is part of the land and the land keeps what is in it. I have been keeping it and it has been keeping me.”

She stood up.

“You have come for the cure,” she said.

“We have come for the cure.”

“Then come and see it.”

She went to the shelf and took down a jar and put it on the table and opened it.

There was a thing in it. It was small and it was gray and it was a piece of the boundary stone and it was not warm.

“The cure is not a thing,” Ada of the north said. “The cure is a bargain and the bargain is this. The pack stands in the circle and the Luna and the wolf stand in the middle and the whole of them speak the words of the old tongue and the land answers. And the land will take the curse and it will not give it back.”

“That is what we know,” I said.

“That is what you know and it is not the whole of it.” Ada of the north looked at me. “The land will take the curse and the land will hold it and the land will keep it for as long as the pack keeps the bargain. And the bargain is that the pack stands in the circle every year at the full moon and gives the land its due. The land wants a thing and the land has always wanted a thing and the thing it wants is blood.”

The room was quiet.

“Blood,” Elias said.

“Blood,” Ada of the north said. “The old pack gave the land a wolf every year at the full moon and the wolf was not killed and the wolf was not harmed. The wolf was the keeper and the keeper stood in the circle and gave the land a drop of his blood and the land answered.” She looked at me. “That is the bargain and that is the cure. The pack stands in the circle and the keeper gives the land its drop and the curse goes into the ground.”

“A drop of blood,” I said.

“A drop of blood,” Ada of the north said. “And the keeper is the wolf who stands in the middle of the circle. The Luna’s mate. The cursed wolf. The wolf of both bloodlines.” She looked at Elias. “You.”

Elias stood in the room.

“Then I am the keeper,” he said.

“You are the keeper,” Ada of the north said. “And you will be the keeper for as long as you live and you will come into this room every full moon and you will give the land its drop and the land will keep the curse.”

I looked at her.

“And if he does not?” I said.

“If he does not come, the land takes the whole of him and it takes the pack with it.” She put her hand on the table. “That is the bargain. That is what the old Alpha made in 1897. It is not a bargain that ends. It is a bargain that goes on forever and it is the only bargain that keeps the curse out of the line.”

The room was quiet.

And then Elias said, “Then I will be the keeper.”

I turned around.

“Elias.”

“Wren,” he said. “I have been the cursed wolf for seventeen years. I have been the wolf in the trees and the wolf in the mill and the wolf that ran on the new moon. And if the price of being free of it is a drop of blood every full moon in a room under the ground, then I am going to pay it.” He put his hand on my face. “I am not afraid of a drop of blood. I am afraid of the trees.”

I looked at him.

“Then we take the bargain,” I said.

And then the room shook.

It was not the ground. It was the door. It was the stone door behind us and there was a sound from the other side of it and then the door came in.

There were four wolves in the doorway and they were not the Luna’s line and they were not the north. They were in gray coats and they had silver on their belts and the one in front was the older Corrigan boy.

“Alpha,” he said. “The Alphas of the north have offered a reward for the keeper and the reward is a seat on the Council.” He looked at Elias. “Give me the keeper and I will let the rest of you live.”

I stood in front of Elias.

“You are not going to touch him,” I said.

And then the Corrigan boy raised his hand and a wolf behind him threw a silver chain and the chain went around Elias and the chain was silver and Elias went down.

“Elias,” I said.

He was on the floor of the room with the silver chain around him and it was burning him and he was making a sound I had never heard him make.

“The keeper is mine,” the Corrigan boy said. “And the reward is mine.”

I went for him.

I did not have an axe and I did not have a knife and I had my hands and I had the wolf in my chest and I put the first wolf down and the second wolf down and the Corrigan boy got his silver knuckles out and he put them into my face and I went down.

The room spun.

And then I heard Ada of the north say, “The stone. Take the stone.”

I put my hand out and I found the jar and I found the piece of the boundary stone and I closed my hand around it and I said the seven words.

The room lit up.

The whole of the room was white and the Corrigan boy screamed and the wolves in the doorway went back and the silver chain around Elias went white and it came apart and fell off him in pieces.

Elias lay on the floor.

The Corrigan boy ran.

And I crawled across the room to Elias and put my hands on him and he was breathing.

“Elias,” I said. “Elias.”

He opened his eyes.

“Wren,” he said. “You used the stone.”

“I did.”

“The stone is the cure,” he said. “And you used it on me.”

I looked at the stone in my hand.

It was cold.

And then Ada of the north said, “The stone is spent. The cure is gone.”

I turned around.

“What?”

“The stone was the cure,” Ada of the north said. “It was the last piece of the old heart and it was the thing the land answers to. And you used it to break the silver and it is spent and the cure is gone.” She put her hand on the table. “The bargain cannot be made now. The curse cannot be given back.”

I sat on the floor of the room with the stone in my hand and the whole of it went cold.

“Then what do we do?” I said.

And then Elias said, “There is another one.”

I turned.

“What?”

“There is another stone,” he said. “The founders made a fourth. It is in Boise in the vault and it is the one the chief clerk kept for himself.” He put his hand on my arm. “Wren. We have to go to Boise.”

The room was quiet.

And then a voice came down the stair from the round room.

“You are not going to Boise,” the older Corrigan boy said.

I looked up.

He was standing at the top of the stair with a rifle in his hands and behind him there were twenty wolves.

“The Alphas of the north have offered a reward for the Luna too,” he said. “And I am going to collect it.”