Chapter 125: One Last Night

I went to the pack house at noon and sat down in the Alpha's office with the door shut and the whole of the territory waiting outside it.

The archivist was on the road with forty wolves and the fourth stone and three days between him and the full moon.

I had a choice. I could ride out and meet him on the road and take the stone before he got to the circle. Or I could wait and let him come and take it in the circle at the full moon and let the whole of it be decided in one night in front of the whole of the territory.

I sat in the chair and looked at the map on the wall and I did not know which one was worse.

At dusk I went up to the circle.

Elias was on the flat stone with the blankets and the two stones and the whole of the Luna's line around him and he was awake and his eyes were his.

"Alpha," he said.

"Keeper," I said.

He almost smiled.

"You have been in the office all day," he said.

"I have been in the office all day."

"And?"

"And the archivist is on the road with forty wolves and the fourth stone and he is going to be at the gap by tomorrow night." I sat down on the stone beside him. "I can take twenty wolves and meet him on the road and take the stone before he reaches the territory. Or I can wait and let him bring it here and take it in the circle."

Elias looked at me.

"You are not going to meet him on the road," he said.

"How do you know?"

"Because you are the Luna and the Luna does not take a stone in a fight on a road in the dark. The Luna claims the land in the circle in the open with the whole of the territory watching." He put his hand on mine. "You are going to let him come."

"I am going to let him come."

"And then what?"

"And then the whole of it is decided in one night." I looked at the stones. "The archivist brings the fourth stone and puts it in the circle and the circle is whole and the curse can be given back. And the archivist is going to try to take the land and the whole of the north is going to be watching."

Elias was quiet for a moment.

"And the blood debt?" he said.

"The blood debt is heard at the full moon."

"Wren."

"I know." I put my hand on his face. "I know. The Council is going to ask for me and the whole of it is going to be decided in the same night and I do not know if I am going to come out of it."

He sat up.

"Then do not go into it," he said.

"Elias."

"Let the pack stand in the circle and let the whole of the Luna's line stand in the circle and let the keeper give the land its drop and let the curse break and let the land go back to the pack. And do not stand in the middle of it." He put his hand on my arm. "Let somebody else stand in the middle."

"Who?" I said.

"Anybody. Ruth. Hannah. The whole of the line." He looked at me. "You are not the only Luna. You are the Alpha and you are the line but you are not the only one and the land does not need you in the middle. The land needs the line."

I sat on the stone.

"There is a thing I have not told you," I said.

He looked at me.

"Say it," he said.

"When I was in Boise," I said, "in the chamber, when the Alphas ruled, I went out into the corridor and I sat down on a bench and I was sick." I put my hand on my stomach. "And then I was sick again the next morning and the next morning and I went to Maeve and Maeve told me what it is."

Elias was very still.

"Wren," he said.

"I am going to have a baby," I said.

The circle was quiet.

Elias put his hand on my face.

"You are going to have a baby," he said.

"I am going to have a baby."

"And you have been standing in circles and fighting wolves and running through fields and you did not tell me."

"I did not tell you because I did not know what it meant," I said. "I did not know if it was a thing that could happen with the curse and the bond and the whole of it and I did not want to put it on you when you were carrying the curse." I put my hand over his. "And then I told myself I would tell you when the curse was broken and then the curse was not broken and then the field lit up and then you were shot and then it was the new moon and I have been putting it off."

He put his forehead against mine.

"A baby," he said again.

"A baby," I said. "And I am going to stand in that circle at the full moon and I am going to break the curse and I am going to come out of it and I am going to raise this child in a territory that belongs to the pack."

Elias put his arms around me.

"You are the bravest wolf I have ever known," he said.

"I am the most frightened wolf you have ever known," I said. "I have been frightened since the calf in the combine yard. I have been frightened every day. And I have kept walking because the alternative was to sit down in the snow and let the Council win."

He held me.

That night we stayed in the circle.

The whole of the Luna's line went back to their houses and the whole of the pack went back to the square and the eleven Alphas of the north went back to the pack house and the keeper went back to her room under the ground and Elias and I were alone in the circle with the two stones and the light that was not there.

There was a bed of blankets in the round room and a lamp and a chest and the whole of the room was warm because the ground under it was warm.

We lay in the round room under the circle and he put his hand on my stomach and did not say anything.

"Say something," I said.

"I am going to build a room," he said. "In the mill. A room with a door that closes and a window that opens and a bed and a shelf and a lamp. And I am going to put a chair by the window and I am going to sit in it and I am going to watch the wheat come up."

"That is a good room," I said.

"And there is going to be a crib in it," he said. "And a rug on the floor and a fire in the stove and the whole of it is going to be warm."

"Go on."

"And in the morning I am going to get up and I am going to walk to the co-op and I am going to be the wolf who keeps the circle and the whole of the territory and the whole of the pack is going to know my name." He put his face in my hair. "And nobody is going to be afraid of the new moon."

I lay in the dark with him and did not say anything.

"Wren," he said.

"What?"

"Promise me a thing."

"Anything."

"Promise me that when it is done and the curse is broken and the land is the pack's and the whole of it is finished, you are going to sit down in that room with the door that closes and you are going to sleep for a week."

I almost laughed.

"I promise," I said.

He kissed my forehead.

And in the morning the archivist came down the ridge road with forty wolves and the fourth stone and the whole of the north behind him.

I stood in the square with the whole of the Luna's line and the eleven Alphas and the keeper and the whole of the pack and I watched him come.

He came down the ridge road at ten o'clock with a white flag and a herald and he stopped at the gap and got off his horse and stood in the road.

"Alpha," he called. "I have the fourth stone and I have an offer from the Alphas of the north."

"Say it," I said.

"The Alphas of the north will withdraw the blood debt and the rogue declaration and the whole of it," the archivist said. "And in exchange you will give them the circle and the land and the whole of the territory."

The square was silent.

"And if I do not?" I said.

"Then the whole of the north comes down this road at the full moon," the archivist said. "And it will not be forty wolves. It will be four thousand."