Chapter 127: The Deed to the Mill

Silas came into the office at two o'clock in the afternoon with his folder under his arm and a paper in his hand and his face white.

“Alpha,” he said. “I have been going through the Council’s file on this territory since the archivist came down the ridge road. I have been going through it page by page and I have found a thing that I should have found in Boise.”

“Sit down,” I said.

He sat down.

“The deed to the mill land,” he said. “The one you signed. The one that has your name on the annex and the Council seal on it and the note that says the deed is void if the Luna is alive.”

“What about it?”

“It is not a Council deed,” Silas said. “It is a founders’ deed. It was drawn in 1891 by the first Silas and it has been in the vault since 1891 and it has been used by the Council for eighty-five years to hold the mill land.” He put the paper on the desk. “And there is a thing on the back of it that I did not see until this morning. There is a second annex on the back and the second annex is the deed to the whole of the territory.”

I picked up the paper.

“The whole of the territory,” I said.

“The whole of the territory. The founders drew the deed in 1891 and it covers the mill land and the east field and the circle and the whole of the Palouse Ridge pack’s land. And the deed is void if the Luna is alive.” Silas put his hand on the desk. “Alpha. If the deed is void and the Luna is alive and the whole of the territory is on the deed, then the whole of the territory is yours. Not the pack’s. Yours.”

I sat in the chair.

“That is not what I said in the chamber,” I said. “I said the land belongs to the pack.”

“You said the land belongs to the pack,” Silas said. “And the Alphas signed a deed that has every wolf in this territory on it. And the deed is in the pack house and it has been signed by the Alphas and it is the deed the pack holds.” He put his hand on the paper. “But the founders’ deed is older. And the founders’ deed is void because the Luna is alive. And a deed that is void is not a deed. It is a paper. And the paper does not hold the land.”

I sat in the chair.

“Then the land is the pack’s,” I said.

“The land is the pack’s,” Silas said. “And there is a thing about it that is going to make the eleven Alphas of the north very happy and the Gamma of the north very unhappy.” He looked at me. “The Gamma of the north is coming down the ridge road with three hundred wolves to call a blood debt. And the blood debt is a debt against the Alpha. Not the pack. The Alpha. And the Alpha does not own the land. The pack owns the land.”

I stood up.

“Then if the Gamma of the north takes me,” I said, “he does not take the land.”

“He does not take the land,” Silas said. “And he knows it. And that is why he is not going to take you. He is going to take the keeper.”

The office was quiet.

“The keeper,” I said.

“The keeper is the wolf who holds the circle. And the circle is on the land and the land is the pack’s and the keeper is the wolf who stands in the middle of the circle and gives the land its drop.” Silas put his hand on the desk. “If the Gamma of the north takes the keeper, the circle has no keeper and the land has no one to give it its drop and the curse stays in the pack and the whole of the territory is a cursed territory with no keeper and a pack that cannot give the land its due.”

I sat down.

“And the Gamma of the north knows this,” I said.

“The Gamma of the north knows this,” Silas said. “And the eleven Alphas of the north know this and they have been quiet about it because they want the keeper for themselves.” He put the paper down. “And there is a thing I have been doing since the archivist came down the ridge road. I have been writing the deed. The pack deed. The one with every wolf in this territory on it. And I have been going through the register and the crates and the whole of the Council’s file to find every wolf who has a claim.”

I looked at him.

“And?” I said.

“And there are two hundred and eleven wolves in this territory,” Silas said. “And there are one hundred and forty who have a claim to the land under the founders’ deed and the Luna’s deed and the Council’s deed. And there are seventy-one who do not.”

I sat in the chair.

“Then the deed is not every wolf,” I said.

“The deed is not every wolf,” Silas said. “The deed is the one hundred and forty. And the seventy-one are the wolves who came to this territory after 1891 and who have no claim under the old deeds.” He looked at me. “And the Gamma of the north is going to stand in that square and he is going to say that the Alpha of the Palouse Ridge pack has given the land to one hundred and forty wolves and left seventy-one out.”

I stood up.

“Then we find a way to put the seventy-one in,” I said.

“There is a way,” Silas said. “There is a thing in the code that the founders wrote in 1891 and that the Council has never used. It is called a grant of the land. The Alpha can grant the land to any wolf who has lived in the territory for a year and worked it. And the grant is not a deed. It is a gift.”

I sat down.

“Then we do that,” I said.

Silas put the paper on the desk.

“Then sign it,” he said. “Sign the deed and sign the grants and put the whole of the territory in the hands of the pack and let the Gamma of the north come down the ridge road and find that there is nothing left for him to take.”

I picked up the pen.

And then the door opened and June came in with her face white.

“Wren,” she said. “The Gamma of the north is at the gap. He has three hundred wolves and he has a herald and he has a paper that says the blood debt is called and the keeper is to be surrendered by dawn.”

I put the pen down.

“Then he can wait,” I said. “Because I am going to sign this deed first.”

I signed it.

Silas took the paper and folded it and put it in his folder.

And then he said, “Alpha. There is a thing about the deed that I have not told you.”

“What thing?”

“The deed is in the hands of the pack,” Silas said. “And the pack is the one hundred and forty and the seventy-one and the whole of the territory. And the deed cannot be taken by the Gamma of the north. But there is a thing on the deed that can.”

“What thing?”

Silas put his hand on the desk.

“The deed has a clause,” he said. “It is the founders’ clause. It is in the first line of the deed and it has been in every deed in this territory since 1891. And it says the land is held by the pack as long as the pack holds the circle.”

I sat in the chair.

“And if the pack does not hold the circle?” I said.

“Then the land goes back to the founders’ line,” Silas said. “And the founders’ line is you.”

I stood in the office.

“Then if the Gamma of the north takes the circle,” I said, “the land goes to me. And if the land goes to me, I am the Alpha of a territory that is mine and the pack has nothing.”

“The pack has nothing,” Silas said. “And the Gamma of the north knows it. And that is why he is not going to take the circle. He is going to take the keeper and he is going to make the pack give him the circle in exchange for the keeper.”

I stood in the office.

“Then we do not let him take the keeper,” I said.

“Then you had better go to the gap,” Silas said, “and you had better tell him that.”

I went to the gap.