Chapter 154: The Escape

The Council did not hear the keeper of the east.

The Alpha of the Alphas brought his staff down on the stone and said, "The Council is going to hear the keeper of the east in the morning. The Council has been sitting for two days and the whole of it is going to be decided at the next full moon and the whole of it is not going to be decided tonight."

And then he looked at me.

"Alpha," he said. "The Council has ruled that the keeper is to be held until the next full moon. He is going to be held in the pack house under Council guard and he is going to be held until the whole of it is decided."

I stood in the circle.

"You are going to hold him," I said.

"The Council is going to hold him," the Alpha of the Alphas said. "And the Council is going to hold the twelve from the room and the keeper of the room and the whole of it. The Council is going to hold the whole of the line until the next full moon."

The circle was silent.

And then I said, "No."

The Alpha of the Alphas looked at me.

"Alpha," he said.

"No," I said again. "The whole of the line is not going to be held and the keeper is not going to be held and the whole of it is not going to be decided by a Council that has been sitting for two days and has not read a single page of the register." I put my hand on my chest. "The east has been lying to the Council for two hundred years and the keeper of the east is standing in this circle and he has told the whole of it and the Council is going to hear him tonight."

The circle moved.

The Alpha of the Alphas stood in the circle.

"The Council has ruled," he said.

"Then the Council is wrong," I said.

And then the whole of the territory moved.

It was not the pack and it was not the line. It was the ground. It came up out of the stone and it went through the whole of the circle and the whole of the Council went down on their knees and the whole of the clearing was white.

And then it went out.

And in the dark I took Elias by the hand and I ran.

We went through the trees and into the east field and the whole of the Council was on their knees behind us and the whole of the territory was on their knees and the whole of it was dark and the whole of it was silent.

And then the Council got up and came after us.

We went up the ridge road and into the trees on the north line and the whole of the Council came after us with lanterns and rifles and the whole of the north came with them and the whole of the east came with them.

Elias ran beside me.

"Wren," he said. "You cannot run. You are carrying a child."

"I am carrying a child and I am running," I said. "And the whole of it is going to be decided in one night and I am not going to spend that night in a cell."

We went up the ridge and over it and down the other side and the whole of the night was behind us and the whole of the Council was behind us and the whole of it was hunting us.

We came to the river at dawn.

The river was wide and it was cold and there was a ford at the old mill crossing and the ford was the only way across.

Elias stopped at the bank.

"Wren," he said. "The ford is watched."

I looked.

There were lanterns on the far bank and there were wolves on the far bank and the whole of the ford was full of them.

"They knew," I said.

"They knew," Elias said. "The Council has been waiting for us at the ford since midnight."

I stood on the bank.

And then a wolf came out of the trees behind us.

It was old and he had a white beard and a burn on his face and he was the keeper of the east.

"Alpha," he said. "I know a way."

I turned around.

"What way?" I said.

"The east circle," the keeper of the east said. "It is not in the east. It is in the mountains and it is two days from here and the whole of it is a lie and the east has been keeping it closed for two hundred years." He put his hand on my arm. "The circle is open and the whole of it is open and the whole of the line can stand in it and the whole of it can be decided in one night."

I looked at him.

"The circle is in the mountains," I said.

"The circle is in the mountains," the keeper of the east said. "And the whole of the Council does not know where it is and the whole of the east does not know where it is and the whole of it has been in my family since 1802."

I stood on the bank.

And then the whole of the ford lit up.

It was the Council. It was forty Alphas and two thousand wolves and the whole of it was on the far bank and the whole of it was coming across.

"Run," Elias said.

We ran.

We went into the trees and up the mountain and the whole of the Council came after us and the whole of it was behind us and the whole of it was hunting us and the whole of the night was going on.

And then the mountain went dark.

It was not a cloud and it was not a shadow. It was the ground. It came up out of the mountain and the whole of the Council went down on their knees on the slope behind us and the whole of it was white.

And then the ground spoke.

It said: The keeper and the Luna are the land and the land is the keeper and the Luna. The whole of it is going to be decided in the circle in the mountains and not in the ford and not in the trees.

And then it went out.

I stood on the mountain with Elias beside me and the whole of the Council on their knees behind us and the whole of it was silent.

"The ground has spoken," the keeper of the east said. "And the whole of it is going to be decided in the circle in the mountains."

I looked at him.

"Then we go to the circle," I said.

We went up the mountain in the dark with the whole of the Council behind us and the whole of it on their knees and the whole of it was not moving.

And we came to the circle at dawn.

It was small and it was round and it was cut out of the mountain and there was a flat stone in the middle of it and the stone was warm.

And there was a wolf standing on the stone.

She was old and she had white hair and a cane and she was Ilse the granddaughter and she had been waiting for us since midnight.

"Alpha," she said. "The circle is open. And the whole of the line is here."

I stood in the circle.

"The whole of the line," I said.

"The whole of the line," Ilse said. "The twelve from the room and the eleven the keeper hid and the whole of the ones the east took. The whole of them are in the mountains and the whole of them are in the circle and the whole of them are waiting for the Luna."

I stood in the circle.

And then Elias said, "Wren. The Council is coming up the mountain."

I turned around.

The whole of the mountain was full of lanterns and the whole of the Council was coming up and the whole of it was not on their knees any more.

"Then we hold the circle," I said.