Chapter 155: The Hunt

The Council came up the mountain in a line and the whole of the line was lanterns and rifles and the whole of it was two thousand wolves.

We did not stay in the circle.

The circle was small and it was on a shoulder of the mountain and there was no way out of it except down and down was where the Council was coming.

“Wren,” Elias said. “We cannot hold this.”

“I know.”

“Then we go down the other side.” He put his hand on my arm. “The old mill is at the bottom of the mountain on the north side and the mill is in the trees and the trees are thick and the Council does not know the ground.”

I looked at the keeper of the east.

“Is there a way down the north side?” I said.

“There is a deer track,” he said. “It goes down through the rocks and it comes out at the river above the mill.”

“Then we go.”

We went down the north side in the dark with the whole of the line behind us and the whole of the circle behind us and the whole of the Council on the other side of the mountain coming up.

It took us four hours.

The deer track was narrow and it was steep and it was not a track for a woman who was carrying a child and it was not a track for a keeper with a silver wound in his side and it was not a track for twelve wolves from a room who had not been out of a building in twenty-five years.

But we went down it.

And we came out at the river above the mill at dawn.

The mill was below us and the mill was in the trees and the whole of it was quiet.

“The mill is empty,” Elias said.

“The mill is empty,” I said.

And then the trees on the far side of the river moved.

There were wolves on the far side of the river. There were two hundred of them and they were in the trees and they had lanterns and they had rifles and the whole of them were waiting.

Arden was standing in front of them.

“Alpha,” he called. “You are late.”

I stood on the bank.

“Arden,” I said. “You are a long way from the Snoqualmie territory.”

“I am a long way from the Snoqualmie territory,” Arden said. “Because the east has paid me and the east has paid me well and the whole of it is going to be decided in one night.” He put his hand on his chest. “And there is a thing about the east that you should know. The east does not want the line. The east wants the circle. And the east has been waiting for the circle in this mountain since 1802.”

I stood on the bank.

“You are working for the east,” I said.

“I have been working for the east since the day the Council fell,” Arden said. “And the whole of it is going to be answered for tonight.” He raised his hand. “Take them.”

And then the whole of the bank went dark.

It was the ground. It came up out of the river and out of the mountain and out of the whole of the north side and the whole of Arden’s two hundred wolves went down on their knees on the far bank and the whole of it was white.

And then it went out.

Arden was on his knees.

And then he got up.

“The ground is not going to stop the east,” he said. “The ground has been stopping the east for two hundred years and the east has been finding a way around it every time.”

He raised his hand again.

And then the whole of the Council came down the mountain behind us.

I turned.

There were lanterns on the deer track and lanterns on the ridge and lanterns on the whole of the north side and the whole of the Council was coming down and the whole of it was two thousand wolves.

And there was no way across the river and no way back up the mountain and no way through the trees.

“Wren,” Elias said.

“I know,” I said.

“The mill,” he said. “The mill is behind us and the mill has a cellar and the cellar has a tunnel and the tunnel goes under the river.”

I turned around.

“The tunnel is in the Palouse,” I said.

“The tunnel is in the Palouse,” Elias said. “And the mill is in the Palouse and the whole of it is the same mill. The founders built a tunnel from the mill to the pack house and the mill is here and the pack house is there and the whole of it is under the ground.”

I stood on the bank.

“Then we go into the mill,” I said.

We went into the mill.

It was not the mill. It was the same mill. It was the mill at the end of the mill road with the tin roof and the broken door and the grain chute and the loft and the cellar and the whole of it.

“How are we here?” I said.

“The mountain is the Palouse,” the keeper of the east said. “The whole of the north side of the mountain is the Palouse territory and the whole of it has been the Palouse since 1802 and the founders built the mill on the boundary and the whole of it is the same ground.”

I stood in the mill.

“Then we go down the tunnel,” I said.

We went down the tunnel.

It was the same tunnel and it was the same round room and it was the same stone and the whole of it was warm.

And the whole of the line came down the tunnel behind us and the whole of the Council came down the tunnel after them.

And then the tunnel ended.

It ended at the round room and the round room had one door and the door was stone and the door was shut.

“The door,” I said. “The door opens with the mark.”

I put my hand on the door and said the words and the door did not open.

“Wren,” Elias said.

I said the words again.

The door did not open.

And then the keeper of the east came forward.

“The door does not open for the Luna,” he said. “It opens for the keeper of the east. The whole of it has been kept by the east since 1802 and the whole of it is a lie and the lie is in the door.”

I turned around.

“Then open it,” I said.

The keeper of the east put his hand on the door and said the words and the door did not open.

He said them again.

The door did not open.

And then a voice came down the tunnel from behind us.

It was the Alpha of the Alphas and he had a lantern and he had two thousand wolves behind him and he had a paper in his hand.

“Alpha,” he said. “The Council has ruled. The whole of it is decided. The keeper is to be taken and the line is to be taken and the whole of it is going to be put in the east circle at the next full moon.”

I stood in the round room.

And then the keeper of the east said, “The door opens for the Luna and the keeper together.”

I looked at Elias.

“Together,” I said.

Elias put his hand on the door beside mine.

“Together,” he said.

We said the words.

And the door opened.

Behind it there was a room and the room was the whole of the east circle and the room was not in the east. It was in the Palouse and it had been in the Palouse since 1802 and the whole of it was a circle of stone with a flat stone in the middle and the whole of it was lit.

“The east circle,” the keeper of the east said. “It has been here the whole time.”

I stood in the doorway.

And then the Alpha of the Alphas said, “Take the keeper.”

And the whole of the Council came into the room.