Chapter 159: A Quiet Morning

Elias woke on the fourth day.

I was not there when it happened. I was in the co-op yard with the whole of the pack and the whole of the line and a wagon of lumber and the whole of the west line to rebuild. I was standing on a pile of boards with a hammer in my hand and a list in my pocket and I was telling the Corrigan boys where to put the new loading dock.

And then June came running across the yard.

“Wren,” she said. “He is awake.”

I dropped the hammer.

I went up the ridge at a run and into Maeve's cottage and into the back room and he was sitting up in the bed with a blanket around his shoulders and his hair in his eyes and his face still gray and the whole of him was looking at the door.

“Wren,” he said.

I sat down on the bed and put my arms around him.

“You are awake,” I said.

“I am awake.” He put his hand on my back. “How long?”

“Four days.”

“Four days.” He pulled back and looked at me. “The east.”

“The east has withdrawn,” I said. “The whole of the Council has ruled and the whole of the line is the line and the land is the line's and the whole of it is going to stand in the Palouse circle at the full moon.”

He looked at me.

“And you?” he said.

“I am the Alpha,” I said. “The whole of the pack came into the square and went down on one knee and the whole of it is one pack and the whole of it is the Circle Pack.”

He put his hand on my face.

“You did it,” he said.

“I did not do it,” I said. “The whole of it did it. The whole of the line and the whole of the pack and the whole of the ground.” I put my hand over his. “And there is a thing I have to tell you. About the journal. About the whole of it.”

I told him.

I told him about the old Alpha's page and the curse being the hold and the whole of it being broken by letting go. I told him about Ada of the north and the grief and the whole of the line holding the whole of it since 1891.

And when I was done he sat in the bed and did not say anything for a long time.

“Letting go,” he said.

“Letting go.”

“I have been holding the whole of it since I was twenty-two,” he said. “I have been holding the curse and the trees and the whole of it and I have been telling myself that if I held it tight enough it would not get into the line.” He looked at his hands. “And the whole of it was never going to be broken by holding it.”

“No,” I said. “It was never going to be broken by holding it.”

He put his hand on my stomach.

“And the child?” he said.

“The child is not going to carry it,” I said. “The whole of the line is going to stand in the circle and the whole of it is going to let go and the whole of it is going to be finished.”

He put his forehead against mine.

“Then we have a month,” he said.

“We have a month.”

The mill was not rebuilt.

We had started on the co-op and the pack house and the whole of the west line and the whole of the north fence, and the mill was at the bottom of the list because the mill was not a house and not a fence and not a wagon of grain.

But on the first quiet morning in a month I went down the mill road with Elias and we sat on the stone step of the mill and looked at the trees.

The roof was gone. The walls were standing. The door was open. The grain chute was there and the loft was there and the cellar was there and the whole of it was quiet.

“I am going to build a room,” Elias said.

“You said that in the round room.”

“I meant it in the round room and I mean it now.” He put his hand on the step. “A room at the back of the mill with a door that closes and a window that opens and a bed and a shelf and a lamp. And a chair by the window.”

“And a crib,” I said.

“And a crib.” He put his hand on my stomach. “And a rug on the floor and a fire in the stove and the whole of it warm.”

I put my head on his shoulder.

“And what are you going to do in the room?” I said.

“I am going to sit in the chair and watch the wheat come up.” He put his hand on my hair. “And I am going to be the keeper of the circle and the whole of the line is going to come to the circle every full moon and the whole of it is going to let go and the whole of it is going to be finished.”

The trees moved in the wind.

“And the curse?” I said.

“The curse is the hold,” Elias said. “And the whole of it is going to be let go.”

I sat on the step of the mill with him and the whole of the morning was quiet.

And then he said, “Wren. There is a thing I have been meaning to tell you. About the mill. About the night I found you in the field.”

“What thing?”

“I was not looking for you,” he said. “I was looking for the stone. The curse had been dragging me north for four months and I did not know why and I was looking for the stone and I found a calf in a combine yard.” He looked at me. “And then I found you.”

I put my hand on his face.

“And then you found me,” I said.

He kissed me.

It was a quiet kiss and it was not the loading dock and it was not the barn loft and it was not the round room. It was a kiss on the step of a burned mill in the morning with the wheat coming up and the whole of the territory quiet.

And then June came down the mill road with a list in her hand.

“Wren,” she said. “The whole of the line is at the pack house and the whole of the Council is on the ridge road and the whole of it is going to be at the circle at the full moon.” She held up the list. “And Wren. There is a thing at the bottom of the list. The Alpha of the Alphas is coming to the territory tomorrow and he is going to name the pack and confirm the Alpha and the whole of it.”

I stood up.

“Then we are going to need a square,” I said.

“We have a square,” June said.

“We have a square and a pack house and a co-op and the whole of it is going to be finished by tomorrow.”

June looked at me.

“Wren,” she said. “The pack house has no roof.”

“Then we are going to put a roof on it,” I said.

The whole of the territory put a roof on the pack house in one day.

There were four hundred wolves on the roof and four hundred on the ground and the whole of the line and the whole of the pack and the whole of the ones who had been cast out and the whole of the ones who had stood with the Council. There were hammers and saws and nails and a wagon of shingles from Walla Walla and a whole of a keg of cider that Mrs. Pike brought up from her cellar.

And at dusk the roof was on.

I stood in the square with a hammer in my hand and sawdust in my hair and the whole of the pack around me and the whole of the pack was laughing.

And then Elias came and stood beside me.

“Alpha,” he said.

“Keeper,” I said.

“The roof is on.”

“The roof is on.”

He put his hand on my face.

“And tomorrow the Alpha of the Alphas is going to name the pack,” he said.

“And tomorrow the whole of it is going to be named,” I said.

And then a wolf came into the square.

It was the keeper of the east and he had a wire in his hand and his face was gray.

“Alpha,” he said. “The wire is from the east. The speaker of the east has called the whole of the east to the Palouse circle at the full moon and she has called the whole of the north and the whole of the west and the whole of the territories.” He held up the wire. “And she has called the whole of the Council and she says the whole of it is going to be decided in one night in the circle in the Palouse.”

I stood in the square.

“Then the whole of it is going to be decided in one night,” I said. “And the whole of it is going to be in the circle in the Palouse.”

And then the whole of the square went quiet.

“Wren,” June said. “The east is coming with four thousand wolves.”

I stood in the square.

“Then we are going to need a bigger circle,” I said.