Chapter 162: The Old Alpha's Return

The whole of the north came into the square and the whole of the pack went to meet them and the whole of the square was full of wolves and silver and the whole of it was a war.

And then Harlan put his hand on my arm.

“Wren,” he said. “There is a thing I have to tell you before the whole of it is decided and I am going to tell you now because I do not know if I am going to have another chance.” He put his hand on his chest. “I did not die in the winter. The east took me in December and they put me in a room in the east and they kept me there for six months and the whole of it was a lie.” He looked at me. “And there is a thing about the east that I have to say to the whole of the pack. The east is not a territory. The east is the whole of the Council and the whole of the Council has been the east since 1802 and the whole of it has been lying to the whole of the territories for two hundred years.”

I stood in the square.

“And the marriage?” I said.

“The marriage is the whole of it,” Harlan said. “The east and the line were married in 1802 and the whole of it was a marriage of the circle and the whole of it has been going on for two hundred years. And the whole of it is going to be broken by a vow in the circle in front of the whole of it.” He put his hand on my arm. “And there is a thing about the marriage that the whole of the east does not know. The marriage was made with the Luna and the Luna was the fourth daughter and the fourth daughter did not consent. The whole of it was a marriage made with a wolf who was not asked.”

The square was silent.

“Then the whole of it is not a marriage,” I said.

“The whole of it is not a marriage,” Harlan said. “The whole of it is a taking. And the whole of it is going to be broken by a Luna who says no.”

I stood in the square.

And then the Corrigan boy came across the square with a blade in his hand.

He came at me and Elias took him and the whole of the north came and the whole of the pack went to meet them.

And then the ground answered.

It came up out of the stone and out of the whole of the square and the whole of the north went down on their knees and the whole of the east went down on their knees and the whole of the Council went down on their knees and the whole of the square was white.

And then it went out.

The square was dark.

And then the light came back and the whole of the north was on the ground and the Corrigan boy was on the ground and the whole of the east was on the ground and the whole of the Council was on the ground.

And there was a wolf standing in the middle of the square.

She was old and she had white hair and she was the speaker of the east and she had a staff in her hand and her face was gray.

“The east has been answered,” she said. “The east has been answered by the ground in front of the whole of the Council and the whole of the pack and the whole of the line.” She put her staff on the stone. “And the east is going to withdraw. The east is going to withdraw from the whole of it and the whole of it is going to be answered for at the full moon.”

I stood in the square.

“Why?” I said.

“Because the ground has answered,” the speaker of the east said. “And the ground has never answered the east in two hundred years.” She put her staff down. “The east has been holding the whole of it since 1802 and the east has been telling the whole of the territories that the ground answers the east and the whole of it was a lie. The ground has never answered the east. The ground has answered the line.”

The square was silent.

“Then the east has lost,” I said.

“The east has lost,” the speaker of the east said. “And the east is going to answer for the whole of it.” She turned to the whole of the east. “The whole of the east is going to stand down.”

The whole of the east stood down.

And then the Corrigan boy got up off the ground.

He stood in the middle of the square with his blade in his hand and his face white.

“The whole of the north is not going to stand down,” he said. “The whole of the north has been the north for two hundred years and the whole of the north is not going to be given to a wheat pack by a Council.”

He turned and he put the blade in his own hand and he put it to his own throat.

“The whole of the north is going to answer for the whole of it,” he said. “And the whole of the north is going to answer in blood.”

And then he cut.

I do not know how it happened. There was a sound and a shout and the whole of the square was moving. Elias was across the square before I was and he had the blade out of the boy's hand and the boy was on the ground with his hand on his own throat and there was blood on the snow.

“Maeve,” Elias said. “Maeve.”

Maeve came across the square with her bag and she put her hands on the boy's throat and she looked up at me.

“He is alive,” she said. “The blade went into the shoulder and it did not go into the throat.”

I stood in the square.

And then the whole of the north moved.

It was four thousand wolves and the whole of it was in the square and the whole of it was not standing down.

And then the whole of the east moved.

The speaker of the east came across the square and she put herself between the north and the pack and she put her staff on the ground.

“The whole of the east is going to stand with the Circle Pack,” she said. “And the whole of the east is going to stand against the whole of the north.”

The square was silent.

And then the whole of the north came and the whole of the east came and the whole of the pack came and the whole of the square was a war.

I stood in the middle of it.

And then the ground answered.

It came up out of the stone and out of the whole of the square and out of the whole of the territory and the whole of the north went down on their knees and the whole of the east went down on their knees and the whole of the pack went down on their knees and the whole of the square was white.

And then it went out.

The square was dark.

And then the light came back and the whole of the square was silent and the whole of the north was on the ground and the whole of the east was on the ground and the whole of the pack was on the ground.

And there was a wolf standing on the stone.

It was Ilse the grandmother and she had a cane and a shawl and she was standing on the flat stone with her hands at her sides.

“The whole of it is finished,” she said. “The ground has answered and the whole of it is going to be decided at the full moon and the whole of it is going to be decided in the circle in the Palouse.”

The square was silent.

And then she said, “And there is a thing about the full moon that the whole of the territories does not know. The full moon is not in three weeks. The full moon is in three days.”

I stood in the square.

“Three days,” I said.

“Three days,” Ilse said. “And the whole of the line and the whole of the pack and the whole of the territory is going to stand in the circle and the whole of it is going to let go.”

And then she said a thing I did not expect.

She said, “And there is a thing about the lake.”

I looked at her.

“What lake?” I said.

“The lake in the east,” Ilse said. “The lake the founders drowned the Luna in. It is not a pond and it is not a mill pond and it is not in the mill. It is a lake in the east and it is the whole of the line’s first home and the whole of it is where the whole of it began.”

I stood in the square.

“The founders drowned the Luna in the east,” I said.

“The founders drowned the Luna in the east,” Ilse said. “And the whole of it has been in the east since 1891 and the whole of it is going to be answered for at the full moon.”

And then the whole of the square went quiet.

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 lake has been opened and the whole of it is drained and the whole of it has been emptied.” He held up the wire. “And Alpha. There is a body in the lake.”

I stood in the square.

“Whose?” I said.

“The wire does not say,” the keeper of the east said. “But it says the body has a green scarf around its neck.”

I stood in the square.

“My mother wore a green scarf,” I said.