Chapter 164: The Silver Dagger

Silas ran and Elias went after him and the whole of the square went after both of them.

They went down the co-op road and into the co-op yard and Silas was fast for a wolf of his age and he was at the loading dock before Elias caught him. He went up the ramp with the blade in his hand and Elias took him by the coat and put him on the boards and the blade went out of his hand and skittered across the dock and stopped at my feet.

I picked it up.

It was silver and it was small and it had a handle of wood and the blade was thin and the whole of it was warm.

Silas was on the boards with Elias's knee in his back and his face against the wood.

“Silas,” I said.

“It is mine,” he said. “The blade is mine.”

“It is not yours,” I said. “It is the line's.”

“I am the line,” Silas said. “I am the great-grandson of the first child in the room and the whole of it is mine and the whole of it is going to be cut by me.”

I crouched down beside him.

“Silas,” I said. “Look at me.”

He looked at me.

“Why?” I said.

Silas was quiet for a moment.

“Because I have been the Council's pen for nineteen years,” he said. “And I have written four hundred and six claims and I have taken eleven packs' land and I have carried the silver out of a room and I have put children in packs and the whole of it is mine.” He put his face against the wood. “And if I cut the line and end the whole of it, then the whole of it is answered for. The whole of it that I did and the whole of it that the Council did and the whole of it that the east did. The whole of it ends with me.”

I put my hand on his shoulder.

“Silas,” I said. “If you cut the line you are going to die.”

“I know,” he said.

“And the whole of it is not going to be answered for,” I said. “The whole of it is going to be cut and the line is going to be finished and the whole of it is going to be one more death in the record.” I put my hand on his face. “The whole of it is not answered for by a wolf who dies. The whole of it is answered for by a wolf who lives and stands in the circle and tells the truth.”

He looked at me.

“I have been telling the truth since Boise,” he said.

“I know,” I said. “And the whole of it is not finished. The whole of it is going to be finished at the full moon and the whole of it is going to be finished by the whole of the line standing in the circle and letting go. And the whole of it needs you in the circle.”

He put his hand over his face.

“I am not the line,” he said. “I am the pen.”

“You are the line,” I said. “You are the line and the pen and the whole of it. And the whole of it is not going to be answered for by a blade. It is going to be answered for by a wolf who stands in the circle and lets go.”

He lay on the boards and did not say anything.

And then he said, “All right.”

Elias got up off him and put his hand out and Silas took it and got to his feet.

I put the blade in my jacket.

“The whole of it is going to be cut at the full moon,” I said. “And the whole of it is going to be cut by the Luna. And the Luna is me.”

Silas looked at me.

“And the whole of it is going to be cut by the line,” he said. “The blade is the line's and the Luna is the line's and the whole of it is the same thing.”

I stood on the loading dock.

“Then we are going to cut it together,” I said.

The whole of the co-op yard was quiet.

And then June came up the ramp with a wire in her hand.

“Wren,” she said. “The wire is from the east. The nine from the lake have been brought to the territory and they are in the pack house and the whole of them are going to be named at the full moon.”

I turned around.

“They are here,” I said.

“They are here,” June said. “And Wren. There is a thing about the nine. The whole of them are not dead.”

The yard went silent.

“What?” I said.

“The whole of them are not dead,” June said. “The east has been keeping them in the lake in a way that is not a drowning and the whole of them are alive and the whole of them have been alive for two hundred years.” She held up the wire. “And the whole of them are in the pack house and the whole of them are going to stand in the circle at the full moon.”

I stood on the loading dock.

“The whole of them are the line,” I said.

“The whole of them are the line,” June said. “And the whole of them are going to stand in the circle and the whole of them are going to let go.”

And then a wolf came up the ramp.

It was the keeper of the east and he had his arm in a sling and his white beard and his burned face.

“Alpha,” he said. “There is a thing about the nine that the whole of the territories does not know. The nine are not the line of the lake. The nine are the first nine of the room and the whole of them were taken out of the room in 1802 and put in the lake and the whole of them have been in the lake since 1802.” He put his hand on the rail. “And there is a thing about the room that nobody has told you. The room was not built in 1802. The room is the lake and the lake is the room and the whole of it is the same place.”

I stood on the loading dock.

“The lake is the room,” I said.

“The lake is the room,” the keeper of the east said. “And the whole of it has been going on for two hundred years and the whole of it is going to be answered for at the full moon.”

And then a wolf came up the ramp.

It was old and she had white hair and she was Ilse the grandmother and she had a paper in her hand.

“Alpha,” she said. “I have been reading the whole of the journal and there is a page I have not read since 1897.” She put the paper in my hand. “It is the page about your brother.”

I looked at the page.

“Owen,” I said.

“Owen,” Ilse said. “And there is a thing about the night he died that nobody has told you. About the lantern and the field and the whole of it.” She put her hand on my arm. “The whole of it was not what you think.”

I stood on the loading dock with the page in my hand.

“Then tell me,” I said.

And then she said a thing that made the whole of the co-op yard go dark.

“The whole of it was not Dale,” she said. “The whole of it was the east.”

I stood on the loading dock.

“What?” I said.

“The whole of it was the east,” Ilse said. “The whole of it was the east and the whole of it was a wolf in a gray coat and the whole of it has been in the journal since 1897.” She put her hand on my arm. “And there is a thing about your brother that the whole of it has been hiding. Your brother did not die in the field. He died in the lake.”

The yard was silent.

“The lake is in the east,” I said.

“The lake is in the east,” Ilse said. “And the whole of it has been in the east since 1975 and the whole of it is in the record and the whole of it is going to be answered for at the full moon.”