Chapter 169: The Familiar Stranger

I stood in the doorway of the mill and looked at the old man with the gray beard and the hat and the stick.

“My father died in 1969,” I said. “He died in a threshing accident on the west line and the men carried him up the road and my mother buried him in the churchyard and I was sixteen years old and I stood at the grave.”

The old man looked at me.

“I did not die in the threshing accident,” he said. “I was in the threshing accident and the whole of it was bad and the men carried me up the road and the whole of it was the truth. And then the Council came to the house and told your mother that I had died and the whole of it was a lie.” He put his hand on his chest. “I woke up in a room in Boise three days later and there was a wolf in a gray coat at the foot of the bed and he told me that I was dead and that I was going to stay dead and that if I ever went back to the territory the whole of the family would be taken to the room.”

I stood in the doorway.

“You have been alive for ten years,” I said.

“I have been alive for ten years,” he said. “And I have been in the east and I have been in the west and I have been in the north and the whole of it has been the Council and the whole of it has been the room and the whole of it has been the founders' line.”

I looked at him.

“The founders' line,” I said. “You are a Halloran.”

“I am a Halloran,” he said. “And there is a thing about the Hallorans that nobody has told you. The Hallorans are the founders' line and the founders' line is the whole of it. The founders' line is the line that came to this territory in 1891 and took the land and drowned the Luna and built the room and the whole of it has been the founders' line for eighty-five years.” He put his hand on his chest. “And I am the last of the founders' line and the whole of it is mine.”

I stood in the doorway.

“The whole of it is not yours,” I said. “The whole of it is the line's and the line is the Luna's line and the founders' line and the whole of it is one line.”

“The whole of it is not one line,” Daniel said. “The whole of it is two lines and the whole of it has been two lines since 1891 and the whole of it has been at war since 1891.” He put his hand on his stick. “And the whole of it is not going to be at war any more. The whole of it is going to be one line and the one line is going to be the founders' line and the whole of it is going to be mine.”

I stood in the doorway.

“You are my father,” I said.

“I am your father.”

“And you have come to take the whole of it.”

“I have come to take the whole of it,” Daniel said. “And I have come to take the whole of the line and the whole of the land and the whole of the circle and the whole of the pack. And I have come to take the child.”

I stood in the doorway.

“The child,” I said.

“The child is the heir,” Daniel said. “The child is the next keeper and the whole of it is the founders' line and the whole of it is going to be mine.”

I stepped out of the doorway and put myself in front of the door.

“You are not going to touch the child,” I said.

Daniel looked at me.

“Wren,” he said. “I am your father.”

“You have been alive for ten years and you have not come to the territory and you have not told me the whole of it.” I put my hand on my chest. “You let me stand at your grave. You let me stand at your grave when I was sixteen years old and you let the whole of the territory stand at your grave and you let my mother grieve for ten years.” I looked at him. “And now you have come to take the whole of it.”

Daniel stood in the yard.

“The whole of it is mine,” he said.

And then Elias came out of the mill.

He was in his shirt with the register in his hand and he came and stood beside me.

“The whole of it is not yours,” he said.

Daniel looked at him.

“The keeper,” he said.

“The keeper,” Elias said. “And the whole of it is the line's and the line is the pack's and the pack is the territory's and the whole of it is not yours.”

Daniel looked at him for a long moment.

“You are the cursed wolf,” he said. “You are the wolf who has been in the trees for seventeen years and the whole of it is the curse and the whole of it is the line.” He put his hand on his stick. “And you are not the line. The line is the founders' line and the founders' line is mine.”

Elias put the register on the step.

“The whole of it is not the founders' line,” he said. “The whole of it is the line and the line is the fourth daughter's line and the founders married into it in 1891 and the whole of it has been one line since 1891 and the whole of it is in this register.”

Daniel looked at the register.

“A book,” he said.

“A book,” Elias said. “And the whole of it is the record and the whole of it is the line.”

Daniel stood in the yard.

And then he said, “I have a deed.”

“A deed,” I said.

“A deed,” Daniel said. “And the whole of it is in the east and the whole of it is in the founders' hand and the whole of it says the land is the founders' line and the whole of it has been in the east since 1891.” He put his hand in his coat and took out a paper. “And the whole of it is going to be answered for at the next full moon.”

I looked at the paper.

“Then the whole of it is going to be answered for,” I said. “And the whole of it is going to be answered for in the circle in front of the whole of the territory.”

Daniel looked at me.

“The circle,” he said.

“The circle,” I said. “And the ground is going to answer.”

And then the ground answered.

It came up out of the mill yard and out of the whole of the mill road and the whole of it was white and Daniel went down on his knees in the snow and the whole of it was silent.

And then the ground spoke.

It said: The whole of it is the line and the line is one and the whole of it is not the founders' and the whole of it is not the east's. The whole of it is the Luna's and the whole of it is the keeper's and the whole of it is the pack's.

And then it went out.

Daniel was on his knees in the snow.

And then he got up.

“The whole of it is not finished,” he said. “And the whole of it is going to be answered for at the next full moon.”

He turned and walked down the mill road.

I stood in the yard.

And then June came up the road with a wire in her hand and her face white.

“Wren,” she said. “The wire is from the Council. The Council has received the deed and the Council has ruled that the whole of it is going to be heard at the next full moon.” She held up the wire. “And Wren. The whole of the it is going to be heard in the east.”

I stood in the yard.

“The east,” I said.

“The east,” June said. “And the whole of the Council is going to be there and the whole of the east is going to be there and the whole of the north is going to be there.” She put her hand on my arm. “And Wren. The whole of it is going to be heard in the east circle.”

I stood in the yard.

“Then we are going to the east,” I said.

“We are going to the east,” June said.

And then a wolf came up the mill road.

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.” She put the paper in my hand. “It is the page about the east circle. About the whole of it.”

I looked at the page.

“What does it say?” I said.

“It says the east circle is not the east's,” Ilse said. “The east circle is the line's and the whole of it has been the line's since 1802 and the whole of it is going to be opened at the next full moon by the Luna.”

I stood in the yard.

“Then the whole of it is going to be opened,” I said.

“The whole of it is going to be opened,” Ilse said.

And then she said a thing that made the whole of the mill yard go dark.

“And Alpha,” she said. “The whole of it is going to be opened by a Luna who is not you.”

I stood in the yard.

“What?” I said.

“The whole of it is going to be opened by a Luna who is not you,” Ilse said. “The whole of it is going to be opened by the Luna who is going to come after you.”

I stood in the yard.

“Who?” I said.

Ilse looked at me.

“Your daughter,” she said.