Chapter 173: The Silver Cage

The east came out of the tunnel at midnight and took me in the mill yard.

I was alone. Elias was at the pack house with the register and June was at the cottage with Maeve and the whole of the line was in the square and the whole of the territories was on the ridge road and the whole of the Council was at the gap.

And the whole of the east came out of the tunnel and there were forty of them and they had silver on their belts and the whole of them were in gray coats.

I fought. I put two of them down in the snow and I broke a third one's arm and the whole of it was not enough. They put a silver net over me and the whole of it burned and the whole of me went down and the whole of it went dark.

I woke in a cage.

It was silver. It was a box of silver bars with a silver floor and a silver roof and the whole of it was about the size of a wagon and the whole of it was in a room with a stone floor and no windows.

And outside the cage there was a wolf.

He was old and he had a white beard and a burn on his face and he was sitting on a chair with a lantern beside him and he was the keeper of the east.

"Alpha," he said. "You are awake."

I sat up.

The whole of my skin was burning where the net had touched it and the whole of my hands were raw and the whole of the mark on my shoulder was cold.

"Where am I?" I said.

"You are in the east," the keeper of the east said. "You are in the room under the east circle and the whole of it is the room the whole of the east has been keeping since 1802."

I put my hands on the silver bars.

"What do you want?" I said.

"The whole of it," the keeper of the east said. "The whole of the line and the whole of the pack and the whole of the circle and the whole of the child." He put his hand on the lantern. "And the whole of it is going to be given to the east at the next full moon and the whole of it is going to be given by the Luna."

I looked at him.

"You are not the keeper of the east," I said. "The keeper of the east is the one who told me the whole of it. The one who told me the whole of it was a lie."

The keeper of the east was quiet.

"The whole of it was a lie," he said. "And the whole of it was a lie that the east has been telling for two hundred years." He put his hand on the chair. "And the whole of it is not going to be told any more. The whole of it is going to be the truth and the whole of the truth is that the east is the east and the east is the Council and the whole of it is the whole of the line."

I sat in the cage.

"The whole of it is not the truth," I said. "The whole of it is a lie and the whole of the ground has answered the whole of it."

"The ground has answered," the keeper of the east said. "And the ground is not the east."

He stood up.

"The whole of it is going to be the truth at the next full moon," he said. "And the whole of the truth is that the Luna is in the east and the whole of the east is the room and the whole of the room is the lake and the whole of the lake is the line." He put his hand on the bars. "And the whole of the line is going to be in the cage with the Luna."

He went out.

The whole of the room was quiet.

And then the whole of the room went dark.

It was not the lantern. It was the ground. It came up out of the floor and out of the walls and the whole of the room was white and the whole of it was warm.

And then the ground spoke.

It said: The whole of it is not the east. The whole of it is the line. The whole of the line is in the cage and the whole of the cage is not the east's.

And then it went out.

The room was dark.

And then there was a sound at the door.

It was not a key and it was not a boot. It was a voice and it was low and it was Elias.

"Wren," he said. "Wren, are you in there?"

"Elias," I said. "I am here."

"I am going to get you out."

The whole of the door came off its hinges.

It came off in one piece and it came into the room and the whole of the room was full of the light from the corridor and the whole of the corridor was full of wolves.

It was Elias and the whole of the line and the whole of the pack and the whole of the territories and the whole of the Council.

And the whole of them came into the room.

Elias came to the cage and put his hands on the bars and the whole of the silver burned him and he did not let go.

"The whole of it is silver," he said.

"The whole of it is silver," I said.

He put his hand on the bars and the whole of the cage was cold and the whole of it was silver and the whole of it was not going to be opened by a wolf with a key.

And then the whole of the room went white.

It was the ground. It came up out of the floor and out of the walls and out of the whole of the room and the whole of the cage went white and the whole of the silver went soft and the whole of the bars bent and the whole of the cage came apart.

I was on the floor of the room.

Elias picked me up.

"The whole of it is open," he said.

"The whole of it is open," I said.

And then the keeper of the east came into the room with forty wolves behind him.

"The whole of it is not open," he said. "The whole of it is the east."

And then the whole of the room went dark.

It was not the ground. It was the east. It was forty wolves in gray coats and the whole of them were silver and the whole of them went for the line.

Elias put me down and turned and the whole of the line went for the east and the whole of the room was a war.

And I sat on the floor of the room with the silver burns on my hands and the whole of my body burning and the whole of the it was the east.

And then I felt it.

It was in my chest and it was not the wolf. It was a second wolf and it was standing beside the first and it was bigger and it was older and it was the whole of the Luna's bloodline and the whole of it was awake.

I stood up.

And then I changed.

It was not the clean change and it was not the hard change. It was the whole of the change and the whole of it was two wolves in one body and the whole of it was the Luna's bloodline and the whole of it was the whole of the line.

I was a wolf and I was bigger than any wolf in the room and the whole of my fur was gold and the whole of my eyes was green and the whole of me was the Alpha and the Luna and the whole of the line.

The whole of the room stopped.

And then the keeper of the east said, "What is this?"

I did not answer.

I went across the room.

I put the keeper of the east on the floor with one paw and the whole of the east went down on their knees and the whole of the room was silent.

And then I changed back.

I stood in the middle of the room with my hands at my sides and the whole of the room was on the floor.

"The whole of it is not the east," I said. "The whole of it is the line. And the whole of the line is standing in this room."

The whole of the room was silent.

And then Elias came and put his hand on my face.

"You have a second wolf," he said.

"I have a second wolf," I said. "And the whole of it is the Luna's bloodline and the whole of it has been asleep since 1802."

He put his forehead against mine.

"Then the whole of it is awake," he said.

"The whole of it is awake," I said.

And then June came into the room with her face white.

"Wren," she said. "The whole of the east is not in the room. The whole of the east is in the territory and the whole of it is at the mill and the whole of it has the child."

I stood in the room.

"What?" I said.

"The whole of the east has the child," June said. "The whole of the east has your daughter."