Chapter 177: The Last Witness

The Council came to the territory a week later and they did not come to the square and they did not come to the circle.

They came to the mill.

It was a small party. There were four Alphas and the Alpha of the Alphas and a herald and a wolf in a gray coat with a folder under his arm. They came up the mill road on foot and they stopped at the stone in the yard and the herald read the line on it and then they came to the door.

I opened it with Ilse in my arms.

“Alpha,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “The Council has come to hear the last of the whole of it.”

I stood in the doorway.

“The whole of it is finished,” I said.

“The whole of it is not finished,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “The whole of the room is closed and the whole of the lake is the line’s and the whole of the silver is the line’s. But there is a thing that the Council has never answered for and the whole of it is the founders.”

I stood in the doorway.

“The founders are dead,” I said.

“The founders are dead,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “And the whole of them have a witness.”

I looked at him.

“A witness,” I said.

“A witness,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “The Council has been going through the whole of the east and the whole of the room and the whole of the lake and the whole of the register. And there is a wolf in the east who has come forward and the wolf says she saw the whole of it.”

I stood in the doorway.

“Who?” I said.

“Her name is Clara,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “And she is a hundred and ten years old.”

I stood in the doorway.

“Clara Renn is a hundred and ten years old,” I said.

“Clara Renn is a hundred and ten years old,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “And the whole of her has been in the east since 1891 and the whole of her has been waiting for the whole of it to be answered for.”

I stood in the doorway.

“Where is she?” I said.

“She is at the gap,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “She is in a chair and she is not long for the whole of it and she has asked to see the Luna.”

I put Ilse in Elias’s arms and I went down the mill road.

Clara Renn was at the gap in a chair with a blanket over her knees and her white hair down and her hands in her lap.

She was a hundred and ten years old and she was not the Clara Renn I had known. She was smaller and thinner and her face was the whole of the winter and her eyes were the whole of the sea.

“Alpha,” she said.

“Clara,” I said.

“I am not the Clara you knew,” she said. “The Clara you knew was my granddaughter. She died in 1962 and the whole of her is buried in the churchyard and the whole of her name was Clara and the whole of her was the miller’s daughter’s line.” She put her hand on the blanket. “I am the first Clara. I was the miller’s daughter and the whole of me pulled the Luna out of the pond in 1891 and the whole of me put her in a wagon and the whole of me has been in the east since 1891.”

I sat down on the snow in front of her chair.

“You are the miller’s daughter,” I said.

“I am the miller’s daughter,” she said. “And the whole of me is a hundred and ten years old and the whole of me has been waiting for the Luna to come home.” She put her hand on my face. “And the whole of you is the Luna.”

I sat in the snow.

“The whole of it is not finished,” I said.

“The whole of it is not finished,” Clara said. “The whole of it is the founders and the whole of the founders are dead and the whole of them have a witness and the whole of the witness is me.” She put her hand on the arm of the chair. “I saw the whole of it in 1891 and the whole of it is in my head and the whole of it is going to be answered for in front of the whole of the Council.”

I stood up.

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

The Council held the hearing at the gap.

It was not a chamber and it was not a square and it was not a circle. It was the whole of the gap and the whole of the ridge road and the whole of the north field and the whole of the territory.

The whole of the Council sat in a row of chairs at the gap and the whole of the territories sat behind them and the whole of the line sat in front of them.

And Clara Renn sat in her chair with the blanket over her knees and told the whole of it.

She told them about 1891 and the mill and the cellar and the Luna. She told them about the founders and the deed and the whole of it. She told them about the wagon and the east and the whole of the lake and the whole of the room and the whole of the silver.

And when she was done she put her hand on the blanket.

“The whole of it is answered for,” she said. “And the whole of me is tired.”

The Alpha of the Alphas stood up.

“The Council has heard the whole of it,” he said. “And the Council is going to rule.”

The whole of the gap was silent.

“The Council rules,” the Alpha of the Alphas said, “that the founders are guilty of the whole of it. The founders are guilty of the murder of the Luna and the theft of the land and the theft of the silver and the whole of the room and the whole of the lake. And the whole of the founders’ name is struck from the whole of the record and the whole of the territory and the whole of the Council.”

The whole of the gap moved.

“And the Council rules,” the Alpha of the Alphas said, “that the whole of the founders’ line is the line and the whole of the line is the Luna’s and the whole of the it is the Circle Pack’s and the whole of the it is the ground.”

The whole of the gap roared.

And then Clara Renn said, “There is one more thing.”

The whole of the gap went quiet.

“The whole of it is not the whole of the it,” Clara said. “The whole of the it is the whole of the lake. And the whole of the lake is not the whole of the lake. The whole of the lake is a door and the whole of the door is the whole of the east and the whole of the east is going to be opened by the keeper.”

I stood in the gap.

“The whole of the keeper is Ilse,” I said.

“The whole of the keeper is Ilse,” Clara said. “And the whole of the keeper is going to open the whole of the circles and the whole of the it is going to be decided at the next full moon.”

The whole of the gap was silent.

And then the ground answered.

It came up out of the gap and out of the whole of the ridge road and the whole of the gap was white.

And then the ground spoke.

It said: The whole of the it is the line. The whole of the line is the keeper. The whole of the keeper is Ilse. The whole of the it is going to be opened by the whole of the line.

And then it went out.

The gap was dark.

And then the light came back and Clara Renn was on her feet.

She was a hundred and ten years old and she was standing on the snow with the blanket on the ground behind her and her white hair down and her hands at her sides.

“The whole of the it is not the line,” she said. “The whole of the it is the whole of the lake.” She put her hand on her chest. “The whole of the lake is a door and the whole of the door is the whole of the east and the whole of the east is going to be opened by the whole of the line.”

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

“And the whole of the it is not going to be opened by the whole of the line,” she said. “The whole of the it is going to be opened by the whole of the founders’ heir.”

The gap was silent.

“My father,” I said.

“Your father,” Clara said. “And the whole of the founder’s heir is going to be at the next full moon and the whole of the it is going to be decided by the whole of the line.”

And then she sat down in her chair and closed her eyes.

And then the whole of the gap went white.

It was the ground. It came up out of the gap and out of the whole of it and the whole of the gap was white.

And then the ground spoke.

It said: The whole of the it is the line. The whole of the line is the ground. The whole of the ground is the territories. The whole of the it is going to be decided by the whole of the line.

And then it went out.

The gap was dark.

And then the light came back and Clara Renn was dead.

She was a hundred and ten years old and she had told the whole of it and the whole of it was answered for and the whole of her was in her chair with the blanket on the ground and her hands in her lap.

I stood in the gap.

“The whole of the it is answered for,” I said.

“The whole of the it is answered for,” Elias said.

And then the whole of the gap roared.