Semua Bab The Wolf She Silenced: Bab 141 - Bab 150

The rider came up the south road at dawn with a seal and a letter and a horse that was lathered white.I met him at the foot of the cairn with the whole pass behind me."Luna of Kırkkaya," he said. "I am sent by the Council of Alphas at the lighthouse.""The Council of Alphas is on the south ridge," I said."The Council on the south ridge is twelve Alphas and eight of them were bought." The rider held out the letter. "The Council at the lighthouse is the full Council. Thirty Alphas and their seconds and the seal of the Council itself. And the full Council has judged the Luna of Kırkkaya a rogue."The pass went quiet.I took the letter and read it.It was short. It said the Luna of Kırkkaya had laid a false bond and stolen a Council page and broken a Council seal and used a forbidden ritual to break the laws of the Council. It said the Luna was a rogue and the pack was open to any wolf who claimed it. It said a purse of silver had been offered for the Luna's head.And it was sealed wit

The howl came out of the pines and a hundred wolves came with it.They came down the coast road with their lanterns and their spears and their coats open in the wind, and at the front of them was a wolf I had not seen in two months.Barış's twelve.Aras was at the front with the scar on his chin and a spear in his hand."Luna," he called. "We heard the Council named you a rogue. And we came back."The road went quiet."You came back," I said."We came back." Aras stopped in front of me. "We went over the wall with the Beta and the Council lord and we took the offer and we went down the coast road. And then we heard what the Council did to the pass and we turned around."I looked at the hundred wolves behind him."You brought a hundred wolves," I said."We brought a hundred wolves." Aras looked at the lighthouse. "The coast road is full of wolves who heard what happened on the mountain. Rogues and hunters and wolves from packs the Council bought. They are all coming up the road."The r

Selin came down the steps of the lighthouse at dawn with her copper hair loose and a bag over her shoulder.I was standing at the foot of the steps with Cemal beside me and the whole coast still on the road."Envoy," I said."Not envoy." She stopped in front of me. "The Alpha of Çamlıca has withdrawn my title. He sent a rider up the coast road last night. He says the envoy of Çamlıca is the daughter of a traitor and the daughter of a traitor cannot speak for a pack."I looked at her."Your Alpha is a fool," I said."My Alpha is a frightened wolf who has been sitting in a chair for twenty years and does not want the Council to look at him." She looked at the road. "And I am not going back to Çamlıca.""Then where are you going?"She looked at the pines."I do not know," she said. "I have been the envoy of Çamlıca since I was six years old. I have been Fearchar's daughter since I was born. I have never been anything else." She looked at me. "And now I am not anything."I looked at her f

The healer's rite was spoken on the north cairn at dusk with the whole pack around the stones.Maren's grave was on the ridge above the pines, marked with a flat stone and a sprig of yarrow, and the whole pack had carried her up there in the spring and put her in the ground with her basket beside her.I stood on the cairn with the founding book in my hands and the words of the rite in my mouth.They were old. They were older than the founding laws and older than the cairns. They said that a healer who paid a debt for the pack was a healer who stood beside the Luna forever, and that the Luna would speak her name on the cairn at every full moon until the Luna herself was carried up the ridge.I spoke them.And then I spoke her name."Maren," I said. "Healer of Kırkkaya. She kept the page for six years and the vial for six years and she lied to the elders and she lied to me. And when the silver harpoon came out of the dark at the edge of the pines she put herself between it and the Luna.

The pack house was full by the end of the week.Not the old pack house with its one long room and its narrow stairs and its doors that did not shut. A new pack house. We built it in the pass with the stone from the old cairn and the timber the hunters cut and the clay the rogues dug out of the bank above the stream.It took nine days and it took every wolf on the mountain.And when it was done it was not a pack house. It was six houses around a fire, and each house had a door that shut and a window that opened and a hearth in the middle.I stood at the edge of the pass on the last day and looked at it."It is not a pack house," Cemal said beside me."It is not a pack house." I looked at the six houses and the fire. "It is a pack."He looked at me."You are going to be on the coast four times a year," he said."I am going to be on the coast four times a year." I looked at the houses. "And the rest of the year I am going to be here.""And who holds the mountain when you are on the coast