fork in the path bef

d him and his hands folded in front of his coat. The sun had come up properly by then and the mist was gone, and th

ind you on the road this morning. You h

an to

ors fell in behind us without being told. "Nine days. Bram is a hard man. I argued against the timing, of course. I said the pack shoul

his coat was good wool and he smelled of cedar and clean linen, an

western line. A rogue, killed, left in the heather. And the only wolf who watches that

not kil

for you. That is the trouble with an exile. He has no friends to vouch for him, and a man with no friends is

hind us stopped. I turned and

who have had too much of both. The Alpha will be surrounded from morning till night. She will need someone at her shoulder who is not a warrior and not a Councilman. Someone who can walk her down to the challenge stone and back without the cr

d the two warriors behind him. It was a kindness. It was the first kindness anyone from th

me?"

ece go into a challenge she may not win, and I am tired of the Council's questions, and I am tired of being the man who has to answer for a fire that happened fifteen years ago every time a rogue dies on a borde

s practiced it in the mirror. And under it, faint, I caught the someth

s coat by accident. It was the one thing that could poison a wolf, and the Council kept it locked

odded slowly and said, "I w

s at noon. Be at the pack house by eleven and I will have a coat for you.

fork. I stood there until they were out of sight, and then I t

s bent over the bank. There was smoke coming from her chimney and a line of drying herbs along the

ot, and her eyes were brown and clear and had looked at me the same way si

ter in a pot on the stove, and there were bundles of dried leaves hanging from the beams and

r," Mara said. S

hav

rom the pot into a cup and set it in front of me. "

de my eyes water and it warmed me a

fated bond is not a thing that hides. It shows on the face and it shows in the scent and it shows in the way

ace at her sh

ent tight. "An

ook

mell anyth

cup down.

looked at the fire. "There is something you should know before today. The cairn that is missing from your border. It was moved the year before the fire. I helped move

ard. "Why did

." She looked at me. "And because he

through a gap in the door and sat

under it

ook down a small wooden box and set it on

d, and the box stayed, and the cairn stayed, and I have watched you walk past it for fifteen years and said nothing." She pushed the box across the table. "But I know one thing. The night he died,

e, and there was a mark burned into the lid. A sma

name?"

"He said, 'Tell Callum the girl is saf

my hand on it. I could feel the grain of the wood under my

e I knew said, "Mara. The Council has sent me to ask you

nd a bruise coming up on his jaw, and he was looking at the box on the table and then

doing in the healer's cottage wit