e old well, a low square building of stone and juniper beams with a crooked

by the gate and asked Cal about the night watch in a voice I hoped sounded ordinary, and I let old Tomas tell me about his grandson's fever, and I stood in the morning sun and listened to two warriors argue about a broken axle on the ore cart. My wrist was b

e with her back to me, grinding something in a sto

it," s

on the stove with steam coming off it. Mira set down the bowl and wiped her hands on her apron and turned, and her round face was grey. S

not even kno

ow

y thumb up along the inside of my forearm, a thin line of silver that seemed to be lit from under the skin, and where it reached the crook of my elb

little. She turned my arm toward the window and bent her head and looked at the mark the way she loo

" she

know what

ck who came to me in the night with her arm wrapped in cloth because she was afraid to show it to anyone." Mira's voice was steady and her

Out in the yard

. "The Alpha o

t and her lips moving, and I could not hear what she was saying, and then she open

e a wolf that has

een run a

er into a cup and put something in it from a jar and pushed it across th

do you kno

d women used to say. When two wolves are made for each other the bond puts a mark on the skin the first time they touch, and from that hour they ar

down. "My mo

wrapped in cloth and asked me what I knew, and I told her what I have just told you, and she sat where

t my f

the same pack is a good thing. It makes the pair stronger and it makes the pack stronger. But a bond between two wolves of rival packs is a different animal. The old law calls it a truce bond. It means the two packs are bound through their Alphas, and no war

hing," I said. "If t

canyon in two generations. The last pair were two Lunas. Both of them died in the same year, and the story the

ave a low throb, as

ra asked. "Abou

the border, and somebody in this pack told the Council before I even crossed, because there was a

r your mother's body had shown anything unusual. I told her no, as I told you. She looked at me for a lo

said. "And the lette

hat I saw. I do not

him answer from the yard. My arm was warm under my sleeve and the warmth had stopped being painful somewhere in the last ho

ou before you went over that border, and I did not, because I am a co

ha

sked me one other thing. She asked me whether the mark on her arm could be cut out." Mira's hands were still on the table. "I told h

y small. "Anothe

ble and took my hand, and her fingers were still cool and still shaking. "Derya. Listen to me. If the Council learns that the new Luna of the Kızıltaş pack carries a truce bond with the Alpha of the Çöl pack

way. "You are tell

to be careful. The

d a night and my mother had asked a healer how to cut a bond out of her own arm, and somewhere out in the can

. "The two Lunas who died of the fever. Who

e. "Nora," she said. "Hank's mother. She was a girl when it happened, and he

ill go an

now, and if Ruth sees you cross it again she will have

ll not

had gone low and quick. "There is one more thi

actly as they had been, thin and pale and lit fro

rds, that it had grown into that shape over years. A new bond is not like that. A new bond keeps changing." Mira let go of my sleeve and stepped back. "The mark will grow. And the bond wil

when the knock came, three quick raps on the boards, and then Ruth's voic

ve heard about the letter, and there is something else. A Council rider came