ith my sleeve pulle

the gate and four more on the porch and old Tomas with his bad hip standing in the middle of the path because nobody had told him to go home.

hat the rider says. The envoy is ten

said withi

been riding since." Ruth held out the paper. "The rider bro

phas had appointed an envoy to conduct an inquiry, and that the envoy would hear testimony from any wolf of the p

a fine way to run a pack. Ask the warriors what

s reasonable. "Your mother sat through two of these inquiries

ther i

en waiting since dawn, and half of them think you went over the border to make a deal with the Çöl pack and t

think I should do

ou started. Not tonight. Not here. But soon, and quietly. The tincture is still in your pocket, or it is in Hank's pocket, and either way it can be got. Three pinches in the spring house and the Çöl pack is on its

have poison

d. "You are not your mother, Derya. That is not a criticism. But you cannot hold this

ing to come. All of them looking at me, and behind their looking, I could feel the thing I had been feeling since I rode in: they wanted a fight. Not all of them, and not the same fight, but there w

ords in my ear, and a folded paper in my poc

ure is gon

ows went up.

mething in my chest turned over when I heard it. "I stood at the border for an hour before dawn and I thought about what my mother would have done, a

moment. Then she said

es

he cree

es

the horses drink from it." Her voice wa

s I went, and now there was a hole in it and Ruth was standing in front of me lookin

to keep the horses off the so

and then I will leave you alone. The envoy will ask about the border. He will ask why the Luna of the Kızılta

s looking

ask what

spring house and an Alpha

d I thought, not for the first time, that she would have made a very good Luna if she ha

ther you touched

ears, though the yard itse

f you say no he will have his healer look at your skin, and if you say yes he will write it down and take it back to the Council." Ruth's voice was very soft. "

dy and patient as a second pulse. Behind Ruth, the hall door stood open and I could see the long tab

no mark,

breaths. Then she nodded,

k and I put my hand on the doorframe of Mira's hut to keep up

d, low. "What

son a spring and she

t change, but his hand tig

leeve down again out of habit, though it was already down. "Cal. I need

yth

look at it. Not with Ruth and not with the warriors. Just you and me and a lantern, tonight, after the en

hall with Ruth right now. He came up the road five minutes ago while you were in the hu

it stood a man in a dark coat with his hat in his hand, talking to Ruth on the step. He had silver hair. Even from the hut I could see it, bright as a coin in the morning su

across the yard our eyes met. He had pale blue eyes and a pl

was beginning to think I would have