The Spring Between Us

Chapter 86: Two Generations of Bond

Nora took us out of the yard and down the road to a stone bench by the river, out of the lantern light and the sound of the whole gathering talking.

"Sit down," she said. "Both of you. I have been carrying this for nineteen years and I am going to say it once and then it is out of me."

We sat. The river went past and the lights of the Council hall were behind us and the whole of the autumn gathering was in the yard and nobody could hear us.

"The mark is inherited," Nora said. "I told the hall that and it is true. But there is more of it than I said and I did not say it in that hall because there were too many wolves in it and some of them were Council wolves." She looked at me. "Your grandmother was the first pair. She was the Luna of the Kızıltaş pack and she was bonded to the Luna of the Çöl pack and they were killed when your mother was in her belly. And then your mother was born and she grew up and she carried the mark and she was the second pair."

"The second pair were two Alphas," I said.

"The second pair were two Alphas and your mother was not one of them." Nora put her hand on the bench. "Your mother was the mate of one of them. She was the mate of your father. And I was the mate of mine. And the two of them were the pair and your mother and I were the pair's mates and we kept the pact with them." She looked at Hank. "And when they died, the Council man's father wrote a report that said the pair was broken and the pact was void. And it was not void. It could not be void. Because the mark was in your mother's blood and it was in mine and it was in the two of you and it did not go away when the pair died."

I sat on the bench with my hands in my lap.

"Then the mark is in my blood," I said.

"The mark is in your blood and it has been in your family for four generations and it has been in Hank's family for four generations and it is the reason the old clerk has been hunting this canyon for forty years." Nora looked at me. "Derya. The mark does not choose. The mark waits. It waits in the blood until a wolf is born who can carry it and then it comes up when the wolf meets the other one. That is what happened at the spring house. You and Hank met and the mark came up and the pair was made."

"Then it was going to happen anyway," Hank said. "If she had never come over that border. If I had never gone to the Council gathering. If we had never met."

"It was going to happen anyway," Nora said. "The mark was going to come up in the two of you and the pair was going to be made and the old clerk was going to find out and try to kill you both. He has been waiting for it for forty years. He wrote it down in his own report. The first pair must be removed before the third pair is born." She looked at me. "And there is a thing he did not write down and I have known it since the spring and I have not said it. The old clerk did not kill your grandmother's pair and your mother's pair because they were a pair. He killed them because a pair that is declared in the open hall can set the Council aside and he did not want to be set aside. It was not about the water and it was not about the seat. It was about the first volume. The pair is the only thing in this world that can stand in an open hall and say the Council has broken the pact and be believed."

I sat on the bench with the river going past.

"Then the third pair is the last one he can kill," I said.

"The third pair is the last one he can kill and he knows it and he is an old man and he has nothing left." Nora got up. "So tomorrow at dawn he is going to stand in that hall and he is going to say the pair is one wolf and one wolf cannot hold two seats and the Chancellor is going to rule. And if the Chancellor rules that the pair must give up a seat, the pair is broken and the pact is broken and the spring fails and the old man wins." She put her hand on my shoulder. "So there is one thing you have to do tomorrow and it is not about the seats. It is about the first volume. The first volume says the pair may be declared in the open hall once and once only. You have not declared the pair in the open hall. You declared it in a pack house in front of a pack and a town. That is not the open hall. Tomorrow at dawn you declare it in the open hall in front of the Chancellor and the whole Council and then the first volume is read and then the pair stands and says the Council has broken the pact."

Hank said, "And if the Chancellor will not let us read it?"

"The Chancellor has already read the Council's copy in the hall. She knows what it says. And she has been a Chancellor for six years and she has been hearing reports from that old man for six years and she has begun to wonder." Nora put her hand on her chain. "There is one more thing. The rings. The two rings are in my pocket and they are the seal of the pair and they must be on your hands when you declare the pair in the open hall. Not on your thumbs. On your hands. The pact says the pair shall be known by the rings on their hands."

She took the two iron rings out of her pocket and put one in my palm and one in Hank's.

I looked at the ring in my hand. It was worn thin at the back and it had the crescent on the bezel and it was cold.

"It fits my thumb," I said.

"It fits your thumb because you have been wearing it like a trinket. Put it on the third finger of your left hand and see if it fits."

I put it on. It went on and it sat there as if it had been made for it, and the mark on my arm came up bright and warm.

Hank put his on. It fitted his hand the same way.

The river went past and the lights of the Council hall were behind us and the whole of the autumn gathering was in the yard.

"Tomorrow at dawn," Nora said. "You walk into that hall with the rings on your hands and the marks bare and you declare the pair in the open hall. And then you put the first volume on the table and you say the Council has broken the pact and you set it aside. And the whole of the autumn gathering will be in that hall and the town and the packs and the clerk with his book."

She went back up the road to the hall.

I stayed on the bench with Hank beside me and the river going past and the ring cold on my hand.

"Hank," I said. "If we do this tomorrow, the Council will not be the Council anymore. Not for this canyon. The pair will be the law and the Council will be a paper and there will be wolves in that hall who will never forgive it."

"I know."

"And if the Chancellor rules against us and the Council stands and the pair is broken, then the spring will fail and the canyon will dry up and the packs will leave and the town will go and there will be nothing left in that canyon but a grave and a stone."

"I know." He put his hand over mine. "Derya. There is a thing I have been thinking about since the cave. The mark is a mirror. The old man said so on the bridge and I think he is right and I think he did not understand what he was saying. A mirror shows what is in front of it. And what is in front of it tomorrow at dawn is two wolves who have stopped lying and a canyon that has been told the truth for the first time in forty years." He looked at me. "So we walk into that hall with the rings on our hands and we declare the pair and we read the first volume and we see what the mirror shows."

I put my hand in his.

"Tomorrow at dawn," I said.

We went back up the road to the Council hall and the yard was still full and the packs were still there and the town was still there and the whole of the autumn gathering was still there and would not go home.

And at the gate a Council soldier was waiting with a letter in his hand.

"Luna," he said. "The old clerk has asked me to give you this. He says it is not a trick and he says you should read it before the hall sits."

I took the letter and opened it.

It was short. It was in the old man's hand and it said: The Chancellor will rule for you tomorrow. I have been to see her tonight and I have told her the whole of it and she will rule that the pair stands and the Council has broken the pact. And there is a reason I have done it. I am an old man and I am going to die in a cell in the capital and I do not want to die with the third pair on my conscience. The third pair is the last pair and I have killed two of them and I will not kill the third. But you should know that my son did not know what I was doing and that he has been my hand for forty years and that he is a fool and not a murderer. Let him live. That is all I ask. S.

I read it twice.

"Hank," I said. "The old man has gone to the Chancellor."

Hank took the letter and read it.

"He has turned," he said. "At the last."

"Or he has set a trap." I looked at the hall. "Tomorrow at dawn we will find out."

We went into the hall.