The Spring Between Us

Chapter 92: Ruth's First Move

Cal stood in the ring with his hands at his sides and his sandy hair standing up and his face flushed with the firelight, and he said, "Ruth. I was in the hall the night the Luna bit me and I was in the mine when the roof came down and I was in the yard when the pack voted and I have been with her through all of it. And I have a thing to say to you that I have been holding since the funeral."

Ruth looked at him.

"Say it," she said.

"You put a rope on the Luna's mother and you put a rope on Helle and you put wolfsbane in a cup that killed a man with children." Cal's voice was steady. "And then you came up this road tonight with a knife at your belt and a challenge on your lips and you stood in this circle and said it all to our faces. And I am seventeen years old and I have never been in a circle before and I do not know what the old law says about forgiving. But I know what my mother would have said. She would have said that a wolf who says it to your face is a wolf you can bury properly."

The ring was silent.

"That is all I have," Cal said, and stepped back.

And then Inge came forward, and Berik, and Sten, and one by one the pack came into the ring and said what they had to say to Ruth. Some of them forgave her and some of them did not and old Tomas said he would not spit on her and Arne's wife came forward with her children behind her and stood in front of Ruth for a long time and then said, "I will not forgive you. But I will not follow you either. That is the most you will get from me."

Ruth took it. She stood in the middle of the ring and took all of it, and when the last wolf had spoken and the fire had burned down and the sky was going grey, she said, "Thank you. All of you. I have heard it and I will carry it to the capital."

The Chancellor came forward.

"The circle is closed," she said. "The Beta will go back to the wagon and the Council will take her to the capital and the autumn gathering will rule on her there." She looked at Ruth. "You will be chained to the wagon and you will not be let out of it until we reach the capital. That is the most mercy I can give you."

Ruth nodded. Sten took her by the arm and walked her to the gate, and the whole of the canyon watched her go.

And then Ruth stopped at the gate and turned.

"Luna," she said. "One more thing. It is not a challenge and it is not a confession. It is a warning." She looked at Cal. "The boy. He has been at your side since the spring and he is young and he is brave and he has no idea how to keep his mouth shut. There are wolves in this canyon who will use him to get to you. They will tell him a thing and he will believe it and he will bring it to you and you will believe it because it comes from him." She looked at me. "Watch him. Not because he will betray you. Because he will be used and he will not know it until it is too late."

Sten pulled her toward the wagon.

Cal said, "That is a fine thing to say about a wolf when you are standing at the gate in irons."

"I am not saying it to hurt you," Ruth said. "I am saying it because I did it. I found a boy in this pack who believed me and I used him and he is dead now and his name was Arne." She looked at Cal. "So watch your mouth and watch your friends and do not believe a thing because a wolf you like told it to you."

They put her in the wagon and chained her to the rail and the wagon went down the mesa road with four soldiers around it.

The yard emptied. The whole of the autumn gathering went down the road to the town and the Chancellor went with them, and the pack went into the hall and the fire was put out and the stones of the circle were carried back to the wall.

And in the morning Cal came to me with his face grey.

"Luna," he said. "There is a thing I have to tell you and I have been carrying it since the circle. When Ruth said what she said at the gate, there was a wolf standing behind me in the crowd. It was Wren. And she said a thing to me in the dark and I did not think about it until this morning."

"What did she say?"

"She said that the Alpha of the Çöl pack has been meeting with the Council healer in secret. She said she saw them at the Council hall in the capital the night before the ruling. And she said the Council healer has a paper that says the mark on your arm is not a bond mark but a brand that the Alpha put on you to hold you to him."

I stood in the hall doorway and looked at him.

"And you believed her?" I said.

"I did not believe her." Cal's face was flushed. "I told her she was a liar and I walked away. But then I thought about it all night and I could not stop thinking about it and this morning I went to Mira and I asked her if a mark could be put on a wolf by a hand."

"And what did Mira say?"

"She said a mark could be put on a wolf by a hot iron and that it would look like a burn and not like a bond mark." Cal's hands were shaking. "And then she said a thing that made my blood go cold. She said that she had seen the mark on your arm the first night and that it looked like a bond mark and that she had watched it grow and that it was a bond mark and that Wren was lying. But she said it in a way that made me think she had been asked the question before."

"Asked by who?"

"By Wren. Wren has been going around the pack since the circle. She has been going around asking questions in the dark and telling wolves a thing and then asking them what they think. She has been doing it for two days and there are wolves in this pack who are saying that the mark on your arm is a brand."

I went out into the yard.

The pack was in the yard. And Wren was standing in the middle of it with her grey jacket on and her chin up and a group of wolves around her, and she was talking.