The Spring Between Us

Chapter 96: The Fire on the Ridge

We went up the mesa road at a gallop with the whole of the canyon behind us.

The fire was on the ridge above the border line and it was running down the slope with the wind behind it, and the sky above it had gone the colour of a coal. The smoke came down the road and the horses put their heads down and would not gallop through it, and we got off and went on foot with our jackets over our faces and the whole of the pack behind us.

The fire had started in the dry grass on the ridge top and it was moving fast. The wind was from the north and it was pushing it toward the border line and the Çöl side, and the first thing I saw when we came over the rise was that there was a line of wolves already on the slope beating at the flames with green branches.

Çöl wolves. Twenty of them, and Hank was in the middle of them.

I went down the slope with Sten and Berik and the Kızıltaş wolves and we got into the line and we beat at the fire with branches and with sacks and with our jackets, and we worked from the bottom of the slope upward and dug a trench with our hands in the dry earth. It took two hours. By the end of it my hands were blistered and my eyes were streaming and my hair smelled of smoke and there was a black burn on the ridge from the north fence to the border line.

And the spring house was standing.

We came up the road to it with our faces black and our hands sore and the spring house was untouched and the water in the basin was clear and running.

Hank came and stood beside me at the door.

"Started at the north fence," he said. "The wind took it down the ridge. If it had got over the border line it would have gone into the dry grass on the Çöl side and the Çöl pack house would have been in it."

"Who started it?"

"I do not know. There was nobody on the ridge. There was nobody on the north fence."

We went down the mesa road to the pack house and the yard was full of wolves who had come back from the fire and the Chancellor was on the porch and the clerk was beside her with his book.

And Ruth was standing in the middle of the yard.

She had been let out of the wagon. She was standing in front of the Chancellor with her hands still chained and her auburn hair full of ash and her grey jacket black with smoke, and she was talking.

"Chancellor," she said. "I have been in that wagon all evening and I have been watching the ridge. The fire started at the north fence and the north fence is on the Kızıltaş side of the border line. And the wind was from the north and it was pushing the fire toward the Çöl side. So the fire was set on Kızıltaş land and it was set to burn the Çöl pack house."

The Chancellor looked at her.

"Say the rest of it," she said.

"The Luna and the Alpha were at the border line together when the fire started. They were standing at the gate with the Çöl warriors and the Kızıltaş warriors and they were shaking hands and making a pact in front of the whole canyon. And there are wolves in this yard tonight who will tell you that the Luna and the Alpha went up to the ridge before the fire and came down after it." Ruth's grey eyes were steady. "I am not saying they set it. I am saying there is a story in this yard tonight that they set it together to burn the Çöl pack house and blame the Council. And there are wolves in the capital who will believe that story because it is the story they want to believe."

The yard was silent.

I came out of the crowd.

"Ruth," I said. "You are in chains and you are under sentence and you have just stood in this yard and told the Chancellor that the pack is telling a story about me."

"I have told the Chancellor what the pack is saying," Ruth said. "I did not start the story. I have been in a wagon."

"Then who started it?"

"I do not know. But I know where it started. It started at the north fence. There is a wolf in this pack who has been at the north fence all evening and who came down to the yard when the fire was at its height and who told three wolves that the Luna and the Alpha had been seen on the ridge." Ruth turned her head. "And that wolf is standing at the back of this yard with a grey jacket on and her hands folded."

The yard turned.

Wren was at the back of the yard with her grey jacket on and her hands folded.

Sten was on her before she could move. He took her by the arm and brought her into the middle of the yard and she did not resist and she did not say anything.

"Wren," I said. "Were you at the north fence tonight?"

Wren looked at me.

"Yes," she said. "I was at the north fence because I was let out of the record room by the Council healer before the Chancellor arrested her. She gave me a key and a lantern and she told me to go to the north fence and to wait for a signal and to set the dry grass alight when the signal came." She put her chin up. "I did it. I set the fire and I came down to the yard and I told three wolves that the Luna and the Alpha had been seen on the ridge."

The yard went loud.

The Chancellor struck the porch rail with her hand.

"Order," she said. "Order. The wolf has confessed. She will be taken and chained and she will go to the capital with the healer. And the Council will hear the whole of it in the open hall." She looked at me. "Luna. The fire was set to burn the Çöl pack house and to make the canyon believe the pair had done it. And the wolf who set it has confessed and named the Council healer. So the story she told will not stand."

"It will not stand in this canyon," I said. "But it will stand in the capital if the wolves who want the pair gone hear it first. The healer has already sent letters to the capital. She has already told them the pair is a fraud and the Chancellor is soft and the fire is the pair's work." I looked at Wren. "And there is a thing she has not told us. Where did she get the key to the record room and where did she get the lantern and who gave her the signal?"

Wren looked at me.

"The healer gave me the key and the lantern and she told me to wait for a light on the ridge above the quarry," she said. "And at midnight there was a light on the ridge above the quarry and I set the fire."

"Who was on the ridge above the quarry?"

"I do not know. I could not see. It was one light and it went out." Wren's chin came up. "But there is a thing I can tell you. The light came from the direction of the Council's storehouse above the quarry. And the storehouse is where the Council keeps its oil and its lamps and its powder for the mine."

I turned to Sten.

"Get the horses," I said. "We are going to the storehouse."

"The fire is out," Sten said. "It is midnight."

"The fire is out and the light was on the ridge above the quarry and the storehouse is where the Council keeps its oil and its powder for the mine." I was on my horse. "And if there is a wolf up there tonight with a lamp and a can of oil, then the fire on the ridge was not the last fire."

We went down the mesa road at a gallop with the whole of the canyon behind us and the smell of smoke still in our clothes, and the quarry was dark and the storehouse was above it on the ridge with the moon on its iron roof.

And there was a light in it.