The Rogue He Claimed

Chapter 73: A Challenge Issued

The howl came again at midday, and this time it was not from the ridge.

It came from the north road, and it was answered by a second howl and a third, and by the time the sun was at its highest there were wolves on the road in a line that went back into the hills.

Callum had not gone to the Blackridge Pack. He had gone to the ford and he had turned his wolves around and he had come back.

Finn was on the wall when the first of them came into sight. I climbed up beside him and looked at the line.

"How many?" I said.

"Forty. Maybe fifty." Finn's voice was flat. "He has been gathering them for a year. He did not bring them all to the ford. He kept some back."

Alban came up the ladder behind us.

"He is flying a banner," he said.

I looked. There was a banner at the front of the line, dark red with a silver crescent on it.

"That is the Council's banner," Alban said. "He is claiming Council authority."

"He does not have Council authority," Finn said.

"He has the banner. In the old law, a Council member who flies the banner is acting on the Council's behalf until the Council says otherwise." Alban's face was grey. "It is a formality. It is a very old formality. But it is the law."

The line of wolves stopped at the ford and did not come closer.

A single rider came up the road. It was not Callum. It was a young wolf in a dark red cloak, and he rode up to the gate and stopped and did not dismount.

"I have a message from Callum of the Council," he said. "He issues a formal challenge for the territory of the Cairn Pack. He claims the territory is forfeit because the pack has broken the old agreements and harboured a rogue. He will meet the Alpha of the Cairn Pack or his champion at the ford at dawn tomorrow. The winner takes the territory."

The yard was silent.

"Who is the champion?" Finn said.

"The Alpha of the Cairn Pack or his heir," the rider said. "Callum will meet either."

Finn looked at me.

"I will meet him," he said.

"No," Alban said. "You will not."

The rider looked at him.

"The challenge is issued to the Alpha or his heir," he said. "It is not issued to the Council."

"Then the Alpha will answer it," Angus said.

We all turned. Angus was standing at the bottom of the ladder with his grey hair loose and his face set.

"Father," Finn said.

"I am the Alpha of the Cairn Pack," Angus said. "The challenge is mine to answer."

"You cannot fight him. You are sixty-two years old and he is forty-five and he has been fighting duels since before you were grey."

"I know how old I am." Angus climbed the ladder and stood beside us on the wall. He looked out at the line of wolves at the ford and his face did not change. "I have been the Alpha of this pack for thirty years. I have made mistakes. I have kept secrets. I have let wolves die for a debt I could have stopped." He looked at Finn. "But I have never run from a challenge and I am not going to start now."

"Father."

"Finn." Angus put his hand on his son's shoulder. "You have been the better wolf for weeks. You have been braver than I was and you have been right when I was wrong. But this is mine. This is the last thing I can do for this pack."

Finn looked at him.

"You will die," he said.

"Perhaps." Angus looked at the ford. "But I will die as the Alpha of the Cairn Pack, and if I win, the glen is safe. And if I lose, you will be the Alpha, and you will be a better one than I ever was."

The yard was silent.

"Angus," Maeve said.

Angus turned to look at her.

"You do not have to do this," she said.

"I do." Angus looked at her for a long moment. "I have spent thirty years being afraid. I am not going to be afraid at the end."

He climbed down the ladder and walked across the yard toward the pack house. The wolves parted for him.

Finn stood on the wall with his hands on the stone and his face white.

"Finn," I said.

"He is going to die," he said.

"You do not know that."

"He is sixty-two years old and he has not fought a duel in twenty years. Callum has been fighting duels since he was a boy." Finn's voice was rough. "He is going to die and there is nothing I can do about it."

I put my hand on his arm.

"Then we make sure he has the best chance he can have," I said. "We train him tonight. We find out what Callum does and we teach him how to answer it. And if he cannot win, then we make sure that Callum does not walk away from that ford."

Finn looked at me.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that a duel has rules," I said. "And I have never been very good at rules."

The rider was still at the gate.

"Tell Callum," I said, "that the Alpha of the Cairn Pack accepts his challenge."

The rider nodded and rode away.

Finn turned to me.

"Elara," he said.

"Come on," I said. "We have until dawn."

We went down into the yard. Angus was standing in the middle of it with his sword in his hand and his grey hair loose and his face calm.

"Angus," I said. "Show me how you fight."

He looked at me.

"You are a rogue," he said.

"I am a rogue who has been fighting for her life for three years," I said. "And I am going to teach you how to win."

Angus looked at me for a long moment.

Then he smiled. It was the first real smile I had seen from him.

"Then teach me," he said.