The Curse of the Beta

e building with a bell tower that has never had a bell in it since the roof was mended after the great storm.

Alpha wanted her at the chapel she had said, "And if I do not wish to go to the chapel?" and I had said, "Then he will come down h

door that has a chip out of its rim from the year the sheep got in. Father Callum stood at the altar with his hands folded and his thinning sandy hair combed flat and his kind green eyes going from me to Clara and back. Ma

rcus said. "Than

understand I had

given a great gift. A first shift at your age is rare. A first shift on the island itself is rarer still. There are things you will see and hear in the coming days that will frighten you, and ther

long time. Then she said

as secrets,

ill this oa

are not alr

will swear to keep what I have seen to myself. I will not swear to be silent about what is done t

been at my shoulder for twenty years, and he said, "T

when it was done Marcus took her hand and said, "Welcome to the Cragmoor Pack, Clara. You will be watched over." And then he t

th Clara down the hill and talked to her about the village and the school and the price of herring, and she ans

ght. The tide is low at seven. She should see where it happened while it is fresh in her mind. Th

night," I said.

ver her. Unless you are te

aid. "I c

s warm, and then he turned and went on down the hill,

ay, who has my schoolteacher swear an oath in a cold chapel, wants me out

I said.

are you

because I would rather be out there wit

and something in her own face changed a little. "You

l of sur

d neither of us said anything until we came to the shingle and the water was running in the narrow channel between the shore and the island with a sound like something being poured out. I carried her over the channel on my back. She was lighter than she looke

d the wolf's table, and beyond it the low broken walls of something that had been a building once. There is a hollow in the stone of the wolf's

bowl and stood looking at the walls, and then she walked round the

that I did not recognize. I remember lying on this stone. And then I remember looking up and seeing the whole village lit and small and far away, and thinking that my eyes were wrong, because I could see a man in a window three streets off

t el

has been left in a room too long."

t on her face and the wind coming off the sea, and the rope between us pu

uth side. I saw the top of it when the tide was low yesterday. It has a mark

not go near

hy

d I do not know what they do. Because I heard you howl from the pack house two days ago and I have not been able to get it out of my head since. Beca

What do you mean, you

tly t

. You are all of the

out of me like a candle out in a draught. That is why Marcus has me watching you and that is why I cannot feel what I ought to fee

her chin and her blue green eyes fixed on mine, and she said, in her scho

oks, and while I was talking she lifted her hand and put her fingers on my bad arm, over the sleeve,

one under our f

table shook and the flame went flat. Clara caught my arm with both hands. The hum went up through the rock and into her and she gas

said three words in the old tongue that I did not unde

oming hard, and the hum went out of the rock the way a wave goes out, and the lantern came up, and the island was just an island again. She was shaki

on the hill with its windows lit, and at the top window of the pack h

in the dark and had been watching us the whole time, and I had told him I would bring her to the chapel and I had told him nothing about the door und

eyes were her own again, and they were we

id it c

my grandfather's name." She wiped her mouth wi