The Border He Kept

n my mind and the scent of her on my skin, and t

ad been trampled flat by whoever had come to look at him and then left again. The Council's people had not taken the body. They had put a

d candle wax. His shirt was open and the wound ran from his collarbone down to his belt, and the heather under him was black

his nails and calluses on his palms from digging and climbing, and this one had neither. His

rom the south and it brought me the body and the heather and the w

hen you move them. It was in the wool of his collar, a pale

pled grass, no scent of another wolf in the heather. Whoever had killed him had done it on the far side and left him where he fell, and the Council would want t

fire and ate bread and cheese standing up, an

d not want

again. He showed me her hand on my sleeve. He showed me her grey eyes in the grey morning light, close enough that I could s

ough the nose, count four, hold, out through the mouth. She had taught me that in the healer's cottage with the fire going and a pot of somethin

om. There had n

ed. The wind came off the moor and found the gap in the roof that I had never

ack, and I wanted to run west along the line to the place where the path came down from the pack house, and I wanted to s

ones in the wall behind the stove, one hundred and twelve of them, and by the time I had counte

oke, it was dawn, the fire was out,

red beard wet with mist, his face grey under the freckles,

rd w

k at my face. "The warrior who stood up at the gathering. The one with the shaved head. His name is Bram, he i

s. That is not a friendly challenge. That is

Beta, and he filled the bothy the way a boulder fills a stream. "The Council has to approve a challenge, and Fergus has approved it already. He says it is

the A

beard with the flat of his hand. "Callum. Bram is not a warrior who fights for honor. He is a wolf who fights for money. He has done it before, in th

on the floor. Nine days. She had stood in front of the whole pack and said

u telling m

I saw Fergus by the old pack house that night. Before the fire. I saw him come out of the trees at the back of the house with a can in his hand and I told myself it was lamp oil

hear the burn running down in th

w him,"

There is no proof. But I saw what I saw, and I have spent fifteen years telling myself it was nothing, a

he chair. My le

of the warriors at the gate. There was a rogue on the western line the night before last, a young one, and the Council has said he was killed by a wolf from the Cairn pack. The Council has not named the wolf. But I know how Fergu

le beside the knife, dark leather, lined with someth

days,"

e da

to a paid wolf, or watches her win and knows she is strong.

answer. He di

k the knife off the table and put it in my belt, and I opened the door

you going?"

then I am going to the pac

ergus sees the border guard at her door while she is training for a challenge, he

my sleeve, and then at

ncle is." I stepped out into the mist. "She told me to look at her before I answered a single question. She stood in front of two hundred

when he called after me, and his

has not mentioned to anyone. He has a piece of white quartz in