Trapped by the Bond

the rain thin out and the wind change direction and the lodge settle around me. Every so often a door ope

in the Council offices. Knew. The Council does not advertise its auditors. My name is not on a door anywhere. I had arri

ed in cold water, and

eer. Isla was already there. Her black hair was tied back properly now, and she had a white apron over her jumper and a morta

You fell off the wall because you were showing o

ot showi

. That is showing off." She wiped the cut and the boy h

t look up until the plaster was taped, and when

she said. "Yo

k to you before

n ta

, glancing back twice. Isla wiped

know my na

uncil letter. It arr

r father read it out to the pack, I imagine, and no one in that hall thought about the word until I

olf that the Council was building a file on us. He said there was one auditor they always sent when a pack needed taking apart, and he described him

not usually a comfort. "And what were

r was ne

her. I had come into her home to take her father a

find out what has happened to the land sales. If your father h

ll

es

ut a story to sell." She turned away and began setting jars on a she

e already seated. Duncan sat at the head table with a heavy-shouldered Beta who had a shaved head a

sheep on the east hill had foot rot. The hydro scheme needed a new turbine. Someone's cousin had gone to Inverness and come back with a bad

a young man came in through the f

with it. He sat down at the end of the second table with two other warriors and said nothing to anyone. Nobody at the high table looked at him.

face that I could not name and did not like. Recognition. Not the recognition of a stranger who has

d stood, silent and certain, and looked at the boy with an at

sked the grey-hair

of the border warriors. Qui

s he been wi

when he was small." She said it the way people

reas

look at me again, and I did not loo

inning hand. The farm had made a loss for three years. The hydro scheme had covered it. The land sales to the north had been s

had been making money for eleven years, not three, which I knew because the Council's file had the turbine output

a," I said. "Thi

rm smile. "We are a simple pack, Mr. Calum

topped at the window and looked down at the yard, where Ewan was carrying a feed sack to the dogs with the

Cal

d of the corridor with a tray in h

his books," I said. "They ar

Her face did

making money for eleven yea

ttle tighter. "Then yo

r. What is on the other side of

and without turning around she sai

ed wrong. "Why

he infirmary door closed behind her, and I stood at the window wi