Watch Wolf

in the shallow part of the river. A grizzly and a
byrrgis
from the Watch were sharing the kill.”
    “What!” The wolves who had gathered in the MacHeath
gadderheal
gasped. There was a flurry of exclamations.
    “Shut up!” the chieftain ordered. “They do that sort of thing — the wolves of the Watch and the bears have a close bond. Go on, Fretta, this is getting interesting, very interesting!”
    “The grizzly’s cubs were on the banks and she was bringing the meat back to them. When they had all had their fill and the wolves had left, the mother bear napped. The cubs were not a bit tired.”
    “Of course, the mother did all the work.” Katria, a she-wolf with a pelt black as a moonless night, spoke softly. But not softly enough. The chieftain leaped upon her and sank his fangs into her haunch. Blood spritzed out of his muzzle from a small cut made by the Litha thorns, which made him even angrier. So he swatted Katria and she skidded across the floor of the
gadderheal.
“No more from you!” Katria slunk off to a corner. Lying as flat as she could, with her muzzle buried in her paws, she wished herself invisible. How much more could she take of this clan? Kyran had been her daughter — her foolish, foolish daughter. Katria’s mate had not even been that disturbed when Dunbar MacHeath dispatched the
slink melf
to kill Kyran and Ingliss. All that mattered to her mate, Donaidh, was rising in the ranks of the lords.
    In Old Wolf, the word
donaidh
meant “ruler of the world,” and Katria’s mate seemed to feel that this alone gave him the right to succeed the chieftain Dunbar, who was growing older and meaner by the day.
    Katria returned her attention to the scout’s report on the wolves and the bears.
    “Edme and Faolan had been watching from on top of a bluff. It was the hot, lazy time of the day andsoon Faolan was sleeping soundly. But not Edme. She got upand went over to play with the cubs, untilFaolan awakened, darted out, and shooed her away.”
    The chieftain chuckled. “If the bearhad awakened, she would have made short work of the two.”
    “Too bad,” Blyden said.
    “No, not at all,” Dunbar countered. “I want more out of this than the death of a stupid little she-wolf likeEdme. There is more to be gained than you might suspect.”
    “He’s a wily one, our chief,” someone murmured.
    “There is one more thing, sir,” Fretta said.
    “And what is that?”
    Fretta appeared suddenly very nervous. She shifted her eyes away from the chieftain and took a step backward. “There is a rumor … just a rumor, mind you.”
    “What kind of a rumor?” Dunbar MacHeath’s voice dropped.
    “I heard some owls discussing it, but the rumor is that the Fengo is calling our clan to the Supreme
Raghnaid
for a Court of
Crait.”
    “A Court of
Crait!”
Dunbar MacHeath shot into the air so high he scraped the stone ceiling of the
gadderheal
cave. A wailing rose from the assembled wolves.
    “Silence,” he roared. An immediate hush fell upon the
gadderheal.
Dunbar MacHeath began to pace up anddown the length of the cavern. He stopped and rolled his eyes up toward the ceiling, then regained his composure.
“Crait,
they say!
Crait!
Well, we’ll show them who’s
crait
and who isn’t.
    “The little she-wolf lassie has a fondness for grizzly cubs, eh?” he spoke reflectively. “That could get her into a lot of trouble if it were to be found out. For too long, the clans of the Beyond have been beholden to the Watch. And now they call a Court of
Crait
to judge us! This is nonsense. It is time to restore honor and power to the clans and their chieftains.”
    This,
thought Katria,
has nothing to do with honor and everything to do with power. Raw power.
    Dunbar MacHeath regarded the wolves around him. “What is honor? Honor is doing the right thing. For years now, the wolves at the Watch have determined our clan territories, our hunting grounds. It was the wolves of the Watch and the first Fengo who decided this. Why are we a Fengo-centered land? The center of the Beyond is not the Ring, but Great Lupus! We shall ask what would Lupus do to restore our honor. We have been shackled to the Ring of Sacred Volcanoes for too long. Our duty is to restore honor!”
    There were loud growls and barks of approval untilthe chieftain snapped the command for quiet. A thick silence settled upon the gathered wolves as their cunning chieftain spun his net of promises. “This wolf Edme could have offered us a chance