Watch Wolf

for power at the Ring, but she betrayed us. Your first thought is ‘Let the grizzly mother take her retribution on the faithless Edme.’ But what does one wolf killed by a grizzly amount to? Not much. Instead, we’ll use this idiot wolf’s behavior to spark a war that will restore our honor.”
    Oh, so that is what Lupus would do?
Katria thought.
Start a war?
    “What kind of a war?” Blyden asked.
    Dunbar MacHeath’s paw flashed out and slammed Blyden sideways. “Do not interrupt! I am speaking of a war between the wolves of the Watch and the bears. There are many bears in the valley near the Sacred Ring. If they rose up, it would be the end of the Watch as we know it.”
    “And then what?” the chieftain’s mate asked.
    “And then, finally, it will be our turn.”
    “Our turn!” There was a low murmuring of agreement, which began to swell among the wolves. “Our turn! Our turn!” The words flowed through the
gadderheal
like a chant.
    Resentment festered like a canker within the MacHeaths, carefully cultivated and nurtured by their twisted minds.
    “So what is your” — It was Malan, the second-highest-ranking wolf next to the chieftain. He hesitated slightly before completing his thought — “your design, Lord Chieftain?”
    “Simply this: We need a hostage. I think the cub — the cub Edme played with.”
    “And where will we keep this hostage?” Malan asked.
    “The Pit with Old Cags,” Dunbar said with a low snarl.
    Katria’s blood froze. Did this chieftain’s depravity know no bounds?
    “Aaaah!” The exclamation rippled through the
gadderheal.
    “Yes, your old chieftain still has a few tricks up his ruff.” Dunbar’s hackles stood up rigidly, and he gave a quick venomous glance at Donaidh.
    The Pit was patrolled by Old Cags, a MacHeath wolf with the foaming-mouth disease. When a young pup was disobedient, the most effective threat was “I’ll send you to Old Cags in the Pit. He’ll learn you a thing or two — ifyou survive.” Very few pups ever died in the Pit. Old Cags had barely a tooth left in his head to bite with. It was just that when a pup returned, it was changed. Pups came back in a perpetual daze, frozen into permanent postures of submission. They did not have the foaming-mouth disease, but it was as if they were in a state of brain fever and they tended to die young. Katria’s mind swirled, and her gut wrenched with revulsion at the idea of condemning an innocent cub to hellfire on earth, a dim world created by her own despicable clan.
    A wave of nausea washed over Katria. This would indeed spark a war between the bears and the wolves and even the owls. Total chaos! It was precisely what the MacHeaths wanted, for if they were to be declared
crait,
they were determined to bring the entire Beyond down with them.

CHAPTER TWELVE
F IRST W ATCH
    “HURRY ALONG NOW. NO TIME to waste! You can’t be late for your first night of training.” Twist and Winks had scrambled down the steep sloping entrance of the den.
    “I don’t suppose you’ve slept a wink, or should I say a Winks?” The brown wolf squinted with her good eye.
    “Probably not,” Twist said. “I remember how excited I was on my first night here. But you don’t want to be late. Snowdon gets incredibly cranky if he has to stay on even a second beyond his shift, and Colleen, too.”
    “Colleen? Snowdon? Are they our
taigas,
too?”
    “Oh, no, dear,” Winks replied. “We are your
taigas.
They are just the Watch wolves for Morgan and Stormfast this cycle. The moon claw will be up soon.”
    “Moon claw?” Faolan asked.
    “That’s the first phase of the newing,” Edme said quickly. “Because it looks like a wolf’s claw.”
    “Yes, indeed,” Winks replied. “You must have been studying the Bone of Bones.”
    Faolan and Edme followed their two
taigas
out of the den and began trotting at a brisk pace toward the easternmost side of the Ring. It was a strange and wondrous landscape. There was a brittle crunching sound beneath their feet as they crossed the rivers of lava that had flowed down the slopes and solidified into sheets of black glass. Flames licked the night like tongues of fire. The wolves on watch seemed determined to touch the sky as they sprang into the air to look for graymalkins.
    The volcanoes were becoming slightly more active. The moonless night was scored by the tracery of red sparks. High arcing streams of embers mingled with the ice-bright stars in an astral dance through the