Watch Wolf

knew these paw prints from when she had to press the wolves running a
byrrgis
into crimping maneuvers, blocking strategies, and tackling sprints. She had run nearly every position on a MacHeath
byrrgis.
“This is Blyden … and of course Donaidh — the old fool. I’d know his paw print anyplace. And here’s Malan and Fretta.” She stopped in her tracks. “Andreen! Aila! Great Lupus! It’s a
slink melf
led by Dunbar!”She looked up at Airmead. “They’re going to assassinate Grizz!”
    A large silence opened up in the Darklands, like jaws that seemed to swallow the drumming of the bears in anticipation of the cub’s arrival. It was as if the entire Beyond had paused to savor the momentous event. Wolves shoved their ears forward, owls rotated their heads so their ear slits could catch the rumbled whispers that began to risefrom the army of bears. “They say he’s coming. Toby is coming!”
    Then near the Twisted Four, a voice split the drumming. “Toby!” Bronka roared. The mother and cub ran toward each other through a dark, winding path that wove between the small hillocks, separating the four
yondos.
Grizz roared in jubilation.
    “Where are they?” Airmead said desperately. The track for the
slink melf
had gone cold almost as soon as they had reached the Black Glass Desert. Unlike dirt, the granules of the fine sand could not hold a print. The
slink melf
‘s scent, too, seemed to evaporate in the dry air.
    “We have to keep our eyes on Grizz,” Airmead said.
    “You watch Grizz. I’ll watch the dark.” Katria had begun to realize that the Black Glass Desert was not all dark in the same way. And although the eerie dunes and plains seemed shadowless, there were more shades of black than one might imagine. Katria caught a movement at the far edge of her vision, less than forty strides away, where Grizz had just turned behind one of the hillocks.
    An extraordinary energy coursed through her. She had no memory of her feet leaving the ground, butsuddenly she was airborne and sailing over the small hill that obscured Grizz. Her teeth sank into Andreen’s ruff just as Andreen sank her teeth into the haunches of the Bear of Bears. There was a roar that sounded as if the earth were being torn apart. Katria, her vision obscured by spraying blood, somehow managed to jump clear as Grizz’s massive body began to collapse.
    There was a thunderous howling followed by the rumbling growls of bears. “Grizz was attacked!” someone yelled. And that someone was not Grizz’s guards but Dunbar MacHeath himself! The
slink melf
had managed to vanish except for Andreen, who was pinned under the Grizz’s body. A tangle of wolves surrounded Edme. She glimpsed Jasper and the Fengo, but there were others.
    It took Edme a split second to understand what had transpired. “It’s the MacHeaths! They attacked.”
    “No!” Dunbar started to shout as he raced away from where the
slink melf
had been. He didn’t get far before Edme was upon him like an airborne missile. She tore open his face, ripping the scar that her own mother had carved. She pulled and pulled on his flesh, digging her fangs in ever deeper until she sliced into the life-giving artery in his neck and a huge spurt of blood drenched her.
    Dunbar MacHeath looked at her with bewilderment. “How? How?” he gurgled.
    “I finished my mum’s work, that’s all,” Edme whispered.
    “Death to the wolves,” someonefrom the throng of bears cried out. “Death to the wolves.”
    “No!” roared a she-bear. It was Toby’s mum. She loped forward with both her cubs riding on her back. “Listen to me! Listen!”
    “It’s Bronka. Bronka and both her cubs,” others whispered.
    The Bear of Bears stirred. The throngs gathered closer as they watched him stagger to his feet. Crushed beneath him was the body of Andreen.
    “Who is this wolf?” Grizz asked, somewhat dazed.
    Edme stepped forward. “She’s Andreen MacHeath, point wolf for the MacHeath clan’s assassination operations.”
    “Did you kill her?” the Bear of Bears roared.
    “Not me.” Edme turned her head to look for Katria.
    “I did,” said Katria, stepping out from behind a
yondo.
“I’m Katria, former outflanker of the MacHeath clan, now a member of the noble MacNamaras.”
    “You saved my life,” said the Bear of Bears, and began to bow down to her painfully on his arthritic knees,though even bowed, he stood twice as high as the black-as-night wolf. “You saved my life,” he