Wolves of the Beyond 02 - Shadow Wolf

normally be in the byrrgis are hunting them down. I tried to help a bit as best I could. But the point is, there’s more opportunity for you gnaw wolves to show what you’re made of. Just one piece of advice.”
    “What’s that?”
    “It’s not all speed.”
    “Oh, I’ve learned my lesson about that. Don’t worry! I won’t bump an outflanker.”
    “No, I know that.” Gwynneth paused. “Look, I’ve been flying in the Beyond for longer than I care to remember. I have flown right above byrrgises and seen them from a perspective that you, or any other wolf, never will. It’s the signaling that counts—a pricked set of ears, a tail twitch, a quick change in pace by the packers. It’s not speed. It’s communication that makes them flow like a river across dry land and finally engulf their prey. It’s about communicating, yet never uttering a word.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
T HE B YRRGIS OF THE G NAW W OLVES
    HEEP KNEW THAT THERE WAS NO way he could outrun Faolan in a byrrgis . But could he outwit him? There was one thing that really set Faolan’s nerves on edge. It was the clicking sound Heep’s back teeth made when he gnawed bones. Heep had seen how it made Faolan’s hackles rise. How Faolan could barely keep his agitation under control. To Heep, his teeth on the bone sounded no different than that of any other gnaw wolf, but something bothered Faolan about Heep’s teeth.
    Heep didn’t need a bone in his mouth to make those sounds. He could do it without one. Therefore, he was extremely pleased when he was assigned to the same flank as Faolan. Heep was in a perfect spot to drive that gnaw wolf cag mag !
    They had started off at press paw over the hilly terrain, led by the scouts. It was not long before the caribou herd came into sight. Luckily, the byrrgis was downwind, so the caribou would not pick up their scent. This allowed the wolves to get closer before being discovered. The longer they could go at press paw while closing the distance, the better. It conserved their energy and was the most efficient running. Of course, if the wind shifted, their strategy did, too.
    Faolan was concentrating as hard as he ever had. At last he was in the byrrgis —not as a sweeper, not in a dream, not as a distant observer on a ridge, longing to be a part of the hunt. This was real. The hard earth flew beneath him. He was barely aware of his paws striking the ground except for a tingle that traveled up through his femurs. But he felt a surge of vibrations from hundreds of paws pounding the earth. It washed over him, enveloped him, welded him to this hunt, these packs of wolves. At last he was truly part of something.
    Faolan was very grateful that he had spoken to Gwynneth. Her advice was already proving invaluable. He had just picked up a second signal, which had traveled from a line wolf to a wide-end packer, and knew the entire formation of over forty wolves was about to compact itself. It’s like Gwynneth said , he thought, the byrrgis is a river flowing over dry ground. And I am part of it. Like the stars swirling endlessly in the sky, I am part of this river on earth . For the first time, Faolan began to understand what hwlyn meant, and the strange ways of the wolves of the Beyond began to have a deeper meaning. The silent flickers sang through his bloodstream as he raced on.
    More signals were passed and the language of silence became clearer and clearer to Faolan. He spotted the ear flick of another wide-end packer. The wind had shifted, and the byrrgis immediately increased its speed as the caribou herd caught the wolves’ scent.
    Close the distance! The signal rang out as crisply as if it had been spoken. Faolan felt the byrrgis close up for attack speed.
    This is beautiful! Faolan thought. The motions were flawless. It suddenly struck him that this was like biliboo . The wolves, like the pieces in the game, floated almost magically across the land, just as the constellations slid across the night sky.
    On moonless nights, when the stars shone even brighter in the black infinity, Faolan sometimes felt that the earth on which he stood was but another small star, one little piece in the larger sliding nightscape. I am partof something bigger . Earth and sky, wolf and owl, stars and stone, dirt and bone were all woven together into an immense design.
    Another signal was passed to initiate the pincer action. They were going to press the herd into a narrows so it could not spread out too far on the high