Wolves of the Beyond 02 - Shadow Wolf

plains ahead. Led by the outflankers, the packers from both the east and west flanks began to race out and press each side of the caribou herd, forcing it into the narrows. Signals flew back and forth, except now there was a nick in the pristine silence.
    Urskadamus! That cursed gnaw wolf Heep was clicking his teeth as if he were gnawing a bone. The nick in his slashing tooth was fracturing the silence. Could no one else hear it? Faolan shifted his eyes to look about and nearly stumbled as his intense concentration broke. That tooth! He could not let this happen. A sly grin crawled across Heep’s face, and a glint flickered in his eyes. Heep was doing this on purpose! Faolan felt Dearlea tense as she detected the break in Faolan’s stride. He knew she had been impressed with him so far. Well, he was not going to let Heep wreck his attention.
    Another signal passed. A cailleach had been identified, and the turning guards would begin to press on theeastern side of the herd to expose him. Then the two point wolves and a blocker would be sent in to try and split off the cailleach . But the clicking of Heep’s teeth was making Faolan miss the signals. It was a constant noise in his ears, like the droning of mosquitoes during the summer moons. He is doing this on purpose! Faolan stumbled again. And once more, Dearlea shot him a look. Soon a taiga was running close behind. He had to get away from that sound. It was driving him cag mag .
    The cailleach had been isolated, and the signal for the females to drop back flashed, while eight males moved forward. The endgame was the most fascinating part of the byrrgis . The wolves worked in relays signaled by the point wolves. There was a chance the gnaw wolves might be called to bring the cailleach down. It would be easy if not for the infernal clicking sound in Faolan’s ears. The clicking became louder as the gnaw wolves crouched in the grass with other packers to watch and wait for the tackle relay signals. It was so unfair. No one seemed to hear the clicking except Faolan. He realized that Heep was trying not only to ruin his concentration, but to get him to violate one of the most important rules of the byrrgnock , which was never to break silence before the kill rush. The clicking sound was inaudible to the otherwolves, but if Faolan snapped or growled at Heep, it would be Faolan who was blamed for violating the sacred rule.
    I have to last until the endgame begins. I can do this. I can do this . But the clicking of that nicked tooth buzzed in Faolan’s ear. He tried to transport himself to another place, any place except where he was. Listen for the singing grass , he told himself.
    Heep moved closer and, with eyes full of treachery, opened his mouth wide to slash his teeth together. Faolan saw that broken tooth and then the snap of jaws as Heep clamped his teeth together and began to grind. The sounds scratched into Faolan’s brain like splinters.
    Edme looked at him in dismay. The first signal had been given for the kill rush, and Faolan had missed his cue. He sprang off his hind legs but was too late, stumbling again and sprawling flat. Edme rushed into the gap he left. Now that the kill rush had begun in earnest, the air was lacerated with barks and howls as the wolves took the cailleach down.
    Faolan, the wolf who had risen on his hind legs like a grizzly to confront a bull moose, lay sprawled on the ground!
     
    When he returned from the byrrgis , Gwynneth was waiting for him.
    “How did it go?”
    Faolan’s tail drooped. “Well”—he might as well just get it out—“I stumbled a few times, and when it really counted, I fell.”
    “You fell!” Gwynneth’s dark eyes blinked and she cocked her head at a very odd angle—an angle that only an owl with numerous tiny neck bones could achieve. “You!”
    “Look, I’d rather not talk about it now. You had something else to say to me?”
    Gwynneth swiveled her head about in a nearly complete circle, as if to scan the immediate area. The motion was enough to give Faolan a slightly nauseous feeling. Owls could do strange things with their necks, and Faolan had not been around enough of them to become used to it.
    “Yes, yes, I do. I’d like to have a word in private with you. It’s rather serious.”
    Faolan felt the marrow tremble in his bones. “Of course.”
    He followed the Masked Owl toward the back of a large boulder.
    “What is it?” he asked.
    Gwynneth took a deep breath. “You know about…”