The whole yard had turned to watch me, and the boot print l

d a rogue bleeding at the cairn. He had a silver burn

the words for poison. "A rogue, into the pack house, witho

border, or whose duty it is to

d on his jaw. "You shoul

re." I turned to the pack and raised my voice. "He is in the smokehouse shed, bandaged, and he will answe

saw then what I had been refusing to see for months:

Barış said. "Before th

e elders,"

side me. She looked at the boot print, then at me, and said, "Fir

rs of feet. I went up after the yard had emptied. My father sat by the window with a blanket over his knees and

n I was a girl he would carry me on his back up the lower path and tell me the Luna was

cup from his hand. "It is

and my heart lifted the way it always did at that fi

ingers. Ayşe had been my mother.

said. "I am Elif

if. Of course. My girl has hair like a fox. She used to run the ridge with the young warriors and beat them

raid from forty years ago and the winter the snow came to the kitchen door. When he f

h my fist pressed to my mouth, and I did not cry, because th

pt in a chest of black wood and the windows looked east toward the sea. Orhan sat at the head, as he h

and his black hair still damp. He walked without help. H

he dark," Barış said. "That is a r

d dry and very old. "It is less clear about a wolf carried in by the

ight deciding how to say this, and every version sounded like a fool's bargain.

an's eyes moved from me

is the oldest trick on the mountain. A rogue cl

ers squared despite the bandage. "I am telling you what I felt. If the elders wish to test me,

rds," Ba

"The bond is not." He looked a

Maren's worry from her seat by the wall, Orhan's old dust and old grief. And u

bond is unproven. He stays in t

the Luna herself admits th

s the law." He rose, slow and creaking. "The stranger stays. The elders will hear him again in three days. In

unwise,"

said. "And it has stood l

en had followed him out with one last look at me, and t

he others were out of hearing, Cemal bent hi

d

ly. "Your pulse went strange when I wa

ing a game with my pack, I will

, and my wolf turned over in her sleep and reached for him without waking. "You

no testi

sad and certain. "It is in the old founding laws. Your elder knows it. Ask h

dor with the warriors, and

the stairs from the kitchens, out of breath, her face white in the lam

western gate. A Çamlıca wolf, with a mes