Frost Wolf Read Online Free PDF Page B

with despair. Deep in his marrow, Faolan felt an ache for what had been. He looked over at Liam MacDuncan, who seemed confused by the squabbling among the lords of the
raghnaid
. Occasionally, he got up from his special pelts beneath the massive caribou antlers and circled nervously. His eyes glistened with anxiety, as if he were on the brink of tears. As he circled, he lifted each paw highand hesitated, almost as though he were testing the firmness of this sovereign ground.
    It took several seconds for the wolves in the
gadderheal
to realize that Faolan and Edme had entered. But when they did, an immediate hush fell in the cave.
    “What are you doing here?” Lord Jarne roared. His ears had not lain back or even twitched. Such insolence to a Watch wolf from the Ring of Sacred Volcanoes was unheard of.
    Faolan and Edme shoved their ears up and walked forward on stiff legs with their tails raised and their hackles bristling. Faolan came so close to the insolent Lord Jarne that their noses almost touched.
    “I come by direct command of the Fengo of the Watch of the Ring of Sacred Volcanoes.” It was as if every wolf in the cave were holding its breath. “We have come to inquire about the rotations of the Blood Watch.”
    Liam felt his knees grow weak.
    “Why didn’t you tell us that the Fengo was sending Watch wolves, Liam?” someone barked from the back. Edme and Faolan were shocked. The wolves were not even using the proper form of address for their chieftain. This was another appalling breach of etiquette.
    “Yes, why not?”
    “Why not?”
    Soon there was a chorus of howling wolves, and the cave teetered on the brink of chaos. Edme shot Faolan a desperate glance.
    As if lifted up by his own anger, Faolan rose on his hind legs and began to walk above the crowd. Thunderheart had taught him to do this. When Faolan had jumped the wall of fire as a yearling, wolves had been stunned, but this was entirely different. Jumping, even jumping high, was in the range of moves of a wolf, but walking on hind legs was an extraordinary endeavor, a feat. The light from the small fire burning in the pit in the middle of the
gadderheal
cast Faolan’s shadow against the rock walls of the cave, and his dark profile seemed to stretch endlessly. All the wolves began to cower, and even Jarne and Adair assumed the most extreme of submission postures.
Good!
Faolan always knew those two lords were idiots and decided not to waste another second with them. But then another wolf rose and began to snarl.
    “You know nothing! And how do we know you have been officially sent by the Fengo? If our chieftain didn’t tell us, perhaps it was because your visit is not sanctioned at all.”
    The two lords whom Faolan had just decided not to waste time on began to rise up. Faolan’s and Edme’s instincts were perfectly in sync. In tandem, they leaped forward, Edme body-checking the wolf who had snarled, and Faolan kicking down Jarne and Adair. But it was the cold hard look in Faolan’s eyes more than anything else that vanquished the two lords. Their marrow froze.
    “It matters not what the chieftain did or did not tell you,” Faolan roared. He turned again to Liam. “What matters now is for you to stand forward, Liam MacDuncan, son of Duncan MacDuncan, great chieftain of the MacDuncan clan, and son of Cathmor, noble she-wolf, renowned turning guard. You are the grandson of Dunforth MacDuncan, great-grandson of the first Liam MacDuncan, and descended from MacDuncans stretching back to the time of the first Fengo of the Beyond!”
    With each name that was called out, Liam shrank farther into his pelt until he seemed as small, insubstantial, and frail as a wolf four times his age. An immutable silence suffused the cave. Every wolf had its eyes fastened on their chieftain as if trying to imagine his illustrious predecessors.
Yes
, thought Faolan,
think of your history. Think of the honor of this clan since the time the first Fengo arrived in the