Abruptly he blinked awake from a half dream, his fur bristling.

In his drifting dream he’d thought it was something else, a sound not of grief but of terrible menace. A memory stirred from long ago. The howling . . .

But it was only his friends, still grieving for Alfie.

Lucky closed his eyes again and let sleep wash over him.

CHAPTER FOUR

Lucky could feel the sun on his back. The warmth was comforting after the chill of the night.

Bella walked at his side as they followed the river upstream. Both dogs eyed the water with trepidation; the sinister colors on the surface gave it a strange loveliness in the morning light.

“We should scout around,” Bella had said, not long after Lucky had woken up and stretched his back and neck. “See if there’s been any sign of those dogs since yesterday.”

Lucky sensed that it wasn’t just sensible caution on his sister’s part. She needed to be away from the others for a while.

His litter-sister had something on her mind.

“Tell me what happened when that fight broke out,” he suggested at last. “I heard it from far away.”

Bella sighed. “It was terrible. But I don’t see any way we could have avoided it.”

“But how did you cross those dogs? How did it start?”

“Martha was the one who noticed.” Bella stopped and wrinkled her muzzle at the stained river. “She came down to swim, and realized straight away that the poisoned water had reached us, and it was still spreading. She ran back to warn us. She was so distressed, but then you know how close Martha feels to the River-Dog.”

Lucky growled in agreement. “I noticed the bad water as soon as I saw the river. It’s a dark omen, Bella.”

“Yes.” Bella sighed again. “We knew immediately we couldn’t stay. But we thought, it’s such a big valley, and so fertile—there had to be clean water somewhere close by. So we set off in search of it.”

“And you found some?”

“There’s a place with a lot of water not far from here. I’ve never seen so much water in one place—I don’t think any of us had. It’s strange, Lucky—like the pond at the Dog Park, but so huge, and very still and silent.”

“A lake,” Lucky said. “So what happened?”

“We were worried about drinking the water, because we’d never seen anything like it. But we were so thirsty. Martha paddled in first, and then Bruno, and suddenly we were all splashing and drinking to our hearts’ content. I thought our troubles were over.”

“But you’d moved into someone else’s territory—”

“Yes.” Bella’s head and ears drooped. “We didn’t even know it until we came across a guard. Just one, and there was a standoff—he was as shocked as we were, I think. He was a long-legged dog and when he ran away, he was fast. We heard him barking an alarm, and he came back with his whole Pack.”