‘I showed you the Destroyer who once dwelt where I now live,’ I said swiftly, using the beast form H’rayka which Maruman had told me meant one-who-brings-destruction. ‘That one is not brother to me but enemy and prey. My pack drove him out and though he went far from this valley across the great sea, one day I will vanquish him. But first I must complete my quest.’

‘Tha mind is as the mind of tha H’rayka,’ the pack leader accused. ‘That one is brethren to tha.’

‘That one is my enemy,’ I repeated grimly, and I summoned up a memory of lying on the Zebkrahn machine, Ariel gloating as he tortured me. Again I sensed all of the wolves reacting uneasily, and then the silvery female who had howled before gave a low, terrifying snarl. I forced myself to hold the leader’s gaze as I said, ‘The H’rayka tried to kill my mate. He hates me and he would kill me.’

‘Tha do speak true in this much,’ sent the wolf authoritatively. ‘Even so, the Brildane care not for any funaga-li. Let the dinrai tear at one another’s hearts. This one cares not for any freedom that do be given by a funaga.’

‘I am not talking about freedom but about death,’ I sent. ‘If I cannot do what the oldOnes have bidden me to do, there will only be death for the funaga and for the Brildane and for all beasts. There will be nothing left in all the world.’

‘Let us serve this one with death,’ snarled the old female whose howl had caused Gobor One Ear to attack. The pack leader turned to her and immediately she cringed and offered her throat in submission.

‘Nah nah, Descantra,’ the pack leader growled, after he had sniffed her muzzle as if to get the scent of her words. It seemed to me there was tenderness towards her in his mindvoice, yet she could not be his mate for he was in his prime and she was clearly long past bearing cubs.

‘Rheagor, this one do claim the right of blood for blood,’ the she-wolf said. ‘No matter what this she-dinrai says, she be brethren to the one that did kill this one’s brothers.’

‘It is tha right to request blood for blood an’ this she-dinrai is brethren to the dinrai tha do justly hate, Descantra, yet would tha have blood if truly it is that this one’s death would bring an end to all things?’

‘Gobor speaks true when he warns tha not to heed the luring, lying tongue of a dinrai. This one believes not that the she-dinrai seeks the help of the Brildane, but even if all the words said by that one are true, better for us all to die than for us to let a dinrai live.’

‘Tha do speak who have no cubs,’ Rheagor sent in mild reproof.