‘That one did have the power to go seliga,’ Rheagor sent. ‘That one did tell his pack leader of great danger coming to their territory and he did say they must flee. The leader did tell him there be no use in fleeing for all else in the world was poison lands. The cub did tell of the graag beyond the white dead land, through which they could travel safely to black mountains that did rise up to claw the sky. There might the wolves find a territory that would be safe for many generations. The pack leader did drive him out. One of the she-wolves was his sister and she did go with him and two of her companions.’

I was so astonished at this tale that I almost forgot I was hurting.

‘Were all of them captured by the efari?’ I asked, eager to know more in this rare moment of openness from the wolf.

‘Nah nah nah,’ Rheagor said. ‘Only the male be taken, but that one did escape and three females were waiting. One did die by the rhenlings soon after as this one did tell tha before.’

‘What happened to the others?’

‘The three did come through the graag and reach the mountains, but another died there of some sickness so there did be only the cub and his litter sister. He could not mate with his sister so he did challenge the pack master of a fierce pack of mountain wolves. He did be more than a cub now, and strong, but the wolf he challenged did be fully grown and powerful and wily. Yet that one did yield and this one’s ancestor claimed his pack. From that one and the mate he took from the pack, did come the Brildane.’ There was reverence in his voice but also a sorrow. Was that because he was truly blood kin to the wolf that founded the Brildane? I wondered, or was it the fact that they both had the ability to go seliga?

‘What was the danger the cub foresaw befalling his old territory?’ I asked.

‘That the pack and their territory would perish in darkness and fire if they did not go to the black mountains,’ Rheagor said. ‘But when he did be old, he did see that no harm came to that pack or that territory. It did be needful only for him to leave.’

He broke contact then, and I was left to wonder if the doom Rheagor’s ancestor had seen was the dreadful fate that would come to all the world if I failed to complete my quest. For had not Atthis warned that I would fail if the Brildane could not be persuaded to accompany me, and if the cub had not made his perilous journey to the mountains, there would have been no Brildane.