Page 79 of Moonless

He gets the fastening done at last and leaves his hand on it. “The field.”

I look up. “What field?”

“Moonbright.” He still isn’t looking at me. “Burn it.”

“That’s where we’re going?”

He nods toward the slope beyond the fallen tree. “Below the ridge.”

When I turn to look, there’s a ridge through the trees with bare rock along the top, and I know it. I’ve come over it from the other side, taking the short way to Mel’s old cottage.

The field is below it. He can’t mean that one.

“Mel gathers there.”

Rauk picks up the sack, and I catch the strap before he can tie it. “That’s the field you mean? The wild one?”

“Yes.”

The smell comes off his shoulder as he bends toward me.

“What have you already burned?”

“Small patches. Near the den.”

“Last night?” I keep hold of the strap.

“Yes.”

When I let go of the strap, he ties the sack against his hip, and I stare at the soot worked into his fur. That’s where he was.

“You can’t burn that field.”

He starts past me. “They can use it.”

“Mel does use it. I told you that.”

“In weapons.”

“She makes medicine from it! The paste that lets us heal again. She’s put it in my wounds, Rauk. Mine.”

He looks at the bandage beneath my collar. “There was moonbright in that one.”

“Along with something else. You told me that too.”

“And in my arm.” He holds it between us, the dried blood still caught in the fur.

I nod at it. “I saw.”

His arm stays up between us. “Then you know.”

“I know you were hurt. And the next wolf who gets shot? What’s Mel supposed to put in the wound?”

He lowers his arm and turns toward the ridge.

I move into his path. “She needs those flowers. We all do.”

He looks straight over my head. “If it’s gone, they can’t use it.”