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marrow.
Members.
The very word seemed to glow with a noble luster. They were to serve, no longer objects of scorn but as vital sentinels of the Watch. It was their job to guard the Ember of Hoole, the very center of this universe of wolves and owls. For the Beyond to run smoothly, the ember must be kept safe where it lay in one of the five volcanoes at the Sacred Ring.
    “The volcanoes have such odd names, don’t they?” Faolan said.
    “H’rathghar, Kiel — I think those are owl names from the northern kingdoms,” Edme replied. “H’rathghar,” she repeated.
    “Not H’rath … it’s more of a growl at the back of your throat,” Faolan said, correcting Edme’s pronunciation. He tipped his head back and emitted a throaty
hrrr
sound.
    “How do you know all this?” Edme said. When Faolan growled, the volcano’s name sounded awfully authentic — not that she knew exactly what owl speech of the northern kingdoms sounded like.
    Faolan shrugged. “I’m not sure.” He was truly confounded and could not figure out where these wisps of knowledge came from. It was as if they were borne on amaverick river that coursed through his mind. Thunderheart had even told him that she had named him Faolan because “fao” was the word for both “wolf” and “river,” and “lan” was the word for “gift.” In this river that was his mind, Faolan sensed two currents — one from what he thought of as The Now and the other as The Then. The Now was easy to understand. It was The Then that perplexed him. Did all wolves have two currents in their minds?
    “Let’s see … then there are three others — Dunmore, Morgan, and Stormfast. I’m glad there are just five to learn,” Edme said.
    “Some of the names sound like wolf names,” Faolan offered.
    “Yes, Morgan does, and so does Dunmore, but I’ve never met a wolf named Stormfast.” She paused. “Well, I guess we’re about to meet a volcano called Stormfast.”
    A wind out of the east began to blow and both wolves stopped suddenly. Their hackles rose as they tipped their noses into the breeze.
    “That’s it, isn’t it? The smell of the volcanoes,” Faolan said.
    “Not exactly pleasant. Reminds me of some rotten duck eggs I once met up with,” Edme said.
    “Rotten duck eggs?” Faolan repeated and then murmured,
“Tine smyorfin.”
    “There, you said it again!” Edme blurted.
    “Said what?”
    “That Old Wolf thing you said back by the river.”
    “I didn’t say any Old Wolf thing. I just muttered, ‘by my marrow.’”
    Edme tipped her head to one side and regarded her friend.
How odd,
she thought.
Faolan really doesn’t know when he’s saying these things. His mouth speaks in something that sounds like Old Wolf, but his ears hear it another way.
    “Well, never mind. Let’s go,” she replied, trotting on.
    As they drew nearer to the Ring, they began to see strange rock formations that rose writhing like solid smoke. These formations were called
yondos,
and two immense ones towered above the others.
    “The Hot Gates!” they both exclaimed at once.
    “The Fengo said stop
at
them.” The two wolves looked at each other, perplexed. A simple word such as “at” could have different interpretations. Edme, who had a very practical streak, cocked her head and regarded the two towering formations. “Well, he didn’t say ‘between’ them, and he didn’t say ‘beside’ them. So I would think we should just go right up to the base of one and stop there.”
    Just then, two howls peeled off the tops of the HotGates and two wolves began to scramble down them. Faolan and Edme were transfixed. The Hot Gates were so steep, they had no idea how the wolves could make such a spectacular descent without falling to their deaths.
    “Great Lupus, will you look at that!” Edme cried as the two wolves took the last twenty-five feet in two dazzling leaps. They might as well have had wings. As they landed, they appeared to bounce gently for a few feet, then