Chapter 24: Both Fences

"Both," I said.

Aldric blinked.

"Both?"

"I want my room with the NO BROTHERS sticker," I said.

"And?"

"And a room in your hall, when it's built, with a window I can leave open."

He laughed, once, helplessly, and then he put his hand over his eyes.

"Both," he said. "I'll build the window first."

Dad had come down off the platform.

He stood at my other shoulder, and I saw him and Aldric look at each other over my head.

"The north fence has a gate in it now," Dad said gruffly. "I had it cut this morning. It opens from either side."

"Then I'll knock," said Aldric.

"You'll knock," said Dad, "and you'll wipe your boots."

It took two days to finish the party.

Mom insisted on it, because the first one had been stolen and she would not let it stay that way.

She hung the banner back across the kitchen window herself, indigo and maroon, with the letters a little crooked where she'd redone them.

She had called every wolf in Ironwood, and then, after a pause, she had called the army.

By six o'clock the pack hall held two hundred and fifty people, and nobody minded the elbows.

The general sat on a folding chair with a plate of apple bread on her knee.

The woman in the green coat stood over her to make sure she finished it.

The old man with the cane taught three of the King's soldiers to whistle through their fingers.

They were terrible at it, and he told them so.

The twins had made a cake of their own, with real pepper sauce in the frosting, and tried to feed it to Ellis.

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