The Wolf Gift (The Wolf Gift Chronicles 1)

"Amen, I understand," she whispered, smiling.

Margon looked at Reuben. "I can,t give you the moral insight that you so badly need," he said.

"Perhaps you,re wrong," said Reuben. "Perhaps you already have. Perhaps you misunderstood what I wanted."

"And Stuart," said Margon, "what,s happening in your mind now?"

"Oh, the most wonderful things," said Stuart, shaking his head and smiling. "Because if we can have such a great purpose, to synthesize, to bring together in ourselves a new truth, well, then, all the pain, the confusion, the regret, the shame ..."

"The shame?" asked Laura.

Stuart erupted in laughter. "Yes, the shame!" he said. "You have no idea. Of course, the shame."

"I understand," said Reuben. "There is shame in the Wolf Gift. There has to be."

"In those early generations there was only shame," said Margon, "and sullen obdurate refusal to give up the power."

"I can see it," said Reuben.

"But this is a resplendent universe in which we live now," said Margon softly, with wonder. "And in this universe we treasure all forms of energy and creative process."

This thrilled Reuben.

Margon put up his hands. He shook his head.

"And we must now address the question none of you has asked," said Margon.

"Which is what?" asked Stuart.

"Why is it that no scent alerts us to the presence of one another?"

"Oh, right," whispered Stuart in amazement. "And there is no scent, not even the faintest - not from you, not from Reuben, not from Sergei when he was the Man Wolf!"

"Why?" asked Reuben. Why, indeed? In the struggle with Marrok, there had never been the scent of evil or malice. And when Sergei had destroyed the doctors before his very eyes, there had been no scent to the monster.

"It,s because you are neither good nor evil," suggested Laura. "You are neither beast nor human."

Margon, having elicited the answer he wanted, merely nodded. "Another part of the mystery," he said simply.

"But we should pick up the pure scent of any Morphenkind just as we pick up the scent of humans or animals out there," Reuben protested.

"But we do not," said Thibault.

"That,s a crippling disability," said Stuart. He looked at Reuben. "It,s why you had such a time finding me when I was lost."

"Yes," said Reuben. "But I did find you - and there must have been innumerable small signals - the sound of your crying, I heard that."

Margon offered nothing further. He sat quiet in his own thoughts as Stuart and Reuben went over it. Reuben had picked up no scent from Felix in the law offices, or in this house when Felix and Margon had first appeared. No, no scent.

And this was a disability, Stuart was right. Because they would never know whether another Morphenkind was approaching.

"There must be more to it," said Reuben.

"Enough," Margon said. "I have told you enough for now."

"But you,ve only begun," cried Stuart. "Reuben, join me in this. You know you want the answers. Margon. How did you first pass the Chrism? What happened?"

"Well, now, perhaps you,ll learn those things from the person to whom I passed it," said Margon with a mischievous smile.

"And who would that be?" Stuart turned to Felix and then to Thibault. Felix merely regarded him with one eyebrow raised, and Thibault laughed under his breath.

"Think on what you,ve learned so far," said Felix.

"I do, I will," vowed Stuart. He looked at Reuben, and Reuben nodded in assent. And why couldn,t Stuart realize, Reuben thought, that this was only one of many conversations, conversations without end in which answers would flow to questions yet unimagined?

"That we,re as old as humankind," said Felix. "That,s what you know now, all three of you. That we,re a mystery just as all humankind is a mystery. That we are part of the cycle of this world, and how and why we must discover on our own."

"Yes," said Margon. "There are many of us on this earth and there have been at times many, many more. Immortality as we use this word is a grant of immunity from old age and illness; but not from violent annihilation. And so we live with mortality as do all others under the sun."

"How many others are there?" asked Stuart. "Oh, don,t look at me like that," he shot at Reuben. "You want to know these things, you know you do."

"I do," Reuben admitted. "When Margon wants us to know. Look, there,s an inevitability to the way this story unfolds."

"I don,t know how many others there are," said Margon with a little shrug. "How could I know? How could Felix or Thibault know? I do know this. The danger we face in today,s world is not from other Morphenkinder. It,s from men and women of science like Klopov and Jaska. And the greatest difficulties we face in day-to-day survival have to do with the advances in science - that we cannot now pass ourselves off as our own descendants to a world that requires DNA evidence of parentage or affinity. And that we must more than ever be clever as to where and how we hunt."

"Can you father a child?" Laura asked.

"Yes," said Margon, "but only with a female Morphenkind."

She gasped. Reuben felt a sudden shock. Why had he been so certain he could not get Laura with child? And it was true. He could not. But this new little revelation was stunning.

"Then the female Morphenkind can bear, obviously," said Laura.

"Yes," said Margon. "And the offspring are Morphenkinder always, with very occasional exceptions. And sometimes ... well, sometimes a litter. But I must say that fertile couplings are extremely rare."

"A litter!" Laura whispered.

Margon nodded.

"This is why female Morphenkinder often form their own packs," said Felix, "and men tend to club together. Well, it,s one of the reasons, anyway."

"But in all fairness," said Thibault, "tell them it seldom happens. I haven,t known five born Morphenkinder in all my years."

"And what are these creatures like?" asked Stuart.

"The change manifests in early adolescence," said Margon, "and they are in all other respects very much like us. When they reach physical maturity, they cease to age, just as we have ceased to age. If you give the Chrism to a young child, you will see the same thing happen: the change will come with early adolescence. The child will mature, and then become fixed."