. . .

“However,” Eldri says inexorably, “that does not mean we shall allow the wolf to break free of you, or in you, Vaenwode, and raven thus across the world. We are reasonable beings. We do not punish a man more than his life is worth. So we shall pull it out of you.”

He nods to Brygmir, who is setting up a portable smithy and stoking an awful fire.

“Then we shall bind it with unholy chain: with the footfalls of a cat and the arms of a four-armed ape; with the spittle of a bird and the sacredness of death; with the torment of the willing and the bearing witness to the wrongness; and the tape that binds an emu; and the perseverance of hope. And through all these things, and while these things endure, the wolf shall be bound and held to you, Vaenwode, to you and to your family, and you shall keep it close.”

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