Wolves of the Beyond

Wolves of the Beyond is a series written by Kathryn Lasky. The main character of the series is Faolan.

Lone Wolf
''A wolf mother has given birth, but the warm bundle snuffling next to her brings only anguish. The pup, otherwise healthy, has a twisted paw, and the mother knows what the harsh code of the pack demands. Her pup will be taken from her and abandoned on the edge of a river bank where an upcoming storm will take place. The pack cannot have weakness - the wolf mother knows that her pup is condemned to die.''

''But alone in the wilderness, the pup, Faolan, does not perish. This is his story - a story of survival, of courage, and of love triumphant. This is Faolan's story, the wolf pup who rose up to change forever the Wolves of the Beyond.''

Shadow Wolf
''The wolf pup Faolan was born with a twisted paw, a slight defect that caused his wolf clan to abandon him in the forest to die. But Faolan, with the help of a grizzly bear who raised him as her own, survived. Now, he's made it back to his clan as a gnaw wolf, the lowest ranking pack member. And the hardships are just beginning. Faolan is framed for the murder of a wolf pup. Faolan must hunt down the true culprit, while his own pack hunts him.''

Watch Wolf
''Born with a twisted paw, Faolan was abandoned as a wolf pup and left to die. But not only did he survive and make it back to the wolf clan, he proved himself to be one of the most worthy wolves of all.''

''But just as Faolan is about to take his place as one of the revered Wolves of the Watch, a bear cub is snatched by the MacHeath clan. Now the bears want revenge. Only Faolan can stop the war that is coming.''

Frost Wolf
''The winds have shifted in the Beyond. It's summer, and that should mean warmth, fish, and meat, but blizzards rake the land, and the caribou and moose the wolf hunts are vanishing. Famine has raised in the Beyond, and the strict order of the wolf clans is starting to break down.''

''Worse, there's one wolf thriving in the chaos. He wears a stolen owl battle mask and calls himself the Prophet. There's a horrible rumor going around that, instead of helping them survive, he's sending hundreds of wolves to their deaths. The elite wolves of the Watch are sending young Faolan and Edme on a desperate mission to bring down the Prophet. But how can two wolves stop an enemy they can't even find?''

Spirit Wolf
''No one ever saw Faolan as a leader. Banished as a young pup, he miraculously survived and returned as a gnaw wolf-the lowest member of the wolf pack. But Faolan wasn't meant to be a gnaw wolf. It's not just his strange, splayed paw, or his uncanny connection with the bears. There's something about Faolan that inspires certain wolves. . . and leaves others deeply suspicious. Now, with a dangerous threat on the horizon, the pack must make a choice. Will they trust the silver outsider with the task of leading? If Faolan can't fulfill his destiny, it could be the end of the wolves of the Beyond.''

Star Wolf
''A great cold has seized the Beyond. The warmth of summer, the smell of sweet grass and the great caribou migrations are distant memories. Now the wolves know only ice, dark, snow and endless cold. The order that kept the wolf clans strong for thousands of years has broken down completely.''

''The wolves have only one chance for survival. They must find their way to a new land, a land of warmth and summer. But the journey will take them over a frozen sea and through thousands of miles of perilous territory. Will the wolves trust young Faolan to lead them? Find out. ''

Part one: The Beyond
A silver she-wolf named Morag is searching for a den to give birth to her third litter. Scared of birthing a malcadh, she went by-lang and attempted to cross the border. Morag then finds a pregnant fox waiting to give birth in a den, and chases her away. After Morag gets rid of the vixen, she gives birth to three pups, two tawny females and a silver male. But the silver pup has a splayed paw, declaring it a malcadh or cursed one. This is a small flaw, but will be serious in the clan. Morag also notices the dim tracery of a spiral. Morag told herself the deformity would leave in a few days, but she had no time to watch that.

The Obea of the MacDuncan clan, Shibaan, then tracks Morag down. Shibaan had learned to become suspicious when a she-wolf went by-lang. She is able to pick up the smallest of signs and see through Morag's tricks. She finds Morag and takes the silver pup to an icy river bank. Shibaan returns and both she-wolves carry each one of the tawny pups and announce the birth of the malcadh to the clan. Shibaan, having no feeling for any pup she carries off, abandoned the pup on a piece of ice on the river that is about to crack. The ice melts, and makes the abandoned pup open his eyes and ears. He struggles to grip the ice, because of his splayed paw, but clings on. Meanwhile, a female grizzly appears on the bank  downriver, full of grief. Her cub, her last likely newborn, was taken and killed by cougars. As she pleads with Great Ursus, the bear spirit, she asks that her life be ripped from her, and the river swallow her (although the water is too shallow for her to drown). Just at that moment, the pup snags her foot, and she thinks it was some river debris. Somehow, she knows it is not just a passing bramble thicket so she gently picks the pup up. The shock and impact of the water had actually opened the pup's eyes and ears. The sun rose, and shines into the pup's eyes. She thought, "I seek death, and it seeks life". The she-bear thinks it is a sign from Great Ursus. She names the pup, Faolan, "Fao" meaning both river and wolf, and "Lan" meaning gift. She brings him back to her den, where he drinks her milk.

Faolan hears the heart beat of the grizzly, which is louder and more frightening than his first Milk Giver's. He names her Thunderheart, for her loud beating heart. Thunderheart doesn't know anything about wolves, so she teaches him the ways of the bears, such as fishing and walking on his hind legs.

One day, Faolan tries to dig for onions, using his good paw. Thunderheart tells him to use the splayed one. Faolan keeps on whining, saying no over and over again. Thunderheart corrects him by swatting his good paw, forcing him to use his splayed one instead. Faolan does what he is told, without speaking a word, and digs out many onions.

Later on, Thunderheart is teaching Faolan to fish. She kills a salmon, and drops it near her adopted son. Faolan lies on his stomach, not touching the fish. Thunderheart, understanding his submission, takes a bite of the tail and gives the rest to him. He eats it up, acting like the wolf he is. The two pass a mother and her two cubs. The cubs laugh at Faolan, making their mother nervous. At first he hides behind his second Milk Giver's leg, but comes out and stands up for himself, as if an invisible wolf pack were surrounding him, and scares the bears away with his body language.

When winter is near, Faolan follows Thunderheart to find a winter den. The two-some find one, and settle down. Noting that a waterfall was nearby, Thunderheart tells Faolan that she'll sleep for a long time (called the Long Sleep), all winter. She gives him permission to go out and hunt and play. Sometimes, Thunderheart would wake up and Faolan had left food for her. Near spring, she wakes up, and her wolf pup is not there. Forgetting she gave him permission to go out the den, she panics and goes out to look for him.

When Faolan returns to the den after his run, he finds Thunderheart gone. He also begins to panic. He then decides to go to the Outermost, thinking she went there for food. An earthquake strikes, causing Faolan to fear that Thunderheart is in danger.

Part Two: The Outermost
Faolan begins his journey to the Outermost. He gets the idea that if he killed the cougar Thunderheart lost her cub to, she'd come back to him. He finds one and kills it, tearing open his veins. Just when Faolan begins to eat the mountain lion meat, two wolves appear, a gray one and a russet one with one eye, known as Morb. These wolves are known as Outclanners. He realizes they want the meat and tosses a piece to them. While they were in an attempt to eat it, Faolan leaps on top of them and breaks the gray wolf's spine.

He continues to travel around, searching for his beloved grizzly Milk Giver, but doesn't find a trace of her. Soon Faolan finds the Cave Before Time. He takes refuge in it and observes the beautiful paintings on the wall.

Meanwhile, Morag finds Thunderheart, who was killed in the earthquake. Ravens were waiting for Morag to start eating the bear so that they could eat the remains, and they are confused when she doesn't, as she decides not to eat upon smelling her malcadh pup's scent, realized that the bear had cared for him. Morag guards Thunderheart's body until it decomposes to bones.

Part Three: The Beyond
Giving up hope on getting Thunderheart back, Faolan leaves the Outermost and heads back to the Beyond. He finds Thunderheart's bones and begins to howl in grief for his second Milk Giver. An owl, the rogue smith Gwynneth, has been listening to Faolan mourning his loss of Thunderheart. She tells him to come with her, saying they have so much in common. Faolan follows Gwynneth to her forge, bringing Thunderheart's paw bone. Gwynneth begins to talk to him, and explains the ways of the wolves and why he was abandoned as a pup. He asks why Thunderheart abandoned him too and the two believe she thought he was lost. Faolan asks if he can stay with her, but she tells him he "must go to the wolves". So his journey to join a pack and end his life as a lone wolf begins.

He begins to observe the packs and clans, seeing which one seems best to join. The lightning skreeleen of the pack of the Western Scree of the MacAngus clan had read the story of the great Fengo, and why he lived again, but it was disturbing that she had seen the story of the wolf who lived again. Angus MacAngus, their chieftain comes to talk to the pack. While talking, he smells the scent of bear and wolf, and finds Faolan's splayed paw print. Without realizing the truth, they mistakenly thought he had the foaming-mouth disease. Angus calls the other chieftains and they all decide to go to the Sark of the Slough. She tells them they must build a wall of fire and trap the animal inside.

Later Faolan is being chased by a byrrgis of several packs, and becomes trapped in the fire. At first he tells himself he has no choice but to die, but then decides to jump for the sun. Having been taught by Thunderheart to stand on his hind legs and leap high, he manages to jump over.

At the end, after Faolan proves himself worthy by gnawing on a bone, the chieftain of the MacDuncan clan, Duncan MacDuncan, asks him to join and he accepts the offer. He is then accepted into clan as a gnaw wolf, using the name Thunderheart gave him.

This information is copied from the Wolves of the Beyond Wiki
The plot begins with Faolan, who at last feels that he is home. He dreams about the wall of fire he jumped, and wakes up in a fright. At the gaddergludder before a moose hunt, Faolan is approached by Lord Bhreac, the pack leader, but is not quick enough to assume the submission postures.

A higher-ranking wolf in his pack, Flint, strikes him as punishment. Flint comes back for a muzzle grab, one of the most painful and humiliating chops delivered to a gnaw wolf. Lord Bhreac stops him. Later, a byrrgis is about to begin and Faolan meets Heep, a "model" gnaw wolf, who refuses to call Faolan by his name or acknowledge his second Milk Giver. Faolan then meets Mhairie, a tawny female wolf from the Carreg Gaer of the MacDuncan clan. Heep explains to Faolan how gnaw wolves are supposed to sniff for droppings.

Faolan suddenly finds himself joining the hunt, but scares away the prey by standing on his hind legs, knocking Mhairie to the ground. Later, Mhairie yells at him, complaining to Faolan that he made her lose her once-in-a-lifetime chance of becoming a renowned outflanker. The Lords of Heep and Faolan's packs then decide Faolan must visit Duncan MacDuncan, the dying chieftain.

Later, Faolan goes to the chieftain, and a wolf named Lord Adair reads the bone that Heep had gnawed, telling about Faolan's illegal mishap on the hunt. He wrote the word "humble" so many times that Faolan was soon annoyed, as well as Duncan.

Mhairie is later seen in the chapter "Mhairie's Den". She shares this den with her sister, Dearlea. It's mentioned that their mother, Caila, had borne a litter of six new pups. In order to help their mum deal with the rambunctious litter, Mhairie and Dearlea made an arrangement with their original den: one of them gets to use the den for a few days at a time, while the other uses Caila's whelping den and helps her with the new ones. Mhairie is shown being very angry at Faolan, swearing under her breath at him in the solitude of the den, and having overall mixed feelings for him, both wanting to kill him and protect him.

Lael the Obea takes a malcadh out to a tummfraw a few weeks after, and Faolan finds it while on the Trail of Shame, going up to the tummfraw hesitantly to look at it. Feeling pity and regret for the pup, he howls a prayer to Lupus that snow will cover her and leave her hidden from hungry predators. Later in the night, Gwynneth flies over the pup's tummfraw and hears shrieks, teeth scraping, and other sounds which told her it was a murder. Soon the mother of the malcadh goes to the Sark for the forgetting. Once the mother of the weak pup falls asleep in the Sark's den, Gwynneth tells the Sark about the murder, and they search for its remains. They find that there are hardly any bones, and the Sark points out that Faolan had been there. However, they doubt it was Faolan because of his alibi and obvious sympathies, so they keep searching. Eventually the scent of yet another wolf appears within the tangle of smells.

Meanwhile, when Faolan goes to the Sark sometime the next day, he asks if his mother had ever been to her den. The Sark says she has no clue who his mother was, then decides it would be best for Faolan to leave. Throughout the month (called a moon in wolf terms), Faolan returns frequently to the spot where the malcadh had been murdered, and gathers all the bones he can find in the wreckage. However, as Faolan begins carving for the drumlyn he had planned for the pup, his marrow got a melancholy guilt of a sort which hindered him, bothering him about having something more to this pup's death than meets his eye. After the g'addergnaw byrrgis he places dead last in, thanks to Heep deliberately distracting him, Gwynneth confirms his suspicions by telling him that the pup had been murdered.

When Faolan returns to his clan, Heep frames him and lies about Faolan killing the malcadh. Faolan is outraged by this sudden and incorrect accusation, and loses his head during the trial, shouting at the clan. However, he regains a slight sense of calm once his punishment, a slow, painful tearing into parts by all of the pack, is described to him, and he is given a chance for last words. Fortunately for him, the Sark and Gwynneth both arrive to the case, and prove who the real murderer was... Heep. Upon realizing how caught he was, Heep promptly runs, very narrowly escaping the wolves who were sent to rip him to bloody shreds. After Faolan and Edme win the Gaddergnaw, Heep comes and tries to steal the bones of Faolan's second milk-giver, Thunderheart. Faolan stops him with a confrontation, and Heep and his Outclanner comrades panic, seeing an army of lochin with Faolan, and dash away to the Outermost, never to be seen again for another three books.

After the gaddergnaw ends and the winners are announced, Faolan and Edme travel back to the Carreg Gaer of the MacDuncan clan to prepare for their journey to the Sacred Watch. Meanwhile, Gwynneth returns to her forge, while the Sark returns to her den. Before she goes to sleep, the Sark whispers into a memory jug and "for the first time in her life" sends a small prayer to Lupus, wishing Morag a short and safe journey to the Cave of Souls when her time comes.

This information is copied from the Wolves of the Beyond Wiki
The book opens with Faolan and Edme as new winners of the gaddergnaw. Finbar had told them to go on their Slaan Leat before coming to the Watch, as a way to find peace with their state as malcadhs. Edme asks Faolan if he feels his tummfraw is truly the riverbank, because she doesn't feel that her tummfraw, the northernmost mountain peak of Crooked Back Ridge, is hers. When she sees the stars, she begins to howl that all the heavens are one, and Faolan hopes to see his second Milk Giver, the grizzly bear Thunderheart, in the afterlife. The weather turns cold at the beginning of the Moon of the Flies, the first summer moon. Edme travels to her tummfraw and realizes she was not abandoned to die there.

Faolan visits his tummfraw, deciding to build a drumlyn for Thunderheart on the riverbank. He suddenly starts to wonder who was his first Milk Giver, and if he has family in the clan.

Edme, traveling back from Crooked Back Ridge, is intercepted by Ingliss and Kyran, two yearlings who take delight in abusing her. They laugh at Edme for standing up to them at first, but then they think of a new way to make fun of her, telling her she isn't a true gnaw wolf. Edme forces them to tell the truth, and they explain that their chieftain, Dunbar MacHeath, ripped out her eye. Edme decides to confront him with the evidence, frightening Ingliss and Kyran.

Faolan, building Thunderheart's drumlyn, wonders where her spirit dwells, as he has never seen her climb the star ladder. He sings a song to help her ascend to Ursulana.

Dunbar MacHeath is drunk with the juice of the Litha roses at the time Edme asks him if she was truly made a malcadh. When she sees the snow on some of the wolves, she plays on their superstitions and inquires if the spirit of the first Fengo is offended by the maiming of pups to gain a seat on the Watch.

Edme leaves the clan in a snowstorm, and the Obea Airmead catches up with her, telling her that no malcadhs have ever been born into the savage MacHeath clan. She tells Edme about the Hordweard Society and that she herself has a chance to leave and start a better life. The last member of the Society was Edme's mother, Akira, who scarred Dunbar's face to avenge Edme's eye.

Edme discovers that Ingliss and Kyran have been murdered by a slink melf sent by the chieftain. Faolan later has thoughts of his own, regarding the small number of fallen antlers from the herds.

On the journey to the Ring, the two wolves stop and observe a byrrgis from the Watch sharing their kill with a grizzly bear mother. Edme observes how cute her two cubs are, and runs off to play with them while Faolan is napping. Faolan wakes up in a panic and leads Edme away from the cubs, telling her never to touch a bear cub.

The two arrive at the Ring and are greeted by their taigas, Twistling, a wolf with a backward front paw, and Winks, a female with one eye. During their meeting with the Fengo, Edme tells him that her eye was ripped out and that she has renounced her clan and become a free runner. Finbar decides to call a Court of Crait to judge the MacHeaths for breaking the sacred rules. While licking the Bone of Bones on his first night in the den, Faolan wakes Edme to ask if she touched the cubs, fearing for her safety.

An outflanker named Katria, Kyran's mother and mate of the high-ranking Donaidh, observes Fretta's report on Faolan and Edme about the cubs. She also tells Dunbar a rumor that their clan will be called for a Court of Crait. Dunbar decides to form a plan to not only get out of the court, but become the ultimate authorities. His plan is to start a war between the wolves and the grizzly bears by stealing the cub Edme played with and taking him to the Pit.

At the Ring, Faolan and Edme are introduced to Snowdon and become shocked by his forked tongue. When the two wolves separate, Twist teaches Faolan how to do a scanning jump. Faolan makes a very high leap, which pleases Twist. Edme jumps well until Banja deliberately distracts her, then falling on her rear. Winks does not appear to believe Banja's apologies. After his lesson, Faolan observes the cairn of the Fengos, realizing he knows the code they use to carve their final bones.

Donaidh walks in on Katria in their den, telling her he has been picked to kidnap the cub, and thinking he might be promoted. Katria decides to run away to the MacNamara clan and warn them about the cubnapping and the war. During the first part of her journey, Airmead surprises her, planning to join her and thinking about rescuing the innocent cub--the opposite of taking a malcadh to a tummfraw.

During a test on the species of owls, Faolan and Edme become nervous when Malachy uses the phrase "bare as a bear cub's butt." Malachy doesn't have much time to wonder about their nerves when the She-Winds begin to blow out of season. Twist teaches Faolan the wonder of jumping high into the thermals and letting the hot air lift him higher. Faolan wants to tell Edme how wonderful it was, but Banja has dalach'd her for not "showing the proper reverence for the keybone." During the arrival of owls, Faolan wonders how he knows about gadfeathers, and all sorts of peculiar things.

Toby, the cub Edme played with, feels bored with his brother Burney and his mum Bronka napping, and wants to play with a wolf again. Fretta steps out and attempts to make friends with him, when four other wolves rush out and grab him, carrying him away. Toby screams that all the bears of the Beyond will get them, which makes the wolves laugh. They drop him in the Pit, and he catches his first glimpse of Old Cags. The wolves need a name to give Cags, but Toby makes believe that his name is Ishodd. The sound of this word frightens the wolves due to their superstitious nature. Toby hides from Old Cags in a narrow rock slot, hoping not to die. He wants to climb the wall out of the Pit, but it seems hopeless.

Back by their riverbank den, Bronka finds Toby gone and flies into a rage, roaring at the wolves who stole her cub.

Continuing on their journey, Katria and Airmead swim across an inlet to Broken Talon Point. They discover two sets of wolf tracks, discovering that one wolf must be blind. It turns out to be Morag, Faolan's real mother, and her new mate, Brangwen. He is taking her to the MacNamaras to live. When they reach the MacNamara territory, they are informed that Galana MacNamara, knows about the impending war with the bears.

Back on the Watch, Faolan captures an owl he thinks might be a graymalkin, but it turns out the owl, Arthur, has information about Toby's cubnapping. They tell Finbar about the attack, but Banja interrupts and declares that Edme should not be permitted to join the mission to rescue him, for she fears betrayal. Faolan is triggered and calls Banja a traitor. He, Edme, and Arthur leave to find the Pit, and observe that Toby has lost his fear of Old Cags. Edme and Arthur distract the sick wolf with flight acrobatics and scanning jumps while Faolan removes the cub, but Arthur is killed in the attempt.

Once Faolan and Edme return Toby to his mother in the Black Glass Desert, Dunbar comes up with a new plan--assassinate the Bear of Bears. In front of everyone, Katria stops the leading wolf, Andreen, from killing him. Finbar bypasses the Court of Crait and simply exiles the surviving MacHeaths. Edme has killed Dunbar during the assassination attempt, avenging her mother.

Eight moons later (indicated by the title of the last chapter, Eight Moons Passing), Faolan is taken to meet his dying mother. He tells her what his name means, "gift from the river". Morag likes the sound of the word "gift", repeating it several times before she dies. Faolan observes her climbing the star ladder, and to his delight, Thunderheart is following her to rest in peace.

This information is copied from the Wolves of the Beyond Wiki
The story begins when an old buck caribou leads his herd to the summer feeding grounds in the Beyond. But they keep going in circles because the winter blizzards are still around and the old buck questions his leadership for the herd. Meanwhile, Edme was thinking about what has happened to all the herds in the Beyond when she gets scared by Faolan, who she thinks was a lochin. After a brief talk, Faolan wanted to show her something " that makes no sense", which Edme accepts. The thing turns out to be the caribou herd tracks going in circles.

Faolan and Edme continue their search for food, and stumble upon a young moose. While chasing it, Edme discovers the smell of old milk on it, indicating that no female was available to nurse it.

Once Faolan and Edme return to the Watch, Banja complains that there are too few wolves at the Ring at any time. Finbar immediately calls them to report, and Edme tells him about the moose. Finbar informs both wolves that Liam MacDuncan has wandered off and allowed the MacDuncan clan to fall into chaos. Also, some wolves of the Blood Watch have gone missing, creating openings for incoming outclanners. Finbar sends Faolan and Edme to scout out the MacDuncans, and then fix the situation with the Blood Watch. He finishes by advising Edme to visit the ailing Winks.

During the visit, Winks tells Edme about her inner eye, an ability named by herself to guide her from inside her head. Edme dreams that night about a frost wolf telling her she has two eyes. The wolf appears to be Faolan, but is not. Edme watches it transform into an owl.

The Sark of the Slough, unable to find the herds, is forced to eat two rotten Slough tern eggs. One Byrrgis she tried running in, with Liam MacDuncan, lacked leadership and completely collapsed when a line wolf uttered a signal out loud, something never done except to call off the chase. After eating the eggs, the Sark observes several wolves dancing and calling for "the Prophet". The Sark spies a wolf with an owl's helmet and mask on its head.

Liam becomes flustered with his new leadership after the death of his mother, Cathmor. Mhairie and Dearlea, eavesdropping outside, are disgusted with Liam's failure and saddened by their mother's absence at the Blood Watch. Faolan and Edme stumble upon them, and the sisters explain that he does wander off and that the Blood Watch has not been changed. Faolan observes how the air of authority in the raghnaid has disappeared, leaving nothing dignified or noble to mark it. The clan shouts at the chieftain, a shocking breach of discipline. Faolan asks Liam when he last ordered the Blood Watch wolves to be changed, and Liam is not sure.

While Faolan and Edme, together with Mhairie and Dearlea, travel in search of Caila, Faolan realizes that their old gnaw wolf friends will starve in the famine first. Shortly after making a plan to bring the gnaw wolves to the Blood Watch, they find the dead body of Tearlach. Faolan and Edme howl a song to help him ascend the star ladder, claiming it "just came to them". The Whistler, painfully thin, appears close by and collapses. The four travelers drag him to a cave and feed him bits of meat from mice and blood from one snow hare. The Whistler awakens, telling them of the Skaars Dancers and the messages they scratch to the Prophet, using the singing rocks. The dancers believe that the Prophet is between heaven and earth on the Great Chain, a perversion of the chain. The Whistler tells the others that the Prophet wears an owl's mask.

At the old forge of her auntie, the Rogue Smith of Silverveil, Gwynneth receives a visit from her scroom, telling her that her father's helmet has been disturbed. After this short chapter, Faolan and his friends are nearing the Blood Watch when they come upon the remains of a Skaars circle. More shockingly, they smell the stink of a rout of wolf-eating outclanners. Faolan notices the clan wolves' paw prints in the circle, and realizes that hunger now rules the Beyond.

The Whistler reflects on how they found Tearlach's body, head pressed to the ground where his ear would have been, and wonders if Tearlach overheard scratched messages to the Prophet by desperate wolves. He discovers that there is one close to the Blood Watch.

During a visit by Gwynneth to her cave, the Sark smells rabbit-ear moss and realizes that the helmet she saw on the strange wolf was Gwyndor's. Her memory jugs help her sort out the scent.

Faolan and the others witness their first Skaars circle and hear the dancers begging to die. Dearlea suddenly spots Caila and runs up to her with Mhairie. Caila, in a state of confusion, tells the sisters that she was not their real mother and that they had a sibling who was a malcadh. An outclanner suddenly appears and attacks her, causing Faolan to rush to her defense, unconsciously changing his form to a grizzly bear's and killing the outclanner with the bear's strength. Only Edme appears to witness this. Caila becomes dazed and wanders into a blizzard, which also forces Faolan and the travelers to seek shelter in The Cave Before Time. Inside the cave, Edme thinks the vision of Faolan as a frost wolf at the book's beginning felt like something from another time, while Faolan dreams about creating a picture on the wall--the Skaars circle and the outclanners, drawn in charcoal. Faolan realizes two things--that Mhairie and Dearlea were his birth sisters, and that before being born a wolf, he had the thunderous heart of a grizzly bear.

Gwynneth and the Sark begin their search for Gwyndor's helmet by sniffing out traces of rabbit-ear moss from his bones. But they don't know his final resting place, and their quest only discovers a bone gnawed with a picture of the helmet and visor.

Once the traveling wolves reach the Blood Watch, its captain, Tamsen, gives them permission to try to bring the Skaars Dancers to their senses and make them eat. None of the dancers cooperate, claiming that they will not be taken if they have blood on them, even when one of them dies.

The Sark and Gwynneth find an Obea Tree, a tree wolves believe will curse them with barrenness, and in its roots they discover a hollow where Gwyndor's helmet has been hidden. The Sark realizes from the scents in her memory that Gwyndor bled to death on a bed of rabbit-ear moss. The Sark is disgusted with the way the wolves dance for death instead of staying still at the end of their lives to separate body and soul gently.

Tamsen decides that the only way to stop the plague of Skaars dancing is to capture the Prophet.

At the Blood Watch, the Skreeleens spot strange lights bobbing in the sky, and begin to howl to the Great Wolf, asking what it means. The dancers begin to dance with more fervor, believing the lights to be a sign of Skaarsgard's arrival. Faolan has clear and satisfying feelings about belonging to a family.

Airmead and Katria arrive from the MacNamara clan with Brygeen and Oona to replace Tamsen and Greer.

Tully, a Snowy Owl, is sent by the Great Ga'Hoole Tree to help the wolves of the Beyond and find Gwynneth. He encounters a circle of exhausted Skaars dancers and sees firsthand their delusions about the Prophet and Skaarsgard coming down to take them. After most of the dancers die and the remaining ones walk away, Creakle makes an appearance, explaining  to Tully about the Prophet and telling him he will be heading to the Blood Watch.

Gwynneth sees the strange lights in the sky, but the Sark tells her they are simply a trick of the sunlight shining its rays at their usual summertime angle through the frigid atmosphere. Gwynneth goes out flying when Tully and Creakle encounter her, telling her the great tree needs her to help the wolves. Creakle is sent on to the Blood Watch to report to Faolan and Edme. Afterwards, these two leave the Blood Watch to help Gwynneth and the Sark take down the Prophet, and Faolan suddenly stumbles upon a lava bed, like the one where he and Thunderheart had a winter den. Inside the bed, two outclanners are threatening a grizzly cub and her sleeping mother. Faolan once again transforms into a bear before Edme's eye, killing the outclanners and calming the cub.

The Sark smells the odors of the wolves and cub on Faolan when he and Edme reach the Obea tree. She is disgusted when they tell her a dancer refused to eat a fresh mouse because he wanted it as an offering of spirit food for the Prophet.

The Prophet himself finally decides to return to his hiding place, letting his visor reflect the rising sun. The Sark spots him, but he runs away when she and the others try to chase him. Faolan becomes trapped against the wind, but uses his splayed paw to claw through it. Edme heads off the Prophet's escape attempt, continuing the chase. Once Faolan pins him down and Gwynneth lifts his visor, he is revealed to be the disgraced Liam MacDuncan. He claims he wanted to bring hope to the wolves, but Gwynneth asks to spare him and have him guide her to her father's resting place.

Once Liam is brought back to the Blood Watch, Tamsen orders that he be unmasked before as many Skaars dancers as possible. The plan fails, with the dancers remaining trapped in their delusions of the Prophet. One pup begs his parents to see sense, but they ignore him and Faolan is forced to carry him away to the Ring to save him.

The Whistler remains at the Blood Watch, made second skreeleen because of his howling abilities. Edme hears that Winks died with dignity after she left, not begging like the Skaars dancers. Faolan decides to take his sisters to join the MacNamaras, and to build a drumlyn for their mother, Morag. On their way, they discover a dead musk ox, with enough food to feed them and a space inside for them to pass the night. They report the source of food to the MacNamara scouts, and then move on to build the drumlyn. Mhairie and Dearlea are nervous at first, but begin to carve their bones, telling Morag how good a mother Caila was until the Skaars dancers took her. Faolan falls asleep while they carve, and dreams about carving a wolf's twisted femur. He knows that he was a bear in the past, but not the full extent of his secret. An elderly wolf appears to him, with a message about dying more than once. Faolan suddenly wakes up, thinking he is in his first pelt of a new season.

This information is copied from the Wolves of the Beyond Wiki
It starts off exactly where Frost Wolf left off. Faolan is sleeping. He had woken up and was trying to figure out a secret deep within his soul. His sisters, Mhairie and Dearlea, were carving the bones in honor of Morag, their mother. The earth begins to shake and they watch the Ring of Sacred Volcanoes crumble. They see the H'rathghar Glacier heading toward them as the earth violently shakes. Mhairie and Dearlea are then separated from Faolan and are trapped on the glacier.

Back at the Ring, Edme is finishing her Watch. She begins to miss all of her friends, and tears cut from her eye. Twistling passes by and for a second thinks that Edme is crying blood, but it turns out to be just the light. The two talk about how the volcanoes are acting strange when there is suddenly a cracking sound and Edme sees Twist stagger and vanish into the ground before her eyes. She then loses consciousness.

In the Shadow Forest, the Sark, Gwynneth and Liam are returning Gwyndor's mask. The earth begins to shake here as well and Liam is crushed by a boulder, giving an agonized scream as it crushes his bones. Gwynneth finds herself going yeep and can't find the Sark.

In the Cave Before Time, the "Whistler" is sleeping. He was very tired from a double shift on the Blood Watch. He wakes up and begins to look at the drawings on the wall. The earth as well trembles, and he believes he is going to die as his legs are caught.

Back on Broken Talon Point, what was once thick ice is now big chunks of ice, land debris, dead animals and freezing, dangerous water. Faolan howls for his sisters, and then hears Dearlea calling to Mhairie. He spots them standing on a sinking Musk Ox carcass. He tells them to swim to him, and they do, clinging to the ice floe. Suddenly, Mhairie gasps at Faolan's paw, and he realizes that the ember has been destroyed along with the ring. He looks down at it, and it is no longer splayed, but perfectly normal, besides his spiral mark, which has stayed. However, Faolan feels incomplete. Mhairie shrieks for him to hold on as he slides toward the edge of the ice floe.

Outside the clan borders, Heep has a mate, Aliac, and a son, Abban. They are watching Heep's new 'tradition' being executed by Rags -- the tradition is that all tails are to be bitten off of dead wolves. Heep has created what he calls a 'community', and the outclanners are learning to crouch into submission whenever Heep passes. But as Rags bites off the dead wolf's tail, the earthquake begins, and some of the wolves escape. But Heep stops, and looks behind him. A white tip is poking out where his tail should have been, and it grows until he has a yellow tail with a white tip. Heep is joyous, and does all this and that with it, such as forcing his mate to groom it for countless hours, and tucking it between his legs whenever no wolf was looking just for fun. But behind his back, the other outclanners are snickering at him, for his vanity is eating away at him.

In the aftermath of the earthquake, Myrrglosch finds himself alone at the destroyed Ring. He begins to cry, and tries to find other survivors. But every Watch wolf is dead; even the Fengo and some owls have been killed. He hopes that if there is one survivor, let it be Edme. He comes upon terrifying sights, such as wolves that have been frozen forever in the ash and lava flows, their bodies frozen in eternal anguish. He then hears whimpering, and looks around. He spots what is left of Edme's and Faolan's den, and he looks into it. He sees Edme in the dark, and he skids down into the den to her, happy. But he notices that she still has her one eye; every other watch wolf he had seen had their deformities fixed, such as Colleen's ears, Snowdon's tongue, and even Leitha had grown her fourth leg, even though they were all dead. She asks him in a daze what had happened, and Myrr replies, "A bit of a miracle, I'd say. Myrr glosch!"

On the sea, Faolan is struggling to adapt to his new paw, as his second milk giver, Thunderheart, had taught him to use his splayed one in a special way to make it efficient. The tide is carrying them out to sea, and they have to get back to the land before they are sent directly into the Sea of Hoolemere. Faolan sees a piece of driftwood and has an idea. He gnaws it into a fan-like shape and asks his sisters what he would look like if he were to put it on his tail. Mhairie and Dearlea have no idea, but then Faolan explains about owls using their tails to steer their flight from the example of his friend Gwynneth, and he says that if they stuck it in the back of the ice floe, they could steer back to land. After several attempts, Faolan is near to giving up because his new paw is proving difficult. But with his sisters' encouragement, he tries again, and manages to get it in a good position. As the ice floe begins to head back to the land, he thinks of Edme all the way, and worries for her, thinking that she was much more then a Watch mate.

After a journey through the remains of the wrecked Beyond, Faolan, Mhairie and Dearlea reach the sacred Ring. They are shocked by the damage, as the Hrath'ghar glacier has cut all the way to the Ring, making the land look white and black. They see many dead bodies, and Faolan still thinks about Edme. Suddenly, Edme and Myrr explode from the remains of Faolan's and Edme's den, delighted to see them. Edme begins to cry, as she is so happy to see Faolan is alive. She says that she didn't get her second eye, as she was malcadh made, not born. It is revealed that Finbar is dead, and the wolves decide to put his bones on the Fengos' cairn.

Faolan, meanwhile, has had a dream, about being a grizzly bear and killing a moose to protect a mother grizzly and her cubs. His name is Eo, and he thinks he must do lochinvyrr for the moose, despite not being a wolf. Faolan awakens and discovers he chose to be Eo before being born a wolf.

While watching over Finbar's bones, Faolan has a vision, first of an old wolf teaching a Spotted Owl named Grank. The name feels familiar to Faolan, and the vision changes until Fengo becomes a Snowy Owl. Faolan realizes he chose to become a female as well as an owl. Her name is Fionula, and her friend is an ancestor of Madame Plonk, the singer of the Great Ga'Hoole Tree. Fionula becomes defensive when her friend, Brunwella Plonk, comments on the strange behavior of the wolves. Fionula knows that owls are not allowed to cook meat using coals from the Sacred Volcanoes.

Gwynneth searches for The Sark desperately, but can't find her. She sees the Beyond -- what is left of it. She decides to look in her forge, which is almost completely concealed. Gwynneth sees that branches have been pulled purposely over the entrance, and she flips her head so that she can see what is in her forge. She hears a voice - she recognizes it, but the tone is very different, and she is shocked to realize that it is Banja.

Gwynneth discovers that Banja has given birth to a beautiful she-pup called Maud, or Maudie. Banja explains, and that she wouldn't mind if she wasn't let back into the Ring, because she wanted to be a mother so much. Banja has turned from spiteful to a kindly, caring wolf. She also tells Gwynneth that Maudie had both eyes, as she had peeped beneath her eye lids. Gwynneth says that Maudie is like her, and at first Banja thinks that it is an insult because of her former personality. Gwynneth corrects her, saying that she now had two eyes. Banja is shocked, and blinks it to make sure it was there. Banja guiltily explains why she hated Edme, and that she wouldn't mind if she didn't forgive her.

The Sark, meanwhile, has survived, but is losing a lot of blood fast. She wants to get back to the Slough, to her memory jugs before she dies. After a long, hard trek, she reaches it, but collapses with grief, as all of them are shattered. But she scents one, of sweet grass. She then remembers her time as a pup, as a lone wolf. She doesn't remember being carried away by an Obea, but thinks that she was abandoned. She remembers following a pack of the MacNabs, and being mesmerized by a stunning she-wolf she called Amber, because of her pale amber-coloured coat. The male wolves all flirt with Amber, who does nothing to stop it, and she disciplines her pups severely, sometimes drawing blood. One night, Amber was staring at her reflection in a lake for hours on end. One of her pups came over, wanting to nurse, but Amber whacked him and flung him through the air, and the impact of landing broke his spine, killing him. Amber picked up his body, and dropped him in the deepest part of the lake, looking at her reflection once more before walking away. The Sark realizes that Amber is her mother, and is angry and sad at the same time. Then, whilst searching for The Sark, Gwynneth hears her faint heart. When Gwynneth finds her, lying in a pool of her own blood so deep that her memory jug shards float around her, Gwynneth screams as no owl had screamed before.

Edme feels her marrow go cold as she hears a terrible screeching. Myrr asks what it is, and Faolan freezes, knowing who it is. The group head toward the sound, and find Gwynneth shrieking, and flying above The Sark's cave, shrieking her grief to the sky. She yells that she tried everything, but the Sark wouldn't wake up. They enter the cave, and see the dying Sark. Edme tries to convince the Sark to lie on a caribou pelt instead of the uncomfortable memory jug shards, but the Sark declines. The Sark says that they must go on without her, and she dies. Faolan, mournful, asks Gwynneth to come with them to a place he had seen, The Distant Blue. Gwynneth asks of the place he had seen.

On the journey, the survivors come upon the surface of the glacier. Faolan warns that the snowy surface may conceal dangerous crevasses. Gwynneth recalls coming across the body of Oona, a brave MacNamara lieutenant, inside a crack in the ground. She tells them about Banja and her pup, and Faolan orders her to bring them to The Cave Before Time. Edme, meanwhile, senses that Faolan will meet the frost wolf she saw at the beginning of the last book, if he only goes to the cave. She feels a pain in her starboard femur, and also knows they are going back before time. While playing tag with Myrr, Edme falls into a crevasse hidden under the snow.

The Whistler, adjusting to his new straight throat after the Great Mending, suddenly hears a noise. It comes from a singing rock, and the Whistler can hear the voices of Faolan and the other wolves. The wolves themselves are at the crevasse, arguing about how to rescue Edme. Edme shuts them out and uses her inner eye to help guide her. She notices that there are narrow cracks in the ice walls, and she can use them to climb out. She begins to do so, but suddenly comes upon a smooth part of the wall, which forces her to stop and hang by her claws.

Howling to alert the others, the Whistler arrives on the scene, and Gwynneth soon follows with Maudie, telling them Banja will come that evening. Faolan decides to form a chain of five wolves to get Edme out--a new Great Chain, despite the others' worries about blaspheming the original. Faolan explains that words are just words, and the Great Chain is no more or less. They begin to climb down and rescue Edme, but the steepness forces them to dig their claws into each other's skin. As Faolan grabs Edme, Dearlea, just behind him, weakens and slips. Gwynneth digs her talons into Edme's head to help pull her out, and she is overjoyed to see the black night after the endless blue glacier. She feels the pain of her femur, that it is an old, familiar pain.

Flying ahead on the journey, Gwynneth spots the end of the glacier on the other side of a spirit woods. The creatures camp in them for the night. Faolan dreams of a meeting with Fionula and Eo, knowing the phrase "gyre soul" and that they must go west. Edme, meanwhile, sees Fionula and Eo with a wolf that looks like Faolan, but is old and weak. The next morning, Faolan thinks there is no way she could have seen the meeting. There is another gyre soul he thinks Edme saw.

When a fog bank rolls in, Gwynneth orders the others to stay still and takes a roll call, but is unable to locate Myrr. Edme is distraught, and Banja comforts her. Gwynneth sets off to find Myrr, using her spectacular hearing. Searching out the pup, she suddenly hears two young bears crying, and Myrr is with them, telling them he has lost his parents too. The bears are Toby, the cub rescued by Edme in Watch Wolf, and his brother Burney. Their mother, Bronka, has gotten lost. Gwynneth brings the cubs back with Myrr, but they don't stop crying, and the wolves and owl go out to search for her. Gwynneth hears Bronka's heartbeat growing slower and tracks down her body, torn to pieces by outclanners. The bear's ankle has been broken, allowing the savage wolves to attack her. Gwynneth whispers in Bronka's ear that her cubs are safe with Faolan and Edme. Faolan and the other wolves arrive, and Faolan tells the others to roll on Bronka and bring back her scent for the cubs. Toby and Burney are horrified when the wolves report back, but Gwynneth gives them each a feather of hers laced with Bronka's scent for the cubs to wear in their fur.

During the final leg of the trek to the Cave Before Time, Faolan asks Edme about her lame femur, but she gets snappy and asks him to drop it. Faolan suddenly recalls the twisted femur he carved in a dream at the end of the last book, and it resembled Edme's. A second earthquake forces the animals to run for cover with Gwynneth guiding them until they reach the cave. Inside, Katria and Airmead are taking refuge, with Airmead terribly wounded. They were on the Blood Watch with Galana the Namara when a rout of outclanners attacked and the earthquake struck simultaneously. The Namara was tossed from her cairn by the tremors and her heart pierced by a sharp splinter of rock. The outclanners became obsessed with trying to drink the chieftain's heart's blood, starting the battle. Faolan suddenly asks if Heep was in the rout, learning that Heep had indeed grown his tail in the Great Mending.

Knowing that Heep was still alive, Faolan almost forgot that he needed to meet the frost wolf if he can guide the survivors to the Distant Blue. Guided by the crack of moonlight from the ceiling, he sets off with Fionula and Eo while the others sleep. While observing a painting of a byrrgis, Faolan realizes that he was the point wolf from his familiar stride, and recalls leading hundreds of wolves in that time. Often the gyres encounter the spiral that remains on Faolan's paw, painted on the wall. At the end of the final passageway, Faolan comes upon a series of paintings depicting a wolf's death. The third gyre still waits to meet them, but Faolan is startled by the sight of a twisted femur. This is the loveliest of bones for him, still there after a thousand years. He carries the bone with him to follow the wolf's passing through the paintings. It turns out to be the story of the first Fengo coming to life again, and Faolan understands the old wolf's rebirth.

When the third and oldest gyre soul finally appears, it is Fengo himself, having chosen the lives of an owl, a bear, and a wolf, as well as having earned them. They are animals he has come to admire during his first lifetime. These three spirits are there to guide Faolan to the Distant Blue. After a thousand years, Fengo is living as a wolf again, reversing his journey to the Beyond from the Distant Blue.

Faolan's companions are startled to sense a change in him, but only Edme learns of the spirit called Fengo, having had him as a mate long ago. Faolan tells them to leave the cave, guided by Fionula. Edme carries the bone to bring with her.

The group comes across the Crystal Plain, which Faolan declares too bright to cross safely in daylight. Stepping onto it the first night, the animals come across the spirits of their loved ones, including Bronka, Galana, and Oona and Brygeen, who was killed in the fight with the outclanners. Faolan and his sisters see their mother and Thunderheart, the grizzly who raised Faolan. Before dawn, Faolan stops the group and instructs them in building their first snow cave, to hide from the daylight. Crossing the plain, Edme feels the pain in her femur diminish when she carries the bone. There are words carved into it in Old Wolf, which she cannot read, though she senses it is part of a very old story left unfinished.

While following Heep through the Cave Before Time, Aliac complains about his tail and recalls the word "Mum" when Abban calls her "Ma." Heep is following Faolan's scent trail through the cave, knowing his old enemy will find a better place to live, but Faolan's scent suddenly changes and frightens Heep. The yellow wolf cannot smell Faolan's scent on his swirling-star paw print, attacking Aliac when she states otherwise. Aliac threatens to tear his tail right off, and her memories of being Caila come back. She picks up Abban and runs as she has never run before.

At the end of the Crystal Plain, Caila reunites with Mhairie and Dearlea, asking their forgiveness for denying them and wanting to be their mum again. They accept her, and Faolan allows her and Abban to travel with them. Gwynneth sees a new constellation resembling a memory jug, prompting Faolan to name it the Sark. On this night, the animals prepare for their journey across the ice bridge over the western sea. This is their last night in the Beyond.

This information is copied from the Wolves of the Beyond Wiki
The story begins with the earthquake survivors, Faolan, Edme, Gwynneth, Mhairie, Dearlea, The Whistler, Banja, Caila, Katria, Airmead, Abban, Myrrglosch, Maudie, Toby and Burney, looking back at the Beyond for the final time. Ahead lies the Ice Bridge, leading over the sea. The group survey it for a final time, remembering all that had happened, before heading onto the ice bridge.

On the ice bridge, a powerful wind comes, and Abban is thrown from the bridge into the sea. Caila is shocked and fearful for her pup, and is kept back by her daughters. In the sea, Abban can see strange things that no wolf has seen before. He sees a weird creature with an odd-shaped head, and then another shape pushes him to the surface, where he is rescued by Gwynneth. But as he is flown to safety, he seems to be in a trance, and his eyes have turned blue-green. He is only talking in strange rhymes: "I spoke, I spoke, but the old tooth gave a poke and water around me broke." Caila is fretting over him, and acts hostile toward Airmead when she suggests some things about what has happened to Abban, possibly because she was an Obea, and Caila thinks she is going to take her pup away.

After Abban's fall, the wolves, owl, and bears are very wary of the edge; the cubs stay close to Katria and Airmead, Myrr presses against Edme, and Caila and Banja carry their pups despite Maudie's protests. Edme holds the bone she always carries in her jaws, because it soothes the recently developing pain in her hip. She looks into Faolan's eyes, and he knows that she senses his gyre souls.

That night, Faolan and Edme take the first watch while the others sleep. Faolan is looking at the haze of the Distant Blue, and Edme tells him not the blame it. Faolan talks about how the ice bridge looked so smooth at first, and how now there are a lot of ridges. They talk for a while, before the Whistler and Airmead come to take over the watch. Faolan reports that there'll be more ridges to cross tomorrow, and the Whistler assures him that they'll get there. Faolan looks up at the Sark's memory jug constellation, and thinks about how the she had died, making him and Gwynneth as shattered as the shards of her memory jugs. Edme then gets up to talk to Faolan, and he notes in his head about how the pain in her hip was changing how she walked. They talk about how to get over the ice bridge without any more of them ending up in the sea like Abban. Faolan says that the youngest, smallest and most vulnerable of them - Myrr, Maudie, Abban, Toby and Burney - would go in the middle, the wolves on the outside and Gwynneth flying above them. They then see some strange sea creatures swimming in the distance, and are mystified. Gwynneth then lands down, and explains that they are narwhales. She said that she and her father, Gwyndor, had only seen one in the Northern Kingdoms. She explains about their anatomy and their 'tooth'. She says that she thinks narwhales helped push Abban up to the surface, as he was babbling about a creature with a weird tusk.

Faolan's new idea is proving efficient but awkward, especially for the wolves. Gwynneth notes about how she loves flying over a byrrgis, and how she loves watching the grace of the movements. She thinks about her forge, and she wonders if she'll be able to make a new one in the Distant Blue. She notes how her world has become blurry and dim recently. After crossing a ridge, Faolan, Edme and Myrr see Gwynneth preparing to land by them, but they realise that she is flying awkwardly, and as she goes to land, she suddenly crashes, losing several feathers. She refuses to accept that she crashed, and starts screeching furiously when Myrr asks her about it.

While keeping watch, Mhairie and Dearlea suddenly spot Abban wandering away from the snow den, sound asleep. They are hesitant to wake him, thinking of a sleepwalking wolf who, when wakened by her mate, clawed his eyes out, believing he was a cougar. Abban is not only sleepwalking, but speaking in rhymes like when he is awake. Faolan arrives and guides him back to the den without waking him, asking his sisters not to tell anyone, having a theory that Abban's mind is someplace else. While talking with Edme, Faolan discusses the risks of traveling on the sea, and how Gwynneth can no longer see well enough to warn of cracks in the ice. Abban, however, can sense the leads opening up in the ice. The pup has spoken of a narwhale, Old Tooth, who will guide them.

Gwynneth suddenly flies into camp one day, bringing two bald eagles, Eelon and Zanouche. They explain that Heep and his rout of outclanners are coming after Faolan and his companions. Faolan discusses secretly with Gwynneth the new constellation of the narwhale he has observed, with the tusk pointing toward the Distant Blue.

Edme, while all the others sleep, thinks of an old soul, an old dream, within Faolan. While licking her bone, she uses her inner eye to help her understand what it says. She seems to have an ancient memory of Stormfast, the mate of the first Fengo, dying and him not ready to part with her.

Afterwards, Edme is reluctant to leave the ice bridge for too long, and Faolan does not understand why. However, the animals travel across the Frozen Sea as a shortcut around the pressure ridges, and are greeted by a family of puffins. The birds, despite lacking the brainpower to understand some expressions like "knee-slapper", make friends with Abban and prove to be excellent capelin fishers. Dearlea, having trained as a skreeleen, wants to make stories and name things, telling her sister stories are important.

Zanouche scouts for Heep's rout, finding him howling his revenge against Faolan and Caila, calling his former mate "Aliac". Rags, a member of the rout, becomes frightened by him. Zanouche suddenly remembers flying over Faolan when he was a young wolf learning to swim. She recalls Eelon saw him on his tummfraw, but he "sensed something" and left him alone.

The puffins sense a storm coming, and the creatures take refuge in a snow den. Edme is frightened that the ice bridge might melt in the warmer weather with them on it. After several days, the storm clears enough to allow traveling. Faolan notices that Beezar, the constellation of the stumbling blind wolf, has a special star in his front paw. This star is Kilyric, as it was known in Old Wolf, and it can guide them back to the ice bridge. Faolan promises Edme that they can get back to the bridge at dawn.

A few days later, Abban suddenly has a seizure and Faolan pushes Edme's bone into his mouth to prevent damaging his tongue. The pup has sensed a large crack opening up in the ice. Nearly all the animals escape, but Maudie falls in the sea. Edme swims in to rescue her, finding the pup lifted by two beluga whales. Old Tooth is there also, to guide the animals to the end of the lead. Edme shouts at Myrr for imagining what the mossflowers on a summer night must be like, since he has never seen them, but later apologizes. Myrr is worried that Edme will leave him like his parents did if he does something bad, but she refuses, claiming they are kin in a way.

Abban sees a beluga with clawmarks on it, and cries out that Heep made them. Zanouche reports that the rout is quickly approaching via an ice tongue, formed underneath the bridge. Caila tells them that Heep is mad and seeks to kill her and Abban. Faolan suddenly remembers a bone he carved as the first Fengo, that is now buried in the cairn of the Fengos, and shows wolves wambling, or leaping between ice floes. He shows the others how to do it, with Abban swimming and the eagles carrying Myrr and Maudie.

Rags is astonished to see wolves leaping from one ice floe to the next, and Abban swimming in the ocean. He himself wonders if swimming would be worse than living with Heep, who has dreams of becoming the wolf with the most power in the new land. Rags remembers how his vain, elderly mother found a second Milk Giver for him, and then ran off with a younger male wolf. The second Milk Giver, a mother with pups of her own, complained that Rags drank too much milk and abandoned him. The Sark began to follow Rags during his journey, and found him another wolf mother, a malcadh's mother. She helped the mother name Rags after Ragmore, a wolf who possibly fought in the War of the Ember. Hours later, a wolverine found the den and killed Rags's third Milk Giver, acting like the pup himself was too small to kill. Rags ran away from the den and never touched milk again, living on small animals he killed, before coming to the Outermost. He thinks of how the Sark spoke, and how different it was from the speech of the outclanners. He then wonders if he can find hope for himself.

While wambling, Faolan wants to name the other stars, besides Kilyric, in Beezar's paw and in the Narwhale constellation. He thinks that words make things come to life. Dearlea feels like the whales are trying to communicate, and thinks of a song to recall the journey across the sea. The night Caila sees the shadow of Heep's tail, along with other outclanners, the wolves remain on the ice. But when the ice floes become smaller, the group decides to go back to the bridge. Zanouche reports Heep talking about killing Caila before Abban's eyes, knowing she and Eelon care for Faolan and the others. Faolan reports that the end of the bridge is not far, thinking of how poetic the name of the Distant Blue sounds, even though they might now have to rename it.

Spring is finally arriving on the Frozen Sea, causing ice rot on the bridge. The creatures decide to travel quickly and sleep half as long, and Abban starts to fish for cod to give them energy, despite the fish's soft bones. While flying with Eelon, Maudie expresses a wish for no gnaw wolves to abuse in the new land. Gwynneth, looking at Maudie, wonders who her father was.

When the Ice Bridge divides into two forks, Edme follows the north one and Faolan the south. Edme knows there is something for her to find. Her hip is hurting worse than ever, telling her that she died close by, a thousand years ago, with a twisted femur that pained her as she aged and caused her difficulties on the Ice March. When she finds the place, she lies down to sleep on a rock and recalls dying as Stormfast, the two-eyed mate of the first Fengo, telling him he won't be alone.

Faolan starts crying on the other fork, with Fengo inside him looking for Stormfast's resting place. Grank, his best friend, guided him to her bones, and Fengo picked out her twisted femur to carve and bring back with him. Faolan suddenly stumbles upon Edme, sleeping on that same rock on the north fork, and her hip has stopped hurting. She offers him to become paw fast again after so much time, and he agrees. The constellation of the Sark, resembling one of its namesake's memory jugs, seems to rise specially for the occasion.

Meanwhile, Abban climbs down to the ice to eat some capelin, daydreaming about the great things that happened to him under the sea and wondering why he speaks in rhymes. Heep and Bevan, one of his wolves, suddenly step out and grab him by the scruff, carrying him away. The puffins fly back into camp to alert the others. The Whistler forces one of them, Dumpette, to tell them how Abban was kidnapped. She suddenly tells them about how the wolves must have hidden him on an ice tongue, and shows much higher intelligence than normal, describing how the tongues are formed.

While Faolan and Edme make the journey back to camp, they find a collection of leaf-like objects on the ice. One of them breaks, proving to be the cocoon of a moth, with the inhabitant, Bells, coming out after fourteen winters. She and the other moths explain how they spent fourteen years as woolly bear caterpillars, crawling quickly to the land to feed in the spring and freezing solid in the fall, then forming cocoons to turn into moths. The Distant Blue is not much farther, just beyond Kilyric.

Faolan and Edme return to camp to find that Abban has been kidnapped, and Caila and Banja ran off to rescue him. Airmead reports a plan of hers to form a slink melf, a formation in the water that was used by the MacNamaras. The adults leave with the bears, Eelon and Zanouche already scouting, and Gwynneth staying behind with Myrr and Maudie.

Rags has already left the rout, staying behind them to keep out of Faolan's way. Now he is trapped in a tunnel in the ice tongue with wolves talking above him, not understanding why they don't leave. When Caila and Banja stumble upon his hiding place, Rags explains that he knew nothing of Abban's abduction, but it explains why the outclanners were staying. He also tells them the rout knows he left, and Heep has pronounced a kuliak, or death curse, upon him.

Heep struggles to scent other wolves intruding on the tongue, but finds Caila's scent and starts laying a trap for her. Faolan, on the other hand, hopes to wipe out the outclanners to live peacefully in the Distant Blue.

Heep orders Abban to yip for milk, despite being weaned, and Caila is unable to hold back from rushing into danger to reach her son. At the moment Heep and Bevan grab him, the wolves, bears, and eagles attack the rout. Heep is frightened to approach the edge of the tongue, after one wolf falls in the water and cannot swim. Caila grabs his tail and rips it off before any wolf comes to his defense. Heep, however, attacks Banja, tearing her throat open. Edme promises the dying wolf she will take care of Maudie, and Banja places her trust in Edme with her last breath.

Maudie is horribly distressed to hear from the returning creatures that Banja has died. The others comfort her by telling her Toby and Burney lost their mum also, but the rest of them love the cubs just as much as she did. Maudie wonders how Banja will find the Cave of Souls with no star ladder constellation. Faolan calms the others, who have begun to fear the same thing, by reminding them of the chieftain who lived again. He lived in the Distant Blue, but he reached the star ladder there. That night, Dearlea begins the morriah, the wailing for the dead wolf, mesmerizing the Whistler with her voice and her writing. Bells arrives at camp that same night, to guide the creatures in their final rush across the Ice Bridge before the spring thaw. Gwynneth, during this journey, notices that her eyesight has stopped becoming worse and that her hearing has become incredible, allowing her to hear Bells's tiny wing beats and the ice cracking.

On their final night on the Ice Bridge, the creatures are surprised by Heep and the remains of his rout. Myrr, not wanting to lose Edme, jumps at Heep's rump where his tail has just been torn off. While the rout is thus distracted, the animals fight back, but the Ice Bridge breaks and all of them fall into the sea. Old Tooth swims by Abban and kills Heep with his tusk right in front of the pup. The narwhales speak to Abban, telling the animals to climb on their backs to escape the approaching sharks and leopard seals. Rags joined the battle, but panicked upon falling in the water, and Abban helps him climb on Old Tooth.

The narwhales carry the survivors to the shore of the Distant Blue. The land is not blue like the way Faolan saw it from the Beyond, but covered in green grass. Dearlea is determined to not forget all they have left behind. Abban believes he has lived the life of a sea creature within his wolf life, and it is a blessing for him. That night, Bells dies on the beach, having reached the end of her adult life. While the star ladder rises, Banja jumps up it, guided by Bells flying ahead of her.

Faolan leaves camp to explore the Distant Blue, encountering strange flowers, and the signs of what he recalls to be "bison". This is the meat the wolves will feed on. Above a valley, Faolan sees a horse, its face covered with fire scars, and it knows he's back. It whinnies out that "the Star Wolf is back!"

Characters

 * Abban
 * Airmaid
 * Aislinn
 * Alastrine
 * Aldwyn
 * Amber
 * Andreen
 * Angus MacAngus
 * Arthur
 * Banja
 * Bells
 * Bevan
 * Brangwen
 * Brecco
 * Briar
 * Bronka
 * Bryan
 * Brygdylla
 * Burney
 * Caila
 * Cathmore
 * Colleen
 * Coryn
 * Creakle
 * Dearlea
 * Donaidh
 * Donegal
 * Duffin
 * Dunbar MacHeath
 * Duncan MacDuncan
 * Dunleavy MacHeath
 * Dunleavy MacHeath (The First)
 * Edme
 * Eiric
 * Eo
 * Faolan
 * Finbar
 * Fionula
 * Fretta
 * Galana MacNamara
 * Grank
 * Grizz
 * Gwyndor
 * Gwynneth
 * Gyllbane
 * Heep
 * Hoole
 * Ingliss
 * Jasper
 * Katria
 * Kinnaird
 * Kyran
 * Lael
 * Leitha
 * Liam
 * Malachy
 * Malan
 * Maudie
 * Mhairie
 * Morag
 * Morb
 * Myrrglosch
 * Namara MacNamara
 * Old Cags
 * Old Tooth
 * Quint
 * Rags
 * Shibaan
 * Sinfagel
 * Snowdon
 * Soren
 * Tamsen
 * Tearlach
 * The Little Pup
 * The Prophet
 * The Sark of the Slough
 * The Whistler
 * Thora Plonk
 * Thunderheart
 * Toby
 * Trader Luce
 * Tully
 * Twistling
 * Winks
 * Zanouche

Why You Should Read it:
Coming soon!