***Some courtships follow all the rules. Some courtships bend them.* ** As the Seven Score Moons cycle through their phases, the appointed time for the Queen’s Festival draws near. Wolves from all over will gather at a site that the packs count as sacred, to sing for the Moon and her maidens. Rinloo is part of an allotment of dexes sent to guard the Circle, which has long been anchored by an Amaranthine tree. There he encounters a girl-child spirited to safety by imps and an unhappy maid from the Luminous Court.