Sky Wolves (31 page)

‘Yes,’ said Flo. ‘But it was all thanks to you. You set us free.’

The little dog lowered her head modestly. ‘That was my name – Leysa, meaning “to set free”,’ she said. ‘But you have set yourselves free.’

And for a moment they stood together, with their noses touching, while high above the croft Sirius, the Dog Star, began to rise. Each of them felt the radiance from that star in his or her own way. Then they bounded around the croft for a while, just like ordinary dogs, before returning home with their humans, to a new life in a city in which each dog played a vitally important role.

Boris and Flo looked after the city’s young, both animal
and human. Boris guided and protected them as they learned to explore, while Flo taught the puppies her many proverbs so that they could guide their humans.

‘Be careful!’ she would say. ‘Still waters run deep!’

‘There’s many a slip ’twixt cup and lip!’

‘Cowardice is just one of the forms of wisdom.’

Gentleman Jim helped to rear a new generation of people and dogs who were used to hunting and tracking, and wherever they went Checkers went with them in case of danger.

But when any animal or human was feeling down at heart or out of sorts, they went to Pico, who would sit with them until they too could see the vastness of the universe and their place in it, which was both immensely significant and immeasurably small.

And so, gradually, the city changed. It was full of green spaces, where people walked their dogs and dogs walked their people. There were hardly any cars. Traffic kept to certain roads, while others were made into free dogways. The streets were clean because the dogs foraged in them and kept them clean. There were shops and restaurants where dogs feasted on steak, while people sat at tables to one side and ate their salads. The hunting dogs hunted, the herding dogs herded and the guard dogs guarded, and between them they brought perfect order to the city and its people. No dog was homeless; they all looked cared-for and loved, because it was unheard of for a dog to be lost and alone in the City of Dogs.

The biggest change was in the people. No one hurried and everyone looked relaxed. People stood around with their dogs, talking, and no one was lonely or shut up in
their houses. They were all brought together by the community of dogs.

The three aunts felt entirely at home in this new city. Aunty Joan took up woodwork, as she had always wanted, and Aunty Lilith went line-dancing and lost a lot of weight. There was less dog-walking for Aunty Dot to do, since everyone walked their own dogs, but she would walk out with them and greet every dog by name. And from time to time she would visit her darling Berry in the underworld, where he had settled in nicely in the Elysian fields, which was the only place left in the underworld, now that mankind was on the right track.

Far above the new city shone Orion. It was always possible to see his outline dimly on winter nights, but two of the stars in his constellation were of particular brilliance: Sirius, or Canis Major, and Procyon, or Canis Minor. The great hunter was content to be guided by his dogs, because even in his own eyes he just wasn’t that important any more. So the great star Sirius, in particular, shone over the city, and all the people in it were guided by its light.

As for Jenny, she had done her bit for mankind, and she settled into a new, peaceful life in which she remained devoted to Sam. And Sam was devoted to her. He couldn’t wait to get home from school, to play with Jenny till bedtime, when she went to sleep on his bed and both of them dreamed wonderful dreams all night, about a boy with a face like the sun and a small white dog gleaming like a star through the early-morning mist.