The next day, Morgana took me on a long walk in the woods around our home. We crossed the grassy clearing, and Morgana opened up the Wall of Trees, which kept us separated from the forest. Once we were past, she closed the Wall of Trees again to make sure Merlin didn’t hear or see what we did.
“Here’s what Merlin thinks we’re looking for today,” Morgana said, and held out some dried bramble leaf, a rotted mushroom, and a spindly tuber, things that were running low on the shelves in the study. “Find a basketful and we can start!”
I barked at that and raced through the woods. I loved tracking the scents Morgana gave me and leading her to spots where she’d find more of the same. As soon as we found enough of each, she patted my head and took me to a special spot in the woods that she’d prepared. It was a little ravine with a stream running through it and three fallen oaks that made a sort of a roof. Morgana called it the Outdoor Study.
She’d brought cauldrons there and scraps of paper weighted down with stones. I saw a tidy pile of bones in one corner, and several clay jars sat beside an ashy fire pit.
In the center of it all was a hollowed-out tree stump filled with glassy water. The stump had a smell so interesting I was tempted to dip my nose in it, but Morgana shooed me away when I got close.
Then she commanded Sit!, put the Asteria round my neck, and asked me questions.
“Here, I have ten cards,” she said. “I painted a color on each. Which are the same and which are different?”
I squinted at the tiny pieces of paper she’d lined up against a rock. I padded toward them to give a sniff—each smelled quite distinct.
“No sniffing allowed,” Morgana said, holding up her hand. “Can you tell the difference with your eyes?”
My tail waggled slightly. “Those five are yellow,” I said, tossing my head to the left. “And those other five are blue.”
“Really?” Morgana said, looking surprised. “You see yellow and blue? But not any other colors? Not green here? Not orange?” she said, pointing to different cards.
I blinked at her, not knowing what she was talking about.
“You know, many people think dogs can’t see color at all,” she said, tapping her chin. “But from your answers, I’d guess you’re only partially color-blind.”
“Hey, I can see colors,” I said. “I’m not blind!”
“Humans can see seven different colors, Nosewise. You’re only seeing two.”
My ears perked up. “Are you trying to fool me?” I asked, getting wise to Morgana’s game. “Because I can see all the colors that there are…both of them!”
She had me pick up drops of flower essence from cauldrons of rainwater. “You can smell one part per ten million!” Morgana crowed. “That’s amazing!”
“Can’t we find something better to smell?” I asked, tired of picking out flowers. “Like deer cakes! Those have a lovely smell.”
“You mean the droppings deer leave in the woods?” Morgana said flatly.
“Yes! That would make a good game. I could find them for you!”
“I don’t want you to find ‘deer cakes,’ Nosewise. I’m testing the sensitivity of your nose.”
“Well, why not test how long it takes me to find a skunk carcass? I think I smell one just upwind,” I said, twitching my nose in the air. But Morgana made a sour face. She wasn’t very open to my ideas.
Later she led me to a trail she’d walked earlier that day and asked if I could tell in which direction she’d gone.
“This way!” I pronounced, after a moment of snuffling.
“That’s right,” she said, sticking out her tongue. “Now, how did you know that?”
“Well, I can smell you on the ground. Your scent is all over.”
“Tiny flakes of my hair and skin fall off me all the time,” she said, getting to her knees. “But how could you know the direction I was walking? Couldn’t I have laid this trail going either way?”
“The odor’s faded going that way,” I said. “Which means it’s older.”
“Yes, but it’s only seconds older,” she said, disbelieving. “Can you really sense the difference?”
“Of course! Can’t you?”
“No,” she said, laughing. “My nose is nothing compared to yours.”
I felt sad for Morgana. No wonder she didn’t like deer cakes.
Toward the end of the afternoon, she was blowing into a tiny whistle to see if I could hear the sound.
“Yes, of course I can hear it!” I shouted. “You’re blowing in my ear!”
Morgana held the grass whistle to her chest. “I’m testing the range of your hearing!”
“Well, I think these tricks are terrible!” I said, stalking about the leaf litter. “Smell water? Look at paper? It makes Sit! seem exciting. Teach me the tricks you know how to do! Shooting lightning and fire! Disappearing things!”
“Nosewise,” Morgana said, dropping down before me, “these aren’t tricks I’m having you do. They’re experiments. This is an opportunity for dogs and humans to understand one another.”
“I want to shoot lightning! Teach me!”
“I’ve already told you: that’s magic!” Morgana said sternly. “It’s nothing to be fooled with!”
“Then don’t fool me with it,” I said, sitting and curling my tail around my paws. My ears pressed down against my head and my eyes went wide. “I see the way Merlin looks at you when you do those tricks”—Morgana opened her mouth to correct me—“that magic! I want to learn it too.”
“Hmm.” Morgana leaned down on her elbow and rubbed my ear. “You’re already practicing magic, Nosewise. A kind I’ve never seen before.”
“I am? Well, what is magic, then?” I said, waggling my tail.
Morgana glanced at the hollowed-out tree trunk filled with glassy water. She took a short breath and turned back to me. “I’ll show you.”
We tracked our way backward until we came to the Wall of Trees.
“Do you know what this is?” Morgana asked, placing her hand on an oak.
“Yes! Yes, I know!” I said. “That’s the Wall of Trees.” I jumped on my hind legs and wagged my tail.
“That’s right,” she said with a smile. “But what is it?”
I came down to my forepaws. “It’s a wall,” I hazarded, “of trees?”
“It’s a magical barrier,” Morgana corrected me. “A powerful enchantment grown out of Merlin’s desire to protect what he holds dear. Watch.”
She brushed her hand against an oak, and the ground beneath us began to shake. The Wall of Trees was made of a thousand huge oak trees all pressed so tightly together you couldn’t peek between them. Their branches grasped each other in knots so complicated you couldn’t tell where one started and another began. But the tree Morgana touched started to bend. Its branches unwound from its fellows, and the whole enormous oak leaned forward, making a slim opening into the clearing around Merlin’s house.
“It’s a door!” I said, thinking I’d found the answer.
Stupid door, I thought privately.
“It’s not a door,” Morgana said. “A door can be opened by any hand—”
“Not mine!” I said.
“You don’t have hands. And don’t interrupt,” Morgana said. My ears pressed to the sides of my head. “The Wall of Trees is magic. An enchantment. For Merlin and for me, it opens at a touch. But not fire, nor lightning, nor a battering ram could break down these trees otherwise.”
I glanced at the enormous circle of oaks that curved around our home in the woods. “Are all trees that way?” I’d relieved myself on so many trees throughout my life, it made me tremble to think they were so powerful.
“No,” Morgana answered. “The Asteria you wear brings what’s inside of you out. What Merlin wanted when he came to this out-of-the-way place was to be left alone. His will and Certainty are so strong that he grew a circle of enchanted trees to protect him.”
“To protect him from what?”
“Strangers, of course,” Morgana answered. “Do you know what to do if you meet a stranger? Let’s say a stranger offering you food?”
“If they’re offering you food,” I said, thinking it out, “then that means they’re good and you should trust them with your life!”
“No! Nosewise!” Morgana shouted. “That’s the opposite of what you should do!”
I winced and dropped my tail between my legs.
“You don’t know what’s out there in the world,” she said. “People are dangerous.”
My ears were pressed against my head. “When I first met Merlin, he was a stranger offering me food,” I said. “And trusting him was the best thing I ever did.”
Morgana crouched and looked me in the eyes. “I know, boy. I’m sorry. What was your life like before Merlin found you?”
It felt somehow as if a stone had formed at the base of my stomach. My shoulders tensed and my tail went stiff.
“It’s not a happy memory.”
“Then forget it,” Morgana said. “I try not to think of my life before Merlin found me. But look at us now,” she said, standing up. “Wards of the most famous and powerful wizard in the world. Lucky is what you and I are.”
I stood up at that, panting and wagging my tail.
“Give me the Asteria,” she said, pulling the chain off my neck. “And let’s head back to the house. See what the old man’s cooking up.”
“Woof! Woof!”