Chapter 103: Nessa's Testimony

The hall went up and Ilsa struck the table four times before it went quiet.

"Silence," she said. "The witness will come forward."

Nessa came forward.

She came down the middle of the hall with her freckles and her hazel eyes and her hands pressed together, and she came to the middle of the floor and stood beside me and did not look at Lorcan.

"State your name," Ilsa said.

"Nessa. I am Omega of the Blackthorn Pack. Well, I am not really Omega, I am just in the kitchen, but Maeve says I talk too much so I suppose that makes me Omega."

"Tell the Council what you saw."

Nessa took a breath.

"I took the envoy his supper two nights ago," she said. "It was after the keeper had gone and the house was quiet and I was told to take a tray up to the room where they were holding him. And when I got to the door it was open a crack and I looked in before I knocked because I have been frightened of him since the spring and I wanted to know if he was alone."

"Was he alone?"

"No. There was another wolf in there. He was sitting at the table with a pen and a paper in front of him and he was writing." Nessa's voice was getting smaller. "And the envoy was standing behind him and he was reading it over his shoulder and he was laughing."

"What did the wolf look like?"

Nessa was quiet for a moment.

"He was old," she said. "He had grey hair and a grey coat and he had a ring on his hand."

The hall went quiet.

"There are a great many old wolves in grey coats," Lorcan said. "The Council is full of them."

"You are not being asked," Ilsa said. "The witness will continue."

Nessa took another breath.

"They were writing a letter," she said. "And the envoy was saying what to put in it. He said, put in the bit about the wolves who took her. And the old wolf said, that is not in the record. And the envoy said, it is now."

The hall went up.

"That is a lie," Lorcan said. "I have never said such a thing."

"You said it," Nessa said. Her voice was shaking. "You said it and then you said something else and I did not hear all of it and then the old wolf said, the keeper will sign it or the keeper will not see his grandchildren again."

The hall went completely silent.

"Who was the old wolf?" Ilsa said.

Nessa looked at Lorcan.

"I do not know his name," she said. "But he was in this house two nights ago and he is not in it now and he had a ring with a red stone in it."

Rannoch stood up.

"Elder," he said. "There is a wolf in the northern seat who wears a ring with a red stone. His name is Cael's brother and he is a keeper and he is not on this Council and he has no business in this house."

"He is not a keeper," I said. "There is only one keeper in the north and his name is Cael. The wolf with the red ring is a wolf who has been sitting behind the keepers for thirty years and has been buying hunters with Soren's money and has been waiting for the old man to die."

The hall turned round.

"Who is he?" Ilsa said.

"I do not know his name," I said. "But I know where to find it. It is on the Ravenscar page of the ledger and it is under Callum's name and it is a name that has been in the north since before the Council."

Lorcan stood in the middle of the floor and his face had gone grey.

"Elder Ilsa," he said. "I will say this once and I will not say it again. The witness is a young wolf with a grudge and a brother in debt and she has been in this house since the spring and she has been frightened of me since the day I arrived. That is the whole of her testimony. A frightened girl and an open door."

"The witness will be excused," Ilsa said. "And the Council will retire to consider the charge."

The four elders stood up and went out through the door at the back of the hall.

The hall was full of noise.

I turned round.

"Nessa," I said.

She was standing in the middle of the floor with her hands pressed together and her face white and she was crying.

"You did well," I said. "You did very well."

"He is going to come for my brother," she said. "He said it in the spring and he said it again tonight and now I have said it in front of the whole of the coast and he is going to come for my brother."

"He is not going to come for your brother. He is going to be in a cell by tonight." I put my hand on her shoulder. "Nessa. Look at me. Your brother is in the north and the north is where we are going and we are going to find him and bring him home."

She looked up at me.

"Promise?" she said.

"I promise."

The door at the back of the hall opened.

The four elders came back in and Ilsa sat down at the table and put her hands flat on it.

"The Council has considered the charge," she said. "And the Council finds that the evidence against the healer is not proved."

The hall went up.

"The charge of bloodline fraud is dismissed," Ilsa said. "And the claim of the founder's bloodline stands until it can be tested before a full Council with the keepers present and the records produced." She looked at me. "Healer. You are the Luna of the Blackthorn Pack and you will remain so. But there is a thing this Council must do and it is not a thing any of us want."

She looked at the four elders and the four elders looked back at her.

"The trial of the elder Soren will be held in the northern seat in fourteen days," she said. "And the keeper Cael will be called to answer for his letter. And the healer will be required to attend and give evidence in person."

The hall was silent.

"And the Beta of this pack will be required to attend as well," Ilsa said. "Because there is a name at the bottom of the warrant and it is not Soren's."

The door at the back of the hall opened and Maeve came in.

She came down the middle of the hall with her copper curls loose and her hands folded and she stood in front of the table.

"Elder," she said. "I signed the warrant because I was given it by a Council clerk and told it was from the northern seat. I did not write it and I did not know what was in it."

"You signed it," Ilsa said.

"I signed it."

"Then you will answer for it in the northern seat," Ilsa said. "In fourteen days."

And through the bond, in the back of my head, the stone in my pocket went cold.