Chapter 109: The Old Pact

The bell on the pier was ringing and Eithne went to the window and looked out.

"Council wolves," she said. "Four of them on the wall and two coming down the pier."

I put the book into my coat.

"Eithne," I said. "There is a door at the back of this room."

"There is a door at the back of this room and it goes down to the harbour wall and it comes out under the pier." She picked up her shawl. "Take the box and the book and the seal and go. I will keep them talking."

"You are seventy eight years old."

"I am seventy eight years old and I was a keeper for thirty years before I was a clerk and I have been waiting half my life for a night like this." She put her hand on my arm. "Go, healer. Go north and put that book in front of the elders and do not let them have it."

I went out through the back.

The door came out under the pier and the tide was in and the water was up to my knees, and I went along the harbour wall in the dark with the box under my coat and the book inside it and the bell ringing behind me.

Oisin was at the low place on the wall.

"Healer," he said. "There are six of them on the pier and two on the slip."

"Eithne is keeping them talking."

"Eithne is seventy eight years old."

"She is a keeper and she has been waiting half her life for a night like this." I got up onto the wall. "We go over the rocks and back to the cove and we go north tonight."

We went over the rocks.

It took an hour and it was the worst hour of the whole of it. The rocks were black and the water was up and Padraig fell twice and Oisin carried him the last of the way, and when we got to the cove the boat was still there and nobody had found it.

We put out at three in the morning with the wind behind us and the coast going by black and quiet.

I sat in the stern with the box in my lap.

Padraig sat down beside me.

"The pact," he said. "You have read it now."

"I have read it."

"Then you know what it means." He looked at the sea. "The founders and the keepers made an agreement two hundred years ago and it was a good agreement. The Council would hold the law and the keepers would hold the blood and neither would hold both. And it worked for a hundred years." He wiped his mouth. "And then a keeper called Cael's grandfather decided that the blood was not enough. He wanted the law as well and he began to bind wolves of the founder's line to elders of the Council and take a share of the strength. And when the Council found out he told them it was the old rite and it had always been done and they believed him because they did not want to know."

"The pact was broken and nobody stopped it."

"The pact was broken and nobody stopped it for a hundred years." Padraig looked at me. "And tonight you have a copy of the pact and a book of the bloodline and a seal of the keepers in a box in your lap. That is the proof, Fiadh. It is not a cave and it is not a portrait. It is the agreement that made the Council and the record that names you the heir and the seal that says the record is true."

I sat in the boat with the box in my lap.

"Then I have what I need," I said.

"You have what you need to prove the claim. You have not got what you need to prove the ritual." Padraig looked at me. "The book proves you are the heir. It does not prove that Soren put a false bond on the Alpha. For that you need the ledger that Maeve took north and the papers from the room under the chamber and Lorcan's written statement."

"I have Lorcan's statement. Ilsa has it under seal."

"And the ledger is in the north with Maeve." Padraig put his hand on his knee. "You have four days, healer. Four days and a book and a seal and a stone in your pocket that is colder than it was yesterday."

I looked at him.

"How much colder?"

"Cold enough that I can feel it from here." He looked at me. "You have not got fourteen days. You have four."

I sat in the boat with the wind in my face.

"Then we go faster," I said.

Oisin turned the boat north and the sail went up and the coast went by.

We came into the northern harbour at dawn on the third day.

It was a big harbour and a big town and the northern seat was on the hill above it with towers and a wall and a hundred windows.

There were Council boats in the harbour and Council wolves on the wall and there was a flag on the tallest tower.

And on the quay there were four wolves waiting with a lantern and a paper.

"Healer," one of them called. "You are expected. The Council of Alphas is in session and it has been in session for three days and it is waiting for you."

I got off the boat.

"Who is waiting for me?"

The wolf looked at his paper.

"The elders," he said. "And the keepers. And the Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack, who came north two days ago and has been sitting in the chamber every day since."

I stood on the quay.

"Ronan is here," I said.

"The Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack is here," the wolf said. "He is not in a cell. He is in a chair in the chamber with the elders and he has been asking for you since the day he arrived."

I looked at Padraig.

"Then we go up the hill," I said.

And through the bond, in the back of my head, Ronan said, Fiadh. You are here.