Chapter 126: The Traitor Found

We put Lorcan in the room at the top of the west stair with two wolves on the door and the shutters barred, and then we went down to the kitchen and Padraig put the kettle on.

"Right," I said. "There is a wolf in this pack who has been feeding Soren since the spring. Who is it?"

Padraig poured the tea.

"It is not one of the nine," he said. "I have been watching the nine since the trial and they are as surprised as we are. It is not Colm and it is not Nessa and it is not the woman who signed Maeve's paper."

"Then who?"

Padraig sat down at the table.

"Healer," he said. "There is a thing I have been putting off for a week and I have been putting it off because I did not want to believe it."

"Padraig."

"The night the rogues came over the border and the night the tea was poisoned and the night the keeper Eamon rode out of the north gate. There is one wolf who was in all three places and I have been telling myself it was a coincidence." He looked at me. "It was Oisin."

The kitchen was silent.

"Oisin," I said.

"Oisin." Padraig put his hands flat on the table. "He has been in every harbour on this coast for twenty years and he has been moving things in the dark for all of it. He was in the mill when the letter came. He was on the slip when the rogues came. He was in the north when Eamon rode out." He looked at me. "And he was paid by your mother twenty two years ago and he told you himself that he failed her once."

I sat down.

"Padraig," I said. "Oisin has been in this since the beginning. He put me on a boat when I was nineteen. He took me off the mountain when the Council was hunting me. He has been on every boat and every slip and every dark road."

"He has." Padraig looked at me. "And he has also been in every one of those places at exactly the right time to be useful to the other side."

The door opened and Ronan came in with his arm in a sling and his face grey.

"Fiadh," he said. "What is it?"

"Padraig says the traitor is Oisin."

Ronan stood in the doorway.

"That is not possible," he said.

"I know it is not possible." I got up. "But there is a thing I can do about it and I am going to do it now."

I went out into the yard.

Oisin was at the gate with the four wolves and he turned round when he heard me.

"Luna," he said. "The yard is clear and the ridge is quiet."

"Oisin," I said. "Take your coat off."

He looked at me.

"What?"

"Take your coat off and turn round and put your hands on the wall."

Oisin did not move.

"Fiadh," he said. "What is this?"

"Padraig has been going over the last month and he has found a thing." I came down the step. "You were in the mill when the letter came. You were on the slip when the rogues came. You were in the north when Eamon rode out." I looked at him. "And there is a wolf in this pack who has been feeding Soren since the spring."

Oisin looked at me for a long moment.

And then he did a thing I did not expect.

He laughed.

He laughed and it was not a good laugh and he put his hand into his coat and took out a folded paper and held it up.

"You have been looking at the wrong wolf," he said.

"What is that?"

"It is a letter from the keeper Eamon to a wolf in this pack." Oisin unfolded it. "I took it off a rider on the north road three nights ago and I have been carrying it since and I have not known who to give it to because the wolf it is addressed to is standing in this yard."

The yard was silent.

"Who is it addressed to?" I said.

Oisin looked at me.

"It is addressed to Padraig," he said.

I turned round.

Padraig was standing in the door of the kitchen with his stick in his hand and his face grey.

"Padraig," I said.

The old man looked at me.

"Healer," he said. "I can explain."

"Explain what?"

"Explain the letter." Padraig came out into the yard. "I have been writing to Eamon for two years. Not about you. About the binders. About the names and the dates and the wolves who were bound. I have been feeding him information because he told me he was going to bring the whole network down from the inside and he needed to know who to trust." He stopped in the middle of the yard. "He was lying to me. He has been lying to me for two years and I have been giving him names and dates and the whole of it."

The yard was very quiet.

"Padraig," I said. "You have been feeding the keeper who has been hunting me."

"I did not know it was the keeper who was hunting you." His old voice cracked. "I thought he was a wolf who wanted the network gone. He told me he was going to bring Soren down and I believed him because I wanted to believe him."

I stood in the yard of my own house.

"Padraig," I said. "You have been in this since the spring. You were in the mill when the letter came. You were in the north when Eamon rode out."

"I was in the mill because you were in the mill. I was in the north because you were in the north." He came forward. "Healer. I have been a coward my whole life and I have done a great many things I am ashamed of but I have never once betrayed you."

I looked at him.

"Then why did you not tell me?" I said.

And down in the harbour, a horn sounded.