Chapter 127: The Pack's Reckoning

The horn was a Council horn and it came from the harbour.

It was not Lorcan's and it was not Maeve's and it was not a Ravenscar horn. It was low and it was long and it came three times and stopped.

I stood in the yard with Padraig in front of me and Oisin behind him with a letter in his hand.

"Padraig," I said. "You will stay in this yard and you will not move until I come back."

"Healer."

"You will stay in this yard." I turned to the four wolves at the gate. "You will keep him here. He is not to leave and he is not to be harmed."

I went down to the harbour.

There was a boat at the pier with a Council flag on it and there were six wolves on the deck and one of them was Ilsa.

She came off the boat slowly with her shawl round her shoulders and her white hair pinned up and she looked at the harbour and the pack house on the hill and the grey flag that was gone.

"Luna," she said.

"Elder."

"I have been four days on the water." Ilsa came up the slip. "The Council has read the writ and it has been sealed and there is a thing in the north that you need to hear."

"Say it."

"The keeper Eamon came back to the northern seat the night before last." Ilsa looked at me. "He came back with a paper and he stood in front of the elders and he said that the founder's claim was a fraud and that the witness Aileen had been paid and that the whole of the ledger was a forgery."

The harbour was silent.

"And the elders?" I said.

"Three of them believed him." Ilsa's mouth was a hard line. "Rannoch believed him. The two on the right believed him. And there is a vote in the morning on whether the claim is to be struck from the record and the Luna of the Blackthorn Pack named a fraud and an impostor in front of the whole of the north."

I stood on the slip.

"And you?" I said.

"I have been on the water for four days because I do not believe him." Ilsa put her hand on my arm. "Healer. There is a thing you need to know and it is worse than the vote. Eamon came back with a wolf at his shoulder and the wolf was not a keeper and he was not a guard. He was a Ravenscar wolf and he was standing at the back of the chamber when Eamon spoke."

"Callum."

"Callum of Ravenscar." Ilsa looked at me. "He has come north and he has been given a chair at the table and he has been speaking to the elders and he has been telling them that the Blackthorn territory is vacant and that he has been appointed steward and that the founder's claim is a Ravenscar matter."

I stood on the slip of my own harbour.

"The vote is in the morning," I said.

"The vote is at nine."

"Then we go north tonight."

"Healer." Ilsa looked at me. "The writ is sealed. The healer and the surgeon and the two guards are on that boat and the spring is to be opened the day after tomorrow."

I looked at the boat.

"Then we go north tonight," I said. "And we take the writ and the claim and the ledger and the list and the letters and the mate with the silver wound and the healer and the surgeon and the two guards."

"The surgeon is Rannoch's nephew," Ilsa said. "Lorcan told you."

"Lorcan has been sitting in a room at the top of the west stair for a day and he has told me a great deal." I turned round. "Elder. There is a thing I need to do before we go north and it is not a thing I want to do."

I went back up the hill.

The yard was full by then. The nine were there and the four guards and Colm and Nessa and Oisin and Padraig in the middle of it with his stick.

I stood on the step.

"There is a wolf in this pack who has been writing to the keeper Eamon for two years," I said. "He has been sending names and dates and the whole of it and he has been doing it because Eamon told him he was going to bring the network down from the inside."

The yard was silent.

"His name is Padraig," I said. "And he has been my teacher since the day I came to this coast and he is the reason I am alive and he is also the reason the keeper knew where to find me."

Padraig stood in the middle of the yard with his stick and his white beard and his old face.

"Healer," he said. "I did not know."

"You did not know and you did not ask and you did not tell me." I came down off the step. "You have been a healer for forty years and you have been carrying a thing for twenty two and you have been carrying it alone because you are a coward. And I have been carrying a thing for three months and I have been carrying it alone because I did not know how to ask for help."

The yard was silent.

"Padraig," I said. "You are not going to be tried in this yard and you are not going to be exiled from this pack. You are going to stand in the hall and say what you did in front of the whole of it and then you are going to come north with me and you are going to stand in front of the Council and say it again."

Padraig looked at me.

"Healer," he said. "I have been a coward my whole life."

"I know. And you are going to be a brave one for one day." I put my hand out. "Come north with me."

Padraig looked at my hand.

And then he took it.

And behind him, in the gate, there was a wolf standing with her copper curls loose and her hands folded and a paper in her hand.

Maeve.

"Luna," she said. "There is a thing in this paper that you need to see before you go north."

"What is it?"

Maeve held it up.

"It is a letter from Lorcan to Soren," she said. "Dated the spring. And it is in his hand and it is signed and it says everything."

The yard went up.