Chapter 128: Maeve's Fall

I took the paper.

It was folded twice and it was soft at the creases and there was a date at the top in Lorcan's neat hand and there was a name under it.

Soren.

I read it.

It was short. It said that the Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack had signed the paper and the bond had been placed and the binder had left the coast. It said that the Alpha was failing and that the pack would be ready for a steward by autumn. And it said that the Beta of the pack had been of great service and was to be confirmed in the seat when the territory was settled.

I read it twice.

"Maeve," I said.

Maeve stood in the gate with her copper curls loose and her hands folded.

"It is not what it looks like," she said.

"It is a letter from the Council envoy to the elder Soren and it says the Beta of the Blackthorn Pack has been of great service." I looked up. "It is dated the spring. It is dated before the false bond was placed."

The yard went up.

It went up in a roar and the four guards at the gate came forward and the nine came forward and Colm was shouting something I could not hear.

"Silence," I said.

The yard did not go silent.

"Silence," I said again, and this time it went quiet.

"Luna," Maeve said. "I did not write that letter."

"You did not have to write it. Lorcan wrote it and he wrote it about you." I came down off the step. "You went to Lorcan in the spring. You told him the Alpha was failing and the pack was ready for a steward. And then in the summer you went to Lorcan again and you traded us for a seat and you came back and you brought a Ravenscar flag into this house."

Maeve's face had gone white.

"I went to Lorcan in the spring," she said. "I went to him because the Alpha was dying and the pack was starving and there was nobody else in this house who would go. I told him the truth. I did not know about the false bond and I did not know about the steward and I did not know about any of it."

"You went to him in the spring and you went to him again in the summer." I looked at the letter. "And in the autumn you took the patrol routes north and gave them to Ravenscar and there were twenty wolves on my ridge three nights ago with torches."

"I did not give them the patrol routes."

"You did. Colm found the map in your room and it had your hand on it and it had the north track and the east wall and the second and third hour written on the back."

Maeve looked at Colm.

Colm looked back at her.

"I found it," he said. "I am sorry, Beta. I found it and I gave it to the Luna and I would do it again."

Maeve stood in the gate.

And then she did a thing I did not expect.

She put her hand into her coat and took out a knife.

The yard went back.

"Put it down," I said.

"I am not going to use it." Maeve looked at the knife in her hand. "This is the knife I have carried since I was fourteen years old. It was my father's and his father's before him and it has never once been drawn on a wolf of this pack."

"Put it down, Maeve."

She put it down on the stones.

"I did go to Lorcan in the spring," she said. "I went to him because I have held this house together for nine years and there was nobody else to go. And he told me he would help the pack and he told me he would find a way to settle the tithe and I believed him because I wanted to believe him." She looked at me. "I did not know about the false bond. I did not know about the steward. And when I found out I went north with the ledger and I put it in front of a pack that did not owe Soren anything and I told them what was in it."

"And then you went to Ravenscar."

"I went to Ravenscar because Callum was the only wolf in the north with six wolves and a boat who would listen to a Beta from a coast with no Alpha." She looked at me. "And then I brought the flag into this house and I have been sorry for it every day since."

The yard was silent.

"Maeve," I said. "You took the patrol routes north."

Maeve's jaw worked.

"I did not take them," she said. "I wrote them down in my room because I was going to give them to Callum if the Council would not listen and I did not want to and I did not do it." She looked at me. "And then I rode north with Eamon and I brought a witness into a chamber who said you murdered your mother."

"You did."

"I did." Maeve's voice cracked. "And I have been riding back for three days to bring you that letter because it was in Lorcan's room in the north and I took it and I have been bringing it to you since."

The yard was silent.

"Take her," I said.

The four guards came forward.

Maeve did not resist. She stood in the gate with her copper curls loose and her hands at her sides and let them take her arms.

"Luna," she said. "There is a thing I have to say before you take me north."

"Say it."

"I have been Beta of this pack for nine years and I have wanted the seat since before Ronan took it and I have done a great many things I am ashamed of." She looked at me. "But I have never once betrayed this pack. I have been a fool and I have been a coward and I have been a wolf who wanted a seat more than she wanted to be honest. And I did not give the patrol routes to Ravenscar."

I looked at her.

"Take her to the cellar," I said. "And put a guard on the door."

They took her.

Ronan came and stood beside me.

"Fiadh," he said. "Do you believe her?"

I looked at the letter in my hand.

"I do not know," I said. "And there is a vote in the north in the morning and a boat at the pier and a Council that has been told the claim is a fraud." I folded the letter. "We go north tonight and we take Maeve with us and she can say it in front of the elders."

And down in the harbour, the Council horn sounded a fourth time.