Chapter 138: Lorcan's Master Arrives

The screaming went on for a long time.

We came up the keeper's stair with Callum between two Council guards and Eamon behind him with his hands bound, and the corridor at the top was full of wolves on their knees.

That is what the breaking of the chain did. It took the false bonds out of wolves who had carried them for twenty years and it left them on the floor of a corridor in the northern seat, and there were clerks and guards and a keeper and two elders among them.

Ilsa was on her feet. She had never been bound and she stood in the middle of the corridor with her shawl round her shoulders and her face white and she looked at me.

"Luna," she said. "What have you done?"

"I have broken the chain," I said. "Every false bond that was ever made with the water of that spring has come undone and every wolf who was carrying one is on the floor of this building."

The corridor was full of wolves on the floor.

"Then there are more," Ilsa said.

"There will be more. There will be wolves in every pack on this coast and in the north and in the south and they will all be on the floor of their own halls tonight." I looked at her. "Elder. Get every healer in this building and put them to work."

Ilsa went.

We worked all night.

I have been a healer for ten years and I have never worked a night like it. There were eleven wolves in the northern seat who had been carrying a false bond and did not know it, and every one of them came out of it the same way. They went down and their chests hurt and they could not breathe and then they lay on the floor and cried.

I got the salve and the honey and the green tin and I went from one to another and I did what I could, and Ronan carried water and Padraig sat on the floor with the worst of them and held their hands.

At dawn Ilsa came back.

"The town is the same," she said. "There are wolves on the floor of every hall in the north and there are healers in every one of them and there are three wolves dead."

I stopped.

"Who?"

"An old wolf in the east quarter who was bound thirty years ago and whose heart could not take it. A woman in the harbour who was bound in the spring. And a clerk in this building who was bound when he was twenty and had forgotten it." Ilsa's face was grey. "They are the first three. There will be more."

I sat down on the floor of the corridor with my back against the wall.

"Luna," Ilsa said.

"Give me a minute."

She gave me a minute.

And then I got up and went back to work.

We worked until noon and then we stopped because there was nothing left to do and the wolves who had been bound were sleeping and the healers were sleeping and the whole of the northern seat was quiet.

I went out into the square.

It was full. It had been full since dawn and it was fuller now. There were wolves in the square who had been bound and wolves in the square who had not and wolves in the square who had come in from the coast to see what had happened to the north.

And at the top of the square, on the steps of the northern seat, there was a wolf standing with a Council escort.

He was old and he was small and he was wrapped in a grey coat and he had his hands folded in front of him. He was standing at the top of the steps and he was looking out over the square with a face that had not a single line of worry in it.

Soren.

"Fiadh," Ronan said.

"I see him."

"He is not in a cell."

"He is not in a cell and he has a Council escort and he is standing on the steps of the northern seat in front of the whole of the north." I came down the last step. "He has been in that building all night and he has come out at noon when the whole of the square is full and he has done it on purpose."

Soren came down the steps.

He came down slowly and he came down with his hands folded and the crowd parted for him because there is something in an old man who is not afraid that makes a crowd part.

He stopped in front of me.

"Luna," he said. "You have had a busy night."

"Elder."

"You have broken the chain and undone every false bond in the north and there are three wolves dead and there will be more by morning." Soren looked at me. "And you have done it without a trial and without a vote and without a word to the Council of Alphas."

"I did it because a keeper was going to burn the spring."

"You did it because you are a founder and a founder does what she likes." Soren's old eyes were clear and quiet. "I have been on that Council for forty years and I have watched a great many wolves do a great many things because they thought they were right. And every one of them left a mess behind them and every one of them said, I did it for the north."

The square was silent.

"What do you want?" I said.

"I want to sit down with you," Soren said. "And I want to do it in front of the whole of the north so that there is no mistake about what was said." He put his hand out. "I am ninety four years old and I have been in that chair for forty years and I have made a great many mistakes. And I am going to stand in this square and say so."

I looked at his hand.

And behind me, in the crowd, a wolf began to shout.

It was Callum. He had got away from the guards and he was standing on the steps of the northern seat with his grey coat and his face white.

"Soren," he shouted. "You gave me the coast. You gave me the steward's paper and you gave me the warrant and you told me the founder was a fraud."

The square went up.

Soren did not turn round.

"Elder," I said. "What did you give him?"

Soren looked at me.

"I gave him a paper," he said. "And I gave it to him because I needed a wolf on that coast who would hold it while I dealt with you."

And down at the bottom of the square, a horn sounded.