Chapter 145: The Council's Price

The horn was a Council horn and it came from the northern seat.

We went up the hill with the nine and the fourteen and the seven and the twelve and the whole of the harbour behind us, and the square was full again by the time we got to the top of it.

Ilsa was on the steps.

"Luna," she said. "The Council has been in session since dawn and there is a thing it has voted on and it is not a thing any of us wanted."

"Say it."

"The Council will confirm the truce with Ravenscar and it will confirm the coast trade and it will confirm the Blackthorn Pack in its territory." Ilsa's old face was grey. "But it will not confirm a rogue Alpha and it will not confirm a founder who broke the chain without a vote. There is a price and it is two things."

The square was silent.

"Say them," I said.

"The Luna will stand trial again before a full Council for the breaking of the chain and the deaths that came of it." Ilsa looked at me. "And she will surrender her bloodline claim to the custody of the Council until the trial is done."

The square went up.

It went up in a roar that filled the whole of the north and I stood at the bottom of the steps of the northern seat and let it happen.

"Silence," Ilsa said.

The square did not go silent.

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

"Elder," I said. "I broke the chain because a keeper was going to burn the spring and there were three wolves dead of it and there would have been more."

"I know," Ilsa said. "I was there."

"Then why am I on trial?"

"Because you did it without a vote and without a word to the Council of Alphas and there are three wolves dead in this town and their families are in that square." Ilsa looked at me. "Luna. I have been on that Council for thirty years and I have voted for a great many things I did not like. And I am telling you now that the Council cannot let a founder break a chain in a cellar and kill three wolves and not answer for it, because if it does there is no law in the north and there has not been for a hundred years."

The square was silent.

"And the claim?" I said.

"The claim goes to the Council until the trial is done." Ilsa's jaw worked. "That is Soren's price and it is the price of two of the elders who will not vote for anything else."

"Soren is in a cell."

"Soren is in a cell and he has been in that cell for a day and he has already sent three letters." Ilsa looked at me. "Luna. He is ninety four years old and he has been on that Council for forty years and he knows every wolf in that building. He will be writing letters until the day he dies."

I stood at the bottom of the steps of the northern seat.

"Then I will stand trial," I said.

The square went up.

"Fiadh," Ronan said.

"Ronan. I have been on trial in a Council chamber in the south and I have been on trial in this chamber and I have been on trial in a hall on a coast with the doors open. I have been marked with silver and exiled and called a fraud and a murderer. And I am still standing." I turned round. "And I am not going to stand in this square and refuse a trial because a trial is the only thing in this north that has ever been worth anything."

Ronan looked at me.

"And the claim?" he said.

"The claim goes to the Council." I put my hand on my chest. "The claim has been in a book and a seal and a pact and a cave and a stone and a letter and a house in the north. And it has never once been in a book. It has been in me since the day I got off that bus and no Council in this world can take it out of me."

The square went up.

And this time it did not come down for a long time.

When it did, Ilsa came down the steps.

"The trial is set for three days," she said. "And the claim will be surrendered in this square tomorrow at noon in front of the whole of the north."

I nodded.

And then Padraig came out of the crowd.

He came out of the crowd with his stick in his hand and his white beard flat against his chest and his old face set.

"Healer," he said. "There is a thing I have to say and I have been putting it off since the mill."

"Padraig."

"There is a pact," he said. "The old pact that made the Council and the keepers. And there is a clause in it that nobody has read in two hundred years and I read it in the mill and I have been carrying it since." He looked at me. "The claim cannot be surrendered to the Council. It can only be surrendered to a founder who holds it willingly."

The square was silent.

"What does that mean?" I said.

"It means Soren's price cannot be paid." Padraig came and stood in front of me. "It means the claim can only be given to a founder who takes it up of her own accord. And there is only one founder in this world."

I stood in the square.

"Then Soren has made a mistake," I said.

"He has made a mistake," Padraig said. "And there is a second clause and it is worse." He looked at me. "The chain can only be broken by a willing founder's mark. And you broke it in a cellar with a priestess and a staff and a pool of water and no mark at all."

The square was very quiet.

"Then what did I break?" I said.

"You broke the chain," Padraig said. "But the chain is not the pact. The pact is the thing that holds the ritual network together and it is still there and it is still in the north."

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