Chapter 155: The Fallout

The horn was a Blackthorn horn and it came from the top of the hill.

We went back up.

The yard was fuller than it had been. The whole of the pack was in it and half the town was in it and there were wolves on the wall and wolves on the gate and there were wolves in the lane outside who could not get in.

And in the middle of the yard there was Ronan.

He had come out of the house and he was standing on the step and he had his hands at his sides and his face was the face of a wolf who had been in a room on his own for an hour.

"Fiadh," he said.

"Ronan."

"I have been in that house and I have been thinking and I have been a coward." He looked at the yard. "I have been a coward in a yard in front of my own pack and I have been a coward in a chamber in the north and I have been a coward on a cliff above the harbour. And I am not going to be a coward in this yard."

The yard was silent.

"The Council has declared the Luna a rogue," Ronan said. "And I stood in this yard an hour ago and I told you I did not know what to say. And I have been in that house and I have worked out what to say."

He came down off the step.

"The Luna is a rogue because she broke a chain in a cellar and three wolves died of it," he said. "And I am the Alpha of this pack and I am going to stand in this yard and tell every wolf in it that I would have done the same. I would have broken that chain. I would have done it in the cellar with a priestess and a staff and a pool of water and I would not have asked the Council for leave first."

The yard went up.

"Silence," Ronan said.

The yard went quiet.

"The Council has declared her a rogue and the Council has ordered her out of this territory." He looked round the yard. "And I am the Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack and I am telling you now that I am not going to order her out. She is my mate and she is the Luna of this pack and she is going to stay in it until the Council sends a wolf to take her out and that wolf will have to come through me."

The yard went up.

And this time it did not come down.

It went on and on and it went out through the gate and down the lane and into the town, and the wolves on the wall were shouting and the wolves in the lane were shouting and somebody was banging a pot on the gate.

And in the middle of it, a woman came out of the crowd.

It was the woman at the front of the nine. She was forty and she had a broad face and grey in her hair and she came and stood in front of Ronan.

"Alpha," she said. "I turned my back on this Luna in a chamber in the north and I have been sorry for it since the day I did it. And I am not going to turn my back on her again."

Ronan looked at her.

"Then stand," he said.

She stood.

And then Colm stood, and Colm's brother, and Nessa, and the woman who had signed Maeve's paper, and one after another the whole of the yard stood.

Except four.

Four wolves at the back of the yard did not stand. They were the four who had gone north with Maeve in the spring and they had come back and they had been in the pack since and they did not stand.

And the woman at the front of them said, "Alpha. The Council has declared her a rogue and you are telling this pack to stand against the Council. We have been declared vacant twice in a year and there is a hole in the roof and a border to hold and there are eleven wolves still burned from the fire. And I am not going to stand against a Council for a founder who has been in this pack four months."

The yard went silent.

"Then go," Ronan said.

The four went.

They went out through the gate and down the lane and the crowd in the lane parted for them and closed behind them, and the yard was quiet.

"Four," Ronan said. "Out of thirty."

"Four out of thirty is not a split," I said. "Four out of thirty is a pack."

Ronan turned round.

"Fiadh," he said.

"Ronan." I came and stood in front of him. "You stood in this yard and you told your pack you would have broken the chain and you told them you would not order me out and you told them a wolf would have to come through you." I looked at him. "And I have been in nine packs and I have never once had a wolf say that."

He put his hands on my face.

"I have been a coward," he said.

"You have been a coward for an hour and a wolf for a minute," I said. "I will take it."

He kissed me.

The yard went up.

And in the back of my head, faint and far away, the door opened.

It opened a crack and I could feel him through it, warm and steady and frightened, and I put my hand on his chest and held on.

And then Maeve came up the yard.

She came up with the paper in her hand and her copper curls loose and her guard behind her, and she stopped in front of us.

"Alpha," she said. "Luna. There is a thing I have to say in front of this yard and I have been carrying it since the north."

"Say it," Ronan said.

Maeve held up the paper.

"The Council has restored me to the Beta's seat," she said. "And I have come south with this paper and a guard and I have been on a boat for two days and I have been thinking." She looked at the paper. "And I am not going to take it."

The yard went silent.

"Maeve," I said.

"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." Maeve's voice was steady. "And I have been in a cell in the north for a fortnight and I have been sitting with a dead woman's body and I have been thinking about what a Beta is for."

She tore the paper in half.

"Luna," she said. "I am not going to take a seat the Council gave me for standing against you. I am going to stand in this yard with the pack."

The yard went up.

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

And when it did, a wolf came down the hill from the north road with a paper in his hand and his horse lathered and his face grey.

"Alpha," he called. "Luna. There is a thing on the north road."

"What thing?" Ronan said.

The rider got off his horse.

"The elder Soren is dead," he said. "He died in his cell in the night. And there is a wolf in the north who has taken his papers and his letters and his seat and his name."

The yard was silent.

"Who?" I said.

The rider looked at me.

"His name is Lorcan," he said.