Chapter 167: Lorcan's Master Revealed

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

I sat on the edge of the bed with the keeper's hand in mine.

"Say that again," I said.

"Your grandmother," the keeper said. "The door behind the second pool is the place where the rites are made and there is a thing behind it that Soren has been trying to open since before you were born. And the thing behind it is the first of the old blood."

I sat very still.

"The first of the old blood," I said. "The healer who made the rites two hundred years ago."

"The first." The keeper's breath was going in short pulls. "He did not die. The book says he died and the book is a lie. He went behind the door and he has been behind it ever since and the keepers have been keeping the door shut and Soren has been trying to open it."

The room was quiet.

"Why?" I said.

"Because a founder who is behind a door is a founder who cannot be born," the keeper said. "And a line that cannot be born is a line that can be kept in a house and bred like cattle and drained of its strength for two hundred years." He looked at me. "Luna. There has never been a founder on this coast since the first one went behind the door. There have been wolves of the blood and there have been gold wolves and there have been four generations in a room at the top of a house. But there has never been a founder."

I sat on the edge of the bed.

"And my mother?" I said.

"Your mother was the third of the line and she was born in this house and she ran from it in her twenty first year." The keeper's hand tightened on mine. "And when she ran she took a thing with her that Soren had been looking for since before she was born."

"What thing?"

"A key." The keeper looked at me. "The key to the door behind the second pool. It was in the keepers' house for two hundred years and your mother took it when she ran and she hid it and Soren has been looking for it ever since."

The room was quiet.

"Where is it?" I said.

The keeper looked at me.

"You have it," he said.

I sat on the edge of the bed.

"I have a stone," I said. "I have a stone with a hole in it that has been in my pocket since the mill."

"The stone is the key." The keeper's voice was going. "Your mother gave it to Padraig and Padraig gave it to you and it has been in your pocket since the mill and Soren has been looking for it for twenty two years."

I put my hand into my pocket and took out the stone.

It was grey and it was smooth and there was a hole in the middle of it and it was warm.

"Luna," the keeper said. "There is one more thing."

"Tell me."

"Your mother did not die of an illness." He looked at me. "She died hiding you. Soren found out where she was and he sent a keeper and the keeper was Eamon and Eamon put a thing in her tea that a healer would not taste. And she drank it and she died in a rented room in Galway with a case of tins beside the bed and she did not tell you a word of it because she was hiding you until the end."

The room was very quiet.

I sat on the edge of the bed with the stone in my hand.

"Eamon killed my mother," I said.

"Eamon killed your mother."

I stood up.

"Where is Eamon?" I said.

"In a cell under the northern seat."

I went out of the room.

Ronan was in the corridor.

"Fiadh," he said. "What is it?"

"Eamon killed my mother." I went past him down the corridor. "He put a thing in her tea in a rented room in Galway and she died of it and I have been sitting in a Council chamber with him and standing in a yard with him and he has been reading to my mate for two days."

"Fiadh."

I got to the top of the stairs.

And then I stopped.

Because there was a wolf at the bottom of the stairs.

He was old and he was in a keeper's coat and he had a knife in his hand and there were two Council guards on the floor behind him.

Eamon.

"Luna," he said. "I have come to make a bargain."

I stood at the top of the stairs.

"You killed my mother," I said.

"I put a thing in her tea." Eamon came up one step. "And I have been sorry for it for twenty two years and I have been carrying it every day and I have been waiting for a founder to come and ask me about it."

"Then I am asking."

"And I am going to answer." Eamon came up another step. "Your mother was the third of the line and she had a key and she had a daughter and she was hiding both of them. And Soren sent me to Galway to find the key and I found the key and it was not on her and I put a thing in her tea and I asked her where it was and she would not tell me."

The stairs were quiet.

"And then?" I said.

"And then she died." Eamon's hand was shaking on the knife. "And I went through the room and I did not find the key and I went back to the north and I told Soren it was not there. And it was not there. It was in a stone in a cave on a coast in the south and it has been in your pocket since the mill."

I stood at the top of the stairs.

"Put the knife down," I said.

"I have come to make a bargain."

"Put the knife down and I will not let the Council hang you."

Eamon looked at me.

And then he put the knife down on the step.

"Right," he said. "The bargain."

And down in the square, a horn sounded.