Chapter 74: Lorcan's Pressure

Lorcan came into the kitchen with his grey coat on and his notebook in his hand and two Council wolves behind him in the hall.

"Alpha," he said. "Luna. I see the pack has been busy this morning. There is a crowd in the market that has been standing there since eight o'clock and half of them are wearing Blackthorn colours."

"Say what you came to say," Ronan said.

"I always do." Lorcan set the paper down on the table and turned it round. "The Council has settled on a charge. It is not the charge you were expecting."

I looked at the paper.

It was short. It said that the Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack had entered into a bond with a wolf of the founder's blood without the leave of the Council, and that the bond was unlawful under Council law, and that the Council required the Alpha to appear before the elders and answer for it.

"That is not a charge against me," I said.

"No. It is a charge against him." Lorcan sat down without being asked. "You are on the roll of healers and you have a receipt from the treasury and there is nothing in Council law that lets me try a registered healer for unlawful practice. So I have stopped trying. The charge is against the Alpha. He took a mate without the Council's leave and the mate is a founder wolf and that is a thing the Council has a law about."

"What law?" Ronan said.

"The law of the bloodline. It is four hundred years old and it has never been repealed and it says that a wolf of the founder's blood may not be bonded without the leave of the Council." Lorcan folded his hands. "It was written to stop the bloodline being scattered across a hundred packs. It has not been used in a hundred years. It is still on the books."

I sat down at the table.

"You cannot use a four hundred year old law," I said.

"I can. It is on the books and it has never been repealed and the elders will apply it because it is the only thing standing between the Council and a founder wolf in a Blackthorn bed." Lorcan looked at me. "Do not mistake me, healer. I am not doing this because I want to. I am doing it because I have been told to and because if I do not do it I will be replaced by a wolf who will do it worse."

"By Soren," Ronan said.

"By Soren." Lorcan's mouth twisted. "I have been an envoy for twenty years and I have never once been asked to do a thing I did not believe was lawful. This is lawful. It is also a trap."

"What does he want?" I said.

"He wants the Alpha to submit. If the Alpha stands up in that chamber and says the bond was unlawful and he renounces it, the charge is dropped and the pack keeps its territory and the Council confirms him and everybody goes home." Lorcan looked at Ronan. "And if he does not, the elders will declare the bond void and take the founder wolf into Council custody for the protection of the bloodline and the Alpha will be stripped of his seat for making an unlawful bond."

The kitchen was quiet.

"He wants you to renounce me," I said.

"He wants you in that cell under the chamber," Lorcan said. "And he has decided that the cheapest way to get you there is to make the Alpha give you up."

Ronan stood up.

"Get out of my house," he said.

"It is not your house. It is a Council house and I have a lease on it." Lorcan stood up and put his notebook away. "But I will go. I have said what I came to say." He picked up his hat. "Alpha. There is a thing you should know and I am telling you because I am tired and because I have been an envoy for twenty years and I have never once seen a wolf of the founder's blood and I do not want to see one in a cell."

"Say it."

"The elders are not all Soren's. There are five of them and two of them do not like him and one of them is old and frightened and will vote with whoever speaks last." Lorcan put his hat on. "If you are going to stand up in that chamber and fight, fight with the two who do not like him. And do not let Soren speak last."

He went out. The front door shut behind him and the two Council wolves went with him.

Ronan stood at the window and watched him go up the market.

"He is helping us," I said.

"He is helping himself. He has been an envoy for twenty years and he has seen what Soren is and he is putting a foot on the other side of the fence in case the fence falls." Ronan turned round. "But he is right about the elders. We need names."

"I have names." Maeve was in the doorway with her coat on and her bruise and a paper in her hand. "I have been in that house two days and I have spoken to all five of them. Two of them will not look at Soren and one of them is frightened and two of them are his." She came in and put the paper on the table. "The frightened one is called Ilsa and she is seventy and she has been on the Council for thirty years and she has never once voted against Soren because she is frightened of him. And she is the one who will decide it."

I looked at the paper.

"Then we need to speak to Ilsa," I said.

"You cannot. She is in the Council house and nobody goes in or out without Soren knowing." Maeve sat down. "But there is a thing about Ilsa. She had a daughter who was bound by a binder thirty years ago and the daughter died of it. It is in the record and nobody talks about it."

I sat at the kitchen table with the paper in my hand and the mark warm on my chest and Ronan's wolf in the back of my head saying, she is the one, get to her.

"Then we get to her," I said. "Tonight. Before the trial."

Down the street the bell of the Council house began to ring again, and this time it did not stop.