Chapter 75: The Trial at the Council

The trial was at two o'clock and the chamber was full.

It was a long room at the top of the Council house with a high ceiling and windows on three sides and a table at the far end that was older than the building. Behind the table there were five chairs and in the chairs there were five wolves.

Soren sat in the middle.

He was older than I had expected. He was older than anyone I had ever seen. His hair was white and thin and his face was a map of wrinkles and his eyes were pale and clear and he sat with his hands folded on the table in front of him and did not move.

The two elders who did not like him sat on his left. One was a big grey wolf of sixty with a broken nose and the other was a woman with short dark hair and a mouth like a line. On his right there was a thin wolf with a long neck and a woman of seventy with white hair pinned up and a face that was frightened.

Ilsa.

The chamber was packed. There were wolves on the benches and wolves standing at the back and wolves in the doorway, and in the front row there were nine Blackthorn wolves in their own clothes and Nessa and Colm and Oisin and Padraig and Maeve.

Ronan and I stood in front of the table.

"The Council is in session," Soren said. His voice was quiet and it carried to every corner of the room. "The matter before us is the unlawful bond between the Alpha of the Blackthorn Pack and a wolf of the founder's blood. The Council will hear the charge. The Alpha will answer it."

Lorcan stood up.

He stood up with his notebook and he read the charge in a flat clear voice and he did not look at any of us while he did it.

Then he presented the evidence.

He presented the paper Ronan had signed in April and he read out the line in the old script and he said that the Alpha had entered into a bond without the Council's leave. He presented the record of the challenge and the record of the hearing that had been called and postponed. And then he presented the law.

It was an old book with a cracked spine and he opened it at a page near the back and read out the law of the bloodline in a language that was not English and then in English, and the English was worse.

A wolf of the founder's blood may not be bonded without the leave of the Council. A bond made without leave is void. The wolf of the founder's blood shall be taken into the custody of the Council for the protection of the bloodline and shall remain in custody until the Council is satisfied.

The chamber was quiet.

"Does the Alpha have anything to say?" Soren said.

Ronan stepped forward.

"I do," he said.

He said it for a long time.

He said that he had signed a paper in April that he had been told was a marriage contract and that it had been a false bond and that it had nearly killed him. He said that the Council's own binder had come to his house and put a mark on his chest and left before supper. He said that he had taken a true mate and that the mate was a healer of the Council's own roll and that the bond was lawful by any law that had ever been written.

And then he said the thing I had been waiting for him to say.

"The Council did not make the false bond lawful and the Council did not make the true bond unlawful," he said. "The Council made a false bond and put it on an Alpha who had no choice and then wrote a law four hundred years ago to make the true one the crime. And the wolf who did it is sitting at that table."

The chamber went up.

It went up in a wave of noise from the back to the front and Soren did not move and did not raise his voice and did not look at anyone.

He waited until the noise had died.

"Alpha," he said. "You have made a serious accusation in a Council chamber. I will give you one chance to withdraw it."

"I will not withdraw it," Ronan said. "I will say it again. You put a false bond on me in April and you have been sitting in that seat for forty years and there are wolves on your Council who are frightened of you and there is a cell under this chamber with iron rings in the wall."

The chamber went quiet.

Soren looked at him for a long moment.

"Then I will call my witness," he said.

He nodded at the door.

The door at the back of the chamber opened and two Council wolves came in with a woman between them.

It was Elara.

She had her green scarf on and her hands were bound in front of her and her face was white.

"this wolf is a binder of the Council," Soren said. "She has been in the town for a week and she has been speaking to the Alpha and the healer in secret and she has been telling them what to say. I call her to answer for it."

Ronan took a step forward.

"You cannot do that," he said. "She came to us. She told us the truth."

"She is a binder," Soren said. "And a binder who speaks to a wolf she has bound is a binder who has broken her oath. She will answer for it before this Council and she will answer for it now."

Elara looked at me across the chamber.

She had been frightened when she came in. I saw it in her face. And then she looked at me and at Ronan and at Maeve and at Padraig in the front row, and something in her face changed.

"I will answer," she said.

The chamber was very quiet.

"Then answer," Soren said. "Did you speak to the Alpha and the healer in secret?"

"I did."

"Did you tell them what to say in this chamber?"

"I told them what I know."

"Did you tell them to accuse an elder of the Council of a crime?"

Elara looked at him.

"I told them the truth," she said. "And I will tell it again now if this Council will hear it."