Chapter 91: The Council Splits

The Council came to the Blackthorn house four days later, two days before the reading, and they came in three cars with an escort of twelve and a clerk in each car with a box of papers.

Ilsa came in the first car.

She came up the path with her white hair pinned up and her shawl round her shoulders and she looked at the house and the yard and the flag on the wall and she said, "It is smaller than I expected."

"It is a pack house," I said. "Not a Council seat."

"It will do." She went up the steps. "Where is the Alpha?"

"In the kitchen. He has been up since dawn reading the archive."

"He should be in bed."

"He should. He will not." I opened the door. "Elder. Before you go in, there is a thing you should know."

"Which is?"

"There are nine wolves in this pack who signed a paper against me and walked out of this hall when I was named Luna. They are still in the house and they are still in the pack and they will be in that kitchen when you go into it."

Ilsa looked at me.

"Then I will meet them," she said.

The kitchen was full. Ronan was at the head of the table with the archive open in front of him and Rónán beside him with a pen. Padraig was by the fire. Nessa was at the stove. And at the far end of the table there were four of the nine, because the other five had gone out on the boats that morning and had not come back.

Ilsa went to the head of the table and sat down.

"Elder," Ronan said. "You did not have to come yourself."

"I did." Ilsa put her shawl on the back of the chair. "There is a thing you should know before the reading, and I would rather say it here than in a chamber with the doors open." She looked round the kitchen. "The Council has split."

The kitchen went quiet.

"Split how?" Ronan said.

"Two of us want the archive read and Soren tried and the binders named. Two of us want the archive sealed and the matter held and the whole thing put back in the room under the chamber where it has been for a hundred years." Ilsa put her hands on the table. "And the fifth one has not decided."

"Who is the fifth?"

"Rannoch." Ilsa's mouth twisted. "Rannoch has been on that Council for thirty years and he has never once had an opinion of his own and he has been sitting in a room for four days with Lorcan's written statement in front of him, and yesterday he said he thought the whole thing was very difficult."

"He is frightened," I said.

"He is frightened and he is not a fool and he has worked out that if Soren comes back he will be expected to vote one way and if Soren does not come back he will be expected to vote the other." Ilsa looked at me. "He will vote with whoever speaks to him last."

The door of the kitchen opened and Lorcan came in.

He was thinner than he had been and his coat was not brushed and there were two Council guards behind him.

"Elder," he said. "I have been brought down from the town under guard and I have been told to attend the reading."

"You have been brought down under guard because you signed thirty one orders," Ilsa said. "Sit down."

Lorcan sat down at the far end of the table.

"The Council has split," he said. "I heard it in the car."

"You heard it in the car and you have been thinking about it ever since." Ilsa looked at him. "Envoy. You have been in this business for twenty years and you have written down everything the Council has done in that time and you know every elder on that seat. Which two want the archive sealed?"

Lorcan did not answer for a moment.

"Grieve and Halloran," he said. "They are Soren's and they have been Soren's for twenty years and they will vote for anything that keeps the archive in the room under the chamber."

"And Rannoch?"

"Rannoch will vote with whoever frightens him most."

The kitchen was quiet.

"Then we do not frighten him," I said.

Ilsa looked at me.

"Everyone frightens Rannoch, healer."

"Not if we give him something to hold on to." I sat down at the table. "A wolf who has never had an opinion of his own has never had anything to be proud of. Give him something to be proud of and he will hold on to it."

"And what would that be?"

"The archive," I said. "He is the keeper of the record. He has been the keeper of the record for thirty years and nobody has ever asked him what he thought of it. Let him read it out. Let him stand at that table in front of the whole pack and read the names and the orders and the dates in his own voice. And then ask him whether he wants it sealed."

Ilsa looked at me for a long moment.

"That is either the cleverest thing I have heard in thirty years or the most foolish," she said.

"It is the cleverest," Ronan said. "She has been doing it to me for two months."

The door of the kitchen opened again and Nessa came in with her face white.

"Healer," she said. "There is a rider coming down the harbour road. It is a woman on a black horse and she is carrying a Ravenscar flag and she is asking for the Alpha and the Luna."

I stood up.

"Who is it?"

Nessa looked at me.

"It is Maeve," she said.

The kitchen went very quiet.

Ronan stood up.

"Maeve," he said. "With a Ravenscar flag."

I looked at Ilsa and Ilsa looked at me.

"Then she has gone over," I said. "She took the ledger north and she has gone over to the Ravenscar and she is coming back here with a flag and an offer."

Lorcan stood up at the far end of the table.

"Healer," he said. "If Maeve has gone over to Ravenscar she has gone over to Bran. And Bran has Soren. And if Bran has Soren and Maeve has the ledger, then Bran has everything he needs to take that seat."

I was at the door before he had finished.

"Ronan," I said. "Get your coat."