Chapter 73: The Night I Said His Name

Ronan would not do the asking in the shop.

"The asking is done in a hall or in a church or on the headland," he said. "It is done in front of the co-op and it is done with the book open and the healer's hand on the marks. It is not done in a shop at midnight with a woman's blankets round her and a pot of tea on the counter."

"Then we do it in the morning," I said.

"The morning is when the vote is." Ronan looked at me. "The asking has to be done before the vote. It has to be done in the hall with the whole co-op in it and it has to be done before the claimants are heard. And if it is done in the morning before the vote, then the whole village hears the answer and the whole village knows whether the bond is true before Mairéad opens her mouth."

"Then we do it at eight o'clock," I said. "In the hall. Before the vote."

We went up to the hall at eight in the morning and the whole village was in the lane.

The burned back room had been swept out and the door shut and the windows opened and the smoke had gone out of the hall. The long table was at the top of the room with the frame on the wall behind it and the chair at the head of it and there was a fire in the grate. Ahern was at the table with his case and his notebook. Mairéad was in the chair at the head of the table with her silver hair pinned up and her black coat on and a wolf on either side of her. My sister was at the front of the hall with the green book and the ring and the burned pages. Eileen was at the back with her grey hair down and her hands folded. Declan was by the wall with Cormac beside him.

Ronan came up the floor with the healer's book in his hands and stood in front of the table and put the book down.

"The asking," he said. "It is an old thing and it has not been done in this village in a hundred years and I am going to do it now because the Alpha has put it about in the night that the bond between the woman from Dublin and the Beta of this pack is a false bond made by her. And a false bond is a thing that can be seen and a true bond is a thing that can be seen and the co-op is going to see it."

He opened the book and took a pen out of his coat.

"Niamh. Come and stand here."

I came and stood in front of the table and the whole co-op looked at me.

"Declan. Come and stand beside her."

Declan came. He stood beside me and put his hand out and I took it and the spark came up through my palm and up my arm and the whole hall saw it because the whole hall was watching.

Ronan put his hand on my jaw and turned my head and looked at the mark and then he put his hand on Declan's jaw and turned his head and looked at the mark.

"There are two marks," he said, and his voice carried to the back of the hall. "They are under the jaw where the wolf puts his teeth and they are the same colour and they are the same shape and they have come up slowly and they sit right. I have seen three true marks in my life and I have seen one false one and these are true marks." He took his hand away. "Now the asking. Niamh. I am going to ask you a question and you are going to answer it in front of the co-op and the answer is going to be written down in this book with the date and the hour. And you are going to answer it with your mouth and your scent and your wolf and the whole co-op is going to know whether you are telling the truth." He looked at me. "Is the bond between you and Declan true?"

I stood in the front of the hall with the whole village looking at me and Declan's hand in mine.

"It is true," I said. "It is true and it is mine and I chose it. Not the bond. The man. I chose the man and the bond came after and I am not going to say it is not true to make a woman with a silver voice feel better about the one she made in December."

The hall stirred. And then the smell came up.

I do not know how to describe it. It came off me and off Declan at the same time, a warm animal smell like a dog's coat after a walk in the rain and rain on hot stone and salt and pine, and it went out over the whole hall and every wolf in it lifted their head and smelled it and knew what it was. It was the smell of a true bond and there was not a wolf in that hall who could mistake it.

Ronan wrote in the book.

"Declan," he said. "Is the bond between you and Niamh true?"

"It is true," Declan said. "And I am going to say the rest of it while the co-op is listening because I have been a man who did not say things for twenty years and I am done with it. I sat in the harbor office in April and I knew her sister was alive and I did not tell her. I let her grieve and I did it because I was frightened of losing her and that is the worst thing I have done in my life. And she has forgiven me or she has not and that is between her and me. But the bond is true. It was true before April and it was true in April and it is true now."

The smell came up again, stronger, and the whole hall smelled it.

Ronan wrote in the book and then he closed it and put his hand flat on the cover.

"The asking is done," he said. "The bond between Niamh and Declan is true and it is written down in this book with the date and the hour and the names of the witnesses. And there is a thing in the old law that follows from the asking. A wolf who has been asked and answered true cannot be named a false mate by any wolf in this territory, and a wolf who names her so is a wolf who is calling the healer of this pack a liar." He looked at Mairéad. "Alpha. You sent a paper down to the shop in the night saying the Beta is a false mate. Do you want to say it again in front of the co-op this morning?"

Mairéad sat in the chair at the head of the table and did not say anything for a long moment.

"No," she said. "I do not."

"Then the asking is done and the co-op is going to hear the claimants."

And then I said, "No."

The hall turned round.

"No," I said again. "The co-op is not going to hear the claimants. Not yet. There is a thing I have to do first and I have been putting it off since the first night because I was a woman from Dublin with a sister in the ground and a bond I did not ask for. And my sister is not in the ground and the bond is true and I am not a woman from Dublin any more. I am a wolf of this pack and I swore the oath in a garden and the whole co-op said aye." I put my hand in my coat and took out the weight and put it on the table. It was the weight of forty one and the fish on the face was worn nearly smooth and the number was cut deep into the side of it. "I make a claim on the seat. Not for my sister. For me. I am the daughter of Maeve's daughter and I hold the weight of forty one and I put it on the table in front of the enforcer and the co-op and the Alpha and I say the words. I claim the seat."

The hall went silent. The whole of it. Forty wolves and not one of them breathing.

And then Mairéad stood up.