Chapter 149: The Luna's Granddaughter

The chamber went quiet and the whole of the Council of Alphas turned and looked at the old woman at the back.

She came down the aisle with her cane and her white hair and she stopped in the middle of the chamber beside me and she did not look at the Council.

She looked at me.

“Alpha,” she said. “I am Ilse and I am the Luna’s granddaughter and I have been in this territory since 1948 and I have been hiding in the west and the whole of the Council has been hunting me for forty years.”

I stood in the chamber.

“Ilse,” I said. “There is already an Ilse.”

“There are two,” she said. “The old one is the Luna and she is my grandmother and she has been in the trees since 1897. I am the daughter of the fourth daughter and I was born in 1930 and I was taken out of the room in 1948 and put in a pack in the west.” She put her hand on her cane. “And I have been hunted since 1948 because the Council knew what I was and the Council has been trying to put me back in the room.”

The chamber moved.

“The Council has been hunting you,” I said.

“The Council has been hunting me,” Ilse said. “And there is a thing about the hunt that nobody has told you. The Council has been hunting every wolf of the fourth daughter’s line since 1802. Not the cursed wolves. The line. The Council has been trying to put the whole of the line in the room and the whole of it has been going on for two hundred years.”

I stood in the chamber.

And then the Alpha of the Alphas brought his staff down on the floor.

“Enough,” he said. “The Council is sitting and the Council is going to hear the claim of blood and the whole of it. And the Council is not going to hear the whole of the line in a chamber in Boise.” He looked at me. “Alpha. You have brought a register and a diary and the whole of the line and a keeper and a room’s worth of wolves. The Council is going to hear the whole of it and the Council is going to rule and then the whole of it is going to be over.”

I stood in the chamber.

“Then hear it,” I said.

The hearing took six hours.

We put the register on the table and the diary and the room’s register and the crates and the whole of the Council’s file. We put the twelve from the room in the gallery and the whole of the line in the seats and the whole of the territory in the hall. And the whole of it came out.

Silas stood in the chamber and told the whole of it. The trial claims and the forged deeds and the silver and the children and the room. He told it flat and he told it slow and he did not leave a thing out and when he was done he put his hands behind his back and said, “I have been the Council’s pen for nineteen years and I am the line and I am going to answer for it.”

And then Mary stood in the chamber and told the whole of it. The room and the breeding and the silver and the children and the second register. She told it with her burned hand on the rail and her voice steady and when she was done she said, “I have been the keeper of the room for forty years and I have been cutting the line for silver and I am going to answer for it.”

And then the assassin stood in the chamber and told the whole of it. The children he had taken and the packs he had put them in and the whole of it. He told it with the diary in his hand and when he was done he said, “I have been the Council’s hand for twenty-five years and I am the line and I am going to answer for it.”

And then Ilse the granddaughter stood in the chamber and told the whole of it. The hunt and the forty years and the whole of it.

And then the Alpha of the Alphas brought his staff down on the floor and said, “The Council has heard the whole of it and the Council is going to rule.”

The chamber was silent.

“The Council rules,” the Alpha of the Alphas said, “that the room is closed. The Council rules that the children in the room are the line and the line is free. The Council rules that the silver is the line’s blood and the Council will return the whole of it. And the Council rules that the Council of Alphas has been wrong for two hundred years and that the whole of it is going to be rebuilt.”

The chamber roared.

And then the Alpha of the Alphas brought his staff down again.

“And the Council rules,” he said, “that there is a debt. The room has been open for two hundred years and the whole of the Council has been standing on it and the whole of it is going to be answered for. The Council is going to name every wolf who ever signed a claim and every wolf who ever took a child and every wolf who ever cut the line for silver. And the whole of them are going to stand in this chamber and answer for it.”

The chamber was silent.

“And the first wolf to answer,” the Alpha of the Alphas said, “is the Alpha of the Circle Pack.”

I stood in the chamber.

“Me,” I said.

“You,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “You have harbored a cursed wolf and you have taken the whole of the line out of the room and you have stood in a circle and broken a curse that the Council has been keeping for two hundred years. And the Council has to decide whether that is a crime or a thing the Council should have done two hundred years ago.”

I stood in the chamber.

“Then decide it,” I said.

And then a wolf came out of the gallery.

He was old and he was tall and he had a staff and he was not a Council wolf and he was not a north wolf and he was not a wolf of the territory.

He was the Alpha of the Alphas of the east.

“I am the speaker of the east,” he said. “And I have been in the east for forty years and I have been listening to this hearing for six hours and there is a thing I have to say.” He put his staff on the floor. “The east has been taking the children from the room for a hundred years.”

The chamber went silent.

“What?” the Alpha of the Alphas said.

“The east has been taking the children from the room for a hundred years,” the speaker of the east said. “And the east has been putting them in packs and using them and the whole of it has been going on since 1802.” He looked at me. “And there is a thing about the east that nobody has told you. The east does not have a room. The east has a circle.”

I stood in the chamber.

“A circle,” I said.

“A circle,” the speaker of the east said. “And the circle in the east has been closed since 1802 and it is going to be opened at the next full moon.” He put his hand on his chest. “And the whole of the line in the east is going to stand in it and the whole of it is going to be decided in one night.”

The chamber was silent.

And then June came up the aisle with a wire in her hand and her face white.

“Wren,” she said. “The wire is from the territory. There is a war at the ridge. The Snoqualmie pack has come down and they have taken the pack house and the mill and the whole of the east field.”

I stood in the chamber.

“Arden,” I said.

“Arden,” June said. “And Wren. He has taken Elias’s son.”