Chapter 150: The Trial

The chamber broke.

I did not wait for it to come back together. I took the wire out of June's hand and read it and then I turned and walked out of the chamber with the whole of the line behind me and the whole of the Council shouting.

Elias caught me in the corridor.

“Wren,” he said. “The boy.”

“He is Dale's son,” I said. “He is eleven years old and he has been in the pack house for four months and Arden has taken him.” I looked at the wire. “It says Arden took him at dawn and he has him in the mill and he says if the Alpha of the Circle Pack does not come to the territory by the full moon the boy is going into the river.”

Elias stood in the corridor.

“Then we go back,” he said.

“The hearing is not finished.”

“The hearing can wait. The boy cannot.”

I looked at him.

“There is a thing I have to do first,” I said.

“What thing?”

“The Council has accused me of treason,” I said. “And the Council has to rule on it before I leave this building or the whole of the line is going to be in a room in Boise by morning.” I put my hand on his chest. “So I am going to go back into that chamber and I am going to stand in front of the whole of the Council and I am going to answer the charge and then I am going to walk out of this building and go home and get the boy.”

Elias put his hand over mine.

“Then I am going with you,” he said.

We went back into the chamber.

The Alpha of the Alphas was on his feet with his staff in his hand and the whole of the Council was standing and the whole of the gallery was standing and the whole of it was noise.

I walked into the middle of the chamber and stood in front of the table and put the wire down on it.

“Alphas,” I said. “The Circle Pack has been attacked. The Snoqualmie pack has taken the pack house and the mill and the east field and it has taken a boy of eleven years old and it is holding him against the full moon.” I looked at the whole of the Council. “So the whole of it is going to be decided now. Not in a month and not in a week. Now.”

The chamber went quiet.

The Alpha of the Alphas looked at the wire.

“Alpha,” he said. “The Council has accused you of treason and the Council has not ruled and the Council cannot rule if the accused walks out of the chamber.”

“Then rule,” I said. “Rule now. In front of the whole of the Council and the whole of the territory and the whole of the line. The charge is treason and the charge is harboring a cursed wolf and the charge is breaking a curse the Council has been keeping for two hundred years. So rule on it.”

The Alpha of the Alphas stood in the chamber.

And then the speaker of the east stood up.

“I am the speaker of the east,” he said. “And the east has a thing to say about the charge.” He put his staff on the floor. “The east has been taking the children from the room for a hundred years and the east has been using the line for silver and the whole of it has been going on since 1802. And the east has been keeping a circle closed since 1802 to hide it.” He looked at me. “The Alpha of the Circle Pack did not break the Council’s law. She broke the Council’s silence.”

The chamber moved.

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

“The Council has heard it,” he said. “And the Council is going to vote.”

They voted in the chamber with the whole of the territory watching and the whole of the line standing in the seats and the whole of the twelve from the room in the gallery.

Twenty-nine Alphas voted to acquit.

Eleven voted to convict.

“The charge is dismissed,” the Alpha of the Alphas said. “The Alpha of the Circle Pack is free and the whole of the line is free and the whole of the Council is going to answer for two hundred years of the room.”

I stood in the chamber.

“Then I am going home,” I said.

I went out of the chamber with the whole of the line behind me and the whole of the twelve from the room and the whole of the territory in the hall and the whole of it went out of the building and into the street and into the trucks.

We drove through the night and we came over the ridge at dawn.

The territory was on fire.

Not the co-op and not the mill. The whole of the west line was burning and the whole of the north field and there were trucks on the ridge road and the whole of the ridge road was full of wolves.

Arden was standing at the gap with four hundred wolves and he had a boy beside him.

The boy was eleven years old and he had sandy hair and he was standing in the snow with his hands tied and his face white.

“Alpha,” Arden called. “You are late.”

I got out of the truck.

“Arden,” I said. “Let the boy go.”

“The boy is the son of the wolf who killed your brother,” Arden said. “And I have been thinking about it and I have decided that the boy is worth more to me than the whole of the mill land.” He put his hand on the boy's shoulder. “I am going to trade him. The boy for the circle.”

I stood in the road.

“The circle is the pack's,” I said.

“The circle is the pack's and the pack is going to give it to me or the boy goes into the river.” Arden put his hand on the boy's shoulder. “And there is a thing about the river I should tell you. The river is cold and the boy is small and the river is going to take him in one minute if I say the word.”

I stood in the road.

And then Dale came out of the truck behind me.

He was in his shirt with his hands tied and his face gray and he walked past me and out into the road and stopped in front of Arden.

“Arden,” he said. “You want a trade. I am the trade.”

Arden looked at him.

“Dale,” he said.

“I am the wolf who killed Owen Halloran and I am the wolf the Council blackmailed for six years and I am the boy's father.” Dale put his hand on his chest. “Let the boy go and take me. I am worth more to the whole of the territory than a boy of eleven and the whole of it knows it.”

Arden stood in the road.

“Dale,” he said.

“Take me,” Dale said. “And let the boy go home.”

And then the boy said, “Papa.”

Dale turned.

The boy was standing in the snow with his hands tied and his face white and his father was standing in front of him and the whole of the ridge road was watching.

“Papa,” the boy said again. “I want to go home.”

Dale put his hand on his son's head.

“You are going home,” he said. “I am going to make sure of it.”

And then he turned and looked at me.

“Alpha,” he said. “I am going to ask you for a thing and I am going to ask it in front of the whole of the territory.”

“Ask it,” I said.

“Let me take the boy's place,” Dale said. “And when the whole of it is over and the pack is safe and the boy is home, let me answer for my brother's death in front of the whole of the pack.”

I stood in the road.

“Yes,” I said.

Arden looked at the whole of it.

And then he let the boy go.