All Chapters of The Wolf She Silenced: Chapter 81 - Chapter 90

I did not let go of his hand."Deniz," I said. "Get the warriors to the north wall. Do not go up the ridge. Do not light a torch. I want to know who is on that cairn before we do anything."She went. I turned to Cemal."Come with me."We went up the ridge in the dark with the pack behind us and the warriors on the north wall, and the light on the cairn got brighter as we climbed.It was a lamp. A small lamp turned down low, set on the top stone, and beside it there was a wolf sitting with his hands on his knees.It was Barış.He was alone. His auburn hair was loose and his bound arm was in his lap and his face was grey in the lamplight, and he did not move when he heard us come up the ridge.I stopped a few paces from the cairn."Where are your twelve warriors?" I said."Gone down the coast road with the Council lord." Barış did not look up. "They took the offer. They took the grain and the passes and the blessing on the bond. And I came back.""You came back.""I came back." He lifte

Orhan caught my arm at the foot of the wall."Luna," he said. "Before you go up that ridge, there is a thing in the founding laws you should hear.""The Council lord is waiting.""The Council lord can wait." He opened the founding book. "The book has a page about the Luna's right to reject a false bond before the Council. It is old and nobody has read it in a hundred years because nobody has needed it. But it is there."I stood at the foot of the wall with the whole pack around me."Read it," I said.Orhan read it.It was short. It said that a Luna who believes a bond laid on her is false has the right to reject it in front of the Council of Alphas, and that the rejection is not a private thing but a public one, and that the Council must hear it and judge it before any other matter is decided."That is it?" I said."That is the law." Orhan closed the book. "A Luna can stand in front of the Council and reject a false bond. And the Council has to hear it. They cannot brand the pack and

The pack house was quiet when we came back up the valley.The warriors were on the walls and the fires were low and the gate was barred behind us, and Cemal walked beside me across the yard and did not say anything.At the kitchen door he stopped."I should go to the smokehouse," he said."No." I looked at him. "The healer's wing. Maren has an empty room at the back with a bed in it and a door that shuts. Come with me."He looked at me for a long moment and then he came.The healer's wing was dark and the empty room at the back was cold and there was a narrow bed against the wall and a chair and a small window with the moon in it. I lit the candle on the chair and shut the door.Cemal stood by the door with his coat still on."You should sleep," he said. "The full moon is in two nights and you have not slept in three.""I know." I sat on the edge of the bed. "Come here."He came and sat beside me."I have been trying to be careful with you," he said. "Since the yard. Since the smokeho

The elders' house was full and the fire was built up and Orhan had the chest open on the table.I came in with my coat on and the whole pack behind me and Cemal at my shoulder."Show me," I said.Orhan held out a page.It was old and brown and it was torn at one edge and it was not a page from the wardens' book. It was a page from the council ledger, and it was written in a hand I had seen before."It was in the chest under the founding book," Orhan said. "It has been there for a hundred years. I did not know it was there."I read it.It was a list of names and dates. And at the bottom, in a hand I did not know, there was a note.The page of the founding book was stolen by the wolf who broke the line. The debt was never paid. The wolf who keeps the page keeps the debt.I looked at Orhan."The page was stolen," I said."The page was stolen." Orhan's clouded eyes were on the fire. "My brother stole it a hundred years ago when he laid the false bond on Ayşe. He took it with him when he l

Nadia was at the gate when we came down.She had her grey hair loose and her stick in her hand and she was standing in the dark with a lamp, and she did not look like a wolf who had come to say goodbye."Luna," she said. "Before you ride to the coast, there is a thing you should know.""The Council is waiting.""The Council has been waiting for a hundred years. It can wait a quarter of an hour." She looked at me. "Come with me to the hollow. There is a thing I should have told you the night you shifted and I did not, because I did not know if you were ready to hear it."I looked at the pack. Cemal was beside me with his black hair loose and his coat open. Orhan was at the gate with his stick. Maren was at the healer's wing door with her basket."A quarter of an hour," I said.We went to the hollow. The fallen cairn was there and the lamp was lit and the pines were dark around us and the moon was going down behind the ridge. Nadia sat down on the fallen stone and set the lamp beside he