Chapter 21: Tobias's POV

Tobias's POV

The pack began to arrive at the stone before the sun was up.

I stood at the back of the knoll in a clean shirt with my arm in its sling.

The Council had dragged benches out of the hall, and I stood behind the last row.

I had told Dara I would stand there, and I stood there.

It was the hardest thing I have ever done with my feet.

Ashfall came in families, on foot and in trucks, out of the mist on the ridge road.

Old men came in good coats, and women came with children on their hips.

Teenagers who had never seen a challenge by blood kept looking at one another to learn whether to be afraid.

Hundreds of wolves packed the slope.

Along the right side of the ring sat the Council, five of them in black, with the elder in the middle chair.

The elder had put on his father's sash.

Opposite them sat the Beta, with a split lip, and beside him in a gray dress sat Celia.

My father had let her out of the cellar that morning, because the Council had asked for her as a witness.

She wore a splint and no circlet, and she kept her eyes on her lap.

She did not look at anyone. Nobody looked at her.

Dirk stood alone at the far end of the bench, in his dark coat, with his hands behind his back.

He had not slept. I could see it from sixty feet.

I did not forgive him. I did not need to. But I noticed that he did not look at his father once.

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