Chapter 22: Older Than Any Sale

"I paid," Lord Aurelian said again.

His voice rolled down the slope.

"Eighteen years, once a year, in gold. There is a receipt in this Council's hand."

He lifted one hand.

"I bought a human child, and I have come to collect her."

The southern slope murmured.

The elder looked at the paper, and at the Lord, and she did not look sure of anything.

"The treaty," she began.

"The treaty allows it. The Alpha has said so himself."

Aurelian smiled thinly.

"The Council has no law that can take property from a court lord."

"She is not property."

Evander said it from beside me.

He said it quietly, but the whole valley heard.

"My son," the Lord said, "you are in the way."

"I am not."

Evander stepped to the edge of the stone and turned to face the northern courts.

"I invoke the mate right."

A sound went through the vampires like a drawn breath.

The old lord who had put his hand on his heart in my hall stood up from the front row.

"You invoke it before the Council and the courts?" he asked.

"I do."

"Say the right, then, so it is heard."

Evander lifted his marked wrist.

"A fated mate of a vampire is human," he said. "It is the oldest law of the courts, older than the treaty."

He raised his voice.

"A human who bears the mate's mark is not a thing to be sold. She is the mate of a house."

"And the bargain?" the old lord asked.

"Any bargain made for her is void."

"It is void," the old lord agreed, slowly. "If the mark is true."

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