The Moon She Waited Under novel · Chapter 17 of 24

Chapter 17: Ilse's Hour

We reached the ridge at first light, with Lucan walking on his own feet and refusing to be held.

The old moon still hung pale over the west ridge, a thin white curve.

That was enough for the law.

The whole pack stood on the slope below the stone ring.

In the middle of the ring, on the slab, sat a dozen pups with their mothers pressed around them.

Ilse stood in front of the children with her satchel on her shoulder and a small curved blade in her right hand.

Osric stood at the edge of the stones with his stick, and he looked ten years older.

"She was here when we woke," he said as we came up. "She brought them at midnight. She told the mothers the Moon wolf couldn't be trusted near pups."

"And they believed her."

"She's been their healer for six years. Of course they believed her."

I looked at the knife.

"Wolfsbane on the edge," Osric said quietly. "A healer keeps it for lancing. One cut, and you're sick for a week. Two, and you don't get up."

"Dessa!" Ilse called, in her gentle, carrying voice. "Come into the ring."

The pack murmured.

"Your champion has failed you," I said. "I heard. He's on his knees in the road."

"Then the law says I stand myself."

She smiled at the crowd.

"I know I can't beat a wolf like her. I'm only a healer. But if she's the Luna this pack deserves, she'll walk in here human and unarmed, in front of the children, and show us she can be trusted."

"And if I shift?"

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