Chapter 15: Corwin's POV: The Release

Corwin's POV

I left Katja sleeping at three in the morning, and I did not wake her because she would have come.

I had made her a promise at the desk, and I meant to keep it before she could watch me keep it.

There was another reason, and I liked it less.

I was afraid that when her father said sorry, she would take his hand and go home.

I drove six hours north in the dark with that fear for company.

Pinewatch's gate stood open when I reached it.

Two sentries in grey coats saw my plates, and one of them reached for the radio.

"Tell him I'm here," I said, rolling down the window. "Tell him I'm alone."

They let me through without asking anything else.

The hall sat at the head of the village with its great doors shut.

Behind those doors, I knew, was the Founding Stone and the Founder's blade driven into it to the hilt.

I did not go in.

I went round to the Alpha's house, and I walked up the steps and into the kitchen.

Nobody stopped me.

A thin girl in a pale coat sat at the kitchen table with her bag still on her shoulder.

"Corwin," Odette said. "Oh no."

"Why are you here?"

"I took the night train." Her eyes were red. "I wanted to talk to Mom before the Gathering. I thought if I told her I knew, she would stop."

"What did she say?"

"She hasn't come down."

She was twisting the strap of her bag in her fingers.

"Go and wait in the front hall," I told her. "I'll speak to your father first."

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