Chapter 15: The King's Blessing

Garrick was not in the palace by morning, and neither was the ledger.

The guards at the gates had seen a grey coat go out through the kitchen yard after the tea was cleared.

Lucan put watchers on every road and then, to my surprise, put me in a chair and fed me breakfast.

"They'll find him," he said. "Eat."

"I can't sit."

"You shifted in front of the council yesterday. You can sit for ten minutes."

I ate an egg.

He watched me do it, and the corner of his mouth went up.

"My father wants to see you," he said.

The Alpha King's room was at the top of the north tower, warm and dim.

The curtains were drawn against the snow.

He lay propped on pillows, a huge man gone thin, with Lucan's green-gold eyes in a grey face.

A nurse stood by the window and left when Lucan nodded.

"Come here, girl," the King said.

His voice was rough but it carried.

I went and stood at the foot of the bed, and he waved me closer with two fingers.

"Closer. My sight is poor."

I sat on the edge of the mattress.

He took my chin in his dry hand and turned my face to the lamp.

"You have your father's jaw," he said. "He once refused me a road through his pass."

"I wanted it for the army. He said the valley was not mine to cut."

"What did you do?" I asked.

"I went around, and I respected him for it until the day he died."

His hand slid from my chin to the top of my head.

"I am told you shifted white."

"Yes, Your Majesty."

"Then I can die easy." He smiled at his son.

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