Chapter 11: Grey Feathers

I stood by the pool and turned the broken shaft over in my hands.

Every bolt in Ironclaw's armory was fletched in that grey.

I had fletched some of them myself.

I thought of Theron winking at me in the snow.

Walk the springs with Ashenveil's Alpha.

I put the shaft in my pocket next to the bolt head and went back up to the cabin.

Tiernan was sitting up against the wall with his shirt hanging open.

The burn on his shoulder was red and angry, but clean.

"You left," he said.

"I came back."

He saw my face.

"What did you find?"

I didn't show him.

Not yet.

"We need to get you home," I said.

It took us three hours to walk out of the valley.

He leaned on me the whole way.

Halfway down, we met a search party coming up.

Freya was at the front of it in her red parka.

She saw her brother and burst into tears and then punched him in his good arm.

The hall was full when we walked in.

The Council was sitting.

Garrick was standing in the middle of the floor, and he was in full voice.

"Ambushed!" he was saying. "In a valley Ironclaw claims, with the Ironclaw Luna beside him! And then she drags him off alone into a storm!"

He saw us in the doorway and stopped.

For just a second, his face went blank.

Then it filled back up with outrage.

"Alpha! Thank the moon!"

He strode toward us with his arms out.

Tiernan didn't move to meet him.

"The Council has heard what happened," Garrick said. "One of our warriors found the place. Ironclaw tracks in the snow above the springs."

"Ironclaw tracks," said Theron, from the Council table. "How interesting. I didn't know boots had a pack."

He was leaning back in his chair with his fingers steepled.

He looked completely relaxed.

"I demand the Ironclaw Luna be chained," Garrick said. "Today. Until this Council finds who fired that bolt."