Chapter 17: Moon Trial

The circle was a ring of old grey stones in a clearing behind the lodge, with snow packed flat inside it.

Torches stood at every stone, and two hundred wolves stood behind them in silence.

The moon came up over the ridge as I walked in, huge and white, and I felt it land on the back of my neck.

Corwin stopped at the edge, exactly where I had asked him to.

He didn't say good luck. He put two fingers against my wrist, once, and let go.

Beatrix was already waiting in the middle.

She had left my sweater folded on a stone.

She stood in her shirtsleeves in the cold with her braid loose.

The oldest elder stood between us, leaning on her cane.

"This is the moon trial of the silver claim," she said, and her thin voice carried to the last row.

"The claimant stands against the bond that blocks her. No blades, no help."

"One of them yields, or one of them does not leave."

"Does the Luna accept?"

"I accept," Beatrix said.

"Does the claimant?"

I looked at my sister.

She was shaking, and I could not tell whether it was the cold.

"I accept," I said.

The elder lifted her cane and struck the ground.

Beatrix dropped her coat and went down on her hands in the snow.

I had seen her shift when I was a child. She had always done it gracefully, a quick ripple, over before you could look away.

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