Chapter 8: The New Moon

The hearing never happened.

On the sixth morning Garrick stood in front of the Council and said Calla was too ill to speak.

He said the pot had passed through three maids and a kitchen boy, and that the wolfsbane could have come from any of them.

He said the Council would sit after the new moon, when the pack was calm.

Five elders wanted to argue and seven did not.

Wynne sat through it with her hands folded and said nothing.

The oldest elder wrote down the seven names that voted to wait.

Wynne watched him do it, and that was all she wanted from the room.

The new moon came the next night.

The Stone Hall stood on the cliff behind the pack house, a round building with no roof, so the moon could look in.

At dusk Wynne walked toward it on one crutch.

Hester walked at her left and the oldest elder walked at her right.

The hall doors were closed, and four guards stood across them.

Garrick stood in front of the guards.

He had not shaved in three days.

His eyes were red, and his shirt was creased as if he had slept in it.

"Wynne," he said. "Wait."

"No."

"Five minutes."

"The bond ends when the moon is overhead. You know the law, Garrick. You signed it."

"I signed it to teach you a lesson."

"You signed it with a smile."

He took a breath, then another.

"I was wrong to bring Calla in the way I did," he said. "I was wrong about the nursery. I'll move her out tonight."

The oldest elder grunted.

"Eli's room is yours," Garrick said. "All of it. I'll bring everything back."

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