The Alpha's Debt the King's Claim novel · Chapter 10 of 24
Chapter 10: The Bastard
At noon the Moon Court was so full that people stood on the stairs.
I sat at the end of the front bench, beside Brigid, with my bandaged hand in my lap.
She had said nothing about my dress or my hair.
She had only taken my good hand and held it.
The king walked down the aisle alone, in black, with no crown.
He stopped in the middle of the black marble floor, where a rune for the moon had been cut into the stone.
Torin sat across from him with his elders behind.
His eyes were hollow, but they were clear.
"The Alpha of Greywater has asked the court a question," the eldest judge said. "Does the king know the woman Elspeth Dray?"
"I do," Evander said.
The court stirred.
"Say how."
Evander turned and faced the gallery.
He did not shout.
He did not need to.
"Ten years ago my father, the old king, died in his bed of silver in his wine," he said. "A girl of seventeen stood accused of putting it there. She was brought before this court. She did not deny it."
Nobody moved.
"The sentence was death. I stopped it."
"How?" a voice shouted.
"I told the court she had died in her cell the night before, and I buried an empty coffin," Evander said. "Then I put her on a cart to Greywater with a new name and a purse, and I swore that she would never be found."
The silence broke into a roar.
The eldest judge hammered for order and got none.
I watched Torin.
He had gone completely still.
"Who was she?" he asked, and his voice carried. "The girl."
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