Chapter 14: Mud

The rain ran off his black hair and down the burns on his chest.

He did not look at me.

He looked at the mud, and then he raised his head and spoke to the whole Row.

"I am Lucan Hartmoor, Crown wolf of this kingdom," he said.

"I put the chain on this woman for a crime she did not commit."

Nobody breathed.

"I did not ask her one question."

"I will not ask for her pardon, because I haven't earned the right to the word."

A big scarred man at the back spat into the mud.

"Words are free," he said. "We've had a lot of kings."

"Then here is something that isn't free."

Lucan stayed on his knees.

"From the Winter Moon on, Cinder Row sits in my court."

"One seat, one voice, at the table of the Alphas."

"Any wolf thrown out of a pack by a verdict may bring it to the Row's seat."

"The Crown will hear it again."

The scarred man's mouth fell open.

"Every Alpha in the kingdom will hate it," said the old woman beside me, almost kindly.

"Yes," said Lucan. "I know."

He got up out of the mud.

The burns on his shirt were as long as my forearm, black at the edges.

"That isn't forgiveness," I said. "I want you to understand that."

"I understand."

"It's a seat. It's something you did for them, and I'm glad of it. It doesn't touch what you did to me."

"It was not meant to."

"Then what was it for?"

"So that you would see me do one costly thing," he said, "before I asked for one thing back."

I stared at him.

The old woman made a noise that might have been a laugh.

"Get him in out of the rain," she said. "He's dripping on my floor, and he's the king."

She gave us the loft over her kitchen, reached by a ladder, with a straw bed and one small window.

The rain beat on the roof.

I sat him on the bed with his shirt off and a basin of water, and set to work on the burns.

The silver had branded him in long stripes where the posts had touched his skin when he crossed the Line.

"You walked through it," I said. "Why?"

"I couldn't ride a horse through a ditch of silver."

"You could have gone round."

"I wanted it to cost something."

I pressed a wet cloth against the worst of it, and he hissed through his teeth.

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