Chapter 23: The Crown

They crowned me nine days later, in the great hall, at noon.

Torin walked behind me as far as the dais steps, and then he stopped.

He wore the grey coat of the Guard with the sleeve cut away over the bandage, and he stood very straight.

I climbed the last steps alone and turned around.

The hall was full to the walls.

The Alphas sat in the front row, with the lake woman at the end.

The young Alpha with the scar had brought his whole pack, and they filled the gallery.

The old man from the south had come too, in a coat that must have been his best.

Behind them stood the forty from Cedar Hollow, with Imogen among them in a green dress.

The old Councilman held the circlet up.

"Do you take the crown of the lycans, and the weight of it?" he said.

"I do."

"Will you keep the law, and the peace, and the Hearthstone's truth?"

"I will."

"Then kneel," he said, "and be crowned."

I looked at the room.

I thought of the girl who had walked in here in a stranger's coat, and of the Regent's laugh.

"No," I said.

A rustle went through the Hall.

The old man froze with the circlet in the air.

"I'll stand," I said. "I've done my kneeling. Put it on me where I am."

He did.

It was lighter than I'd expected.

Then I took the signet from my thumb and held it up.

"I'm queen of the lycans," I said. "I'll rule from Greywater. But a hall isn't a pack, and I don't mean to live in one alone."

I held out my hand to the forty from Cedar Hollow.

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