Chapter 23: The Dawn Court, Again

The Dawn Court sat in the same long hall with the same high windows.

The last time I walked into it, I had just buried my son and my title in one week.

This time I walked in with Torin at my shoulder and my father's coat over a plain dark dress, and the Alphas stood up.

All of them.

I had not asked for that.

Hester sat in the Crown's chair at the head of the table.

Magnus stood below the dais in a clean shirt with no ring, no pin and no jacket.

Aldous was brought in last, between two guards, in a plain grey tunic without his robe.

His hands were chained in front of him.

He looked round the hall with his mild kind face and smiled at me.

"Lady Morland," he said. "I asked you to hear me."

"I'm here."

"I'll give you a gift for it. The truth."

"Seer Fenn," said Hester. "Under this roof the moon hears a lie."

"I know the law, Your Majesty. I wrote half of it."

He turned to the Council.

"Everything I did, I did for the Crown. I made a King's heir. I kept a throne steady for twenty years, and I'd do it again."

"The King was weak, and the Queen was a convenience."

"I smothered her wolf so she would heal slowly and bear no second child. There could only be one heir."

A sound rose in the hall, low and angry.

"And my father?" I said.

I had not planned to ask.

"Nine crates," I said. "In the cellar at Northcrest. Delivered to his table."

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