Chapter 11: Unfit

The healer set up his examination in the great hall, because Mary said the light was better there.

The light was no better there.

But the hall had a long table, forty chairs, and the households of three packs gathered in it, so Max understood the choice.

The servants of Helix, Tyros and Rydes had come in for the noon meal and been asked to stay.

They stood along the walls with bowls in their hands.

They watched the omega of Greywater sit in a straight-backed chair while a man in black laid cold fingers on his wrist.

"Pulse is rapid," the healer announced.

"I've just been walked across a house by my stepmother," said Max.

"Skin is hot."

"It's September, and I was marched here."

"The patient is argumentative." The healer wrote on a sheet. "A common symptom."

Mary hovered behind the chair with her hands pressed together.

"He's been so unlike himself," she told the room softly. "Raving at night, forgetting what he's signed. We've all been so worried."

Linda stood at her side in a dress the color of cream, her gloved hand to her mouth.

On the benches by the wall James had gone red to the ears.

Joel stood beside the hearth with his arms folded and his face blank.

Raven leaned on a pillar near the door with the black book in his hand.

Nobody spoke.

The healer cleared his throat and took a folded certificate from his bag.

"I find," he said, in a ringing voice, "that the omega of Greywater is unstable in mind and body."

"He is unfit to manage his own affairs, under the Charter of Houses."

A gasp went along the walls.

He held out the paper.

"The Registry's clerk will enter it, and the guardian will assume control, in the interest of the patient's safety."

Mary took it with a little sob.

"Thank you," she said. "Oh, thank you."

The clerk stepped out of the doorway with his pen already wet.

Max stood up.

He did it slowly, so the whole room could watch, and he laid one scarred hand flat on the table.

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