Chapter 11: The Moot

The hall was full again, and this time nobody was smiling.

Joss walked in beside me with Agnes on my other side.

The pack parted for us without a word, and every face turned to follow.

Lucan sat on a chair on the dais, because he couldn't stand.

He was grey. There was sweat on his upper lip, and his hands lay on his knees, shaking.

His wolf had never once failed him in front of anyone.

Hester stood behind the chair with her hand on his shoulder, in her good coat.

The three elders sat at their table below.

The eldest, a thin man with a white moustache, cleared his throat.

"This moot is called on a petition from the Alpha's mother." He looked at a paper.

"She says the Alpha was well until the Wray girl left."

"She says more than that," Doyle said from the side, with his wrist in a splint.

"She says the Wray girl and Ridgeback have poisoned him."

A murmur ran through the hall.

I stepped forward.

"I want to speak."

"You have no standing," said Hester gently. "You're unplaced, dear."

"I was in this hall at the Gathering," I said. "I took the silver. If I'm accused, I answer."

The eldest looked at me for a long moment.

"Speak."

I turned around so the whole pack could see my face.

"Hester brought me a cup of her tea yesterday morning. I poured it into a fern, and the fern died by noon."

Hester's hand stayed on Lucan's shoulder.

"It's a mild herbal remedy. Anyone in this hall has drunk it."

"Agnes."

The old woman limped forward and set a glass jar on the elders' table.

"This was left in the thermos Hester brought Valerie the morning after the full moon," she said.

"I've been the healer here for fifty years, and I've kept my own stores book for all of them.

"Every month for fourteen years, Hester signed my book for the same three herbs. I never asked why."

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