Chapter 22: What They Owe

Nerys's POV

The light of the Moonstone filled the bowl, and nobody in it could speak.

I had never seen the Stone blaze.

None of us had.

It was white and steady, and it threw our shadows long across the standing stones.

Madoc's hand lay under mine, and his fingers shook.

"It's real," I whispered.

"Yes."

"You're shaking."

"I have been afraid since dusk," he said.

I laughed, and it came out wet.

The white-braided elder struck her staff on the ground three times.

"The Stone has spoken," she said, hoarse.

"Nerys Lowther and Madoc Greymere are a fated pair. The Alpha King stands unmated before the Gathering, and has lied to it."

Hadrian knelt in the dirt between two Blackfell guards.

His wrist hung wrong, and his black coat was torn at the shoulder.

For the first time since I had known him he looked like a boy.

"I name the penalties," the elder said. "The council will hear the injured party first."

Everyone looked at me.

I let go of the Stone, and the light dimmed to a glow.

"The king," I said.

"Yes."

"He stands unmated, and he drew a poisoned blade at the Oath. He broke the treaty with eighty men in the dark."

I spoke slowly, so that the back of the bowl could hear.

"The test said whoever I did not choose would leave the realm. I would hold to that."

Hadrian lifted his head.

"You can't," he said.

"The council set the terms. You accepted them. You said done."

"I am the king."

"You were," Wystan said.

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