He Signed the Exile Order, So I Took the Wards North novel · Chapter 12 of 24
Chapter 12: The Moot
The Moot met in Ronan's hall the next morning, with seven envoys in grey and red on the dais and three hundred wolves packed along the walls.
The Truthstone stood in the middle of the floor, a waist-high slab of black rock the priest had carried in on a wagon.
Corvin stood opposite me, in his best coat, with the ledger open on a stand.
Rhona sat at the back with her hands folded and her eyes on the floor.
Jory stood behind Corvin's chair, rigid and silent.
Ronan stood at the foot of the dais, a step behind my left shoulder.
I felt him there the whole time.
"The charge," the senior envoy said, "is theft of tribute and the sabotage of a border pack. The accuser is Corvin Sterne, Alpha of Greyfell. The accused is Catriona MacNair, an exile of the Northern Territories."
"MacNair," Corvin said, with a sad little smile. "My own wife."
"Your own exile," said the envoy. "Proceed."
Corvin turned the ledger toward the dais.
"Eleven barrels of grain, missing from the winter levy," he said. "Four hundred silver marks of tribute, never delivered. Two hunting permits sold to outsiders. All signed in my wife's hand, and sealed with her seal."
A murmur ran around the walls.
"I trusted her with the pack's papers," Corvin said. "I signed what she gave me. That is my only fault, and I confess it freely."
A few of the envoys nodded.
I kept my face still.
"She tore down our wards out of spite when I asked her to share a bond," Corvin went on. "Eleven of my wolves died on the east wall. I accuse her of every one."
He had practiced it.
I could hear the pauses, and I had written half of them.
"Catriona MacNair," the envoy said. "Do you answer the charge?"
"I do."
"Then lay your hand on the Truthstone, and speak."
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