Chapter 15: The Ledger

I did not have time to move.

Something black came off the ground beside me and went over my head.

Lysander had shifted in the air, in the middle of a step, with his shirt in rags around him.

His wolf was the size of a horse.

It hit Corvin in the chest before the blade reached me, and they went down together on the sand.

The blade spun away, and I stepped on it.

Corvin screamed, once, as the huge black paws pinned his shoulders flat.

The jaws closed an inch from his throat and stayed there.

"Don't," I said.

The wolf's yellow eyes turned to me.

"Not yet. I want him to hear it first."

Lysander's wolf breathed hot against Corvin's face, and did not bite.

Corvin lay under him and shook, and for the first time all day nobody could say he was crying for effect.

His mouth was open, and no sound came out.

"Court of Judgment," I said, and my voice rang across the whole arena. "Read the ledger."

The eldest judge looked at the folder Lysander had dropped.

He picked it up with both hands.

He read the bill of sale first, slowly, so every bench could hear.

"One female child, Elowen, aged eight. Six silver. Never to be returned for any price."

He stopped.

"Signed in the hand of the Alpha of Thornwell. Sealed with the Alpha's ring."

A sound went through the stands that I had never heard a crowd make.

It was low and sick, and it came from every bench at once.

Every head in the arena turned toward the Thornwell box.

My father sat very still with his hand over his heart.

"The next paper is a letter," the judge said, "to the trader, in the same hand. 'The boy knows nothing of this, and must not.'"

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