Chapter 17: The Seer's Water

The Seer read us at moonrise on the third night, in the round hall, with the roof thrown open to the sky.

She was a small, old woman in a gray robe, with a white braid down her back and a stone bowl of water in her hands.

My father stood in chains before the Justice's bench.

My mother stood beside him, free, in a black dress and her pearl earrings.

Sabine sat on a stool in the middle of the floor with her hands knotted in her lap.

I stood twenty paces from her, with Hollis at my shoulder and the new mark on my shoulder warm under my shirt.

"Bring the sisters to the water," the Seer said.

She set the bowl on the stone, and the moon climbed into it.

"Sabine Brask. Give me your hands."

Sabine put them over the bowl, shaking.

The Seer closed her eyes.

The water went still, and then silver light rose off it and showed on Sabine's face.

"A C-Rank wolf," the Seer said. "Honest and small. With a rope tied to her."

A murmur ran through the benches.

"Where does it lead?"

The Seer opened her eyes and looked at me.

"Linnea Brask. Give me yours."

I walked across the floor and put my hands over the bowl.

My wolf came up fast, and the water flashed white.

The whole hall gasped.

"Here is the end of the rope," the Seer said. "A great wolf, S-Rank, bound at six years old. Bound every month since. And bound by one hand."

"Whose?" the Justice said.

"The hand that wrote this."

She held out her palm, and Teague came forward and laid the gray leather book in it.

The ring of candles on the cover caught the moonlight.

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