Chapter 19: The Oath Breaks

Dane didn't move.

The whole hill watched him not move.

"Lord Ardent," Rowena said. "That was an order."

"I heard it."

"Then obey."

He looked at me.

I felt the thread go tight between us, and I felt what he'd already decided.

"No," he said.

It was a small word, and it took three hundred wolves a moment to hear it.

The iron fist closed around his heart.

I felt it land in my own chest.

He staggered, and his hand clawed at his coat.

"Dane!"

"I'm all right," he gasped.

"You're not."

"Ardent," the king said, from the edge of the ring.

His voice was rough.

"Do as she says. You swore."

Dane was on one knee now, and sweat ran down his face.

"I swore to protect your line," he said. "Not to hunt the girl who's carrying my child."

A sound went through the crowd.

I hadn't planned for that.

Neither had he.

I dropped down in front of him and caught his face in both hands.

His eyes were going glassy.

Behind him, Rowena said, almost gently, "He's dying, you know. He'll be dead in a minute if he doesn't give in."

"Mother Elder," I said.

I didn't turn my head.

"What does the old law say about a blood oath?"

The old woman had gone very still.

"It says what it says," she said slowly. "A blood oath is sworn on a line."

"Which line?"

"The line of the one who takes it."

"The Marrows?"

"Thirty generations of them, back to the first king." She stepped forward. "But the Cardross silver is older."

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