The Alpha Hunts the Exiles, So I Let Him Catch Me novel · Chapter 13 of 24
Chapter 13: Txomin's Grave
Nobody on the rim moved.
Thirty wardens looked at the Alpha, then at me, then at their boots.
Unai let the silence stand, and I knew he was counting it.
"Yes," he said.
A man in the line made a small sound.
"I have," Unai said, in his quiet, exact voice, so that it reached the back. "That is not what I'm ashamed of tonight."
He turned his back on his uncle and faced his own men.
"In January, at my table, I was told there were smugglers in a hut over the stone," he said.
"I said, Do it. I did not ask who lived there."
"Alpha," the oldest warden said, low, in warning.
"An old man lived there. Txomin Etxart, seventy-four years old."
"He is in the ground above this bowl because I gave an order with my mouth full."
Nobody spoke.
"The burning was mine," Unai said. "Not yours. Put it on my name."
The young warden who had been crying took off his cap.
Then another man did, and another, down the whole line.
From the saddle, Beñat clapped his gloved hands together twice, softly.
"Very moving, nephew," he said.
"And the law? An exile who comes home is killed at the elm. You know the words better than I do."
"She is standing on Roncal ground," Unai said. "The elm does not reach here."
"She crossed back to lie to the Batzar."
"Then the Batzar will say what that was," Unai said.
"At Candlemas, under the elm, with the whole valley there. The law gives a trespasser that much."
The rest of this chapter is part of the paid portion of the series. Chapters 1–6 of The Alpha Hunts the Exiles, So I Let Him Catch Me are free to read — start from the beginning, then unlock the rest with coins in the app.
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