Chapter 6: The Night Before the Vote

"Tomorrow at noon," Torin repeated.

He had set me back on my feet, and his hands were still on my waist.

Torvi stood in the door with her eyebrows halfway up her forehead and, to her enormous credit, said nothing.

"Seven of eleven," Torin said. "Who?"

"The three old ones who remember the last war. The two who trade with Mirefold's mill. Both of Osric's cousins by marriage."

"And the other four?"

"Mine, I think. Unless Osric gets to them tonight."

"He'll try."

"Then so will we," said Torvi, and she went out and shut the door again.

I picked up the receipts from the floor.

My hands were steady.

That surprised me almost more than anything else that day.

"If they vote to send me back," I said, "you'll refuse."

"I'm the Alpha. A vote advises me."

"And if you refuse, the other six elders walk out."

"Some."

"And Osric gets his war."

He said nothing.

"I'm not asking you to say it's fine," I said. "I'm saying I can count."

He took the receipts out of my hand and set them on the table.

"I'll find another way," he said.

"All right."

"I mean it."

"I know you do."

I did.

I could feel how much, in my own ribs.

That was the trouble.

I spent the afternoon with Torvi and a pile of seized bills.

It was the only thing that kept my mind off the ceiling over my head.

At sundown, I washed in the guest house and sat on the bed with my hair loose.

I had worn it in a flat coil at my nape every day for fifteen years.

Without the pins it fell to my waist, wet-sand heavy.

I was twenty-four, and I had never in my life wanted something I was told I could not have.

Tomorrow they might send me back.

If they did, I would spend my years in Lorna's kind house with a flask at my elbow.

I would never know what the bond felt like when it was finished.

I put on my boots and my green coat and walked across the yard to the tower.

He opened the door himself.

He had taken off his coat and stood in a plain linen shirt with the sleeves rolled.

His eyes went over me once and stopped at my hair.

"Rhona."

"If they send me back tomorrow," I said, "I want tonight first."

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