Chapter 5: Nine Answers

"When did I say it?" I asked.

My voice carried to the ninth pillar.

Perrin looked up from his lap.

"Last night," Maelis said. "He told me last night."

"Last night I was in my rooms with two guards on my door."

I turned to the gallery.

"Anyone who stood watch outside the heir's chambers, speak."

A young guard in the third row stood up, red to his ears.

"I did, my lord. You never left. Nobody came in, either. Not till dawn."

"Then Perrin heard me say it through a wall," I said.

The gallery began to murmur.

Perrin's tears stopped.

"I meant a few days ago," he said quickly. "I only told Maelis last night. I'm sorry, I'm not good with days."

"He's a sparrow," said the sister of Dusk. "They don't count the way we do."

My father lifted a hand.

"The charge of theft is dismissed. The Dawn stays with the Crown. The court is closed."

He stood and left by the side door, and he did not look back at me.

I stayed where I was until the hall emptied.

Maelis was the last to go.

She paused at the door with her hand at her wrist and looked at me over her shoulder.

For one moment she looked as if she wanted to ask me something.

Then she went out, and the door shut.

At dusk, I walked to the Well of Hours.

It sat in a round courtyard behind the High Hall, a stone ring around black water, where my mother used to sit and let her feet hang over the edge.

Every evening that year, my sisters had gathered there to hear Perrin sing.

I knew it, because the first time, I had watched them from the window and wished I could join.

Tonight they were all there.

Keep reading free with an account. Start A Sparrow Stole My Place as Heir from Chapter 1, then sign up free to read the rest of this chapter.