Chapter 31: The Wedding

At dusk the Meeting Hall was lit with a thousand lamps, and nobody was talking.

Max came in through the east door with his three men beside him.

He had slept four hours, and he felt better than he had in a month.

The clerk was waiting at the foot of the dais.

He was the man who had logged the nights at the shutters, thin, with a leather satchel.

He had been fetched from the Registry under guard.

He bowed to the elders.

"By the Charter," said the white-bearded elder, "we hear the petition of ruin against the omega of Greywater. Clerk. Speak."

The clerk drew out a page.

"Three nights," he said. "Logged from the east gallery, by hand.

"James of Helix on the first, Joel of Tyros on the second, Raven of Rydes on the third. All unbonded at the time."

"Unbonded at the time," the elder repeated. "And now?"

"It is not my office to say."

"Then I will." The old man stood. "Prime James. Prime Joel. Prime Raven. Do you each bear his mark?"

"I do," said James.

"I do," said Joel.

"In front of six hundred wolves," said Raven, "yes."

"And is it your wish to be bonded to him?"

"Yes," said all three.

The elder turned to Max.

"Omega of Greywater. Is it yours?"

Max looked at them.

He had not let himself think it for a month, but it was true.

He had been happy for weeks, and this was what it felt like.

"It is," he said. "To all three."

"Then the Charter has its answer. A bonded omega cannot be ruined.

"The petition is dismissed, and the bond is sealed with the seal of Rydes."

Raven stepped forward with a heavy ring on his thumb.

He pressed it into hot wax on the Charter page.

The Hall roared.

It was a plain deep sound, and it went up under the roof and did not stop.

The elder lifted a hand.

"There is a custom older than the Charter," he said. "A bond is not a paper. It is a thing done aloud.

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