ng on the boards. It was a young wolf, grey and lean, and it came up with its hackles raised and its teet

cup off the shelf and threw the silver chain in the wolf's face. The chain struck it across the muzzle

Get out before I

orway. Outside in the snow there were three more, and behi

s

and her green eyes bright and furious. She had my father's jaw an

hat in the name of t

wolf throu

ren, and her eyes went from the silver chain on the floor to the w

She's a

your shed the night the Alpha dies and Ostrander is telling the p

o and I have been paying for it ever

ch w

er out of t

he stove and put her face in her hands and laughed, on

ing for three months. The coffin with the false manife

at

was a war

re w

ander is saying the Council has given him authority. Half the warriors are ready to drag you out of this shed and the other half are

e make them

word? You are the ferryman with the dead brother and the

took out the tin box. I set it on the cot and o

this,"

hands and her mouth opened and then closed again

ledger,"

's le

me you b

ou a lot

You told me you put it in the stove and watched it go up. You told me there was nothing in it that matte

lie t

hy

u were grieving and I did not w

nds. She held it like it was a live thing, and she turned the pages

ee years ago. A crate of ore and

ve re

them by candlelight and I put the copies in a tin under my bed and I put the original back where I found it.

the stove with the poker in

copies,"

ve co

he

d a Councilman who wants my brother dead." Isla handed the ledger back

ttered. I put the ledger back in the tin box and set the

or the warden. You tell them Ewan is on the ice and you saw him heading for the point. That buys us an hour. Maren

d t

ith the ledger and the copies and

know her face. He will call her a rogue and a t

f the Council and I was sent here to execute your brother, and I am standing in hi

t. Then she pulled her hoo

Council will send a physician to examine it. But Tamsin told me something before she ran to find you. She said the

e tra

rrior in the pack." Isla looked at me. "Ostrander is saying

ollowed her, and the shed was quiet again exce

under my coat and

. "We have an hour and a p

the clouds, and the shore road ran black and narrow along the water. We had gone maybe a hundre

urn

n front had a face I knew from four years of bad nights and worse mornings. His name was

find on a night like this. The Council wants i