The Spring Between Us

Chapter 68: My Mother's Body

We went down to the quarry at sundown with the whole of the canyon behind us.

The yard of the Council hall was full when we came in. The soldiers were along the fence and the clerk was on the steps with his table and his seal and the healer was beside him with her bag, and Silas was standing at the top of the steps in a clean coat with his silver hair combed and his pleasant face composed.

"Luna," he said. "You are prompt. The Council thanks you. The hall is open and the healer is ready and the declaration may be made."

I stopped at the bottom of the steps.

"Before the declaration," I said, "there is a thing this hall is going to do."

Silas's pleasant face did not change. "The Council has ordered a declaration and an examination. It has not ordered anything else."

"The Council has ordered a declaration in an open hall and the whole canyon is in this yard and the whole canyon has a thing to say before the bond is declared." I turned to the crowd. "My mother is buried in the graveyard behind the water tower of the Kızıltaş pack. She died four weeks ago and the pack was told she fell from a horse on the south track. The healer of this pack told me there were rope burns on her wrists and a bruise on her brow and that her neck was broken before the fall. I have never had her body examined by a second healer because the Council man told this canyon she was killed by the Beta and the Beta was hanged and the matter was closed."

The yard was silent.

"I am opening the matter again," I said. "Tonight. In front of this hall. The healer of the Kızıltaş pack will examine my mother's body and a second healer will be present and the Council healer will be present, and whatever they find will be written down in front of the whole canyon."

Silas came down one step. "The Luna's mother is buried. The Council does not open graves on the word of a grieving daughter."

"The Council does not have to. The pack does. She was a Luna of the Kızıltaş pack and the pack has the right to examine its own dead." I looked at him. "And the Council healer is standing on those steps with her bag and she will be present as a witness and she will sign the paper. That is the law of the Council and it is in the third volume and I have read it."

Silas looked at me for a long moment. Then he looked at the healer on the steps and the healer looked at the clerk and the clerk looked at his papers.

"It is in the third volume," the clerk said quietly. "A pack may examine its own dead in the presence of a Council healer."

Silas's jaw worked. Then he said, "Very well. The grave will be opened and the examination will be held in the yard and the declaration will follow." He came down the steps. "But I will tell you now, Luna, that you are opening your mother's grave in front of a Council hall and a canyon for nothing. She died of a fall. The healer of your pack is an old woman who has been frightened for a month and she will find what she wants to find."

We went up the mesa road to the graveyard behind the water tower with lanterns and the whole canyon behind us.

The grave was four weeks old and the earth on it had settled. Sten and Berik and two warriors took the shovels and they dug and the whole canyon stood in the graveyard with lanterns and watched them dig. It took an hour. The coffin came up and it was pine and it had gone dark with the wet and they set it on the ground and Berik got the lid off with a pry bar.

Mira knelt beside it with her bag and the Council healer knelt on the other side and Nora stood at the head with a lantern held high.

Mira worked for a long time. She worked slowly and she did not say anything and the Council healer watched her and wrote in a small book. Then Mira sat back on her heels and said, "Luna. Come here."

I knelt beside her.

"Look at the wrists," Mira said. "The rope burns are still there. The skin has gone but the marks in the bone are there. And look at the neck. The bone is broken and it is broken from the front and it is broken before the fall." She looked up at me. "But there is a thing I did not find four weeks ago because I did not look for it. There is a stain in the mouth and the throat. I have scraped it and I have smelled it and it is wolfsbane."

The graveyard was silent.

"She was given wolfsbane," Mira said. "Not much. Enough to make her sick and slow and confused. And then she was taken up the south track and the rope was put on her wrists and she was knocked on the head and her neck was broken and she was put over the rim." She looked at me. "That is what happened to your mother. She was poisoned first. For a week before she died. Somebody in that pack house was putting wolfsbane in her food."

I knelt in the graveyard with the coffin open in front of me.

"The same way Arne was poisoned," I said. "The same way Elias was poisoned. The same jar and the same hand."

Mira nodded. "The same hand."

The Council healer closed her book. She was a thin woman with grey hair and she looked at Silas and said, "Envoy. I have examined the body and I concur with the healer of the Kızıltaş pack. There are rope marks on the wrists and the neck was broken before the fall and there are traces of wolfsbane in the mouth and throat. I will sign the paper."

Silas stood in the graveyard with his hat in his hands.

"Then the Council will consider the matter," he said. "The examination is recorded and the Council will rule on it at the autumn gathering."

"No," I said.

Silas looked at me.

"The Council will not rule on it at the autumn gathering," I said. "The Council will rule on it tonight. In the hall. In front of the canyon. Because the wolf who poisoned my mother and put the rope on her wrists and put the rope on my Beta's wrists and put the rope on Helle's wrists is standing in this graveyard right now and he is not going to walk out of this canyon with a Council seal in his pocket and a report that says the matter will be considered."

The graveyard was silent. The whole canyon was looking at Silas.

"Luna," Silas said. "You are accusing a Council envoy of murder in a graveyard over an open coffin."

"I am accusing a Council envoy of murder in a graveyard over an open coffin," I said. "And I am doing it in front of both packs and the town and the Council's own healer and the Council's own clerk. So you can stand there and tell this canyon you did not do it, or you can call for your soldiers." I came around the coffin. "But I will tell you one thing first. The rogue who put the ropes on the wrists of my mother and my Beta and Helle is in a cell in that hall and she has already confessed in front of a hall full of witnesses, and she has said the name of the man who paid her. And that name is yours."

Silas looked at me. His pleasant face was gone and his pale blue eyes were hard and his hand was on his hat.

"Sten," I said. "Arrest him."

Sten came across the graveyard with four warriors and Silas did not run and did not shout and did not call for his soldiers. He stood in the lantern light with his hat in his hands and his face composed and he said, "You are making a mistake, Luna. A very great mistake. And when the Council hears of it, this canyon will not have a Luna and it will not have a pack and it will not have a spring."

"Take him to the hall," I said.

They took him.