Chapter 9 - The New Law
The Great Council of Oak Haven had not seen so many human faces in a thousand years.
When William Sterling had been alive, humans were allowed in the Great Hall only through the low scullery doors, with their heads bowed and their eyes fixed on the flagstones. Today, mayors from the lower river-towns, healers from the western steadings, and master-smiths from the valley forges sat on the wooden benches alongside the wolf captains and clan elders.
At the head of the hall, upon the raised dais of black-iron-and-wolf-hide, sat Alister and Isabel.
Boran stood in the center of the stone floor, his heavy torque gleaming in the torchlight, clearing his throat with a sound like grinding stones before he unrolled a long scroll of sheepskin.
"By decree of King Alister and Queen Isabel," Boran’s voice boomed off the vaulted stone ceiling, "the Blood-Toll is abolished. No human, no citizen, and no debtor shall ever again be designated Quarry within the bounds of Oak Haven."
A low murmur went through the benches—not the angry snarling of the old days, but the deep, approving rumble of a pack that had finally found its balance.
In the third row, old Aldous nodded slowly, his one good eye bright with a quiet, hard-won satisfaction.
Isabel sat straight in her high-backed chair, her fingers resting lightly on the polished armrest. She looked down at her hands—at the small, pale scar across her left wrist where Garrick’s claws had torn her skin on the day the stone woke.
It was a reminder of what she had been.
And a promise of what she would always defend.
Alister turned his head slightly, his silver eyes catching hers with that quiet, absolute warmth that only she ever saw.
"The law is spoken," Alister said softly.
May you like
Isabel smiled, her hand rising to touch the silver pendant at her neck.
"Let them try to break it," she replied.
