My Brother's Poisoner

the walls on nights like this. Every wolf on the ridge came. The fishing crews were there with salt still in their hair, and the older women from

t off and his hands folded in front of him, and he had the look of a man

e had a blanket over his knees that he did not want anyone t

when the room had gone quiet,

ead it. It is my pack, and it wi

eard someone whisper behind a hand. Then he gave me the paper, and his fin

ing like it since I w

elf against him and stay there. I stepped back. I put the warrant on the t

. "The pack's harbor ward has failed twice in three years. Its healing has slowed beyond the standard of a viable pack.

Someone near the door

m the date of the hearing, to be held at the old stone circle on the autumn equinox." I turned the paper over. "Th

not want to read, and I read it anyway, b

to this matter is Cillian

ead, with voices rising here and there and a chair scraping back and a woman near the

uiet," he said, and his voice is old but it stil

at easy smile. "The executioner is appointed, the date is set, and the whole coa

hake again, so I put them flat on the table where t

ove the bond is alive, and I am going to do it before the equino

d. "He is the one wh

d. His voice was flat. "I have no interest in a false rep

signed six dissolutions and

"And I have not slept w

es. "Then you will not mind if we ask you plainly, in front of the

onest, the pack survives. If it is not, the pack is dissolved and t

s right hand, in our hall, with your fi

aw tightene

ears ago. Everyone in this hall knows the story of the broken bond, even if nobody says it out loud. If there is any chance the b

on either side of me deciding things, and I could

quiet. "You are a clever man, and clever men forget that a ha

had put the idea in the room, and the idea would not go away now. The execu

, and I will answer every question you have, one wolf at a time if I must. Tonight, go home and eat and sleep, and

e of them looked too long. Padraig touched my elbow as he went by and said nothing. Mae

orry,"

r w

n she closed it, and shoo

the fire dying behind me, and then I heard it. A dry cou

when he straightened, the napkin was crumpled in his fist and there was blood on the co

ir, and he took the napkin out of Declan's hand without asking, and held it up to the firelight,

t very

I said. "Cilli

es were hard and cold, and his voic

g sickness," he said.