Chapter 178

Abby

The Council gave its ruling at eleven the next morning, and it took Harlan of Stonecrest less than five minutes to read it.

I had thought there would be more. Speeches. Arguments. Some last chance to stand up and say the thing I had lain awake all night trying to find words for. Instead there was the hall, and the gray light from the tall windows, and the thirteen of them along the curve with their faces closed, and the clerk with a single typed sheet in front of her, which she passed along the tables to Harlan, and which he unfolded, and put on his glasses to read.

Kade sat beside me. His hand was under the table, on my knee. I could feel through the bond how hard he was holding himself, like a man bracing his whole weight against a wind.

I had put on the blue dress again. Ivy’s pins. I didn’t know what else to do.

“The Council has considered the representations brought by Greyhollow,” Harlan read, “and the answers given by Moonhaven.” He c