Lupi 09 - Mortal Ties

told them to protect women, no more
     than she’d instructed them to love their children, fight their enemies, or revel in
     the bliss of running four-footed. They did those things because they were as she’d
     made them. Because she knew this, one of the very few laws she’d given them was that
     any clan member who willfully and knowingly assisted the Great Enemy was to be put
     to death. Any clan, male or female.
    The Lady’s law must be followed. Isen had no choice. Neither did Rule.
    What happened tonight depended on many things. It was possible a male clansman had
     revealed details about Cullen’s workshop and his project, but it was far more likely
     to have been a female clan. But who had she spoken to? What were her motives? Speaking
     when she shouldn’t might result in benefit to the enemy, but stupidity wasn’t punishable
     by death.
    Rule breathed slowly and carefully and told himself he was not nauseous. His body
     would heal nausea, so what he felt was tension, not illness. Isen understood the difference
     between accidental aid and intentional. He was no fool.
    But he was very angry.
    “Squads Seven and Eight!” Isen called out. “Do yousmell guilt? Is anyone in your group lying by remaining behind?”
    Rule couldn’t see what the four-footed guards did. Vochi blocked his view to the right,
     Laban to the left, and those who’d been brought up front for questioning blocked the
     rest. He didn’t turn around to look—not until Isen began to turn in a slow circle.
     Then he kept pace, staying at his Rho’s side.
    At the back of the crowd to the south, a wolf yipped. To the east and much closer,
     another one did. Two reluctant witnesses had been identified.
    “Bring them forward,” Isen commanded. Then, in an ordinary voice, he said, “Lily.”
    She was behind Rule and to his right. “Yes?”
    “I told you once that a Rho does not question his clan directly. That was an exaggeration,
     but the basic principle is true. This is not yet a matter of trial and accusation.
     I would like you to ask the questions.”
    Rule’s hackles lifted. His ears flattened as he swung his head around to look first
     at his Rho, then at Lily. He shook his head once.
No.
    Lily met his eyes, her own dark and serious. “It will be all right,” she told him.
    He shook his head again.
    She walked up to him, knelt, and threaded her hand into the fur along his neck until
     her fingertips touched skin. “It will be all right,” she repeated, but this time under
     the tongue, so quietly that only he would hear. “You won’t have to kill anyone tonight.”
    He stared at her, astonished that she understood. And upset that she didn’t.
    “Oh. That’s not quite it, is it?” She bent and put her mouth close to his ear, her
     voice so soft now it was barely more than a breath. “You won’t have to disobey your
     Rho, either.”

ELEVEN

    “L ILY .” Her name was a low rumble, like thunder in the distance. Isen’s voice was pure, deep
     bass. Most of the time it seemed to rumble up from the depths of his barrel chest,
     as if his lungs were located so deep in his body the sound had the time and space
     to echo around in there. It was a voice well suited to menace when he wanted it to
     be.
    Lily wished she knew for sure he was aiming for menace instead of hitting it naturally
     at the moment. She straightened, keeping one hand resting on Rule’s back. “I would
     very much like to handle the questioning. Thank you.” Not that he was doing it to
     please her. No, he had something else in mind, and maybe she’d guessed what that was.
     One of his goals, anyway. Isen wasn’t a two birds with one stone kind of guy. More
     like one stone, two birds, a rabbit, a fox, and maybe that deer will trip over the
     fox and we can get him, too.
    Which Rule knew very well. And he was still scared. Scared his Rho would ask something
     of him he couldn’t do.
    Something was going on Lily didn’t understand, but she knew what questions to ask.
     She spoke to Isen. “I’d like to give the witnesses some directions first.”
    His bushy eyebrows lifted a millimeter. “Very well.” He raised his voice, addressing
     the tense group who’d come forward. “You will do as the Chosen bids.”
    The Chosen. Lily ran her thumb over the other ring she wore. Not Rule’s ring, but
     the one that held the charm the clan had entrusted to her when she accepted her place
     in the clan. The lupi had considered her Nokolai from