They came into the hall like thieves. Lyria felt every pair of eyes cut across her. She kept the ledger pressed to her ribs like a shield. She did not trust the weight of it. Not in a room full of elders ready to slice at each other.
The main chamber was packed. Council elders sat behind a long carved table. Wolves from other packs filled the benches. Horns had blown earlier, and now there was a rattling silence.
Kael stood in the center like a rock. He had his shoulders back and his jaw hard. When he saw Lyria at the doorway, he stepped forward, eyes sharp with a hundred questions.
"What are you doing here?" he said low enough that only she heard.
"You were supposed to be inside," she said. Her voice shook but she kept it steady. "I found something."
She put the ledger down in his hands. He looked at it like a man who might burn his own house down to keep it from falling into the wrong hands. For a second everything narrowed to leather and her name on a scrap of paper.
