Lila did not sleep.
She spent the hours before dawn in the narrow records room beneath the main hall, reading the old trial customs by lamplight.
The law was clear on one point and muddy on every other. A failed sacred rite could be answered by Trial by Fang if the failure was proven deliberate and the hand that caused it was known.
When the hand remained hidden, the queen was expected to hold the peace until proof surfaced. Hadrin knew the same texts. He simply preferred the version that gave him a public spectacle.
At first light she sent for him.
They met in the open gallery that overlooked the lower training yards. No private room. No closed door. Pack members already moving through the yards could see them speaking. That was deliberate.
Hadrin arrived with two other elders at his back. His scent carried the dry satisfaction of a man who believed time was on his side.
