All the Elders huddled together—speaking in whispers so low I couldn’t even make out their words with my sensitive hearing—except for Lisa Jordan, who came to stand in front of Sirhan.
“Your choice sounds more like, ‘Son of Caleb, or Caleb himself’ to me,” Lisa said. “I don’t need to deliberate. I cast my vote for Daniel now.” She turned to him and bowed on one knee. One fist pressed into the ground. “And I will follow him into battle to defeat Caleb if need be.”
“Here, here!” Gabriel knelt, fist to the ground toward Daniel. “I cast my vote also.”
The other Elders took in the sight of Lisa and Gabriel, and for a second it looked like they’d made up their mind to follow their lead.
“This is bullshit,” shouted a voice from the crowd.
I looked in the direction of the voice and found that the man with the blond dreadlocks had stepped forward. I thought hard, trying to remember the name Lisa had called him by … Marrock.
“I will not give my allegiance to this boy, true alpha of not,” Marrock said. “He’s, what, eighteen? Most of us have been alive since the French Revolution. What does he know of being a leader that I do not?”
Three men who stood behind Marrock nodded in agreement.
“If Gabriel is too weak to be your successor, then name me instead of this boy.” Marrock looked like he wanted to spit in Daniel’s direction.
“Sirhan didn’t even trust you enough to name you to his council of Elders,” Lisa said. “What makes you think he’d name you his successor?”
Sirhan was aging fast in his chair. “The council will decide,” he wheezed out. “Marrock, Gabriel, or the boy?”
The council went back to deliberation, and I worried Marrock had thrown a major kink in Daniel’s odds of surviving this day. But then the council turned toward Daniel. “Here, here, to the boy!” they shouted, and one by one they fell to their knees, shoving their fists into the carpet. They bowed their heads toward Daniel.
“So it will be,” Sirhan said.
Many of the robed men dropped their weapons and copied the gesture of the Elders.
Marrock and five others in the crowd remained standing. “If that is what the council decrees, then I am no longer a member of this pack.”
His robe swished behind him as he stormed from the room, the five other men followed him.
“Should we go after them,” someone asked.
Sirhan lowered his head. “It’s their choice to leave.”
“I am afraid we will probably see them again at the Challenging Ceremony,” Gabriel said. “For now, let us welcome Daniel Kalbi—”
Lisa pulled on Gabriel’s robes and gave him a pointed look.
“Ah, yes,” Gabriel said. “Let us welcome Daniel Etlu, grandson of Sirhan Etlu, and his pack into our ranks. Here, here!” he shouted.
“Here, here. Here, here,” the kneeling men shouted over and over again, their chorus growing loud enough to rattle my eardrums.
“Here, here!” I called, clapping my hands. Dad and even Jude joined my applause. Only Talbot stood still without cheering, but a smile played on his lips.
Daniel stood tall, as if soaking it all in. He’d never really had a family before, and now he had one almost more than forty people strong. After a moment he cleared his throat and raised his hands to quiet the crowd. “Um, you all can stand up now if you want.”
Lisa laughed and clapped her hands as she stood. I ran to Daniel and threw my arms around his neck. But our joy lasted only a moment before Sirhan gave a great moan and crumpled in his chair. He looked even more withered and decrepit than before—if that’s possible—like the last few minutes had added another hundred years to his body. His sunken eyes rolled back, closing halfway. I would have thought he was dead if it weren’t for the deep-pitched wheeze of his breathing. Two of his men, his medical staff, I assumed, leaned over him, checking his vitals.
I let go of Daniel and sidled up to Gabriel. “What are we going to do? We can’t let him die here in Rose Crest.”