THE CROWN OF ASH AND MOONLIGHT

h, believed she was home. Hollowmere had stood above a river,

iling of black stone, and the ni

lit a fire while she slept. Her mother's silver gown was gone. A plain gray dress lay folded on the chair. The window was

door. Locked f

's face. The smell of her mother's perfume burning. Tomas's spear-bruised shoulders. Ten breaths, and th

, she told herself.

reed, with a ring of keys at her belt and eyes that missed

he

speak unless spoken to.

r for

or you," she said, a shade

ble with a map spread beside his plate and a cup of coffee going cold in his hand. In t

sper left her and cou

at last, still

from his. She sat, because her legs ached, and because sh

They're sleeping on straw and eating soldier's rations, and they're wondering

went still

'm told I'm good at it." He said it flatly, without pride. "Which future they ge

He'd done something cleverer, tied the chain

ward's leash

effecti

uses on a woman

ick to name. He smiled, slow and cool.

need the lea

old her to look down. Sh

e table's head, Rhydian went rigid. The door at the end of the hall swung open, and the enormous black

. She didn't know h

e in her chest, but not

d something in her chest cracked open, because it was the first gentle thing anyone had done since

le

rway, looked as if

d, in an odd, careful voice. "Cin

s he's

king than a man who had found a crack in a wall he'd thought w

m, and the Blackthorn court was a poor one at hiding things. The captains feared him. The Elders watched him like crows watching a field. A

ptain raised a hand to strike him,

an's eyes met hers for a

go," h

her. She hadn't

a cold corridor that smelled of smoke, and out into the ruined gatehouse of Blackthorn's west

e are

a heavy iron mechanism, scored with fire. "Hollowmere's gates were sealed with a three-key lock. Alpha, heir, and war-chief. I

er existed. Her father's was buried with him. The wa

er collar. The chain was gone. She remembered the guards s

n key on the bench and turned it so the lantern caught

id quietly. "Someone used you

tilted. "

Elders will not know that. When they hear a key bearing the Alpha heir's seal opened the gate, they will say you betrayed your o

, short and shaky.

s her. "Someone inside Blackthorn handed that key to a man who used it. Someone who wants Hollowmere gone

olde looked down at the small silver moon, and then

"my people eat at your tab

on

the cellars. I wan

ross his face, too qui

eated. "Or I don

the women we took." His voice was carefu

he other women, hadn't been among them, and the room went very quiet w

hat too," sh

ng moment. When he spok

wil

ch. For a heartbeat she thought he would give

o one in this keep. Not the captains. Not the

d a fatherly voice, and a room t

them," she

his closest advisor, and for the first time since the walls f