He Signed the Exile Order, So I Took the Wards North novel · Chapter 8 of 24
Chapter 8: The Net
I went up on the north wall before Ronan could tell me not to.
Twelve Greyfell riders sat their horses at the foot of the switchback, with torches and a long black net between two of them.
Corvin was not with them.
I saw Jory at the front, hood down, his sandy beard white with frost.
"That's Corvin's Beta," Ronan said at my shoulder. "He's a good tracker."
"He's a good man."
"He's a good man with a net."
"Hold the gate," I told Ronan. "Let me see what he does."
Down below, someone shouted an order.
Two riders swung the net over their heads and let it fly.
It sailed across the ditch, and the new lattice caught it mid-air.
The silver light flared, and the whole net burned.
It fell to the snow in black flakes.
The horses screamed and backed up the road.
The riders cursed, and one dropped his torch.
Jory sat very still.
Then he swung down from his saddle, handed the reins to the man beside him and walked up the switchback alone, with his hands open at his sides.
"Catriona!" he called. "MacNair! I'm not carrying a net!"
"Open the gate a hand's width," I said.
"Catriona," Ronan said.
"He warned me at noon, the day of the feast. He's the only reason I had the order written."
Ronan looked at me for a long moment.
Then he nodded to the watch, and the gate swung a hand's width.
Jory slid through it.
He had snow in his beard and a long bruise down his jaw.
"I've got eight days," he said, breathless. "I told Corvin I'd bring you back. Then I told the others to sit on the road and wait for a signal that isn't coming."
"Why?"
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