Chapter 10: Until Dawn

She did not ask him that night.

She lay awake with his arm over her and looked at the dark, and the word "Okaasan" went round and round in her head.

In the morning she asked.

"Kaedan. Last night you said something in your sleep."

He went still in the half-light.

"What did I say?"

"In my language."

His hand tightened on her waist.

"After the bridge," he said. "Whatever happens there. I'll tell you everything, Shiori. I swear it."

She searched his face.

His brown eyes were wide open and afraid.

"After the bridge," she said.

The Prince chose the hour, and he chose it well.

The sun was going down when his column came up to the southern end of the bridge.

The river ran red under the stone.

Three hundred Temple guards in white lined the road.

Aldric rode in front on a white horse with a gold saddle.

Behind him, in a plain white litter carried by four acolytes, came the High Priest.

Shiori stood at the center of the bridge with Kaedan on her right.

On her left stood Nerei, with her keys in one hand and a ledger in the other, and Bram stood behind with his satchel.

A hundred wolf-kin soldiers waited at their backs.

"You look well, Healer," Aldric called, smiling down from his saddle. "The north agrees with you."

"Your Highness," Shiori said. "I have a paper."

"I saw your paper, madam. My envoy described it. A scribbled note from a clerk."

"Your clerk. Your seal. Your date."

"It means nothing against the Temple's claim."

"Then your army is standing on a king's bridge, Your Highness, and nobody here invited it."

A soft murmur ran through the guards on both sides.

Aldric's smile slipped for half a second.

"The arrows," Kaedan said.

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