Chapter 4: The East Gate

Anders did not leave the yard that afternoon, and he did not leave the gate that night.

"If you're walking the watch," he said, "then I'm walking it with you."

"You have an Alpha house and a regent to fight with."

"I have a gate I haven't stood at in a year."

He said it flat, and then he took the night shift on the roster under his own name.

Torben read it twice and looked at me over the paper with a grin I wanted to slap off his face.

The East Gate stood where the river road came through the pines.

It was two thick posts of black timber, a crossbar overhead, and a small watch tower with a stove and a bench.

I had not seen it in the snow since the night I died.

I stood in front of the left post with my glove on the wood.

It was cold, rough, and ordinary, and I could feel my pulse in my teeth.

"Marit," Anders said behind me. "You've gone white."

"It's the cold."

"It's twelve degrees. You've been out in colder than this since you were a child."

"Then it's my age."

He made a short sound that might have been a laugh.

We took the first watch from the tower platform, side by side, with the whole dark road laid out under us.

He did not talk.

I had forgotten how well he could do that.

After an hour my hands had gone stiff.

"Your stance is off," he said suddenly.

"I haven't moved."

"That's the problem. You're standing like you're waiting for something to hit you."

"Something might."

"Then stand like you can take it."

He stepped behind me and set his boot against mine to widen my feet.

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