Chapter 10: Ask Me In

Thad caught up with him at the edge of the creek, a mile from the Stone.

He had Dock on his hip and Tuck trotting at his heels, and he was out of breath.

Wystan stood on the bank with his back turned and his hands braced against a birch tree.

"Go home," he said without turning. "Take the cubs. It's cold."

"No."

"I need a minute."

Thad set his jaw.

"You can have a minute. I'm not leaving."

Tuck looked from one man to the other.

With great tact he took Dock by the scruff and led him down to the water to look at fish.

The silence stretched.

Then Wystan spoke, to the tree, in a voice scraped thin.

"You said it in front of them."

"Yes," Thad said.

Wystan finally turned his head.

"You didn't have to."

"I wanted to."

Wystan's ears twitched.

"Why?"

Thad drew a long breath.

"Because it was true, and because they laughed at you, and I couldn't stand it."

Wystan's shoulders shook once.

When he finally turned around, his eyes were red.

"I heard you say it," he said. "That day. Two winters ago."

"I know."

"You looked at me like I was dirt on your boot."

He stopped, and started again.

"You said you'd rather mate a stone. The whole Hold laughed, and I stood there and let them."

His voice cracked on the last word.

"I carried that every day for two winters."

He swallowed.

"I carried meat to your cave every dawn and never came in."

His voice thinned.

"I told myself it was for the cub. Every time you looked at me, I heard it again."

Thad's chest hurt.

He could have said a hundred things.

He could have said that a different man had stood at that Stone.

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