Chapter 10: You Read the Letter

I did not answer Alaric. I could not.

Corwin took my elbow and said, to the whole silent hall, "We are going upstairs."

Nobody stopped us from leaving.

Alaric slid back into his chair with his eyes shut, and Greer took his wrist and counted under her breath.

Corwin walked behind me up the stairs with the cuff in his hand, and the pack parted to let us through.

Beatrix's voice followed us to the landing.

"Ask your husband what my mother's letter said, Tilly."

I stopped with my hand on the rail.

"Ask him how long he's known about the Release," she called. "He's had three weeks."

I did not turn around.

I went up the rest of the stairs and into our room and held the door.

Corwin stopped in the doorway.

"Tilda."

"Come in and shut it."

He shut it.

I stood by the window with my back to him and the moon coming in cold across the floor.

"Is it true?"

"Yes."

He said it at once, without a pause, and that was somehow worse.

I turned around.

"You read my mother's letter."

"Your mother wrote to me, not to you, three weeks before she called."

He set the cuff on the dresser.

"She said she wanted to make peace, and that there would be a family blessing at midwinter. She said you'd need to take part."

"And you said nothing."

"I didn't know what the Release was."

"You knew it had a name."

"I knew it was a pack ceremony, and I knew this house scared you."

"I thought if I told you everything, you'd refuse to come."

His voice was low and steady.

"I wanted to be here, at your back. I thought I could make it safe before you knew there was anything to fear."

"You decided that for me."

"I did."

"You don't get to decide what I'm afraid of!"

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