Chapter 10: The Hall of the High Kings

Torren did not wait for dawn to finish.

He took her hand in the middle of the hall, in front of the whole court, and said, "Now."

The chief rose from his bench.

"Majesty. Not with the lowlander girl in the ear of the Lowmarch court."

"My wife is no one's ear, Chief."

"She is the daughter of the man who killed the High King."

The words fell hard.

Marit's skin prickled.

Edric had killed the old High King?

She had known that her father conquered the Wildlands once.

She had never been told how.

"I know whose daughter she is," Torren said. "Come with us, if you want, and see for yourself."

The chief stared at him, then at her.

He gave a slow nod.

"I will," he said.

Hild came as well, with a lantern and a ring of keys, and she walked with a limp that Marit had not noticed before.

They went out through a small door behind the dais.

The path wound down inside the cliff, a narrow stair cut into the black rock, wet with seep.

Torren kept her hand the whole way.

"I have been down here once a year," he said low.

"Every year since my father died. I stand in front of the door and leave."

"Why?"

"I can't open it."

The stair ended at a flat wall of stone.

It was not a door at first sight.

It was a slab as high as three men, polished black.

A wolf's head was carved at the center.

Under the wolf was a hollow in the shape of a human hand.

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