Chapter 10: The Name

I woke in the grey hour before dawn with my head on his arm.

The fire had burned down to red threads.

Rain tapped through the hole in the roof and landed in a pot Corwin had set on the floor in the night.

He was already awake, staring at the rafters.

"You said you'd tell me in the morning," I said.

"It's morning."

"It's barely."

"I know."

He sat up, and I sat up beside him with the blanket around my shoulders.

The silver crescents on our wrists lay side by side on the quilt, glowing faintly.

"My name isn't Corwin Fell," he said.

"I guessed that."

"It's Corwin Greymantle."

The rain kept dripping.

I knew that name.

Every child in two kingdoms knew it.

"Greymantle," I said slowly. "The royal house of Highcrest."

"My mother is the Queen. My brother was..." He stopped, and swallowed. "My brother was Alaric."

The blanket slid off my shoulder.

I did not catch it.

"You're his brother," I said.

"The younger one. I grew up in the mountain holds."

"Nobody at your court had ever seen my face, which is why it was easy."

"Easy."

"My mother sent me three months ago, before the treaty was signed. She never trusted the peace." His voice was flat.

"She said if Dunmarrow ever broke its word, Highcrest would need a claim on your throne."

"And a Greymantle at your court to make it."

"A claim."

"There's a law in the mountains."

"If a house is wronged by a broken troth, it may claim the hearth of the one who broke it."

"What does that mean?"

"A marriage. Registered before witnesses. It would give Highcrest a right to Dunmarrow's crown through you."

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