Chapter 141

Rhys took thirteen of Ashgrove’s wolves and the three riders of the north watch, and went out of the gate an hour after midnight with no torches lit.

Caspian asked once to go with them. Rhys said, “No,” without turning round, and that was the end of it. I watched the King of Vaelmoor be told no by his Beta in front of a stable boy, and take it, and go and hold the gate open himself.

Neither of us slept. We sat out the night on the gatehouse step and the mounting block opposite, at the distance I keep, and listened to the north.

At first light, horses.

***

They came down the Wendle road at a walk, the beasts steaming. I counted before I could see faces. Seventeen riders, and one more riding double behind the last: a young man in a green coat with his hands tied and no hat, white to the ears.