Chapter 124

Ronan’s POV

The quickest road to the First House crossed three territories. In the past, I could have sent a single Warden signal and found fresh horses at every gate. Tamsin held the patrol authority now, and my signal would have felt uncomfortably like a command even if I called it a request. I rode the slower public road and stopped when the horse needed water.

At Frostmere’s western crossing, a guard recognized me and stood too straight. He asked whether he should clear the bridge. I saw the other travelers waiting: an old woman with sacks of grain, two children in a cart, a healer leading a lame pony. The Crown drew a simple line through them and marked my arrival as the urgent thing.

The bridge was only wide enough for one cart, and the far bank had a deep rut where the thaw had frozen again. Flour dust clung to the old woman’s cuffs. One child slept under