Thane returned a narrow look. “I’ll never forgive you for saying that.”

“I’ve been banished too.”

“Well, that makes it a little better.” The prince looked about, then took hold of my hand. “Come with me. The melder will be guarded in my chambers. Now get us to the palace,” he commanded the Stav.

I tucked in close to the prince’s side the whole of the journey back. Shouts and the stretch of leather from rushing guards surrounded the outer walls. Doors slammed and locked, the heavy iron around the portcullis clanked into place the instant we passed under the arch.

“Lyra! No, please!” Hilda gripped the bars of the heavy gate, tears glistened on her cheeks, and the watchmen shoved her back with the ends of wooden spears.

“Wait, let her in.” I spun back, trying to shove past the three guards escorting us forward.

“Gates are closed, Melder Bien, we—”

“You can’t just leave her out there.” I looked for Thane to help. The prince wouldn’t leave Hilda, but he was no longer at my side.

Thane shoved a Stav Guard against the bars of the gate. “You’d leave a woman alone in the streets? She is under the protection of this fortress, and you will let her in.”

With a jumble of apologies, the Stav Guard signaled for the men on the walls to lift the jagged gate just enough for Hilda to slip underneath.

She fell against me, trembling. “Edvin left. He just left with the Stav. I can’t lose my brother, Lyra. I can’t…lose someone else.”

“Hush.” I stroked a palm down her braids. “It’ll be all right. Edvin is skilled with the blade, you know that.”

“Come, my ladies,” Thane said. “We must get out of the open.”

Hilda sniffled, but followed closely, keeping her hand in mine.

Inside the palace was quiet—oddly quiet—like we’d stepped from the chaos of reality into the peace of a dreamless sleep.

“My mother and father will be barred in their personal wings,” Thane explained when we reached his door. The prince moved like a man who’d done this too many times. “Their guards will be standing watch behind their doors, not in passages. When the horn blares, servants know to remain in their quarters.”

The three Stav positioned themselves outside Thane’s door. Wooden sofas with fur pillows were neatly arranged inside the prince’s sitting room. A heady scent of pine and leather filled the room. There was an empty inglenook coated with dark ash, and the prince’s windows were arched and painted like a wild forest with ivy and aspens in the glass.

I wrung my fingers together. “Kael would’ve gone with them.”

Thane paused near the back wall. “Darkwin is a Stav and a man of honor. I have few doubts he was one of the first to run out.”

Hilda hiccupped and hugged her middle.