Baldur stopped to greet Jarl Jakobson. Kael’s unclaimed father was a handsome man, strong and skilled with the ax. His peppered beard was trimmed, his hair sleek and tame around his shoulders.

But even standing half a head taller than the captain, Jakobson seemed to shrink beneath Baldur’s sneer.

“Come,” I said, urging Kael to help me finish the cakes and saffron buns for the feast. “We don’t need to watch men puff out their chests to compensate for lack in other areas.”

Kael flicked my ear. “No one will want to take you as a wife if you speak so boldly.”

“Perhaps I will not want to take on a husband if he cannot meet the challenge.”

“Fair enough.”

A few gasps and murmurs drew me to a pause.

“By the gods, the Sentry is here. Why?” Kael spoke with a touch of delight. “Ashwood is incredible with the blade, Ly. Incredible.”

Next to Baldur, another man shoved his way through.

All along his hood and shoulders were crimson stains. I recognized the cowl, the very stride of the scavenger from the wood. My stomach lurched. No. By the gods, no. The thief was no thief at all.

To some, Roark Ashwood was named Death Bringer. He and his blades were infamous. Known as the Sentry, Roark rose in power in Jorvandal from boyhood for his unique talent with the sword. Adopted as a child from Dravenmoor, some believed he was less the silent guard for Prince Thane and more the assassin for the throne.

I’d never seen him, not personally, only heard the whispers of how brutally he would kill to protect his royals. But watching him shove to the front of the line, there was almost a familiarity about the man, a sense of his power that peeled back my ribs and settled into my soul.

And the truth was, I’d assaulted the most dangerous man in the kingdom.

5

Lyra

Thoughts pummeled through my skull in quick succession.

Kael’s storm cloud eyes found me. He tilted his head as though breaking apart the sudden tension in my features. I needed to warn him, needed to tell him the scavenger had undoubtedly been Ashwood.

If I were punished, Kael and his temper would be pushed to the brink to keep from intervening.

The man laughed a great deal, but was protective to a fault, and boiled hot in his blood when he saw what he perceived to be injustice.

Vella, the jarl’s new seer provided to him by Stonegate, stepped forward. The woman was indifferent to folk like me and, after he was disowned, even Kael. As a visionary, she was a prize for the jarl to ask and plead what the Norns might reveal of his fate through her runes and premonitions.

I found her overwrought and pretentious.