I didn’t understand. Only noble families, their inner courts, and their guards would be invited into the palace for the feast.
Movement across from me revealed Edvin running forward. Only when he wrapped a woman cloaked in a tattered woolen cape in his arms did I realize Freydis, his wife, was here, bound furs and satchels strewn about her feet. She sobbed against her husband’s chest.
Their three children darted for their father.
Hilda had arms and legs entangled around Gisli. She kissed his brow, his cheek, his throat, over and over, as though she had forgotten the very taste of him.
“They’ve been granted land here.” I startled when Kael materialized at my side. He grinned, watching our fellow crafters love their missed families.
“What do you mean granted land?”
“They’re here to stay. Hilda and Edvin can have their families again.”
I pressed a hand to my heart, tears rising in my throat. “What made King Damir allow it?”
“Ask your guardian.” Kael winked and jutted his chin across the bridge. Standing beside Prince Thane at the doors, Roark observed the crowds with the same silky darkness as the night we met. Now I wondered if it was more that he became unsettled by those who strode past the Draven Sentry, whispering and wondering.
“Ashwood is right terrifying.” Hilda emerged from the bustle,tears on her long lashes, Gisli’s hand curled in hers. “But I’m not so convinced he’s all stone and cruelty now.”
I squeezed her arm and beamed at bashful, kind Gisli, who could not peel his eyes away from his wife, as though he could not quite believe she was beside him again. “How did he do this?”
Gisli lifted his head. “The Sentry? Oh, as we understand it, not long after Skalfirth, he petitioned the king for our families to be relocated to Stonegate. We heard after your service to the prince, the king finally agreed.”
“He petitioned the king right after we arrived here?” Why hadn’t Roark mentioned it?
Hilda’s melancholy faded. Joined with Edvin and his family, she babbled on about the jagged points of the palace and how the style was not to her liking, yet still rather majestic.
I only heard bits and pieces, my mind and focus skirted over the heads of the caravan until I found him.
The same sharp pull, a hook on a rope, fastened in my chest. Soon enough, Roark’s gaze sifted through the chaos and found mine.
I returned a watery smile and moved my fingers in his gesture,Thank you.
The Sentry took me in a moment longer, then bowed his head for a drawn beat before he looked away once again.
32
Lyra
Cottages wouldn’t be ready forEdvin and Hilda until the dawn. I gave up my bed to Edvin’s three young ones while Edvin and Freydis took furs on the floor beside them. Gisli and Hilda laughed in my sitting chamber with me and Kael over mead and sliced plums.
Gisli told us about the despair in Skalfirth after the raid. Jarl Jakobson had not left his longhouse until now, and it seemed old Thorian thought the man deserved his anguish for not intervening for his son.
Kael said little about House Jakobson or the fine his estranged father had offered to entice the king to spare his life.
When the bells rang a midnight toll, Gisli and Hilda left with Kael, and I tried to find sleep beneath a soft quilt near the inglenook of my sitting room.
My fingertips touched the edges of my lips, as if I could feel the warmth of his breath, the nearness of his features. Good gods, I’d nearly kissed the Sentry.
I flattened my palm over the steady thud of my heart, the corners of my mouth curling. Roark Ashwood was beautiful mayhem. Austere and impassive, then aimable and gracious. He was a storm rolling off the tides, but I could not find the strength to run.
Instead, it seemed, I stood at the water’s edge, willing the gale to devour me.
From the glimmer of the next dawn to the twinkling twilight, debauchery filled the gardens, corridors, and halls of Stonegate. King Damir promised a celebration and he delivered mightily.
With Hilda and Freydis at my flanks, we strode through the courtyards with courtiers and ladies. Queen Ingir took the head along with Breetha, the Myrdan queen.
Hilda would not stop beaming, and it lessened the dullness of the evening.
