By the end of the fourth week, we’ve cleared out the mess in the forge, and I’ve started doing odd jobs for random travelers who make their way down the lane. I haven’t started seeking more business yet, because I’m waiting to see if Tycho intends to stay here, but I don’t turn it down when work shows up.
Soldiers ride through one day, and we’re surprised when Malin, Sephran, and Leo come up the lane— though they can’t stay. They’ve been ordered back to Emberfall.
Sephran does give me a hug goodbye, and it makes me grin to see the daggers in Tycho’s eyes when he watches it happen. We both promise we’ll visit Ironrose when we can, but Tycho is so vague about the promise that I can tell he’s in no rush to leave.
Sheer boredom leads us to repair the damage to Callyn’s bakery, too, even though it’ll likely have to be boarded right back up. I’ll have to send word to ask her what she wants to do with the property.
By the end of the fifth week, we’re both healed well enough for sparring, and we grapple in the woods. At first, it’s playful, and I cantell Tycho’s being cautious because he’s not sure how much I’ve learned or how much either one of us has healed. But Sephran never went easy on me, so when he lightly brushes my arm to the side, I try to spin him and trap him in a maneuver Kutter once showed me.
Tycho knows it, though, because he responds instantly, slipping free and sending me to the ground to pin me there. It’s so quick, so effortless, like he was born to do it.
I once asked him what he liked about soldiering, and I remember him telling me how much he enjoyed the weaponry, the drills. The training.
I’d match blades and spar from sunup to sundown if I could.
The purpose.
We’re both a bit breathless, staring at each other.
“You miss this,” I murmur.
“Not all of it.”
We hear the creak of a carriage coming down the lane, and we both look. It’s an older vehicle with rusty springs, being pulled by two aged geldings.
I sigh.
Tycho laughs under his breath. “Do you missthis?”
“Let me up. I can show you how to fix carriage springs.”
But when we climb to our feet, we’re surprised to discover that the carriage doesn’t go all the way down to the forge. It stops in front of the bakery.
And then, as we approach, we’re shocked when the door opens and it’s not a random traveler who steps out.
Instead, it’s the king.
CHAPTER 45
TYCHO
For an instant, I’m frozen in place, because there’s no possible way the king of Emberfall just climbed out of this rickety carriagealonein the middle of Briarlock. Especially since the man is clearly Grey— but also . . . not.
Beside me, Jax does a double take. So do I.
The man wholookslike the king has a thin beard. He’s in a loose tunic and calfskin trousers, though there’s a dagger strung at his hip. He extends a hand to the carriage, and a young woman climbs out— a young woman who looks like the queen, yet also different. Her hair is much shorter, and tied into a single plait that ends at the top of her shoulders. No royal robes, no rich fabrics, just a simple undyed linen dress.
After a moment, a little girl climbs out of the carriage, too. Her hair is tamed into twin plaits, butthisis unmistakably Sinna. She takes hold of the young woman’s hand and looks around. “Where’s the snow?” she says lightly.
“Grey,” I say softly. My heart swells with emotion I’m not ready for. I haven’t seen him since the moment that arrow shot him off the horse.
For weeks, I’ve been feeling adrift and lost, and I thought I was grieving Nakiis, and I couldn’t unravel the emotion. I was, but until this moment, I didn’t realize I was grieving Grey, too. Not his death, but everything else.
Against my will, my chest tightens, and my throat feels thick.
But then Grey closes the distance between us, and he wraps me up in a hug.
I don’t see it coming, and it’s so unexpected that at first I’m not sure how to react. I’ve done it to him, but I’m not entirely sure I can recall one single time that he’s done it tome.
