"Is she saying you're my father?"
For the first time in years, Sir Gareth was afraid of a ten-year-old boy's question.
The stream whispered over stones beside them. Somewhere among the pines, a bird called once and fell silent.
Gareth took the confession from Toby and read the final lines again.
If Tobias ever returns to High Keep, Sir Gareth must never learn that the boy carries his blood.
The words did not change.
"No," Gareth finally said.
Toby's face hardened.
"No, you're not my father?"
"No. I mean this isn't proof."
"It says I carry your blood."
"It says Seraphine believed you carried my blood."
"Who was Seraphine to you?"
Gareth looked away.
That was the question he had hoped Toby would not ask.
"Someone I knew."
"How well?"
"Very well."
"Did you love her?"
Gareth's silence answered.
Toby lowered his eyes.
"Then it could be true."
Gareth folded the confession carefully.
Ten years earlier, Lady Seraphine Vale had been one of the few people at court who treated Gareth as something other than a sword wearing armor.
She had laughed too loudly at royal dinners.
She hated embroidered gowns.
She could beat half the palace guard with a hunting bow.
And for six months, hidden from the court, she had belonged to Gareth.
Until one winter evening she ended everything without explanation.
Three months later, rumors spread that Seraphine had become Crown Prince Edric's secret lover.
Gareth had hated Edric for it.
He had hated Seraphine more.
Then came the massacre.
And Seraphine vanished.
"Why didn't you know she was pregnant?" Toby asked.
"I hadn't seen her for months."
"Because she left you?"
"Yes."
"Why?"
"I thought she wanted Edric."
"But she didn't?"
Gareth looked at the confession.
"Perhaps she wanted me to believe she did."
Toby absorbed that quietly.
"To protect me?"
"Maybe."
"From Morvus?"
"I don't know."
Toby sighed.
"You really do say that a lot."
Before Gareth could answer, something moved in the trees.
He drew his sword instantly.
"Down."
Toby crouched.
A figure appeared between the pines.
Gray cloak.
Hood raised.
Gareth moved in front of Toby.
"Show yourself."
The stranger stopped twenty paces away.
"You haven't changed, Gareth."
A woman's voice.
Gareth tightened his grip.
"Who are you?"
The woman lowered her hood.
Her hair was white despite a face no older than forty.
A thin scar crossed her right cheek.
Her left eye was natural.
Her right was polished silver.
Gareth remembered the letter.
Find the woman with the silver eye before the next new moon.
"You," he whispered.
The woman smiled.
"Apparently."
Toby peered around Gareth.
"Who are you?"
"Lady Ysara."
Gareth's sword remained raised.
"There is no Lady Ysara."
"There hasn't been for ten years."
"Another dead person," Toby muttered.
Ysara looked amused.
"He's definitely Seraphine's."
Gareth stepped forward.
"You knew her?"
"Better than you did."
"That wouldn't have been difficult, apparently."
Ysara's expression softened.
"Still angry after all this time."
"She left me with a kingdom's worth of lies."
"No."
Ysara looked toward Toby.
"She left you with a son."
Toby stopped breathing.
Gareth's sword lowered slightly.
"You know?"
"I was there when he was born."
"Then tell me the truth."
"Not here."
"Tell me."
"Gareth—"
"Is he my son?"
Ysara stared at him.
Then she said, "Yes."
Toby looked from one adult to the other.
Gareth felt as if the ground had shifted beneath him.
He had imagined many lives.
A soldier's death.
A commander's retirement.
Perhaps an old age spent drinking alone beside some forgotten northern lake.
Never this.
Never a son.
"How can you be certain?" he asked.
"Because Seraphine told me."
"She lied to everyone."
"Not about that."
"How do I know you're not lying?"
"You don't."
Ysara reached inside her cloak.
Gareth raised his sword again.
She slowly withdrew a leather pouch and tossed it onto the ground.
Inside was a broken pendant.
Gareth recognized it instantly.
He had given it to Seraphine fifteen years earlier.
Two silver wings surrounding a small green stone.
On the back, scratched by Gareth himself:
G + S.
His knees nearly weakened.
"Where did you get this?"
"From Seraphine."
"When?"
"Three days ago."
Silence.
Gareth stared at her.
"No."
Toby whispered, "She's alive?"
Ysara nodded.
"She was."
Was.
Gareth heard the distinction.
"What happened?"
"Morvus found her."
Toby went pale.
"Is my mother dead?"
Ysara looked at him.
"I don't know."
Gareth stepped closer.
"You just said—"
"I said Morvus found her. I did not say he killed her."
"Where?"
"Saint Orlan's monastery."
"Why was she there?"
"Hiding."
"For ten years?"
"For you."
Ysara looked at Toby.
"Every false document, every orphan register, every family that took you in—Seraphine arranged it."
Toby's eyes filled with something he quickly tried to hide.
"Why didn't she stay with me?"
"Because people were watching her."
"Who?"
"Everyone."
Ysara crouched so she was closer to his height.
"Your mother understood something very early. The safest place for you was somewhere even she could not easily find."
"That's a terrible way to protect someone."
"Yes."
Toby's voice cracked.
"Did she ever want to see me?"
Ysara's silver eye reflected the sunlight.
"Every day."
Toby looked away.
Gareth wanted to comfort him.
But he did not know how.
Ten minutes ago, he had been the boy's protector.
Now he was supposedly his father.
He reached toward Toby's shoulder.
Then stopped.
Toby noticed.
Neither said anything.
Ysara rose.
"We need to leave."
"Where?" Gareth asked.
"Morvus has riders on every northern road."
"Then south."
"No. Veyron will expect that."
Gareth's expression sharpened.
"You know Veyron?"
"Very well."
"Is he loyal to Morvus?"
Ysara smiled faintly.
"Captain Veyron has never been loyal to anyone."
"Then why did he order Toby taken alive?"
"Because Veyron knows what the Sovereign Crest actually is."
Gareth glanced at Toby's arm.
"A royal blood-seal."
"No."
Ysara's answer was immediate.
"That's what the royal family told everyone."
"Then what is it?"
"A key."
Toby touched his forearm.
"To what?"
Ysara looked toward High Keep, barely visible beyond the forest.
"To whatever is sleeping beneath that castle."
Gareth remembered the enormous claw rising from the cistern.
"The dragon."
Ysara's face changed.
"You saw it?"
"Part of it."
"Then we're already too late."
"For what?"
"The Awakening."
A horn sounded far away.
Ysara immediately turned.
"Riders."
Gareth listened.
Several horses.
Approaching quickly.
"How did they find us?"
Ysara looked toward the iron chest.
"Did you take anything from the nursery?"
Gareth showed her the archive.
Her face drained of color.
"You brought that?"
"It contains proof."
"It contains a royal tracking seal."
"Of course it does."
Ysara grabbed the chest and threw it into the stream.
Gareth caught her arm.
"What are you doing?"
"Saving us."
The chest struck the water.
Immediately, the stream flashed red.
A beam of crimson light shot upward through the trees.
Toby stared.
"That seems bad."
"Run!" Ysara shouted.
They fled.
Seconds later, arrows tore through the branches.
Gareth pushed Toby behind a fallen tree.
Soldiers emerged from the forest.
Not Morvus's crimson-clad inquisitors.
These men wore white armor.
Gareth recognized the emblem on their shields.
A broken crown.
He had not seen it since the massacre.
"The Prince's Guard," he whispered.
Their commander removed his helmet.
Gareth stared.
"Commander Thane?"
The older man smiled.
"Hello, Gareth."
Another ghost.
Thane had been Edric's personal commander.
Officially, he had died defending the eastern gate during the massacre.
Gareth's patience for resurrected acquaintances was rapidly disappearing.
"You died."
"Apparently not."
Thane looked at Toby.
His smile vanished.
"So it's true."
Gareth stepped in front of the boy.
"Stay back."
Thane raised both hands.
"We didn't come for him."
"Then why are you here?"
"For Ysara."
Gareth glanced at her.
Ysara had drawn a small curved blade.
Thane's men surrounded them.
"You've been difficult to find," he told her.
"I was trying."
"Where is Seraphine?"
Ysara said nothing.
Thane's expression hardened.
"Where is she?"
"Ask Morvus."
"We did."
Gareth stared.
"You spoke to Morvus?"
Thane looked at him.
"We work for him."
Toby whispered, "The Prince's Guard works for the Regent?"
"No," Thane said.
"We work for Prince Edric."
Gareth's heart hammered.
"Edric is alive?"
Thane smiled faintly.
"Very."
Toby stepped from behind Gareth.
"Where is he?"
Thane studied the boy.
For the first time, something like pity entered his eyes.
"Waiting for you."
"Why?"
"Because the Crown has a problem."
Thane approached.
Gareth raised his sword.
"Another step and you lose your head."
"Still dramatic."
"Try me."
Thane stopped.
Then he looked directly at Toby.
"Your father hasn't told you everything."
Toby glanced at Gareth.
"He only found out he's my father about ten minutes ago."
Thane blinked.
Ysara almost smiled.
"That," Thane said, "complicates things."
"Tell us where Edric is," Gareth demanded.
"Not until you surrender Ysara."
"Why?"
"Because she murdered Queen Elara."
Everything stopped.
Toby looked at Ysara.
Gareth turned slowly.
Ysara's face revealed nothing.
Thane continued.
"She also helped Seraphine hide the boy."
"Those two things don't fit together," Gareth said.
"They do when you know what Elara planned to do to him."
Toby's voice became small.
"What did she plan?"
Thane looked at him.
"Kill you before your first birthday."
Gareth's sword shifted toward Ysara.
"Is that true?"
Ysara remained silent.
"Answer me."
"Yes."
Toby stepped backward.
The queen whose message had guided them.
The supposedly dead woman who claimed to be alive.
She had wanted him murdered.
"Why?" Toby asked.
Ysara finally looked at him.
"Because of your blood."
"My blood?"
"Your mother was Seraphine Vale."
"And Gareth is my father."
"Yes."
"Then I'm not royal."
"No."
Toby frowned.
"But I have the Sovereign Crest."
"Exactly."
Gareth understood the contradiction.
If the crest passed only through the royal bloodline, Toby should not possess it.
Unless everything they knew about the crest was false.
Thane said quietly, "Now you're beginning to understand."
Gareth looked at Ysara.
"What is Toby?"
She hesitated.
That hesitation frightened him more than any answer could.
Finally, Ysara said, "Seraphine wasn't born a Vale."
"Then who was she?"
Before Ysara could answer, an arrow struck her shoulder.
She collapsed.
"Ysara!"
Chaos erupted.
More arrows flew from the eastern ridge.
Not Thane's men.
A third force.
Soldiers in black armor poured through the trees.
Thane shouted orders.
Gareth grabbed Toby and dragged him behind the rocks.
Steel clashed.
Men screamed.
Ysara crawled toward them, blood soaking her cloak.
Gareth reached her.
"Who are they?"
She gasped.
"The Ashen Brotherhood."
"What do they want?"
"You."
She looked at Toby.
"No. Him."
An armored figure appeared through the fighting.
Unlike the others, he wore no helmet.
His face was covered in ritual scars.
Around his neck hung a dragon tooth.
He pointed directly at Toby.
"Take the vessel alive!"
Vessel.
Not prince.
Not heir.
Vessel.
Gareth killed the first attacker and drove another backward.
Thane's soldiers formed a defensive line.
"We can't hold them!" Thane shouted.
Ysara seized Gareth's arm.
"Listen to me."
"We're getting you out."
"No."
Her grip tightened.
"You need to know what Seraphine was."
Gareth looked at her.
Ysara's breathing was failing.
"Her real family guarded the pact before Aldren's ancestors ever became kings."
"What pact?"
"The one beneath High Keep."
"The dragon?"
"Not a dragon."
Gareth went cold.
"What did I see?"
Ysara's silver eye fixed on him.
"A prison."
Another explosion shook the forest.
Toby's crest suddenly blazed.
Every member of the Ashen Brotherhood stopped fighting.
One by one, they turned toward him.
Then, impossibly, they knelt.
Even the scarred commander bowed his head.
Toby stared at them.
Gareth raised his sword.
"What are they doing?"
Ysara whispered something.
Gareth leaned closer.
"What?"
She looked toward Toby with naked terror.
"They recognize him."
"Recognize him as what?"
Ysara's bloody fingers closed around Gareth's wrist.
"Not the heir."
Toby's crest burned brighter.
Far beneath the distant foundations of High Keep, something roared.
The sound crossed miles of earth.
Birds exploded from the trees.
Horses screamed.
Every kneeling warrior lowered his forehead to the ground.
And their commander spoke four words that made Gareth forget how to breathe.
"Welcome back, Dragon King."