Chapter 21 Ren Monroe

Nostra had once been relevant.

Nearly a hundred years ago, before the Broods made their famous pact with the Graylantians. The dispossessed northern settlers were having a lot of success raiding Kathor. Their forces moved with a fluidity that baffled the Kathorian generals. The northerners had a habit of slipping behind enemy lines and brutally punishing any company that marched too far north.

Until the Broods intervened.

One of Theo's ancestors was the first person to map out the entire area. There were two regions north of Kathor. On the coast, a sweeping valley full of rolling farmlands known as the Generous Valley. That was where the majority of the battles took place. Deeper inland, the Broods began scouting a narrower region known as the Hairbone Valley. Kathorian forces had practically ignored it to that point in time. The land was not fertile and the route scraped inward, up toward the mountains, which were still the rumored home of the last dragons. Too dangerous to bother with.

But when they charted the valley for the first time, they discovered a pass. The trail provided access to the northern shelf of the continent. Their enemy had been using the Hairbone Valley to maneuver around Kathorian advances, positioning soldiers and supplies behind them with ease. Gunner Brood built the fort that would eventually span the entire pass. Nostra bloomed in its shadow. A town to feed and entertain the soldiers who were assigned to defend the valley against northern incursions. Nostra became famous for turning around the war. It forced their enemy back onto the open plains to the west—where Kathor's numbers and magic proved overwhelming.

After the peace treaties were signed, the Broods continued to man the fort. After a few decades, though, they realized no armies would ever march that way again. The northern tribes of old were just farmers. There was no practical route to any major city or population—at least at that time. The fort's resources were redistributed until the castle became what it was now: a ghostly building watching over a corpse of a town.

Ren's back thumped against her seat inside the packed carriage. There was no established waxway route to the town, which left her rag-dolling down a poorly built valley road. At least it afforded Ren time to settle her thoughts. The next few days would be the most important of her entire life. Theo had no idea she was coming. The visit was meant to be a surprise. She needed Theo in a pleasant mood. The time had come for him to choose. He had witnessed his father's attempts to separate them. Now it was time for him to hear her story. All the sins his father had committed against her family. Ren would tell him what she'd told almost no one else. And once it was all out in the open—every secret laid bare—she hoped Theo would do the unthinkable.

Turn against his family. Choose her instead.

It was well past noon when Ren finally saw her destination. In the distance, the fort the Broods had built to watch over the Hairbone Valley all those years ago. The dueling spires looked like scabs growing up the side of that marbled mountain backdrop. She could just make out the two faded soldiers that stood as guardians on either side. There were still several hours left in her journey, but if Ren squinted, she thought she could see the famous beacon on the western tower. Historically, the watcher was charged with lighting that beacon if an enemy army approached the castle. There was a second beacon, back in the valley Ren had left behind, that could be seen from Kathor's highest cathedral. The beacons were lit once a year—for ceremonial purposes—but no watcher had lit them to announce an enemy in the last century. Ren would ask Theo to keep that streak alive and well.

She arrived at Nostra just before sunset. The carriage drivers had traded out somewhere down in the valley, which meant an unfamiliar voice called for all riders to disembark. Ren and an elderly woman were the only two left. Everyone else had gotten out at the previous stops.

Her feet set down on a cobbled central square decorated by a light frosting of snow. It wasn't winter yet, but Ren knew higher altitudes maintained colder temperatures far earlier in the season. Any precipitation would freeze, and rare were the days warm enough to fully melt that frost away. In a few months, the entire place would be locked in winter's embrace and the carriages would no longer be able to traverse the established paths between towns. She remembered Landwin Brood's promise that this would be her fate if she chose to stay with Theo—and she could not help shivering at the thought of living in this desolate place.

Ren tightened her cloak. The town of Nostra fanned out from the central square where she stood. There were dozens of rooftops running in every direction she looked. Once, the town might have boasted a thousand occupants. A thriving military base. Now most of the homes appeared to be abandoned. Ren turned back to find the carriage driver fussing over the horses.

"If I have the coin," she said, "can you take me up to the fort?"

The woman shook her head. "It's not a matter of money. There are no paths wide enough for a carriage. That's a journey you can only make on foot—and a journey I wouldn't make at night."

"There's no waxway station?"

"Only works if you've been there before. Have you?"

"No, but I can see the towers from here. Surely it's safe.…"

"The buildings are warded. You can port to the courtyards outside, but again, only if you've seen them before. Besides, it looks like the young lord is on his way down." The woman pointed to the shadowed hills. "See there?"

There were two slashes of color in the thicket of white and brown. She thought she was seeing the brightness of Theo's cloak, perhaps, but it was hard to make out from here. There appeared to be two people coming down the mountain. Far faster than should have been possible.

"Are they using magic?"

"Sleds. The two of them practice a couple nights a week."

Nearly everything about that sentence baffled Ren, but she asked about the part that concerned her the most. "The two of them?"

The carriage driver's eyes swung back to Ren. She seemed to realize for the first time that she was speaking with a stranger—and offering up information with each breath. Her fingers tightened on the reins as she turned away.

"Best ask him directly if you have questions," she said. "And you best get a room at the inn before dark. There's plenty available, but Hurst goes to bed early. Good luck to you."

Ren knew it was a dismissal. She turned back, watching the distant figures follow some predetermined path down the mountain. Ren remembered that first tug across her bond. When Theo arrived at Nostra, she'd witnessed a young girl there to greet him, and that had to be who he was with now. Ren watched their descent until the rooftops blocked her view. Not knowing what else to do, she headed for the building that looked like the inn.

She was given a key to a room, at a rate that was even cheaper than a typical Lower Quarter hostel. Ren set her things in her room and circled back to ask where the sledding path from the fort fed out. The innkeeper offered her directions.

"Right at the old clock tower, left when you pass the house that looks like a fishtail."

Armed with that odd knowledge, Ren pulled up her hood against the growing cold and headed outside. She was grateful to find the directions were quite accurate. They led her to an empty field. Across the way, two figures exited the woods, both dragging sleds behind them. Ren felt a flicker of unexpected jealousy. She'd never seen Theo with another woman. It was a strange taste on her tongue, but she could not deny that was what she felt as she watched Theo walk so easily at the other girl's side, their shoulders touching slightly. He was so lost in conversation that he didn't see Ren waiting for him in the distance. She couldn't help herself. She took that slight feeling of jealousy and gave it a proper shove across their bond.

Theo looked up instantly. He stopped in his tracks when he saw her there, shoulders dusted with snow. Ren felt a thousand different emotions as he abandoned his sled and sprinted across the snowdrifts. Here was the boy she'd tethered all her hopes to. Here was the son of her greatest enemy. Here was someone that, for better or worse, she'd started falling for. All those thoughts ran through her mind in the time it took Theo to reach her. He swept her up in a hug that took them both to the ground. She couldn't help laughing—even as the cold bit into her neck. Theo was as breathless as she was.

"You're here. How are you here? Is this a dream?"

She watched him for any sign of disappointment. Any sign that he did not actually want her to be here, but there was only excitement on his face. That look of pure delight remained until the interloper arrived. Ren saw that the girl had dutifully grabbed the rope of Theo's sled and patiently hauled them both across the snow. Her first impression of the girl, in Theo's vision, had been that she was plain. Now she saw that wasn't quite right. The girl had shaved her head sometime recently and allowed it to grow out naturally. The shorter hair emphasized round eyes that were a pretty shade of blue. And the cold drew out the roses in her cheeks. If she had looked mousy, it was simply because she was young. There was no doubt that she would be devastatingly pretty in just a few years. Too pretty for Ren's liking, but that didn't stop her from offering a hand.

"Ren Monroe."

"Dahl Winters."

Her last name surprised Ren, but the girl was quick to explain, as if she always had to explain. "Not those Winters," she said. "Everyone thinks I'm some distant cousin. But the name is common in the mountains. I'm no kin to any of them."

"Dahl grew up in the north," Theo explained. "On the other side of the pass. It was Peska, wasn't it?"

The girl nodded. Ren could tell Theo was trying to sound uncertain, as if he hadn't memorized her hometown. She realized that the two of them had likely been alone in that snow-covered fort for the past few weeks. How had she not thought about that reality until now?

"Dahl was appointed to my uncle's service right before I was assigned to replace him," Theo explained. "Really, she's been indispensable. Knows the castle in and out."

Indispensable. That was not Ren's favorite choice of words, but she smiled like nothing could have pleased her more. "How lovely."

"And very much beside the point," Theo said hurriedly. "You're here! You're actually here. Come on. We can talk about everything over dinner. Hurst makes the best soup."

Ren took his offered arm. They trudged back through the city streets, and it took Ren exactly the amount of time to get back to the inn to realize that he meant all three of them would be dining together. She'd traveled all this way to visit the boy who'd been exiled—to whom she was bonded—and he did not think that warranted some measure of privacy?

She shoved those thoughts back, hoping they didn't sit along the surface of her mind long enough for Theo to feel the emotions that went with them.

Dinner was in a back room of the inn. Apparently, Theo was staying there that night as well. Ren took a small comfort from the fact that he'd arranged separate rooms for himself and Dahl. But she also realized this was a regular occurrence. Sledding down from the fort, dining with some of the locals, sleeping here for the night. The two of them had formed habits together.

"I'm supposed to practice," Theo said, dabbing a piece of bread in some kind of corn chowder. "It's one of the mandatory requirements of the watcher. Even if this post is completely pointless, I thought I might as well do my best. In the case of some imaginary attack, my first task is to light the beacon. If I can't do that, I travel the waxways to Nostra. And if that isn't possible, I'm supposed to take one of the sleds down. The first watcher had them carve trails through the forest—all the way down from the fort to the town. It's already iced over. Really, it's kind of fun. Dahl and I have been trying to improve on our times."

The girl offered a tight-lipped smile but said nothing. Theo seemed to realize that he was, once again, focused on the wrong person.

"Anyways. I wasn't expecting you to come. Not so soon."

Ren lifted an eyebrow. "Should I leave and come back later?"

"No," Theo fumbled. "Absolutely not. This is the best news. Trust me. You're a far more welcome guest than my last one."

Another surprise for Ren. She kept the emotions off her face.

"Who was the first?"

"My brother came."

Ren felt a shiver run down her spine. Thugar Brood had traveled through the Hairbone Valley? He'd humbled himself enough to come to this remote place? Ren remembered the look on his face when Theo had first been exiled. The unmasked smugness.

"That's surprising. I didn't realize you two were so close."

Theo actually choked on his soup. He hacked a cough into the back of his hand for several seconds. "Close? We're not close. Do you not remember Thugar?"

"Of course I do. You're right. I guess he's not like you."

"Not at all. He's a walking mimicry of my father," Theo said. "Just take away some of the cunning and replace it with brute strength. We've never gotten along. We never will."

It felt like Theo was chastising her for what she'd said, but Ren realized he was partly speaking for Dahl's benefit. Distancing himself from his awful brother. Maybe something had happened during Thugar's visit to the keep? She had a hundred questions that she didn't feel like she could ask, so she settled on a more reasonable inquiry.

"Why did he come?"

Theo shrugged. "Why do you think he came?"

Ren knew the answer. An extension of Landwin's desires. He would have been sent to speak sense to his brother. Let go of this random girl. Abandon this course, and we'll bring you back where you belong. The fact that Theo was still in Nostra was a good sign.

"They seem very determined," Ren said.

"And I am more than a match for them in that regard."

He smiled, and a brightness filled the space between them. Across their bond. An emotion so pure that Ren could barely stand the way it felt. The way it coursed through the darkest parts of her heart, the emptiest spaces in her chest. She did not like the way it held up a mirror to her deepest desires—how it confirmed there was more to all this than pure strategy. This was a pleasure on the verge of pain. She was forced to look away. The intensity vanished, but the feeling did not entirely fade. Ren guessed it would never entirely fade. She liked him. It was as simple as that.

Which only made the presence of a guest even more awkward. Ren turned to Dahl.

"So, you're new to Nostra? Who did you replace?"

"Sonya served before me," Dahl answered, spooning a bite of soup. "She was quite old. She left to be with her grandchildren, but not before training me. I learned a great deal from her."

"Meaning you weren't a castellan before now?"

Dahl looked surprised. "No. There are only so many opportunities for someone as young as I am. I served as a housekeeper in my town. I hope you don't think me above my station. I'm grateful for my position, my lady, and I work hard to make up for any inexperience."

"That's not what she meant," Theo said, cutting in on Ren's behalf. He looked surprised by Ren. She realized that she wasn't playing her expected part. Maybe he'd assumed a kinship between them. After all, she'd grown up in the Lower Quarter. Her parents were from a lower station. If anyone could sympathize with a young, working-class girl, it would be Ren—not him. Dahl's use of the term "my lady" only emphasized how Ren was coming off. She adjusted course.

"Merely curious. You seem quite capable."

There was some friction across their bond. Theo clearly didn't understand what was happening, and Ren was not sure how to make him feel comfortable. She finally turned back to him.

"You seem at home. Are you? Doing well here?"

A shadow crossed his face. Again, she managed to feel as if she'd insulted him.

"I am in exile." He set his spoon down. "Away from the only city I've ever known. Away from friends. Away from my family. Away from you. No… I do not feel at home."

Dahl was watching them. Ren felt the heat on her neck. All the things she wished she could say would be best said in privacy. Instead, she had to make her apologies in front of a stranger.

"I just meant that you're in better spirits than I expected. I'm sorry, Theo."

He waved the apology away. "I'm just tired. I can never seem to sleep enough up here. Who knows? Maybe I'll get used to the cold one day."

"Maybe you won't have to," Ren said.

She meant the words to be hopeful. Instead, that looming sense of disconnect yawned across their bond like an unexpected shadow. Ren could not determine its source and knew she would not find out more until they were alone. She resigned herself to eating her soup, tearing off chunks of stale bread. Time felt like it was crawling. The end of dinner could not come soon enough.