He sat at a table with Karigan, Lynx, and Ard. Karigan appeared deep in her own thoughts, and Lynx smoked his pipe, his eyes half-lidded as though he were in a different world altogether. Ard clapped to the beat of a rousing tavern song. Yates, Alton observed, was doing backflips, much to the delight of onlookers.

“I am beginning to think Yates was an acrobat in a former life,” Karigan said.

“I’m finding it difficult to believe the captain chose him for the expedition.”

“He’s good at drawing maps,” Karigan replied. “And he volunteered.”

“Volunteered? Is he mad?”

Karigan gazed steadily at him. Besides himself, she alone knew what it was to enter Blackveil Forest. No one else who did had survived. This, he realized, was a bond they shared, a bond like no other.

“Even from here, guarded by the wall, I can feel the unrest of the forest,” Lynx said unexpectedly. “Dark creatures with their dark thoughts.”

Alton shuddered and Ard ceased his clapping. “Your words do little to instill confidence,” the forester said.

“And so they should not,” Lynx murmured.

“Well, I did not volunteer outright for this duty,” Ard replied. “My Lord Spane recommended me to my Lord Coutre. I suppose it’s better me going in than some younger, less experienced man with a family. Besides, I’d do anything for my lord and lady, and especially Lady Estora. Doesn’t mean I’m looking forward to it.” Silence followed his pronouncement and he stood abruptly. “Guess I’ll see if there is any more of that pie left.”

Alton watched after the forester as he made his way through the tent to where the cooks were stationed. He noticed that of anyone, Ard seemed the most interested in hanging near Karigan. Even now, from across the tent, he glanced back as though to check on her. She appeared completely unaware of his attention. Alton wasn’t sure what to make of it. Maybe the forester was just looking out for her. She was the only female on the expedition and perhaps Ard did not realize she was quite capable of looking after herself.

Alton supposed he should be pleased Ard watched after Karigan, but it bothered him. Could it be he was jealous? He almost laughed out loud at himself. He’d no right to be jealous of her anymore, and besides, he really didn’t think Ard was her type. He just couldn’t see it.

“No sign of the Eletians?” Karigan asked.

“Nothing.”

“I suppose they still have a day before the equinox to get here.”

“If they don’t show, what then?”

“Oh, they’ll come,” Karigan said with quiet conviction. “They’ll come and we’ll enter Blackveil Forest. This was their idea, after all.”

“What is it they’re after?” Alton wondered.

“That is what our king wishes us to find out,” Lynx said. “Blackveil was once their Argenthyne and they’re going back to see what remains, I suppose.” With this pronouncement, he rose and excused himself for the night.

That left Alton alone with Karigan. They gazed at one another in awkward silence.

“It’s been a while, hasn’t it?” Karigan said, smiling shyly. “We don’t know where to begin.”

“Well, I’d like to hear about everything that happened last fall,” Alton replied. “I’ve gotten bits and pieces about Lady Estora and the Silverwood book, but not the entire picture. You were on a training run with one of the new ones, right? Fergal?”

“Yes, and I was none too happy about it.” Karigan laughed and set to telling him about the journey and her experiences with Fergal, though true to form Alton could tell she was withholding certain details. For instance, she did not say how Fergal fell into the Grandgent from the ferry, and she was very evasive for some reason about the inn they stayed at in Rivertown. When it came to the rescue of Lady Estora, she emphasized the roles of others. She was not the type to boast or claim the credit. In fact, the less she said about herself, the more he was sure she had been integral to the rescue.

She’s Sir Karigan, he reminded himself, an honor not conferred on anyone in two hundred years, and the only one involved in those events to have earned it. The king certainly believed her actions had been exceptional. He half-smiled to himself, remembering Karigan the runaway schoolgirl, but even then she’d accomplished extraordinary deeds that led directly to the rescue of the king from his brother’s coup attempt. Alton recalled the passing darkness in her eyes he’d perceived earlier. He hadn’t seen it since, but he couldn’t help thinking there was something much more complex about her beneath the surface than there had been before. Something that—it sounded odd even to him—but something that separated her from the rest of the world.

“And so here I am,” she said.

With some surprise he realized his thoughts had distracted him from the summation of her story.

“Your turn,” Karigan said. “Catch me up.”

Alton glanced toward Estral, who was teaching the Riders a new song. Lantern light glimmered off her hair and her smile made his heart wobble. He tore his gaze away, looked back to Karigan, and told her of his own travails with the wall, and he almost tripped himself up with laughter when he realized he was withholding details from her just as she had from him. She did not need to know, he decided, the depth of his madness after his time in the forest. Bringing it up would be like scratching a scab off a nearly healed wound. There was a time, he reflected, when they would have told each other everything. Now they acted a little like strangers. By the time he concluded, he had said nothing of Estral except to describe the basics of her arrival.