"Um, no. I read the letter. In your hand. Saying things that only we could know. Are you telling me you did not write it?"
"Under duress. They threatened Tova--"
"Tova?" She looked down at the hound, who glanced up.
"At that point, I thought Edwyn was truly your grandfather, so I'd not have believed a threat against you. But they said that if I did not write the letter convincingly, they'd kill your hound. Moreover, I feared that if you did not believe I'd left willingly, you might stir up trouble, and that would be more dangerous for you."
"So you wanted me to believe you'd gone. You wrote a letter designed to convince me of it, saying things no one else could know. And now you're disappointed that I believed it?"
"I would not say I am disappointed . . ."
"You are mortally disappointed."
He turned to her then, saying hotly, "I am not--"
"Yes, you are." She leaned over and kissed his cheek, much as she had Tyrus's, a sisterly kiss that could not be mistaken for anything else. "You wanted me to logically accept you'd gone, but deep down, to wonder and to pine and to hope--"
"I did not expect you to pine."
She grinned at him. "Yes, you did. You may say you're only a thief, but you wish to be the hero. My hero. Saving the poor and helpless girl, who will ache for you every moment you are gone."
"Now you mock me."
Her grin grew. "I've been mocking you for a while. Did you only just notice?" She rode closer and reached to squeeze his hand. "I'm teasing you because you are being very foolish, disappointed because I believed a letter that you wrote in a way that ensured I would believe it. But if you want the truth, Ronan, if not for that letter, I'd have suspected a trick. Even with the letter, I did not wish to believe you'd gone. However, given that you'd also just told me a story about being distracted by a girl and blamed that for your brother's death . . ."
He nodded. "All right. I concede your point."
They rode in silence until she said, "I did miss you. Terribly. You can ask Tova."
He smiled over. "Thank you. I'm sure I would have missed you, too, if I hadn't been going mad with worry, knowing you were about to be sacrificed to raise dragons."
"I thought you believed I was safe?"
"I did when they made me write that letter. Then I was supposed to return to the city. I had no plans of doing that, of course." He glanced at her. "I said I'd never leave you, Ash, and I meant it. I planned to walk far enough so they'd think I'd left and then circle back to watch over you."
"Which didn't happen, because they didn't trust you to simply walk away."
He made a face. "Of course, you see that. I didn't. Once I was far enough that I couldn't shout and alert you, they jumped me. That's when I learned the truth--I overheard my captors speaking about the ritual. I realized they needed your blood, enough of it that you would not survive. I also discovered that Edwyn wasn't your grandfather. Apparently, he knew your family in the North, but only because he tracked them down, knowing you and Moria could wake his dragons. He knew enough about them to fake it. You'd had no contact with your mother's family, so he could make up stories about them."
"Which I believed."
"Because you were desperate for family, as he would also understand. But this means that you do have family in the North, which I hope comforts you."
She nodded. "It does."
"And I have bigger news, unless Moria told you. Which I doubt, because you had little time together and perhaps I should allow her to--"
"What is it?"
When he hesitated, she bumped her leg against his. "You cannot set that up and then leave me dangling, Ronan. What is it?"
"When they took me, we stopped briefly for supplies in a camp of Alvar Kitsune's, a half-day's ride from here. It is where he keeps the children of Edgewood and Fairview and Northpond."
They found Gavril and Moria at the abandoned farmhouse. Moria was eager to start the journey back to the children, but Ashyn pointed out that they had no idea where to find Tyrus and therefore had to wait for him to come to them.
"Moria cannot travel anyway," Gavril said as Moria returned to her sleeping spot. "She lost more blood. Her wound opened, and she was too stubborn to tell me."
After they got a fire going, Gavril glanced over and said, "Are you asleep yet, Keeper?"