Elliandre rode off and as Alyssa watched her, the ache in her chest deepened. Tilly had reacted to her distress, and when she turned back toward her people, she hated herself for the lies she had just told her mother. The letter was a forgery committed by Abigail, and she had expected Elliandre to question it.
The army had been dispatched weeks earlier, but that letter came from Tatiana, and Moab sent it through the veil to Anna—Tatiana’s maidservant. It also included instructions to destroy the pass and the means to achieve it. Abigail saw the letter.
“That seemed rough on you,” Abigail said as she handed a fretting Tilly to Alyssa.
“Yes, I was never any good at lying to my mother; she always saw right through me,” Alyssa admitted.
“You might have mentioned that before we arrived,
