I did not give Garret the reaction he came for.
That is the only victory I can claim from that gate, and I claimed it with everything I had. I stood at the Lycan King's shoulder and let the Ashfall envoy tell me that my child, the one warm true thing I had carried out of that poisoned pack, had been engineered by the woman who destroyed me. And I did not scream, and I did not fall, and I did not give her that.
I waited until the envoy had gone. I waited until the gate was barred and the warriors dispersed and Dain had walked me back to a private room off the great hall. I waited until the door was shut.
And then I put both hands flat on the table and let myself shake.
"He was lying," Dain said. He stood by the door, careful, a man who did not know how to be gentle and was trying anyway
