I was on my feet before Arwen finished rising from the bed, my hand already closing around the hilt of my dagger out of pure instinct, though instinct alone couldn't tell me what kind of threat waited on the other side of that door.
The guard standing in the corridor was young, barely more than a boy, his uniform dusted with road grime and his breathing ragged from what looked like a dead sprint through half the palace grounds. I didn't like the color of his face pale beneath the exertion, the particular grey of a man who'd seen something he hadn't wanted to.
"Speak," Arwen said, her voice a blade honed to perfect calm despite the tremor I could feel radiating off her where she stood beside me.
"A carriage was found overturned on the north road, Your Highness. Attacked there's no other
