Chapter Nineteen
The High Council’s Shadow
The message to Crest Hall left at dawn.
Willow watched the rider disappear along the eastern edge of the lake.
He carried no Blackwood banner.
No council escort.
Only a sealed strip of parchment bearing Gideon’s mark and six words written in Willow’s own hand.
Father, I am alive. Come alone.
She had rewritten the message four times.
The first version had been too formal.
The second sounded like a stranger informing him of a death.
The third included Lyra’s name, and Willow had stared at it until her hands began to shake.
In the end, six words were all she could manage.
Alive.
Come.
Alone.
Everything else would have to survive being spoken face-to-face.
The rider passed beneath the trees and vanished.
Willow kept looking long afte
