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“Doesn’t she?” Arkhady pulled her in for a quick embrace. “Ksana is smiling beside the Ancestors. She’d never cared much for the pomp and ceremony of the broader realm. She was Vjestik, through and through. The moment she knew you’d given your heart to a publican would have been the moment she offered you her blessing. Wouldn’t have asked after his pedigree or the coin in his bank.”
“I appreciate you being willing to have the ceremony here,” Ana said. She smiled up at her father. “It means a lot to Tyreste and me both.”
“The keep has been in our family for many generations, but it’s also a place of... sadness.” Arkhady breathed in. “We have work to do before it can again be what it once was for us.”
“We have time now,” Ana said. She reached for his hand and squeezed it once, the way he used to do for her when she was a girl, scared and uncertain. “We—”
The air was knocked from her when Addy came barreling into her arms. Ana laughed and gave her a squeeze. She looked up and saw Grigor ambling over, a thin scowl darkening his always-serious expression.
“She’s impossible,” he said. “But when I’m in the village, I’ll teach her.”
Say it with your hands, you big oaf,Addy signed.
Ana snorted, but Grigor, Arkhady, and Niko eyed each other in confusion.
“Seems like she may be the one teaching you,” Ana said. She signed the words as she said them.
Niko’s mouth turned up playfully. “Am I witnessing our onkel going soft, Ana?”
Ana translated for Addy and then said, “Only Grigor can answer that.”
“Never,” the grumpy man said, and they all laughed. “Anastazja, a word alone?”
Ana glanced at her father and brother, who both nodded. There was so much to say, to do... so much time to make up for. But theyhadit now. Time. And she could walk away, knowing they’d be there when she returned.
Grigor guided her to the window. His eyes were pointed outside as he gathered himself to speak. “You know this isn’t over. He’ll find a way around it.”
Ana sighed and leaned against the frosted panes. “Not today, Grigor.”
“I’m leaving in the morning,” he said. He rapped his knuckles on the wooden frame. “For the Reliquary.”
“What? Why?”
“It’s not enough to keep him from our walls. He must be ended.”
Ana squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head in confusion. “But why the Reliquary?”
“They have their own secret scrolls.”
Ana balked. Whatever was happening was happening too fast for her to understand it. “How do you know this?”
“I know.” Grigor shifted. “There must be something written about the Meduwyn.”
“Even if there is,” she said. “What makes you think they’d ever let you see any of it?”
“I’m not looking for debate. I only wanted to explain my absence.”
She eyed him strangely. “You’ve never explained your absences to me before.”
Grigor stretched his hands at his sides. He closed his eyes with a bracing sigh and then met hers. “Our unwillingness to discuss things brought us here. I’ll do my part.” His mouth twitched. He seemed to debate with himself. With a defeated shrug, he hugged her and kissed the top of her head. “Be happy, Anastazja. Ksana would wish it so.”
He broke away and disappeared into the crowd, leaving her dumbstruck.
“Everything all right?” Tyreste asked. He kissed her and pulled her gaze to his. “Ana?”
“Fine, actually. Grigor is... Well, he’s going away for a while.” Remembering her uncle’s words about communication, she knew better than to leave it there. “To the Reliquary. To research our recent troubles and find a more permanent end.”
“Good.” Tyreste hardened in her arms. “I’ve sent a coded message to Asterin suggesting the same thing. I cautioned him to send anything relating to the Meduwyn my way, to do nothing except pass those items along. I won’t risk their lives. They don’t have the same protections we do, down in the Easterlands.”
