"Once you're in the coach, stay there," Soterius said under his breath as he came up beside Tris. "I don't like moving the two of you together in the dark like this. I know you can both hold your own in a fight. But today, if anything goes wrong, let the professionals handle it for you."
So many torches flared that it was nearly as bright as daylight; Tris guessed that Soterius was making sure no one could hide in the shadows. "How fast are your horses?"
"The fastest in the stables. One sniff that anything is wrong and your driver has orders to ride like the Formless One Herself is after you."
"Let's hope we don't need to worry about it," Tris said as the guards formed a corridor
for them to enter the carriage. A dozen mounted guards waited on powerful war steeds. There's a fine line between caution and paranoia. If Ban keeps this up, he'll have our guests jittery before we ever get to the ceremony.
"I've taken my own precautions." Mikhail's voice startled Tris. "Some of Lord Gabriel's household will be near the road in the forest and around the perimeter of the shrine until dawn. The vyrkin will also be protecting your carriage, so don't be alarmed if they call to each other."
Kiara glanced from Mikhail to Tris. "Vyrkin?"
Mikhail grinned, showing his long eye teeth. "Shapeshifters, from the wolf clan. Friends of Lord Gabriel's. Don't worry-the real wolves keep their distance when the vyrkin are around."
A warmed metal box with embers took the chill off the inside of the carriage. In the darkness, Tris snuggled close to Kiara as the horseman cracked his whip and the carriage started out across the snow. Beside them and around them they could hear the hoof beats of the guard's horses crunching through ice.
"So much for eloping," Tris joked nervously.
Kiara looked out the window as the moonlit road slipped by them. "Hard to imagine we took back the castle with fewer soldiers."
Tris could hear the same nervousness he felt in her voice and he squeezed her hand. "Just a little longer, and we'll have the ceremonies out of the way. I promise."
She smiled back at him and laid her head on his shoulder. Tris wished he could reassure himself. He watched from the carriage window with a sense of foreboding, tense although he knew how heavily guarded they were. Ban's got me seeing shadows now.
The carriage came to a stop at the entrance to the Lady's grotto. Margolan was unique among the Winter Kingdoms in its veneration for two of the Lady's Aspects: the Mother and the Childe. And while Tris's journeys of the past year and his role as Summoner made it clear to him that all of the Aspects were facets of one Goddess, in his heart, the Mother and Childe drew him most deeply to them.